Words and Phrases and Monica

He goes to the dirty areas of the ice
Rove
Horrific (maybe the worst of all of them)
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of------- pick the tragedy
Talladega
Anything Pierre McGuire says
Anything Steve Doocy says 
Benghazi
#Benghazi (this site is amazing! and not in a good way either)
talking points
Decision Points ( go dubya)
knowing the unknowable
filthy splitter
:) ( and all the rest of em')
DeMint 
Bentley
Perry
Bryant
Martinez 
Deal ( Nathan, not the Grateful Dead tune)
The Daily Caller (in my opinion, a truly vile breeding ground of right wing trash talk)
so while we're on the subject
And Remember. "The spin stops here because we're looking out for you"
Breitbart
Drudge
 Cheney
Cheney
Cheney 
Bundy 
Phil Griffin 
Minaj
Monica Lewinsky. Who is out in the news cycle today with reprising everything from her oral copulation of POTUS 42 to her mother's suicide watch. This is a two tiered "guilt by association that the other side has decided to press on with to define Hillary Clinton in the next year. I hope she **ucks them all and doesn't run. 

I had an interesting tweet session yesterday with a lifetime conservative and NRA charter member and as he described himself, a "strict" constitutionalist. Within seconds (and that's all it takes on Twitter) we were at each other's throats about #benghazi, IRS, Bundy, Judicial appointments and his insistence that POTUS was immoral and therefore he doesn't love Amerika and nor does his administration--- until I referred him to Robert Draper's great book, Do Not Ask The Good We Do.  I asked him to read the section Prologue: Evening: January 20, 2009, where Fox's schizophrenic pollster, Frank Luntz convened a meeting in Washington with 50 movers and shakers in the Republican legislative and lobbying hierarchy to plan the obstruction of the entire Obama Administration, starting on January 21st. This backed him down a bit. Then we agreed to "follow" each other and that seemed to make him happy. I've not heard from his since. I did suggest he follow Will.I.Am for more spirited debate, since Will has become the administration's latest Kalpen Modry and John Favreau.

Honk 21 times if you think the Correspondent's Dinner should be cancelled.

And another great SCOTUS moment Monday, whereby any non Christian that participates in local meetings has to leave the room while prayers are said. Let's give a shout out to Anthony Kennedy for reversing his opinion on the matter of public prayer. AK, you were the 5th vote on Monday, joining the cesspool of conservative judges who have done more to turn back the clock in this country than any other force for good or evil.

It just pisses you off, you know? 

But you can make all this madness go away. #spreadsanity  and vote for the things that are important to you.

By the way, today's humstle is Jesse Winchester's Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt.  A really neat history lesson and it's on You Tube. I'd post it for you but I don't know how. 

I call BASTA to all this BULLPUCKY for today. More tomorrow. 


  


 

Words & Phrases

There are some words and phrases I just don't want to see for awhile. Maybe you agree. Most are not going to disappear but maybe these and many others could go on hiatus.

Epic Fail
Negro
Constitution 
Bipartisanship
Race
1%
99%
Occupy
Keeping it simple (but I love hockey!!)
awesome
IDK
MSM
LOL
Palin
Carney
Limbaugh
Libturd, Libtard,
Useful Idiot
Troll
Bundy
Pry it from my cold dead hands
Kiss my fat black ass
Manchild
Backdoor Cutter
Box Cutter
Al Zawahiri 
Putin
Schumer
Gowdy
Issa
Obama (BO)
Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts
Koch, Cock and Cook
Handler
Bundler
Buffet, Munger and Gates
Kernan
Scarborough
Hannity
Levin
Sharpton
Gohmert
Fallin
Christie
McHale
Putin
Reagan
RT
Rivers

Tomorrow-----

No, I'll see you tomorrow.

 
 

Book It

Don't think for a minute that Republicans will not gut and/or overturn the ACA and continue to pass laws that harm a vast majority of Americans if they flip the Senate this year.

Putting faith in a Hillary Clinton to win the White House in 2016, is a fool's errand. It implies that her veto pen will be sufficient to stop the impending spasms of overreach that will occur. 

