I flipped when CNN ran a banner a few weeks ago saying that the price of gas was the lowest it has been in years. I KNEW that was not true, because, being on a limited income and living out in the boonies, a few cents a gallon up or down adds up. Politicians, and organizations that represent the oil and gas industry, have been playing fast and loose with the price of gas since forever, but I have been fascinated with the way they are working the public since the price finally began to come down a few years ago.
But going back into the painfully high gas prices of the Bush era (here in SC I remember paying nearly $4/gallon before the price began its drop), the right-wingnut cry was for -- you guessed it -- more freedom for the gas and oil industry: Drill, Baby, Drill. If that had been the most stupid thing Sarah Palin said during the 2008 campaign, I believe history might have been really different, because promising to lower the price of gas by drilling appealed to an awful lot of Americans.
And sadly, from fracking and resultant earthquakes, to pipelines and the leaks and spills caused by poor design and maintenance, to coal mining and its risk to workers due to its inherent danger and abhorrent safety practices, it has been nearly impossible to counter the demand for more and yet more oil. The siren song of more jobs has been magnified by Trump's narcissistic rendition of reality. He promised 28,000 jobs as he signed the executive order allowing the building of the Keystone pipeline. It is actually two to four thousand temporary jobs while it is being built and 35 permanent jobs when finished. The truth comes too late; the industry pockets its profits and we are forced to deal with the environmental and human disasters. And the price of gas doesn't go down.
Newt Gingrich bloviated about the price of gas when he ran his pathetic presidential campaign in 2012, claiming that Obama intended to get the price of gas up to $8 to $9 a gallon, and he alone could get it down to $2.50. And yet, when the price of gas went down as low as $1.50 last year, someone in the crowd at a Hillary rally had to shout out at the President about the low price of gas, because nobody was talking about it. Of course, Dems, unlike republicans, are reluctant to take credit for something they haven't had anything to do with. But Obama's stealth energy policy (again, nobody bragging about accomplishments) had managed to make gas cheaper without trashing the environment. And unemployment declined without all those dirty energy jobs being added; in fact, renewable energy has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US.
So what has been happening to the price of gas, really? A three-year chart shows the plummeting of gas prices in 2014 and 2015, only beginning a steady rise in February of 2016, as tension mounted around the presidential campaign.
After the election which promised to shitcan environmental regulations and give a go-ahead to fuel industry rape and plunder, it seems the Wall Street speculators are ready to party. And just as they did during the Bush years, the media is reporting the gains as though there will be no dark side, ever. But as the price of oil goes up, the price of gas at the pumps goes up.
But here is the thing that really drives me nuts. The price doesn't just go up and up and up. There is a method to the madness of the oil industry.
When I check the price of gas as I leave my Wadmalaw Island home and venture out to Johns Island and civilization, I see that it has gone up TEN CENTS a gallon since the last time I passed, a couple days earlier. The very next day it goes down four or five cents. Well, that feels like a relief, doesn't it? And then it goes up a couple more cents, maybe down a penny. This goes on for a month or two, and then steadies. Until it goes up another ten cents, and the shock is followed by relief which eventually leads to being acclimatized to the big hike and ready for the next wave.
In November, the price of gas by me was $1.59 a gallon. Today it is $2.19. Last week it was $2.09.
At some point, when people start complaining, the oil industry will produce some rationale for the hike. Nobody will be there to debate whatever reason they give. We will have pipelines producing a handful of jobs and drilling destroying our earth, and we will be tightening our belts to buy gas, just like we did in the good old days of the Bush administration.
By the way, here in South Carolina we have been waging the battle of the gas tax for years, until our roads and bridges got so damned bad they finally passed the hike. I am sure that many of our less informed citizens will be quick to point out that the rise in the price of gas is due to the tax hike them damn liberals voted in. Actually, the price of the gas tax in South Carolina did go up in June, by two cents a gallon. So please feel free to poke a hole in that one when it floats by.
Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Obama. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Monday, May 8, 2017
The Method and Madness of Trumpcare
We should not be surprised that after all the protests, phone calls and town halls, and the first attempt at jamming the AHCA through the House, the bill was resuscitated, bribes were bribed, and it was forced through successfully last week.
We should have known that each and every time a snarky remark was made by a liberal about his failing first 100 days, Trump's determination to win grew. Much as the truly clever and funny jabs that Obama made in 2011 at the White House Correspondent's Dinner set in concrete Donald's determination to run and win the presidency.
It is said that Donald Trump has no understanding of the complexities of health care... by Donald himself in fact. And he really does not care, any more than he cares about refugees or American workers. He wants to be liked, and he wants to win. He would rather be liked by rich and powerful people than by disgruntled Americans, but if the latter can help him do the bidding of the former, he will say whatever he needs to say to get there.
One of the groups of peons that Trump has courted successfully is the republican Congress. Don't laugh. They may be a lot richer than the rest of us, but they aren't in the same league as the Kochs or Vladimir Putin. They are just rich enough to be insecure about keeping that wealth. They are just rich enough to know that losing could be just around the corner. In other words, except for the money, they are a lot like the middle class Trump supporter.
Ryan and McConnell and their cronies want nothing more than to be in the club, and Donald Trump can smell that vulnerability. When he bused all those senators to the White House for that meeting on North Korea, it had all the makings of a Trump sales pitch. Inviting a group of powerful people to "his" house is to Trump like inviting the Chinese president to share his delicious chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago. It puts the power in his hands.
Imagine his surprise when even republican senators were unimpressed.
Donald Trump is a man of limited intellect but a craving for attention and approval that has created a finely-honed instinct for manipulating others. Of course, he couldn't have done it without his father's wealth and influence, but what he developed has worked quite well for him in his businesses -- even when he lost he made sure he won, regardless of who he had to throw under the bus to do it.
What looks like erratic behavior is really a pattern of responses that is coming to be fairly predictable: assumption of success; disbelief followed by rage -- insults and attacks; withdrawing briefly to regroup; followed by approach and flattery; and then the deal.
He has done this with each of his primary opponents, with the media, with foreign leaders, and now with Congress.
But he is finding that he is playing in a different league these days. Even psycho leaders like Duterte of the Philippines are offering fairly lame excuses to avoid looking like they want to be seen associating with our own psycho leader. And he was brushed off by the inaptly named Freedom Caucus, the group formerly known as the Tea Party, when he tried to prod them into the original AHCA bill.
Like a rat learning to press the lever to get another rice krispie, however, Trump is a good learner. He knew how to get Paul Ryan to be his House lapdog, and it didn't take that much more wheeling and dealing to sell the really bad health insurance bill to the people that were actually looking for really bad health insurance to pawn off on the American people.
But that group of people in Congress who are just insecure enough that they will work with Trump to get what they need don't mind throwing him under the bus either. So what we all tried to call "RyanCare" is now "TrumpCare." And the republicans who have been at the art of the political dirty deal far longer than Trump, have laid the ground work for laying the blame on him AND gotten their nasty piece of legislation passed.
There are a couple of important factors here, things we need to keep front and center as we watch -- and even try to influence -- the outcome of this struggle.
First of all, we need to stop pretending that the Senate is that much more grown up and responsible than the House. They are mostly smarter, and definitely shrewder, than their wacky counterparts, but they are still rabid about success, and equally insecure about their futures. They are in the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, but because they can't count on guaranteed gerrymandered districts, they have to pretend to be listening to and working for all their constituents.
We in South Carolina have learned the hard way to never make the mistake of assuming that Lindsey Graham is on our side. He is on Lindsey Graham's side, the side of the right wing, whether it be religious or corporate. He was tickled that he could vote Neil Gorsuch onto the Supreme Court, and did whatever mental maneuvers were necessary to defend his desires. This is true of Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and all the other folks that have been bought by corporate money.
And that leads us back to Trumpcare. It is a truly egregious scheme, a tax cut for the really wealthy that takes health care away from pregnant women, cancer patients and sick children. But in that, it is not much different than what has been happening to workers and education since the 80's, and what will be happening to our environment. Every piece of which will make us sicker, less able to care for ourselves and our families, and less able to fight the plutocratic oligarchy that has managed to lie, cheat and steal their way into Washington.
The irony is, you can call it Trumpcare, but Trump doesn't care. Ryan and the rest of the right-wingnuts are looking for continued wealth and security. But the joke is on them. The only ones Trump cares about are Trumps. And every single damn thing he has done since he came into office has profited the Trumps. That is the other thing we need to keep remembering to keep our eyes on.
Talk about the art of your deal made in hell.
We should have known that each and every time a snarky remark was made by a liberal about his failing first 100 days, Trump's determination to win grew. Much as the truly clever and funny jabs that Obama made in 2011 at the White House Correspondent's Dinner set in concrete Donald's determination to run and win the presidency.
