Who Could Have Possibly Predicted?

It sure didn’t take long for TFG to backpedal on one of his biggest campaign promises.

It boggles my mind that anyone even believed this promise, let alone voted on it. Just those who weren’t paying attention to anything but Fox “News,” I guess. Obviously, there is no button a president can press that lowers prices. And this Administration wouldn’t, even if they could. Some of their biggest donors are the ones reaping the benefits of higher prices. There’s no way they were going to give campaign money to someone they knew was going to derail the gravy train. This was a bald-faced lie from the get-go.

And let me remind you again, about who kicked up a huge protest when VP Harris proposed an actual anti-price-gouging program. The Republicans threw a fit, calling it anti-capitalist, pro-Socialist, and un-American. And people really thought they were going to lower prices? His tariffs are going to make things even worse! Unreal.

There were more headlines last week that demonstrated whose side Republicans are on. (It ain’t ours.)

House Republicans are trying to halt free tax filing with the IRS.

They are doing the bidding of the for-profit tax filing businesses and e-programs like Turbo Tax. It’s ridiculous in concept that we have to pay extra to perform a task we’re required to do. And it’s not like it’s too difficult to set up. It’s nothing complicated, other than it threatens the interest of those who make money off of the basic act of filing tax returns.

It’s like this with lots of things. Maryland is one of three states that prevents grocery stores from selling beer and wine. Last week, our Governor proposed changing that, which I embrace with both arms and both legs. Naturally, the liquor store lobby is up in arms about it and has begun reapplying the pressure that’s kept this development from occurring all along.

I get it, some businesses lose money. But that’s the price of every advancement.  Carbon paper companies went out of business when copy machines were invented. Buggy makers lost out when Ford started their first assembly line. Is anyone still crying about cassette manufacturing plants going belly-up? It’s the natural order of things. When better ideas come along, lesser ones fade away and their purveyors adapt.

That’s progress, as embodied by progressive people. And we all know who opposes progressives at every turn, right? It’s the “populist” Republicans, who shoot down any idea that helps the average population because the rich are making too much to give up on the status quo.

They could shore up Social Security for the next century, merely by raising the maximum income cap. But no, they want to cut benefits to us instead. See how that’s better? They get to keep their yacht money and all we have to do is struggle to pay bills and outlandish medical costs during the “golden years” of retirement. That’s much better for them!

Just wait for the next big tax cut bill. You’ll see, once again, how the filthy rich get a massive tax cut and the rest of us get a few token crumbs. Even after all the bad publicity from the 2017 version, they’re all set to do it again. Our complaints are short-lived until we move on to the next outrage, but the money lingers on.

That’s always how you know who politicians really work for… just follow the money.

Dark Times Ahead

Well, this one was a real kick in the sac. I think I’d rather have had the presidency stolen than accept that a majority of the country voted for a self-proclaimed Day One Dictator.

In 2016 I wrote this following that election:

November 8th, 2016 will go down in history as the day we stood up and declared that we are a small, fearful people, who would rather literally build walls than solve philosophical and economic problems.  It’s the day we rejected calm, well-reasoned decision-making for a carnival sideshow of bluster and bravado.

Why is it always the people who wrap themselves in the flag and venerate the Constitution are the ones who want to completely undo the very freedoms the Constitution provides?  They “love America,” but want to change her basic nature.

This time, it’s going to be worse because he will be surrounded by yes men, with nary a grownup to be seen in the room. There may be no stopping the damage he’s prepared to do to this country in pursuit of his own glorification and vengeance.

I know I had a bad feeling early on while watching the numbers come in. They kept saying to wait for more of the votes to be counted, but even where she was cruising, she always lagged behind Biden’s numbers. The longer it went on, the more dread amassed in my guts.

I kept waiting for that lifeline to appear, while all the peeps on my Twitter feed were saying, “Just wait, this is where we were last time and the late votes save us. But it never happened.

I went to bed around 12:30, right around the time they were saying that TFG’s lead in PA was more than they had votes left to count in Philly.

Director’s DVD Commentary: I guess I’m going to have to adopt a new non-name for “him.” For the moment, I’ll continue to use “TFG” only the F will mean something else.

Everyone’s asking the same thing, “How did this happen?” I know a lot has been written about this already, in the mere two days since Election Day. I intended to write my follow-up post on Wednesday, but I just didn’t have the heart to do it. Additionally, it doesn’t much matter now, does it? It’s done.

