Monday, December 30, 2013

Jim Oberweis uses his Government position to make money for his Business

Illinois State Senator Jim Oberweis is mad that the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has not raised the speed limit in and around Chicago to 70mph.

Oberweis said he was upset that IDOT, which had the authority to draw up the speed limit map, left unchanged the 55-mph speed limit across virtually all of the Chicago region

"It's just clear that they (IDOT) are disregarding the will of the people." Oberweis said, adding that the interstates are designed to handle vehicles traveling 70 mph and speed limits were set at that level before the federal government imposed a national 55-mph limit in 1974. That limit was scrapped in 1995, and states across the U.S. have been raising highway speed limits since then.

Of course, Oberweis has a massive dairy production and retail corporation which relies heavily upon the Illinois infrastructure for the distribution of his product. Oberweis also distributes to Wisconsin and Indiana.

Oberweis said he will try to bring his push for 70-mph Chicago-area speed limits to the legislature and may settle on a 65-mph limit.

And the damage to roadways, necessary improvements and construction well those costs will be borne by the taxpayer.

Of course, earlier this month Oberweis voted to steal Teacher Pensions and violate the contracts signed by other Illinois Public employees. Oberweis called the Pension Theft a "step in the right direction" but was worried, "There is no guarantee that the money saved by these reforms will actually be used to pay down debt, instead of being used for new programs." Paying down the debt means transferring taxpayer money to Corporations.

When it comes to making him money Oberweis will use all the power of his Government position to advance his private corporation. Jim Oberweis is planning a run for the U.S. Senate so that he can make taxpayers from across the Nation pay to maintain his Corporation.

This is just another example of American Capitalism, Profits are Privatized and Costs are Socialized.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson Pro Pedophila and Child Rape Advocate

"Look, you wait ‘til they get to be 20-years-old and the only picking that’s going to take place is your pocket. You got to marry these girls when they’re about fifteen or sixteen and they’ll pick your ducks.” (emphasis added) From Freakout Nation.
This comes from 2009. Like Ted Nugent, Phil Robertson apparently loves Pedophilia. Now, at this point we don't know if he is actively engaged in child rape, like Ted Nugent, but telling Georgia Southerners that a girl's gotta be married at 15 or 16 is nothing less than a full-throated endorsement of Raping little girls.

It's interesting that in rushing to make Robertson the next Right-Wing Faux Martyr that conservatives don't care or don't mind that he's obviously a sick and twisted man. Or, more likely, it's his perverted disgusting views which draws them to him.

Unfortunately, conservatives will just rally around this pro-pedophile because of their nonsensical Freedom of Speech ignorance. Ignoring the fact, that calls to boycott A&E or calls to suspend Phil Robertson are not an abridgment of Freedom of Speech. It is censorship but, choosing to vilify a despicable racist, homophobic pedophile is nothing more than the Free Market at work.

The only violation of the First Amendment in regards to Duck Dynasty that occurred was by Republicans, who used their position in Government to advocate Robertson's specific"religious" views.
"If the Robertson family cannot come to an agreement with A&E and wants to continue the show, Louisiana already has the infrastructure in place to maintain their record-breaking program," Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, in his declaration to violate the 1st Amendment.
Alabama State Sen. Jerry Fielding, R-Sylacauga, will introduce a Senate resolution in support of Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson in the upcoming state legislative session.

Clear violations but, always acceptable because conservatives in government are nothing but, hypocritical bigots who pick and choose what Rule of Law, Constitutional Amendments, Religious Views, and Natural Rights they support and which ones they violate.

Nonetheless, I again entreat all Republicans to align themselves with the enunciated Duck Dynasty Ethics; Bigotry, Hatred and Pedophilia. Republicans all stand in support of these principles so let every voter know it.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Xmas! Gun Nuts celebrate their Newton Massacre Victory

Like all cowards, Gun Lovers are willing to sacrifice someone else's life in defense of their beliefs.

On this Christmas Day, take a moment to reflect that since the Newton Massacre, 34,472 Americans have been killed by guns. But, because of political cowardice and the blood money flowing freely to and from Firearm Manufacturers We, the People have to live under constant threat from criminals and the delusions of lunatics like Wayne LaPierre.

Another gun lunatic, Larry Pratt continues his organizations' ceaseless campaign of blaming the victims of gun violence for their deaths and praising gun owners as god's chosen people. Of course, Faux News gives Pratt airtime to voice his vile, frightening and ignorant views.
"All of these gun-free zones are murder magnets, and we’ve simply got to get rid of them." 
If this had a scintilla of truth then no police officers or law enforcement officials would ever be shot or killed in the line of duty because they are always armed. Here's some more inane prattle from Larry Pratt, about how God loves guns and judges those who don't pack heat everyday,
"And we should be praying that we will all be able to go around armed because that will be one outward indicator that we have God’s blessing. If we are walking around like they are in New York and San Francisco, we are under his judgement."
Blaming Gun-Free Zone for the murderous rampages of Second Amendment Heroes is the akin to blaming homeowners for the actions of burglars, if you didn't own that home it couldn't have been burglarized.

But, victim blaming is part of the strategy adopted by the Gun Nuts. Fear is another potent weapon.

In the US Congress, fear of the Gun Lobby and rancorous speeches about the Second Amendment Shall Not Be Infringed have made for a cowardly, wishy-washy approach. Typically, the eventual bill is a clunky, hastily, cobbled together bunch of contradictory nonsense which fails because they go too far in the views of the lunatic fringe gun nutters and irk gun control advocates for not going far enough. While the rest of us groan over the malapropisms inserted in the text which shows that whomever wrote the bills doesn't have enough, if any, technical knowledge about what they're trying to legislate.