It is said that Donald Trump has no understanding of the complexities of health care... by Donald himself in fact. And he really does not care, any more than he cares about refugees or American workers. He wants to be liked, and he wants to win. He would rather be liked by rich and powerful people than by disgruntled Americans, but if the latter can help him do the bidding of the former, he will say whatever he needs to say to get there.
One of the groups of peons that Trump has courted successfully is the republican Congress. Don't laugh. They may be a lot richer than the rest of us, but they aren't in the same league as the Kochs or Vladimir Putin. They are just rich enough to be insecure about keeping that wealth. They are just rich enough to know that losing could be just around the corner. In other words, except for the money, they are a lot like the middle class Trump supporter.
Ryan and McConnell and their cronies want nothing more than to be in the club, and Donald Trump can smell that vulnerability. When he bused all those senators to the White House for that meeting on North Korea, it had all the makings of a Trump sales pitch. Inviting a group of powerful people to "his" house is to Trump like inviting the Chinese president to share his delicious chocolate cake at Mar-a-Lago. It puts the power in his hands.
Imagine his surprise when even republican senators were unimpressed.
Donald Trump is a man of limited intellect but a craving for attention and approval that has created a finely-honed instinct for manipulating others. Of course, he couldn't have done it without his father's wealth and influence, but what he developed has worked quite well for him in his businesses -- even when he lost he made sure he won, regardless of who he had to throw under the bus to do it.
What looks like erratic behavior is really a pattern of responses that is coming to be fairly predictable: assumption of success; disbelief followed by rage -- insults and attacks; withdrawing briefly to regroup; followed by approach and flattery; and then the deal.
He has done this with each of his primary opponents, with the media, with foreign leaders, and now with Congress.
But he is finding that he is playing in a different league these days. Even psycho leaders like Duterte of the Philippines are offering fairly lame excuses to avoid looking like they want to be seen associating with our own psycho leader. And he was brushed off by the inaptly named Freedom Caucus, the group formerly known as the Tea Party, when he tried to prod them into the original AHCA bill.
Like a rat learning to press the lever to get another rice krispie, however, Trump is a good learner. He knew how to get Paul Ryan to be his House lapdog, and it didn't take that much more wheeling and dealing to sell the really bad health insurance bill to the people that were actually looking for really bad health insurance to pawn off on the American people.
But that group of people in Congress who are just insecure enough that they will work with Trump to get what they need don't mind throwing him under the bus either. So what we all tried to call "RyanCare" is now "TrumpCare." And the republicans who have been at the art of the political dirty deal far longer than Trump, have laid the ground work for laying the blame on him AND gotten their nasty piece of legislation passed.
There are a couple of important factors here, things we need to keep front and center as we watch -- and even try to influence -- the outcome of this struggle.
First of all, we need to stop pretending that the Senate is that much more grown up and responsible than the House. They are mostly smarter, and definitely shrewder, than their wacky counterparts, but they are still rabid about success, and equally insecure about their futures. They are in the pockets of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, but because they can't count on guaranteed gerrymandered districts, they have to pretend to be listening to and working for all their constituents.
We in South Carolina have learned the hard way to never make the mistake of assuming that Lindsey Graham is on our side. He is on Lindsey Graham's side, the side of the right wing, whether it be religious or corporate. He was tickled that he could vote Neil Gorsuch onto the Supreme Court, and did whatever mental maneuvers were necessary to defend his desires. This is true of Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and all the other folks that have been bought by corporate money.
And that leads us back to Trumpcare. It is a truly egregious scheme, a tax cut for the really wealthy that takes health care away from pregnant women, cancer patients and sick children. But in that, it is not much different than what has been happening to workers and education since the 80's, and what will be happening to our environment. Every piece of which will make us sicker, less able to care for ourselves and our families, and less able to fight the plutocratic oligarchy that has managed to lie, cheat and steal their way into Washington.
The irony is, you can call it Trumpcare, but Trump doesn't care. Ryan and the rest of the right-wingnuts are looking for continued wealth and security. But the joke is on them. The only ones Trump cares about are Trumps. And every single damn thing he has done since he came into office has profited the Trumps. That is the other thing we need to keep remembering to keep our eyes on.
Talk about the art of your deal made in hell.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Dems Are Asking: Is It Safe to Come Out Now?
I don't know about you, but I just keep asking myself these days, "Where the hell did the Democrats go?" There was a Senate election in Louisiana last weekend, and just as with Patrick Murphy in Florida, nary a Democrat around to throw their support to him. It was that important that, even though the republicans had already won the Senate, both Trump and Pence were out there stumping for their guy. But no Dems.
And we here in South Carolina have resorted to sending thanks to republican Senator Lindsey Graham for taking a stand on investigating Russia's manipulation of our presidential election. Meanwhile, google our own Jim Clyburn and all you come up with for news is that on November 30 he announced his support for Jaime Harrison for head of the DNC. Try googling "Jim Clyburn Russia" and the lack of news will make you want to cry.
Or spit. Which is what I have been doing a lot of lately. With twitter rants that threaten to destroy US / Fill In Country Here diplomacy and major US businesses, our president-elect is just beginning to enjoy the power he will wield on January 20. As we have come to expect, our Democrats in Congress, with a very few notable exceptions, are willing to crawl as one under a rock and wait till it all blows over, at which time we may well no longer have a democracy.
Let us take a moment to remember the Obama Inauguration in 2009. At the very time we were tearfully welcoming in our hope and change president, republican leaders were secretly congregating to figure out how to block him from seeing any of that hope and change materialize. And then they came out in public and said the same thing. It was just that important to them. So all we can conclude is that the threat of disemboweling all the positive change that Obama got through that obstructionist congress is just not worth sticking your neck out for.
And those brave Democrats who are speaking out against this clear threat? The republicans have them in their sights. Elizabeth Warren will be attacked at every turn. Al Franken will be in the crosshairs. Nancy Pelosi, well, they might leave her alone this time because her considerable power is already being eroded by those white men of the Blue Dog conservatives.
Way to stick together, Dems. Don't ever disappoint us.
While creeps like Tim Ryan advise that the reason the Dems lost was that they didn't fawn over the white middle class enough, the Russians and Giuliani's New York FBI got away with the most egregious fowl play ever to happen in US electoral politics. Trump was in charge of misdirecting the uninformed masses, Russia provided the props in terms of constant email leaks, republicans like Trey Gowdy gave the lies the guise of authenticity in Congress, and FBI Director James Comey was coerced into nailing the election with the last-minute sleight-of-hand that kept just enough Democrats away from the polls. Meanwhile, idiots like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd did the dirty work we all thought was the purview of Fox News by prefacing every damn news segment by saying that Trump and Clinton were the most disliked candidates in history, equating the proven crimes of Donald Trump with the mistruths being spread about Clinton.
And when our Democratic Party adds that all up, what do they come up with? That Hillary didn't reach all those white voters; that she didn't show enough of herself; that people don't trust her; that she wasn't genuine; that blah blah blah....
Well, let me tell you, Party Dems. You may be afraid to come out and represent all of us. Or you may not think it is possible to reach out to all those white middle class working folk if you keep talking about what the rest of us need.
Or maybe you think that the country blames you for being in the "do-nothing" congress. If that is true, it is because you have failed to speak up EVERY TIME the republicans blocked progress. This should have been a piece of cake. The republicans gave the narrative to us on a silver platter: "Our economy has gotten stronger since the last failed republican administration in spite of the obstructionist republicans. Just imagine if Obama had had a majority in congress that was willing to work with him to move the country forward -- imagine what he could have done."
But instead, in 2010, Blue Dogs lost in Kentucky and Texas (yes I mean you Wendy Davis), by backing away from both liberal issues and from President Obama.
And here they are, once again, after the incredible popularity of Bernie Sanders, talking about how they are going to cooperate with the takeover of our government by a plutocracy which purpose is to further the wealth of the few, predominantly the Trumps. Admitted ties to Russia, and nobody on our side is yelling for the release of tax returns. Remember Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager? After he was found to have ties to the Ukraine, Trump let him go with a nod and a wink, and sure enough, now that he doesn't need your vote anymore, Manafort is back, bigger and dirty as ever. For gods' sake, Democrats have been heard singing the praises of racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, likely our next attorney general.
So while Paul Ryan is scheming over taking away our social security and medicare (food stamps is small potatoes these days), the Democratic Party is waiting for the republicans to take front and center against the incoming corrupt regime. That is, when they are not debating among themselves as to whether they should bring a gift or just wave a white flag on Inauguration Day.
