Well…I don’t think I’ve sen anyone as breathtakingly tone-deaf in a long time as ole Newt…we have here the embodiment of the 1%…a man who turned his House tenure into the connections and cronyism that got him no interest credit at Tiffany’s and huge government contracts that he made millions on…and now, he is championing the destruction of unions and their workers to be replaced by child labor. Nope…I’m not making this up folks…in a forum the other day, ole Newt actually said that union janitors in every school across America should be fired and replaced by the kids that go to school there…never mind what this would do to the poor kids that would be the ones doing the work, the stigma and bullying that would come from having to do this. But, this doesn’t matter to ole Newt…I’m sure he would like to return to the early 1900′s where children as young as 8 years old worked 12 hours a day in factories…after all it would mean more money for the “job creators” and wouldn’t that trickle down?
Then, he doubles down in response to a question about the “Occupy” movement where he is asked to comment on what has been going on and his only response is “they should all go out and get a job..after they take a shower”….but that is the point Newt, without connections and cronyism, there are no jobs for these folks to go out and get….how can anyone be so out of touch? Oh, he’s a republican…that answers that…. Geez…
Well…since the deficit committee and it’s purported failure is going to be in the news for the next couple of days, I thought I’d weigh in with my two cents before the punditry gets it’s chance..oh, I guess I’m one of them…oh, well…don’t hold that against me. First, let’s cut through the nonsense of “fairness” that the general media seems obsessed with and place the blame squarely where it belongs…Grover Norquist and his anti-tax goons that would rather see the country fail than have any discussion about the need to raise revenue from the rich who are taxed at the lowest rate in history right now. Remember, that as near as the 70′s, the top tax rate was over 70% for the top 1%…not the 25% they pay now with all of the loopholes and shelters they have been given by the repubs. So, any time the media attempts to make the assertion that both sides are at fault, remember that the dems were willing to talk entitlement reform (which I think was a mistake in this context) and the repubs were still working on the strategy that says that saying no is the best form of politics for them. One of the things that the repubs are ignoring here is the fact the country has abandoned them on the idea of not raising taxes…..over 65% of the country want taxes to be part of any bargain and the 9% approval rate of the repub controlled House bears that out. Keep it up Grover…and you and your cronies can go back under the rock you crawled from….geez….
Well…a disturbing development has arisen over the past couple of days concerning the “Occupy” movement and it’s primary adversaries in the banking industry. It appears that the bankers and their lobbyists are taking a page out of the repubs playbook; that when your ideas can’t compete with your foes, you try to smear them personally with lies and fabrications. A memo has surfaced over the last couple of days that has the bankers putting up almost a million dollars to start the smear process against the members and any politicians that support “Occupy” since they are finally starting to realize that their egregious thievery is being recognized by more than the fringe…that popular opinion is swinging toward more regulation of that theft and the continued concentration of wealth at the top. They should be scared…when the dems take back the House in 2012, they will be held accountable to the people who put them there…all of us that have had enough of the rigging of the economy for the benefit of the 1%. What are these guys thinking? After their private armies called police departments coordinated attacks on the 99%, and the public relations catastrophe that came from it, they do this nonsense? It just shows how out of touch these folks, in their insular little world of summer homes and private jets truly are. The tide is turning….finally….
Well…it’s been an okay day today and I got tons of stuff done so I don’t really feel that bad about not doing a political one today…I do have another Manny Lopez one for tomorrow that I should have done today but I didn’t really have the outrage necessary to do it justice…I did get a charge out of the demonstrations in NY last night that saw over 10,000 people come out to protest… a large amount of people for a movement that the right has been declaring is dead for the last couple of weeks…but when have they ever been right on anything? Oh, there was a nice little piece in all of the newspapers yesterday that showed what is really happening on taxes here in Michigan… we are now one of only three states that are raising taxes on the poor while giving tax cuts to the rich and corporations…doesn’t anyone else see this as immoral? Okay…..the repubs don’t think it is but how about anyone else? This is just one of the reasons for the “Occupy” movement that the right just doesn’t get. It just isn’t fair that the poor have to have their taxes rise so ceo’s can get bigger bonuses…geez…
Where are the jobs governor Snyder? Hey…I guess this one was a little political…see what noodling can do for you?
Well…this will be a short one but I think it is an important development in the ongoing tax nonsense by the repubs…the other day, a bunch of millionaires tried to get to the deficit “supercommittee” and ask them to tax them more…I was shocked but heartened when I heard this…maybe some of the rich do have consciences….and maybe there are some people in his country that are finally starting to think? I think that the repubs are going to be in for a big surprise next year in the elections….this country is starting to wake up to their ruinious tactics and their fealty to Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge. But, one thing I do fear is that the dems have not learned anything and will give in again to the repubs extortion..then, the only hope will be winning the election and reversing what happens over the next couple of months.
