Obama needs to emphasize the Republican Congressional obstruction of every initiative that would have rescued us from the economic mess left him by Bush. The Bush deregulation of big banks and Wall Street, and two unnecessary wars, put too much strain on our economy and allowed destructive, if not criminal, mortgage lending that created the mess we are in.
People losing their homes do not buy cars.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Is Republican obstruction of economic recovery programs treason?
The Republicans' plan was to obstruct everything Obama proposed to ensure we remained in the economic mess left us by Bush and his two unnecessary wars. Then, in this election, Republicans planned to pin the lingering economic problems on Obama. Everyone knows this.
They will do anything to win, including putting us all at risk and ensuring there is no economic recovery while Obama is in office. If anything is treason, this is.
They will do anything to win, including putting us all at risk and ensuring there is no economic recovery while Obama is in office. If anything is treason, this is.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Romney Presidency? Chaos.
Eric Alterman has done his homework giving us a pretty clear, if nightmarish picture of what a Romney presidency would be like. The article is well worth your time, especially if you need facts to backup your anti Romney/Ryan arguments.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
VPs
I don't think it will come to this, but if it looks like Obama is going to lose Biden will go away and Hillary will be the VP candidate.
If I was Romney I would have picked Gary Sinise for the Republican VP run.
If I was Romney I would have picked Gary Sinise for the Republican VP run.
Nice night
Here in the northeastern edge of Appalachia it is a terrific evening. Cicadas, and after the thunder storms a wind shift to the lovely Northwest brings lower humidity and cool dry air. My three big dogs are sprawled around my chair, wife asleep on the couch, baseball on TV. Just right.
Ryan: Fraud? Crackpot? Both?
The Dweeb Team
Gawker has the goods on Ryan.
I think he was a rudderless dweeby, goody goody boy until he came across Ayn Rand and swallowed it as if it had been delivered to him via the second coming. Armed with Rand's nasty edged goofiness, Ryan the crackpot was launched.
When things are difficult and the problems complex there is always certain percentage of people who are especially vulnerable to those who espouse simple minded solutions. These distortions often are described as "common sense" which has no meaning at all but somehow empowers the most ignorant into equating simplicity with wisdom.
That's what we have here, Ryan's crackpot solutions to over simplified, fictional problems.
Ryan's fraud comes from his distortion of his past, his padded resume', his lack of private sector experience, his wealth derived from government sources, and his entire career as a government paid bureaucrat.
He's a fraud and a crackpot.
Gawker has the goods on Ryan.
I think he was a rudderless dweeby, goody goody boy until he came across Ayn Rand and swallowed it as if it had been delivered to him via the second coming. Armed with Rand's nasty edged goofiness, Ryan the crackpot was launched.
When things are difficult and the problems complex there is always certain percentage of people who are especially vulnerable to those who espouse simple minded solutions. These distortions often are described as "common sense" which has no meaning at all but somehow empowers the most ignorant into equating simplicity with wisdom.
That's what we have here, Ryan's crackpot solutions to over simplified, fictional problems.
Ryan's fraud comes from his distortion of his past, his padded resume', his lack of private sector experience, his wealth derived from government sources, and his entire career as a government paid bureaucrat.
He's a fraud and a crackpot.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Hunting
Thanks partly to rules here in Pennsylvania that protect "game" and leave predators exposed to open seasons we have exploded deer populations. It is a cinch for any hunter to kill
one or two and happy, successful hunters mean more gun, gear and license sales. In the off season hunters can shoot coyotes. It's all very popular and is a large industry connected to many dependent industries.
However, the sport of hunting in the greater metropolitan area, where I live, and anywhere else for that matter, depends on suspension of any sense of reality. Hunters pretend they are in wilderness practicing the same skills as those of our mythical forefathers and facing the same challenges. It is good for them to do this, they say, because it builds character and nurtures respect for nature and, for the same reasons, good for their children to be trained to shoot animals also. What hunters need to repress is the obvious reality that there is no wilderness, not anywhere, and they are hunting in managed parks, backyards, and "game lands," a kind of primitive holodeck and the hunt is a make believe adventure not so far removed from an evening of TV.
