Friday, December 28, 2012

How to Combat Gun Violence

Let's get the sadly Ridiculous out of the way first. Having to train school children to rush a rampaging gunman shows how deeply and thoroughly Guns have broken our Society. But. If you find yourself near a Mass Shooting you have two basic options: Fight or Flee.

Unfortunately, what many do is the third F; Freeze.

Understand that you are at a severe disadvantage. The Gunman has already decided on a course of action and you are reacting. Action trumps Reaction. Nonetheless, a general rule to apply is your distance to the Gunman.

If you find yourself within 21 feet of the Gunman attacking might be your best option. It's called the Tueller Drill. Your attack should be brutal, swift, and encompass everything at your disposal; pens, teeth, knee strikes, whatever. Close, Dominate, Finish.

If you're further away locate cover and move to it. From that position of cover locate new cover and move. Continue until you're far enough away.

Now, I am sickened that having to explain, teach and practice your response to a Mass Shooting Incident is necessary but, because of the evil efforts of the NRA, ALEC and the bad faith of Right-Wingers it is necessary.

Yes, I know name calling isn't going to help. But, we need constant rhetorical cracks to the mouth to maintain the focus on this issue. 30,000 Americans die each year because of Guns from Homicide, Suicide, and Accidents.

So, while we'll create an entire New Cabinet and Federal Department (Homeland Security), pass sweeping invasive Federal Laws (Warrantless Wiretaps approved for another 5 years) and blow 10 Trillion Dollars on Wars of Choice we won't or can't do anything about the Self-Inflicted Gun Violence which plagues Our Society.

This isn't an Emotional Appeal it's an Appeal to Reason and Humanity.

The NRA has quietly with ALEC backing spent the last 10 years rolling back Gun Legislation. Not through referendums but going to Courthouses to ensure that any and all Gun Laws are struck down. 

The NRA and Gun Owners of America are not Lobbying for the rights of regular Americans to own Guns but for Corporations to continue flooding our Nation in Weapons and for the profits to keep finding the Rich executives Cayman Islands and Swiss Bank Accounts.

In 2005 George W(orst President Ever) Bush backed by the Republican Controlled House and Senate passed Legislation making Gun Manufacturers immune to Lawsuits for their Negligence.

Zardoz LaPierre stated the Republican and Bush 2005 law was the "No. 1 legislative priority of the National Rifle Association". Of course, the NRA "lobbied lawmakers intensely for it". Sickeningly 59 Democrats joined in the House to pass it a vote of 283 to 144.

George W(orst President Ever) at the behest of his Moneyed Masters hailed the law, "further our efforts to stem frivolous lawsuits, which cause a logjam in America's courts, harm America's small businesses, and benefit a handful of lawyers at the expense of victims and consumers." 

Republicans care more about Guns and the Holy Second Amendment than they do about Children. It's been so plainly obvious that the sheer horror of their evil actions should cause a complete rejection and utter revulsion of Republican Policies, if Americans weren't finding ways to rationalize their behavior.

Gun Bans work, when they are enforced. Enforcement and a Culture Change are the keys.

In the aftermath of Jovan Belcher's murder of Cassandra Perkins and suicide, 7 NFL players turned in Guns.

In the aftermath of the Newton CT Mass Murder, sales of AR-15 skyrocketed with weapons selling for 3 to 5 times their normal price. One business sold the equivalent of 3 years worth of Banana Clips and Hi-Capacity Mags in the course of 2 weeks.

A company which designed and markets bullet-proof backpacks for children (Princess Pink for girls and GI Green for boys) saw a massive spike in sales.

This is not the way. This response is the Culture we Must Change.

We are awash in Guns. And there is no evidence an Armed Populace is a Polite Populace.

As for the Firearms' Lobby; No other industry enjoys blanket protection for the murderous results of their products intended use. 

In Illinois Law, laws exist which can be a model to make Guns Manufacturers and Arms Dealers responsible if they don't do due diligence to ensure Guns aren't ending up in the hands of Mass Murderers.
Every person who is injured within this State, in person or property, by any intoxicated person has a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, against any person, licensed under the laws of this State or of any other state to sell alcoholic liquor, who, by selling or giving alcoholic liquor, within or without the territorial limits of this State, causes the intoxication of such person. (235 ILCS 5/6-21)
Eliminating that despicable Bush-backed, NRA-crafted 2005 Legislation should be the first step. Next, re institute the Assault Weapons Ban. Additionally, if you own a Firearm it should be incumbent upon you to prove you have positive and safe control of said weapons at least yearly. 

We as a Society need proof that your guns won't go missing and end up in the hands of some Southside gangbanger.

Then making the Manufacturer, Dealer, and Owner potentially liable should be next. Of course, further Legislation might be needed to curtail the production of certain weapons, ownership duties, and so forth. 

