Green Eagle

Here are a couple of stories, complete with graphs, detailing what we lefties foolishly value as actually being, you know, "true."  They run against what we are told every day by Republicans and the miserable excuse we have for a mainstream press, so I guess I shouldn't be mentioning them, but I never studied journalism, so apparently I haven't yet figured out that it's not about "truth," whatever that is. First, we learn this surprising fact (surprising if you only listen to our nation's "serious voices") from Daily Kos: "U.S. has been doing austerity, and it's been hurting, not helping" Hurting, just like everywhere else in the world that it's been tried.  Here's a comparison of government hiring during the current recession, with hiring during every other recession in recent times: You know that the vast majority of American have been conned by the media into believing that Obama does nothing but expand g...

I'd like to mention a currently popular Democratic delusion, as exemplified by this comment at Daily Kos today: "What's whacky is the end game. The GOP is going to lose on this like they lost on the 2012 election, the fiscal cliff, Benghazi hearings, Bush tax cuts for the rich, Hagel nomination, etc...So what's their brilliant plan?" Well, here is their "brilliant" plan:  Sure, they will take a bit of a hit over the sequestration, but they believe that will be long forgotten by the 2014 elections.  What won't be forgotten is the new recession, deliberately caused by their intransigence, which they will then spend hundreds of millions of dollars blaming on the President and Congressional Democrats. And I hope there is no one reading this, at this point in history, that doubts that the Republicans will deliberately destroy our economy in order to take back power.  Well, that is the plan.  Hang on tight, and we'll see if it works.

Well, I haven't had much to say lately, because there is nothing going on in the country that virtually everyone who reads Green Eagle doesn't understand perfectly well.  The Republicans are up to their usual tricks, which consist, among the leaders, of refusing to do a thing that doesn't unfairly benefit the very rich, and among the followers of continuing their contest to see who is the greatest jackass on earth.  Obama, as usual, can't bring himself to stand for what is really right for the country, and is just hungering to cut Social Security and Medicare, to make poor people pay for the damage done by the wealthy. It's now reached the point where Andrew Napolitano, the resident "legal expert" at CNN, is now calling for impeaching Obama over the sequester, which only continues to exist because Republicans won't do the right thing for the country, since it doesn't benefit the rich enough.  This opens up a whole new vista in Republican stonewal...

What?  You don't have any memories of the Day of Resistance?  You never heard of the Day of Resistance?  That damned liberal press must have covered the whole mighty thing up. Well, for your information, Saturday was the (need I repeat it?) Day of Resistance- the day when gun owners and supporters of the fevered right wing interpretation of the second amendment would proudly assemble around the country and display their might, just like the Tea Parties of legend, causing the evil Democrats to cower at the sight of the People Standing Tall, Guns In Hand! So, how did it go?  Well, here are a few pictures of this earth-shaking day, from around the country: Well, there you go.  This is what happens to the teabagging right wingers when they don't have the likes of the Koch brothers to pay for their parties and bus in the participants.  The whole country, thanks to our miserable mainstream press, spent years cowering in terror of this pathetic ha...

"What's coming out is a very detailed X-ray of the Roman Curia that does not spare even the closest collaborators of the pope," respected Vatican expert Ignazio Ingrao writes in Panorama. "The pope was no stranger to the intrigues, but he probably did not know that under his pontificate there was such a complex network and such intricate chains of personal interests and unmentionable relationships."  Sure, he didn't know.  If he didn't know, he wouldn't be the first Pope in seven hundred years to quit and run for cover.  In fact, let Green Eagle be the first to state the obvious:  if he wasn't involved, he wouldn't be quitting. As we have seen, the Catholic Church is damned good at hiding the truth, so we may never have a smoking gun to prove this.  But, after what has happened in the last couple of decades, we'd be fools not to see what is right in front of our faces.

I've seen very little in a long time that makes things as clear as these two charts, from Paul Krugman, via Brad DeLong: Could anything make it clearer what a total disaster the soak-everyone-but-the-rich doctrine of austerity is?  These graphs are almost unbelievably linear.  And yet, Republicans in the United States, and the fool Obama too, are working every single day to shove our own form of austerity down the throats of the American people, somehow promising that the results will be entirely different. The exact opposite of "austerity" is what this nation needs.  The rich must be made to pick up the tab for the damage they have done.  We need a lower Social Security age, and higher benefits.  We need a much higher minimum wage.  We need accelerated government spending on infrastructure, so as not to leave our children with a trashed country.  We need a real national health plan, which will drive a stake once and for all into the hearts of ...

