Well…just had to write this one early so I won’t forget to do it today…just finished up reading the Detroit papers today and guess what the headline was….that our wonderful Michigan…home of tax cuts for the rich and business pushed by the repubs here is running the biggest deficit in its history, with the projections being that this years budget will see close to a 600 million dollar shortfall driven mostly by tax credits for business that the governor and legislators are “surprised” that they are taking. But, they are the only ones that are surprised…what the hell did they think was going to happen? That corporations would not take these giveaways out of the goodness of their hearts? Michigan now follows Kansas and Wisconsin into the black hole of tax cuts that do nothing to spur the economy or create jobs…especially when business is sitting on more cash than ever in the history of the world. The only time that tax cuts may work is when the cuts will free up money that business will spend on hiring or new equipment…tax cuts with so much retained cash just go to stock buybacks or increased CEO pay…nothing else. So, who pays for this boondoggle? If Michigan follows the pattern of every repub controlled state, there will be cuts to education and every other program that benefits anyone but business…and the state will be a worse place to live…just like every state under repub control…but they don’t care if business is happy…geez….
Category Archives: Politics
It starts…already…
Well…one thing that I have been noticing lately is the increasing attention to the nonsense that is going to be the 2016 presidential election….and I am shaking my head at the normal cast of characters on the repub side who are making noises about running…ole Mitt, Jeb, and Rubio have started to float the trial balloons and that makes this question pop up in my head: “Isn’t there anyone else?” Do we need the retreads from years before to do it again? I, for one do not want another Bush or Clinton in the White House….their time is done and I don’t want retread policies that would not benefit the middle class at all…after all, the Clintons are the darlings of Wall street and you can bet that they would fall all over themselves rewarding the big donors with more deregulation and give them even more chances to steal what is left of the economy. With the Bushs’s, you are going to have more Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and their cronies and the country surely can’t stand more of that crap. I just wish some new blood, progressive blood would run on our side anyway…people like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren who won’t just pay lip service to helping the middle class but will make it their job to claw back some of the thievery that the 1% has done over the past 20 years….no more dynasties…we can’t afford it…geez…
Just shaking my head….
Well….as usual, when I was reading today I found an article that left me shaking my head about the stupidity of people here in the US…and that happens more and more frequently lately. In a survey that the article was reporting on, 40% of the people polled still think that there were weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq…and, even more troubling than that, there are an almost equal number in the survey that still think Obama wasn’t born in the US…how many times do these false legends have to be debunked before people believe the truth? I find this willful ignorance to be one of the most troubling trends in US life today…that people who should know better believe this crap that they are spoon fed daily by Fox…I guess I should question their intelligence if they watch Fox…I wonder if just watching Fox lowers your IQ? Sure seems like it…geez…
It is to laugh….
Well….I am still amazed at the chutzpa that the repubs have been showing over the past day or so…no, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised or amazed…they have been taking credit for things that they haven’t done for years and years now…I guess that’s because they haven’t done anything for at least the past six years. But now, they have given me the biggest laugh that I’ve had in quite a while…with ole Mitch McConnell’s statement yesterday that the growth in the economy in the past quarter was due to the “anticipation” that the repubs were going to take over the congress…not that it is a continuation of the trends for the entire year…not that government spending is up almost 10% in the last quarter…or that demand is starting to rise…nope, it just that business was “anticipating” the glorious days of repub control of congress and all of the giveaways they are expecting since they bought the repub party lock stock and barrel……you do kind of have to admire…no, I won’t say that…there is nothing about this bunch of liars that is worthy of admiration….just contempt….geez…
This is what it’s going to be like…
Well…didn’t have to wait too long to see what at a repub dominated congress was going to look like and you only have to see the first three things they worked on to know…the first thing…the very first thing was to pass a bill to cut SS disability payments and to forbid borrowing from the retirement trust fund to pay for the disability side….nevermind that this has been done 15 times in the past 30 years with no effect on retirees and it is the first step in their plan to privatize the disability portion of SS and then the rest of the programs…..the second thing was watering down of Wall street regulations…allowing more of the shenanigans that melted down the economy in 2008…and the third is the 20 week abortion ban that these asses are salivating at and thing will lead to the repeal of Roe v. Wade…never mind that the supreme court has said that these bans are illegal…but you and I know the repubs only pay attention to the Constitution when it suits their partisan goals…..get out the veto pen Obama….you’re going to need it….
