The Debt Ceiling "crisis" demonstrates Republican perfidy

President Biden got through the Terrorist Republican hostage debt ceiling attack and secured a very good government funding bill for the next two fiscal years.

Oh, was the Corporate Media thwarted again.  They were licking their chops at running their favorite story; Both Sides Do It... but the Democrats are Worse!, instead Joe Biden did it again!  He played a nice hand of Poker and didn't give the Corporate Media what they so desperately yearn for, statements from the Democratic President which they and their Republican co-conspirators can use to Deny Reality. 

Then, as the fragile vote in the Fascist controlled House and Sinema Manchin controlled Senate came up, Joe Biden took a pratfall to distract the Rightwing zombie internet. Classic and effective. 

If the Hostage situation of the Debt Ceiling Crisis had became a full-blown default while crashing the US Economy, then the Corporate Media would have run with what a shocking lack of leadership this was by the President.  If President Biden had played the too cute game of 14th Amendment saying we pay debts and ignored the Republican Terrorists then the Corporate Media would have run with President Biden has caused a Constitutional Crisis Certainly, the Republican House would have gotten some blame but, they would have been excused by "Journalists" because everyone knows The Republicans are crazy, have no interest in governing, and exist to throw tantrums on TV while flinging shit everywhere.

"Hell no. Not a chance,"  Republican Congressman Garret Graves tells reporters He that will not work shall not eat.  There is nothing meaner nor less charitable than a Republican christian.

The Big Open Secret, the unspoken reality plaguing American politics is Republicans are the Party of destruction and making government unworkable, untenable, and unresponsive to regular Americans.  This encapsulates their entire ideology; by simply making government functions accessible to only a certain class of people they ensure that conservatives immediately dismiss any Governmental action no matter how anodyne as "Socialism".

Look... "Politics" is an unfair game.  Democratic leaders, especially Presidents and Speakers, are expected to be the adults while Republicans get too say all manner of psychotic, vile, hateful, batshit crazy things which elicit not but a chuckle from the irresponsible American press corps.  This is nothing new; Michele Bachmann and Steve King were allowed to be bigoted, mean and hateful while President Obama had the extra burden of not being the scary black man.  Major Traitor Greene and Jim Jordan get too say all manner of evidence free lies and racist conspiracies and allege all manner of crimes against President Biden and his family. 

The Corporate Media is paid to pretend Republicans argue in good faith and Republican proposals are an honest reflection of limited government and that Republicans truly believe their plans are the right path for the Nation.

Fundamentally, a functioning US government is a detriment to the Republicans.  Or to be more precise Republicans want a government which works for Harlan Crow and drowns everyone else in a bathtub.

This is one of the main salients in the slow moving Coup Republicans launched 50 years ago.  This is what the Powell Memo laid out as Conservatives sought to remake the Democratic Republic into a Neo-Confederate Corporate controlled Wage Slave Nation-State.  Republicans want a Nation that pretends to be free, pretends to offer Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness but is, in fact, a Fascist One Party Apartheid Country.

Republicans hate you.  Republicans want you to suffer and, if necessary, die.  We, the people see this clearly with Republican gun policy.  We, the people see this clearly with the fanatical opposition to "Obamacare".  We, the people see this clearly with the tyrannical push to ban all care for anyone who identifies as Queer.  We, the people see this clearly with the Republican devotion to undermining safety regulations on trains for instance or with the removal and neutering of environmental protections.  We, the people see this clearly especially with the push to restrict women's reproductive rights and choices.

Uundermining the government being an "outsider" denigrating "career politicicans" has been a winning elecotral strategy for over 40 years now.  This is the natural evolution of Republicans rhetoric as it descends from Ronnie Raygun's infamous 9 words, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. 

Of course Republicans wanted the debt ceiling to crash the economy. Of fucking course Republicans will gladly grind Government to a halt. Of fucking course Republicans will undermine the United States.  Doing so plays into their rhetoric.  Blame Joe Biden.  Blame Joe Biden.  Blame Joe Biden.  Just listen... I'm sure you can hear cavewoman Major Traitor Greene's terrible southern accent a-blamin' and a-impeachin' Joe Biden over debt default.