Shame on you for not uniting to depose the biggest threat to the country we have had in our lifetimes. Stop fighting over what you think Hillary did wrong and get it together to fight the real bad guy. The voters will remember you if you do; if you don't they may never have the chance.
And we here in South Carolina have resorted to sending thanks to republican Senator Lindsey Graham for taking a stand on investigating Russia's manipulation of our presidential election. Meanwhile, google our own Jim Clyburn and all you come up with for news is that on November 30 he announced his support for Jaime Harrison for head of the DNC. Try googling "Jim Clyburn Russia" and the lack of news will make you want to cry.
Or spit. Which is what I have been doing a lot of lately. With twitter rants that threaten to destroy US / Fill In Country Here diplomacy and major US businesses, our president-elect is just beginning to enjoy the power he will wield on January 20. As we have come to expect, our Democrats in Congress, with a very few notable exceptions, are willing to crawl as one under a rock and wait till it all blows over, at which time we may well no longer have a democracy.
Let us take a moment to remember the Obama Inauguration in 2009. At the very time we were tearfully welcoming in our hope and change president, republican leaders were secretly congregating to figure out how to block him from seeing any of that hope and change materialize. And then they came out in public and said the same thing. It was just that important to them. So all we can conclude is that the threat of disemboweling all the positive change that Obama got through that obstructionist congress is just not worth sticking your neck out for.
And those brave Democrats who are speaking out against this clear threat? The republicans have them in their sights. Elizabeth Warren will be attacked at every turn. Al Franken will be in the crosshairs. Nancy Pelosi, well, they might leave her alone this time because her considerable power is already being eroded by those white men of the Blue Dog conservatives.
Way to stick together, Dems. Don't ever disappoint us.
While creeps like Tim Ryan advise that the reason the Dems lost was that they didn't fawn over the white middle class enough, the Russians and Giuliani's New York FBI got away with the most egregious fowl play ever to happen in US electoral politics. Trump was in charge of misdirecting the uninformed masses, Russia provided the props in terms of constant email leaks, republicans like Trey Gowdy gave the lies the guise of authenticity in Congress, and FBI Director James Comey was coerced into nailing the election with the last-minute sleight-of-hand that kept just enough Democrats away from the polls. Meanwhile, idiots like Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd did the dirty work we all thought was the purview of Fox News by prefacing every damn news segment by saying that Trump and Clinton were the most disliked candidates in history, equating the proven crimes of Donald Trump with the mistruths being spread about Clinton.
And when our Democratic Party adds that all up, what do they come up with? That Hillary didn't reach all those white voters; that she didn't show enough of herself; that people don't trust her; that she wasn't genuine; that blah blah blah....
Well, let me tell you, Party Dems. You may be afraid to come out and represent all of us. Or you may not think it is possible to reach out to all those white middle class working folk if you keep talking about what the rest of us need.
Or maybe you think that the country blames you for being in the "do-nothing" congress. If that is true, it is because you have failed to speak up EVERY TIME the republicans blocked progress. This should have been a piece of cake. The republicans gave the narrative to us on a silver platter: "Our economy has gotten stronger since the last failed republican administration in spite of the obstructionist republicans. Just imagine if Obama had had a majority in congress that was willing to work with him to move the country forward -- imagine what he could have done."
But instead, in 2010, Blue Dogs lost in Kentucky and Texas (yes I mean you Wendy Davis), by backing away from both liberal issues and from President Obama.
And here they are, once again, after the incredible popularity of Bernie Sanders, talking about how they are going to cooperate with the takeover of our government by a plutocracy which purpose is to further the wealth of the few, predominantly the Trumps. Admitted ties to Russia, and nobody on our side is yelling for the release of tax returns. Remember Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager? After he was found to have ties to the Ukraine, Trump let him go with a nod and a wink, and sure enough, now that he doesn't need your vote anymore, Manafort is back, bigger and dirty as ever. For gods' sake, Democrats have been heard singing the praises of racist Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, likely our next attorney general.
So while Paul Ryan is scheming over taking away our social security and medicare (food stamps is small potatoes these days), the Democratic Party is waiting for the republicans to take front and center against the incoming corrupt regime. That is, when they are not debating among themselves as to whether they should bring a gift or just wave a white flag on Inauguration Day.
Shame on you for not uniting to depose the biggest threat to the country we have had in our lifetimes. Stop fighting over what you think Hillary did wrong and get it together to fight the real bad guy. The voters will remember you if you do; if you don't they may never have the chance.
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Living with Tim Scott's Bad Choices
Up till now, the secret to Tim Scott's success has been knowing what side his bread is buttered on. And that side is not the side he grew up on, but that of the well-heeled capitalists who have found the perfect African-American republican. Little white haired southern ladies love him, and all those rich old white guys know he will fight for them, from the right to bear arms to the right to run roughshod over the environment.
Scott isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but unlike the republican candidate for president, he takes instruction well. He believes in the republican dream, because it has worked for him. So he can't see why it can't work for any black man in America. All you have to do is work hard and suck up to the right... well, the right. He jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon and it took him right to Washington, and then he sidled up to Nikki Haley, and sure enough, it took him out of the House of Representatives and into the Senate.
He was fortunate in that he did not have big intellectual shoes to fill in the Senate. Jim duh-Mint may not have had anything going on as far as critical thinking skills, but like Tim, he knew where the power lay, and he learned the words to their song. DeMint and Scott can recite the lines to the Tea Party Manifesto and they believe every word of it. Because fortune has, as the Reagan bunch promised in 1980, trickled down to them.
Like, DeMint, Scott talks a good story about his hardscrabble childhood, and for Tim it really was; no Andy Griffith's Mayberry for Tim Scott. And as with so many who have worked hard and succeeded, they believe that those who don't succeed have no one to blame but themselves and the government. In their minds, the government that gave DeMint and Scott an awfully good wage and benefits package is preventing the poor from finding success by helping them survive.
Scott doesn't come out too often and say that the poor should be dropped on their heads and left to fend for themselves. Instead, he has succeeded by using the right-wing trick of attacking those who are trying to help. Make Obama the bad guy and nobody will see those members of Congress who have been blocking any attempt to move the country forward. Blame the president for Guantanamo Bay while Scott helped prevent any reasonable solution from finding its way into the debate. And of course, make his constituents afraid and angry.
Remember ebola? Tim Scott was front and center demanding that the government ban travel from affected countries. No so much in the lead when it came to research and aid. And, as with every other message from Scott regarding any problem anywhere in the country, he blamed the Obama administration for the government's response, whatever it would be.
Now, with the Zika virus, Scott and his hare-brained right-wing colleagues offer up a bill to provide funds for research. Really??? Check it out. Carefully. Because when right-wing politicians tell you the government is going to help, it is really is time to lock up your valuables. Because first of all, that bill would waive the Clean Water Act to allow for spraying -- when your kids get sick from the chemicals Scott will blame the president, by the time cancer rates have risen he will be on some private corporate payroll. And here is the capper: sandwiched in the middle of his description of the bill are the words: "Offset this spending." What he fails to mention is that Zika spending will be offset by ebola funds.
Pretty slick, and certainly not dreamed up in Tim Scott's small brain. He is merely barfing up republican talking points. The way our current republican presidential nominee has been forced from time to time to regurgitate words dictated by his republican colleagues.
And while politicians like Senate colleague Lindsey Graham who are more secure in their own shoes are speaking out against the diseased mind of Donald Trump, Tim Scott is all in. He will support Trump in spite of racist attacks and unconstitutional proposals, because Tim Scott can't say no to the republican party. That is where his bread has been buttered, and he hasn't noticed that when buttered bread lands on the floor, it always lands face down.
This is a really good time for South Carolinians to take a look at Scott's Democratic opponent, Thomas Dixon.
Video thanks to Elaine Cooper
Dixon understands what we need from our government because, as he says,
"I was part of the problem for a long time. I was the person who was so wrapped around me and caught up in me that whatever hurt anybody else didn't matter to me.
But one day I woke up."Dixon woke up. And that is why today he fights for human rights. The right to be safe from gun violence. The right to earn a living wage. The right to love whom you choose. A woman's right to make her own reproductive choices, privately. The right of veterans and seniors to live in security. The right to healthcare for all.
Tim Scott may have had it rough when he was young. But he was bought out with promises of success, and every time he votes against those who need his help he realizes that success. So he is not going to wake up.
And that is why we need to support Thomas Dixon for Senate. His supporters don't have deep pockets like those of Tim Scott, but that is exactly why we need him to represent us. And we may not have a fortune, but we can send him our small donations, and we can vote just as well as the well-heeled.
So please spread the word about Thomas Dixon, and help elect him to the Senate in November. Tim Scott, like Jim DeMint, will do just fine in the private sector. And we will do just fine with him gone, and Thomas Dixon taking that seat.