But here we are and I feel like I should put something out there, just to put an ending on it.

Here’s what I think happened.

The media delivered this victory to the GOP’s doorstep, by the constant sanitizing (or sane-washing) of TFG’s speeches and messaging. They never called a spade a spade and while propping up this maniac, demanded that his opponent be practically perfect, or at least cleave to the version of perfection they wanted.

Plus, the Right Wing Media outlets like Fox “News” were doing their thing to trumpet every perceived fault, blame everything bad on Democrats, and whitewash the bilge coming from their guy. These were military-grade persuasion techniques used on people who desperately wanted to believe their message. I spoke with people over the weekend, GOP supporters, who insisted that the economy was in the toilet and only TFG could fix it, all evidence to the contrary. Every argument he provided was straight off the Fox list of talking points.

They created the image of her as “Border Czar,” a position that never existed and a responsibility she never had, and spent her entire campaign attacking her for it.

They also worked hard to make people forget what a cluster-fuck his first term was, culminating in the deaths of over one million Americans due to his botched handling of COVID. By the time Fox was done, people actually believed those were the “good old days.”

Misplaced anger over the war in Gaza probably lost Michigan for the Dems, even though the next administration will be even worse for them. TFG doesn’t give a shit about people in Gaza. He’ll give the Israelis all the support they want.

Abortion wasn’t the factor we all hoped it would be and I called that out months ago, when the Red States were passing reproductive freedom guarantees. I said at the time, “There’s a big difference between voting for a single, stand-alone issue versus a name with a D beside it. You can vote for an issue without crossing a party line but not for a lousy Socialist Liberal Commie Democrat.” Modern team politics dictates that, as evidenced by seeing people pass abortion guarantees while electing the very people from whom those rights need protection.

I will never understand the women who just voted to reduce their own standing in society, giving up the right to determine the use of their own bodies.

Latino men moving en masse to TFG is incomprehensible to me. I see all the analysis about how they come from a socially conservative culture but you’d think self-preservation might weigh heavier when the guy they’re supporting wants mass deportations. Do they think voting Republican somehow spares them? They’d better have their documentation stapled to their underwear when the troops start rounding up all the brown guys. I don’t think they’ll be too particular about who they detain. I’m envisioning a “pick’em all up now and sort’em out later” kind of vibe. But this feeds what I think is the primary issue.

Too many people won’t vote for a woman for president, especially a woman of color. You can see it in the results. She kept coming in below Biden’s numbers. She was his GD vice president! They make up the same Administration. Sure there are some minor differences but considering the opponent, how important were they?

The biggest difference was that of gender and there are too many people for whom that’s a deal breaker. I’m sure that was a factor in the Latino shift. In addition to being socially conservative, the ethos is patriarchal, so I’m betting that a lot of these guys feel that voting for a woman would make them less of a man. Less of a caveman, anyway.

Like many others, I’m not sure what I will do with this space. This political intrigue and coverage over the last decade has been a grind. Maybe I’ll do like my pal Hackwhacker and lay low for a while. Or maybe I’ll find something else to write about. Like the rest of us, I will have to figure it out as we go. We’ve got two months of sanity remaining.

See you on the other side.

Final Arguments

Early voting is going strong, and we’re only eight days from Election Day (as of this writing), so we’re down to the nitty-gritty. Several weeks ago, I voted via drop-off box and have been notified that my vote has been counted. That’s how it works in a state where they want everyone to vote.

If you’re reading this now, you’re probably not in need of persuasion to vote a straight blue ticket, but it will make me feel better if I can provide some hardcore truths about this race. Maybe it will help if you convince someone you know who is undecided and uninformed.

·         TFG is a hypocrite who criticizes his opponents for things he does himself all the time.

·    The Republican candidate lies like it’s his job. They reported that he unleashed over 30,000 lies during his administration and probably 30,000 more in the following years. Some of them cost people their lives, during the COVID crisis and January 6th. Others are just his way of doing business.

·       TFG and his people have unleashed the most terrifying plan for the country since it began, one that will lead to the disenfranchisement of millions, separation of families, consolidation of power and capital under a small cluster of rich white men, and the effective end of the republic, and the plan is called Project 2025.

