We cannot depend on Democrats to do the right thing, stand up for anyone, stand up to anyone, or fight... anything... ever. I'm so sick to hear that Democratic senators circled around Al and sacrificed him to the gods of the greatest suckers game in town. Meanwhile, an admitted sexual predator remains in the White House over the objections of a majority of voters and he fervently endorsed a highly possible pedophile for the senate. All the objections to those morally repugnant fascists may as well be a fart in a windstorm for all the good it has done and will do. However, Democrats are still capable of screwing up shooting fish in a barrel. Not all of them, and I'm pinning the blame on elected Democrats and the odd Democrat who actually gets on TV, but anyone who sees the war presently being waged on our system of self-government and the rule of law cannot seem to penetrate the zeitgeist of unilateral disarmament and leading with their faces.
It is already too late, anything that could be called "the moral high ground" is lost for the duration. The children of light never stood a chance in this kind of asymmetric warfare. They just kept on as though these disasters were just disagreements between honorable, patriotic citizens who all want the best for our Republic and simply had differing ideas of how to get there. Historians will puzzle over the exact point of tipping into fascism, Nixon? Reagan? Gingrich? Bush II? exactly as scholars of the Third Reich debate the inevitability of dictatorship and repression in Weimar Germany. But whatever rules American politics operated under during the liberal ascendancy between 1933-1981 began fraying and cracking long before Doughface Donny stuck his stubby little fingers into it.
The point is; we're still at war. The war for America's soul rages on. It didn't end in November of last year; nor did it end on January 20 of this year; or even when the death cult of human suffering literally rammed through their $6 trillion giveaway to the wealthy with $4.5 trillion in tax hikes for regular Americans. It won't end if Robert Mueller manages to frogmarch every liar and con artist out of the White House and Congress in shackles. It won't end if Doughface Donny manages to fire Mueller. I hate to play into a favorite right wing talking point they used to love but if the Democrats who forced Al Franken out were in charge when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, then the man in the high castle wouldn't be fiction.
World War II was a just war, unbelievable evil was aggressively conquering Europe and Asia, and any means to destroy it were justified. We don't like to talk about it but far before the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Western Allies used vicious means to combat the evils of Nazism and militarist Japan. The bombing campaigns in both theatres and the submarine war in the Pacific were incredibly violent and unfair. And that was exactly the point, if you read St. Augustine's treatise on just war theory, any means that can end the conflict are fair. The world could not exist half-fascist and half-not, just as the United States cannot continue half-authoritarian and half-democratic. The authoritarians will fight until there is no resistance left, and then will manufacture new deviance to condemn.
People actually believe that throwing Franken to the wolves will defuse the issue of sexual harassment for Democrats, when the opposite is almost certainly going to happen. We will hear nonstop of how Al Franken was a monster and whataboutism with his name will deflect and blunt the impact of any half-assed Democratic attempt to paint the GOP as a party of pedophiles and sex predators. The truth doesn't matter, whoever yells the loudest and longest wins by simply confusing the issue. How many times was Hillary Clinton exonerated for each and every so-called scandal? Did the pit bull death cultists every let it go? How about, for example, Terri Schiavo? The real death cultists danced a jig on her brain dead body for how long and painted the Democrats as the "party of death" while grandstanding from the floor of Congress. Then when she finally was allowed to rest and the autopsy revealed that her brain really was mush, did any of the death cultists apologize? Sure, it was one minor aspect of the midterm elections that finally knocked the death cultists out of control. For all of four years.
Brother Charlie Pierce already did an excellent job showing how republicans crapped their cages while shrieking about a non-existent political rally at Paul Wellstone's funeral. The very event that got Al Franken into electoral politics to begin with. And now the death cult gets to claim one more victim, they must be rubbing shit in their hair with a determined glee at the fact that Democrats did the hit for them. And if a few of them go down in the mid terms this time around, so what? Some nice rich guy will hold out a chair for them at a cushy think tank if they were sufficiently pious to the cause of robbing America blind and sabotaging any attempts to protect the environment or peoples' lives.
Forget reason, forget logic, forget moral or ethical considerations, and above all forget about any conventional weapon penetrating the shield of tribalism and money that protects the death cult formerly known as the Republican Party. People may not directly die from torpedoes or incendiary bombs in this war being waged on your life in this country, but anyone not in the death cult had better abandon their outdated sense of moral high ground. This war requires a guerrilla mindset.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
Sunday, December 3, 2017
(Tax) Cuts the Throat of America
The occupying plutocracy finally scored their big "win" Friday night while most of it's subjects slept. The wavering senators showed their true loyalty to party (donors) and fell in line, despite the unpopularity of raising taxes on the supposed middle class that hasn't quite been finished off yet by republican scorched earth policy. The Orwellian "tax cuts and jobs act" that doughface Donny wanted to call the cut, cut, cut act because he's a fucking child, is effectively a tax hike for most Americans that will lead to an imposed recession and massive job losses. It has to be assumed that a majority of the re-programmable meat socks who voted for Donny and the death cult of human suffering will see their taxes go up as a result. As it must also be assumed that most of those meat socks will suffer from the next economic collapse and recession inflicted on Americans by the republicans and predatory capitalism they worship. The script is always the same, deficits are horrible under a Democratic administration but just fine and dandy under the leader of the death cult. What happens now?
