Well….I have been trying and trying to get back on the political horse but it just hasn’t worked yet…I wonder if I’m just getting tired of the nonsense that passes for politics these days? Whatever it is…okay, maybe I’ll look in the paper right now and see if there is something….here’s something…just read a column by Jay Ambrose in the Detroit News that goes on and on about how bad the left is because they keep calling out the haters on the right…so, Jay, now when the left point outs the hate from the tea party or the others on the right it’s the moral equivalent of the constant hate speech from the right? Okay…this one is not going anywhere so I think I’ll stop here and think about it for a while…..or not…who knows?
Maybe I’ll just talk about other stuff, then….nope….that’s not working either so I’m going to go over to the couch for a few minutes and watch tv for a while….
Well…while I’m waiting for it to get a little warmer before I go out on the bike, I thought I’d comment on the $16 dollar muffins that the right is so hot about…if you haven’t heard, there was a conference a while back for some judges and other people that was paid for by the federal government whose billing appeared to contain muffins that cost $16 dollars apiece….and the right has taken this up as being a huge example of the wasteful spending that is rampant in Washington., But, it doesn’t matter to the right that it isn’t true…it is a quirk in how the billing was presented by the hotel where the conference was held. The reality is that the $16 dollars was for the entire days food for each of the attendees….and if you’ve ever been to any big city like DC, a cup of coffee goes for 5 bucks and a continental breakfast like the one that cost the taxpayers $16 at the conference can cost upwards of twenty bucks. But, does that matter to the right? Nope….this lie has been chosen to support the draconian cuts that the repubs are pushing and you even had the liar Bill O’Reilly on Jon Stewart’s show this week going on and on about it and I was surprised that Jon didn’t do his homework and cut ole Bill off at the knees….but I guess that falls to me today and I’m happy to do it to that blowhard….geez…..
Okay…going to throw out a second lyric for the day: “I can see you on the hill….comatose but walking still…”
Well….just a short little one about the latest craziness from ole Michelle….yesterday, talking to some of her supporters, she “blamed” Obama and his foreign policy ineptitude for the “Arab Spring” that saw the removal of many dictators from the northern Africa Arab states. Now, let me get this straight…it’s a bad thing that millions of people now live in countries that have budding democracies and more freedom than they had? Oh, I get it, freedom is okay and necessary for the US but for anyone else it’s destabilizing and a threat to Israel. This woman is just one of the stupidest people I have ever heard speak and everyone should just ignore her instead of giving weight to the nonsense she spouts…does she truly believe that nothing can happen in any country around the world without the permission of the US? This is third grade level foreign policy and drips of the desperation that is rampant in her campaign with her plummeting poll numbers….bye bye Michelle…
Well…I was going to go off on Nolan Finley again for his nonsense that the left is irritated with the tea party because they tell the truth…but as everyone knows, the right has their version of “truth” that never fits up with the facts…and Nolan is just a little. little, man trying to hold onto a past that is fast reaching its end. What I did want to talk about is the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that is going on in New York as we speak and one of its aims to call attention to the continued thievery that is rampant; aided by the tea party and it’s corporate overlords. I find it funny that one of the reasons that the media has been slow to cover this story is that they don’t have a clear agenda or should I say a set of talking points that lends itself to the 5 second sound bite that “news” has degenerated into. But, that is the whole point….a true grass roots movement that is trying to take on what is wrong with this country can’t be summed up into talking points….the mess that the repubs have made is so wide reaching and insidious that it takes time to figure out what the people need to fix the situation. A true grass roots rebellion is run by the people rebelling and the diversity of it’s ideas comes from the diversity of the people in it…of the “99’ers”, those of us that are not in the 1% who continue to take, and take, and take without regard to the damage they are doing to the rest of the country. I also find it funny that this true movement of the people is being compared to the sham movement of the tea party; which is bankrolled by the billionaires and whose mouths are filled by the talking points those billionaires want them to say.
I want to end with just a word of thanks to those who are on the front lines in New York and to the rest of us who try everyday to wrest control of this country out of the hands of the 1%…..maybe this time money won’t be able to run us over and leave us for roadkill…I can hope anyway….