But, by putting the Onus onto the Firearms Industry to police themselves and ensure their weapons of Mass Murder don't end up in the wrong hands we can make a good effort at stopping the Hemorrhaging.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Conservatives and the NRA want Guns so they can shoot Blacks, Firefighters and Children (Update: Conservatives call for crack down on Gun Laws)

Update:Conservatives win when it comes to myopic pendatry. Incensed that David Gregory did not bow down to Zardoz LaPierre and declare 'The Gun is Good!', Right-Wingers demanded the DC Police investigate and arrest him for a firearms related offense. Apparently, Gregory and/or the Meet The Press production staff made a request to display the 30 round magazine on TV and were denied.  
It's insanity that Right-Wing Gun Nuts call for looser and looser laws as 30,000 Americans die each year from Gunshot wounds and Unrestricted Gun Violence, but when an MSM reporter uses an empty mag as a prop they demand Justice.
Right-Wing Loons hate most Americans but they reserve a special level of animus for Government Workers and African-Americans.

Make no mistake, the NRA is not only pleased when Americans murder each other with Guns they consider the murderer a Hero of the Second Amendment.
"We're living in a country, a free country, where people have a right to express their Second Amendment rights." NRA President David Keene. 
That's right Chicken Hawk Keene and Zardoz LaPierre consider Adam Lanza a True American Hero for "expressing his Second Amendment rights." Keene's son, another Second Amendment Hero, despite being "institutionalized" 7 times, was convicted of attempted murder in 2002 when he shot up a car in a road rage incident. It makes one wonder how a 7-time mental patient had such easy access to guns?

The oft stated reason Right-Wing terrorists need assault rifles and hundreds of guns with thousands of rounds of ammo is to murder Government workers.

For that we can Thank Ronald Reagan. The evil slime Reagan famously opined "the nine most terrifying words are, I'm from the Government and I'm here to help."

So, it's no surprise that a Gun Nut laid an ambush for Firefighters on christmas eve and killed two, while wounding two more, who responded to a fire in Upstate Webster, New York.

This is undoubtedly what the Second Amendment Hero was thinking when he started an early morning fire and waited upon higher ground for the evil Government moochers to respond.

Richard Poplawski, another NRA endorsed Second Amendment Hero, was determined to keep the Government under control when he laid an ambush and assassinated 3 Pittsburgh area Police Officers.

After the NRA sponsored Sandy Hook Massacre, Right-Wing Gun Nuts lamented Second Amendment Hero George Zimmerman hadn't been present to stalk and murder any Blacks armed with skittles who dared cross his path.

Conservatism is Terrorism.

Even Jennifer Rubin, Andrew Sullivan and David Frum all staunch Conservatives, War Hawks and righties understand that conservatives are too extreme.

They think conservatism can be saved if only the insane elements are excised. They don't understand that Insanity is the Right.

So, conservatives and the NRA will continue to push for Unrestricted Gun Violence to shatter American Society in their Quest to Destroy the Government, Liberals and everyone who stands in the way of them taking their country back.
The NRA Way to protect Firefighters.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

God Bless Our Guns! Each and Every One! - Zardoz LaPierre speaks

Look Daddy! Teacher says every time a Gun is fired a Gun Manufacturer gets it's wings!
That's right, that's right. Attaboy, Sig Sauer CEO Ron Cohen!

Here is an excerpt form Zardoz LaPierre's pronouncement of 12/21/12:




The NRA is headed by CEO Zardoz LaPierre and President David Keene...
Here's some neat facts about those two. LaPierre spent the late 60's and early 70's going to college. As soon as he got his Master's he went to work as a DC Lobbyist. David Keene started work in Washington DC in the late 1960's working for noted Republican criminal Spirio Agnew. 
So, the Leaders of the NRA are Typical Conservatives. They never had a real job. Never worked for a living. Never served a Day in Uniform. Chicken Hawk Cowards who skirted Vietnam to spend 40 years as lobbyists in Washington DC. Just your Average American Conservative.

Anyway LaPierre and Keene's job at the NRA is to push Guns. Contrary to how the NRA presents itself, the true job of LaPierre is not to support the Rights of Gun Owners, but to support the right of Gun Manufacturers to flood American Society with as many weapons of Mass Murder as possible. And with that goal in mind there is no level they will not stoop.

The Deaths of 20 children in Newtown, CT is a prime marketing opportunity for Zardoz LaPierre. The NRA wants your children to be murdered. Zardoz LaPierre wants your children to die shot multiple times at close range. Because children's deaths increase the sales of Guns.

Zardoz LaPierre is a Publicist for the Merchants of Death. He views Adam Lanza as a Second Amendment Hero because of all the Free Press it earns him.

His plan doesn't even deserve to be deconstructed because it is not a serious proposal but a shameless and despicable attempt to enrich his Owners, the Firearm Manufacturers. After a week of 'No Comment', LaPierre's bold strategy was to call on Government to hand over Billions in Tax Payer Dollars to the Gun Makers.

Now, this is of course, Brilliant and par for the course for Right-Wing Terrorists. After years of slashing funding for schools, for mental health, for teachers, the NRA wants Federal Dollars to flow into the coffers of the Merchants of Death.

Zardoz LaPierre wants to inculcate in the children of America absolute fear. And religious devotion to the Gun.