It is all make believe and like lotteries, fashion, car brands, wrist watches and the rest, exists to take our money by getting us hooked on the mental highways to fantasies that decorate the dullness of ordinary lives, keep us from doing real things, and help us avoid thoughts of over population, global warming and our own inevitable, though rarely acknowledged, death.
However, the sport of hunting in the greater metropolitan area, where I live, and anywhere else for that matter, depends on suspension of any sense of reality. Hunters pretend they are in wilderness practicing the same skills as those of our mythical forefathers and facing the same challenges. It is good for them to do this, they say, because it builds character and nurtures respect for nature and, for the same reasons, good for their children to be trained to shoot animals also. What hunters need to repress is the obvious reality that there is no wilderness, not anywhere, and they are hunting in managed parks, backyards, and "game lands," a kind of primitive holodeck and the hunt is a make believe adventure not so far removed from an evening of TV.
It is all make believe and like lotteries, fashion, car brands, wrist watches and the rest, exists to take our money by getting us hooked on the mental highways to fantasies that decorate the dullness of ordinary lives, keep us from doing real things, and help us avoid thoughts of over population, global warming and our own inevitable, though rarely acknowledged, death.
Big government
How do you address global warming, job shortages, pandemics, over population, without big government?
I don't get what is supposed to happen to poor, sick, and/or disabled people without a social safety net that takes care of the basics. Do we leave them to die in the street?
The days when simple self reliance was enough are long gone, along with wilderness and wide open spaces. There are not enough jobs, not enough even for the most qualified and motivated and there never will be in our lifetime and it is foolish to assume that any single unfortunate is so because of some personal failure. Such assumption should certainly not be a foundation for social policy or political principle.
All our lives are entwined and much of what happens anywhere on the planet affects the whole. That is how it is and without governments that learn to consider the whole in every act and policy we are left in chaos.
I don't get what is supposed to happen to poor, sick, and/or disabled people without a social safety net that takes care of the basics. Do we leave them to die in the street?
The days when simple self reliance was enough are long gone, along with wilderness and wide open spaces. There are not enough jobs, not enough even for the most qualified and motivated and there never will be in our lifetime and it is foolish to assume that any single unfortunate is so because of some personal failure. Such assumption should certainly not be a foundation for social policy or political principle.
All our lives are entwined and much of what happens anywhere on the planet affects the whole. That is how it is and without governments that learn to consider the whole in every act and policy we are left in chaos.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Paul Ryan is bad for most of us
Here's how Paul Ryan will screw you.
That is if given the chance. Curious how an average dork can read a novel, take it as gospel to govern by, and end up being called the leading Republican intellectual. He's either a dope or has taken Rand's fairy tale to heart and is cynically using politics to con billionaires into moving cash from their to his accounts.
And take a look at this showing Ryan at his best.
That is if given the chance. Curious how an average dork can read a novel, take it as gospel to govern by, and end up being called the leading Republican intellectual. He's either a dope or has taken Rand's fairy tale to heart and is cynically using politics to con billionaires into moving cash from their to his accounts.
And take a look at this showing Ryan at his best.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Brokaw at his pompous worst
I turn on Olympics and I get pretentious Brokaw covering WWII and Churchill, the last remaining subjects worthy of Brokaw's delusional eminence. What crap.
Romney/Ryan slogan
"We've got ours. Screw the rest of you."
Might also work for Republicans in general.
Might also work for Republicans in general.
Crazy Days and Nights: Penn State Booster Gave $ To School - Molested Boy...
Crazy Days and Nights: Penn State Booster Gave $ To School - Molested Boy...: This Penn State scandal just does not go away and it keeps getting more sordid and messy and makes me wonder if every person of influence i...
Ryan paid for college with Social Security checks
It's okay or him but not for the rest of us.
Like the rest of his insane Republican colleagues, Ryan wants to get rid of Medicare for us, but of course keep high quality medical coverage for members of Congress.
Like the rest of his insane Republican colleagues, Ryan wants to get rid of Medicare for us, but of course keep high quality medical coverage for members of Congress.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Despair or acceptance?