·       The orange phony is the least intelligent, least qualified, least curious person to ever seek or hold this office. It’s rich that he and his people call his opponent stupid. Listen to each of them speak for a minute or so and it’s clear who is smart and who is an ass-clown with the 4^th-grade vocabulary. Forty out of forty-four of his own former cabinet members plus his Vice President think he’s unqualified for the job and a danger to the country and have said so in public. That is unheard of in modern politics.

·       He intends to empower those who would devalue and enslave women, treating them as breeding property rather than sentient, self-determining beings, under the myth that they are preserving “life.” They preach “small government,” but their idea of government reaches into your bedroom and even your uterus. His people (and judges) are also coming for birth control, same-sex marriage, and possibly women’s suffrage.

·       Dolt 45 has no plan to bring down inflation. His two plans of action, levying wide tariffs and deporting immigrants would cause prices to soar. VP Harris supports a plan to fight price gouging and he and the rest of the Republicans went crazy fighting it, as they do any plan that helps average Americans. Big-moneyed Republican donors want high prices and low wages. That’s the best-case scenario for “them,” and not “us.”

·       TFG and his enablers are already planning on how to steal the election. He will claim victory on Election Night and set loose an army of lawyers and hooligans to intimidate election workers and state government officials. They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. Maryland’s lone GOP US Representative thinks they should award TFG some North Carolina Electoral College votes before the election because a hurricane might have made it hard for his supporters to vote.

·       He is in bed with the worst kind of people, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, racists, sexists, and many other “ists.” These are people interested in keeping governmental (and monetary control with wealthy, white, (pseudo)Christian, males. The racism isn’t even hidden anymore. Did you see his show at MSG? The racism was the marquee event.

·       TFG desperately wants the Religious Right’s votes but doesn’t give a fig about what they stand for. And now, neither do they. Republicans have managed to turn people who worship a man who preached about accepting foreigners, not throwing stones, giving money to the poor, and not judging, into supporting a party that practices the antithesis of every one of those points.

·       I would vote for a brick before this guy because a brick would do less damage to the nation. Luckily we can vote for a highly qualified, smart, tough, empathetic woman instead. She makes lucid points, speaks in complete sentences, has tangible plans for the country which are easy to locate, and that’s a very low bar that the other guy can’t even think of getting under. In any rational culture, she’d be polling at 90%. If you’re rich, racist, sexist, homophobic, evangelical, or nationalist, vote Republican. If not, there’s only one sane alternative.

Director’s DVD commentary: These are only the first points off the top of my head. There are dozens of other reasons why he shouldn’t be president, like sexual harassment and rape charges/convictions, hush money, business fraud, being a Russian operative/stooge, leaking security secrets, blackmailing other countries for personal gain, violating the Emoluments Clause, raking in taxpayer dollars by staying at his own properties and charging the government for his staff and security detail to stay there, and… well, it never ends. But this post has to.

Identifying a Hit Piece

Mainstream media is letting the country down in a big way, by abandoning their traditional roles of truth-tellers in favor of exhibiting favoritism. And I don’t mean leaning one way or another in editorials; I mean writing most stories (outside the sports page) with bias, either cheerleading or condemning as their side would have it.

The most obvious symptom is the sanewashing of TFG, whose daily ravings get reformatted by news editors into something that might make sense. Offensive or off-putting material is ignored or translated, leaving readers and viewers with a vastly different view from what was actually said.

Just over the weekend, TFG decided to make the late Arnie Palmer’s dick into headline news. Sure, we’ve all heard about it not, but not until after the New York Times posted about the appearance and cleaned up the reference, before indirectly mentioning the reference, before the leaked word of mouth eventually caused them to report on what was said. In other words, they had to be dragged into doing their jobs.

This is going on with multiple media outlets day after day. If any one of these word salad ramblings had come from the President or Vice President, it would have been the top story for several news cycles. But because A) they want a horserace and B) the ownership and publishers want their thumb on the scale for the Republicans (which benefits their massive corporate operations) they reshape the news to deprive independent and undecided people of information that may influence them to vote Democratic.

I have another example from the front page of Saturday’s Baltimore Sun. While it’s not focusing on the presidential race, it’s taking shots at the sitting Democratic governor, Wes Moore and it uses many of the same biased techniques we find in the presidential coverage.

You know it’s going to be a hit piece when Fox 45 appears in the byline. They’re a local Fox affiliate that specializes in ambush TV journalism, popping up out of nowhere to pepper local pols with questions while on their way to their cars and then running the most flustered responses.

