Monday, September 30, 2013

Of course Republicans want a Government Shutdown

"It's exactly what we wanted, and we got it," Michele Bachmann Republican Everywoman.
Because it will harm the Working Class and aid the Rich. And those are the two core missions of the Modern GOP.

The GOP and their Teahaddist Fanatics have been calling for a Government Shutdown for the last 3 years since they re-took the House of Representatives. But, it's been an on-going mission of the Republican Nihilists who Occupy DC,
"By the time we finish this poker game, there may not be a Federal Government left, which would suit me just fine," convicted Republican criminal Tom DeLay in 1994.
Republicans have set up a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. They declare Government doesn't work and then set all their energies at ensuring their proclamations manifest.

Now, the 1% don't care if the Government Shuts down (temporarily) because they have contingencies for such situations and when the Government shutdown ends they'll set their crotch-sniffing Republican and Pro-Business Dogs back out on the trail of further deregulation, outsourcing and privatization.

The Super Rich will once again sell short on the Nation, as they did when their Republican Lickspittles threatened Shutdown in 2011, and buy up more of the American Landscape. These techniques are not available to the 90% of Americans who have no stocks or bonds and can't invest  in mutual funds or get their Republican Govenors to sell them public utilities at wholesale prices.

Meanwhile small businesses around closed National Parks will go out of business, working class people will lose benefits, military spouses will be unable to pay bills, Government employees will be furloughed.

But, this is also a win for Republicans because they will claim it's all President Obama's fault.

I never thought I'd see the day when the juvenile, 'Stop Hitting Yourself! Stop Hitting Yourself' would be the governing principle of an American Political Party.

Nonetheless, we have a Party (and some of the other Party) devoted to returning this Country to the pockets of the Super Rich and ushering in an Era of Neo-Feudalist Wage Slavery.

Update:
A partial list of what's being affected by the Republican Hostage Taking and Shutting Down of the Government.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Guns are the 21st Century version of the 19th century Opium Wars

"Illegal guns, illegal guns, illegal guns drive violence,” Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
Even though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask, where is your conscience? - Lin Zexu (1839), Letter to the British Monarch asking the Opium flooding into China be stopped.
The Opiate of the Masses is not, as it was claimed Religion but, a false sense of Power and Security. Guns provide many with a flase belief that they are in charge of their lives and the world overall.

I know some gun ethusiantists. They firmly assert that when the day comes and the Tyrannical Government comes to steal their guns "they" may win but there will be more of "them" laid out dead after they've taken the last full measure.

While, there are a small kernel of Gun Nuts who have an deep longing to unleash their inner demons and engage in an orgy of gun fueled murder and bloodshed of liberals and Government bureaucrats while believing they are the Righteous, most gun owners don't want this but are ready to defend themselves and their rights.

It is nothing more than a false sense of power. And it's embraced by the Gun Nuts for the same reason that people turn towards drugs.

Which leads us to the Opium Wars of the 1800's. 

As Europe began to exert dominance over the world in the 1700's, the British East India Company was the World Trading Powerhouse, especially in Asia and the Orient.

Of course, other European Powers had interests and control, the Dutch, the Portuguese had Macau, the French had some interest in China and the Spanish Empire had the Philippines, but the EIC was the original Corporation which had the backing of the British Crown and Military.

While most of the world succumbed to the British model of trade, invasion and subjugation, trade with China proved a tremedous drain on the British Treasury.

The Chinese Empire with over 3000 years of contiunous history (at least theoretically) demanded silver in exchange for the Silk, Tea, Porcelain and other resources they traded with EIC and Europe.

Thus the British hit on a brilliant idea. Having conquered India, British merchants began to flood the Chinese countryside with Opium made in India, reversing the flow of silver. The situation became so bad for the Qing Empire and their people that after failed edicts and bans the Qing Emperor requested a direct appeal be made to Queen Victoria (it never reached her) to stop the drug importation and spare his people the harmful effects of drug addiction.

But, what happened instead was the importation of Opium increased every year (in the mid-1800's it reached the same amount as was produced in the world in 2000), and the British engaged in the Imperialist Wars which resulted in the imposition of Trade treaties extremely favourable to British "interests".