Of course, complicating matters is unlimited buckets of blood money Wayne LaPierre has at his disposal with which to threaten or cajole lawmakers. Thus, of the 109 Gun Laws passed after Newton, the vast majority (70) have eased restrictions and made acquiring, carrying and using guns easier. 

Starting next year, Illinois will have a concealed carry law. Cook County Sheriff Tommy Dart has correctly labelled this law "horrifically unworkable" and derided the blood money soaked Illinois legislators who wrote it, "What in God’s name were these people thinking? What were they thinking?"

Sheriff Dart is correct about the law being unworkable because the background checks installed in the law are to be conducted by Illinois State Police, who are going to do a standard name check of the applicant. Because of manpower limitations and HIPA laws ISP is not going to go speak with neighbors of the applicants or be able to find out if someone is unbalanced if they've never officially been institutionalized.

Sheriff Dart, who deals with the 3rd largest metro area in the Nation, wanted automatic disqualifications for known criminals with gun offenses, domestic abusers and those with recorded gang affiliations, but Rep. Brandon Phelps, the Harrisburg Democrat, the prime sponsor of the law has said that standing objections are "not part of the law". 

In Colorado, 2 state lawmakers were recalled and other hastily resigned because out-of-state Gun Lunatics brought pressure and money to remove them.

On the topic of Colorado, another responsible gun owner stood his ground, shot and killed an intruder to defend his property. It turns out the dastardly criminal breaking into the basement was his 14-year old step-daughter sneaking back into the home at 6 in the morning.

No target identification at a time not generally associated with burglaries. This is going to take some investigation by the local PD, but I'd look at the history between the two and see if the obviously willful stepdaughter and stepdad haven't had a few domestic disputes and the "responsible" gun owning stepdad didn't care for his now deceased stepdaughter.

See the act of owning a gun ipso facto makes one a "responsible" gun owner.

A canard amongst Gun Nuts is that 'An Armed Society is a Polite Society', Chicago's gun violence and the 34,000 dead Americans across the Nation show this to be false. What Stand Your Ground Laws and Concealed Carry have brought about is a Shoot First cause Dead Men Tell No Tales and create the potential for turning every minor scuffle or verbal disagreement into a gunfight.

So, have a safe Christmas. Remember guns aren't toys to show off to relatives. Remember to keep them locked up so children don't have access to them. Don't drink and draw. If family tensions start to run high don't go for your gun. Let's not add to the horrific gun death total this year.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Affluenza is worse than Benghazi

The actual "Affluenza" Case is, of course, far worse.

In the case, Judge Jean Boyd decided that 16 year old Ethan Couch, a pampered white juvenile delinquent who stole booze from a Walmart, got liquored up, and while driving recklessly, 30 miles-an-hour over the speed limit, with a BAC 0.24 KILLED 4 people, was not responsible for his actions because he suffered from "Affluenza", the crippling disability of not knowing right from wrong by virtue of being a little white entitled punk, who is rich and has been overly coddled.

The four people slaughtered by Couch were: Breanna Mitchell, who had crashed her SUV, Brian Jennings, a youth pastor at a local church, Hollie Boyles and her daughter Shelby Boyles who stopped to help Mitchell before the drunken little shit killed them with his dad's jeep.

While emergency crews were on the scene, Couch took a defiant attitude telling responders, 'I’m outta here' before attempting to leave the scene. Couch's parents apparently have a history of reckless driving as well.

Of course, previously Judge Boyd sentenced a 14-year-old African-American child to 10 years in a juvenile detention center after the little puke punched a man who died when he fell over and struck his head on the concrete.

I agree with giving the punching perp a tough sentence (his actions lead to the death of another person) but, how did the "Affluenza" defense not get laughed out of the courthouse? How did his past transgressions and previous offenses not come into play?  The State's Attorney wanted Couch tried as an adult and sought a sentence of at least 20 years for the four deaths he directly caused.

But, instead of being held responsible for 4 murders little Couch will go to a posh rehab clinic and be on probation for 10 years.

So when does Darryl Issa begin the House Oversight Hearings? When does every Republican Senator and Congressman take to Faux News to demand an investigation. After all 4 Americans died. According to the Right-Wing, there can never be a worse event.

Ah, but this incident involves a Rich White criminal. That's a Republican protected class.

The Republican Party exists only to guard and defend the Rich.

If you are Poor, black, a woman, a Catholic, a Veteran the Republicans have a simple message for you; Work Hard, Get Nothing from the Government, Die Quickly.

Meanwhile, Large Scale Affluenza is strangling the Nation, just as the 1% have plotted.

The problem with the Left is the idea that battles for Progressive Values can ever be considered "Won". Following their defeats during the 20th century, the Plutocracy began slowly building infrastructure for their Long March back to Dominance.

The effort has been a multi-front assault on the 99%, pushing for the weakening and eventual destruction of Unions, the slow elimination of Worker's Rights via "Right-to-Work" Laws, removing child-labor restrictions and sneaky legislative elimination of Collective Bargaining Rights, the cultivation of the wholly owned Republican Party and the corruption of the Democratic Party, the creation of Think-Tanks whose only job is to produce "studies" which conform to their dreams of a Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State.
"Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday. But one of the things I’ve talked to the secretary of agriculture about: Why don’t you have the kids pay a dime, pay a nickel to instill in them that there is, in fact, no such thing as a free lunch?"  Republican Jack Kingston, maybe he imagines putting little poor children to work cleaning up Steve Stockman and Dana Rohrbacher's offices for a nickel a day?
Additionally, the 1% biggest coup has been the byzantine restructuring of the Tax System. Of course, they claim the tax loopholes which allow them to shelter billions have been unintentionally created, while the grossly unfair tax reorganization sees Working Class people paying far more in taxes the the 1%.

