Is it 5 o’clock? Is this Margaritaville?
What’s that smell? Somebody cut the cheeze in Whizconsin?
In an overwhelming display of money over common sense, Wisconsinonians voted to keep Governer Walker around long enough for the feds to finish their investigation. At this writing, all races have either been called for the Republican candidate, or the Republican candidate is holding a commanding lead.
To be fair, although Republican Scott Walker outspent Democratic Challenger Tom Barrett about an 8 to 1 margin, he only won by about a 9 to 8 margin.
So, What do Wisconsinonians have to look forward to, now that Walker & Co. soundly thumped the Democrats?
Well, and I’m just guessing here, they can look forward to keeping more of their pay, as they won’t be bothered with having to shell out for those pesky Union Dues any more.
And their taxes will go down, too. When the Union jobs are gone, they’ll be paid less, and people that are paid less pay less taxes. So, that’s a win-win for the CheeseHeads.
And they won’t have to wait in line for goverment services anymore. There won’t be a line, or services.
The Whizconsin vote yesterday breathes new life into the Party of Reagan. It also proves the Supreme Court was right. Money does equal speech. It also equals votes.
Now, if only I could convince poor people, the disadvantaged, people of “color”, the downtrodden masses, the progressive liberal-socialist-marxist-communist-feminist tree-huggers to go out and Register Republican en masse. It would mess that party’s demographics up so much they wouldn’t know what hit them.
THIS THREAD IS NOW OPEN UNTIL THE BARS CLOSE.
JUST REMEMBER, IT’S 5 O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE.
AND, IF YOU MUST DRINK AND DRIVE, USE A SAND-WEDGE: THE BALLS DON’T GO AS FAR.
TheZoo 
How long before WI rues the day Walker was retained?
I’m saddened for the state as the arrogant s.o.b will now believe he’s gawd.
Depends on how long the federal prosecutor takes to indict him.
I can’t sleep. If I could, I would dig up Ronnie Reagan and spit on him. Looks like Rove’s math is in the millions and billions and the R’s might be on their way to that permanent Republican majority after all.
I just can’t get over all of the gloaters on other blogs hailing the end of “greedy” unions, not even beginning to understand that it’s the “greedy corporations” that will ultimately steal their lunch money. Sad, sad, sad that Walker and ALEC’s divide and conquer strategy worked.
I know that Thom says that despair isn’t an option, but how the heck can you not feel it in a case like this?
It is very disheartening. I made a statement that I was pleased that I received a refund from the doctor’s office because of “Obamacare” and I was accused of being greedy. This nation is broken and is on the downslide. If Rmoney wins in November, it’s over especially for seniors as he will dismantle Social Security and Medicare and handover whatever little bit of funds left in the government over to his rich friends.
They decrie that the unions donate money to politicians they don’t like, but can’t see that their employers do it exponentially more..Duh…
In Walker’s case the Koch suckers flooded with corporate money by a factor of 7 (seven) to 1.
The f***Ing SCLM says ‘So what lesson do Obama and Romney take from this election?
Duh….. again.
Now can you see why Young Turks was asking the question if Citizens United was the most important failure of Obama – Obama has done next to nothing to use the power of the bully pulpit to stop this and CU is going to end this country’s system of one person, one vote.
Obama once said he would be a one term president doing what was right ….. guess he changed his mind, wonder who changed it for him.
Interesting exit polls show that despite people voting to keep Walker, the poll shows that if the presidential election was held yesterday, Obama would have received 51% of the vote with Romney getting only 44%.
Well, whaddaya know?
Wisconsin State Senate 21
100 % of precincts reporting
John Lehman (D)——–50.5%—–36,255
Van Wanggaard (R)—-49.5%—–35,476
——————————————-71,731
Regaining the Senate for the democrats will significantly limit what Walker can destroy.
Well, that’s a good piece of news in an otherwise dismal outcome!
A glimmer of hope.
That’s great, except it appears the Senate won’t be in session again until 2013–after November elections. Lehman will have to do it all over again.
Gummitch, if those state senate seats are four years, they run again in 2014.
Couldn’t help but think of this one last night after the news from Wisconsin broke:
“Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie …”
June 5, 2012: “The Day the Music Died” for good. ‘On, Wisconsin …’
Reminds of another monumental date that signaled the death of one nation, the rebirth of another. On January 30, 1933 in Berlin, Andre Francois-poncet, the French Ambassador to Germany wrote a diary entry:
Also the words of Herr Doctor Joseph Goebbels:
On, Wisconsin. GO! GOP! GO P! Go Pee.
A Zooey surrogate?:
I’m not sure that Barrett was the best choice but I’m not familiar with Wisconsin politicians.
I you can’t beat them, join them. The Republican Party controls so much of the country’s wealth, it can’t be defeated. Ergo it must be changed from within….
Not sure that’s possible. Is there any methodology for ridding any portion of the human experience of Greed, or Lust, or Envy, or Pride, or Gluttony, or Wrath, or perhaps worst of all, of intellectual Sloth? The Seven Deadly Sins actually define with unimaginable precision the backbone of today’s Republican party, and those sins have been around — and equally deadly — for as long as humans have existed.