I am not a sycophant of the Democratic Party. Many of my blogs call for a strong and much needed third alternative. Who will base their campaign on making campaign finance reform a priority, prevent the repeal of the ACA, nominate reasonable people to the Supreme Court and continue to champion alternatives to fossil fuel addiction? This does not leave out the need to stop the entire jingoistic "cowboy" mentality regarding guns, military adventures against other nations and the overdue rebuilding of our infrastructure.

Presently, I'm not sure there is such a person. Our history has examples of people who did not affiliate with the two major political parties. But the power and money structure vastly favors those parties and how we would accrue equal status to a third party is clearly not in the cards. 

The name of Bernie Sanders has come up recently. Buddy Roehmer had a small shot at his fifteen minutes in 2012. What is it about these two that pales before the endless line of wannabe authors, ex talk show hosts and establishment hacks running for President on the same ol' bullshit ticket.

A recent post implored you to vote your interests and those of loved ones, friends and strangers who lack the money and influence to. Today's post still calls for you to do so, because if you were not to, you deserve what you will surely get. And it won't be pretty.

Please consider a worthy alternative to the status quo, because what they're about, really isn't much about you and your life. And the stakes are too high for that to continue. 

Thank you for reading this.

By the way, boycott companies and products that are made by assholes. You know who they are. Social Media is a great thing. It has the power to send messages of all kinds to millions of people. Do your part. #spreadsanity.

If.....Then

Our system is slowly but unmistakably being hijacked by a well funded minority of  people who are desperate to hold onto their status quo. This gives them privilege and isolates them from real people and their very real problems. This movement was born in the 80's during the Reagan administration and is the template that now sees many state legislatures controlled by elements that are not friendly to the poor, women, workers andpensioners and recent SCOTUS rulings have given their agenda plenty of room to run. 

The only peaceful way to slow this agenda and to restore more balance in our society is to become educated as to issues that affect you and your loved ones. Your vehicle is the ballot box. If you do not vote, you cede this agenda at its present speed. 

Please get educated and more connected.  It is difficult and combing through policies that benefit very few of us is just as difficult. That's the price of a greater well being.

Do what you want. But please be mindful of the old saw; If you do what you always did, you'll get what you always got.

Vote as if it mattered.It really does.

Broken record

Although vinyl remastered LPs are making a comeback, the title still suggests someone repeating themselves, again and again. Just like the caricatures of trying to have a conversation with someone who speaks a different language, the solution might not be to
speak louder. It just may be to be a pain the ass and speak repetitively. 

Admittedly, I am not what one would call a Republican. I never was. I grew up in an era where bipartisanship was neither a dirty word or a weakness. I remember an innocuous television show on in the 60's.  I watched a political show, called The Ev and Charlie Show. It was a prehistoric version of Crossfire. It featured a Republican Senator, Everett Dirksen of Illinois and a Democratic Congressman, Charles Halleck from Indiana. They would politely debate the issues of the day and the conclusion the viewer would reach, other than these were two pompous crotchety old white men, they could disagree without being disagreeable. And until POTUS 44, this sort of political divide just didn't exist. People worked things out even if they didn't agree.

I looked into the compostion of Congress during the Reagan and H.W. Bush Administrations. Contentious conservatives certainly existed. Intractable progressives did as well. But the government did not shut down, taxes were cut (Tax Reform Act of 1981) against the wishes of the Left, Taxes were raised four or five times, depending on how you interpret each one. The debt ceiling never became an issue, because whether it was Reagan or Bush, neither would allow that to happen-- to potentially default on the full faith and credit and of the United States Government. The American Disabilities act was passed and some sort of homage was paid to the environment in terms of excessive carbon footprints, passed as legislation known as the Clean Air Act, passed during the Bush Administration

Allow me to express my partisan views here. After all, why write something if it isn't how I see it. It matters if you don't agree, but can we disagree without being disagreeable?