Republicans were gleeful at the prospect of Americanfailure.  They are openly bragging about this, Rape-publican Matt Gaetz said:

“I think my conservative colleagues for the most part support Limit, Save, Grow, & they don’t feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.”

Oh, you say Trump and his family were engaged in a criminal conspiracy and robbed the Nation well Gym Jordan, Pudge Comer, Major Traitor Greene say its the Biden Crime Family! And Eli Crane proved the Chinese paid Joe Biden millions of dollars to allow Chinese spy balloons fly over the Homeland!

Flood the Zone with shit because eventually Normie society will get tired of the Rightwing outrage throw their hands up and say fine you run the government.

Sowing discord, undercutting faith in US institutions,  hamstringing the administrative bureaucracy, slashing meager government assistance all serve to Republican agenda, of returning the US to its idyllic roots; a genocidal slave state in which women, minorities, and others lived at the whims white male Christian patriarchs.

01/06/21 to 11/19/21: There's nothing you can do about it.

I certainly hope Senators Manchin and Sinema enjoyed their 10 months of spotlight.  Because... because the Rittenhouse verdict feels different.  It feels like the Inflectional Point.  The Jan6th Trump Coup Attempt conducted by conservative criminals and insurrectionists feels like it was the priming of the pump and the Injustice from Kenosha was the pull of the starter cord. 

The palpable malevolence oozing from the Right on-line has an almost quantifiable difference than the Trump years with it's rallies and "Lock Her Up" chants.

Without a doubt there are elected Republicans who absolutely believe "Second Amendment Remedies" are completely at their disposal.  While other Republicans will restrain themselves to just using the gerrymander, voter intimidation, voter suppression and the byzantine archaic rules and precious norms of the House and Senate to establish Fascism.  But, it's the rightwing domestic terrorist organizations who now are openly talking about murdering Us.

These Paramilitary organizations, who rose from the 1990's Anti-Clinton militia movement and 2010's Anti-Obama Teabagger terrorists, and of course trace their origins back to the Slave Catching Patrols and KKK, have the scent of blood and the belief that now it's legal. 

Maybe... maybe it's nothing. More big tough guy talk on Twitter.  Kurt Schlichter is nothing but a big mouth shit talker.  I don't see him having the sociopathic stones to pick up Rittenhouse's torch. But, post January 6th such on-line chatter can't be dismissed.  If a bunch of Proud Boys go on a death squad mission, stop "suspicious" cars, and execute suspected "Antifa Terrorists" or are "forced" to defend themselves from those murderous BLM Thugs, who's going to arrest them?  The Portland PD?  The Oregon State Police?  The DOJ or FBI?

Remember the FBI, the most reactionary anti-civil liberties agency in US history, is not Reactionary enough for the modern Trumpists.  What the Proud Boys, III Percenters, Boogaloo Boys, et al want to do is replace existing Law Enforcement.  Which is what Fascists have always done.

2021.  November.  19th.  Remember that date.  You may find it was when The Troubles began...

Aaron Schock doesn't want you to know what Crimes he pulled as a Congressman

Former Congressman Aaron Schock has claimed 5th Amendment protections for documents, papers and correspondence generated from his Congressional Office.

"No court has recognized that a public official (specifically a U.S. Representative) has a constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment to avoid the compelled production of publicly-funded, non-private, public or official records within his official (specifically his official congressional) office," Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Bass said.

What's that? You're stunned Faux News isn't running segment after segment about the criminal malfeasance of a Congressman? And the efforts to get obvious official public documents hidden from the eyes of the public? Then you must be unfamiliar with the acronym IOKIYAR.

Schock's profligate ways and dandified airs raised nary a peep of concern over at the conservative media because Schock could be counted on to vote the proper way and advance the Conservative Agenda of Oppression, Intolerance and Adulation of the Rich.