I dunno. If I listen closely to what my ass is telling me, there’s only one possible conclusion: this nation is as dead as the hope that it can be revived and repaired.
I have to agree with you frugalchariot. If Republicans in Wisconsin are so hateful that they’ll vote against their own interest to stick it to union members there is no hope. The propaganda machine is so powerful that people begrudge their peers making a decent living but don’t bat an eye at CEO pay.
It’s sad how stupid the people of this country are.
Shayne, I don’t think it is stupid so much as keyed to instant answers, instant gratification and a well ground-in belief that no one would actually conspire to do rotten things to our country. A herd of well trained, lazy fools.
Intellectual Sloth. A Republican trademark, one sought since Reagan began dismantling public education circa 1981. To the emergent conservative GOP of the time, broad-based and educated intellect was — and remains today — an impediment to power, ergo …
Etc.
Ronnie Raygun began the dumbing down of education and raising costs of tuition of long before 1981.
In CA long before; nationally in 1981 on the day of his first inauguration.
The Walker supporters/labor union haters believe that they deserve less. They believe that they don’t deserve to make more money because they are cowards and they are lazy. When shopping for investment property, we looked at places where people had cabinets and shelves filled with junk food and nothing else of much value except the big screen TV. The TV was their life focus. How very sad for them.
The Onion trips on the facts being funny.
That was funny and my guess is that someone will take it seriously and it will probably be someone from the Drudge Report.
Thanks Shayne…. I think?
Gallows humour – if it wasn’t so close to the truth.
Sigh. I have a headache. Partly from drowning sorrows last night and mostly from realizing that CU really is going to succeed in buying America for the oligarchs. I don’t trust the results but I don’t think the ballots will be hand counted.
Fox & Republican lies and propaganda are working. Inundating the media with ads that are blatantly false is working to sway the opinions of people who don’t have the desire to verify. They said it so it must be true. Yet we no longer have any group openly and effectively challenging the liars.
The only thing left is for their policies to do what they are designed to do and when enough people are hurting, things will happen. I don’t expect any of them to be pleasant.
Exactly.
When things get bad enough, the masses revolt. We’re not there yet for too many people.
The challenge of the oligarchy is to gradually worsen conditions over a long period of time, so that, like a frog in a pot of water, they don’t feel the temperture rise until it’s too late.
But, yes, things will get worse, and it will eventually get to the point of armed rebellion. At that point, the oligarchy’s main challenge will be to pit the poor against the poor, so that the masses kill each other, rather than turning their anger on the ruling class.
Historically, the masses will be divided into 3 camps. 1/3 against the ruling class, 1/3 supporting the ruling class, and 1/3 that doesn’t want to get involved, and will only take up arms if they are personally affected.
The challenge in the U.S., of course, is that the 1/3 that supports the ruling class will have full access to all of the military’s wonderful ways of wiping out people.
The oligarchy’s best way to avoid bloodshed in the millions is to slowly but surely take away all hope. People that have no hope of attaining a better life do not revolt. Yes, there will be minor uprisings, but they will be put down so swiftly, so overwhelmingly, that the masses will simply give up.
It’s been the way of the past, present, and future of our species.
Do you not find it curious that the first thing the Oblilisk in 2001 a Space Oddesy taught our emerging species, was how to use a weapon to kill others?
Here, this won’t make you feel any better:
WALKER, MOST OTHER REPUBS REPORTEDLY SURVIVE WISCONSIN RECALL ELECTIONS
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9332
Watch as the Wisconsin austerity plan enriches the 1% and it’s future imitates that of Greece. Fewer tax revenues, fueling even deeper cuts, elimination of most services, until the government drowns in the last drop of water in the tub.
Good luck Cheezewhip heads, you’re gonna need it.
Maybe it is time for our nation to split. Obviously, not all people want to improve their lives. They are content with the prosperity of the 1%. Just wait until they are required to give up their weekends, lose their health benefits, lose their vacation time and never get a raise. Some people were born to be serfs and are pleased with that position in life.
“Walker went on to win by pretty much the 7 point margin all the polls were predicting, 53-46. So what happened? It’s actually quite simple if you look at the exit polls. The final question there was the key to the entire recall election. When asked “Do you think recall elections are appropriate” some 60% of Wisconsin voters said “Only for official misconduct” and another 10% said “never”. And despite the allegations of Walker’s shadowy dealings, the 60% who said that policy wasn’t a reason to recall Walker voted 68-31% for Walker.”
And according to the reports on the progress of the federal prosecution that Walker is under notive of, he has been stalling the investigation for nearly two years – if he had (as seems likely) been indicted, I wonder how that would have changed the vote.
In IL former Republican Gov George Ryan (now in prison) was being investigated before reelection and allowed to serve his second term before being indicted. Blagojevich (D) was kicked out immediately and charged with really bogus crimes.