The Opium Wars were bad for China but, they directly led to the Taiping Rebellion, the bloodiest Civil War in World History, the death and slaughter wasn't eclipsed until World War 2.

Today we are facing analogous problems. The Gun Crazies are akin to the Opium Addicts and the Firearm Manufacturers flood this Nation (and others) with their Guns, not caring about the death and mayhem their product is causing, are very much similar to the opium importing East India Company and other merchants.

Firearm Makers also have their political wing, the NRA and other Gun Lunatics, to help enforce humiliating treaties on the American people forcing all of us to live under their* interpretation of the Second Amendment. 

But, again, why do people turn to Guns? Because of the feelings the gun ownership evokes, the brain chemistry it triggers and the false power and control, which many America feel slipping away from them, it rekindles.

The gang bangers in Chicago are the prime example of false power and control. Leaving aside whatever the circumstances which led them to their current situation, the acquisition of the gun has given them the belief that they are powerful and need to be feared and respected.

When they lash out at rival gang bangers or track down some "punk" whose disrespected them it's the feeble lashing out of those who are, in reality, powerless. Nonetheless, their blind random shot selection has real and terrible consequences.

Similarly, those Gun Nuts who've taken to parading around in the open with their whizz-bang tactically outfitted AR-15s or wave their piece around when someone dares to tell them to stop driving recklessly or shoot at cars which dare to touch their sacred driveways are the same as the Chicago-land criminals and filled with the same false sense of power.

Additionally, the "responsible" gun owners who can't be inconvenienced to properly secure their weapons are like the deluded denizens of an Opium Den. Lost in the fog of their delusions they leave their weapons unlocked, uncased, loaded and readily accessible and the result is an accidental shooting of a child.

Thus, right now we are doomed to suffer more Mass Shootings, more preventable deaths, more gun murders, more road rage shoot-outs because we're hooked on the Gun, the most dangerous drug ever made.
*- the view of the Second Amendment that 350 million guns and more every year should be readily available and no restrictions of any kind can stop an American from buying a gun are the views of the Firearm Makers who don't care about what their guns do as long as more are sold.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

It's Hard to be A Republican Plutocrat on just $172,000* a year

"If inequality is at a much higher level - who cares?" ~ Brit Hume, Faux News

Phil Gingrey of Georgia recently complained he was "stuck" in Washington DC making only $172,000 a year. This follows Sean Duffy of Wisconsin complaining in 2011 that he was struggling on his congressional salary. And it's understandable because the people they are carousing with are the type who have no problem dropping $700 on two bottles of Pinot Noir as Hedge Fund Vulture Clifford S. Asness and Deficit Svengoolie Paul Ryan did on their wine date a few years back.

In 2009, Gingrey misused $400 dollars of campaign monies to renew his Georgia medical license. While it's a small amount it's a fee which a regular taxpayer couldn't just expect to be covered by somebody else. Also it was shown that for his 2010 re-election campaign Gingrey raised $1,400,000 dollars and his re-election campaign paid thousands of dollars for expenses incurred by Gingrey.

Prior to 2010, Gingrey had a leased Chevy Tahoe at $768 a month, he turned that in when the lease ran out for a Honda CRV at $462 a month. Now this is paid by US Taxpayers of course so that's an expense that regular Americans pay that Gingrey doesn't.

Additionally, it was uncovered that Congress and their staff received over $2,000,000 dollars worth of Coffee and Pastries paid by the Taxpayer in 2012.

Gingrey has been in Congress since 2003, like all Federal Employees post 1984 he is enrolled into FERS. So a whole 1.3% goes to his pension, which he became invested in after 5 years.

Now Georgia is a Right-to-Work State, which means (from the Secretary of State website),
an employer can terminate an employee for good cause, bad cause or no cause at all, so long as it is not an illegal cause. 
Georgia Manufacturing is proud that their statewide Unionization was 3.4% as of 2010. So, while Gingrey has a Pension and benefits his constituents could be fired for merely complaining about their salary and the vast majority enjoy the privilege of Right-to-Work-for-Less.