Thomas Dixon
for
U.S. Senate
Thursday, April 30, 2015
What on Earth Is This TPP?
I have C-Span as my default TV station, so that whenever I turn the TV on, there it is. That doesn't mean I watch it; in fact, as the republicans have gained more power in Congress, my tolerance for listening to the bullshit has diminished. Today, for example, when I turned on the tube, there was John Boehner, whining that all the House Democrats are opposing their own president on this bill, and President Obama ought to get his team in line.
I like coming in in the middle. I play a little guessing game with myself, to see how long it takes to figure out what is going on. Usually, though, when I turn it on, there is one lone House member going on about something, and without looking, I try to guess whether it's a republican or a Democrat. I'm pretty good at it, too. I can do it in about three seconds. You don't have to know what they are talking about, because they use the same words for everything. This could probably be a good drinking game.
Anyway, there was that idiot Boehner today, going on about how the President needed to reign in his party. All of a sudden he was doing kumbaya with President Obama. I had an idea what it was all about, but other than signing online petitions, I hadn't been all that involved. But we really should be.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- known now as TPP because who has time to say Trans-Pacific Partnership? -- is a trade deal. If you liked the way NAFTA worked, you will love TPP. We were told back then the same things we are being told now. This will be a job creator by increasing exports and will just be super for the economy. Except what happened with NAFTA was that it allowed businesses in the USA to move to Mexico where labor is cheaper.
Here's another really weird outcome, which I read about in an important book about climate change by Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (a book that the New York Times reviewer said was, "a book of such ambition and consequence that it is almost unreviewable.")
Because of current trade agreements between Canada and foreign governments, Ontario was forced to repeal parts of its 2009 Green Energy and Economy Act, which had in fact created jobs and improved the environment. The European Union and Japan took Ontario to the World Trade Organization because the Act favored the local economy. Ontario lost more than the court case.
This makes as much sense for our country as selling roads and parking meters to foreign governments and private corporations to make a quick buck so you don't have to tax the wealthy. Being too much a part of this new global environment these days means becoming even more vulnerable to the forces of capitalist greed. It means giving up a community's right to determine it's own fate, sometimes giving up important economic ground, losing the ability to make its own decisions about safety and the environment.
This is not a trade agreement between countries; this is a trade agreement that will be controlled by the big corporations that are sinking millions into our elections so that people like John Boehner can push for trade advantages for the powerful.
This may be good business for John Boehner, but I am heartened that the Democrats are pretty much opposed. Just as did Bill Clinton, President Obama is being lured into a compromise that will make our economy weaker in order to be beef up his world leader creds. But just as with the Keystone Pipeline, Obama needs to honestly look at how this agreement could tie the hands of local communities, states, and the federal government in critical environmental and security issues.
Meanwhile, get out a six-pack and try your hand at guessing what's going on on C-Span.
I like coming in in the middle. I play a little guessing game with myself, to see how long it takes to figure out what is going on. Usually, though, when I turn it on, there is one lone House member going on about something, and without looking, I try to guess whether it's a republican or a Democrat. I'm pretty good at it, too. I can do it in about three seconds. You don't have to know what they are talking about, because they use the same words for everything. This could probably be a good drinking game.
Anyway, there was that idiot Boehner today, going on about how the President needed to reign in his party. All of a sudden he was doing kumbaya with President Obama. I had an idea what it was all about, but other than signing online petitions, I hadn't been all that involved. But we really should be.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership -- known now as TPP because who has time to say Trans-Pacific Partnership? -- is a trade deal. If you liked the way NAFTA worked, you will love TPP. We were told back then the same things we are being told now. This will be a job creator by increasing exports and will just be super for the economy. Except what happened with NAFTA was that it allowed businesses in the USA to move to Mexico where labor is cheaper.
Here's another really weird outcome, which I read about in an important book about climate change by Naomi Klein: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (a book that the New York Times reviewer said was, "a book of such ambition and consequence that it is almost unreviewable.")
Because of current trade agreements between Canada and foreign governments, Ontario was forced to repeal parts of its 2009 Green Energy and Economy Act, which had in fact created jobs and improved the environment. The European Union and Japan took Ontario to the World Trade Organization because the Act favored the local economy. Ontario lost more than the court case.
This makes as much sense for our country as selling roads and parking meters to foreign governments and private corporations to make a quick buck so you don't have to tax the wealthy. Being too much a part of this new global environment these days means becoming even more vulnerable to the forces of capitalist greed. It means giving up a community's right to determine it's own fate, sometimes giving up important economic ground, losing the ability to make its own decisions about safety and the environment.
This is not a trade agreement between countries; this is a trade agreement that will be controlled by the big corporations that are sinking millions into our elections so that people like John Boehner can push for trade advantages for the powerful.
This may be good business for John Boehner, but I am heartened that the Democrats are pretty much opposed. Just as did Bill Clinton, President Obama is being lured into a compromise that will make our economy weaker in order to be beef up his world leader creds. But just as with the Keystone Pipeline, Obama needs to honestly look at how this agreement could tie the hands of local communities, states, and the federal government in critical environmental and security issues.
Meanwhile, get out a six-pack and try your hand at guessing what's going on on C-Span.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Nikki and Vincent -- The Same Old Song
It's been four years, but it might as well be yesterday. Oh, wait, it was yesterday. South Carolina Nikki Haley is beating Democratic contender and state senator Vincent Sheheen to a pulp, while Sheheen tries to defend himself by proving he's not really a Democrat.
Sheheen is throwing around big hard-to-understand words like "ethics" while Nikki keeps talking about "jobs." Listen, Vincent, nobody really cares about Nikki's dirty dealings -- these are the people who voted Mark Sanford into office, and then re-elected him and then sent him back to the US House of Representatives. Don't you get it when you get those blank looks when you talk about "ethics?" All your talk about ethics reform got nothing but hot air from your friends across this aisle this past legislative season. What I'm saying is, you should take that as a hint.
Meanwhile, Nikki is the expert at quick, snappy words like "jobs." She has been selling out South Carolinians for what seems like forever, giving away millions of tax dollars to bribe businesses into town. Boeing has been her mantra. And Vincent doesn't seem to be there when it comes to running down the figures. She's quick to tell you how many jobs she created, but not how many of them were good paying and upwardly mobile. And why isn't Vincent talking about how much it's cost us in tax dollars per job? Or why that money wouldn't have been better spent on teachers' salaries?
And as far as the cyberattack on our tax records, Nikki has had no problem turning that into a win. She apologized (sincerely...) and we all got a year of free credit monitoring. We got over it; maybe it's time for Sheheen to talk about the other dumb ways Haley is pinching our pennies.
The Medicaid expansion is a primo example. Except what's sad about that is that when Sheheen brings up Haley's refusal to accept federal money to insure the thousands of uninsured, he twists himself into a pretzel to deny that by promoting this he is backing President Obama.
And Nikki has a blast blasting Vincent for his "hypocrisy on social issues." What she means of course is that Sheheen doesn't really support gays or women's reproductive rights, but he wants our votes anyway. Same for unions. And because he is refusing to take a Democratic stand on these issues, she is able to slam him for hypocrisy.
And in the ultimate irony, our own Jim Clyburn says, "To me, Sheheen is as conservative as anybody else." If this is the endorsement from one of South Carolina's most influential Democrats, well, I guess Sheheen really doesn't need any enemies.
So what we have is two anti-gay, anti-women, anti-union contenders for the governorship. One of them knows exactly what we want to hear ("jobs") and the other keeps trying to tell us he's going to deliver something different.
And what I'd like to know is, when are we going to get a Democrat to run for governor?
Sheheen is throwing around big hard-to-understand words like "ethics" while Nikki keeps talking about "jobs." Listen, Vincent, nobody really cares about Nikki's dirty dealings -- these are the people who voted Mark Sanford into office, and then re-elected him and then sent him back to the US House of Representatives. Don't you get it when you get those blank looks when you talk about "ethics?" All your talk about ethics reform got nothing but hot air from your friends across this aisle this past legislative season. What I'm saying is, you should take that as a hint.
Meanwhile, Nikki is the expert at quick, snappy words like "jobs." She has been selling out South Carolinians for what seems like forever, giving away millions of tax dollars to bribe businesses into town. Boeing has been her mantra. And Vincent doesn't seem to be there when it comes to running down the figures. She's quick to tell you how many jobs she created, but not how many of them were good paying and upwardly mobile. And why isn't Vincent talking about how much it's cost us in tax dollars per job? Or why that money wouldn't have been better spent on teachers' salaries?