I had an interesting discussion with a person yesterday who accused me of being bitter occupier. Not in the least, but I believe in a social safety net. He grew up poor and “says” he is rich now. Says that he has worked for every dime he has. And he has been working since he was 10.
I have met his type before, he thinks that he got there on his own, but I would be willing to bet that at some point in his life, his family received some sort of social services or his first job included the minimum wage or someone somewhere he got a leg up. I have yet to meet a truly self made person.
But it illustrates something that I have long observed: that people who grow up pinching pennies are constantly worried about someone getting something that they didn’t earn and are incredibly selfish. The Republican party plays into this and exploits it.
Sometime that people like that are Cheeto eating losers living in their mom’s basements pretending to be rich, pulled up by their bootstraps. I don’t believe any of them.
More of the same old “Horatio Alger” bullshit.
As someone once said, “I’m a self-made man and I worship my creator.”
Here’s the “money shot” in the recall debacle – brought to you by John Roberts and Citizens United
I don’t like the CU ruling, but like a football game, the teams are playing on the same field under the same conditions. Big-time politics has been about the money for decades and will continue that way as long as the campaign finance rules remain the same, so the Democrats better get in the game and fight on equal footing and stop whining how they got outspent.
BMM – who has the money? do you? Are you going to outspend the Koch brothers who have promised to spend$100m this year?
And that’s just two of the fascists using their riches to drown out *your* voicgovernment.
This is like the rules of football being that one team can have as many players as they wnat on the field, and their pads have 4 inch spikes on them, while the other team plays as usual.
Or plays in a loincloth.
Well gee whiz, I guess I ought to just go ahead and drain the remainder of my retirement account so I can give it to the Democrats. Then maybe I can collect aluminum cans on the highway for the Democrats, or sell a kidney.
Some buttwad friend of Glen Greenwald on Twitter is blaming Obama and DNC for Walkier winning. Like the DNC has $30 million to give to a governor race. And RWNJ would have blamed the loss on Obama if he’d spent time there.
I don’t think that would be asking too much of you. Of course when the Democrats lose anyway that might be a problem.
There is a very good piece at Daily Kos about the Wisconsin elections, that is well worth reading. Turns out a significant percentage of Badger voters simply didn’t think that a recall was justified for anything but criminal behavior. Of course, this might soon be a moot point.
It also turns out that summer elections are a bad choice for Dems: youth vote was much lower than it would have been if school was still in session.
“Turns out a significant percentage of Badger voters simply didn’t think that a recall was justified for anything but criminal behavior.”
Yeah, I wrote that earlier but people here don’t want to believe it. The Democrats could have outspent the GOP by 7-1 and it wouldn’t have mattered. You have to pick your fights and know WHAT you’re fighting. The Wisconsin Democrats failed miserably at that.
Oh, I believe you, badmoodman. I’m just making the point that, like so many other people in this country who vote for Democrats, I’ve got absolutely no money to give, and if he who has the biggest war chest wins every single election now, we are just not going to win elections anymore.
How am I whining? I think people like me and several others on the Zoo are living pretty damn close to the bone, which feels quite a bit like reality.
WI Dems acted as if Walker were somehow an illegitimate Governor. They refused the give-and-take of democratic politics, using emergency measures for non-emergency reasons. In that way they seem to me to be a state-based mirror-image of the GOP in Washington.
Just as Walker was clearly a far right candidate and implemented an agenda that was predictable even if not voiced in his campaign, so Obama ran precisely on what he has done in office. His healthcare reform was not suddenly sprung on people in a bait-and-switch operation. It was debated ad nauseum in the primaries and the fall campaign; ditto the stimulus, ditto ending the war in Iraq and focusing on al Qaeda in counter-terrorism.
Obama has done what he said he’d do. And yet he has been treated as illegitimate and utterly unworthy of any cooperation or compromise by the congressional and media GOP.
The Democrats need to pick their fights more carefully and be better informed on their chances. How do you not conduct polling before embarking on a recall election which would have revealed their folly? The good news is this has no impact on November nationally, but it will serve as a template for other Republixan governors.
Guantanamo? Transparency? he may have ended torture but upped it with extra-judicial assassination I’ll stop there …. anyhow let’s not refight this today, BMM, I read your long article from yesterday, there’s merit in what you say.
Guantanamo is an ACT OF CONGRESS. In his first 100 days, he signed an executive order to close it. That order was overturned in the senate by a vote of 92 -4 (as memory serves.) I’m sorry, but it does nothing to strengthen your case that you misrepresent something so blatant.
Hmm ok, I don’t accept the ‘misrepresent’ charge, Gary, but I do accept your point that Guantanamo takes more that just an exec order. *However*, when presented with even a minimum level of resistance to a position he has espoused in his campaign, he has backed down and let the nihilists in Congress dictate to him. He has backed away immediately from many of his positions (Bush tax cuts, single payer) in the face of even nominal opposition. So that’s the text behind the single word ‘Guantanamo’ – when presented with minimal opposition, Obama backs down and walks away.