How much do you have to hate the poor and how much do you have to love the leaders who push policies that make you poor to never learn the lesson? It goes without saying that many of the meat socks who voted to make a game show host president are old, even the baby boomers are old now. That means that those old people who lived through the stagflation of the '70s, the jobless recoveries, the recessions, the collapse of 2007-9, and every other structural setback that republicans have inflicted on the lives of everyday Americans, voted for their own assassins in spite of every possible good sense they possess. If ever there was a time to shun the morons who vote republican, this is it. They have earned every opprobrium I have ever heaved upon them, re-programmable meat socks, nazi sympathizers, authoritarian followers, willfully stupid, and completely anti-American if that word can possibly mean anything.
But this "fuck you peasant, starve " bill was the end that justified every means. Bush at least held out a crumb or two for the middle class by dropping the marginal rates while setting up the massive deficits, speculative bubbles, and cuts to government spending. This latest giveaway actually raises taxes on the middle class while ladling out the filthy lucre to corporations. Every supposed value the republican party had was stomped on, every supposed crime that republicans accused Barack Obama of was perpetrated by they themselves in the pursuit of these fucking tax cuts for the rich. No matter how much this monstrosity was kept secret, no matter how roughshod the bare republican majority rode over the opposition, and no matter how fast it was jammed through, the media will never let go of how Obama did the same thing with the ACA even though he didn't happen. This was literally voted on in the middle of the night with fucking hand-scrawled notes in the margins.
We are well and truly fucked. It doesn't matter if the blue wave actually occurs in the mid terms. It doesn't matter if doughface Donny and every one of his slimy cronies are frogmarched out in handcuffs. This hack and slash job on federal revenue will finally finish the apotheosis of corporations, permanently enshrine a lawless plutocracy, and render the sovereignty of the people through their government as meaningless. Those angry, racist baby boomers who voted for the game show host may not have to live through the coming dark ages but the rest of us may as well kiss civilization goodbye.
How much do you have to hate the poor and how much do you have to love the leaders who push policies that make you poor to never learn the lesson? It goes without saying that many of the meat socks who voted to make a game show host president are old, even the baby boomers are old now. That means that those old people who lived through the stagflation of the '70s, the jobless recoveries, the recessions, the collapse of 2007-9, and every other structural setback that republicans have inflicted on the lives of everyday Americans, voted for their own assassins in spite of every possible good sense they possess. If ever there was a time to shun the morons who vote republican, this is it. They have earned every opprobrium I have ever heaved upon them, re-programmable meat socks, nazi sympathizers, authoritarian followers, willfully stupid, and completely anti-American if that word can possibly mean anything.
But this "fuck you peasant, starve " bill was the end that justified every means. Bush at least held out a crumb or two for the middle class by dropping the marginal rates while setting up the massive deficits, speculative bubbles, and cuts to government spending. This latest giveaway actually raises taxes on the middle class while ladling out the filthy lucre to corporations. Every supposed value the republican party had was stomped on, every supposed crime that republicans accused Barack Obama of was perpetrated by they themselves in the pursuit of these fucking tax cuts for the rich. No matter how much this monstrosity was kept secret, no matter how roughshod the bare republican majority rode over the opposition, and no matter how fast it was jammed through, the media will never let go of how Obama did the same thing with the ACA even though he didn't happen. This was literally voted on in the middle of the night with fucking hand-scrawled notes in the margins.
We are well and truly fucked. It doesn't matter if the blue wave actually occurs in the mid terms. It doesn't matter if doughface Donny and every one of his slimy cronies are frogmarched out in handcuffs. This hack and slash job on federal revenue will finally finish the apotheosis of corporations, permanently enshrine a lawless plutocracy, and render the sovereignty of the people through their government as meaningless. Those angry, racist baby boomers who voted for the game show host may not have to live through the coming dark ages but the rest of us may as well kiss civilization goodbye.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
No, Al Franken shouldn't resign
Last year seemed to be marked by a flood of celebrities passing away early, this year seems to be marked by a flood of sexual harassment and abuse accusations. A few other important things happened too. Right now though I am specifically angry with a writer and online publication that I had always previously supported, Ben Cohen and The Daily Banter. He just posted an article calling for Senator Al Franken of Minnesota to resign in light of a second accusation that he touched a woman inappropriately. An accusation. So Franken has to go "because he is a serious liability for Democrats." Upon reading the headline, I immediately imagined the corpse of Chez Pazienza clawing out of his grave, shambling to Cohen's house, and kicking him square in the nuts.
This is part of the problem, Chez was something of the anchor of The Daily Banter who refused to submit to the politically correct flavor of the moment. His influence served as a restraining force on the other Banter members, now that he has passed away that restraint is gone. I'll throw out my entire bias list and let you decide how much it influences my thoughts here. Ben Cohen started the banter as an independent progressive news and analysis source, his own writing tends to be shorter, less insightful, and more to the point than any other writers I regularly read. As such, his opinion is not as well reasoned or supported and in calling for Senator Franken to be thrown under the bus he is just falling for the bait. If the right wing authoritarian media complex stumbles on this attack campaign and the oxygen is sucked out of it, we'll all look pretty silly for giving it any attention.