Gingrey has brought non-Union Foreign owned Car Manufacturers into Georgia and gave them US Taxpayer dollars to undercut our Domestic brands as well as undercut Union labor at home. What a two-fer for the Plutocracy! Kia Motors got $324 million of Taxpayer welfare to open their 3000 worker Georgia plant in 2006.

Now, Gingrey isn't a special Republican as he represents a poor state as the median income for Georgia is $49,736 but Phil ensures that while he cuts benefits and rights for the Working Class people of his district he "works" very hard in DC to make sure the Super Rich Plutocrats with whom he hob-nobs are taken care of.

So, there's the Hard Work that Phil Gingrey has been "stuck" doing in Washington DC for his measly $174,000 a year.

Friday, September 20, 2013

SNAP! Republicans putting the Dick in Dickensian

Post World War II, Winston Churchill told the United States, that England could no longer shoulder the Burden of the Empire on Which the Sun Never Set and passed the torch to America.

Since then in the proceeding years the United States engaged in their own version of Victoria's Little Wars in far away locales.

But, yesterday the Republican Party decided there's no reason we should not emulate other elements of 19th Century England.

"Please Sir... I'd like some more..."

217 Republicans voted to slash SNAP by $40 Billion over the next 10 years. Nothing says Statesmanship like sticking it the Poor and Hungry.
"We only want to cut 5 percent. That ought to leave more money getting to the hands of the people who do need it,” Republican Congressman Andy Harris.
The Poor in this country have no power and no representation in the Government. To be Poor is to be excluded from the American Dream and doomed to Corporate Servitude.

It's another brilliant play by the Republicans and their Elite Plutocratic Masters. By slashing but, not outright eliminating SNAP the Republicans don't make the 99% desperate.

Because starving and desperate equals dangerous but, undernourished and scared equals docile.

The Ultra-Reactionary Right Wingers are ascendant. In all facets of American Life, the Plutocracy and Oppressive Right are making strides and advancing the cause of Wage Slavery and Neo-Feudalism.

They don't even have to make the cursory arguments about the necessity of Capitalism as they once did as the viscous Income Inequality we have been subjected to in the past 35 years has surpassed even the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons.

No longer do they need to claim the rising tide will lift all boats and some wealth will trickle down. Now, the Plutocracy and their crotch-sniffing Republican Guard Dogs simply go about dismantling any aspect of Government which helps the 99%.

Now, they just Piss Down Our Backs and tell us to think of England.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Republicans are ready to Destroy America to "save" It

Are the Republicans just playing a game of political brinksmanship vis-a-vis the Affordable Care Act?

Or are they willing to hurt thousands of Americans and shut down the Government over the implementation of Obamacare?

The Government is no longer of the People, by the People and for the People but responds to the desires and whims of the Ultra-Elite and uber-entitled Plutocracy.

The 1% don't make anything in this country anymore. They are the true definition of "Capitalists" in as much as they make money from their Capital in the form of legerdemain, accounting gimmicks and outright deception.

The Super Rich have destroyed the Progressive Government of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Ike and LBJ and have installed the Ultra-Reactionary Government of Saint Ronnie Raygun, Slick Willie and George W(orst President Ever) Bush.

In such a government Republican crotch-sniffing watchdogs of the 1% can vote to eliminate SNAP while they themselves receive millions in taxpayer "assistance" for their farms.

Now, the 1% have to fight to make their Financial Exploitation of the Nation legal. A Government shutdown might put a short term small dent in their portfolios but will drive many Americans to outright destitution and penury. Eliminating the ACA will bankrupt thousands of Americans and cost many their chance for healthcare coverage.

If the Republicans in the House and Senate really think that Obamacare is Tyranny and a Government Shutdown would, as Senator Marco Rubio put present,
"a major opportunity to save our people from the job-killing disaster that is Obamacare"
then the Tea Party Republicans would simply allow the ACA to be fully implemented and as the Death Panels were being convened use the youtube videos of dying Americans to Impeach President Obama.

But, the Republicans task from their Plutocratic Masters is to continue pulling the wool over the eyes of the duped and battered conservative voter so that they blithely participate in the theft of the blessings of liberty won for themselves and our posterity.