Politics has started…
Well….today’s the day that politics restart in DC and I have been waiting a long time to get some topics to write about…I know there are plenty of other things I could do…sports, science, and space to name three but there is just nothing like politics to highlight the absurdity of where the country is right now….so this one is going to be just a preview of things to come….I found it funny that the first thing on the repubs agenda is passing of the supposed “jobs” legislation that would authorize the Keystone pipeline…even though it will mean a total of about 35 permanent jobs if that many…but the thing I find even funnier is that the WH has promised to veto any pipeline bill…I wonder how many times they will pass this one and have it vetoed before they learn that it’s never going to happen unless Obama decides to approve it? The second bit that I am really looking forward to is the Obamacare repeal legislation that the repubs say is second on the agenda…okay, repubs…go ahead, try to take healthcare away from 20 million Americans with nothing to replace it with….another veto certainty and the political ads will write themselves…we need the dems to be dems in the next election…. not repub lite…let’s go back to FDR for the principles for our side….they are still salient after all these years…stand for something, not just against the other side….geez…
Now they care about kids?
Well…was just reading an article about the repub governor of Idaho and their futile efforts to overturn the court decision that said that the 14th amendment protects gay people and allows them to get married…and their primary argument (that they are still making despite numerous studies debunking their claims) is that children fare better when they are raised in heterosexual families. Since when have the repubs given a damn about kids? Not when they cut children’s health programs….not when they cut back on food stamps that help feed them…not when they oppose raising the minimum wage that would help their parents send them to school with a good breakfast….and not when they oppose everything that would give workers a voice and higher pay that would take the economic uncertainty away that causes so much stress in both parents and kids….this is just religious nonsense cloaked in fake caring for children that they have used for years to deny gays their rights…if they cared so damn much, they would have used the half million dollars they have spent on these suits to fund a school lunch program or health care for kids…but they don’t…geez…
Political stuff….
Well…I’m really trying to think of something to write but it’s hard when when every time I move my eyes it feels like someone is sticking an ice pick into them…but, that’s the flu so what are you going to do? Haven’t done much in politics lately but most of that is because there is not much going on yet…not sure what kind of mischief the repubs are going to try for the next two years but I’m sure they are going to get a taste of the crap they have pulled since Obama got elected. There was one thing today that made my jaw drop….in Oklahoma, state lawmakers there (repubs, of course) have proposed a new law that would outlaw hoodies…yep…the most important thing on agenda is not jobs, or roads, or reining in business…it to outlaw hoodies….the last I heard a hoodie has never stolen trillions from the people of the country, have never polluted wide swaths of the country, or tortured anyone….but it is now the greatest threat to the people of Oklahoma…and SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!…..okay…the caps were to emphasize the the stupidity of those folks…and this is just the 3rd of January…can’t wait to see what comes next….geez….
Whiny cops….
Well…this one just popped into my head a few minutes ago so I thought I say something about it…after reading about all of the cops bitching and whining that no one respects them anymore and of the NY cops playing the silly game of turning their backs on the mayor at a funeral, I think the cops have become a bunch of whiny kids that are throwing tantrums because people aren’t kissing their butts every time they are on the streets. I wrote a piece a few years back on the hero worship that cops and firefighters got after 9/11 and this is the logical backlash…it’s like a kid being told that he’s the most terrific person in the world all of his life and then real life intrudes with the truth and he can’t handle it…he’s confused that he’s not the best at everything or that he has to earn respect in the real world…that is just what these cops are to me…spoiled, whiny little brats that throw fits if they don’t get their way…so, let’s get to the reality…that there are good cops out there but many of them are entitled pricks who think just because they wear a badge the law doesn’t apply to them…this has got to end….
Ferguson…again…
Well…have been reading of the process that went on in the grand jury for the Ferguson case and this bombshell was just dropped…one of the star witnesses…the so called witness 40….the one who has been quoted by fox news as the credible one that backed up the officer’s story exactly? Yeah, that one…the one that the prosecutor knew was lying and let her testify anyway? The one that perjured herself over 100 times in her testimony? Yep, that one again…and the fact that the prosecutor knew she was never at the scene and all of her testimony was fake is against so many laws that the prosecutor may have to be charged with crimes of his own. At the very least, there needs to be a special prosecutor and a new grand jury convened to make sure justice is served…and these types wonder why there is less and less respect for the law….that cops get to shoot unarmed people and get away with it…that the banksters get to crash the economy and steal billions and get away with it…and the torturers and their bosses torture and kill innocent people and get away with it…that is why I have less respect for the law…there is supposed to be equal treatment for all…I guess it’s like the description in “Animal Farm” …”everyone is equal but pigs are just a little more equal than others…” geez…