So, now Republican Darin LaHood is most likely going to take Schock's seat and be expected to toe-the-line and if he gets in trouble like Schock, or David Vitter, or Mark Sanford, or Mark Foley, or any of the other Criminal Republicans, Faux News, their conservative drones, and their Plutocratic Masters will ensure the Reactionary Agenda continues moving forward as Conservatives seek to shackle the American People into Corporate Bondage and Wage Slavery.

Cholera Water for the Poor, $350-A-Bottle Pinot Noir for Republicans

The Republicans hate the EPA and are wholly owned by Corporations. As such, 223 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to eliminate the power of the EPA and the Clean Water Act of 1972, by passing H.R.2018 The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011. It would eliminate, wholesale, the EPA's power to supersede individual states' water pollution rules. Because as we all learned last year with BP, TransOcean and Haliburton and the Gulf of Mexico Spill companies can be relied upon to regulate themselves and if something does happen Rick Perry or some other Republican Stooge can blame it on god.

This is a Joe Barton before the fact apology to polluting Companies. Quite simply by doing this the Republicans are allowing Corporations more leverage by allowing them to face individual States as oppossed to Federal Power.

BP acknowledged that for the last six years its Whiting refinery violated federal pollution limits on benzene, a highly toxic chemical linked to leukemia and other health problems.

BP reported that it had processed too much benzene at the refinery's sewage treatment plant, about 15 miles southeast of Chicago.

Last year alone (2008), the company processed more than 95 tons of benzene waste -- about 16 times the amount allowed. BP also violated the 6-ton limit from 2003 to 2007.

Whiting Refinery was cited who violations of U.S. and Indiana EPA regulations in October 2008,

Federal regulators say BP PLC violated the Clean Air Act by beginning to make modifications at its Indiana oil refinery along Lake Michigan to process Canadian crude without the proper permit.

The EPA said in November the modifications caused "significant increases" in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon monoxide emitted from the refinery.

Near Charleston West Virginia American families no longer have clean water to drink because the Bush Administration gleefully allowed Coal Companies to violate EPA standards and pollute the water table so badly that families are drinking a toxic sludge which is eating away at their bodies:

Jennifer Hall-Massey knows not to drink the tap water in her home near Charleston, W.Va.

In fact, her entire family tries to avoid any contact with the water. Her youngest son has scabs on his arms, legs and chest where the bathwater — polluted with lead, nickel and other heavy metals — caused painful rashes. Many of his brother’s teeth were capped to replace enamel that was eaten away.

Neighbors apply special lotions after showering because their skin burns. Tests show that their tap water contains arsenic, barium, lead, manganese and other chemicals at concentrations federal regulators say could contribute to cancer and damage the kidneys and nervous system.

In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times.

But, like all things Republicans if you have $$$ you can have Clean Water or even better if you have money and are poised to ensure all Government Spenidng is directed at protecting and transferring wealth to the Rich while undercutting and killing the Poor you can be Pinot Noir swilling Paul Ryan, Serious Budget Wizard!

This is Dastardly stuff the Republicans are pulling. If you aren't not a Hedge Fund Manager or a high ranking official for a Multi-National Oil Company or own your own Private Jet the Republicans do not give a shit about you. And Republican bureaucrats passing this type of legislation don't care about water pollution because they know they'll be rewarded by these same polluting companies with huge dollar amounts.

But conservatives don't care. Republicans and Conservatives love when Americans die, the sound of Americans suffering is music to the Republican ear.

Fallow but not Gone

Hey, everyone I've only taken a short break but I'm not gone!

I got a first hand view of Madison and the passion, grace and gentle power of Progressives was awe inspiring.

I will return to this blog because the Republican Malfeasance in Wisconsin and the Class War, the Republican Hitmen and their deluded conservative foot soldiers have declared, is the only War the Right will actually fight in and I'll not back down in the face of their evil.

The bait and switch after the 2010 elections show us the rot which infests the Right's soul today, they will engage in any underhanded sleazy tactics and outright lying about their true goals which is nothing less than the return of the Slavery and Bondage of We, the People.