Oh, one other thing, I am starting to hope that the supreme court will overturn the healthcare law…then we can go back to the best idea…a single payer system that will allow us to cut the insurance companies and their egregious profits out of the equation…that will save 20% right from the start….
Well….if you had any doubt of the outcome of the court challenges to the new healthcare law, all you have to do is take a look at who was dining with the the major challengers of the law. The other day, both justices Thomas and Scalia dined at a dinner that was sponsored by the law firm that will be challenging the law in court…yep, you heard it right, the justices that are supposed to be the most impartial and held to the highest standards of any court in the land are out rubbing elbows with not only the law firm that will be arguing in front of them but with trade associations who are financially backing the suit. Doesn’t this look like a conflict of interest to anyone else? This doesn’t even include that justice Thomas’s wife is a leading proponent of repeal and makes millions of dollars as a lobbyist for the repeal crowd. This isn’t even the first time these two have done something that is, by statute, not illegal, but still stinks of influence coming from the big money folks on the right…they have been regulars at the Koch brothers sponsored events for years…and I don’t care how much they protest that they will still be objective, all you have to do is read some of their opinions to see that the right’s machine has friends on the court. Geez….
Well…when I was out on the bike today, I heard this lyric by Peter Gabriel..”the place where I come from is small town, they think so small, they use small words…” and it made me think of the current crop of repub candidates…I can’t remember a smaller bunch of politicians…I don’t mean small in the physical sense but in the size of their ideas. Over the course of the debates so far, there has not been one of them with any ideas on how to make the country greater…to move us to the next stage…they are all a just of counterpunchers that just say no, that just say what can’t be done, and who only parrot the failed ideas of the repub party of the past thirty years. Where is the person from the conservative end of the spectrum that can think for themselves and not just channel Grover Norquist? What happened to the time honored approach to foreign policy that said “politics end at water’s edge” and that the president should be supported when he deals with the rest of the world?
This group of tiny politicians remind me of a pack of Pekinese yipping and yapping around the ankles of the greats….geez…
Oh, and one last thing that should disqualify them all….at the debate a couple of days ago, every one of them has vowed to violate the Geneva conventions by the use of torture on terror suspects…and commit a felony at the same time…what a bunch of idiots…
Well…one of the funny things that came out of the repub debate from a couple of days ago falls under the heading of “can Mitt be this stupid” and made me laugh like crazy. When ole Mitt was spouting the usual talking points of repealing “Obamacare”, he made mention of a comparison that the left has been making for decades now…that every other industrialized country in the world pays less for healthcare than the US does…and he attributed the extra cost to the government being involved. But, what he fails to realize is that every other country that he noted has some form of a single-payer system that the government runs. So, now, Mitt…are you for or against a single-payer system? Or are you going to be against it today and for it tomorrow? Or, are you saying that the lie you and your repub cronies are spouting is just a cynical ploy to ensure that the insurance companies can continue to steal from the country?
Which is it, Mitt? Or,is it both…or is it neither? And, what will it be tomorrow?
Well…finally some good news for the country with the defeat of the radical right wing agenda in both Mississippi and in Ohio…in Mississippi…the people came to their senses and stopped the nonsense of “personhood” which would have set the cause of women’s rights back to the bad old 60′s….one of the right’s biggest goals…to repeal or continue to chip away at reproductive rights that women have had to fight with their lives for…in Ohio, the Koch brothers attack on organized labor and the middle class was soundly defeated by the overturning of the draconian law that the extreme right jammed through the legislature against the will of the people. It’s one of those things that the right just doesn’t get…that just because they win an election, it doesn’t mean they can only govern for their own supporters and the rich and corporations who bought them the election. With the advent of the “Occupy” movement and these election results…there may be a glimmer of hope that the 99% of us that can’t buy elections may be able to take our country back….I hope so anyway…
Well…just a short one for now…kind of a reminder of what the repubs think is important….they make quick work of the “In god we trust” resolution and other nonsense that has no meaning to ordinary citizens…like the two bills in the house and one in the senate that would instill “personhood” on a fertilized egg and restrict women’s rights to control their own bodies…but not one bill to create jobs or to help the middle class out of the crises that was created by their cronies..so, this may turn into a daily thing…but that would be cheating so I may just include this count up in the morning one….let’s say this together…it has been 308 days since the repubs have taken control of the house of representatives…and not one bill to help the un and underemployed here…geez….