Because the Job of Republicans in Government is to ensure wealth continues to trickle upwards and accumulate in the Off-Shore Bank Accounts of the 1%.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Man with a Gun

There's a 10 code for this but, it's much better to use plainspeak

Another Mass Shooting and the Dance of the Plum Crazy Gun Cultists begins once more.

Faux News sent out their pretty little bleach blonde to decry... Video GamesJoe Scarbourgh followed the standard script as he declared it's too soon to talk about Politics vis-a-vis Gun Control and then followed it up with the right-wing buffoonery of Could You Imagine If Bush had given a political speech on the day of the shooting;
"Can you imagine what certain people at this network would have said?" Scarborough asked. "Mika would be killing George W., everyone here on this network would be killing George W."
Except of course, George W(orst President Ever) Bush did just that on April 16, 2007 the day of the Virginia Tech Mass Shooting, when W yelled at Congress for failing to give him another few hundred Billion in Supplemental War Spending for the Glorious Iraq War.

Then Brave Gun Hugging Crazies sporting Internet Muscles immediately descend on ever news story threatening anyone daring to speak of Gun Control while the NRA prepares to spend millions to eliminate any politician who dares to introduce legislation aimed at curtailing the Unrestricted Gun Violence which is the new normal in America.

This is what the Gun Cultists always do, It's too soon! It's too soon! Liberals don't use reason they're relying on emotion! We have to wait! It's despicable to politicize this tragedy! Shut Up! Shut Up! Shut Up! Then after enough time, the Gun Cultists declare well it's too late to mention the specifics of that particular Mass Shooting Now!

A certain segement of out society believes in their inalienable rights to own a gun without any restrictions despite the fact that the Second Amendment reads,
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Despite the fact that "Arms" in late 18th century parlance meant a brace of flintlock pistols, a muzzle-loading blunderbuss, a dirk and a small sword or claymore. There are no restrictions that Gun Cultists will support because they are fanatics.

There is a certain segment of our society which believes it is their right to strut around in heavily trafficked public places with whatever weapon they wish to display. This has happened several times, most recently, when two young entitled white men strapped their AR-15s to their backs and attended a Wisconsin Farmer's Market.

These incidents fail the reasonableness test. Walking around a shopping center, a park, or a farmer's market with a conspicuous long gun is not done for personal protection but as a display of power or privilege and the equivalent of a primate genital display meant to overawe and cow their "opponents".

When I see someone walking around with an AR-15, uncased, magazine inserted, slung tactically (or not) on them, my first assumption is Mass Shooting Incident imminent.

More Guns have not made Americans safer. It's absolutely proven by the mass shooting incidents and  a study just released by the American Journal of Public Health. The study led by Boston University researcher Dr. Michael Siegel,
covering 30 years (1981-2010) in all 50 states found a "robust correlation" between estimated levels of gun ownership and actual gun homicides at the state level, even when controlling for factors typically associated with homicides. For each 1 percentage point increase in the prevalence of gun ownership, the state firearm homicide rate increases by 0.9 percent.
But, the Gun Manufacturers have an incestuous symbiotic relationship with the NRA. There's Huge amounts of Money to be made through the selling of weapons to America.

Of course, the money is soaked in the blood of innocents and dead children but what does that matter to Sig Sauer CEO Ron Cohen, Smith & Wesson CEO James Debney, Wayne LaPierre or David Keene?

Monday, September 16, 2013

Another Second Amendment Hero shoots up Washington DC Naval Yard

“He turned our way and started firing, and we ran downstairs to get out of the building,” Todd Brundidge a civilian employee at the Naval Sea Systems Command building said. “No words. He raised the gun and started firing.”

Well... Let's see. How does a Plutocracy destroy a Nation? Well, Shock & Awe are really only useful for Foreign Lands. At home the Rich get the Working Class to destroy itself.

President Ronald Reagan, that mentally-addled, terrorist-loving, cut-and-run Chickenhawk, tax-raising, war criminal, tool of the Plutocrats first set about destroying the Social Safety Net and aiding the Rich in their conquest of America.

In 1977 President Jimmy Carter created President's Commission on Mental Health, charged with assessing the particulars of mental health services and making specific suggestions on how things should be changed. On August 13, 1981 President Reagan rescinded the law.