By jumping in full force like this and leaving no possibility of saving face in the light of further information, Cohen has exposed himself and the credibility of his business on a possible scandal du jour. Before the banter, before podcasts, before the progressive blogosphere congealed into a source of comfort and strength for liberals during the dark, dark days of the bush crime syndicate, there was Al Franken. His book Lies: And the lying liars who tell them was one of the first audiobooks I ever bought and it got me through many a night at my boring, repetitive job at the time. Then I got some of Franken's other books and started listening to his radio show on Air America.
The rules do not apply to republicans... at all. And for some reason, liberals want to apply them double to Democrats. An elected or even appointed Democrat has to be as pure as new fallen snow or they get the Hillary Clinton treatment. And what does Team Blue gain from constantly giving in to republican whining? Let's recall the case of Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod, two scalps claimed early on by the powerless and utterly discredited right wing at the time. The Obama administration gained absolutely nothing by throwing those two qualified officials under the bus and republicans were empowered by the administration's weakness.
Say Cohen gets his wish and Senator Franken does resign, does anyone really think that will end the "controversy"? No, "Al Franken" will be the screech of choice for any right wing authoritarian follower who is even asked about the potential "problematic" nature of claiming to be so "pro-family values" while supporting the pussy grabber in chief or the possible Senator pedophile from Alabama no matter how far Franken may go from public life. Just as Rod Blagojevich is the first and last word from republicans about Illinois and political corruption. Just as "Chicago" is synonymous with lawless immigrants and African-American violence while simultaneously a knee-jerk deflection about gun safety laws. Just as the "tax cuts will unleash growth" myth never dies, neither will any of these myths. The right wing noise machine penetrates and permeates all truth, bending it to its will. Without Senator Al Franken (who also has several female staffers swearing that he treats them will utmost respect) and other Democrats standing up to lawless authoritarianism, these women coming forward to accuse anyone of misconduct will find it "problematic" to do so in the future.
Shame on you Ben Cohen for taking this reckless stand.
This is part of the problem, Chez was something of the anchor of The Daily Banter who refused to submit to the politically correct flavor of the moment. His influence served as a restraining force on the other Banter members, now that he has passed away that restraint is gone. I'll throw out my entire bias list and let you decide how much it influences my thoughts here. Ben Cohen started the banter as an independent progressive news and analysis source, his own writing tends to be shorter, less insightful, and more to the point than any other writers I regularly read. As such, his opinion is not as well reasoned or supported and in calling for Senator Franken to be thrown under the bus he is just falling for the bait. If the right wing authoritarian media complex stumbles on this attack campaign and the oxygen is sucked out of it, we'll all look pretty silly for giving it any attention.
By jumping in full force like this and leaving no possibility of saving face in the light of further information, Cohen has exposed himself and the credibility of his business on a possible scandal du jour. Before the banter, before podcasts, before the progressive blogosphere congealed into a source of comfort and strength for liberals during the dark, dark days of the bush crime syndicate, there was Al Franken. His book Lies: And the lying liars who tell them was one of the first audiobooks I ever bought and it got me through many a night at my boring, repetitive job at the time. Then I got some of Franken's other books and started listening to his radio show on Air America.
The rules do not apply to republicans... at all. And for some reason, liberals want to apply them double to Democrats. An elected or even appointed Democrat has to be as pure as new fallen snow or they get the Hillary Clinton treatment. And what does Team Blue gain from constantly giving in to republican whining? Let's recall the case of Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod, two scalps claimed early on by the powerless and utterly discredited right wing at the time. The Obama administration gained absolutely nothing by throwing those two qualified officials under the bus and republicans were empowered by the administration's weakness.
Say Cohen gets his wish and Senator Franken does resign, does anyone really think that will end the "controversy"? No, "Al Franken" will be the screech of choice for any right wing authoritarian follower who is even asked about the potential "problematic" nature of claiming to be so "pro-family values" while supporting the pussy grabber in chief or the possible Senator pedophile from Alabama no matter how far Franken may go from public life. Just as Rod Blagojevich is the first and last word from republicans about Illinois and political corruption. Just as "Chicago" is synonymous with lawless immigrants and African-American violence while simultaneously a knee-jerk deflection about gun safety laws. Just as the "tax cuts will unleash growth" myth never dies, neither will any of these myths. The right wing noise machine penetrates and permeates all truth, bending it to its will. Without Senator Al Franken (who also has several female staffers swearing that he treats them will utmost respect) and other Democrats standing up to lawless authoritarianism, these women coming forward to accuse anyone of misconduct will find it "problematic" to do so in the future.
Shame on you Ben Cohen for taking this reckless stand.
Don't get it done
"My donors are basically saying 'get it done or don't ever call me again."'
It is odd to hear such a blunt statement of truth from a member of the death cult of human suffering still strangely referred to as the "conservative" Republican Party. But Representative Chris Collins of New York made it nice and obvious who his master really is. A year into selling their souls to the orange carnival barker and his entourage of Russians and Nazis, thus abrogating any claim to patriotism or protection by the Constitution, what do the billionaires have to show for it? A stolen Supreme Court seat, poo flinging monkeys running the executive departments, and a crackdown on the cheap labor supply most of them count on to fuel their profits. The attacks on healthcare, education, and overall security and well being are simply problems for us mortals. As is the utter embarrassment of having a game show host as president and white supremacy somehow considered a viable option for public support.