The point of the article is that Governor Moore is out campaigning while juvenile crime happens.

This is a classic construction, “How can they do ‘this’ while ‘this other thing’ is happening? The details don’t matter, you can fill in the blanks. It’s like, “How can we send money to Ukraine while there are homeless veterans? or How can you talk about mass transit when housing prices are so high?” The answer is usually, “We can do two things at once,” but that seems to be beyond the reach of these “content providers.”

No public official actively works on a single problem 24/7/365. And solving “youth crime” is like solving homelessness or poverty. It ain’t happening by anyone any time soon. And it’s not like there wasn’t youth crime during the previous (Republican) administration. Youth crime doesn’t get solved until there are enough other ways to make enough money to compete with gang or drug life. These guys aren’t going to start working at Arby’s or picking crabs down on the shore, so any solution would need to be massive and grassroots, just like the kind of proposal Republicans always shoot down as too expensive. But that former governor is running for Senator so they want to dirty up his Democratic successor.

So it goes on to say that the Governor’s Administration “broke its silence” on the issue. Watch out for that phrase wherever you see it. That is almost always a false construction. Breaking one’s silence assumes there is an actual, willful silence to begin with, which is different than merely not having said anything yet. I’m just “breaking my silence” on youth crime today. Did I have a silence before? Nope, I just haven’t talked about it yet. If anyone would have asked earlier, I’d have been happy to discuss it. It’s hardly a groundbreaking event.

So, where is the Administration’s statement? We don’t know yet. Next, they go to some critic who wants to add his own two cents. This guy, they breathlessly point out, is a Democrat who wants to speak negatively on the subject. All the complaining and snide inferences are on the front page column. The Governor’s actual statement is buried on the last page of the front section, after the furniture ads.

This is what the media has come to. As a former J-school student, I’m pained by what passes for news coverage today. Unfortunately, I don’t see it improving in the near or distant future. Like almost every other commodity in the 2000s, the news is monetized to the max. There is no point if it doesn’t make money or accumulate power. And with the continued contraction of every industry into no more than several major players, all the news will be bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated to convince you that what’s best for the biggest corporations just happens to be the same as what’s best for you.

It’s just that they’ll be raking in the money and we won’t.

The Long Game

 Earlier in September I wrote about the crap-TV shows I can’t stop watching, the 90-Day Fiancé franchise. I mentioned how I chafe at the storylines involving American women marrying Arab/Muslim/African men who expect obedience, subservience, and second-class citizenship. Describing the storyline that’s just developing this season, I wrote:

“There is a couple this season, where the 40ish American woman is going to Jordan to marry her 22–year–old beau on the very day she arrives because his religion won’t permit them to be alone together in a room. This story is just getting underway and she has no idea what he will expect of her. This is basically a “boy” who told the cameras he wants her to always obey his wishes and not question him as the man of the house. And he needs her to cover up with loose clothing

I think she ought to spank his 22-year-old ass and send him to his room without dinner. These stories always seem to end up the same way, with the American women taking a powder either before or shortly after the wedding.”

Well, they did, indeed, get married the day she arrived and as expected, she’s chafing at the new rules about which she’s just now finding out.

To me, it’s beyond comprehension that someone intending to marry into this (or any) foreign culture didn’t take five minutes or so to Google what it’s like for a woman to live in Jordan (or wherever.) The guy always seems to hold back on the details of his expectations until after it’s too late. In last night’s show, the woman reacted harshly after finding out the rules her boy-husband gave her did not apply to him.

She was upset because

·         She was told she couldn’t hug or shake her long-time (male) friend’s hand, yet he shook her hairdresser’s hand immediately after.

·         He criticized her outfit as being too revealing (there was the faintest hint of cleavage) while his shirt was unbuttoned to his midsection.

·         He wouldn’t listen to her concerns.

·         He occupied their room getting himself dressed, (meaning she couldn’t because he had his friends there), and was then furious because he had to wait for her to change.

·         He insisted she be covered to his approved level wherever she went, whether in Jordan or back in the US. But he can wear whatever he wants.

He was upset because:

·         Her clothes were too revealing, and when they did conceal what he wanted, they were too tight.

·         She insisted on sitting up front in the car with him, while his brother had to sit in the back.