And now that he has his ‘kill list baseball cards’ that he reviews every Tuesday and is writing the same kinds of memos that Bush used to justify his use of Guantanamo and torture – now to bomb the crap out of people, American citizens included – without due process….. I would argue that Obama as the great champion of liberty and the rule of law as espoused by his opposition to Guantanmo – is totally discredited. The spirit of my comment is right on.
Can’t help but wonder if there were some Germans who acted the same about Hitler, way back when. Bet there were. Tyrants do get ‘elected’, unfortunately. And maybe the time to get rid of them is when it’s still possible, before they have the opportunity to ‘adjust’ the electorate appropriately in their favor?
Actually, I still remember well the impeachment of the elected governor of (of all places!) Arizona, Evan Mecham. His wingnut supporters whined and whined, of course, but still he was eventually impeached and convicted, then tossed out. In spite of the fact that he had been ‘duly elected’ and was, therefore, the ‘legitimate’ governor.
Wisconsin Dems were right. The Wisconsin electorate fucked up. Again.
Rachael Maddow did a piece last week where she pointed out that 99% (heh) of people NEVER give to a political campaign. So who is left? The top 4 organizations that give to political campaigns are conservative groups. The top 6 out of 10 organizations are Conservative groups.
There are only 3 organizations that give to Democrats. And they are Unions. (at 5/6/7). You bust these organizations. Then no one will be there to stand up for the American people.
The 10th organization is American Realtors.
Guess most voters don’t like “changing horses midstream”. People that feel secure in their jobs don’t pay much attention to politics. What these same people don’t realize is that they are only one pink slip away or one major illness away from losing everything. I use to work with people like that. They loved the Republican ideals UNTIL they got laid off and are now finding it difficult to get a job that paid the same salary as their previous job. These people are now singing a different tune.
Yeah… But do we have to wait until things were as bad as the dust bowl days before people wise up? it seems so.
nah…we have to wait for things to get far worse than the Dust Bowel days.
I just read that – good analysis by Kos.
There was also a change to the youth voter registration requirements as though, many college students couldn’t vote because they changed the registration requirement to 28 days residency instead of 10. If you were not attending college for the summer, then you could not use that address as your place of residence but the kicker is, if you moved back home for the summer, you wouldn’t have lived back home long enough to be able to register to vote even on election day.
Neat little voter registration suppression.
I doubt that it would have made enough of a difference yesterday, but every time a Republican can keep someone from voting, democracy loses.
Tools of the trade
Fearful inhabtants scratch slogans,
Endorsing each flickering shadow;
Certain visions of indifferent gods,
Each an image borne of absence;
Now thankful for a bounty of darkness,
Now thankful for a comforatable yoke;
A foresworn duty as hostage,
Delights no thinking child
Good point.
Cheeseflap,
I see you’ve diverged from your usual haiku.
Is there a particular form you’re following here?
(and, yes, I intend to give you the sincerest form of flattery)
I thought I might spend time asking questions in the style of Faux News:
Does James O’Keefe have video of Obama’s secret tryst with Ann Romney?
Did Bill O’Riley fire staffer who walked in on O’Riley masturbating while wearing a bra?
😀
Those are good questions.
Inquireing minds want to know…
Has anyone read on the internet that Ann Romney had an affair with a black man or that Bill O’Reilly is a secret cross-dresser?
Now you just need to ‘santorum’ that there piece of internet ‘truthiness’, ‘catapult the propaganda’ as it were.
Until someone can prove these statements false, we can only believe that they are true.
Actually, I just googled it, and, yes. I have read on the internet that Ann Romeny had an affair with a black man:
It’s so easy to prove things these days. 😉
Sorry, everyone. I’m feeling angry and powerless, and I don’t like it one bit. I shouldn’t take it out on badmoodman, and I apologize to him for my snide comments directed toward him this morning.
I will work at gaining a more positive perspective on the situation in this country, and on the upcoming election in November.
Zooey, no apology necessary. I realize the stress you must be under and to borrow a phrase, “I feel your pain,” the pain of millions in your predicament and those who could face the same thing at any time.
Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451) has died
Ray “saw” how flat screen televisions (parlor walls) and the tripe coming from them would take over people’s lives. He wasn’t too far off the mark, was he?
Final Wisconsin Turnout: 57 Percent
Really? I mean I’m totally proud about the huge turnout in WI yesterday, but what are 43% of eligible voters doing staying home? I have never understood people who don’t exercise their full rights and fulfill their obligations as American citizens — people fought and died getting that right for us, and 43% of eligible voters in WI just couldn’t be bothered yesterday. Unbelievable.
Not so much people don’t bother, but like myself being disabled u might physically not be able to get there. I got to the 2008 Pres election, but was not able to get to the 2010 elections. Then there are poor people, functional but not fully mentally grounded people with no one around to help them and the disenfranchised. No matter who the fringe disenfranchised voter votes for (ie person living in car, on street) it won’t effect them.
Tess, if you want to vote in November, call the campaign office for the candidate that you like and I am sure that they will help you get to the polls or help you get an absentee ballot.
