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Showing posts from June, 2014

Krugman, As Usual

Doesn't it seem at times as if there is only one newspaper columnist in the country who is actually allowed to tell the truth? "...how can you justify enriching the already wealthy while making life harder for those struggling to get by? The answer is, you need an economic theory claiming that such a policy is the key to prosperity for all. So supply-side economics fills a need backed by lots of money, and the fact that it keeps failing doesn’t matter. And the Kansas debacle won’t matter either. Oh, it will briefly give states considering similar policies pause. But the effect won’t last long, because faith in tax-cut magic isn’t about evidence; it’s about finding reasons to give powerful interests what they want." Let me remind you about John Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director.  In the second edition of his memoirs, he added a section describing Reagan and his advisors ridiculing anyone who actually believed in supply-side economics.  It wa

Wingnut Wrapup

Ha ha- the upside down comment of the year: Kevin Glass, Town Hall:  "Harry Reid and Senate Dems Refuse To Actually Legislate" "Legislate," in this case, meaning "caving in and letting the Republican minority do whatever it wants."  Kevin actually blames Democrats for requiring a 60-vote majority to pass amendments, apparently forgetting the 500 or so times the Republicans have filibustered to death bills which had majority support. And the most pathetic attempt lately to exonerate the Bush administration from responsibility for Iraq; John Ransome, Town Hall:  " The trouble in Iraq didn’t start in 2003, or in 1990—the First Gulf War—or with the toppling of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Or in operation “Ajax” in 1953 when we deposed the government of Iran and installed the Shah in its place.  Everything in history is part of what came before it." Except when Obama does it, of course. John Ransome, Town Hall:  "Hey UAW: IF You Don't

41%

I think that's about where Obama's popularity is now.  A far cry from the low of 13% reached by Obama's persecutor Dick Cheney, or the 22% mark achieved by Cheney's tool, the President who allowed him to do his dirty work, but still, not very good.  He must be doing a really bad job, right? Meanwhile, in other news, from the New York Times: "Less than a year ago, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and his forces were sporadically using chemical weapons on rebels and civilians in the civil war. Today, the stockpile that he grudgingly admitted to under international pressure is gone...the deal brokered by the United States and Russia that eliminated the known arsenal — a 1,300-ton cache of chemical agents — has achieved an important result. On Monday, Syria delivered the last of its known stocks to the Syrian port of Latakia where they were loaded aboard a Danish ship. ...the outcome has proved the wisdom of President Obama’s decision to threaten, and then back

An Anniversary to Remember

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Tomorrow is the one hundredth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.  I think it would do us well to consider the terror that was unleashed by that event.  Here are some pictures, one from the first battle of the Marne, and one from probably the most horrific battle of the war, the final struggle for Passchendaele. The true end of the Victorian era, when people discovered that technology was not going to usher in a world of peace and plenty previously unknown. So many people still seem unable to face the fact that this is not a good thing, no matter what the outcome.  They still call for war every chance they get, oblivious to the fact that once it gets started no one knows what will happen.  In 1914, great majorities on both sides were confident that war would lead to their quick victory.  We've had our taste of that in Iraq the last decade or so, and yet still the dogs of war howl.  And there seems to be no way to get them to accept the c

From Beyond the Grave, Reagan Continues to Wreak His Damage

I have spoken often here about the similarities between the great depression and the economic disaster of 2008, and how they both were products of the same self-serving Republican economic cant.  I call it cant rather than mistaken ideology, because as we all know now, no one ever believed these nonsensical theories; they were simply self-serving justifications for what the Republicans and their rich masters intended to do anyway. Well, none of that has changed, but today I want to talk about a great difference between what happened in the 1920's and the calamity that Ronald Reagan unleashed during his Presidency, and which has culminated in thirty short years in reducing much of the country to third world status.  For, there is a major difference between the Coolidge and Harding years and what Reagan visited upon us. From the founding of this country (well, since the beginning of mankind, unfortunately) we have had to suffer characters of unmitigated greed and unrestrained self-in

Traitorous Chief Executive

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He's dark skinned.  His father is from a foreign country with lots of Muslims.  And he is dedicated to destroying our government: "I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States, where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C..." My God, this is just what the Republicans have been screaming about ever since Obama took office!  Finally, the direct evidence needed for impeachment! Oh, wait...it's not Obama, it's this guy: Bobby Jindal, Republican Governor of Louisiana and sometime Presidential candidate, who is now openly inciting rebellion and the overthrow of the Federal government.  I am sure the Republicans in the House will be having hearings about this situation any day now.