And as far as the cyberattack on our tax records, Nikki has had no problem turning that into a win. She apologized (sincerely...) and we all got a year of free credit monitoring. We got over it; maybe it's time for Sheheen to talk about the other dumb ways Haley is pinching our pennies.
The Medicaid expansion is a primo example. Except what's sad about that is that when Sheheen brings up Haley's refusal to accept federal money to insure the thousands of uninsured, he twists himself into a pretzel to deny that by promoting this he is backing President Obama.
And Nikki has a blast blasting Vincent for his "hypocrisy on social issues." What she means of course is that Sheheen doesn't really support gays or women's reproductive rights, but he wants our votes anyway. Same for unions. And because he is refusing to take a Democratic stand on these issues, she is able to slam him for hypocrisy.
And in the ultimate irony, our own Jim Clyburn says, "To me, Sheheen is as conservative as anybody else." If this is the endorsement from one of South Carolina's most influential Democrats, well, I guess Sheheen really doesn't need any enemies.
So what we have is two anti-gay, anti-women, anti-union contenders for the governorship. One of them knows exactly what we want to hear ("jobs") and the other keeps trying to tell us he's going to deliver something different.
And what I'd like to know is, when are we going to get a Democrat to run for governor?
Sunday, June 9, 2013
It's About Ideals
I was late coming to The West Wing, but it's one of my favorite things. So much so that I invested in the whole series on DVD. I decided that at some point I would start at the beginning and, one episode a week, I'd do it all over again.
This January was when I began to do it all over again.
Sadly, it's so many of the same issues. Gun control, campaign finance reform. Gays in the military, and in America in general, was the one bright exception.
Today I watched the episode called, "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet." It is fraught with frustration, as poll numbers drop and the press corps, the military chiefs and Congress let Jeb Bartlet know in no uncertain terms that he is just not going to make a difference.
Turns out that he hasn't been trying that hard. It turns out that winning a second term has become more important than any of the issues that made it worth running for President in the first place.
And by the end of the episode there is a rousing turning point, wherein the President and the staff of the West Wing determine that the most important thing is fighting for those ideals.
I think we're all pretty sick of politics. Of politicians saying what they think we want to hear. President Obama's poll ratings go up when he speaks his mind. The trick is not to pay attention to the poll ratings, but to keep paying attention to what is on his mind, and to keep speaking to it.
Gun control, campaign finance reform, violence against women, protecting the environment, educating our children, raising taxes to fund what our citizens need. We have seen our president step up every so often, and he gets beaten down by scandalmongers, and sometimes by his own questionable secret agendas.
Maybe it's time for that moment, where he asks himself, why am I here after all? Maybe he needs to go back and rerun those old speeches, just as I have been rerunning those episodes of West Wing. I think he too would find inspiration in those ideals spoken back when he was first running to change the country.
This January was when I began to do it all over again.
Sadly, it's so many of the same issues. Gun control, campaign finance reform. Gays in the military, and in America in general, was the one bright exception.
Today I watched the episode called, "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet." It is fraught with frustration, as poll numbers drop and the press corps, the military chiefs and Congress let Jeb Bartlet know in no uncertain terms that he is just not going to make a difference.
Turns out that he hasn't been trying that hard. It turns out that winning a second term has become more important than any of the issues that made it worth running for President in the first place.
And by the end of the episode there is a rousing turning point, wherein the President and the staff of the West Wing determine that the most important thing is fighting for those ideals.
I think we're all pretty sick of politics. Of politicians saying what they think we want to hear. President Obama's poll ratings go up when he speaks his mind. The trick is not to pay attention to the poll ratings, but to keep paying attention to what is on his mind, and to keep speaking to it.
Gun control, campaign finance reform, violence against women, protecting the environment, educating our children, raising taxes to fund what our citizens need. We have seen our president step up every so often, and he gets beaten down by scandalmongers, and sometimes by his own questionable secret agendas.
Maybe it's time for that moment, where he asks himself, why am I here after all? Maybe he needs to go back and rerun those old speeches, just as I have been rerunning those episodes of West Wing. I think he too would find inspiration in those ideals spoken back when he was first running to change the country.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Nothing New
While I was away last week, I went off the grid. I watched no news shows, only turning on my fabulous really large screen TV for DVD's and weather (and okay, Bill Maher because I don't get HBO at home). I used the internet for the HBO schedule and restaurant menus. Never checked my email.
But then on Friday evening, I broke down and caught a few minutes of NPR. My mistake. Here are the first three items I heard:
Why the Supreme Court was likely to give some version of a states' rights ruling on gay marriage. Why they couldn't give too much credence to the President's position statement against DOMA -- that would put too much power in the hands of the president.
Really.
Number two was the fact that our idiots in Congress were backing even further away from any type of "meaningful" gun legislation. Even, gods help them, the Democrats. Harry Reid, it was reported, was being as spineless and ineffectual as ever. The President was still exhorting Congress to do something the keep us from killing each other.
Finally, the first item on the business report was something to do with a procedure that would make gasoline cleaner. The fuel industry had loudly proclaimed that this would raise the cost of gasoline by nine cents a gallon. The EPA claimed the figure was more like one cent, and choosing more fuel efficient cars would make that increase negligible. The newscaster ended by saying that despite the increasing cost of gas, the two most popular vehicles over the past year were gas guzzling pick-ups.
At that point, I turned off the radio to enjoy my few remaining hours of vacation.
Why could there not have been a single item that made me cheer, or even sigh with relief?
Before my vacation, the big news was that Rob Portman had changed his views toward gays because his son had admitted to being gay. This was some kind of lukewarm hero, who kept his right-wing mouth shut during the election season, and only changed his views, cheney-like, because it was family, not because it was right. But today when I googled the information, I found that -- no, Portman has not changed his views on gay marriage at all.
Well, thank you for not shattering my jaded world-view.
Next thing I'll be hearing is that Pope Francis didn't really mean that he wants the Catholic Church to be poor, just the Catholic people.
But then on Friday evening, I broke down and caught a few minutes of NPR. My mistake. Here are the first three items I heard:
Why the Supreme Court was likely to give some version of a states' rights ruling on gay marriage. Why they couldn't give too much credence to the President's position statement against DOMA -- that would put too much power in the hands of the president.
Really.
Number two was the fact that our idiots in Congress were backing even further away from any type of "meaningful" gun legislation. Even, gods help them, the Democrats. Harry Reid, it was reported, was being as spineless and ineffectual as ever. The President was still exhorting Congress to do something the keep us from killing each other.
Finally, the first item on the business report was something to do with a procedure that would make gasoline cleaner. The fuel industry had loudly proclaimed that this would raise the cost of gasoline by nine cents a gallon. The EPA claimed the figure was more like one cent, and choosing more fuel efficient cars would make that increase negligible. The newscaster ended by saying that despite the increasing cost of gas, the two most popular vehicles over the past year were gas guzzling pick-ups.
At that point, I turned off the radio to enjoy my few remaining hours of vacation.
Why could there not have been a single item that made me cheer, or even sigh with relief?
Before my vacation, the big news was that Rob Portman had changed his views toward gays because his son had admitted to being gay. This was some kind of lukewarm hero, who kept his right-wing mouth shut during the election season, and only changed his views, cheney-like, because it was family, not because it was right. But today when I googled the information, I found that -- no, Portman has not changed his views on gay marriage at all.
Well, thank you for not shattering my jaded world-view.
Next thing I'll be hearing is that Pope Francis didn't really mean that he wants the Catholic Church to be poor, just the Catholic people.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
The Sequester Backfire
Looking back on it, President Obama signing the sequester bill was a bit like an angry parent sending a child to their room to be with their computer and television. He pretty much gave the right wing-nuts exactly what they wanted.
When people lose much needed income and benefits, South Carolina's own Tea Party idiots like Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Jeff Duncan, and of course our poster boy of denial, Tim Scott, are cheering on the cuts. Scott has the nerve to call it posturing when the President talks about cuts to police, educators and firefighters. I guess if a job doesn't directly effect Mr. Scott, it really doesn't matter.
These clowns will come out cheering the austerity measures, and bragging on how they engineered the reduction in the deficit, while people are losing needed income and government services, and subsequently tightening their belts, leading to lost dollars for businesses. The fact that austerity resoundingly did not work where it was put into place in Europe has no relevance for these fools, who have never felt the need to use facts to make an argument.
It's sad for our country, sad for the state of South Carolina, and sad for the voters who trusted that these people maybe knew what they were doing, and would have the courage to do what was best for their constituents rather than what made them look tough.
When people lose much needed income and benefits, South Carolina's own Tea Party idiots like Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney, Jeff Duncan, and of course our poster boy of denial, Tim Scott, are cheering on the cuts. Scott has the nerve to call it posturing when the President talks about cuts to police, educators and firefighters. I guess if a job doesn't directly effect Mr. Scott, it really doesn't matter.