·         She questioned him about his “rules,” rather than happily accepting them.

·         She was not swayed by his and his brother’s default explanations, “But I’m the man.”

Meanwhile, I’m left yelling at the television, saying, “Honey, what the hell do you expect? How did you not check this out beforehand? How it is possible that no one you know told you this might happen?”

I mean, for Pete’s sake, take some initiative and responsibility.

At least, I take some comfort in knowing this is one set of people and there were probably side issues regarding the creation of TV episodes, with which I’m not familiar. You can’t take everything at face value with these shows. They want you to get all worked up about it.

But it got me thinking about how this dynamic is exactly what our modern conservatives are trying to recreate in this country. Every new law or movement that restricts the rights of women, no matter how small or isolated in scope, is a chip away from the fading standard of gender equality. It’s a bedrock principle of the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society types. They want women out of the workplace and back in the kitchen with babies on each hip, leaving men to remain free to make all the important decisions, so they don’t have to worry their pretty little heads.

I recall our Democratic presidential nominee once asking a prospective Supreme Court Justice/Bro, “Can you name any laws that place restrictions on what a man can do with his own body?”

The Republican gambit is that if you control the health care, you control the women. Hence Sen. Vance (SS/OH) is resurfacing this old tactic:

This is why you can’t believe them when they say, “But we’re not after birth control.” Yes, they are. Just watch their actions. Plus, one of the SCOTUS Bros has already made it clear they want to go after Griswald.

Constrict health care.

Limit birth control.

Ban abortions.

Limit post-natal aid, child care, SNAP.

Attack women’s very right to vote.

Attack breast-feeding in public.

How long before they try to repeal the laws that gave women the right to hold property, get loans, or credit cards? How long before they start selling petticoats and bloomers at Forever 21?

These things add up to putting women under duress, in a state where all they can do is fight to survive, unless, of course, they can find a man to take care of them.

And there it is… The Incel’s wet dream… to rescue a woman who must then submit to his control.

This is where the GOP is taking us… to a place not so far from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, as far as how they treat their female citizens. Well, maybe not citizens… more like pleasant-smelling property.

The Republicans are playing the long game. They started immediately after the Roe decision and never let up until it was reversed. It took over 50 years but they kept at it, collecting enough state legislatures, governorships, and occasional presidencies until they had a willing Supreme Court. They created “news” outlets to radiate their toxic point of view, be it with misdirection, propaganda, or outright lies.

And because they’re playing a long game, they’re counting on young people growing up with abortion restrictions being seen as commonplace, while those who remember winning reproductive freedoms are dying off. Eventually, the whole struggle will be limited to history books, and we know what they do with those when they include history the Right doesn’t care to remember.

And here we are. They’re not done and neither should we be done resisting, for as long as it takes. The very fate of our mothers, sisters, and daughters is riding on it.

Quick Debate Impressions

Director’s DVD Commentary: This is a special bonus post dropping midweek because if I wait until next Monday, it will literally be last week’s news and we’ll be onto the next thing. If this is the first you’re visiting this week, please click on the “Older Post” link at the bottom of the page.

Now, for today’s news:

BAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA

She spanked his ass red and sent him to bed without dinner.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a mismatched debate performance. She was cool, calm, and collected and he was sputtering like an old man raging about movies with sound.

TFG brought his customary lying to a new height, putting forth ridiculous, previously and easily debunked accusations like pet-killing Haitians living in Springfield and eating the citizens’ cats and dogs.

That brought on one of the few times the ABC moderators corrected him. I admit that if they had corrected every lie, there wouldn’t have been enough time to hear from Kamala.

Naturally, Republicans are accusing ABC of some kind of bias and I think they’re correct. Every time TFG begged for extra time, they gave it to him without equal time going to the VP. And the one time she asked for it, they denied it. He ended up with nine more minutes of ranting time than she had. Obviously, ABC was out to get him by allowing him to speak! It proved to be an effective strategy.

You didn’t think Republicans were actually going to do some soul-searching as to why they so slavishly back this incompetent madman, did you? No, they have to blame someone for his catastrophic showing. It can never be him who is at fault. Never apologize, never back down, and always double down. That’s their way. It always has to be someone else’s fault, usually a Democrat. From crappy debate performances to hurricanes, they need to blame a liberal.