I’m sure I could, but my post was an example of what the make of the 43% that didn’t show up might consist of, not a personal appeal for me. If the disenfranchised feel no efficacy in the political system they aren’t going to be able or motivated to vote. Thank you for the advice though.
If those 43% were told that they couldn’t vote, then they would complain about it.
I’m with you on this, Zooey. These 43% should go live in Somalia or China or North Korea where they can’t vote or their vote is meaningless.
It’s the thirds. 1/3 in one camp, 1/3 in the opposite camp, accounts for 66%.
Now factor in voter suppression, and, viola! A voter turnout of 57%. It’s how a united minority can defeat the majority every time.
Great Moments in Overreach:
Doster is the chair of Romney’s campaign in Florida.
Pack it in Unions, it’s over? WTF? Then again, many people will be happy as a clam and as grateful as a starving puppy offered a meal working as serfs and slaves to the 1%. Maybe factory owned towns aren’t so bad after all./sarc off.
Before Unions and ater the complete destruction on Unions…
This is really naive, but why can’t the 99% make 1 Super Pac of their own with no agenda except explaining & fighting the power of Corp sponsored ads (ie letting folks know whether dem or rep, these Super Pac ads are paid for by companies with interests they expect to be compensated for, these ads are not just in support of ur candidate, they have kickbacks tied to them).
Couldn’t we neutralize the power of Corporate Super Pacs with a non partisan Super Pac (just a dollar donation from every1) explaining Citizens United ruling & how these ads are rigged?
No reason why not – you can see several progressive groups attempting to do just that – WolfPAC over at TYT is one such.
And that’s the problem right there. “Several groups” will not be able to amass the amount of money that 1 group could.
The 99% could form a corporation whose sole purpose was to buy other corporations and buy fox gnews.
Reblogged this on teesepowell and commented:
WI Recall Aftermath
Thanks!
(does that mean I’m famous?)
I wish! I think it just means your such a talented writer, I knew felt this was the best way to share this info w my followers.
Welcome to the Zoo, tesspowell. I kept missing you earlier. 🙂
Thank you. Been a long time lurker, glad to be on board!
Welcome.
Here go the ‘job creators’ again. … yay for the job creators, record profits and the layoffs keep on coming
So sad for these people losing their jobs. It will be difficult to find a job with a good salary and good benefits after Verizon kicks them out.
Wall Street is planning layoffs too. heh.
Second bite of the cheese?
“But when Walker set up the fund in March, legal experts pointed to Wisconsin statutes that seem to mean Walker would only be allowed to establish such a reserve if he had already been charged or was being investigated in connection with the John Doe probe.
“The only way you can set that up is if you are under investigation or are being prosecuted,” Michael Maistelman, who was representing Russell at the time, told reporters. “One can only draw the conclusion that either one of those two things is happening.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/06/scott-walker-survives-recall-but-investigations-may-zero-in-on-him.html
The sad fact is that, even if the voters of Wisconsin have heard that Walker is under investigation, it’s been phrased as a “librul witch hunt”. Everything I’ve seen suggests that the local media is in his corner so he probably would have won without FAUX”News” electioneering on his behalf.
Slideshow of the Transit of Venus on TPM.
¡Stupendous!
Thank you so much for posting this here.
It was my pleasure, BnF. 🙂
Honestly, there’s a lot I wouldn’t know about, if it weren’t for folks posting links in the comments here.
And, yes, I know I’ve been kinda silent these last few days – other obligations get in the way. But yesterday’s hearing went….quite well for my client.
QOTD:
“The news that Abu Yahya al-Libi, the No.2 leader of al Qaeda, is now confirmed to have been killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal region along the border with Afghanistan further underlines that the terrorist group that launched the 9/11 attacks is now more or less out of business,” – Peter Bergen.
What Bush failed to do in eight years, Obama has accomplished in three. He did it without torture. And he did exactly what he said he’d do. Imagine George W. Bush achieving what Bergen has noted. Would a re-election even be in doubt? Or would he already be on Rushmore?
If a repiggie — any repiggie — had done what Obama has done as President, they would be revered as a god, their image would be emblazoned on all the money and stamps, and school children would be required to worship a solid gold idol in his/her image.
And, if they call in the next ten minutes, they’ll receive, absolutely free, a second solid gold idol. All they have to pay is extra shipping and handling.
From Grammarly
Ugh, that just makes my hair stand on end.