Tax cuts; the end all be all of our self-proclaimed masters. And if they don't get them they will let the rogue's gallery of manics, sycophants, and religious nuts they put in Congress whither away on their own merits. Which means, without a huge stream of "campaign donations" to misdirect, confuse, deflect, and simply overwhelm rational public debate; Republican members of Congress might have to answer actual questions from real journalists and constituents. Sure, there would still be the fine work they have done stifling democracy through suppressing the vote and gerrymandering their districts but without the carpet bombing of money it might be a fairer fight than these fucking cowards can handle. And the loss of all that advertising revenue for the networks might finally force the executives there to rethink their commitment to the "both sides do it" narrative that lets liars get away with it on TV constantly.
Might. Hope is a poor substitute for actual strategy but those of us out in the hinterlands of America without any real leverage over network corporate news need something to hang onto in this crazy time. What actually compels the news executives to run the same script day in and day out, "sure the republicans are traitorous liars who are driving the entire country off the cliff but here's some Democrat somewhere who may have worn the wrong color suit so both sides are just as bad." Driftglass always says that it's an act, news shows are a play put on to distract and confuse people who have little time and energy to commit to understanding the labyrinth of American politics. Pundit A represents this tribe, pundit B represents the other, and the moderator referees their arguing and yelling. Nothing is solved, nothing advances, and no matter what the liars win. So maybe, just maybe, if the republicans can't get the giant tax giveaway through congress for doughfacedonny's tiny fingers to sign, the billionaires really will close their checkbooks.
And that would probably be the most patriotic thing they've ever done.
It is odd to hear such a blunt statement of truth from a member of the death cult of human suffering still strangely referred to as the "conservative" Republican Party. But Representative Chris Collins of New York made it nice and obvious who his master really is. A year into selling their souls to the orange carnival barker and his entourage of Russians and Nazis, thus abrogating any claim to patriotism or protection by the Constitution, what do the billionaires have to show for it? A stolen Supreme Court seat, poo flinging monkeys running the executive departments, and a crackdown on the cheap labor supply most of them count on to fuel their profits. The attacks on healthcare, education, and overall security and well being are simply problems for us mortals. As is the utter embarrassment of having a game show host as president and white supremacy somehow considered a viable option for public support.
Tax cuts; the end all be all of our self-proclaimed masters. And if they don't get them they will let the rogue's gallery of manics, sycophants, and religious nuts they put in Congress whither away on their own merits. Which means, without a huge stream of "campaign donations" to misdirect, confuse, deflect, and simply overwhelm rational public debate; Republican members of Congress might have to answer actual questions from real journalists and constituents. Sure, there would still be the fine work they have done stifling democracy through suppressing the vote and gerrymandering their districts but without the carpet bombing of money it might be a fairer fight than these fucking cowards can handle. And the loss of all that advertising revenue for the networks might finally force the executives there to rethink their commitment to the "both sides do it" narrative that lets liars get away with it on TV constantly.
Might. Hope is a poor substitute for actual strategy but those of us out in the hinterlands of America without any real leverage over network corporate news need something to hang onto in this crazy time. What actually compels the news executives to run the same script day in and day out, "sure the republicans are traitorous liars who are driving the entire country off the cliff but here's some Democrat somewhere who may have worn the wrong color suit so both sides are just as bad." Driftglass always says that it's an act, news shows are a play put on to distract and confuse people who have little time and energy to commit to understanding the labyrinth of American politics. Pundit A represents this tribe, pundit B represents the other, and the moderator referees their arguing and yelling. Nothing is solved, nothing advances, and no matter what the liars win. So maybe, just maybe, if the republicans can't get the giant tax giveaway through congress for doughfacedonny's tiny fingers to sign, the billionaires really will close their checkbooks.
And that would probably be the most patriotic thing they've ever done.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
The Return of the Clean-Up Crew
Don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic that Democrats won lots of seats and offices on Tuesday. I won't go so far as to claim that Democratic victories in New Jersey, Virginia, Washington, and elsewhere proves that the authoritarians do not have elections sewn up so tight with their anti-democratic restrictions and gerrymandering. Or that this means Russia has stopped monkeying with our elections. Or that republican ratfckers were unable to hack the system and rig the totals. For all we know this is part of the traitors' plan, letting the marlin run a bit before yanking it back in during the midterms. But now that the voters in those states have hired Democrats to run their governments it will be more difficult for the authoritarians to manipulate them. The coming months will be an interesting test case as to whether Democrats can actually make anything out of their wins.
Let's be honest, for the next generation at least, we will be digging out of the hole that the republicans dug and then pushed us into. The last three Democratic presidents were nothing but caretakers of tradition, attempting to hold up the banner of good government and trying to clean up the mess left behind by their republican predecessors. Jimmy Carter had to whether the storm of distrust in government left be Watergate and Nixon's crimes. Bill Clinton seemed like a new beginning as he was the first president elected after the Cold War supposedly ended, but he had to deal with the incredible abuses of power by the Reagan/Bush regime and by corporate America's smash and grab job done to the average citizen. In retrospect the Clinton administration, with its deal-making and appeasement of republican monsters and the monied elite didn't actually do that well. The go-go Nineties left out enough people that the professional ratfckers in the "conservative" movement were able get away with incredible cruelty while cheered on by the re-programmable meatbags who are just too fucking stupid to realize how much they were played for suckers. The republican party, reformed into a vicious machine loyal only to itself and the right-wing billionaires they work for, has no interest in what's best for America. They are the definition of Niebuhr's children of darkness, for they recognize no law that is not in their self-interest and the rest of us be damned.