So, Mental Health screenings don't exist in this country. By turning it over to the States, Reagan and his Rich Controllers knew the problem would get kicked around and then ignored often left to family members calling their local police departments and the responding Officer telling the family member if they don't agree to go voluntarily and haven't made any statements about harming themselves or others there's nothing we can do.

Now, that we have thousands of mentally ill persons homeless and not receiving medications let's ensure Working Class people can't possibly take care of their sick family members by stagnating their wages for the last 35 years. Then we can also remove trade restrictions and allow Companies to offshore jobs and factories to increase Corporate profits, further stressing the Working Class. And of course, if this isn't enough, the Rich then swindle the Nation and set up the Wall Street Financial Crisis and get Trillions in taxpayer welfare stolen from the rest of us, which they neatly place in their pockets and transfer down to their Cayman Islands bank accounts.

Let's add into the mix 350 million firearms in this Nation, specifically the AR-15, the original platform having been created for Vietnam but now finding use on the Homeland in multiple mass shootings.

So, our current Hero of the Second Amendment brought an AR-15, shotgun and handgun and killed 4 people while wounding another 6 before being killed by SWAT. Searches for additional gunmen on the sprawling facilities are on-going.

And what will be the resolution from this? The gun hugging lovers of Unrestricted Firearm Violence will call for more weapons in the hands of "good guys" and underlying causes will never ever be addressed let alone solved.

So, just as with Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech expect more and more Gun Violence and more and more intractability by the insane Cult of the Gun.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Getting the Working Class to enslave itself

The 1% have been incredibly successful at convincing a significant segment of the United States to abrogate their rights and accept less. Those they have not convinced to accept the chains of corporate bondage and wage slavery they get their Republican Attack Dogs to marginalize and demonize.

Thus while most Americans have at best tread water as the Nation attempts to come out of the Great Republican Recession America's Moneyed Masters have increased their share of the Nation's Wealth. Because 90% of Wall Street stocks and dividends are owned by the Richest Americans, Capital Gains and deferred income and the Housing recovery for mansions has allowed the top 1% to appropriate 22.5% of all income earned in 2012 while over 50% went to the top 10%.

A Rising Tide drowns those in lower part of the torn social safety net first, while their money and benefits float up those safely ensconced on top of the backs of the Working Class.

This is not some new phenomenon but the work of 30+ years of Neoliberal policies. Faced with the victories of the Labor Movement, and the rise of the secure Working Class, the Plutocracy reorganized and began their Counter-Offensive.
"The standard of living of the average American has to decline." Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1979-1987.
And with the elevation of President Ronald Reagan, the mentally-addled, terrorist-loving, cut-and-run, chickenhawk, tax-raising, war criminal to the Presidency we entered an era of Ultra-Reactionary Domination of the Nation.

The Ultra-Reactionary Neo-Feudalist dream state is one in which Child Labor Laws are abolished (see Republican Senator Mike Lee and Newt Gingrich), in which SNAP benefits are eliminated, in which the Clean Air and Water Act of 1972 is stricken from U.S. Law and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gets taxpayer welfare for Foreign Oil Conglomerates while Working Class Americans tax relief is voted down.

So, while the Chamber of Commerce fights to destroy the Social Safety Net they receive $236 million from the Koch Brothers to craft legislation ensuring Middle Class taxes are rerouted as Corporate Welfare winding up in bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.

And this is what the duped and battered conservative voters don't understand. The Koch Brothers message of Smaller Government is one which fits inside their breast pocket; to be brought out to destroy Unions, quash Domestic Dissent and viciously open up Foreign Markets for exploitation.

The Neo-Feudalist Plutocracy uses many avenues of approach in their Class War to subjugate and oppress the American populace. Fix-the-Debt is one of the most insidious. The same CEOs who have made Corporations "profitable" by stealing worker's pensions and slashing company overhead by eliminating American jobs and factories while voting themselves massive multi-millions are behind the push to steal Social Security benefits and ensuring that no future American can count on either pensions or social security.