Corporations routinely have Negative Tax rates because of the off-shore tax havens and foreign structuring which rewards them for sending jobs and manufacturing overseas while hiding money in Ireland or the Cayman Islands.

Capital Gains, the making of money with money, and deferred income instead of actual work is now so unfairly rewarded that a Near-Billionaire like Mitt Romney can go a decade without paying any income taxes while Orrin Hatch takes to the Senate floor to despicably lie that poor people who have almost nothing aren't paying taxes.

Meanwhile, when the Rich get in trouble, because their Capitalist House of Cards is built upon a foundation of lies, thefts and legerdemain they scamper to the Government to have the middle class taxpayer fund their rescue.

This is Capitalism. It's a sickness. Affluenza describes Capitalism very well. It's system for raising wealth that is grossly unfair and unstable and creates a small cadre of criminals who have no sense of morality and no compunctions about treating humanity as disposable commodities.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Duck Dynasty proves Conservatives are rampant Bigots and Racists

We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. - Karl Popper
The true story here isn't that an inbred intolerant insular southern racist bigot is a racist bigot but, that conservative luminaries and high-ranking Republicans are willing and eager to defend him.

"Free speech is an endangered species. Those ‘intolerants’ hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us," Sarah Palin, brightest star of the conservative firmament.

According to Sean Hannity, Phil Robertson's comments reflect, "old fashioned traditional Christian sentiment and values."

"He talks very specifically about not being judgmental toward anybody, that’s God’s decision, not his. I mean, it is remarkable. There’s sections there where he sounds like Pope Francis." Newt Gingrich compares Phil Robertson to Pope Francis.

I have told you people again and again. You will be made to care. Personally, I've always taken comfort in the idea of hell fire — that God truly is just and the unrepentant will be in for a smiting. Erick Erickson gushes about the comfort and joy he gets deep down in his loins at the knowledge that he will be in Heaven watching liberals burn in hell.

"Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana. The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with. I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended." LA Governor Bobby Jindal.

Of course, the First Amendment concerns Government's making laws prohibiting the free exercise of or abridging the freedom of speech. The Private Sector does everything better. Robertson had a huge forum to express his views, a GQ Magazine interview.

What Republicans don't like are the consequences of their free speech. Republicans don't believe in Personal Responsibility. Conservatives believe in Right-Wing Supremacy. That they are Entitled to dominate and lord power over everyone they deem a lesser class of American. But, Right-Wing Victimhood never howls so loud as when people point out their intolerant, hateful bigotry.

Conservative Values are Oppression, Subjugation and Adulation of the Rich. Conservatives hate Democracy and Freedom. While issues, like rampant bigotry amongst the Duck Dynasty family, may seem trivial it all serves the purpose of rallying right-wing racists and bigots, conservative hypocrites and domestic terrorists to the Republican cause of fastening the chains of Wage Slavery upon the Nation.

Update:
Additionally, I entreat ALL Republicans to get out and make these comments. Republicans should start every interview with comments comparing Gays to Terrorists. Do it. Have the courage of your convictions. Don't let the "intolerant left" and mainstream media stop you from espousing your beliefs.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Pope Francis is Dangerous

"He’s obviously a nice man, therefore a dangerous man. We don’t want nice men in the Vatican." - Richard Dawkins
Pope Francis is dangerous to the reactionary right and the bigotry, hatred and inhumanity to their fellow man for which they stand.

Writing in his Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis laid out the despicable evil the Thatcherite/ Reagan Neoliberla Trickle Down Economics has wrought over the last 35 years;
Some Challenges of Today's World 
In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting 
The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption. 
While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few.
Pope Francis has already gone beyond just words and declarations and has taken concrete steps to make the Church more Progressive and more in touch with the values upon which the Church was ostensibly founded.

The Pope removed Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, so-called the Bishop of Bling, after details emerged about renovations to his residence in Limburg, Germany, cost $42 million. The Bishop of Bling is suspended, forbidden from entering his diocese and under investigation. 

The Pope also removed loud-mouthed conservative bigot Cardinal Raymond L. Burke from the Congregation of Bishops.
"He is saying that you don’t need to be a conservative to become a bishop,” said Alberto Melloni, the director of the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna, Italy, a liberal Catholic research institute. “He wants good bishops, regardless of how conservative or liberal they are."
By embracing Church's role in aiding the poor, holding the rich accountable for their rapacious capitalist thievery, and taking steps to curb the ultra-reactionary bigots in high places of the Church, Pope Francis has alarmed many luminaries of the American Right, like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and Stuart Varney who all believe that riches on earth indicate gods' blessing.

Of course, the bigots and power apologists who claim to be Catholic but, whose actual deity is Mammon, are incensed at the Pope and have allied themselves with other Ultra-Reactionaries who adhere to the Conservative Principles of Oppression, Subjugation and Adulation of the Rich.

Pope Francis having been born in Argentina has seen first hand the end-state of Capitalism and the vile evil of rapacious Capitalists. And he is also no doubt aware of the statistics across Europe, which show that in many of the old realms of the Christianity 33-50% now claim a Non Believer status. While downright absurdist "religious" views, for example 10 Police Department Personnel of the Strathclyde PD claimed "Jedi" as their religious beliefs, are growing.

So, to Richard Dawkins the dangerous aspect of a Progressive Reformer, which Francis is setting himself up to be, would be his ability to draw many lapsed Catholics and NPCs back into the arms of the Church while also gaining ground amongst the youth.

But, to the despicably evil American Right, Pope Francis the Reformer represents a loss of Political Power and the ability to use that Might to steal Trillions from Americans and the World.

Monday, December 16, 2013

No, the Pope's not a Marxist, he's a Catholic

And Conservatives loathe Catholics almost as much as blacks and women.