After the lying and thievery was propelled to new heights along with the national debt during the George W. Bush years, with anyone who stood up for the constitution being attacked as disloyal traitors, you would think the next turn at bat would have found Democrats finally willing to lead with their chins and unilaterally disarm. But then Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table when people mobilized enough to finally push Democrats into the majority and Democrats did nothing to counteract the brazen sedition and vandalism of the public sphere by right wing media and elected officials. Dubya left office, the only good thing he ever did, and left the country in ruins. Did republicans show any remorse for what they did? Of course not, they committed to obstructing Barack Obama's agenda at all costs. An agenda which basically consisted of cleaning up the mess their guy left and trying to help all the people who got run over by authoritarian cruelty and corporate abuse.
Was Tuesday the turning point? Where the people finally wake up that republicans are ruining their lives and they have to get involved, stay involved, and show up to vote each and every time? If we the people push enough Democrats into office, even if they won't fight for us, at least the bleeding could finally slow. It has to be us, the average citizens, who educate and help each other to push back. Authoritarianism and right wing extremism will never go away, even at the accelerated rate that boomer republicans are dying off, American citizens who believe in democracy and the rule of law have to show up and keep pushing it back into the shadows. If Tuesday was the turning point, I will be the first one to cheer and congratulate all of the hard-working volunteers who put in the time and effort to get republicans out of office. But what if it was just a psyche-out? If the authoritarian elite just let this one slip by so they can dash our hopes in the mid term elections with all of their voter suppression, gerrymandering, and gobs of money? Similarly, what if activists rest on their laurels and decide the average voters are stirred up enough to keep going? Or if those voters figure it's in the bag and they can stay home, "somebody else will take care of it."
Hillary Clinton's administration was supposed to be the one that finally allowed Democrats to stop being janitors and start making progress. It would have been the first time a Democratic administration succeeded another one since before the Civil War. We would finally see if all those horrible things Thomas Frank said about Democrats in Listen, Liberal were really true or if they would have the courage and confidence to tackle the big problems. The basic objective that Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. set out over seventy years ago still holds, liberalism must become and maintain itself as a "fighting faith". If we the voters show up and push Democrats to embrace that faith, find their backbones and challenge the right wing myth of submission, then it will be clean up crews no more. Eat my dust you authoritarian vandals!
Let's be honest, for the next generation at least, we will be digging out of the hole that the republicans dug and then pushed us into. The last three Democratic presidents were nothing but caretakers of tradition, attempting to hold up the banner of good government and trying to clean up the mess left behind by their republican predecessors. Jimmy Carter had to whether the storm of distrust in government left be Watergate and Nixon's crimes. Bill Clinton seemed like a new beginning as he was the first president elected after the Cold War supposedly ended, but he had to deal with the incredible abuses of power by the Reagan/Bush regime and by corporate America's smash and grab job done to the average citizen. In retrospect the Clinton administration, with its deal-making and appeasement of republican monsters and the monied elite didn't actually do that well. The go-go Nineties left out enough people that the professional ratfckers in the "conservative" movement were able get away with incredible cruelty while cheered on by the re-programmable meatbags who are just too fucking stupid to realize how much they were played for suckers. The republican party, reformed into a vicious machine loyal only to itself and the right-wing billionaires they work for, has no interest in what's best for America. They are the definition of Niebuhr's children of darkness, for they recognize no law that is not in their self-interest and the rest of us be damned.
After the lying and thievery was propelled to new heights along with the national debt during the George W. Bush years, with anyone who stood up for the constitution being attacked as disloyal traitors, you would think the next turn at bat would have found Democrats finally willing to lead with their chins and unilaterally disarm. But then Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table when people mobilized enough to finally push Democrats into the majority and Democrats did nothing to counteract the brazen sedition and vandalism of the public sphere by right wing media and elected officials. Dubya left office, the only good thing he ever did, and left the country in ruins. Did republicans show any remorse for what they did? Of course not, they committed to obstructing Barack Obama's agenda at all costs. An agenda which basically consisted of cleaning up the mess their guy left and trying to help all the people who got run over by authoritarian cruelty and corporate abuse.
Was Tuesday the turning point? Where the people finally wake up that republicans are ruining their lives and they have to get involved, stay involved, and show up to vote each and every time? If we the people push enough Democrats into office, even if they won't fight for us, at least the bleeding could finally slow. It has to be us, the average citizens, who educate and help each other to push back. Authoritarianism and right wing extremism will never go away, even at the accelerated rate that boomer republicans are dying off, American citizens who believe in democracy and the rule of law have to show up and keep pushing it back into the shadows. If Tuesday was the turning point, I will be the first one to cheer and congratulate all of the hard-working volunteers who put in the time and effort to get republicans out of office. But what if it was just a psyche-out? If the authoritarian elite just let this one slip by so they can dash our hopes in the mid term elections with all of their voter suppression, gerrymandering, and gobs of money? Similarly, what if activists rest on their laurels and decide the average voters are stirred up enough to keep going? Or if those voters figure it's in the bag and they can stay home, "somebody else will take care of it."