If you read Wingnut Wrapup, you may remember me complaining a couple of times recently about the listlessness that seems to have overtaken the right.  Here's a comment  from Daily Kos' Hate-Mal-a-Palooza, on Saturday, Feb. 16, making the same point: "I've started to worry that the wingnuts are simply too demoralized and turned off by politics to ever pick up the pace again. It's not just my hate mail, it's Fox News ratings (down to a 12-year low in January), it's the unexpected string of Republican capitulations since the election, it's the fact that House Speaker John Boehner hasn't been able to pass anything of worth with a majority of his own caucus, it's the fact that conservatives are directing their fire at each other, rather than liberals, it's all the gay marrying, the pot, the "demographic winter" (as the racists call it). Heck, even my twitter trolls are quiet of late. Apparently, the people who used to send me hate ma...

How could someone even write this with a straight face? (Reuters) - "Pope Benedict's decision to live in the Vatican after he resigns will provide him with security and privacy. It will also offer legal protection from any attempt to prosecute him in connection with sexual abuse cases around the world, Church sources and legal experts say." Because nothing could be more important than protecting him from the consequences of (sorry, O.J.)  the crime of the century, and probably the crime of the millenium (although a certain A. Hitler may have a claim on that one, so Pope Benedict may have to settle for second place.) "His continued presence in the Vatican is necessary, otherwise he might be defenseless. He wouldn't have his immunity, his prerogatives, his security, if he is anywhere else," said one Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is absolutely necessary" that he stays in the Vatican, said the source, add...

That's what the story says. Anyone want to place any bets on who the first Republican will be who says this is a reason to impeach Obama?

We read them so you don't have to... Town Hall:  "Democratic Ohio Poll Watcher: Yeah, I Voted For Obama Twice" One!  They've found one!  Now all they have to do is find four million nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine more around the country, and the election will be even.  Given that it took three months to find this one, my calculations show that they will be ready to overturn the 2012 Presidential election right around the year 1,252,000.  Hold on to your hats, it's going to be a rough ride! Michelle Malkin, Town Hall:  "The Blame Righty Mob Falls Silent" Not at Green Eagle it hasn't. Craige McMillan, World Net Daily:  "I found America in the Bible!" Sure you did, Craige.  Need the dosage of your meds adjusted again?  Here's the passage from the Bible that is about America: "21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it...

There is a silver lining to every cloud as they say.  From Daily Kos: "...as you also probably know, there's been a ton of breaking developments in the case of the fugitive ex-cop who has now killed four police officers. The cable news channels are all focused on a cabin in flames in which the suspect was believed to be. As a result, there's been almost none of the typical talking head jabber that you might expect before a State of the Union speech." Not worth four deaths, I guess, but in the United States of 2013, we have to be thankful for small things.

I know that people will think I am reporting this story out of some sort of sick humor, but I'm not.  Read on: "An indigenous Mexican woman put on display in Victorian-era Europe because of a rare genetic condition that covered her face in thick hair was buried in her home state on Tuesday in a ceremony that ends one of the best-known episodes from an era when human bodies were treated as collectible specimens.   With her hairy face and body, jutting jaw and other deformities, Julia Pastrana became known as the "ape woman" after she left the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa in 1854, when she was 20, and was taken around the United States by showman Theodore Lent , according to a Norwegian commission that studied her case. She sang and danced for paying audiences, becoming a sensation who also toured Europe and Russia" Here is a picture of Juia Pastrana: Now, why am I interested in her?  It's because I remember very clearly the first t...

Something that Green Eagle has been talking about for years.  I'm taking no great credit for this, because it should have been obvious to every single person who examined this fabricated nonsense: "A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry's role in driving climate disruption." Let me make it clear that every single person in the above photos is a sucker, who is doing nothing but serving the agenda of billionaires. I spent a long time, in the period of 2008 to 20...