Right-Wing Think Tanks employ Libertarians as the intellectual puppets of the Plutocracy. They exist to proclaim the Good News of Free Markets and Personal Liberty but their true purpose is to get the Working Class to fasten the chains of Wage Slavery upon themselves.

And how do they do this? By Divide-and-Conquer. The CATO institute continually pushes the meme that Poor families have it too good in the US and list all the possible assistance programs in existence and pushing ancedotal stories which are picked up by Republican Congressmen about men built like brick-shithouses eating lobster. Of course, the CATO "study" always acknowledges, in small footnotes, that a majority of poor people don't actually benefit from the programs,
Due largely to the fact that eligibility requirements have already become harder to overcome, these programs are helping fewer poor families get by. In 2009, around three out of four poor families with kids weren’t getting any TANF benefits. At the height of the economic crash, about 25 percent of those eligible for food stamps weren’t receiving them; during better times, that number hovers around 40 percent. And as the CATO study concedes, six out of seven poor families aren’t getting housing assistance.
But, those points are always ignored by the duped Right-Wingers who want to, and need to believe that America is the Land of Opportunity and it's only the lazy poor and evil Government programs keeping them down.

And that is the Goal of the Plutocracy to sow division amongst the 99%. So, that one day soon Americans will wake up and realize that we are enslaved in Corporate Bondage.

Update:

Thursday, September 12, 2013

President Obama's masterful job on Syria

"The bets will give an indication of the relative strengths of each hand." Data, The Measure of a Man, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Would it be comforting to live in the Right-Wing Fart Bubble? From Faux News to every Right-Wing on-line idiot the theme on President Obama's handling of Syria is the same;

"President Obama just led us into a humilating defeat." "This humilates the US."

Of course, I know that what's at work is a conscious effort from right-wingers by the use of their unending pouting, phony outrage, chest-beating, wailing and hair-tearing to leave negative associations in the American Collective Unconscious with the Obama Presidency. For all their insanity, the use of Sympathetic Magic and brainwashing on their conservative dupes and weary liberal opponents is fantastic.

But, subterfuge appears equally lost upon lefties in regards to Syria. Diplomacy has many facets. It's almost as if everyone is living in the literal world.

Now, understandably everyone assumes the United States was going to bomb Syria because for the last 12 years the Deciders and the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Media-Complex accepted nothing less than the constant application and projection of US Military Might across the globe.

The Game of Houses is difficult but, it shouldn't be difficult to understand that we did not bomb Syria. We haven't.

What President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry accomplished they did with Words. Just words. They took a situation in which 100,000 had died and 2 million people had been displaced and turned into refugees from 2 years of constant warfare while the World kind of ignored it and they brought it forefront to the World Stage.

And by going to Congress, President Obama brought it to the forefront of every American's mind.

All it took was words. At this point what have we lost? Nothing! We've had a two weeks worth of debating and recognition that something must be done about Syria and Assad.

And to go even further, by involving Russia, which in 2005 purchased 80% of Syria's National Debt, we allowed them to save face and get world stage credit for Diplomacy. Additionally, since the bulk of Syria's Oil goes to the European Union Market we didn't intrude and and blunder about like the Blinded Cyclops of the Odyssey, as the US increasingly came to be seen under the misadministration of the Bush/Cheney Regime.

Now, it's very possible that President Obama wanted to use military force in Syria and the circumstances are working against him but, unless the person wants to produce some evidence they're claiming to be mind readers.

President Obama just showed every American what skillful World Diplomacy looks like.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Lets just send George Zimmermann to Syria

Seriously. We should just deploy GZ to control the Syria Hinterland. He's already skilled in murdering young unarmed men, punching old men in the face and waving around guns to intimidate and threaten women. These pretty much coincide with current US military doctrine when it comes to interactions with local populations.

No one should be surprised George Zimmerman has already gotten into trouble following his Acquittal due to Victim Blackness in the Trayvon Martin murder case.

Zimmerman is a loathsome child of a former judge with a history of Domestic Abuse, fighting with Police Officers and, of course, Murder.

He got away with murder, of course, he feels entitled to drive recklessly, attend Gun Shows to accept awards, and now go back to beating up and threatening his wife and her family and then destroying evidence and lying about what happened.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Republicans will Agree to Bomb Syria in exchange for

Stealing Social Security, Defunding Obamacare and eliminating the EPA.