Wingnut Wrapup

 They're back.  As usual, with their load of malicious nonsense: Guy Benson, Town Hall:  "Study: Average Individual Market Premiums Soar 49 Percent Under Obamacare" This is a "study" by the Manhattan Institute: "The Manhattan Institute (MI) is a right-wing 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank founded in 1978 by William J. Casey, who later became President Ronald Reagan's CIA director. "The Manhattan Institute concerns itself with such things as 'welfare reform' (dismantling social programs), 'faith-based initiatives' (blurring the distinction between church and state), and 'education reform' (destroying public education)," Kurt Nimmo wrote October 10, 2002, in CounterPunch." Major funders:  (I know this is going to surprise you) the Koch brothers.  Why, they would never lie about Obamacare, right? Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "Hillary Clinton's Legacy: Defending Rapists and Sexual Predators " Yup,

Another Gigantic Right Wing Washington Flop

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Just to keep my reporting about the virtual nonexistence of the right in this country up to date, let me say a few words about this week's "NOM's March for Straight Marriage" in Washington. This time, the march was not the product of fringe lunatics, but of well-financed mainstream lunatics, the National Organization for Marriage, whose followers are (as you well know) are filled with outrage at the way that their campaign against gay marriage has spectacularly collapsed. Well, here they come to Washington to make their feelings known, heavily financed and promoted: What do you see here?  600? 800?  Well, better than the 130 that Operation American Spring got, but let's take a second to remember what a real march on Washington looked like: I repeat what I have said so many times:  In terms of actual, committed followers, the right wing in this country is largely a mirage, crafted at great expense by rich vultures like the Koch Brothers, who stand to gain s

The Greatest State

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California, yeah! What other State is cool enough to have a governor who posts pictures like this to facebook? I rest my case.

Iraq

Oy.  ...Oh, wait, didn't I already say that? If someone told you three months ago that our national foreign policy discussion would today be revolving around whether we should send our troops back into Iraq, would you A) call the men from the loony bin to take this person to a safe place, or B) call the men from the loony bin to take yourself to a safe place, or C) just shoot yourself?  (Family Feud fans take note: the preferred answer was C.) Well, here we are.  And if this surreal, sickening spectacle was not enough to dispirit the most hard-core optimist, the national press seems to have taken a blood oath to allow absolutely no one to speak out on this issue except people who had a personal involvement in creating the previous Iraq debacle, which, if you need any reminder, featured the nation with the most powerful military in the history of the earth attacking a poor, third world country with a virtually non-functional army, and getting the crap beat out of them.  Or to p

Another Sovereign Citizen Terrorist Attack

This one over the weekend in the California mountains, where a jerk named Brent Douglas Cole shot two government officers, luckily not killing either one of them.  Here, from the SPLC files, is a little about this guy: "At one site, he described himself as a “sovereign American Citizen attempting to thwart the obvious conspiracy and subterfuges of powers inimical to the United States...After his January arrest, Cole flooded the Nevada County Court clerk with a blizzard of nonsensical, pseudo-legal filings – a typical tactic of so-called “sovereign citizens.” In one of these, Cole spelled his name in lowercase letters and called himself “a natural born, flesh and blood, living man.” All of which mumbo jumbo identifies him as a Sovereign Citizen.  This makes well over a hundred terrorist attacks conducted by members of this movement in the last couple of decades, but of course he will never be identified as a terrorist because Sovereign Citizens are right wingers. Well, I

Wingnut Wrapup

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And let's just start with this: Humberto Fontova, Town Hall:  "Does Hillary Clinton Take Us for Idiots?" If she doesn't she's living in a dream world.  This article seems to be about some alleged Cuban plot from 1962.  Really.  1962.  When Hillary was 15.  Besides, we know Hillary can't be responsible for it- It's all Obama's fault, like everything else. Sarah Jean Seman, Town Hall:  "Romney: All We've Fought for in Iraq is Potentially Vanishing" You know what we fought for in Iraq, Mitt?  A depression back here at home.  So, the sooner it vanished, the better. Bridget Johnson, PJ Media:  "Boko Haram Urgency Fades as Questions Raised About What Admin Knew When" Now Obama's responsible for things he can't do a thing about, that are  happening half way around the world.  Because of course Boko Haram would never have kidnapped those girls if Romney were President, right?  And what the hell difference would it have

Nuclear bomb nearly detonated after falling on North Carolina

Boy, that's a chance we'll never have again.