Hillary Clinton's administration was supposed to be the one that finally allowed Democrats to stop being janitors and start making progress. It would have been the first time a Democratic administration succeeded another one since before the Civil War. We would finally see if all those horrible things Thomas Frank said about Democrats in Listen, Liberal were really true or if they would have the courage and confidence to tackle the big problems. The basic objective that Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. set out over seventy years ago still holds, liberalism must become and maintain itself as a "fighting faith". If we the voters show up and push Democrats to embrace that faith, find their backbones and challenge the right wing myth of submission, then it will be clean up crews no more. Eat my dust you authoritarian vandals!
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
...And then the tax cuts
My tentacles hurt from trying to keep up with all this nonsense. The other day I actually got a moment of free time and sat down to try and put down some thoughts on doughfacedonny's war with the NFL:
Then a "retired grandfather," as I have seen him described on Twitter, started shooting at people from from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and many, many people got a shot of adrenaline to start talking again. About gun control. I hate to say it guys, maybe it's just the gloomy historian bobbing to the surface again but that term is a complete loser and will not go anywhere. Just as Donny's fans seemed to start losing interest and drift away, he got them all riled up with the racism everyone can love; ragging on the spoiled, overpaid thugs on the football field. Sure, a normal person is quite activated when news hits about the most deadly mass shooting in American history but nothing liberals have tried thus far has moved the needle one inch on gun control. So we'll lead with our chins once again, shout at trees, tilt at windmills, whatever your preferred metaphor for the futility of passing even the most basic public safety measures into law that could have at least hindered the ability of an individual to acquire an arsenal of deadly weaponry.
Meanwhile, the real payoff of all the lying, chicanery, ratfucking, treasonous footsie with the Russians, truckloads of money spent, and voter suppression has finally arrived. Third time is the charm, the US Federal Government has been dealt two knockdowns by past Republican administrations, this one will be the Technical Knockout if Donny can get those tiny fingers around a pen to sign every billionaire's fantasy of a tax cut. It almost doesn't matter what the specifics of the giveaway are, if it's republican and it has to do with taxes it will blow out the deficit and hugely benefit the filthy rich and corporations. Yes, we have to mourn the dead in Las Vegas. Yes, we have to express condolences and support the survivors. Yes, it would be great if some public safety action came out of this but the bottom line is we cannot get distracted from the entire point of republican "governance" i. e. bankrupt government with tax cuts and force it to stop doing anything to help American citizens that aren't rich.
As tragic as the shooting deaths were, this last weekend the GOP death cult of human suffering was so busy polishing tax "reform" turds that they "forgot" to reauthorize CHIP. As Brother Charlie Pierce put it:
How many hurricanes and superstorms has the United States been hit by lately? Cities destroyed, Puerto Rico without power and practically leveled, escalating tension with North Korea, and we just barely survived another attempt by the death cult of human suffering to take health insurance from millions of Americans. But what is really important that we have to endlessly debate this week? The NFL, and growing protests among players to seriously address the systemic racism and violence by police because they are "disrespecting the flag and the country" by kneeling during the national anthem. In a democratic society we could actually address the above problems and discuss in a civil manner how to reduce racial tensions. But the democratic society in America has very little power, instead we have an aristocratic constellation of the very wealthy and corporations constantly waging war on democracy. The eruption of AstroTurf counter-protest this week starting with doughfacedonny against the "spoiled young millionaires" used by the aristocrats to instill discipline in the right wing authoritarian followers shows what a raw nerve the protests have touched.Ugh, that's as far as I could get. Some kind of block just set in, like "by the time you finish this it will be old news" and then that new news will be old and so on. News cycles in the age of the doughface have turned into gerbil wheels that just spin faster and faster while getting bigger. While there is no shortage of things to write about and no shortage of readers ready to consume it, writers far above my pay grade seemed to be slowing down. As though fatigue at the breakneck pace of outrage generated by doughfacedonny and his minions in the death cult of human suffering is starting to catch up with them. I do not blame them one bit.
Then a "retired grandfather," as I have seen him described on Twitter, started shooting at people from from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and many, many people got a shot of adrenaline to start talking again. About gun control. I hate to say it guys, maybe it's just the gloomy historian bobbing to the surface again but that term is a complete loser and will not go anywhere. Just as Donny's fans seemed to start losing interest and drift away, he got them all riled up with the racism everyone can love; ragging on the spoiled, overpaid thugs on the football field. Sure, a normal person is quite activated when news hits about the most deadly mass shooting in American history but nothing liberals have tried thus far has moved the needle one inch on gun control. So we'll lead with our chins once again, shout at trees, tilt at windmills, whatever your preferred metaphor for the futility of passing even the most basic public safety measures into law that could have at least hindered the ability of an individual to acquire an arsenal of deadly weaponry.