“…[E]veryone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor, or they will never be industrious.” - Arthur Young; 1771


The Anti-American Party (Republicans and Pro-Business Democrats) are ready to give the President the Authority to Bomb Syria into Peace(s) in exchange for taking Social Security and transferring it into the coffers of the Warmongering Plutocracy. As a bonus we can kick some lazy poor people who won't join the military to fight to enrich the 1% off of Medicaid and SNAP. And we will necessarily have to eliminate the EPA because Corporations will need to be able to pollute the air and water in order to ensure our military is fighting with the best equipment.

Hey! It's the Right thing to do for Our Benighted Job Creators. We All have to sacrifice!
  • Lower Benefits for the Poor! 
  • Lower Rights for the Working Class! 
  • Lower Life Expectancy for the Middle Class! 
  • Lower Taxes for the Rich! 
  • Lower Regulations for Polluters!
It's only fair we all have some skin in the game.

I mean how dare Detroit Mayor David Bing order the Koch Brothers Sovereign Corporation Koch Carbon LLC to clean up the four story tall multi-ton heap of Petroleum refining byproducts left from processing Alberta Tar Sands deposited along the banks of the Detroit River,
"The pet coke, a byproduct of tar sands oil refining, has caused a controversy for months since four-story-high piles appeared along the Detroit River near the Ambassador Bridge. Many local residents protested the eyesore and the potential for the piles to pollute both the air and the river."
Just this week, Koch Carbon apparently moved the petcoke to Ohio, where most likely the high-sulfur toxic pollutant will be burned for electrcitiy and befoul the air of Ohio but, Koch Carbon will not comment on the fate of the pollutants.

Of course, with the USA re-entering the Victorian Little Wars Era the only jobs left in America, outside being a Plutocracy Apologist, will be Cogs in the Machinery of War; Bravely opening up Foreign Markets for the Plutocracy to exploit.
"I don't believe in humanitarian wars. I don't believe in humanitarian bombings," Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Orlando).
The United States has entered a Ultra-Reactionary Period in which the Plutocratic Elites aided by their Media and Government Lapdogs are attacking every Progressive gain. 
"You know, if one day a kid doesn’t have lunch, right, maybe that’s a teaching moment when that kid doesn’t have lunch. That may sound harsh saying that, but we’ve got to get people to start being responsible for themselves." - Thomas Kersting on Fox & Friends
Oh yes, it's a teaching momement. We have to teach the Poor that they are here to toil and suffer to enrich the Plutocracy. Like Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher, who while voting to eliminate SNAP assistance for poor children and do away with subsidized lunches has raked in over $3,500,000 USC in free money from the Federal Government. Much of it for NOT growing certain crops.  

But when the despicable Rich Lowry of NRO is on Faux News stating, 
"[G]overnment has gone out and deliberately eroded the natural sense of stigma Americans feel about being on the dole in any form and that's a disgrace." 
He isn't talking about Stephen Fincher or Michele Bachmann and the millions they've received or the Trillions of Tax Payer Dollars which have been stolen by the 1%. A figure so large its' scope alone make people dismiss the theft because it's easier to believe the 1% aren't robbing Us into servitude and penury. But, Rich Lowry is a paid apologist for Power and Plutocracy. It's his job to defend the 1% and attack the Poor and Working Class.

What's making this so successful for the Plutocrats is the multiple fronts approach they've adopted. Instead of allowing Working Class resistance to build up to fight one battle, the Plutocracy is going after everything ensuring that resistance will be local and or fragmented.

So, while Republicans seek to dominate and subjugate women in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin other Republicans are going after Social Security and Medicare.

“You want sequester relief? Then let’s talk about a reduction in entitlement spending,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in July

"Now, it’s time to deal with the mandatory side,” Speaker of the House John Boehner told the crowd at a fundraiser for Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) in Boise, Idaho. “I’ve made it clear that we’re not going to increase the debt limit without cuts and reforms that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”

"What we need to have happen is leadership on the part of this president and the White House to … say we’re going to fix the underlying problem that’s driving our deficit … the entitlement programs and the unfunded liability that they are leaving on this generation and the next.” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said earlier this month.