Meanwhile, the NRA's bodycount and unrestricted Gun Violence continues to shatter American Society:
This is what the NRA and Firearm Manufacturers want. These are the Second Amendment Heroes to Glock, Sig Sauer, Bushmaster, Smith & Wesson. They want Unrestricted Gun Violence destroying as many lives as possible because it makes them Money.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

NRA Terrorists and Gun Nuts in America want Anarchy

Once Rockets go Up
Who cares where they come Down
That's not my Department
Says Werner Von Braun

Gun Nuts like to claim that new laws or even current laws can stop Gun Violence. That's true but that's true of every law. No Law, in and of itself, has ever stopped a crime.
**Update: Connecticut lawmakers, in March 2011, tried to ban the magazines used by the Newton Murderer. I wonder if that Law which the NRA, Firearm Makers and Gun Nuts fought visciously against may have helped some of the murdered children survive.**
Enforcement and societal controls are what are needed. We have neither. The Second Amendment is being used by Gun Right's Fanatics to Destroy the Country. ALEC and NRA Terrorists represent the interest of Gun Manufactures over Americans. Profits over People. It's the Right-Wing response to everything.

What is obvious is the massive influx of guns into American society is the driving the gun violence.


As a result, here are Homicides by Firearms in so-called First World Nations:
  • USA 9168
  • Canada 173
  • Germany 168
Gun Violence is being fueled by a confluence of events, Gun Makers pursue profits over people by flooding the Nation with firearms, we've allowed bought politicians to slash the Social Safety Net, and current laws are ignored and curtailed.

Gun Makers have flooded the Nation with firearms. We have over 250,000,000 guns in the country.

Additionally, the Right has been advancing arguments undercutting the authority and legitimacy of the Federal Government for the past 30 years, "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem."

As California Governor, Reagan closed down the State's Mental Hospitals. California's homeless population exploded as a result. As President, within a month of Reagan's inauguration, the Office of Management Budget announced it would curtail the budget of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Inside of 2 years Reagan had gutted the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 and instead, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (1982) would merge money for mental health programs into block grants, with fewer dollars going to the states.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel at the bidding of his Plutocratic Masters shut down 6 of 13 Mental Hospitals in the city, to save $3 Million dollars, that the evil Rich belive are being stolen from them by greedy poor people.

While there is a tiny lunatic fringe who yearn for Anarchya Glenn Beck-inspired Overton Window, who want the Government to fail because it will allow them to fulfill their murder fantasies against the Moochers, Liberals and Government "Tyranny".

It's the legally purchased guns which owners don't safeguard that are fueling the danger. One of the top 3 items stolen in every Residential Burglary are guns.
After Chicago Police officers confiscated 125 guns in a series of citywide stings in late August, the department went to work investigating the path each weapon took from store to street. 
Authorities were able to trace 54 of those guns to their original point of sale. Thirty percent were from Indiana, 26 percent from Illinois and 6 percent from Kentucky, the analysis found. 
The police analysis found at least four of the 125 recovered guns were stolen from gun stores. 
One gun was snatched from Maxon Shooters Supplies and Indoor Range in northwest suburban Des Plaines, where at least 140 guns were stolen in January.
The guns used by Adam Lanza in his murderous spree were evidently legally purchased by his mother and first victim, Nancy Lanza. A quiet divorced woman who apparently in the last 3 years let the Faux News fueled Fear Factory of American Collapse drive her towards survivalist thinking.

Most gun owners want responsible ownership, yet they don't know that Background checks are not universal. Most don't know that the NRA fought against the Federal Government attempts to stop gun sales to those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

Most don't know that in 2011 Republicans in Illinois, in direct opposition to the health and safety of their constituents, voted to put guns in the hands of Terrorists:
Republicans on the House Judiciary panel shot down a proposal Thursday to prevent weapon sales to suspected terrorists.  
In a party-line vote of 21-11, the committee Republicans killed an amendment from Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) that would have blocked firearm purchases by those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.
The Gun Rights of Terrorists and Criminals are more important to Gun Nuts, Republicans (Michele Bachmann fits both categories), ALEC and NRA Terrorists than the safety and lives of American children.

But, the Constitution is NOT a Suicide Pact. The Second Amendment itself calls for 'Regulation'. Use that term in every Gun Control Law.

There is no reason for an American to have an Assault Weapon with 100 round drum magazines or 32 round extended clip Glock magazines unless they truly believe they are going to use them to kill National Guardsmen, ATF Agents and UN Blue-Helmeted soliders trying to take away their Country from them.

Regulate every weapon. Regulate every firearm owner. Regulate every Gun Maker. Make Firearm Owners and Manufacturers liable for them. Make people prove they have control of their weapons every year. If a weapon is used in the commission of a crime make the purchaser and seller potentially liable. Sig Sauer CEO Ron Cohen should be sued by every family in Newton, CT. Chain guns to their lovers.

They have the money and the ruthless desire to enforce their Killing Machines into every corner of American Society. What do we have? What are we as a people willing to do to stop them?