Pope Francis has given signals he wants to redirect the focus of the Church back towards its' original founding principles. American Catholics are in a quandary having to choose between Racist Limbaugh, his acolytes and their god and the Pope.

For years conservatives have assumed they could count on American Catholic votes because of two issues; unceasing hatred of gays and staunch anti-abortion.

But, while Republicans would check off these two boxes in order to win those Catholics votes, once in office they would go about implementing the Conservative Principles of Oppression, Subjugation, and Adulation of the Rich.

Now, that the Pope has criticized Mammon, the Right Wing God, the forces of the 1% have begun to turn their viciousness towards the Vicar of Christ, with Fox News editor Adam Shaw already declaring that "Pope Francis will prove a disaster for the Church".

In the same article, Shaw also compared Vatican II to New Coke. While this is absurd it does give a window into the minds of right-wingers. New Coke was a commercial disaster which lost Money. Mammon. Money. Mammon. Adam Shaw is paid to dupe conservatives into Adulation of the Rich and his mind is so caught in that paradigm he can not make a comparison without the mindset of money playing a part.

World Net Daily had to assure their marks that Jesus Christ was, in fact, a Capitalist where someone named Jonathon Moseley "sets pope straight on Bible's condemnation of socialism."

So, as Xmas approaches American Catholics, must watch as their "brethren", the Religious Right, who've championed horrid anti-human, let'em die, kill the poor, genuflection to the Plutocracy and Vulture Capitalists, turn upon them.

During an interview with La Stampa, the Pope was asked, Some of the passages in the “Evangelii Gaudium” attracted the criticism of ultraconservatives in the USA. As a Pope, what does it feel like to be called a “Marxist”?
"I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended."
Later in the interview, The Pope continued about his distrust of Piss Down Your Back Trickle Down economics:
"The only specific quote I used was the one regarding the “trickle-down theories” which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and social inclusiveness in the world. The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor."
As has been shown by the evil reaction from the American Right towards The Pope, this is blasphemy! Right-Wingers have long ago succeeded in their efforts to conflate and garble the definition of terms.

This garbling has lead towards conservative shorthand argumentation form, where a Republican Politician is never asked to explain the despicable by-products or reprehensible evil outcomes of their policies but is allowed to just free associate and say, 'Freedom. Flag. Jesus. 9/11, Wealth of Nations, job creators. amen...' And when a conservative wants to bash a Liberal, the same shorthand technique is often used, 'France! Marxist! Alinsky! Muslim! Spread the Wealth...'

This shorthand saves the conservative from having to explain anything and allows him to puff up with righteous zeal and win the "argument" with Red Face and Loud Voice!

Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Prosperity has been the catechism of Conservatives ever since the 1% determined to destroy the American Dream. It's the End-State of Capitalism. So expect the preachers of Faux News and the Right-Wing blog-o-sphere to continue their assault on the Pontiff  because Mammon will only ever be satisfied when American workers are brought into Corporate Bondage and an Undying Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State is ensconced were the Democratic Republic once stood.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Obama's Selfie-Gate, the Sexy Danish Prime Minister and Ronald Reagan's Pro-Apartheid Beliefs

Okay this one confuses me.

Seeing as Pamela Gellar, Erik Rush, Larry Klayman, and Jerome Corsi have definitively proven that Barack Obama is actually a homosexual who gay muslim married an Indonesian Man and then had him murdered by Jeremiah Wright's thugs in order to fake marry Michelle Obama, what is he doing massively flirting with the Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt?

Ah, but I forget I'm dealing with the Right-Wing Fart Bubble of Internet Fact by Incestuous Amplification.

And this proves, to them, many troupes they've been parading around; Michelle Obama as the militant angry black woman and Barack Obama as the over-sexed Black Man coming for the White Women,

The Right loves to photoshop so I'm waiting for President Obama pasted into Birth of Nation (1915) as one of the depraved Ni[clang]s coming for the white women.

What this is about is the unceasing effort of the Right to run negative stories about President Obama everyday. It doesn't even matter if the photographer Roberto Schmidt who took the pictures that Conservatives latched onto in promotion of Selfie-Gate wrote everything has been misconstrued and taken out of context.
"I guess it’s a sign of our times that somehow this image seemed to get more attention than the event itself," Schmidt wrote.
Conservatives chum the water with these anti-Obama stories for several reasons. It fuels the Right-Wing grift machine and it helps their effort to create Obama Fatigue Syndrome. The Right successfully created such a furor during Bill Clinton's Presidency in order to get Americans so frustrated that they would vote for a Republican in order to stop the flow of right-wing bullshit outrage.

But, additionally, in regards to Nelson Mandela the Right needed to shift the focus away from the despicable actions of Republicans during Mandela's imprisonment and Conservatives total acceptance and promotion of the Racist Apartheid South African Government.

Liz Cheney, the spawn of undying War Criminal Dick Cheney, who only is alive because her birth was one of the five deferments Dick sought to chicken hawk out of Vietnam and who is now looking to steal her way into the US Senate, wrote in 1988 that attempting to end the South African Apartheid State would be bad for American Business and statements from Americans condemning South Africa were useless and "Those eager to make such statements should realize that, frankly, nobody's listening."

Dick Cheney himself steadfastly called Nelson Mandela a "Terrorist" even as late as the Right-Wing Theft of the Presidency in 2000, when Dick appointed himself Vice President.

But, of course the cream of the conservative crap is none other than Ronald Reagan, that mentally-addled, muslim terrorist-loving, cut-and-run Chickenhawk, tax-raising, Soviet coddling, war criminal, destroyer of the Social Safety Net, quisling of the Rich, and tool of the Plutocrats, went further.

In 1986, when the US Congress voted to sanction South Africa, Ronald Reagan vetoed the sanctions. However, Congress over rode the Veto and imposed the Sanctions, which went a long way towards eliminating the Apartheid State and freeing Nelson Mandela.