These clowns will come out cheering the austerity measures, and bragging on how they engineered the reduction in the deficit, while people are losing needed income and government services, and subsequently tightening their belts, leading to lost dollars for businesses. The fact that austerity resoundingly did not work where it was put into place in Europe has no relevance for these fools, who have never felt the need to use facts to make an argument.
It's sad for our country, sad for the state of South Carolina, and sad for the voters who trusted that these people maybe knew what they were doing, and would have the courage to do what was best for their constituents rather than what made them look tough.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Who IS Lindsey Graham?
I think it's safe to say you can't pin him down. I remember when he used to be the sane and reasonable of South Carolina's two senators. Admittedly, it's a low bar, but still.
During the bashing of Sonia Sotomayor during the Supreme Court justice's confirmation hearings, Graham indicated that, while she may not have been his choice, it was the president's prerogative to choose a nominee that reflected his values. Why then, has he been first in line to beat up on Obama's cabinet picks, even before he has picked them?
Hand in hand with best buddy John McCain, Graham attacked Susan Rice over her Sunday talk show comments regarding the causes of the attacks in Benghazi. As though she were on the intelligence front lines. His goal may have been payback for John Bolton, but the intensity and inappropriate timing of the Rice attacks are more reminiscent of Graham's June, 2012, assault on Eric Holder, who was left holding the bag for a secret Bush gun program that backfired. Interesting that after the outing of Valeria Plame during the Bush years, Graham could get so incensed over White House leaks.
But that Susan Rice deal made Graham look pretty tough, so much so that he went after Chuck Hagel, disappointed that Hagel wasn't the vicious defender of freedom that he would have liked.
On the other hand, as long as we're talking strange inconsistencies, Graham has just gone to bat for our President in the matter of drone attacks. The man should be able to kill whoever he wants, he's the President, Graham contends.
And then we have Lindsey Graham on gun control:
He impressed no less than Jon Stewart with his argument against restricting weapon capacity: "Changing the magazine -- I can do that pretty quick." And seeking to top his own self in the crazy category: "We need high capacity magazines so moms won't run out of bullets defending their kids."
I think I have the answer, though, to this conundrum that is Lindsey Graham. It came to me as I was reading Bob Woodward's The Price of Politics. During the interminable and unproductive fiscal wrangling last year, Joe Biden accuses Graham of messing with him on the payroll tax extension. According to Woodward, Graham replies,
When I read that quote, I got it. Our Lindsey Graham's number 1 job is Lindsey Graham. And that means speaking to his constituency: those overly-trusting yet paranoid, Fox informed, equal parts American patriot and confederate that have kept him in office all these long years.
And those comments about a President's right to nominate whatever left wing justice he chooses just did not set as well with those constituents as supporting Obama's right to fire them drones. Votes like those supporting the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor just plain old got his base riled up enough to wander off the base, if you know what I mean.
Those murmurs about a challenge from the right just might be happening. But have no fear. Lindsey Graham can "change that magazine pretty quick." He's proven that he can fight, on any side he needs to be. He's not worried about sounding crazy, just soft. And when he says things that don't seem to make sense, that too may be part of the plan. He may just be "fucking with you."
During the bashing of Sonia Sotomayor during the Supreme Court justice's confirmation hearings, Graham indicated that, while she may not have been his choice, it was the president's prerogative to choose a nominee that reflected his values. Why then, has he been first in line to beat up on Obama's cabinet picks, even before he has picked them?
Hand in hand with best buddy John McCain, Graham attacked Susan Rice over her Sunday talk show comments regarding the causes of the attacks in Benghazi. As though she were on the intelligence front lines. His goal may have been payback for John Bolton, but the intensity and inappropriate timing of the Rice attacks are more reminiscent of Graham's June, 2012, assault on Eric Holder, who was left holding the bag for a secret Bush gun program that backfired. Interesting that after the outing of Valeria Plame during the Bush years, Graham could get so incensed over White House leaks.
But that Susan Rice deal made Graham look pretty tough, so much so that he went after Chuck Hagel, disappointed that Hagel wasn't the vicious defender of freedom that he would have liked.
On the other hand, as long as we're talking strange inconsistencies, Graham has just gone to bat for our President in the matter of drone attacks. The man should be able to kill whoever he wants, he's the President, Graham contends.
And then we have Lindsey Graham on gun control:
I think I have the answer, though, to this conundrum that is Lindsey Graham. It came to me as I was reading Bob Woodward's The Price of Politics. During the interminable and unproductive fiscal wrangling last year, Joe Biden accuses Graham of messing with him on the payroll tax extension. According to Woodward, Graham replies,
I'm not fucking with you. I mean, it's not that I'm beyond fucking with you. I'm just not fucking with you here.
And those comments about a President's right to nominate whatever left wing justice he chooses just did not set as well with those constituents as supporting Obama's right to fire them drones. Votes like those supporting the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor just plain old got his base riled up enough to wander off the base, if you know what I mean.
Those murmurs about a challenge from the right just might be happening. But have no fear. Lindsey Graham can "change that magazine pretty quick." He's proven that he can fight, on any side he needs to be. He's not worried about sounding crazy, just soft. And when he says things that don't seem to make sense, that too may be part of the plan. He may just be "fucking with you."
Friday, December 14, 2012
Killing Our Children
18 elementary school children killed in Connecticut today. The media says President Obama is "sympathetic." Believe it or not, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has informed the press that today is probably not the day for debate on gun control.
How many more children will have to die before we have that debate?
I wonder the hold that the NRA has on our government. To not even allow legislators (!) to bring up the issue. And our smug Supreme Court justices, who are safe and secure, bringing down decisions that do not allow communities to protect their own.
It is time, Mr. President, for that debate.
How many more children will have to die before we have that debate?
I wonder the hold that the NRA has on our government. To not even allow legislators (!) to bring up the issue. And our smug Supreme Court justices, who are safe and secure, bringing down decisions that do not allow communities to protect their own.
It is time, Mr. President, for that debate.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
There They Go Again
I see where our own Lindsay Graham and his BFF John McCain are trying to bully poor Susan Rice presumably over comments she made on Meet the Press. If you have ever watched any of those Sunday talk shows, you will know that they basically display more tap dancing around issues than you'll see on Dancing with the Stars.
Rachel Maddow pointed out yesterday that John McCain's hobby is appearing on Sunday talk shows, no doubt because it eases the loneliness of Sundays without dinner invitations. And if you've seen John McCain on any Sunday talk show, you will know that the standard he sets is somewhere between lies and crazy.
So can we all agree that the issue is not what Susan Rice said on Meet the Press? The issue is the same one that we were observing a few months ago when House maniac Darrell Issa led the charge against Attorney General Eric Holder for the made-up conspiracy regarding Fast and Furious. You remember, the more questions he answered, the more he complied with requests for files, the angrier they got.
Also reminiscent of the witch hunts against Bill and Hillary in the 90's, when the only thing they could turn up for sure was a dress with semen on it.
On the other hand, the more they can toss around the excrement, the more they are hoping to distract us from, oh, raising taxes on the 1 percent (in other words, members of this very governing body). If we get riled up enough about some Obama conspiracy, maybe we won't notice them trying to raise the social security retirement age.
Unfortunately, the excrement they are tossing around is their own, and they have plenty more where that came from.
The tragedy of course, is that yet another good member of the Obama team is getting dragged through Congress, this time the Senate. And although I am hearing the hopeful say that Obama is in this for the duration, there are a lot of bodies of strewn nominees that have been laid to waste over the last four years, by a Congress that has no respect for the President or the institution of the Presidency.
I am thinking that it would be good if Obama was ready to stand up to these idiots, and give us four years that we can be proud of. Signs say this could happen, so stay tuned.
Rachel Maddow pointed out yesterday that John McCain's hobby is appearing on Sunday talk shows, no doubt because it eases the loneliness of Sundays without dinner invitations. And if you've seen John McCain on any Sunday talk show, you will know that the standard he sets is somewhere between lies and crazy.
So can we all agree that the issue is not what Susan Rice said on Meet the Press? The issue is the same one that we were observing a few months ago when House maniac Darrell Issa led the charge against Attorney General Eric Holder for the made-up conspiracy regarding Fast and Furious. You remember, the more questions he answered, the more he complied with requests for files, the angrier they got.
Also reminiscent of the witch hunts against Bill and Hillary in the 90's, when the only thing they could turn up for sure was a dress with semen on it.
On the other hand, the more they can toss around the excrement, the more they are hoping to distract us from, oh, raising taxes on the 1 percent (in other words, members of this very governing body). If we get riled up enough about some Obama conspiracy, maybe we won't notice them trying to raise the social security retirement age.