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Don't you Dare criticize Guns

In Violent Times
You shouldn't have to Sell your Soul

In Black & White
They really, really ought to know

Shout, Shout, Let it all Out
These are the Things I can Do Without
Come on, I'm talking to you, Come on

Another monstrous, murderous Gun Rampage. This time at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. How many more? How much more unrestricted Gun Violence must we be subjected to in order to satisfy the whims of insane Gun Nuts? How many Children must we sacrifice on the Altar of the Holy Second Amendment

Gun Control is needed in this Nation and we will never, ever have it. Because the moment you speak of Gun Control the insane Wayne LaPierre, Glenn Beck, Faux News imbeciles or the Gun Nuts appear to declare, 'See! President Obama is about to institute the  Homosexual Agenda 21 small arms treaty and have ACORN workers march in the New Black Panther Party to steal White People's guns!'

The Murderous Rampage in Newtown, CT is so different and so similar to the recent NFL player murder/suicide, the Florida murder of Jordan Davis by the limp dicked white knight or the dozen other Gun Rampages this year.

20 children and 6 adults murdered. These families are irrevocably destroyed for ALL TIME. They will never enjoy another christmas. And the ripples of damage will inexorably radiate outwards and hurt and harm their lives in future in so many seemingly small but in every respect enormous ways. ways.

Where was god in all of this? Christian Apologists proclaim god was off having a pout tantrum because we've "removed him from schools".

After each new tragedy a cohort of rabid fanatics demand silence! It's too Soon! Now is not the time to talk about Gun Violence! Now isn't the time to go off half-cocked! Now is actually the time to make Guns more accessible!

Now is, in fact, far too late to address this. As New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, herself a tragic victim of the Gun Nuts campaign of unrestricted Gun Violence stated, 
"I agree, now is not the time to talk about gun laws – the time for that conversation was long before all those kids in Connecticut died today."
The Gun Nuts speak as though there are too many guns to do anything about in the same way there are too many bacterium for a surgeon to worry about so why should he wash his hands.

The Gun Nuts act and demand you resign yourself to these outrages the way you do towards the weather. You can't do anything about it so sit back and accept it. These aren't Tragedies, these are horrible crimes. And a working Government can and must do something to avert crimes.
A Well Regulated Militia...
We have no regulations. Just prior to this killing Illinois suffered a "Judicial Defeat" of it's concealed carry ban. And the Michigan Republicans, in their continuing anti-Democratic end around the Will of Michigan Voters, have pushed through ALEC sponsored legislation to open up Michigan schools, churches and bars for concealed carry. Gun Nuts have worked tirelessly to chop down all gun laws through a coordinated campaign. The Gun Nuts efforts show that Guns are more precious to them than people's lives.

At a minimum we need Registration and Licensing of every gun and gun owner. A limitation on what  magazines and weapon types which can be owned by a private citizen. A background check with local law enforcement and a Federal Database for every gun purchase. 

But, that's not nearly enough. The killer in Connecticut apparently didn't buy the weapons. He wasn't diagnosed or had a police record.

The only reasons to have an AR-15 with a drum magazine or a Heckler & Koch SP89 is if you truly believe you'll have to fight off the UN Blue Helmet invasion or the Zombie Apocalypse. But, again a tiny cadre of fanatics have made any discussion on limitations a Casus Beli.

Remove the indemnity gun manufacturers and sellers have against law suits. Every family destroyed by this should sue Glock and Sig Sauer. Anytime a gun is used in the commission of a crime the Manufacturer should be potentially liable. And if those companies are put out of business they have only themselves to blame. Gun makers and sellers enjoy the profits of selling weapons make them responsible for the carnage that flows from their trade, until they begin to police the proliferation of their product.

Monday, November 26, 2012

112 killed in Garment Factory Fire: A Preview of what's Coming Back to America

101 years ago in New York City 146 workers, mainly teenage girls, were burned and asphyxiated to death or leapt to their death to avoid the flames from the 10-story Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The owners in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory who had ordered the doors chained and exits locked, both survived the fire.

In Savar Bangladesh, 112 workers in a Garment Factory were burned to death in 2012. Investigators stated many workers were trapped in the eight-story building, which lacked emergency exits.

What's Past is Prologue...

It matters little if in 100 years time the "bad companies" are forced into bankruptcy while the "good companies" remain. What matters and what should always be paramount are people. Because of the incessant Union-bashing and Right-Wing efforts to deregulate and not enforce laws on Corporations, people are dying and massive damage is being wrought upon the Nation and Planet today.

Today, Corporate malfeasance is protected by the wholly owned and operated by the Rich, Republican Party and anyone who styles themselves a "Pro-Business" Democrat.

Led by their Political Guard Dogs and their toxic spewing Media Fawns, the Rich in this Nation are pushing to bring back the days of murderous Corporate Bondage and Neo-Feudalist Wage Slavery. 

Yesterday, on Meet The Press, Carly Fiorina showed the Republican push to destroy Unions is never-ending, “[I]t is not fair that public employee union pensions and benefits are so rich..."

Fiorina earned a $42,000,000 Golden Parachute for her tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, which saw her eliminate the jobs of 18,000 American workers. She called her sending of American jobs overseas, "Right-Shoring". Already a millionaire, Carly Fiorina got around a $1200 bonus for all the Americans she 'Right-Shored' while at HP.

Republicans and their Rich Moneyed Masters hate that they can not treat American workers the same way they treat Bangladeshi workers, as disposable pawns.