The 1% are satisfied with just Paying No Taxes, they also want to eliminate programs which aid the Working Class, they want potential opposition (Unions and Collective Bargaining) to their Dominance destroyed and they want all government spending rerouted to the Military-Industrial-Complex.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Dead is Dead in Syria. No More US Involvement in the Middle East

"My God, man! Drilling holes in his head isn't the answer! Now put away your butcher knives and let me save this patient before it's too late!" - Leonard Bones McCoy
Poison Gas! Oh no...

What crap. As if getting a hacked to death by machettes is better than drowning in your own blood after sucking-in mustard gas.

Some weapons are acceptable. Those machine guns emplacements which mowed down hundreds of thousands of men in World War 1were totally fine. That mustard gas which killed far less? Absolutely evil!

Of course, that Winston Churchill ordered British Dive Bombers to use poison gas on Iraqis in 1920 has been forgotten by everyone (save the Iraqi Insurgents during OIF who named their group the 1920 Revolutional Brigade).

One would think by now that Americans would understand that the Plutocratic Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex runs this Nation.

Of course, we are going to conduct "MOOTW" in Syria. There enough votes on Both Sides to approve US military involvment. The Region and more importantly the oil reserves are still a keystone to the Strategic Goals of many nations.

What President Obama's call on Congress does is stick a finger in the eye of the Tea Party Assholes in Congress who claim to be so outside the normal corruption in DC.

There's going to be a split in the Republican Party over this, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham never met a Bombing Campaign they didn't love, Speaker John Boehner has already indicated his support, but any of the Teahadists who vote against the interests of the MIC are going to find funding for their future political campaigns very hard to get. It doesn't mean they can't carve out a Ron Paul niche, but by and large a No Vote is going to doom them.

Right now, the Anti-American Tea Party is trying to figure the metrics. Mostly, it's coming down on Obama's a Muslim Terr-a-wrist so he's doing this to get Assad killed to help the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda just as he did in Libya and Egypt. 

But, while that works for the (ever-growing) Insane Faction of the Republican Party, most want to take War Credit while also damning President Obama. So you get the Marco Rubio/Paul Ryan Right-Wing Saviors who will vote for military action while claiming President Obama has already lost Syria by not invading earlier.

Sadly, it appears the yes votes for the initial Air Campaign, which may eventually Mission Creep into full-blown Regime Change in Syria, will come from the Democratic Party.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has voiced her support for the President will she drag enough Democrats along to get us embroiled in Syria?

Right now in Illinois, my Congressmen Peter Roskam (R) is Undecided and my Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D) is a No. Senator Mark Kirk (R) is a Yes and Senator Dick Durbin is Undecided.

The question is: the Middle East is nearly destabilized, what will more US military involvement do to the Region? My fear is a full-blown regional war which will set off a cascading sequence of events which involves Outside Powers because of the massive oil reserves.

Despite our Victory in Iraq as proclaimed by the Right-Wing Fart Bubble before George W(orst Ever) Bush skulked out of office, thousands are still dying in coordinated VBIED attacks, (What are you doing on the 5th Anniversary of Victory in Iraq Day on November 22nd?)

But, the Invasion of Iraq wasn't sold on Humanitarian grounds or Saddam's use of chemical weapons, it was sold on the Bush Regime making the connection between the 9/11 Hijackers and Saddam Hussein.

Yes, Saddam's evil use of chemical weapons was referenced by George W(orst Ever) Bush multiple times but the implication was he'd be giving those weapons (and his new nuclear ones) to Osama Bin Laden to attack us for Our Freedoms.

Of course, I could be wrong and Our Involvement may allow the Rebel Factions to swiftly overthrow and kill Assad as happened to Qaddafi in Libya. Republicans are still angered that President Obama directed a successful Operation in Libya. Hence the Benghazi-Mania which has festered and boiled inside the Right-Wing Fart Bubble as the Worst Disaster in the History of America.

But, that is what makes Syria a perplexing question. Does the use of military power ever aid anyone and can it help at all in Syria?