Ronald Reagan was against this because he was pro-Apartheid and hated Nelson Mandela.

So, by focusing on Selfie-Gate and President Obama's handshake with President Raul Castro, Right-Wingers are able to do what they always do, draw the focus away from their despicable past actions, fuel the conservative outrage machine and dupe Americans into forgetting that Republicans are always on the wrong side of history.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Jesus and Santa Claus are White Men! It's a Verifible Fact

Faux News anchor babe, Megyn Kelly, who before this Xmas was most famous for being ordered by Karl Rove to get up off her tush and walk her sweet sweet self down to the vote tabulating area, where Men would tell her that Nope Mitt Romney won the 2012 Presidency, has some bad news for you historians! Jesus and Santa are white males.
"And by the way for all you kids watching at home Santa just is white but this person is just arguing that maybe we should have a black santa," Megyn Kelly's opening statement against a Slate article by Aisha Harrris.
Of course, no "kids" are watching Megyn Kelly's Infotainment Show at 9pm Eastern, her spot is on to appeal to the Faux demographic old perverted white males who need constant reassurance the lord has blessed them as the masters of the universe.

During the segment, Megyn Keely even affected the I'm sharing a not so secret hands around the mouth megaphone maneuver and sly sideways glances at the camera which let the viewer know; Duh, it's a "verifiable fact" that jesus and santa are white.
"My point is, how do you just revise it in the middle of the legacy of the story and change Santa from white to black?" Megyn Kelly. 
"Yeah, I mean you can't!" Monica Crowley.
I believe these two just play the good-looking dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks Info Babes on Faux News, but short history lesson the appearance of jesus and santa have changed over time. Cultures, many of whom were forcibly converted to christianity, eventually made their new lord look like them. It was easier for the rulers and the people to have a deity who shared their aspects. Have a glance at the (surviving) Byzantine frescoes and mosiacs, the jesus and mary of those had the swarthy appearance of the people's of the Byzantium Empire. jesus didn't begin to resemble Bjorn Borg until the christians conquered and converted Northern Europe.

But, that's knowledge and that is strictly anathema to Faux News.

Ah Race... The bullshit construct of the 18th century is still plaguing us today. Race catergories come from a time when phrenology, animal magnetism and other pseudosciences were being winnowed away from actual scientific discourses.

But, Race based on external charaterisitics is especially silly today as genotyping and DNA mapping can show exactly from where one's ancestors originated. For instance, when North Dakota White Supremacist Craig Cobb learned that 1/7th of his genes are sub-saharan African.

But, unlike reading bumps on people's heads there is money and power to be gained from catergorizing and marginalizing people. And the Rich have used those Divisions to Conquer.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Office Depot Capitalists demand Illinois Taxpayers pay them or else

Corporate Tax Subsides should be relabeled The Pleasure of Working For Us Tax. Office Depot and OfficeMax merged earlier this year and since that business announcement have been playing Illinois and Florida off against each other in the never ending Race-to-the-Bottom.

This has been a standard tactic of Corporations. They learned long ago workers are interchangeable and that by going to legislatures they could get State Governments to provide them with legally constructed tax havens and public assistance.

On December 10th, Office Depot announced their newly merged company will put its headquarters in Boca Raton, not at the existing OfficeMax offices in Naperville, Illinois. This despite a promise by the Illinois Government to pay them $53 million in welfare over 15 years.

And all Office Depot would have had to do would be to promise to keep 2000 clerical jobs in Illinois for that welfare. The vast majority of products sold in these stores are not made in Illinois or Florida, but China. Some paper products are produced by the Illinois company North American Paper.

So, while the Office Depot Corporate Welfare deal fell through, Sears Inc and CME Group still received millions of Illinois Tax Payer Dollars in the last 2 years and are promised hundreds of millions more over the next decade and a half.

Meanwhile, 80,000 Illinois residents are set to lose Federal Unemployment benefits in January, while 109,000 Illinois residents collecting State benefits would be unaffected at first.
"While today’s job growth allows most newly unemployed individuals to find work after a several weeks, the long-term unemployed face additional hurdles," Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) Director Jay Rowell said in a prepared statement." Ending this modest program based on a calendar date rather than economic principles and job skills could slow economic growth."
That's because benefits paid to Illinois residents are often immediately are pumped back into the economy in terms of purchases or rent, while money given to Corporations is funneled away from the state. After Sears received their Illinois Welfare in December 2011 they closed 2 Sears and 3 K-Mart stores in the State, 3 months later. They got their money from the State and left.

"I'm a Wealth of Nations guy," Republican Congressman So and So stated on MSNBC during the Republican Government Shutdown.

I seriously doubt that Republican So and So has actually read The Wealth of Nations. It's one of those books people place on their mantle to look smart and a phrase that right-wingers trot out as way of an argument instead of actually defending their positions. 

It's allows the Republican or Right-Winger to merely say the words, 'Bible. Wealth of Nations. Freedom. Flag. Founding Fathers. Ronald Reagan.' They don't actually say anything when confronted on the actual failings of their sick and twisted ideology.

Similarly, when Republicans want to attack they say, 'Liberalism. Marxism. Entitlements. Mainstream Media.' and so forth.

It's not an actual argument to make vague allusions to phrases or concepts but it is a good stimulus-response mechanism. It's all designed to invoke emotional r-brain responses in their duped and unthinking conservatives dronez.

What we are seeing in Illinois with Sears, CME Group and Office Depot and with thousands of Corporations across the Nation is Capitalism in action. Capitalism is the Privatizing of Profits and the Subsidizing of Losses.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Obama Shook hands and Bowed to Castro

The politics of the Ultra-Reactionary Right demand that whenever a Real American is in a position to   belittle someone they engage in the Politics of Confrontation.