But, Conservatives and Republicans don't care about the evil done by Corporations. Two workers for Black Elk energy Offshore LLC were killed, another is missing and three are seriously injured from an Oil Rig explosion in the Gulf. The Company was ordered to make immediate safety improvements to all Off-Shore Rigs.

Do you hear Faux News talking about this? No. Do you hear Right-Wing Toxic Radio talking about this? No. They are focused are trying to make their Benghazi Bullshit stick in the minds of their conservatives dupes and drones.

Monday, November 19, 2012

The Reason Conservatives love Corporation like Hostess

Because it allows them to be as racist and criminal as they want to be.
"I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom. If someone wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble." - Todd Akin (Loser- MO) stated in a vile comment less well known than his Pro-Rape positions.
Hostess Brands Inc. filed for Bankruptcy (again for they did in 2004 when Conservatives claim Bush was leading an Awesome Economic Boom) citing employees refusal to accept further reductions in pay and further company raiding of their pensions.

If Hostess wanted to use slaves chained to their ding dong machines or have children stuff the gooey nutritious filling into twinkies with their tiny fingers or pay their employees in Company Scrip while the monies set aside for pensions are raided to provide the CEO and Upper Managment with a Golden Parachute I ask you!!! Who is Government to interfere? That's the Free Market!

Certainly, Senator Mike Lee of Utah a Guard Dog of the Plutocracy believes Child Labor Laws are Unconstitutional.

Here is the final offer Hostess made to its' employees before declaring Bankruptcy,
1) 8% hourly pay cut in year 1 with additional cuts totaling 27% over 5 years. Currently, I make $16.12 an hour at TOP rate of pay in the bakery. I would drop to $11.26 in 5 years. 
2) They get to keep our $3+ an hour forever. 
3) Doubling of weekly insurance premium. 
4) Lowering of overall quality of insurance plan. 
5) TOTAL withdrawal from ALL pensions. If you don't have it now then you never will.
Government puts up all these fake rules like "hostile work environment" and "minimum wage" and "taxes" and "discrimination" and "Maternity Leave" and "criminal sexual assault" which hamper the aspirations of conservatives and Private Business.

The Government and the Public Sector enforces rules on behavior. Conservatives are racist and sexist and as natural pig-people are incensed that they can't grab women's asses and yell Barack Obama is a Ni-[Clang] all day long.

This is also why conservatives hate Unions. Unions also help enforce rules of behavior, help employees bargain for better pay, benefits and working conditions and provide workers with avenues to address Corporate malfeasance and Bosses misbehavior.

Corporations want Unions eliminated. This is why Republican Dogs and Conservative Stooges blame Unions for all of Americas problems. 

Mary Matalin, whose never been right about any issue, defended Vulture Capitalist Mitt Romney and blamed Unions and the Minimum Wage,
The greatest impediment to upward mobility for women and minorities are liberal policies such as the teachers unions, which secure teachers jobs, they don't educate our youth, such as African- American youth locked out of entry level jobs because the insistence on minimum wage, such as poverty programs that have dismantled the families.
See... If Companies could pay Black Youths Nothing for their labor then that's Right and Just. Vice President Biden was absolutely correct when he stated Republicans want to "put y'all back in Chains."

But, Wage Slavery is a profitable business model in America.

Chipotle is facing a Class Action lawsuit because it's taken to renaming some employees as "apprentices" and paying them as managerial employees who don't qualify for overtime. Want to know how a Company is using slave labor in America today? Classify an employee as "salaried" then work them 40 hours extra a week and pay them Nothing for the extra work.

The reason Stench Romney wanted to "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" is because Bain Capital would have swooped in, canabalized the remnants, jettisoned the UAW contracts, sold the factories off to China and skimmed the profits from the bones of GM and Chrysler while perched waiting for Ford to go belly up as well.

So, when a conservative tells you how awesome the Free Market is he's telling you he's a racist corporatist who wants to grind up on the ass of that hot secretary without the fear of some bogus "harassment" complaint, while he and upper management scheme on how to swindle the average worker out of his pension and repeal laws which keep Corporations from scooping up children from the playgrounds and shoving them down into MSHA free death-trap mines.

It's all part of the Rapacious Vulture Capitalist Model which has taken control of the Nation.

Friday, November 16, 2012

The Party of Lincoln no more Republicans call for Secession

700,000 Americans have signed on-line "Secession" petitions. Numerous right-wing blogs are projecting their dark murder fantasies in comment pages everywhere.

They've been so snugly ensconced in their Alternate Conservative Reality that when it is crushed by the American People the reaction is fury and violence.

The night of Barack Obama's decisive victory students from the University of Mississippi took to the streets blocking streets, throwing rocks, hitting cars, shouting racist slurs and burning Obama campaign signs until the police broke up the riot.

Over at Vox Popoli the sad loss of unearned White Entitlement struck Vox particularly hard, 
But it appears the symbolism of white Americans being deprived of their choice of president by an alliance of aliens... 
This is just what immigrants do if they are allowed to invade in sufficient numbers. 
Unearned White Entitlement and Privilege are a deep foundational aspect of conservative thinking. 