Meanwhile, the real payoff of all the lying, chicanery, ratfucking, treasonous footsie with the Russians, truckloads of money spent, and voter suppression has finally arrived. Third time is the charm, the US Federal Government has been dealt two knockdowns by past Republican administrations, this one will be the Technical Knockout if Donny can get those tiny fingers around a pen to sign every billionaire's fantasy of a tax cut. It almost doesn't matter what the specifics of the giveaway are, if it's republican and it has to do with taxes it will blow out the deficit and hugely benefit the filthy rich and corporations. Yes, we have to mourn the dead in Las Vegas. Yes, we have to express condolences and support the survivors. Yes, it would be great if some public safety action came out of this but the bottom line is we cannot get distracted from the entire point of republican "governance" i. e. bankrupt government with tax cuts and force it to stop doing anything to help American citizens that aren't rich.
As tragic as the shooting deaths were, this last weekend the GOP death cult of human suffering was so busy polishing tax "reform" turds that they "forgot" to reauthorize CHIP. As Brother Charlie Pierce put it:
Christamighty, these gossoons spent so much time trying to strip health care from 32 million Americans that they ran out the clock on health care for nine million kids. This is terrible if it represents simple legislative incompetence, but it’s even worse if—as I suspect—it was deliberate...I don’t think it unreasonable to assume that they will use it as a bargaining…er…chip in the upcoming slanging match over the budget, thus making the health coverage for nine million kids a hostage to, say, the elimination of the estate tax. Are they above doing this? Are you kidding me?As has been making the rounds on social media this week, the cyclical nature of republican administrations in my lifetime has been:
- Cut taxes for the rich and corporations
- Cut social spending
- Increase military spending by far more
- Send the economy into recession and leave the mess for the incoming Democrat
- Raise hell about the deficit
- Scream about the need to cut Social Security
- Repeat
Friday, September 8, 2017
All The Little Things
Occasionally it is good to step away from the mania coming from the White House or the sociopaths sent to Congress and state offices by right wing authoritarian follower republicans. Usually it is no less crazy, horrible, or outrageous but at least on a smaller scale with fewer repercussions to society at large. Almost three years ago I witnessed first hand the Ministry of Truth altering the past for true party members. The manager at a Florida hardware store put up a bunch of little American flags on the public right-of-way in front of the store and the city asked him to move it when copy cats littered other right-of-ways (inspired of course by Fox News, who then got to report on the outrageous and oppressive local government overreach). Next time I checked, poof, gone. That was funny. Then the minor pearl-clutching by loonies about the imminent banning of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which was fun for seeing giant straw men careening down the slippery slope of right wing fever swamp water slides. Amazingly enough that one disappeared too from the link I used, but Huffpost saved the story for posterity. Finally the too smart by half thought leaders of tier 4 internet 'wingers that took the "socialist" part of national socialism literally and pasted it onto Bernie Sanders, admittedly one of many and there's no reason to believe it didn't originate in Russia.
Then there are more important stories that sometimes tangentially relate to my research. Such as when Ben Carson took a big, derpy swipe at Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. Or very serious trolls try to pin a lie about Sanger on Hillary Clinton. I mean, dang, the authoritarians just throw any lie they can dribble out of those diseased brains out there in the never ending war on liberalism and empirical truth. After Charlottesville it is going to be a little harder for Nazi sympathizing trolls to take this particular line of attack, but you know it's going to keep going.
About a month ago I posted this story to the blog's Facebook page about a judge in Tennessee offering thirty days off of prison sentences to convicts who agree to long-term birth control. As I was writing about the American origin of many Nazi race laws and practices the other day it popped back into my mind and I realized I hadn't heard any follow-up stories about it. Progressive sources treated the story like it was the first step towards coercive sterilizations and the rebirth of eugenics. But it fizzled out because the judge immediately rescinded his order when the health department said they weren't offering vasectomies or Nexplanon long acting birth control. Or that they withdrew the offer, it seems a bit he said/she said. So it's all over but the shouting, in this case the shouting is a lawsuit. That seems to be as far as the story went to date.
So next I went looking for some interpretations of the story and found two essays written by different lawyers. The first is from Jeffrey Carr of Grossman Law Offices and Attorney Carr, who used a personal anecdote to illustrate that people in jail are desperate and would jump at any chance to get out early but then focused on the practical and legal implications of the program. It was a good chance to think about the nature of coercion and society's options for "freeing poor people from the burden of raising children," without being overly preachy and morally outraged. On the other hand is Daniel Horwitz writing at the Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog, whose outrage knows no boundaries. He did hold out until the seventh paragraph before breaking Godwin's Law, but receives strong style points for coining the term "eugenics discount" in the first. Horwitz writes that involuntary sterilization is defined as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court without noting that the United States is a conspicuous non-signatory to the Statute and furious opponent of the ICC. He continues that:
Here's the thing, when Sir Francis Galton invented eugenics he was much more concerned with increasing the birth rate among smart and capable people than of reducing it among the degenerate. When a third of conscripts failed their physical to fight the Boers in South Africa, English eugenicists were concerned with strengthening the working class men of draft age who would be called upon to defend the Empire. There is nothing intrinsic to eugenics that must be genocidal. It is a question of the relative value of life. When eugenics caught on among certain Progressives before WWI their goal was to reduce the number of imbeciles in the next generation by segregating the unfit of this generation, those with fair skin tone. Though my research is far from complete, it generally seems that life became less valued after WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. This led to the rounding up and deportation of thousands of "dangerous radical aliens" and clampdowns on immigration in this country. That is also when involuntary sterilizations took off, the general zeitgeist seemed to be that there are too many people around and too many of them are stupid and unworthy so we the worthy are just going to eliminate their proliferation. Life in general seemed to become more valued after WWII and the holocaust.