During the Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela, President Obama shook hands with Cuba's President Raul 'Not Fidel' Castro. Senator Marco Rubio took time away from doing nothing in Congress, to complain to ABC News
"If he was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba." 
Ah, but in the epistemic closure of the Right-Wing Fart Bubble this wasn't just a handshake but a Bow.
It’s not just a handshake, notice the tip of the head and bend of the back, it’s a bow. Notice also Castro did not bow back.
In sports parlance this is Meatball Fandom. Chicago Bears football games are not only difficult to attend because of the bitter cold (The MNF game against the Cowboys which the Bears won 45-28 had a wind chill of -10) but because of the many doofuses in the stands whose pinnacle of critique is, 'Team X Sucks!'

And that is exactly what Right-Wingers are doing, their politics of confrontation amount to nothing more than 'Obama Sucks!!!'

There have numerous examples, all the way from highly elected officials to the derpest of derp right-wing blogs.

During a Joint Session of Congress in September 2010, Republican Representative Joe Wilson yelled, "YOU LIE!!!"

During the 2010 State of the Union, Right-Wing SC Justice Sam Alito visibly shook his head and mouthed the words, "Not True..."

In June 2012 during a speech at the Rosegarden, Entitled White conservative Neil Munro of The Daily Caller interrupted President Obama shouting, "Why do you favor foreigners over Americans?"

And Right-Wingers and Republicans don't reserve their massive disrespect just for the President. If you disagree with them prepare to be yelled at.

Pete Sessions, that disgusting chicken hawk, yelled at an American during the Republican Government Shutdown that Republicans would never surrender because, "Look. We're Not French. We don't surrender."

Randy Neugebauer yelled at a Park Ranger and blamed her for the Republican Government Shutdown, and when she told him it wasn't her fault, Randy put that woman in her place,
Randy Neugebauer: "The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves."
Park Ranger: "I’m NOT ashamed."
Randy Neugebauer: "You should be."
'Obama Sucks!' Derp derp derp. That's what the Right-Wing Meatballs have offered as a counter to the policies of President Obama. When combined with the Do-Nothing Republican Representatives and Senators the country has continued towards the Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State the 1% desire.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Undying War Criminal Dick Cheney says If You Were Wealthy You'd Be Healthy

If you're Poor there's the Door.

Dick Cheney is both the best and worst example of what Socialized Government Healthcare can do for people. Without the access to U.S. Socialized Medical care for his flabby, large-waisted chicken hawk ass, Cheney would have been uninsurable due to his repeated heart attacks and dead. 

As an undying war criminal Cheney is back to emitting his noisome neocon rhetoric into the Right-Wing Echo Chamber where it'll be sucked up and lovingly regurgitated by right-wing nut jobs.

"The same people that brought us ‘you can keep your insurance if you want’ are telling us they’ve got a great deal in Iran with respect to their nuclear program. I don’t believe it." - Dick Cheney

Of course, Dick Cheney doesn't like Obama's Masterful Diplomatic Manuevers with Iran, he wants War. Because Cheney's made massive profits off of wars which other Americans will fight in and suffer from but which will never place Cheney or his family in danger.

Why exactly is Dick Cheney who loafed around for 40 years in Government, but not in the military because of his 5 Vietnam War Deferments, a font of reputable knowledge? Even his vaunted private sector work experience was merely the selling of high-level access to Government contacts and the negotiating of government backed contracts. Dick Cheney is an unqualified lazy socialist bum who has lived his whole life getting paid to "work" with the Federal Government.

Of course, the You can keep it "controversey" is another right-wing nothing-burger. Similar to the You didn't build it bs the Republicans tried to gin-up with the help of the epistemic closure of the conservative thought-process.

Meanwhile, in multiple US States under the tyrannical control of Reactionary Republican Governors or Legislatures, millions of Americans are being denied coverage under Obamacare because Right-Wing Fascists refused to set up exchanges or accept the Medicaid expansion.

The Republican Health Care Plan continues to be If You are Poor and get Sick --- Die Quickly.

Of course, just passively undermining Obamacare isn't good enough for the Ultra-Reactionary American Right in their quest to oppress and subjugate the 99%.

From The BradBlog, we learn that in California Republicans sent out mailers funded by taxpayer money which directed Californians to a anti-Obamacare fake site;
Rather than the official CoveredCA.com website, the new mailers direct the recipient to CoveringHealthCareCA.com, a bogus Republican site which, though attempting to appear to be the official CA health care exchange site, doesn't actually provide the ability to shop for or purchase policies. 
"Though it launched in August," ABC News reports, "the site made waves this week after a number of GOP Assembly members sent out mailers to their constituents, highlighting the page as a 'resource guide' for information on the Affordable Care Act." 
The deceptive, publicly funded mailers sent by the self-described "fiscal conservatives" cost CA taxpayers $77,496, according to the Star's public records request. The money, they report, came from the state Assembly's "taxpayer-funded operating budget." 
Since the fraud was exposed, the LA Times reports, the GOP site has added some links to the official CA health care site. The original site, according to Karoli at Crooks and Liars who helped expose the scam, included "links to negative articles and twisted messages intended to sour people on signing up for health insurance before they ever land at the official health exchange site."

Friday, December 6, 2013

Pension Theft the latest Capitalist Scheme

"Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down... enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people," Secretary of Treasury Andrew Mellon to President Herbert Hoover in 1931.
The politics of Neoliberal Capitalism require the destruction of the wealth and political power of the 99% for the enrichment of the 1%.

Pension Theft is now the latest in the arsenal.