But, before any conservative drone attempts to claim that a bigoted Right-Wing blogger doesn't represent Manistream Conservative thought Presidential and Vice Presidential losers Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan took to the "Liberal" Media to complain that "gifts" to the "Urban voters" caused them to lose.
"In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day."
Blacks! Voting! Fraud!!! The dreaded other is stealing the country out from under the Real Americans! You have no choice but to rise up and...

Sean Hannity the Voice of Conservatism airs the bigoted voice of Texas Secessionist Daniel Miller on his Faux News program to complain that the "Union has fundamentally changed" and for people like Miller and Hannity doesn't represent the principles "envisioned" by the Founders. Which must mean the racist pro-slavery ideas and absorbtion of Texas' Debt by the United States.

But, not to be overshadowed by their Republican Guard Dogs and Faux News sycophants the Rich Successionists began throwing petulant tantrums over President Obama's re-election.
"If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare," John Metz told The Huffington Post. "Although it may sound terrible that I'm doing this, it's the only alternative. I've got to pass the cost on to the consumer."
John Metz is the franchisor of Hurricane Grill and Wings, which has 48 locations, five of which are corporate owned, and president and owner of RREMC Restaurants, which runs approximately 40 Denny's and several Dairy Queen locations. He planned to use the 5 percent surcharge tactic in all his restaurants starting in January 2014, when Obamacare is fully implemented.
There it is. The Rich can never have enough. The Rich are never satiated. The Rich will never pay their fair share. Instead the want the burden borne by the backs of the Middle Class. This is what Republicans mean when they always talk of "broadening the base". They mean to pass on all the costs of government onto the Middle Class until their backs are broken and Corporate Serfdom and Wage Slavery rule the land.
Papa John's CEO John Schnatter is in a massive snit about how much he is put upon by having to help provide healthcare coverage via Obamacare for his employees. He doesn't support his employees getting better quality healthcare coverage because it's bad for his profit margins. So, he's decided to add 14 cents to the price of his pizzas in order to pass the cost onto consumers. I throughly applaud this decision.

Price yourself out of the market and then pack it in and set off to your Randian Paradise. Have fun tending and harvesting the wheat for your crust, raising and slaughtering pigs for the pepperoni and growing the tomatoes for your sauce so you can make your soggy cardboard pizza in the wilderness. I'm not sure how you'll get the High Fructose Corn Syrup to make your sauce palatable though...
Go Galt already! You provide nothing spectacular to the American Experience. I guarantee some enterprising young American, such as Wisconsin based Ian's Pizza will fill the market with a better quality product 

Just go. Get out of my country. It's not yours any more. The Era of unearned privilege is over.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

No Austerity. No Compromise with the Vultures. No bargaining with the Plutocracy. Barack Obama has the Mandate. It's time The Rich pay their Fair Share.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.  - James Madison

Now, that Real America has rejected the preposterous slanders and smears of the rabid conservatives comes the serious task of reorganizing the Nation.

Overusing the bromide of being doomed to repeat history it seems We do have a difficult time learning from that which has passed before.

The Empire of Byzantium struggled with many of the same issues We, the People face today. Religion. Nobility. Taxes. Military interventions. Dynastic struggles. Culture Changes. Legal Codes.

As the centuries passed, new generations inherited problems and structures created by previous ones. They did their best to build upon the past work, reconcile new ideas with the old or create entirely new ones, but often their efforts became a jumble, a convoluted and a confusing mixture. Hence the term byzantine.

This was well understood by the Founding Fathers who sought to blend their new ideas with the ideas of the Ancient Greeks, Renaissance Italians, and the Thinkers of the Enlightenment in the creation of the New Nation.

One of the great myths of America is that we don't have Class Struggle and Class Warfare. Class division was written about and feared by James Madison, Father of the Constitution,
"The most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property..."
During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Class Warfare was a major preoccupation of Madison and the other Founders. Some of the Founders, notably Alexander Hamilton, greatly feared that Class War was already upon them (he was thinking of Shay's Rebellion) and the common man would establish a Democratic Tyranny voting themselves the property of the Rich, but it didn't happen then and it isn't happening now.

James Madison believed his "extended republic" model aided by supplemental checks built into the Constitution would stave off Class Warfare, but that within 2 or 3 generations the struggles of rich and poor would result in conflict.

In 1829-1830 Madison became convinced the country was headed for Class warfare by 1930. He reasoned the massive populace crowded together would,
"necessarily be reduced by competition for employment to wages which afford them the bare necessaries of life. The proportion being without property can not be expected to sympathize sufficiently with its [property] right to be safe depositories of power over them." 
So, either the demos would rise up in revolt "by a law of nature". Or the Rich would degenerate into Oligarchy and destroy the Republic because,
"A republic cannot stand upon bayonets. We are free today substantially but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few."
But, this is not the Great Man of History longing. A Great President lets other people rise and the greatest Americans often come from the Middle Class.

James Madison knew this. He and the other Founders also warned of Foreign Entanglements, Standing Armies, and Unchecked Corporate Power.

Do Conservatives not re-read their own mythology? The Myth of Ronald Reagan wasn't that he got the Soviets to pass a universal healthcare coverage for their citizens. It was that Reagan goaded the Red Menace into an Arms Race which bankrupted them. What did Bin Laden accomplish with the 9/11 attacks? He got us to waste $10 Trillion in overseas folly of Empire-building in the Middle East. And not to mention the thousands of american families shattered by the physical and mental scars of war.