Counterpoint:
https://www.facebook.com/AynRandSS
Wow, there are some really vicious comments on those posts. It must be awful to have so much, but be so bitter about it…
QOTD II:
“Republicans are always quick to attack Democrats for waging “class warfare” whenever they suggest that the wealthy ought to pay more taxes to help reduce the deficit and prevent the decimation of programs to aid the poor. But Republicans also engage in class warfare when they suggest that the poor are to blame for deficits because so few pay federal income taxes. Those among the wealthy who are paying no income taxes at least deserve equal time.” — Bruce Bartlett
I’m feeling sort of hopeless as well, in spite of brisk pork sales this morning. When I started my career, even companies opposed to unions (IBM was extremely anti-union) provided the workers security and admitted they did so so that we would feel no need for a union. We had pensions, fully paid health insurance, and if I had died my family would have received my full salary and benefits for 3 years as well as the money from the employer provided life insurance. Now most corporations do not provide a traditional pension. Health insurance is disappearing or becoming unaffordable. Had my husband been killed in Afghanistan his firm would have sent flowers and terminated my health coverage within 3 weeks. We have no security in spite of the fact that we are probably better off than much of the working population. My son has never held a job that provided any insurance or pension whatsoever, and the corporate funded talk machine has convinced many people with no security, insurance, or pension that the fix for their bitter reality is to strip those benefits from the last sector of workers to retain them, the public sector, as though what those workers receive was some sort of government give-away and not what all workers believed themselves to be deserving of just a generation ago. The American worker now competes with the people of third world nations in a race to see who can do more for less while the price of necessities rises based on world demand. For the first time in my life I’m glad I’m old and won’t see the final outcome of the policies that have destroyed my country.
The American workforce is a disposable commodity now. No one is safe, even those who sneer at those of us who’ve been out of work for so long. They’ll find out soon enough, and the screaming from that crowd will be the loudest of all.
You are so correct. I’ve seen this happen recently with people that I worked with in the pharmaceutical industry. They were stunned when they got laid off.
Ignorant Americans eat up the Fox/Limbaugh propaganda like it’s candy. It’s is 1984 where GOP doesn’t care about people or country just about controlling power.
I feel the same way. The really sad part is that I have children and very young grandchildren that will need to make it in this world.
If we want to progress as a nation, then we need to be creative and make and do things that put us ahead of other nations. For one thing, we as consumers need to stop buying all that cheap Chinese junk and be more selective in what we purchase.
If I lived closer to you Outstanding, I would be purchasing a pig 🙂 from you.
The next Rush:
I saw this video yesterday — horrifying.
Paraphrasing a comment I left on the site where I originally saw it — That kid has his foot on a gay banana peel, and his parents should be shot for filling his head with that hateful bullshit.
You have to be carefully taught.
For the record, I’ve never used the word “retard” as a derogatory phrase for anyone who was mentally disadvantaged. So it kind of pisses me off that I can’t use it for vaccuous pukes like this.
Maybe it’s because Taylor is in performing arts but the number of gay boys she knows indicates the number of people in the closet is very large. That being said this kid looks as gay as any of them. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
You can’t win with these people. Remember how everyone on the Right got behind the President when he supported the rebels in Libya? Me either. Now McCain is calling Obama a pussy for not supplying arms to dissidents/rebels in Syria. But wouldn’t that be “reckless” and “poorly thought out”?
Remember, Obama is solely responsible for Arab Spring, at least for the bad parts.
Obama is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
He might as well do whatever the hell he wants — it will get him the same response no matter what.
The only thing that Obama can’t do which the repiggies would like is change the color of his skin.
If he turned white then they’d start looking for some intern to accuse him of sexually harassing them. Republicans won’t let any Democrat do their job.
Nah, then they’d just accuse him of being a Michael Jackson wannabe.
Some more Daily Kos — “I hope you all realize that we WON in Wisconsin last night!” (hope I’m not being redundant; I only skimmed the above):
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/06/1097790/-I-hope-you-all-realize-that-we-WON-Wisconsin
Interesting way to look at things. Thanks, Gary.
Reading that perspective brought to mind:
And I’m sure that the Representative can provide a list of thousands, if not millions, of Chinese people who have been executed for practicing a religion. What’s that? No such list exists?
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/06/06/495748/gop-congressman-calls-chinese-government-the-adolf-hitler-of-our-day/
Besides which; I though that President Obama was the Hitler of our day. I guess that one Hitler isn’t enough for a planet with 7 billion people.
Oh, these GOPers just love calling people names and threatening them with guns. It makes them feel important.
Overcompensation for unworkable bits.
Here’s another thing that I’m depressed about: The Bush Tax cuts will expire after the election and the economy will start improving. If Romney gets elected, then he’s gonna get the credit for the improving economy.
The only thing that I can hope for is that people still hate Romney at the end of the day. The proles will vote based on popularity and charisma since they can’t seem to make the time to understand policy.
The Bush cuts will expire, but the Rmoney cuts will have been pushed through before the mid-terms, so that he will take the blame for the ensuing recession come ’16. Assuming he actually gets elected (which I still think to be unlikely.)
I’m not sure we will make it to 2016 as a country. By then, Republicans will have eliminated all unions and there will be no money to fight for the lower and working classes.
There were no Unions in 1850, nor any money to fight for them.
Frances Fox Piven makes the point in Challenging Authority that these things are cyclical, and no progressive advance is ever complete or stable. You’ll need an historically deeper argument to advance your claim that these are the End Times. (Internet? Lack of frontier? These are possible differences that leap to mind for me.)
Ok… fine. But you’re going to give me better that that to talk me down off of this ledge. Got any GOOD news?