Kamala impressed me by going after him in a civil but needling way. I loved that she went after his rally attendance, which is essentially how TFG measures his dick. It totally put him off his game. He just had to rebut every personal remark that highlighted his shortcomings. She let tons of stuff go, oftentimes, to my consternation. I love to see debunkery in action. But she was right in making the larger points, calling for unity and a way forward. All he could do was fall back to his regular routine of invading immigrants, coming to steal our jobs, rape our women, and eat our pets. Or is it to eat on the job, steal our women and rape our pets? Who knows with this guy? He makes less sense with every speech.

Taylor Swift's administration of the coup de grace endorsement was just [chef’s kiss]. A perfect message for the perfect time. I hope it transforms into votes, but knowing the reliability of the Swifties may make a difference in a swing state or two.

So while I feel pretty giddy about her debate performance, let me also remind you that Hillary also kicked his ass in a debate or two. It didn’t mean much when the votes were counted. Granted, there were outside factors involved there too, with the FBI breaking their own rule to publically resurface accusations that were later dismissed. Who knows what kind of skullduggery is about to be unleashed in the coming months? (Skullduggery is the best kind of duggery, don’t ya know?)

I expect the attacks to get more and more personal and the smears increasingly vicious. It’s all they have left. They don’t have any popular ideas to put forth, all they have is criticism and attack and gaming the system. If you remove that, all you have left is a party of stupid red hats sitting atop empty suits.

We just need to see through it and show up in November.

Final note: Speaking of gaming the system, if you live in a Red State, be SURE you’re registered to vote. Republicans are trying everything to thin the voter rolls of likely opponents, from closing and moving polling sites to, requiring new IDs, to stripping people from voter rolls, especially those who haven’t voted recently. 

Climbing Walz

 My apologies for posting a day late. I’ve been running around so much lately that I literally forgot that yesterday (Labor Day) was a Monday and therefore I needed to post.

My mom has been in a seniors rehab facility for the last several weeks, getting therapy on some broken bones. My siblings and I take turns staying with her to support and advocate. The TV in the room is usually tuned into MSNBC, the only channel Mom watches. I rarely watch TV news unless there’s an event happening, so it was all news to me.

But this was how I came to see some of Gov. Tim Walz’s Labor Day speech. It was a real corker, too. I can see why Kamala picked him. By the time he was done, I was ready to run through walls for the guy. He’s loaded with Everyman Charisma and common sense.

He basically hung TFG out to dry with his own words:

“This guy has made it clear how he stands. He’s sitting down at Mar-a-Lago after he got elected president, and this was his exact quote, he’s talking to a bunch of folks at Mar-a-Lago: ‘You’re rich as hell, and we’re gonna give you a tax cut.’ At the same time, he was telling workers they get paid too much already. That’s who this guy is.” [snip]

“You tell me who in Wisconsin is sitting around saying, ‘damn, I wish they’d give billionaires tax cuts and screw me over. Damn, I wish they’d take my health care away. I wish they’d underfund my public school. I wish they would make my job more difficult and more dangerous. And then at the end of the day, I wish they’d make me work ‘til I’m 75 years old.’”

It’s no wonder the Republicans are grasping at any straw they can to tarnish the guy. Rather than anything of substance, they’re talking about how he was only an assistant coach and not a head coach, and that he had a DUI 15 years ago, and the other garbage about his 24-year-long military career. It’s all they have so they have to use it.

It certainly pales compared to the garbage that’s been found coming from their VP candidate. Talk about toxic. It’s like he’s saying, “All you single women, single men, women over 50, cat owners, and Swifties, your vote doesn’t matter to us and probably shouldn’t count, so go ahead and vote for the Democrats.”

Walz also managed to work in his catchphrase that the Republicans should “Mind their own damn business!”

I love this angle because I’ve been pushing that sentiment for decades. Republicans are all about “small government” and “limited government reach” when it comes to shielding businesses from regulations that cost money, regarding trivial things like worker safety, pollution, quality of goods, and livable wages. There is no ripple too high to surpass the importance of increasing the next quarter’s profits.

But they’re just fine with the government reaching into your personal lives and private bedrooms to judge you on or ban you from the exercise of your own free will. Everyone would be so much better off if we just Mind our Own Damn Business!

But as long as there are Evangelicals, there will be a push to make us get in step with their out-of-step views on morality and religion. They’ll never be content until this country becomes a theocracy with their views enforced as the National Religion. And that means controlling education, what people read, what people say, how they dress, how they love, and how they reproduce. Does that sound like a free country to you?