Well..if we want to see the republicans vision in action, all we have to do is look at the state of Texas and the latest attack on schools there…on top of the 4 billion dollars that was chopped out of education in the latest budget, there is now a commission appointed by Rick Perry that is deciding on whether to give the companies that own the oil refineries there refunds on their taxes to pay for upgrades in their pollution controls. Now, let me get this straight…Perry and his cronies are going to give some of the most profitable companies in the world tax breaks to pay for something they are responsible for and shift the burden to the children and college students of Texas? This is class warfare and corporate welfare at it’s worst…what would happen if a regular citizen were to ask for tax breaks to buy a new car since is old one pollutes more than a new one? The repub establishment would be red-faced, screaming socialism, and lecturing the citizen that he or she needs stand on their own…that they can’t come to government to fix their problems. But it’s a different story when your big political donor comes with it’s hand out….that is the distilled vision that the repubs have for America…geez…
Well…this little nugget has been gnawing at me for a while…well, at least a couple of weeks since ole Snyder weighed in on the obesity epidemic….I hope you’ll remember a few months back when Michelle Obama came out for measures that would help stem the obesity epidemic here in the US…..including that individuals need to take responsibility for their own health by eating better and getting off the couch….and she was vilified by the repubs for what they said was extension of the “nanny state” and being the nanny in chief….then, we have ole gov Snyder here in Michigan do the same thing and the GR press and the other right wing newspapers here cheer that someone had the bravery to take on the health of the people of the state….another case of breathtaking hypocrisy by the repubs and their propaganda arms in the media. When are we going to call these people on this nonsense? When are these newspapers going to stop looking at this stuff as good if it comes from the right and bad if it comes from anyone else? geez….
Well….when are we, as a people, going to stop allowing billionaires to buy elections…when are we going to climb out from under the thumb of banks and business and take our country back…when are we going to find the principles that made this country great and start living by them again? I am edging up on the concept of civil disobedience as useful tool to combat the nonsense from the right and their owners…what if everyone took a month off from paying their mortgages; what would the banks do? What if we all come out and tell the politicians we want an ideology free set of solutions that are based in the science of economics; not the failed “gut feel” economics that the right is pushing? What if we said no to more tax cuts? What if we said yes to paying more in taxes to help get the country out of this mess? What if we boycott any company that sends even one more job out of the country? What if we stop this warfare on working people and support the unions who are the last line of defense for the middle class?
There are so many things that we can and need to do to make this country better…not just for the rich but for all of us but it won’t happen on it’s own…it’s time for all of us to say enough of going backward and saying what we can’t do…what if we become aspirational again? We need to think big again…there is more than enough money for it here….we just need to get it back from the right wing thieves who have stolen it all over the past 20 years….geez…
Well…I was going to do a political one today but I am still in a state of disgust with all politicians…okay, not all of them..but all of the repubs for sure and even some of the dems who seem to think that compromise is giving the repubs everything they want and ignoring the wants of the people that elected them. The polls show that people do not want what the repubs are selling; the gutting of the last vestiges of the social safety net that still remain for more and more tax breaks for the rich and business. We are starting to see what the repubs vision is doing to America with the prospects of another recession growing every day, caused by how they have slashed the incomes of the middle class to the point that the economy can’t grow because no one but the rich can afford to spend anything. The latest figures show that middle class has lost over 7% of their income over the past 4 years while the income of the top 10% has grown by over 40% in that same time period. And the repub idiots continue to scream that the dems are all about class warfare…when they are the ones who have unleashed warfare on the middle class and poor and will not be satisfied until everyone but them is living in poverty….geez….
Oh, I guess this was a political one….I never know where the brain is going to lead me once I get started….
Well…just a short one…the events of the last couple of days expose the repubs for what they truly are…the job killers that they are always accusing the dems of being. In front of the fed meeting that is going on over the next couple of days, the repub thugs have sent a letter to the fed chairman threatening him with some kind of action if he allows another bout of stimulus to prevent the economy from falling back into recession. Never mind that the fed is an independent entity that was specifically designed to prevent the kind of legislative meddling that the repubs hate unless it is to benefit business…when there is possibilty that the fed can use it’s few tools to benefit the economy as a whole, the repubs go off on their crazy train and start making threats like the terrorists they are. This time the public needs to step up and hold these thugs feet to the fire and force them to start to govern for more than the top 1%…geez…
Well…waiting for the dryer to finish so I can get out for the bike ride and thought I’d just put down a couple of thoughts…first, the right seems apoplectic that a solar film company that got a government loan went out of business after Obama touted it as being part of our energy future and there are howls for investigations of any lawbreaking….which I really can’t disagree with. But, where the heck were the republicans when Halliburton was getting all of the no-bid contracts and stealing billions of dollars when ole GW was in office? And, where were they when GW and Cheney were committing felonies by approving torture and warrantless wiretapping? I just can’t believe that the American public keeps electing these folks when it has been clear for a long time that they have no principles or honor…that they are all too happy to put the future of this country at risk for political gain….they just remind me of a 6 year old…and that may be insulting to the six year old….geez…