What happened, since the End of World War II, was the establishment of the Permanent War Status by the United States have drained the lifeblood and treasury of the Country.

Who has benefited from the Overseas American Empire and the Massive DoD Budget? Undying Corporations and an increasingly isolated Cadre of Elites who see no Country and no reason to spend to aid the poor, or support the infrastructure of this Nation.

President Harry Truman famously stated,
"Poor Ike! He'll sit there and say 'Do this! Do that!' And nothing will happen. It's not like the army. He'll find it very frustrating."
President Eisenhower presided over 8 years of American Prosperity. Ike had an America that was untouched by World War 2 and thus had it's infrastructure intact with which to dominate the world market. But, President Eisenhower had a tax rate of 52% on Corporations and a Top Tax rate of 91%!
"[W]e cannot afford to reduce taxes, reduce income, until we have in sight a program of expenditures that shows that the factors of income and of outgo will be balanced. Now that is just to my mind sheer necessity.” 02/17/1953
However, Ike had the benefit of a populace which was not going through a radical upheaval. Ike had a populace which was for all intents homogeneous religiously. He also had a Class of Wealthy Americans which still believed in the idea of Noblese Oblige. 

And what did Eisenhower warn of at the end of his Presidency? The Military-Industrial-Complex. 


Unlike in Ike's day it's not the same, today. The Rich see no reason to aid the poor or even to invest in the United States.

Mitt Romney's former energy policy advisor Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources. gave a speech on 09/13/12 to Congress demanding National Parks be opened to Oil Exploitation and that his Federal Corporate Welfare which he's received since 1967 continue. Hamm also pouted that, "Continental’s effective tax rate is 38%!" Except it isn't. Over the past 5 years Hamm's Corporation Contenintal Inc paid 2.2% in Income Taxes when adjusted for all the tax breaks, corporate kickbacks and federal assistance he's received.

On the books his Oil Company probably has a stated tax rate of 38%. But, Hamm paid next to nothing when all the byzantine tax laws are applied. The Tax Code has been made circuitous specifically because it aids the Plutocracy.

A business owner in Las Vegas on Wednesday November 7th, told a CBS radio station that he had fired 22 of his 114 "mostly Hispanic" employees because President Barack Obama had won re-election. David noted that he had "mostly Hispanic" employees and some had come to work wearing Obama shirts on election day.

The Republican Party's favorite Michele Bachmann believes in a platform of No Taxes on Corporations. That would be Zero. 

Corporate Profits have gone up quarter after quarter since the beginning of 2009. Verizon, for instance, reported a pre-tax income of $24.2 Billion in 2009-2010 and received, through U.S. federal income tax loopholes, a $1.3 Billion dollar refund.

The Richest 1% of this Nation control 50% of all financial investments. The top 10% have almost 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Less than 10% of the country own the United States of America. 

But it's important to note that for the Rich, most of that income does not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries.

What the Plutocracy wants is a closure of the Middle Class because the Middle Class is too unpredictable. It's much better to have a pliant working class who are satisfied with crumbs from the government and whatever wages/benefits the Moneyed Overlords are willing to bequeath upon them.

The Middle Class too often flexes it's political power and votes themselves things like Supplemental Social Security Income and Medicaid for the poor. The Middle Class votes against Child labor and for safer working conditions and regulations on the dumping of coal slag or mercury waste from Oil refineries into rivers and lakes. The Middle Class fights and strikes for pensions and dental care for their family.

Much easier for the Rich to move to a Third World Hellhole and have a Totalitarian Government enforce Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage.

Today, the reason "47%" do not pay Federal Income Taxes are because of the slap-dash additions and shaky edifices built into the Tax Code. The EITC, marriage deduction, child deductions, home ownership deductions were Republican backed ideas to encourage people to adopt mores, behaviors and family structures which Republicans favored. The biggest Moochers are the Ultra-Rich.

The last time we had a restructuring of the Tax Codes, with the Bush Tax Cuts, Conservative shills for the 1% shamelessly lied about it's goals. The Heritage Foundation's 2001 report proclaimed if the Bush tax cut legislation were to pass, it would:
1) Effectively pay off the federal debt; 
2) Reduce the federal surplus by $1.4 trillion; 
3) Substantially increase family income; 
4) Save the entire Social Security surplus; 
5) Increase personal savings; 
6) Create more job opportunities.
None of this happened and we've been stuck in the Republican Recession ever since. But, what this did accomplish was a massive transfer of the Nation's Wealth into the hands of the Ultra-Rich.

What the Rich desire is the semblance of Democracy with the reality of Plutocracy. They privatize the profits and socialize the losses.

Most of the problems, President Obama is dealing with, he inherited. Some he's allowed to happen; for instance, the ratio of public-sector employees to the overall population is the lowest it’s been since 1968.