I mean, we have The Supreme C(orporate)court ACA ruling and immigration sb 1070 ruling coming and more economic woes in Europe…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/steve-carell-princeton-class-day-video_n_1571993.html?ref=comedy&ir=Comedy
Democrats won the WI Senate. Walker’s programs are stopped in their place.
Go back and re-read your history — the political atmosphere in the US was vastly worse than it is now.
12-21-12
unless, of course, the Mayans buy a new calendar.
Just after Z flees Oregon. Curious. 🙂
66-foot concrete dock washes ashore in Oregon, may be from 2011 Japan tsunami | The Sideshow – Yahoo! News
If a second one washes up, it will be a genuine pair ‘a docks.
Gary, I’ll let you know when my groaning subsides. 🙂
People who know me would suggest you shouldn’t encourage me …
Or a pair of Dockers?
There’s a Gilbert and Sullivan song in there, somewhere.
*groan*
Can we sing the “Docks ala-gee?”
Damn, I was hoping no one would find out about that. I didn’t know where else to put it, since it wouldn’t fit in the car. 😉
This is what America has to look forward to:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/06/495831/report-walmart-drives-down-american-wages-by-outsourcing-jobs/
Charles posted this at LGF, in case you haven’t seen it yet.
I posted it earlier. 😉
Sorry. 😳
No worries, Wayno!
It’s an excellent video. 🙂
Great minds think alike.
And so do you!
Not to let North Carolina take the ‘crazy’ award alone there is:
If they insist on being frightened of things, can’t they come up with something new?
via C&L
There may be hope – if this generation continues with these acts of encouragement
our species is moving towards both ends of the spectrum of dark to light….and, I belive, the rate of movement is on an exponential curve.
we’ve been flat for a few thousand years…things are starting to pick up.
TerryTheTurtle — apologies, but there was no reply button under your comment.
“Hmm ok, I don’t accept the ‘misrepresent’ charge” — fair enough, but I invite you to consider the more than slight possibility that it is justified. You are the one who specifically “deployed” the Guantanomo example in a way that did not fulfill basic expectations of accuracy. How does that fail to qualify as misrepresentation? In my description of the facts, did I say anything false? (I may have mis-remembered the specific numbers of the Senate vote, but that is certainly the range into which they fell.)
For the others, the shotgunning of disconnected examples has little to commend itself from a logical perspective. I was very specific about Guantanomo, and you never really responded to that.
But lighting on one of those examples you threw out that I have given some thought to, the “kill list” — this is only unprecedented for its specificity, certainly not for its scale. How does this actually compare to other presidential decisions, such as the mass exterminations of civilians during WWII? More Japanese civilians died in a single night’s fire bombing of Tokyo than in either of the nuclear attacks against Hiroshima or Nagasaki (possibly both combined.) We are supposed to find it exceptionally horrifying that the POTUS actually acknowledges the names of the people whose murder he orders? This isn’t even as unbridled as the rules of engagement in Kandahar (sp?) province under Shrub. So your example of Obama’s especial badness is that he’s less horrible than his predecessors?
This looks very much to me like you’re saying, “Oh my god! Things are less than perfect, so they are as bad as the worst they’ve ever been!” You make no effort that I can see to take into account the very long history of such matters in the US. Perhaps you can provide the URL that will correct this impression?
More generally, what would be needed to correct my impressions on these matters would be for you to explicitly and consistently note the very real distinctions that so far seem to be missing from your comments, especially including the historical ones running back to at least the 19th C. So far, it seems to me that the brush you’ve been painting with damns the world for not being perfect. My response to such moves is the same as Voltaire’s: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
I am happy enough to be corrected in these impressions, but such correction must come in the form of systematic evidence. (And feel free to ignore me for being an a$$hole.)
Ok Gary let’s set the Guantanamo thing aside for a second – it was sloppy on my part, I was banging out a comment as I ran from one meeting to another. There you win, stand down.
You have still not understood the two points I ahve tried to make:
1. That Obama has talked the talk and walked the other way *every* time the GOP said boo to him – I gave a few examples, and I think that even if the Guantanamo ‘claim’ is ‘misrepresented’ (your comment suggests I did that deliberately to mislead – I object to that). We can debate the examples if you like, but linked to the point – its hardly ‘shotgunning’
2. Here’s your URL, Gary. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/world/middleeast/secret-us-memo-made-legal-case-to-kill-a-citizen.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Tell me this: do you think that the President has the power/right under the Constitution to order the extra-judicial killing of Americans? Yes or no Gary. At least Chimpy *only* waterboarded them and at least he didn’t waterboard Jose Padilla, another American. Obama *is* now killing Americans without due process.
So yes, in this way Obama is *worse* than Bush, he has set the precedent that because he has a memo, written by one of the same kinds of legal toadies that Chimpy used to justify Guantanamo.
And here’s Article One, Section 9 of the US Constitution:
So OK, the US kills lots of people all the time in war. Well Gary what war are we talking about here? Are you drawing the parallel that WW2 and bombing brown people in Yemen/Pakistan/Afghanistan are equivalent?