I think the 2014 midterm elections are among the most crucial ever. I stated in paragraph two that I was not a Republican. I'm not.  Like most people, the state of political and social interaction is absolutely horseshit today and because the swamp known as Washington exists in a vacuum of its very own, both parties are so immersed in the politics of reelection (accruing power and money and influence), neither can be held blameless. 

Because the hierarchy is fixed to deny an independent party or parties to have a chance to compete in formation of policy, this steaming pile of horseshit grows and flourishes of its own volition, aided of course by its denizens of defense, the legislative branch and the revolving door of show business and lobbying connected to the swamp. The current woe has been exacerbated by a (my opinion) vile legislative system who incarcerate vast elements of the under society and strike down laws that once were hailed as the jewels of a less tarnished age.

I am urging people to come to their senses and throw out the current political system; Republicans AND Democrats. As soon as they are gone, perhaps we can start to build a system that addresses a forgotten, de-emphasized and ignored segment of the population-- those living at or below the poverty line. Perhaps, in this moment of clarity we won't need a Fox News or an MSNBC.

Inequality is growing. It's not shrinking. It is growing among age groups, ethnicities, people of color, returning veterans and their families and is starting to invade the perceived comfort of the middle class. One party says (all too often, I'm afraid) that it's a question of laziness and lack of ambition to lift one's self up from this yoke. The other side, not certain how to fairly spend the billions of dollars they earmark toward reducing or eliminating it, but cannot because of waste and fraud, throws money at the problem as if that will make all the difference. A certain segment of society, untouched by this mess lives in gated communities and can afford security details to protect them from the pitchforks which are starting to appear in the streets. The pitchforks only know what they're angry about and in reality don't have a clue as to how to fix it. Policy initiatives are the white noise that cannot be communicated to people because we've simply stopped listening The income tax system is a progressive one which seeks to lessen the burdens on people of social and economic inequality but that's a lie as well. One side says let markets account for all things monetary and when that happens more people gain wealth and it "trickles down" to those less fortunate. 

I already wrote way more than I wanted. And I left out a whole bunch of gory details. 
I am sorry to harangue- I'm re-reading this and that's what it looks like. But at the same time, it's really important and many reasonable people yearn for an end to this fetid system of privilege that catapults idiots into office and thereby creates the laws that keep making things worse-- or obstructs policy initiative that just might start to make things better. 

So I apologize. But I'm posting it anyway because I think it's true. We can sort out the details later. When I was posting more, my average page visit was about 50 per day. When I had to slack off, that shrank to under 30. Let's see what happens. 

I think the main thing I wanted to say, was that I heard of a recent initiative by Norman Ornstein and Andrew Young that suggested putting picture ID's on Social Security Cards. Ya think maybe that would allow more people to vote, instead of laws that are making it harder? Between these laws of exclusion and a recent Supreme Court ruling rendering Article 5 of the Voting Rights Act null and void, there rises a clarion call to voters. Figure out what you need to do to get registered and make sure you vote your interests this year. It is crucial.

And to those who hung in there and read this, without screaming at their screens or falling asleep, Thank You.

And the Beat Goes On

That is today's humstle. I don't spend a whole lot of time thinking of either Sonny Or Cher but the song still has some relevance.

So, Shaun McCutcheon can give as much money as he wishes directly to political candidates. And he can give as much as he wants to any and all candidates whom he feels shares his beliefs and agenda  SCOTUS, by a vote of 5-4 ruled that limits on contributions were unconstitutional and "burdened" his First Amendment rights to free speech.

Paul Ryan's annual "Road to Prosperity" show is on Capitol Hill for the 4th year running. Early analysis shows it to be more draconian than previous budget proposals. I'll stay out of the deep weeds but some of the highlights are allegedly lower taxes for the wealthy, cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Job Retraining programs. What it does not address is and end or reduction in subsidies for Energy Producers, Cuts in the Military budget as a balance to other reductions, any addressing of the carried interest rates that private investors, equity managers or hedge fund operators pay in relation to the rest of us.