What Barack should do is tear down the rotten Tax Structure and Economy of Income Inequality built by right-wing lies:

1) Let the Bush Tax Cuts expire, completely.
2) Void the Sequestration.
3) Eliminate the Cap on Social Security taxes.
4) Raise the Tax Rate on Capital Gains and tax it as normal income.
5) Eliminate the deferred compensation rule.
6) Eliminate any and all Tax breaks and federal subsidies with Corporations which out-source jobs and off-shore manufacturing factories.
7) Bring back a Financial Transaction Tax to curb Wall Street volatility and curb rampant Hedge Fund speculation gambling.
8) Propose a Tax cut package for the first $250,000 of income (98% of America).
9) Create and augment spending and hiring for public-sector employees.
10) The follow-on Budget should include a 50% reduction in DoD spending. 
Then watch Republicans tear themselves apart as they reveal their entire Party is devoted to guarding the obscene theft and reverse-robin-hood robbery of Middle Class wealth by the Rich. House Speaker Bohener immediately genuflected to the Rich after President Obama's resounding win. Congressman Peter King of New York has declared he and the Republican House members have a "Mandate" to protect the Tax Breaks for the Rich.

There is a window here for Barack Obama to cement himself as True Class Warrior fighting for the 300 Million Americans who desire the American Dream but are being shackled with the chains of Wage Slavery and Corporate Bondage to the Moocher Class of the Plutocracy. It is our Job as a Center Left People to pick him up and stand beside him and guide him to that Destiny.

*- I think Jerome Corsi did this same post, except his use of "man-date" meant Barack Obama was Gay Muslim *Married* to a Pakistani Man whom he later murdered.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A Landslide Victory for President Barack Obama. This is a Center-Left Nation.

332 Electoral Votes. 3 Million more Popular Votes and rising. Ohio, Virginia, Florida and all the other true battleground states. Five of the last Six Presidential Elections have been won by Democrats.

This is a Liberal Country. A Center-Left Nation.

We need to hammer that home to every day to combat the lies of Faux News and Toxic Conservative Radio, which will work to undo the clear liberal mandate handed to President Obama.

But, President Obama faces big challenges now.

First up is Sequestration and the "Fiscal Cliff". Centrists and Republicans will demand Austerity and point to the big divide in the American populace as necessitating The Grand Bargain.

The American People just overwhelmingly rejected The Ryan Buget and the politics of Austerity. We are tired of 30 years of the Republican Economic model of Pissing Down Our Back and Telling Us it's Raining Prosperity. This is a clear mandate to eliminate the Bush Tax Cuts and Reaganomics.

We said No to the Right-Wing model and President Obama needs to say No. The President doesn't need to move halfway to meet the Republicans.

The Grand Bargain is giant screw-job for the Poor and Middle Class. We need to resist, resist, resist. No  cuts to Medicare, No reductions to Medicaid, No stealing Social Security for degenerate Wall Street gamblers to flinch.

We need tighter and further regulations on Wall Street. We need to re-empower the SEC. We need to readopt a Financial Transaction Tax to curb the rampant speculation and Hedge Fund gambling associated with Wall Street. President Obama needs to stand next to Senator Elizabeth Warren as she battles for the American People against the Vultures.

The American people did not vote for cuts they voted for much higher Taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires, the elimination of tax subsidies to Oil Conglomerates, effective collection of taxes on Giant Corporate tax cheats, and fair taxes on Capital Gains and Income made by investments.

We need to impose tariffs on foreign made crap, let's make IPhones here in the United States,  and punish the Wal Marts and Bain Capital which make money drowning the American manufacturing base and off-shoring jobs.

The Housing Market is still a shambles. Getting out from under the rubble of the Bush Housing Bubble and Republican Recession is going to take time. Austan Goolsebee stated, we have 5 million vacant houses and $700 Billion in negative housing equity. Housing is huge problem.

Next is getting us out of Afghanistan and actually Reducing our Foreign Empire and bloated Warmonger Budget. We need to close bases around the world, we need to scrap wasteful spending on a blue water Navy, we need push to reduce the Drone Campaign. We need to cut the fraud, waste and abuse of the DoD by $500 Billion.

Our involvement in Libya needs to be questioned. And I don't mean Benghazi. Benghazi and Libya are part of a Covert CIA Operation. Republicans aren't going to delve too deeply into it because the more they expose in their baseless partisan witch hunt the more blowback they will create for US abroad and for Republicans within the Intelligence Community.

But, Congress does need to step up and take back control of Military involvement overseas. This is a huge problem as Presidents have expanded their control and played word games to get around the power to declare War invested in the Congress. But, this Congress and previous ones are also culpable because of the Trillions they've given to profligate warmongers and because they are afraid to stop paying to the DoD and Pentagon.

Right now is a time to take a few celebratory victory breathes. Unfortunately, there is a lot of work to get America going away from the policies which aid only the Wealthy and Powerful and make this a country reflect the Liberal Ideas that the American people hold.

Update:
This rejection of the Right-Wing went further than just President Obama's landslide. Republicans Richard Mourdock, Todd Akin, Tommy Thompson, Denny Rehnberg were all decisively defeated in the Senate. Elizabeth Warren trounced Tea Party darling Scott Brown. Two of the biggest incendarity Republican bomb throwers, Allen West and Joe Walsh, were kicked out of the House. While the straight talking Alan Grayson was voted back in by a 2-1 margain.