Don't worry, you can trust me. I'm not like the others.

Banned In China

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Dedicated to Mittens

Fantasy Land


OK so now I am thinking in a kind of follow up to what I posted yesterday, is what in the fuck are people on the right thinking?

I am continuously amazed at what people who call themselves republicans or conservative seem to believe.  Not so much: that Obama is not eligible to be president because he wasn't born in the United States, although that is kind of weird.

It is why are right wingers to pissed at him.  I had the same trouble with the republican hatred of Clinton and I still haven't been able to figure that out.  But I am told by people who are conservative (and some of whom are not stupid) that Obama is a socialist or communist.  I particularly like that he is one because of his mother although he was raised mostly by his grandmother, a bank vice-president.   My normal response is:  "You need to reread that definition in the dictionary if you think that he is a one of those."  Beyond just that are the attacks on him for cutting military spending and for abandoning Israel (neither of which he has done, of course).

It does not require a great deal of study or research to look and see that the facts are just the opposite of these claims.  One doesn't even have to jump into the Way Back Machine and go back  to either of the Bushs' presidencies or even the Gipper's to see these arguments aren't true.

I suppose I shouldn't knock the average American who thinks that it is necessary to cut government spending to cut the deficit, since apparently everybody in every government in every country in Europe also believes this, but still it is so very strange that they all seem to have forgotten the little period of history that started around 1929 and continued for some time thereafter.

I don't really think that the hatred of Obama is any more intense or nasty than that of the Clintons.  I haven't heard anyone saying that Obama himself loaded cocaine onto planes out of Illinois or that Michelle has had people killed because of........I can't really remember why Hilliary had people killed, not that it matters.  But still the irrational hate seems to be there.

It is not as if there aren't a lot of things to dislike about what Obama has done, still I guess if you attacked him for these things you couldn't attack him from the right, it would have to be from the left.  Still, it becomes a fantasy world of hate for the opponents.  Very strange.

Although it doesn't matter in the long term I guess it does make the end of the Roman republic and the battles among the would be rulers a little more comprehensible.  It is almost as though the fewer differences the more violent the battles for control of the lstate become.


Saturday, September 29, 2012

There is definitely a full court press on right now by many of the major "left" wing blogs to attack those of us who have serious questions about voting for Obama.  We are being told over and over that we are just too much into our white male privileged selves and that we don't care about women, LGBT people, or about sick or old people because Obama got us something that FDR and LBJ couldn't get us together (although it hasn't completely started yet, but you just wait and see cause when it does it will be awesome and even though it isn't great it was the best he could do and ignore that he didn't try anything better, so there, also ponies).  Even Firedoglake (if you count Tbogg).  Although in reality Firedoglake or at least the front page seems to be kind of skitsofrantic (which appears to be the way that word is really spelled, who knew?) what with one or another front pager posting things about the awful stuff Obama does and then the ones just before and after them talking about how much worse things will be if Romney gets in.

 When serious matters are raised:  the drone attacks, Obama's attempt to crush dissent, the burgeoning police state, the gifts to Wall Street, and the Cat Food Commission, among other things.  We are told that Romney is going to be a disaster and Obama did many nearly great things: ACA, the end of DADT, and his refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.   Most of these good things don't involve money being removed from the pockets of the wealthy, in fact I don't think any of the wonderful things Obama has done involved redistributing money in any direction except towards the wealthy.  So my deal breakers are not good enough, but theirs are.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be a lot of reliance on certain of Obama's campaign "promises or statements," but not all.  The very same thing they make fun of me for what they say I did back in 2008.  Although I didn't.  I was just scared of Sarah Palin and didn't think that Obama could be this reactionary and politically incompetent.  As an aside how can the first African American elected president be so politically incompetent?

So any way Obama has done great things for women's rights (or at least he hasn't gutted them like Romney says he will do) and LGBT rights, after he was dragged kicking and screaming into the positions he finally, kind of, took.  And, and what then?  A "stimulus" that was one of every four dollars as tax breaks to the wealthy, something I suspect the republican would have been forced into in one form or another.  A bail out of Wall Street to save our banks something we know the republican would have been happy to do and would have done.  The use of the feds to crack down of medical marijuana and whistle blowers, I wonder if there is anyone who thinks that the republican would have done it differently?

Past is prologue.  What will probably be the main domestic goal will be to deal with the deficit with cuts to spending with "everything on the table."  Including things like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  So where does that leave us?

Damned if I know, no that isn't true.  I do think that I know.  Unfortunately choosing between Mr. Plutocrat and Mr. I Am A Happy Employee Of The Plutocracy doesn't strike me as much of a choice.

Updated in a couple of places to remove the incoherent parts, I hope.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Mitt Romney Being An Asshole or Just Another Day With Mitt



God this guy is such an asshole.  The only problem is the size of the asshole he is running against.  Is it possible to hope that no one wins?