And no, it's not Michelle Bachmann or Louie Gohmert.  They are evil, corrupt, ignorant asses, but the two of them put together aren't as deeply stupid as this guy: Yes, our Majority Leader in the United States Senate, Harry Reid; a person seemingly able to get kicked in the mouth endlessly without it ever occurring to him that it might be a good idea to move his head. Anyone with sense must have noticed this a long time ago.  What is precipitating my latest outrage on this subject?  The Following: "Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, tells National Review Online that he will “postpone” the nomination of Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense. “I’ll do that for as long as it takes,” he says, firmly. “I’m going to make sure there is a 60-vote margin.” Inhofe is now the second major Republican Senator (after Lindsay Graham) to declare in public that he will misuse the current filibu...

In a Daily Kos article about Debbie Halvorsen, a NRA A+ rated Republican Congressional candidate, we are treated to the following rationale for opposing legislation banning, of all things, puppy mills: "If dog breeders are driven out of business, hunters who use dogs must pay more for their animals, assuming they are still available, or quit hunting altogether." The Daily Kos article reminds us: "The NRA opposes legislation banning puppy mills because hunters may have to pay more for humanely raised dogs, and god knows, licensing dog breeders and subjecting them to health and safety regulations is just another assault on the Second Amendment!" Just to remind you, here is the life innocent animals are expected to endure, so some jackass with a gun doesn't have to pay a few dollars more to enjoy his "hobby" of killing things:  Of course, how can we expect a shred of concern for the lives of these puppies, from people who destroy anima...

Telling us what we are required to believe?  Here's Jennifer Rubin, and why, O God, hasn't the Washington Post kicked this lying hack to the curb?  Don't we deserve at least the pretense that the employees of our major national news organizations are going to try to tell the truth? Well, Jennifer has made up her mind that, two weeks into Obama's second term, he's a complete failure.  Her comments made me so furious that I just have to share them, so let's go: "We are barely out of January and all this has occurred: We learned the economy contracted in the 4th quarter of 2012." Totally as a result of Republican budget cuts in State and local governments where they were in control.  But of course, this deliberate economic sabotage is presented by Ms. Rubin as a colossal failure by Obama. "President Obama is trying to wriggle out of a sequester, which he insisted upon in the 2011 budget negotiations."  That is not true.  The sequester...

But two issues that are in the news these days, attracting left wing attention as well as providing an opportunity for the right to get on with its usual wailing and shrieking, don't seem to have a lot of substance to me: First, the issue of the use of drones in combat:  My understanding of war (however fragmentary it may be) is that the whole point of it is to kill as many of the enemy as you can, while getting as few of your own guys killed in the process.  I suspect that there is something of a very outmoded form of chivalry involved with those who are against drones- it just doesn't seem fair to reduce the likelihood that you will get killed in battle to zero.  And maybe someone wants to make the case that, without casualties and the consequent alienation of their populations, there is no brake on governments using warfare as a standard tactic of diplomacy.  Fine, that makes some sense, but I don't think it is what is being argued here.  War is horrible an...

Collaborating with the right, once again...  Here's a story from Yahoo: "Emails: Decision on NBC host stirred response WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia prosecutors received scores of emails from citizens upset because NBC television journalist David Gregory was not criminally charged for displaying a high-capacity ammunition magazine on his "Meet the Press" show. Prosecutors received roughly 50 emails demanding that Gregory be charged, plus more than 150 others expressing outrage in the days after officials decided to not prosecute him. The Associated Press obtained the messages through a public records request. The emails were sent by people from around the country, including some self-identified gun owners and Second Amendment supporters, who accused prosecutors of hypocritically and unevenly enforcing D.C.'s strict gun laws and of giving Gregory preferential treatment." So let me get this straight:  It is a national story that 200 people compla...

The pickings have been a little thin lately; wingnuts seem to have lost their mojo or something.  Well, just because they are acting particularly stupid these days, don't think Green Eagle is going to stop kicking them when they are down: Peter Heck, American Thinker:  "Beyonce's Pig Snout...Beyonce wasn't portraying beauty last night. She was portraying a woman with no discretion who feels she must degrade her body in order to gain fame, money and the attention of unprincipled men" Sorry, Peter, Beyonce already has fame, money and the attention of unprincipled men- all she can handle.  The real message here:  Even though she has been voted the most beautiful woman in the world, she is still really an animalistic pig, because she's black.  Of course, Peter would deny that, and claim I am the real racist for pointing this out, but so what?  What decent person on earth would care about what human garbage like Peter has to say for himself? Now, news we don'...