For years Pensions and State Budgets have been underfunded because Corporations have engaged in political shenanigans getting more and more byzantine tax codes which end up with Corporations paying negative tax rates. Now, that the outcome is a "Pension Crisis" those same pensions which were funded only by Working Class people are going to be raided to transfer those monies to Corporations.

During the same Illinois Congressional Session in which Pension Theft was approved, the State Legislators voted to provide more taxpayer subsidies to Corporations. Under SB1, four of the five state pension systems: teachers, university employees, legislators and state government employees will be changed. Judges' pensions will not be affected. Read details and reactions to SB1 here.

This is just the latest salvo in the transfer of working class people's money to the 1%.

Workers have been dutifully making their contributions into the Pension system now the States are going to raid those Pension funds to give that money to Corporations.

For years, State Governments have given taxpayer welfare to Corporate Monsters under the guise of  'Job Creation' while also creating a byzantine tax code which taxes Corporations at 1/100th of 1%, thus the budget deficit caused underfunding of State Pensions.

Two years ago Illinois gave special tax status to Sears and this year Office Max/DePot has used the same gambit to extract a similar special tax exemption status.

Here is what Sears extorted from Governor Pat Quinn in December 2011;
The deal gives Sears tax credits worth $15 million a year for 10 years, which it can use against withheld employee income taxes. The deal also would extend a special taxing district, reducing the company's local property tax bill for another 15 years.
Sears Holding Corporation got a special property tax zone in Illinois. Sears Corporate Headquarters is located in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Through accounting gimmicks and legerdemain Sears transfers money electronically from other stores in other states into the Corporate HQ special tax zone, those monies will then be listed on the Corporate profit sheet and will be accounted under the special taxation rate. This is known as the Las Vegas Loophole.

For years public-sector workers were paid less than those in the private sphere but, to make up for it public employees bargained for and signed legal contracts for Pensions and other benefits. Ah, but since the 1970's, Capitalists and their Government stooges have sought to undermine the advances of Unions and Progressives in creating living wages and worker protections.
"The standard of living of the average American has to decline." Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1979-1987.
The rise of computerization, jet speed air travel, off-shoring of jobs, importing of immigrants, increased participation of women in the workforce ended the Post World War II rise in wages and ushered in the Era of Neoliberal Capitalism.

All of sudden non-public sector employees wages stagnated and began to drop, jobs disappeared, and private pensions withered until they no longer exist at all.

Now, what did the brilliant Capitalists do? As they undercut and downsized their desperate workers, Plutocrats turned around and told workers it wasn't fair teachers still had rising wages and pensions.

Think Tanks set up by Billionaires staffed with right-wing drones and power apologists began to beat the drums, not to increase wages for workers in private companies, but to tear down teachers and other public sector employees,
"We are going to take on education next. Go after the Teachers and the Union organizers." - Andrew DEADbart on Sean Hannity's show, 18 April 2011.
The same right-wing drones who hate Unions, support the elimination of unemployment coverage, food stamps or medicaid, and advocate the abolishment of minimum wage because low-wage workers need incentives in order to work hard, turned right around and defended massive payments to CEOs as necessary to retain the "best and brightest", emergency TARP baillouts and Taxpayer welfare for Oil Conglomerates and decreasing taxes on Corporations in order to entice 'Job Creators'.

Capitalism is coming to it's natural conclusion the destruction and enslavement of the Working Class and a transformation of Nation-States into Neo-Feudalist Wage Slave State.

Capitalists have been working to eliminate restrictions on the flow of capital across borders and to force American workers to pit their labor costs against that of workers anywhere in the World.

No rich person ever created a job. Jobs exist because enough people have a demand for a good or service. A 'Job Creator' might have a fantastic vision of the premier cuneiform writing stylus but all the tax breaks and government subsides to him aren't going to create the demand for his clay tablets.

But, it's not the Republicans and Pro-Business Democrats don't know this, they do, it's that their job as the lap dogs of the Plutocracy to ensure that Tax Dollars are funnelled into the coffers of the 1%.

The End State, here, is a US which provides no protection for workers, which eliminates pesky anti-pollution laws and regulations on Corporate negligence, defends the Right of the Rich to engage in wage thievery and create smaller Government, one just small enough to fit into the pocket of the Plutocracy.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Republicans want to steal Social Security via Sequestration

Sequestration is back. Coming up very soon are the automatic cuts to Military Spending that were supposed to make Republicans balk at the Sequestration deal in the first place.

Except ha ha! It's time to change the rules. Republicans never, ever bargain fairly. Their goals are always to transfer as much taxpayer money to the Plutocracy. Thus, they agreed to Sequestration because they got the cuts to programs they wanted right away and once the cuts they don't like come into play they always planned to just renege on the deal.

"Deficits don't matter", Republican Arch-Fiend Dick Cheney. At least when Republicans control the White House, when a Democrat gets in their Republicans wail and moan about the Debt and beat their manly-boobs about deficits.
"Washington has a spending problem, but incessantly and mindlessly cutting national security will not get us out of our fiscal mess,” said Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado.
Lamborn and Jim Bridenstein of Oklahoma have introduced the Republican Plan to steal Social Security, increase Federal Government employee pension contributions and eliminate Medicare, in a bill entitled Provide for the Common Defense.

The Sequestration cuts to DoD Budget, which Lamborn called mindless, is set to drop Military Spending from $670 Billion in 2013 to $625 Billion in 2014 and $590 Billion in 2015. So the cuts to the Official DoD Budget for 2013-2015 will be only a reduction in spending to $1.815 Trillion instead of $2.010 Trillion.
"In this protracted struggle, good management dictates that we resist overspending as resolutely as we oppose underspending. Every dollar uselessly spent on military mechanisms decreases our total strength and, therefore, our security" Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961.
The Lamborn/Bridenstein Bill is nothing more than the slimy Republican tactic of Using the Troops to steal from the Working Class, poor, sick, elderly and Veterans in prostrate service to the insatiable appetite of the 1%.