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Losers B Us

I've been thinking about the incredibly nasty arguments against either not voting in the prez. race or voting for a third party.  Tbogg  (although Tbogg seems to do one of these every week now or even more frequently as he sees the end times approaching) and his Sparkle Pony and Lawyers, Guns, and Money and their Gush v. Bore.  I realized yesterday that they all come down to the same argument:  "If you people (meaning I guess liberals) hadn't voted for Nadier then it wouldn't have been so close and Gore would have won and we would not have had 9/11 and the depression. Therefore, if you do it again it will be your fault if we get Romney.  And if we get Romney he will be a lot worse then Obama because Bush was both a reactionary and incompetent so he was cleverly able to get a lot of reactionary things done and the same thing will happen this time."

I really do think that is the argument.  It doesn't seem to matter that Gore was willing to give up and that the Supreme Court was willing to steal the election, it is always the fault of the people who were trying to show the democrats that governing has consequences and therefore they refused to vote for a guy who proudly endorsed everything Clinton (gutting the banking regulations, various wars, NAFTA, screwing welfare recipients) did.  The only thing Gore would not support was the fun part of the Clinton presidency:  free and easy sex.

Well at any rate, it wasn't Gore's fault for not fighting, it wasn't Gore's fault for losing his own state, it wasn't every single democratic senator's fault for refusing to challenge Florida's electoral votes.  Oh no, it was the fault of the people who voted for Nadier.

Maybe, but now I think that in actuality the nefarious plan by Ralph was working at first.  Before 9/11 Bush was unpopular and his programs were unpopular and his administration was going down the toilet.  Then came 9/11 and Bush some how became a war time hero president.  It didn't matter that the guy and his people really fucked up and failed in ways that have now been made clear.  It didn't matter that he ran like a scared rabbit on 9/11.  He became the Big Daddy we all needed to defend us and we had to believe in him.  Certainly the MSM felt that way and either because of the never ending propaganda of the media or simply because they too needed a Big Daddy to protect them so did a majority of the voting population.

So had 9/11 not happened Bush would have been a failure and it is entirely possible that we would have had a more liberal president and congress.  Now this may be pie in the sky, because I am presuming that there were democrats out there who were liberal and who might have gotten nominated, which admittedly may be a little silly, but still.

Which means Bush owes a great deal to Osama Bin Laden so I guess I can see were one might begin to question whether or not Bush was in on it since he got so much out of it.  I personally don't think he was.  I just think that he and his people were so incompetent that they let it happen and then were clever enough to capitalize on it.  This could only happen with an adversarial press that is so far in the tank that it isn't what anybody with a rational mind could think of as "an adversarial press."  But none the less it did happen.

So short of another 9/11 kind of thing (which is not really all that out of the question) a vote for a third party president and letting Romney in might mean that he will screw up so badly that there is a possibility people will see that that kind of reactionary governance is bad.  I mean it was working before.

So as the saying goes we live life forward, but understand it backward.  In other words the people who tell me that if only Ralph wasn't in the election 9/11 and the depression wouldn't have happened only know that those things happened because they are looking back and they did.  There was no reason to expect that a vote for Ralph was a vote Osama bin Laden.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Fucking Politics


I'd been looking for this Simpson Episode for some time and I do want to thank Alicublog for finding it for me.  It is true I'd wanted the video, but this is even more pithy I do believe.  The problem with it is that I sometimes think that I can just re-post this every day until the election and it about says it all.

A couple of points, first this Greenwald column about Obama's protection of the former "President" of Bolivia, wanted to stand trial in that country for ordering the killing of unarmed demonstrators and then this from Lawyers, Guns and Money (not everybody posting there is totally in the bag, just most) about how it appears as though the democrats are going all out for privatizing schools.  How is this so different then what the republicans seem to want to do?  Not a lot.  I do think that the ACA is probably better then the health care that exists in this country right now, (which is interesting since it has been the law for some time, but it hasn't yet totally kicked in [wonder why?]) but not a lot and the cost will simply put us more in debt to the various corporations that already rule us.

How different are the parties?  Clinton wanted to gut Social Security and Lewinsky prevented that (he needed all the allies he could get to stay in office), Bush wanted to gut Social Security and the democrats rose as one against him and prevented it, now Obama wants to gut Social Security and the democrats seem more then willing to go along as long as it is a democrat who wants to do it.

Punishing bankers, waging war, blindly supporting Israel, punishing whistle blowers (well alright that seems to be mostly an Obama thing).

There are things that are peripheral that Obama has been forced to accomplish (and good for those who didn't listen when told to back off). But when this issues involve money and empowerment of the wealthy there is not much if any difference between the parties.