It’s really an unlikely pairing under the Republican banner; the business people, and the religious people. The business people don’t care what the wingnuts do as long as it doesn’t interfere with raking in money. And the religious people don’t care what the business people do, as long as they can ban abortion, shove gays back in the closet, and trumpet their holier-than-thou status. And then you can add the racists in there who don’t care what the wingnuts or businessmen do, as long as they can deport brown foreigners and re-marginalize the Blacks. It’s a match made in Self-Interest Heaven.

I presume it’s no accident that the rich guy looks like Rupert Murdoch, Owner/Creator of Fox “News.”

The Big Government Bluz

I saw this meme posted by a conservative friend on the old Facebook a while back, which I thought was a pretty good example of the kind of dishonest fear-mongering for which Republicans are known.

More people work for the government…ooooh, scary. It paints dark pictures of overreaching politicians and endless, faceless bureaucracy.

The first thing I question is whether this is true or not. I mean, in a capitalist society, everything is for sale. It takes a lot of people to ship things, sell things, and account for things. (I’m omitting “building things” because as often as not, that doesn’t happen here.) So I have doubts. I think the only way the statement becomes true is if includes ALL government work. Federal, State, local, etc. And think what that includes:

·         Firefighting and police.

·         Military and National Guard.

·         Schools and libraries.

·         Sanitation, road construction, and maintenance.

·         Road salting and plowing.

·         Postal Service.

·         FEMA, NOAA, and weather forecasting.

·         Courts, district attorneys, and legal aides.

·         The IRS (Yeah, boo, hiss, but someone has to handle collecting taxes if we want any of the services above.)

Are any of these jobs particularly evocative of the evil intentions of government? Of course not, they’re just jobs that are necessary in our society. These are absolutely “government jobs.” And the fact that they are ensures cost control.

I’ll tell you what it really comes down to: Republicans don’t like all this government work because unless there is a private entity involved, the rich can’t skim the till and take a slice of taxpayer money for themselves.

They want all of these jobs privatized for the simple reason that it’s an opportunity to make more money. They want these services to become more things we have to pay for out of pocket, but at a higher price because they need to make a profit. But first, they have to get us to go along with it, hence the scary “Runaway Big Government” memes.

It’s just like with Social Security. Republicans have been trying to privatize that for years, not because it’s inefficient, but with money going from the government directly to the people, fat-cat Wall Street firms don’t get to take a cut. It is money left on the table and they can’t stand that they can’t get their mitts on any of it.

That’s why they lie about Social Security being a factor in the federal deficit. They want us to think benefits need to be reduced when in fact, a few small changes would guarantee viability for decades to come. It’s just that Republicans don’t like those changes because the filthy rich would have to pay more than they do now. All they need to do is raise or remove the cap at which Social Security taxes end ($165K.) That’s a non-starter with them, and it shows to whom they are beholden. (It’s not us.)

Or, they could always pay back the money Congress “borrowed” from the Social Security fund decades ago, but never seem to find a way to return.

***

In other news (from a couple weeks ago) I saw this in the local paper.

As usual, the GOP is demanding the blood-thirsty option of sentencing the 9/11 mastermind to death. I think they’re being short-sighted. While I agree that his maniac is deserving of death, I think life in prison would be far more punishing. Is this guy really even afraid of death? Isn’t he one of those men who expects 72 virgins at his beck and call once he snuffs it? Far better for him to rot in jail for one long, miserable year, after another. Or, give him his 72 virgins right now, and by “virgins,” I mean anti-social, basement-dwelling, woman-hating incels. Party on, Sheikh.

***

Hey, how about that convention, huh? It actually left me feeling a bit more optimistic. I loved the speeches, especially those from Doug Emhoff, Secretary Pete, Michelle Obama, Tim Walz, and the nominee herself.

You can tell it scared the Republicans because they’re killing themselves trying to find an angle of attack to discredit the proceeding. Their only hope is that it works on their fan base who never saw any of it for themselves. We know joy and happiness when we see it and we recognize messaging that resonates.

It’s funny that one of the recurring themes from the Fox "News" crowd is how “no one voted for her in the primaries.”