This will set up the annual "dog whistle war" between the 1% and the 99%. It doesn't take a genius to see that if Shaun McCuthcheon and all the other Shauns out there want to give disproportionate amounts of money to politicians who will continue to vote for the Ryan budget, which is a continuation of "trickle down" economics initiatives that have haunted this country for more than 30 years, social and economic security (not even equality) are just a joke. And a dream that will not be realized any time soon- or so it would appear.

So, as the ACA has seemingly exceeded enrollment projections, these new challenges will replace the anger over "sick"care in this country. Deeply conservatives state and local legislatures will hack away at pensions, women's rights and perhaps the worst of all, the right to vote in this country. Along with this,  deniers (liars) will block any research to wean us off fossil fuels and put us on a pathway to developing cleaner energy sources. So POTUS and VPOTUSdid a victory lap in the Rose Garden yesterday; as the President asked a reasonable question, "WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE OPPOSED TO PEOPLE HAVING HEALTH CARE? 

And, so, The Beat Goes On.

 

One less bell to answer

Ah, do you remember that song?

Actually, the Affordable Care Act became one less bell or one less dog whistle to respond to yesterday, as the open enrollment period ended. Yup, that's it. No more bogus graphics on FOX, no more soothing comments by Max Baucus ( and just about every other living politician) about it being a "trainwreck" or a "job killer" no more reminders that it's all just a communist or European plot to erode your basic freedoms or worse, a capitulation to the private healthcare industry. There have been 54 attempts to defund or repeal it that have failed. Whether you believe the numbers or not, and let's say you don't. so we'll pick a number well below estimates of eventual sign ups and with that, assume that nobody under 35 years of age has signed up AND no one has paid their first premium.

Let's ask a few questions that have nothing to do with optics, politics or anything that sets your or anyone elses hair on fire; if that's possible.

1. Did you have insurance before?
2. Was it a good policy that covered doctor visits or at least, kept you out of poverty and doom if you had a catastrophic event? Or was it a really terrible policy that you hoped you would not need in the event of a catastrophic event?
3. Are you so in love with your doctor that if you lost him/her, your life would be forever compromised?
4. Were you able to grasp that having insurance was vital to you and your loved ones and you were able to give up something in order to have this insurance?
5. Do you believe in and/or practice good health habits which would slow down the onset of chronic diseases known to increase your dependency on the medical profession?
6. Do you breathe easier knowing that you cannot be denied coverage based upon pre-existing conditions?
7. Do you take another easy breath knowing that your children can be on your policy and be covered until age 26?
8. Can you take just one more knowing that you will not lose coverage because your lifetime benefits expire or are arbitrarily taken away?
9. Do you appreciate and support Medicare and Medicaid as either primary or supplemental healthcare solutions?
10. Have any of these questions made you pause to either regret having sought and bought health insurance?
11. In your opinion is the United States medical system a health care system or a sick care system?

OK, I'm done. Today, for the first time- and it's been a long time coming, a reputable poll has shown that a tiny majority sees the ACA as favorable- 49-48. In all likelihood, with the prospect of less light being shone on this law (because, after all, it's a law and now it has to be demonstrated to be judged as either good or bad.

So let's hope the light dims and the law, despite its pros and cons can serve to let nearly 7 million people breathe easier, knowing that if God forbid, they get sick, they don't go broke. That should be a no brainer, but it isn't because of the way the entire discussion has been framed for the last 5 years.

By the way, did you know that the House of Representatives is voting this week to limit research and discussion of possible climate change?
When do you think the Chicago Cubs will score a run?
Are you in favor of quickly coming to the aid of Ukraine with a reported one billion dollar aid package-- while cutting benefits to people at or below the poverty line, including veterans who have served their country and are in similarly tough straits?
Whose team would you play for, Usher, Shakira, Blake or Adam?
Do you have Twitter follower envy because people that talk about their boy and girl parts have 50 times as many as you?

I'm not trying to bust balls here. Sometimes the questions are endless and somebody has to at least ask them.

So, yes, today's  humstle is One Less Bell To Answer.  Thank goodness. Let's just live- how bout it?