But, this is a special circumstance, the Republicans see a way to accomplish their goals of Oppression and Subjugation while also transferring the blame onto the Democratic Party.

If they manage to get Provide for the Common Defense or any bill passed which affects Social Security, while President Obama is in office, Barack Obama will effectively save the Republican Party and dismantle his "own". It would be a simple four step process;
Step 1) Get President Obama to sign onto cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 
Step 2) Triumphantly tell Wall Street Thieves they got the cuts they've always wanted while crying to the Media they never wanted to cut Social Security or Medicare
Step 3) Roll Social Security into Hedge Fund Accounts were the Trillions will be clipped, stolen and find its' way into a few thousand Cayman Island and Swiss Bank Accounts 
Step 4) Run ads in every campaign for every office for the next 100 years that President Obama and the Democrat Party cut Social Security.
Sequestration has afforded the Republicans a special circumstance in order to really screw the Working Class over, but it's nothing new in the right-wing playbook. Back in the 1970's Jude Wanniski created the Two-Santa Theory by Jude Wanniski, which lead directly to the Creation of Supply-Side Economics.

Under Reagan and W(orst President Ever), Republicans engage in massive Government spending while unemployment is kept down and the "economy" is kept going by creating millions of Government jobs with millions of dollars in direct Federal aid to local and state government to help boost state government spending.

Ah, but see that all changes when a Democrat is the President because then, all of a sudden, the bills come due; "We're broke, broke going on bankrupt," Speaker of the House John Boehner in February 28, 2011.

Under President Obama, over 500,000 federal jobs have been eliminated, wages for federal employees were frozen for two years, deficit spending has decreased faster than under any President since Eisenhower, and since 2010 the only spending bills passed cut food stamps, unemployment benefits or programs for the sick and needy.

And if someone points out the incredible shrinking of Government spending under President Obama why Republicans simply ignore it.
"Are you arguing that there are fewer government employees under Obama than they were under Bush?" Senator Rand Paul asked. 
"That's a fact. That's a Tremendous Fact." Paul Krugmann 
"No, the size of government is enormous under President Obama." Rand Paul
But, while the Neoliberal Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It's Raining Prosperity Reaganomic Model has been incredibly successful at transferring Billions from the 99% into the pockets of the 1%, the Tea Party Fanatics don't have a grasp on the finer points of using the Apparatus of Government to steal The Wealth of Nations.

But, it's not the 1970's and 1980's anymore.

The Two-Santa Theory is being hampered by the Zealotry of the Tea Party types who have no time for RINOs and "Squishes", like Mitch McConnell and Grover Norquist, and in their quest for right-wing purity they make war on Working Class, minorities and women.

So, the Republicans have increasingly turn to the new Breed of Democrat, the so-called Reagan Democrat or Pro-Business Democrat or Third Way Democrats, to aid them in passing the Politics of Austerity.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Second Amendment Hero murders old man and what it means to Gun Nuts

It's 4am and you awake, you're certain that whatever woke you was the sound of someone trying your front door knob. You and your wife get out of bed, she goes to the phone to call 911 you grab your trusty Glock. You go to the front door open it and see a figure in your front yard. You command him to stop moving and when he doesn't you gun him down.

God Bless America! Thank you right-wing jesus* for the second amendment and by this blessed firearm thy work shall be done.

So, the latest Second Amendment Hero to join the Pantheon of George Zimmerman, Richard Poplawski and Adam Lanza is Joe Hendrix of Georgia.

Hendrix murdered Ronald Westbrook, a 72 year old with severe Alzheimer's for "Disobeying his Commands".

As it turns out, Westbrook, was a fragile old man who wandered away from his nursing facility back to the neighborhood where he lived years before. He tried several doors, grabbed mail from a mailbox and rang the doorbell of one house before he went to Hendrix's home. Hendrix emerged from his home, saw an unidentified human form in his front yard, yelled at him, decided to stand his ground and fire 4 rounds blindly at someone whom he hadn't identified, who hadn't committed any crime and hadn't threatened Hendrix.

As the Pope properly observed Capitalism is the most dangerous and damaging force plaguing the world today and gun violence associated with Gang Crime is more dangerous but, I'm sure its' a comfort to Westbrook's family he was killed by a "Responsible" gun owner who goes to church.

Now, as we approach the anniversary of the NRA-endorsed Massacre at Newton the yearly sacrifice of children and innocent people on the Altar of the Holey Second Amendment continues unabated.

As with any legal construct the Second Amendment is being brought to it's most absurd conclusions, Second Amendment Fanatics will resist any regulation and have been quite explicit they will engage in mass violence against everyone and anyone who threatens their rights to kill at will. What the Gun Nuts are asserting is the Right to kill anyone they perceive as a threat and the Right to Resist the Government's power to curb their murderous intentions.

Such beliefs have to be decided by micro-level examples because the Gun Nuts big abstract, nebulous pronouncements of 'freedom', 'resistance to tyranny', and 'molon labe' are worthless in legal terms.

It comes down to two questions; Can a Second Amendment Hero exert the Bush Doctrine and murder someone they believe might pose a threat? And if I, or some other Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) comes to arrest you, do you believe you have the right to resist if you have concluded that my arrest is invalid or illegal or unlawful?

Now, these questions are moot when the "right people" are being killed by guns or being subjected to arrests or Stop & Frisk, but as with Capitalism, entitled whites can not imagine a day when "arbitrary" detention and arrests will be directed at them.

The United States is crumbling around Us. Disaster Capitalism is wreaking havoc and we are fragmenting and collapsing faster than people want to admit.
* - Right-Wing jesus is better known by the names Moloch or Zardoz.