The Lies On Which They Build Their Empire

I thought that it would be interesting to illustrate the sort of thing I have to wade through to find nuggets for Wingnut Wrapup.  This is not just to make you feel sorry for me, but to demonstrate just how dense the network of lies spread by the right wing really is.  For this purpose, I have chosen a post by Laurie Roth, the self-styled "Annie Oakley of the Airwaves," at the ever- dependable Renew America.   What follows is virtually the entire post, minus the introduction, with no words omitted, but reformatted to count the lies.  So, here we go: "1.  What is Obama's dream? Transform the U.S. to what?  Obama doesn't have a dream to destroy America and make her disappear, but rather to enslave, control, and manipulate the people and all our assets.   2. All those who resist his agenda will be destroyed.   3. His stated views written and spoken for his whole "fake out" career have been to be the leader of an international movement and control th

Iraq

Oy.

Another Brief Comment About Eric Cantor

Listen, it's obvious at this point that the Republicans are going to play this teabagger/secessionist/race hater thing out.  Like they say about drunks, there is no turning them around until they hit bottom.  They've let the genie out of the bottle, and there is no way to get them to put it back in.  Well, let the wackos have their way with the Republican party as fast as possible, and let's get it over with, so we can get back to a rational government. I don't see how anything else can get us past this nonsense.

PWNED

Aah, Eric Cantor...a guy who has spent the last decade pandering to the ignorant and the hate-filled just as hard as he could, only to find out that he didn't pander hard enough.  It was easy for a guy even more piggish than Eric to come along and knock him off, by connecting with Republican voters, simply by acting even more piggish than Eric.  And of course, there is this, although no one in the mainstream media will bring it up:  Eric is a Jew- the only Jewish Republican in the House. I guess that just goes to show that Conservatives are absolutely committed to Jews with the same fervor as they are committed to American prisoners of war, or babies once they are born.  Big surprise, that- at least for anyone that was stupid enough to think that Evangelical "Christians" give a damn about anyone but themselves. So, Eric rode the wingnut tiger, and it bit him in half.  Tough luck, guy.  Oh well, I'm sure those great big lobbying fees will ease your pain.  The only thin

One Post Wingnut Wrapup

Yes, I am devoting this Wingnut Wrapup to one post.  And in fact, basically to one line from a single post- this one from John Ransom at Town Hall.  I'm doing this because I think that, in this one remark, Ransom has pretty much summed up the entire state of Conservatism in the United States today.  So, ready?  Here We go: "...if, as initial reports indicate, this was the work of white supremacists, I lay it off all on Obama." Well, there it is.  Obama.  It's his fault, even though they did it themselves.  Everything they've got in nineteen words.  That's their story and they're stickin' to it. Oh hell, I might as well treat you to a little more: "it almost doesn’t matter who it was shooting and shouting “revolution”—it could have been liberals from union local 1180-- somewhere down in there the motive drive at work was the worst, most divisive president we have ever had in this country.  That he’s a black man just makes matt

But Don't You Dare Call It Terrorism

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I mean, they are just crazy people, right? So the latest senseless, vicious multiple murder took place yesterday in Las Vegas, where two unbelievable jerks murdered a couple of police officers and another person before having their dreams of revolution come to a quick end and committing suicide.  Just another couple of crazies, huh? "a law enforcement official close to the investigation told the Review-Journal that the suspects were married, in their 20s, and new to the area. The paper reported that investigators found swastika symbols during their search of the apartment." And then, there's this piece of information: "The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the shooters covered the dead officers with the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag, which depicts a coiled snake and the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”  The Gadsden Flag, beloved of Teabaggers, has been adopted by right wingers not, as the rest of us would think, because it's a symbol of the Revol

About Those Five Taliban "Commanders"

We hear over and over again from the right-wing "experts" who dominate our media that the five Taliban members traded for Bowe Bergdahl were high-ranking terrorists that pose an immediate threat to the United States.  Well, here is someone who actually knows what he's talking about, Col. Morris Davis, who was chief prosecutor at Guantanamo: "...as for these five men, when I was chief prosecutor, we had screened all of the detainees and we had focused on about 75 that had the potential to be charged with a crime. When I saw the names the other day, wasn’t familiar with any of these names. So we had more than 12 years if we could have proven that they had done something wrong that we could prosecute them for I’m confident we would have done it, and we didn’t." Which makes them ineligible for detention under the Constitution that right wingers are always raving about. By the way, whatever happened to Col. Davis?  He was relieved of his position as chief pro

Apology?