Unfortunately, the excrement they are tossing around is their own, and they have plenty more where that came from.
The tragedy of course, is that yet another good member of the Obama team is getting dragged through Congress, this time the Senate. And although I am hearing the hopeful say that Obama is in this for the duration, there are a lot of bodies of strewn nominees that have been laid to waste over the last four years, by a Congress that has no respect for the President or the institution of the Presidency.
I am thinking that it would be good if Obama was ready to stand up to these idiots, and give us four years that we can be proud of. Signs say this could happen, so stay tuned.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Boehner's Illogic
I just heard Speaker of the House (sigh) John Boehner address the country. Here is a picture:
If it sounds familiar, that's because it is. When he says we must cut entitlements, folks, he's not talking about entitlements to ExxonMobile or ConAgra. He's talking about our social security retirement age.
The thing he made clear in the midst of his usual obfuscation is that tax cuts for the wealthy 2% will never be on the table under his watch.
How can he do this? Because he thinks Congress got a mandate along with the President.
I beg to differ. I know it's confusing, but I think I understand how this bizarre situation with the Republican House happened.
Voters are pretty much stupid. I'm talking statistically, since that's what we are doing these days. If you were to do a study, you would find that most of your family, neighbors and co-workers don't know who their representatives are. They might be able to give you a senator, especially if he just won or lost. Today they could tell you the vice president's name, but probably not so much a month from now. They certainly don't have a clue who Antonin Scalia is.
Because they have been accosted with signs and mailings and phone calls for the past month or more, they might be able to tell you the name of their representative in the US House. Or maybe not.
Regardless, most voters would tell you they like their representative. Their representative has been telling them that he is voting to cut their taxes and improve government services, and that sounds like a good deal. He surely wouldn't lie to them. So you have name recognition and slogans, and then you have people voting for the guy they remember, that seems to like them.
But most voters hate Congress. Statistically, most voters approve of the Black Plague more than they approve of the job the 112th US Congress has done. They hear that the debt is getting higher, and that their congressman is going to cut the debt so their children won't have to pay for it which is nice. But when it comes down to who is preventing them from getting a better job, well, it's the government, and over the past two years, it seems that it's been "Congress."
So John Boehner, with a head for abstract concepts not much better than Paul Ryan's has turned out to be, has decided that, since there continues to be a republican House, the American people have given them the infamous "mandate," or, "I trust you guys, go for it." Which means he is going to be continuing to do just what he has been doing, but in a more conciliatory tone of voice and with those sincere sad-dog eyes, and telling us that is what the American people want.
Of course, he adds, they really want Congress to work with President Obama since they gave him a mandate too.
And in Boehner's little head, what that comes down to is that it's time for Obama to agree to give the US House of Representatives what they want.
And so, folks, it's deja vu all over again, for another two years.
 |
| Boehner propositions the President |
If it sounds familiar, that's because it is. When he says we must cut entitlements, folks, he's not talking about entitlements to ExxonMobile or ConAgra. He's talking about our social security retirement age.
The thing he made clear in the midst of his usual obfuscation is that tax cuts for the wealthy 2% will never be on the table under his watch.
How can he do this? Because he thinks Congress got a mandate along with the President.
I beg to differ. I know it's confusing, but I think I understand how this bizarre situation with the Republican House happened.
Voters are pretty much stupid. I'm talking statistically, since that's what we are doing these days. If you were to do a study, you would find that most of your family, neighbors and co-workers don't know who their representatives are. They might be able to give you a senator, especially if he just won or lost. Today they could tell you the vice president's name, but probably not so much a month from now. They certainly don't have a clue who Antonin Scalia is.
Because they have been accosted with signs and mailings and phone calls for the past month or more, they might be able to tell you the name of their representative in the US House. Or maybe not.
Regardless, most voters would tell you they like their representative. Their representative has been telling them that he is voting to cut their taxes and improve government services, and that sounds like a good deal. He surely wouldn't lie to them. So you have name recognition and slogans, and then you have people voting for the guy they remember, that seems to like them.
But most voters hate Congress. Statistically, most voters approve of the Black Plague more than they approve of the job the 112th US Congress has done. They hear that the debt is getting higher, and that their congressman is going to cut the debt so their children won't have to pay for it which is nice. But when it comes down to who is preventing them from getting a better job, well, it's the government, and over the past two years, it seems that it's been "Congress."
So John Boehner, with a head for abstract concepts not much better than Paul Ryan's has turned out to be, has decided that, since there continues to be a republican House, the American people have given them the infamous "mandate," or, "I trust you guys, go for it." Which means he is going to be continuing to do just what he has been doing, but in a more conciliatory tone of voice and with those sincere sad-dog eyes, and telling us that is what the American people want.
Of course, he adds, they really want Congress to work with President Obama since they gave him a mandate too.
And in Boehner's little head, what that comes down to is that it's time for Obama to agree to give the US House of Representatives what they want.
And so, folks, it's deja vu all over again, for another two years.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
All In This Together
MSNBC is currently making a big deal out of the fact that Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has spared no praise for President Obama in his handling of Hurricane Sandy. People like Christie for that reason; you can count on him to not be afraid to say what is obvious, regardless of possible political outcome.
I would hope that in a similar circumstance, Romney would act in much the same way. But this is not what you might call "the takeaway" in all this.
The difference between the two is not what they might do in the midst of a disaster. The critical factor is the groundwork that gets laid -- or destroyed -- prior to a disaster.
Romney and his cut taxes/cut the deficit bunch, Paul Ryan among the ringleaders, would leave us with slashed resources and a decentralized, disorganized disaster relief plan, made worse by privatization (for profit). First you give over authority to the states. Then you cut the Federal budget. Then you cut the Federal staff. Much as we have been forced to do in the Bush years with Medicaid and education. The states, already struggling, would never get the same amount of aid if they had to individually create their own disaster relief program.
This morning, I heard one of the owners of the Coast Guard House in Rhode Island give kudos to the Weather Channel for calling this storm so accurately.
Wrong. It was NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that does the research and provides the incredible and incredibly accurate storm data to the country. Weather Channel and other news centers feed off this free information, paid for by our tax dollars.
These are examples of things entrepreneurs did not build. Without good centralized emergency management (FEMA) and good national weather forecasting (NOAA), Hurricane Sandy would have left many states fending off floods and blizzards much as the Bush administration left New Orleans during and in the aftermath of Katrina.
So, yes, Governor Christie, President Obama gave you the support you needed. One could hope that Romney would do the same. But only if he had the federal funding and well staffed federal programs that we are currently having to fight tooth-and-nail to preserve in the egocentric and short-sighted Congress.
There are some things we just can't do alone.
I would hope that in a similar circumstance, Romney would act in much the same way. But this is not what you might call "the takeaway" in all this.
The difference between the two is not what they might do in the midst of a disaster. The critical factor is the groundwork that gets laid -- or destroyed -- prior to a disaster.
Romney and his cut taxes/cut the deficit bunch, Paul Ryan among the ringleaders, would leave us with slashed resources and a decentralized, disorganized disaster relief plan, made worse by privatization (for profit). First you give over authority to the states. Then you cut the Federal budget. Then you cut the Federal staff. Much as we have been forced to do in the Bush years with Medicaid and education. The states, already struggling, would never get the same amount of aid if they had to individually create their own disaster relief program.
This morning, I heard one of the owners of the Coast Guard House in Rhode Island give kudos to the Weather Channel for calling this storm so accurately.
Wrong. It was NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that does the research and provides the incredible and incredibly accurate storm data to the country. Weather Channel and other news centers feed off this free information, paid for by our tax dollars.
These are examples of things entrepreneurs did not build. Without good centralized emergency management (FEMA) and good national weather forecasting (NOAA), Hurricane Sandy would have left many states fending off floods and blizzards much as the Bush administration left New Orleans during and in the aftermath of Katrina.
So, yes, Governor Christie, President Obama gave you the support you needed. One could hope that Romney would do the same. But only if he had the federal funding and well staffed federal programs that we are currently having to fight tooth-and-nail to preserve in the egocentric and short-sighted Congress.
There are some things we just can't do alone.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
What I Hope Elizabeth Warren Doesn't Say
I am far more excited about Elizabeth Warren's Convention speech tomorrow than about anyone else, including either Obama. She is the fresh voice that he was in 2004.
But I worry about her. I worry that she has way too many people who are worrying at her and for her, and crowding her.
I think that was the reason that she had scheduled a $1,000 a head fund-raising event here in South Carolina. When I heard that I did a spit-take. Nobody told her, apparently, that even good Democrats here in South Carolina don't have pockets that go that deep. She would have been far better off, and so would we, had she done the $250 shindig, and stopped over at the College of Charleston's Cistern to say hi and shake some hands.