Do we face a similar situation today? With the loud and growing chorus of anti-immigrant sentiment and weakening of taboos against white supremacy that doughface donny and his ilk represent? Is the country and the world growing so crowded that people are getting less sentimental about the value of life? This could be part of the reason that I couldn't find any fundamentalist "christian" pro-life, pro-forced birth, pro-rapists' rights assholes decrying the loss of reproductive capacity for druggies in Tennessee. That is a little story for another day though.
Then there are more important stories that sometimes tangentially relate to my research. Such as when Ben Carson took a big, derpy swipe at Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. Or very serious trolls try to pin a lie about Sanger on Hillary Clinton. I mean, dang, the authoritarians just throw any lie they can dribble out of those diseased brains out there in the never ending war on liberalism and empirical truth. After Charlottesville it is going to be a little harder for Nazi sympathizing trolls to take this particular line of attack, but you know it's going to keep going.
About a month ago I posted this story to the blog's Facebook page about a judge in Tennessee offering thirty days off of prison sentences to convicts who agree to long-term birth control. As I was writing about the American origin of many Nazi race laws and practices the other day it popped back into my mind and I realized I hadn't heard any follow-up stories about it. Progressive sources treated the story like it was the first step towards coercive sterilizations and the rebirth of eugenics. But it fizzled out because the judge immediately rescinded his order when the health department said they weren't offering vasectomies or Nexplanon long acting birth control. Or that they withdrew the offer, it seems a bit he said/she said. So it's all over but the shouting, in this case the shouting is a lawsuit. That seems to be as far as the story went to date.
So next I went looking for some interpretations of the story and found two essays written by different lawyers. The first is from Jeffrey Carr of Grossman Law Offices and Attorney Carr, who used a personal anecdote to illustrate that people in jail are desperate and would jump at any chance to get out early but then focused on the practical and legal implications of the program. It was a good chance to think about the nature of coercion and society's options for "freeing poor people from the burden of raising children," without being overly preachy and morally outraged. On the other hand is Daniel Horwitz writing at the Supreme Court of Tennessee Blog, whose outrage knows no boundaries. He did hold out until the seventh paragraph before breaking Godwin's Law, but receives strong style points for coining the term "eugenics discount" in the first. Horwitz writes that involuntary sterilization is defined as a crime against humanity in the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court without noting that the United States is a conspicuous non-signatory to the Statute and furious opponent of the ICC. He continues that:
To be absolutely and unequivocally clear: eugenics is illegal. In America, reproductive freedom is a fundamental constitutional right, and the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution forbids the government from treating people differently based on whether or not they choose to exercise their right to reproductive freedom. Tennessee’s criminal code also contains several specifically-designated mitigating factors and enhancement factors that judges are permitted to consider during sentencing. Whether a defendant has submitted to sterilization is not among them.While providing links to the Rome Statute in the previous paragraph and to his previous writings on the outrage of jail time for minor traffic offenses, Attorney Horwitz couldn't even point the reader to a Wikipedia article on the constitutional or legal status of eugenics while making his point. Then he calls for the judge to be impeached, disbarred, and have his law degree revoked. And surprise, surprise Attorney Horwitz is the leader of the lawsuit against Judge Benningfield. The whole tone of the article is "you either agree with me with enthusiasm or you're wrong!" It's at least mildly humorous. Personally, depending on the day, I'm not sure we don't do enough to encourage people to get sterilized before leaving high school, but it might just be that confirmed misanthrope Chez Pazienza talking through me from beyond the grave.
Here's the thing, when Sir Francis Galton invented eugenics he was much more concerned with increasing the birth rate among smart and capable people than of reducing it among the degenerate. When a third of conscripts failed their physical to fight the Boers in South Africa, English eugenicists were concerned with strengthening the working class men of draft age who would be called upon to defend the Empire. There is nothing intrinsic to eugenics that must be genocidal. It is a question of the relative value of life. When eugenics caught on among certain Progressives before WWI their goal was to reduce the number of imbeciles in the next generation by segregating the unfit of this generation, those with fair skin tone. Though my research is far from complete, it generally seems that life became less valued after WWI and the Spanish flu epidemic. This led to the rounding up and deportation of thousands of "dangerous radical aliens" and clampdowns on immigration in this country. That is also when involuntary sterilizations took off, the general zeitgeist seemed to be that there are too many people around and too many of them are stupid and unworthy so we the worthy are just going to eliminate their proliferation. Life in general seemed to become more valued after WWII and the holocaust.
Do we face a similar situation today? With the loud and growing chorus of anti-immigrant sentiment and weakening of taboos against white supremacy that doughface donny and his ilk represent? Is the country and the world growing so crowded that people are getting less sentimental about the value of life? This could be part of the reason that I couldn't find any fundamentalist "christian" pro-life, pro-forced birth, pro-rapists' rights assholes decrying the loss of reproductive capacity for druggies in Tennessee. That is a little story for another day though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)