The Republican Party's notions of Shared Sacrifice

In order to be part of the totalitarian mind-set, it is not necessary to wear a uniform or carry a club or whip. It is only necessary to wish for your own subjection, and to delight in the subjection of others. ~ Christopher Hitchens, from god is not Great pg. 232, sums up the Republican Party and their conservative fanatics use of Government in order to subjugate the Poor and Middle Class.

Whenever you watch a Sunday Political Show and a Republican bureaucrat talks about Shared Sacrifice watch out it means the Middle Class is in for a beating. The Republican Party has spent the last 30 years dismantling the Federal Government in an effort to destroy the Poor and subjugate the Middle Class.

When Wall Street engaged in furious gambling aided by the blind eye of Republican de-regulation it meant the Middle Class would sacrifice by being on the hook for the debts incurred. Of course, the Wall Street hoodlums know this because they've been pulling the same scam for 30 years ever since Ronald Reagan and John McCain gave them the nod, with the Savings & Loan Scandal, that Corporate theft would be protected with stolen Tax payer dollars.

Shared Sacrifice means a Federal Worker pay freeze on Middle Class government employees while helping Goldman Sachs funnel Billions of Tax Payer dollars into bonuses for the Bankers whose profligate "investment" gambling was aided and endorsed by President Bush and the Republican Party and the cause of the 2007-2009 Republican Party recession.

When Republicans start wars, as a means of a gigantic transfer of wealth from the Nation to the blood sucking War Profiteers, for instance Halliburton and Blackwater (Xe), it meant the poor and middle class would bear the brunt of the suffering and sacrifice, while Republicans profit off the blood of dead Americans in wars they will never serve in for Republicans eschew military service due to their inherent cowardice.

When Republicans talk about shared sacrifice in terms of cutting Federal spending it means an elimination of regulatory bodies, like the FDA, the EPA, OSHA and MSHA which keep Corporate monstrosities from poisoning our food water and air or from working Americans in dangerous slave conditions. It also means Republicans will continue to strive to steal from pensions and social security as detailed in Paul Ryan's plan to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

It means Billions of dollars physically lost in Iraq as the price of Warmongering and Trillions of dollars stolen from Social Security and transferred to the Republican War Profiteers off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and UBS Switzerland. It means the end of Regulation on Banks, it means apologies to Oil Companies who destroy our lands and defense of Rich Mine Owners who kill their workers, it means an increase of Taxes on the Poor, while Taxes on the Rich decrease.

Shared Sacrifice to Republicans means the rapidly expanding gulf between the Rich and the rest of America. It means the Grover Norquist and Voodoo Economists dream of destroying Unions.

"They can tell their unions that they have to accept cuts now or face a much more dire fate in bankruptcy court.”

And the Sham Tea Party Hateriots have allowed themselves to be conditioned that Unions are always to blame. The $30K-a-year garbage man in New York City is to blame for the economy and not the recklessness of real estate "moguls" who leveraged and repackaged billions in junk investments in order to make big scores on the Republican housing bubble scam. Conservatives blame dead Chicago Firefighters and not Harry Macklowe whose, as pointed out in the New York Times Real Estate section, "$7 billion gamble on seven Midtown skyscrapers at the top of the market almost cost him his entire empire, is out looking for new deals."

And while thousands of Americans have been fast-tracked into bankruptcy and home foreclosure,

the truth is that there have been surprisingly few career fatalities among New York developers, even though they have lost billions of investor dollars on overpriced real estate and have littered the city with unfinished apartment buildings. While a homeowner who lost a house to foreclosure would find it difficult to borrow for years, developers who defaulted on enormous loans have still been able to attract money.

Nope Republicans are busy browbeating their conservative slaves into believing the Middle Class is to blame.

Shared Sacrifice means the realization of the Republican Goal of Neo-Feudalism, wage slavery and cutthroat Capitalism for the Poor and Socialism for the Rich and their undying Corporate monsters.

Related:
EPA Reminds Republicans Cap-and-Trade Used to be GOP Idea - and it Worked for Acid Rain [The Center for Public Integrity]