The Elizabeth Warren who is my hero would have said yes to that in an instant and nixed the $1,000 nonsense.
So with that in mind, I would like to add my two cents:
I hope Elizabeth Warren doesn't tell us in nauseating detail about her family.
I hope she doesn't go on and on about her family's military service and her pride in the military.
I hope she doesn't try to lead a cheer for women.
I hope she remembers to mention Obama, because all those nitpickers that counted Mitt Romney references last week will be back, but I hope she doesn't go on about all the great things he's done for the economy.
Because, to be honest, we all know he hasn't. His intentions were good, but he was naive, and when he heard that the American people wanted compromise, he believed us. So he got slammed by the other side, who abhor compromise.
But she is speaking at his convention for a reason. We believe in her, and Obama knows we believe in her. She is smart and she is fearless.
So I hope she tells us about why the American economy is still not working for the American people. I hope she tells us that it is time for corporate control of our country and our lives to come to an end. I hope she talks about the need to regulate those big-monied interests, starting with Wall Street.
Because if she does that, if she gives a no-frills, this is the way it is speech about where we stand and where we are heading, we'll all be there with her.
But I worry about her. I worry that she has way too many people who are worrying at her and for her, and crowding her.
I think that was the reason that she had scheduled a $1,000 a head fund-raising event here in South Carolina. When I heard that I did a spit-take. Nobody told her, apparently, that even good Democrats here in South Carolina don't have pockets that go that deep. She would have been far better off, and so would we, had she done the $250 shindig, and stopped over at the College of Charleston's Cistern to say hi and shake some hands.
The Elizabeth Warren who is my hero would have said yes to that in an instant and nixed the $1,000 nonsense.
So with that in mind, I would like to add my two cents:
I hope Elizabeth Warren doesn't tell us in nauseating detail about her family.
I hope she doesn't go on and on about her family's military service and her pride in the military.
I hope she doesn't try to lead a cheer for women.
I hope she remembers to mention Obama, because all those nitpickers that counted Mitt Romney references last week will be back, but I hope she doesn't go on about all the great things he's done for the economy.
Because, to be honest, we all know he hasn't. His intentions were good, but he was naive, and when he heard that the American people wanted compromise, he believed us. So he got slammed by the other side, who abhor compromise.
But she is speaking at his convention for a reason. We believe in her, and Obama knows we believe in her. She is smart and she is fearless.
So I hope she tells us about why the American economy is still not working for the American people. I hope she tells us that it is time for corporate control of our country and our lives to come to an end. I hope she talks about the need to regulate those big-monied interests, starting with Wall Street.
Because if she does that, if she gives a no-frills, this is the way it is speech about where we stand and where we are heading, we'll all be there with her.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
No Smiling Faces Here
Wadmalaw Island, where I live, does not have public water. We do not have a grocery store or gas station. What we do have, that everyone frequents, is a Charleston County Recycling Center. With no town pick-up, residents pretty much all make a trip to the dump (or as a neighbor refers to it, "Wadmalaw Mall") at least once a week.
So two years ago, I was pretty steamed to see, as I was exiting the recycling center, a campaign sign for Tim Scott front and center on the opposite side of the street. At one point during the campaign, the sign disappeared, but lo! by the time I got there again there was another one.
So it was with a bit of ire that two weeks ago, as I left the recycling center, I saw:
So two years ago, I was pretty steamed to see, as I was exiting the recycling center, a campaign sign for Tim Scott front and center on the opposite side of the street. At one point during the campaign, the sign disappeared, but lo! by the time I got there again there was another one.
So it was with a bit of ire that two weeks ago, as I left the recycling center, I saw:
Apparently, it is never too early to sling mud around here. The meanness knows no bounds. And it is a clever sign, done by someone with talent. I wonder what other captive audiences he has found.
It amazes me that there is so little fight on the other (my) side. We have been beaten.
I was told that, in Dorchester County in a recent election year, an illegal sign was posted, and ignored when reported to law enforcement, but when someone pulled it out, she was arrested in minutes.
Takes the wind out of a person's sails, when there is one side in charge, and they are mean and angry.
Anyway, the law in Charleston County is that an election sign can stay up for no longer than 90 days. So if y'all want to try to monitor this nonsense and fight back, I'm with you. If I were a few years younger, I might be tempted to climb that tree myself. Such a piece of art will someday get a good price on eBay.
Friday, June 22, 2012
The Deafening Silence
I remember -- it wasn't all that long ago -- when the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell were screaming about Obama creating high gas prices that could be cured by cutting taxes and approving immediately the Keystone Pipeline.
And let us not forget Newt and his campaign photo ops:
And let us not forget Newt and his campaign photo ops:
BUT WAIT! Did I really just pay $3.03 per gallon? Could the price of gas really be plummeting? Without the pipeline???
In fact, Reuters just predicted lower prices into 2013.
So apparently that means that, if Obama was responsible for the high price of gas, it must be time for him to take a bow.
Yet, not only have I, not surprisingly, heard nothing from the Republican herd, I have heard nothing from the Obama camp. This would be the time for a few well-placed wisecracks about the president being responsible for the price of gas...
...wouldn't it?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Republican Inquisition
Bizarre that we are in the midst of debate about government required "vaginal probing".
This is, however, effectively sidestepping debate on the economy, at a time when President Obama is finally standing strong and gains are becoming more evident. It is easier to take a moral stand on something you believe your God has told you to do than to stand in front of GM workers and criticize the actions the president took which saved the plant and the jobs within, although Mitt Romney will be the one to try. It is also refocusing the attention deficit media from the economy to these ridiculous religious dicta.
It's always fun to make fun of Rick Santorum, but how on earth do we deal with the wackos in the various state legislatures that are introducing these bills which propose to reduce women to cattle, as does the bill introduced by, yes, I kid you not, Illinois' House Agricultural Committee. At least you can say they are telling it like it is.
If you are able to take a step back to see the bigger picture, I guess it is safe to say that every state has its resident elected wacko, and in many states they are religious wackos. And now, the Catholic church, who no one has ever listened to in this country anyway, has proudly taken center stage on their belief that God has determined that sex is for procreation, and any attempt to stop it is a sin. And add the megalomaniacal Santorum, whose conversations with God have gotten louder and more shrill over the weeks since his primary successes.
What you have is the perfect climate for brewing crazy.
Forgive us women for being slow to rise up against this idiocy. Even though our U.S. House of Representatives has been running its own special sexist Inquisition for the past two years, we honestly didn't think it would catch on. I mean, even Mississippi voted down the "personhood amendment".
I would like to make more jokes about this situation, because it is so ridiculous that this is happening in 2012. But there have been so many signs that the religious wackos are taking over the country that I must rely on Jon Stewart for the humorous perspective. It is also too personal for me as a woman with an adult daughter, to laugh it off.
But I should. After all, these are men whose idea of stimulating the economy goes no farther than "vaginal probing".
See, it's easy.
This is, however, effectively sidestepping debate on the economy, at a time when President Obama is finally standing strong and gains are becoming more evident. It is easier to take a moral stand on something you believe your God has told you to do than to stand in front of GM workers and criticize the actions the president took which saved the plant and the jobs within, although Mitt Romney will be the one to try. It is also refocusing the attention deficit media from the economy to these ridiculous religious dicta.
It's always fun to make fun of Rick Santorum, but how on earth do we deal with the wackos in the various state legislatures that are introducing these bills which propose to reduce women to cattle, as does the bill introduced by, yes, I kid you not, Illinois' House Agricultural Committee. At least you can say they are telling it like it is.
If you are able to take a step back to see the bigger picture, I guess it is safe to say that every state has its resident elected wacko, and in many states they are religious wackos. And now, the Catholic church, who no one has ever listened to in this country anyway, has proudly taken center stage on their belief that God has determined that sex is for procreation, and any attempt to stop it is a sin. And add the megalomaniacal Santorum, whose conversations with God have gotten louder and more shrill over the weeks since his primary successes.
What you have is the perfect climate for brewing crazy.
Forgive us women for being slow to rise up against this idiocy. Even though our U.S. House of Representatives has been running its own special sexist Inquisition for the past two years, we honestly didn't think it would catch on. I mean, even Mississippi voted down the "personhood amendment".
I would like to make more jokes about this situation, because it is so ridiculous that this is happening in 2012. But there have been so many signs that the religious wackos are taking over the country that I must rely on Jon Stewart for the humorous perspective. It is also too personal for me as a woman with an adult daughter, to laugh it off.
But I should. After all, these are men whose idea of stimulating the economy goes no farther than "vaginal probing".
See, it's easy.
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