The economic well being of the general population strikes me as the core of any kind of democratic (semi or otherwise) government and this is unfortunately the one thing that both the republicans and democrats agree about.  More money to the very wealthiest (and jobs for their kids) and fuck the rest of you.  So when I say peripheral I do not mean to denigrate the issues of race or women's rights or or LGBT rights, but without a fairly strong economy the majority (that would be us white males no matter what the census tells you) will be encouraged to blame their economic woes on the bitches, niggers and faggots, and a lot of them will.  So those hard won rights might just find themselves defenestrated thank you very much.


Friday, September 7, 2012

How to Piss People Off and Get Insulted in the Process

Now that was fun.

I Think That We Just Need To Compromise Some More


Henry Clay, the (really) Great Compromiser
I thought about putting Obama's acceptance speech up, but then I thought fuck it.  If you want to see it you can go somewhere someone gives a shit.

I should also say that I suspect that if Romney wins, then the democrats will lurch to the right because that is obviously where the votes are.  On the other hand if Obama wins then expect the democrats to lurch to the right because that is obviously where the votes are.  Or at least that is what the "smart" money keeps telling me about where the votes are.  If Obama loses it will be my fault because I am a progressive and I didn't get out and work for him and said mean things about him.  Although I will not be as much at fault as Glenn Greenwald, because he says really mean things about Obama and more people read him (Krugman on the other hand is an economist who doesn't believe in austerity and so no body cares what he says). If I work for Obama and  Obama wins I will not have caused it or helped in any way.  He will have won because America is conservative and we (progressives/liberals) must understand that.

I think in all probability life will be worse under Romney for the next four years.  But to be honest I'm not sure that things will be that much different over the slightly longer haul if Obama wins.   All of the horrors people keep pointing out that will occur with another republican administration will probably happen anyway within ten or fifteen years even with a democrat in the White House.  Short, of course, of some cataclysm that we don't clearly foresee.

Now that Obama has made it clear that he still wants his Grand Bargain  no matter what (in the very same speech I said fuck it about up there a ways) we know that he really wants to cut Social Security, just probably not as much as Romney, well maybe not as much as Romney right at this minute.

One of the mantras of A.A. is:  "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."  I tend to believe that there are many different versions of insanity, but I do think that is certainly one of them.  So Obama is begging the republicans to meet with him and compromise, not exactly a new idea for him.  And one that really hasn't worked at all no matter what his goal really was.  The guy must think that the 1840s and 50s were the most wonderful times ever in American political history will all those great compromisers, which I'm sure Obama would have participated in with gusto, except of course Obama wouldn't have been able to compromise at that time since he would have been chattel.  And incidentally none of the compromises did anything at all to change that fact, it was only those who would not compromise who could fix that little problem.

So anyway apparently Obama is insane, or perhaps I am if I work and vote for him again and expect him to do anything more then give shit away to his corporate buddies.

More Stuff

I was over at Tbogg's place to participate in the hooha about how Obama is apparently the best we can ever get.  Also don't forget that he really can't do anything more then he's done because this is the best of all possible democratic presidencies.  Also too, You Want A Sparkle Pony if you want Obama and the democrats to be anything other then Plutocrats (capitalized unlike republican or democrat, because it is a real political party).  Or perhaps Corporatist as Mussolini would have us call them.  Although Mussolini did provie the bread to the citizens to go along with the sale of the state to the Italian Corporations (I wonder if corporations are people in Italy, too).  That won't happen here.
Sorry Benito you are so yesterday.
( Spelled his name right after a couple of people helpfully pointed out that I am
 not a nice or intelligent person and I spell bad too.)

Crap, the people who back Obama seem to be unable to comprehend the idea that timing might indeed be everything. What could be done today is certainly a lot less then could have been done on January 25th 2009. What could have been done on January 25th 2009 was certainly a lot less then what might have been done if he had not personally voted for the various Bush bail outs of the banksters. Now the republicans are threatening to completely destroy Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security and are running against a president who clearly only wants to gut Social Security, but wants to leave a kind of half dead carcase (I'd written this a couple of days ago, but apparently he made it clear last night, see Eschaton), but makes great promises, which it will be pointed out if he gets re-elected, I should not have believed, or perhaps just listened to the fine "print" more closely and so the fault is again, mine.  Mine because I didn't work hard enough at the local level, mine because I didn't work hard enough before the nominations (although had I done so and Obama lost, the fault would still be mine because I didn't work hard enough for the "centrist" candidate who could really win.

The argument that elections have consequences which is the one made by the in the bag for Obama sites to scare you into voting for Obama over Romney seems to ignore the corollary which is, or rather should be, governing has consequences, which it apparently does not at the level of president, not at least if the president is a democrat.



A busy year, made more busy since I appear to be the go to guy in my little county for defense of sex crimes, which is kind of creepy especially when it is combined as a couple of them with mental retardation (of the accused) and significantly under aged victims.  I do have a trial coming up which should be interesting, but which I can't really say much about until after the end of September, if then.