"Bergdahl was a deserter...Bergdahl converted to Islam...Bergdahl sided with the Taliban...Bergdahl is a traitor...Bergdahl's father has joined the Taliban...Secret Reports Say Bergdahl Converted to Islam and Declared Jihad..." As anyone could have predicted, within days of the instant barrage of right wing outrage about Bowe Bergdahl, every one of the stories they told about him has proven to be a total lie.  When will these patriots who support our troops be apologizing for smearing an American soldier and attacking his release from five years of captivity? I just know it will happen any time now.

Sovereigns Strike Again

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We are confronted with so many violent shooting incidents in this country that, at this point, most people probably miss a lot of them.  Here's one that is bound to be ignored, because the shooter only managed to wound one person before being killed: "Dennis Marx, Georgia courthouse shooting: Deputy shot outside courthouse...Dennis Marx wore body armor and a gas mask. He brandished an assault rifle, an assortment of grenades, "all kinds of ammunition" and even used his silver Nissan SUV as a weapon of sorts, according to authorities. The 48-year-old man toted his own water supply and flexible handcuffs, presumably to corral hostages once he got inside the north Georgia courthouse. As Forsyth County Sheriff Duane Piper said, "He came prepared to do this."  Well, you can sort of see what this guy had to be angry about. "It was very close to being a major catastrophe," Piper said. "The deputy that was shot ... averted what, I think, wo

Wingnut Wrapup

Let's just clear the decks, because I feel a real orgy of wingnut lunacy is approaching. Okay? Katie Pavlich, Town Hall:  "Fellow Soldiers Continue to Detail Bergdahl's Betrayal and Desertion"  Fellow soldiers who were all found and paid God knows what by Republican party operatives, and who have already proven to be a pack of liars.  Now a rescued soldier is a fair target for the most disgusting public abuse if it serves the Republicans' purpose.  There is, apparently, no level of indecency that they won't embrace if it serves their purpose.  And of course, this sort of sickening shamelessness, never before seen in our country, is embraced by the "liberal" press as perfectly normal behavior. And by the way, this Katie Pavlich is really one of the most sickening new Conservatives to have emerged in recent years.  Good work there, Katie. Michelle Malkin, Town Hall:  "Exclusive: The Story You Haven't Yet Heard About Bowe Bergdahl's D

My Brief Comment About Bowe Bergdahl

I really can't be bothered to get too much into this sickening episode in American history, but I do have something to say (surprise).  As you may have discovered, I have followed the right in this country for about four decades now, but in all that time, I have never seen the Republicans act as utterly shamelessly as they are right now.  The unanimity with which they immediately attacked Obama for something that he should have been praised for, the hypocrisy involved in people, like John McCain, who were demanding a few months ago that Obama do more to free Bergdahl, to instantly turn on a dime and attack him for doing what they wanted, the demands from every quarter that he should be impeached for rescuing an American soldier, and the utter disregard they have shown for even the barest pretense of decency are breathtaking.  Add to this the baseless smearing of an American soldier by people who constantly blabber about how much they care about the troops.  And let us not forget th

You Can't Win, No Matter What You Do

But at least Obama and his friends could try recognizing who the real enemy is.  So, Obama arranged a prisoner exchange with the Taliban, giving them five of the poor saps imprisoned for over a decade without charges at Guantanamo, to get back the only American soldier held in Afghanistan. Now, before I go on here, a little perspective:  Prisoner exchanges have existed since at least the eighth century, when trades were made between the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Caliphate, who were engaged in an endless war.  There were many prisoner exchanges in World War II, with the Nazis, who were presumably a lot worse guys than the Taliban.  So, there's nothing new about this. And let's remember the Republicans' frequent sententious pontificating about never leaving soldiers behind; something we have heard plenty about lately in their demonization of Obama over the Benghazi attack. Well, now Obama has freed an American.  Cause to be proud of our government?  Not hardly.  I

Just Where Is the Republican Party Trying to Take Us?

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I mean, really, what kind of country are they intent on creating here? I know this is a bit of a cheap shot, but here's a picture of Phil Robertson, featured speaker at this weekend's Republican Leadership Conference: Am I way off base here because it reminded me of this? I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but really, things are getting pretty strange over there on the other side of the aisle.