Well…just read an interesting article in the Guardian UK about the right’s fascination with Ayn Rand and her work “Atlas Shrugged” and it hit me that this fascination is one of the causes of the of the concerted attacks on women that we have seen over the past few months. In that putrid piece of trash (I really hate to call any work by any writer trash, since I understand that writing is hard work) the put upon millionaires and billionaires revolt against “government regulation” and the takers in society that are everyone but them…but what struck me the most are the scenes of rape in the book where the woman being raped comes to understand and like the attack since it is done by one of the rich and powerful that “deserve” to do whatever they want since they are rich and powerful. This nonsense is the root of the contempt that the right feels for everyone that is not them; who is not rich and connected, who must have something wrong with them because they aren’t. Never mind that most of those in the repub race for president either were born wealthy or fed at the public trough through lobbying to become wealthy; the fantasy in their heads is that they “earned” what they have….delusions that grow stronger with every passing day…geez….
Tag Archives: republicans
Should comment about Limbaugh…
Well…with all of the uproar over the troglodyte comments that ole Rush made over the past couple of days, I thought I should comment on the nonsense but why? There is nothing that can be said for something so evil…it has been the way he has made his millions for the past 20 years so how can anyone be surprised? What really troubles me is the fact that he has millions of listeners (most of them repubs) that think exactly the same way…I wonder what they were taught in the churches that they were brought up in? But, this is normal repub behavior and again, we shouldn’t be surprised….saddened, but not surprised. geez…
Let’s kill the Keystone XL nonsense…
Well…in the past couple of weeks, the repubs have latched onto gas prices as being one of the weapons that they are going to use to try to defeat Obama in November and get the Keystone XL pipeline approved. One of the lies they are telling is that the pipeline will have the effect of lowering prices to consumers across the US when they know it’s not true…even the pipeline company has said in sworn testimony that Keystone will not have any effect on gas prices and may even raise them in the midwest since it will allow them to move the glut of oil from Oklahoma to refineries in Texas for export. The noted oil economist, Philip K. Verleger had this to say in today’s Washington Post:
“Overall, the pipeline will have no impact on prices consumers pay. None. The reason is that the products produced from the crude will be sold into the world market — exported — if prices fall below world levels,” he said in an email. “This means that consumers outside the Midwest will get no benefit from the line while consumers in the upper Midwest may pay more.”
This isn’t even the worst of it…in testimony to Congress for approval of the pipeline, Trans-Canada (the company that wants to build the pipeline) admitted that it will use the pipeline to manipulate prices; just giving the oil companies one more tool in their bag to keep prices artificially high and steal more from you and I. So, whenever you hear the repubs lying about the pipeline and it’s effects, just remember who owns a large piece of the republican party, and who will benefit from its building……geez….
Should comment a little on Michigan…
Well…with the passing of the repub primary yesterday, I thought I should comment a little on the event since I live here…first thing I want to say is “what were they thinking?” when both of the candidates bashed the auto bailouts and unions as they crossed the state…are they trying to lose the general election? One of the things that I think the repubs have lost sight of is the fact that the people in Michigan (even republicans) liked the auto bailouts and the hundreds of thousands of jobs they saved and the repubs slide to the right to unbridled and unregulated capitalism is not going to play well in the general…and ole Rick’s anti womens rights screeds and his lying attack on Obama for being a “snob” backfired to ensure his loss. Now, he is trying to soften his stand as the pope in chief and moralizer but, while it may work with the tiny sliver of the repub party that votes in the primary, it has caused the repub establishment to basically write off Michigan for the general election since even Romney has been dragged so far to the right that he won’t be able to repair the damage if he wins the nomination. But, let’s not cheer too much right now…as much as I love to see these idiots pummel each other, I never underestimate the ignorance of the electorate as evidenced by all of the lower middle class folks voting against their own economic self interest in the last election and putting the repubs in charge of the House…where did that get you? Where are the jobs plans and the plans to get the income of the workers growing again? Nowhere, since the repubs in control always revert back to the culture war when they are in power since they don’t even believe that there is anything that can or should be done by government to help the economy grow…geez…
Do we want five guys to decide the election?
Well…just a short one on some statistics that I find quite troubling…with the Citizens United decision and the unlimited money that it brings to the election cycle, another statistic caught my eye and emphasizes how the balance of power has shifted in the two years since. In the FEC filings that were released earlier this week, it was revealed the 5 guys gave over 25% of the money that that was raised for the repub primaries…that’s right folks, what used to be small donations from many, many people has become 5 guys attempting to buy an election…do you think they are doing this for fun? Not on your life…they are doing this to buy influence with their chosen candidate…do you think the candidates will listen to you when you can’t muster a 10 million dollar check to them? This corrosive effect has got to stop…or we are going to lose our democracy…maybe we already have…
A bunch of jumbled thoughts…
Well…just sat down here again without any big topic to write about so I thought I’d just get started and see where it takes me…this is a political one if that’s what your here for…if not, stay anyway, it’s always a crap shoot if any of this is going to make sense but sometimes I do…let’s go…..the first thing I want to talk about is the headlong rush to attack Iran that is happening on the right…I just can’t understand why anyone would champion doing that after so many years of war and a debilitated military that has resulted…can’t we just give our military a rest for a while? Maybe we can sell peace to the repubs by saying that we can give a tax cut to everyone if we don’t attack…and the idea that Iran would use a nuclear bomb even if they had one is almost as crazy as the idea of attacking is…Iraq would be turned into glass by the Israelis if they ever did so what would be the point of it? Let’s cool down for a while and let the sanctions work….