Saw this extraordinary paragraph, the last one in "Karl
Ove Knausgaard’s “My Struggle" via The New Yorker review linked below. Don't
know if I have the mental stamina to tackle the entire book.
Now I saw his lifeless state. And that there was no
longer any difference between what once had been my father and the table he was
lying on, or the floor on which the table stood, or the wall socket beneath the
window, or the cable running to the lamp beside him. For humans are merely one
form among many, which the world produces over and over again, not only in
everything that lives but also in everything that does not live, drawn in sand,
stone, and water. And death, which I have always regarded as the greatest
dimension of life, dark, compelling, was no more than a pipe that springs a
leak, a branch that cracks in the wind, a jacket that slips off a clothes hanger
and falls to the floor.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Dear CNN,
I have had all I can take of the Aurora shootings coverage. Had it up to my nose with reporters and anchors stretching for something more to say and for new ways to manufacture news. Leave it please and let the victims and their families get on with getting on.
Monday, July 16, 2012
David Gergen: Partisan Republican Hack
David Gergen has a pro Romney op ed on CNN's web site. It is exactly what we should expect from this Republican Party operative who shares financial interest with both Bain and Romney.
Do not be fooled by his posing as bi or non partisan nor by such dupes as Anderson Cooper who propagate the myth.
Write CNN and ask them to correctly identify Gergen as the political operative he is and stop misleading the American public.
Do not be fooled by his posing as bi or non partisan nor by such dupes as Anderson Cooper who propagate the myth.
Write CNN and ask them to correctly identify Gergen as the political operative he is and stop misleading the American public.
Friday, June 08, 2012
Excessive influence of wealth wrecks Democracy
There is no democracy when wealthy corporations and ultra rich individuals exercise as much influence as they do now. The Supreme Court, now tilted to the insane Right, is steadily destroying the spirit of one vote per person by advancing the influence of the wealthiest.
Those that think we have a democratic system are delusional. We are now a plutocracy and orderly change back to the democracy we thought we had is not longer possible. Those in power will not give up their overwhelming influence willingly or peacefully and will continue to use the manipulations possible with mass media and market controls to ensure huge numbers of citizens always ask the wrong questions and are moved by more compelling emotion invoking non issues than they are by their own best interests. No one is more pathetic than a poor, working or middle class conservative Republican whose political choices are driven by fear and hatred of gays, abortion, gun control advocates, immigrants, racism and so on....
Those that think we have a democratic system are delusional. We are now a plutocracy and orderly change back to the democracy we thought we had is not longer possible. Those in power will not give up their overwhelming influence willingly or peacefully and will continue to use the manipulations possible with mass media and market controls to ensure huge numbers of citizens always ask the wrong questions and are moved by more compelling emotion invoking non issues than they are by their own best interests. No one is more pathetic than a poor, working or middle class conservative Republican whose political choices are driven by fear and hatred of gays, abortion, gun control advocates, immigrants, racism and so on....
CNN's woes
Bad ratings are well deserved.
It's not so much the anchors (though Blitzer and King suck) as it is the worn out, tired political hacks they parade out over and over again as "experts" or spokespersons for one or the other political parties. There is never a fresh point of view expressed and never a true Liberal or Progressive view represented.
It is always the same old Gergen and company in centrist guise as a cover for advancing conservative hegemony . Worse even than Gergen is the disgusting Ari Fleischer who is unbearable to look at and is both offensively smarmy and relentless. When Fleischer appears everyone in their right mind changes the channel.
Maybe CNN should switch to an all day BBC or Aljazeera. Real news and intelligent discussion from multiple view points would be refreshing.
It's not so much the anchors (though Blitzer and King suck) as it is the worn out, tired political hacks they parade out over and over again as "experts" or spokespersons for one or the other political parties. There is never a fresh point of view expressed and never a true Liberal or Progressive view represented.
It is always the same old Gergen and company in centrist guise as a cover for advancing conservative hegemony . Worse even than Gergen is the disgusting Ari Fleischer who is unbearable to look at and is both offensively smarmy and relentless. When Fleischer appears everyone in their right mind changes the channel.
Maybe CNN should switch to an all day BBC or Aljazeera. Real news and intelligent discussion from multiple view points would be refreshing.
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