At least in that great bastion of economic rationality, the Virginia Legislature, last heard of trying to destroy our Presidential electoral system in order to put a Repubican that no one wants into the White House: "Virginia moves closer to creating state’s own currency Lawmakers in Virginia say they want to keep their options open in case the value of the U.S. dollar ever collapses — so they’re considering minting state coinage. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a proposal to study the effectiveness of such a plan “sailed through” the state’s lower house this week: The idea that Virginia should consider issuing its own money was dismissed as just another quixotic quest by one of the most conservative members of the state legislature when [Virginia Del. Robert G.] Marshall introduced it three years ago. But it has since gained traction not only in Virginia, but also in states across the country as Americans have grown increasingly suspicious of the institutions entrus...

Today, Green Eagle is about to offer a solution to a supposed problem that has gripped tax policy for decades, and which, as usual, business interests in government (i.e. Republicans) and the press have succeeded as portraying as utterly intractable.  That is the issue of the difference in taxation between ordinary income and capital gains. It is forgotten that there was originally a relatively rational reason for treating capital gains income differently from regular income.  That is because much capital gains income comes from investments made years in advance of the profit; investments which, because of inflation, were worth more than their dollar value at the time they are sold.  To give a hypothetical example, let's say that a person makes a $10,000 investment in year one, and sells his investment in year six, for $20,000.  Under normal standards, that would represent a profit of $10,000.  However, let us suppose that, between year one and year six, there...

I still remember the shootout outside a Bank of America on Laurel Canyon Blvd. in North Hollywood in which two idiots in full body armor and armed with assault weapons were able to hold off dozens of police for hours.  We're hearing a lot about assault weapons lately, but I think the issue of body armor deserves a little of our attention.  Here in California, if you use a gun in the commission of a crime, you automatically get five years added on to your sentence.  Along those lines, I suggest the following: 1.  Anyone who is convicted of a violent crime while wearing body armor will get an automatic 5 years additional sentence. 2.  In the case of a death resulting from a crime, the wearing of body armor by the perpetrator shall be considered evidence of premeditation, and shall automatically result in first degree murder charges. I know this is a lesser issue, compared to the three hundred million guns we are plagued with, but I think it would be a ...

Here's the disgusting Senator John McCain, "questioning" Defense Secretary designate Chuck Hagel in a Senate "hearing" last week.  Please give it the two minutes it takes to listen to it: Remember that Hagel is a man who served with McCain for many years in the Senate- as a fellow Republican- who McCain claimed was his friend, and who has now been appointed to one of the most important positions in the country.  The sick, vicious McCain attacks him like a prosecutor questioning a rapist or murderer, showing him utter contempt and using the chance for nothing but one more opportunity to indirectly attack Barack Obama, who he hates with a passion because the black man Obama beat him in 2008.  And yet this nauseating individual is treated far and wide as a paragon of virtue, and one of the most essential contributors to our national discussion.  There is no clearer sign of our national political malaise than the fact that this degraded loser is held up as a ...

One of the most neglected tasks of most bloggers, I suspect, is updating their blog list.  Even on really big blogs, you will find many of the links lead to long-expired sites.  Well, Green Eagle is no different, but I finally got around to adding a few websites I like.  This was largely motivated by Magpie, one of my all time favorite bloggers, moving to a new site, but includes several new entries to the list, including the great economics blogger Brad DeLong, Simply Left Behind, a blog I've enjoyed for years, Gin and Tacos, and Welcome to Pottersville 2. I've really like the material at these sites, and any minuscule thing I can do to get them a few more hits will be mutually beneficial to both the blogs and the readers.  Thanks to all of you for keeping me interested over the years.

From Breitbart.com, we learn of the deeply distressing story of one Chris Kyle, a fine American who was brutally gunned down by a madman, while Chris was trying to come to the aid of a fellow gun victim. This is exactly the kind of tale that points out how we must all have weapons in order to prevent this sort of thing.  If Mr. Kyle had only had a weapon available and knew how to use it, I'm sure that this tragedy would never have happened. And the loss of Mr. Kyle is particularly sad, because he is a New York Times bestselling author, with so much wisdom to provide the rest of us.  Here's his best selling book: Yes indeed, Mr. Kyle was the "most lethal sniper in U. S. Military history."  Now, if only he had a gun with him... Oh wait...Mr. Kyle was killed at a Texas gun range, where he was "helping a fellow military member learn sniper shooting technique." And yet we were assured by responsible parties testifying in front of Congress last week ...