Man..to see how far the repubs have driven off the cliff to the right, all you have to do is look at the debate the other night where the candidates were attacking ole GW…it made me smile but shake my head at the same time…these guys are just crazier than hell and I just can’t believe it….and then we have Santorum saying that Satan is responsible for all of the problems in the US and his wife has said that it was a “call from god” that got her husband into the race…I don’t even know what to say about that….another reason to eliminate religion from the world…okay, that’s a little harsh but how can people believe this stuff? Oh, and for a religous person, Santorum doesn’t take the commandments too seriously…he’s lying away again today about his endorsement of Arlen Spector and the quid pro quo on Supreme Court justices….Okay….need to go put lunch on so I’ll go…pretty mediocre..but at least I got to it…counts for something doesn’t it?
This is just too funny…
Well…just wanted to get a quick one in here before I get to the races so I won’t be thinking about it during the race…I find the latest non-partisan scoring of the competing tax bills that have come out of the White House and the repub candidates just so damn funny that I had to write about it…in it, the economists agree that the plans of the repub candidates, to a man, will end up being worse for the economy and will increase, not decrease the deficits…and they all show to be much worse that the one proposed by the White House that will be DOA in the House. One of the telling things that was buried in the articles that I’ve read is the fact the ole Mitt’s plan will give massive tax cuts to the rich and raise taxes on everyone else….even the president of Bank of America has said that taxes should be raised on those making over a million dollars a year and should be even higher for those making 10 million a year, and the Murdoch owned right wing Wall Street Journal agreed this week. When the repubs are losing the banks and the Journal, who do they have left that thinks they know what they are doing? Not many, I hope…
Gas prices are the GOP’s silver bullet?
Well…I’m not sure if this one is going to be the good one that I promised this morning but it bears repeating since the repubs seem to be making gas prices a centerpiece of their attacks on Obama…let’s just remind everyone of one thing when the talk starts to move to the Keystone pipeline and drilling in ANWR…consumption of oil and its products continue to decline while production is at a 6year high…but, what the repubs don’t mention is that we have become a net exporter of refined oil products…what does this mean to you and me? It means that any new capacity coming from the tar sands in Canada will never be used in the US…it will all be exported with the risks of spills and environmental degradation absorbed by the US public while the profits will all go to the repubs best friends, the oil companies. The reason that gas prices are rising have nothing to do with supply and demand…in the new global economy where oil is an investment to be flipped…the commodity traders can manipulate to market to ensure that no matter what happens, they will make obscene profits by using the same fear, gloom and doom tactics that the repubs use to win elections….I hope that day is coming to a close….and it can be hastened by applying transaction fees to every trade and raising the margin dollars required to make those trades…something the oil company purchased repubs will never do…
One last thing…where are the jobs plans from the repub controlled House? They have controlled the House for over a year and nothing from them other than the normal nonsense on social issues…the last I heard, limiting contraception for women hasn’t created one job….
It’s all about what vision you want for America..
Well….it has been almost two years since the repubs did well in the 2010 elections and we now have a very clear view of what this country will be like if they win again in 2012. All we have to do is look to Wisconsin, where the public unions gave back everything they were asked for in cuts to wages and benefits but the repubs had to take more and push their fringe agenda of stripping the unions and the middle class people in them of their right to associate and bargain from a position of equality. Next we can look to Pennsylvania where the legislature just approved the fundamental human right of gays to marry but the tea party governor Chris Christie vetoed the bill and is now, by his own action and governing for only the 20% of the electorate that are tea partiers, trying to change the rules like the repubs always do to get his way. Then we have the debacle in Virginia that I talked about last week that would mandate an invasive and unnecessary procedure for any woman seeking an abortion there. Right here at home in Michigan, we have the Attorney General picking and choosing which laws to enforce or ignore that will drive his personal agenda to eliminate the voter approved use of medical marijuana…..these are just a few examples of what an America run by the right would look like….crony capitalism on steroids where the rights of the people are taken away on the whim of the moralists who think they know best for all of us…geez…
Are the republicans stupid or just brain dead?
Well…I have bee struggling with the question in the title since yesterday when I saw a segment on Keith’s show that described how repubs in Virgina are attacking a woman’s right to choose by legislating that before she can choose, she must underego an invasive procedure (which I won’t describe here but you can imagine) forced on her by the government. Where are the small government repubs now? When more of than 50% of the electorate are women, you would think that the repubs would put aside their war on women just for their own political survival, never mind that this is just a huge abrogation of womens civil rights and takes us back to the bad old days when men essentially owned women. How would these guys feel if the government told them they had to have an invasive prostate exam to get the rest of their healthcare? You can bet that law would be gone in a minute.
Then…we have the idiot Mitt here in West Michigan yesterday telling a hand picked crowd that he will fight against unions and destroy them if he is elected…I don’t even know what to say about that other than bye, bye, Mitt…it’s the last mistake you’re going to make…especially when over 70% of the people in the US want unions to remain as protection against unbridled business. Geez…
See what I mean about stupid?