Obama has continued the policy of Bush that there is now an endless ‘war on terra’, has now deliberately killed US citizens without due process (Al-Awlaki’s 16 year old, American-born son was killed days later – no charges or evidence of any kind have been offered at all – he was ‘a bad boy’ I suppose), thereby shredding the Constitution’s ban on Bills of Attainder.
Let me ask you this final question – if you are OK with Obama declaring US citizens to be ‘bad people’ as their ‘due process’ and bombing them and anyone who happens to be in the car/house with them at the time, are you ok with a President Romney doing same? How about President McCain, President Palin?
So there you go two points specifically made:
1. Obama walks away from principle when his opposition objects
2. Yes I think what he has done with the kill list including Americans is *worse* than Bush and Guantanamo because he *said* he would not do what his predecessor did. Oh yes, and its either an impeachable offense or you have accepted that the US is in a state of endless war where the US Constitution is just a ‘goddamned piece of paper’.
And that’s all I got here.
I’ve got my dad watching a Harry Potter movie. 😀
Subversive subliminal therapy, eh?
http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/07/15/269989/the-political-lessons-of-harry-potter/
BINGO!! 😆
Here’s wishing success.
QOTD III:
“We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that,” – Thomas Edison. Yes, that Thomas Edison.
What fantastic forward thinking! I have confidence in humanity that we will succeed in doing without oil or coal.
Not enough profit in the inexhaustible sources.
Repubs believe the reverse: exhaust the fossil fuel, making certain to scar the earth for thousands of years, before harnessing ‘earth friendly’ wind and solar.
You can’t own the sun or the wind or the waves. The capitalist mindset values those things that can be owned, which means they can be bought and sold. It also means that energy which cannot be owned is a threat.
Oh yeesh…he’d be so disappointed.
Another great thinker.
Obviously, Thomas Edison was a communist out to destroy capitalism and America.
Ok… I took a break from politics for awhile and watched some videos and have climbed back off the ledge. I feel better. Not totally great, but Gary did remind me that history was cyclical and with that in mind, and a dose of Thom Hartmann… and the fact that I found some good news and some ammo to fight the Paul Rand Ryan Budget:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jared-bernstein/cbo-budget-outlook_b_1575688.html
“Of course, it shows that we can afford the entitlements.”
and:
“But look at the other line. Under that scenario, which in fact happens to be current law (meaning all the Bush tax cuts expire, for example), debt stabilizes as a share of the economy in a few years and then starts down a slow glide path. And Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as we know them today are all in that bottom line.”
We’re not overspending, we’re starved for revenue. Debt is a manufactured crisis and paying it down, especially in hard times where interest is low, is short sighted and will never create even one job. I also feel a bit snatched back from the ledge. Gary will be able to correct me as I suspect this MLK quote is mangled, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”.
From “Shetland Wildlife” Gannet with a ‘display’ feather
My dad is cooking again. Help me!
I wonder if he’d notice if I just cut everything up and push it around my plate…? Wine!!
Why won’t he let you cook?
He’s showing off his ability to take care of me in the only way he knows how, while simultaneously poisoning me. We’ve got some mixed messages going here. 🙂
Oh my. It’s that bad. At least my dad let me cook. He enjoyed someone preparing him a meal of real food.
As my daughter would tell me, “Patience Grasshopper.”
<—- The old man, who would have been 99 today, was a great Eye-talian cook.
^^^
Happy 99th Birthday, badmooddad. 🙂
And today is my Father’s birthday, 101 years ago. He came out of Montana with an engineering degree, but all he wanted to do was fly, and for most of his life he did. Oh and he loved cracked crab, and a Moscow Mule cocktail.
OMG! Today is the day for birthdays!! Happy Birthday, nwolddad!
I just checked with my dad, and he said yes, today was his father’s birthday — I thought I remembered that! I my grandfather would have been 92 today. He spent his birthday picking up the dead and injured on Normandy Beach. He was an ambulance driver because he didn’t want to shoot people.
Where in Montana, nwoldguy? My dad’s family came from Billings and Red Lodge, Montana.
Both he and my mom were from Helena.
Lovely city. Amazing Charles Russell painting in the Capital building.
We were camped outside Helena one July, and it SNOWED.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_mule
Woo! That’s a kicker!
gotta have the copper cup too!
Of course!! It’s perfect!
Been to Helena once. Had lunch at The Parrot soda shop where my parents hung out as teenagers. So cool to sit where they did decades before.
That would be an awesome experience. 🙂
At least your dad still lets you help shop. My mom, after dementia started sneaking up, would not even let me bring her anything she did not request. She wanted twinkies, doritos, and some wretched diet cottage cheese product. Honey, if you’re willing to eat twinkies you need the good cottage cheese.
HuffPo devolves into self-parody with their latest “news” section:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/sideboob
Late again, as ususal, and off to dinner now. comments posted above.
**crickets**
Goodnight, crickets.
Restful slumber, Zooey.
nightynitecricket(s)