To that, I use Governor Walz’s new punchline in that they should “Mind their own damn business.” This is our dance, not theirs. They get no more say in our primaries than we had in theirs. If we’re happy with our nominee, that’s all that matters. It just goes to show that they’ll latch onto anything to keep from admitting their guy is a joke.

The Republican War on Sex

I don’t know how I missed this last February but this should have been a major story, if not for the dereliction of journalistic duty on behalf of mainstream media. Behold this social media post from the Heritage Foundation:

There is so much to unpack here. But first off, let’s remember that the Heritage Foundation is a Republican think tank and funding source that has its tentacles into every level of GOP government, forever pushing for ways to go back to the “Good Olde Days” when women were in the kitchen, Blacks were in the fields, and Gays were in the back of the closet. Back when men did what their bosses told them to do and accepted whatever pay was deemed appropriate. They’d like all of that back again, except without the 90% corporate tax rate. They want that to be zero. They are funded by men who are filthy rich and intend to keep it that way, for themselves and their silver-spoon-fed offspring.

But back to the tenet at hand… keeping women under men’s thumbs. They think the best way to do that is to keep them pregnant. They are for “returning consequentiality to sex.” As if the clap wasn’t enough…

“Senseless use of birth control.” Seriously? There is literally no such thing because if a woman or a couple don’t want to become pregnant, that’s all the sense it requires. Everyone else can piss off!

Ultimately, they frame their points as a religious and moral argument.

Like “restoring sex to its true purpose.” When the hell was that? People have been screwing like minks since the dawn of time. Sometimes it may have been under the radar, so to speak, but it was happening. And there have always been these religious pricks trying to make everyone behave.

“You people stop boning and get back in the fields!”

These people don’t give a flying fig about religion, not for real. Not about the messages of the Bible, anyway. No, they need a way to control people yet still appear to claim the moral high ground. So they wrap themselves in some of the most out-of-touch pieces of the Bible and use it to insulate themselves from examination.

And for other religions? Well, none of those count, obviously. Theirs is the only “real” religion, as if there’s such a thing.

Back in the eighties, Republicans figured out that they could count on the vote of Evangelical Christians if they became the Morality Party and campaigned against abortion, sex, and secularity. It worked for them because it gave them a voting base beyond the rich people they were obligated to placate. And if the Evangelicals didn’t get what they wanted? Who cares? All the more to rile them up for the next election. Most importantly, it didn’t cost the 1% any money. They can always find an abortion if some rich guy’s mistress needs one. This was a great way to get people to vote against their own economic interests.

The Heritage Foundation is knee-deep in all of this. And here they are, actually posting their plans to keep people from having sex.

Well, good luck with that. Have you ever noticed that the states (or cultures) that are the most legally constricted have the highest porn usage? There’s no keeping a cork in that bottle; it’s going to pop one way or another.

So, this is real. The Republicans are coming for sex. They want to restrict or ban contraception, outlaw abortion, and track women’s periods so they can police the whole thing to keep them from exercising their own free will. And they have six justices on the Supreme Court who came with Heritage Foundation endorsements, so whatever religious restrictions Republicans can dream up will be rubber-stamped into the laws of the land.

For “freedom” of course. Complete, flag-wrapped freedom, which really means the freedom to live, think, and act like they tell you.

Amen.

From The “I Called It” Dept.

In a post two weeks ago, I wrote the following:

Last week, VP Harris unveiled her plan to cap price gouging and offer assistance for first-time home buyers. And what did the GOP do? They promptly opposed all such measures.

"...completely preposterous for government to play a role in setting food prices," he said. Unlike the GOP campaign messaging which castigates the Biden Administration for not doing just that.

So the next time one of your friends is complaining about the “Biden Economy,” ask him what, exactly he thinks should be done about it. Because solving the actual problem seems to be a non-starter.

Just like with the border, Republicans don’t really want to solve the problem, they just want to blame their opponents for it. They have zero intention of lowering prices because that wouldn’t be in the best interest of their big donors.

Show Me the Money

I’m enjoying the Democrats' new line of attack, calling Republicans “weird” at every turn. Certainly it’s juvenile, but it gets under their skin. At least it bugs them enough for them to start calling the Democrats weird, using the timeless “I Know You Are But What Am I?” defense. Unfortunately for them, the Democrats already invoked the “No Take-Backs” clause.

I say, let the experts weigh in:

I saw a lot of Republican commercials over the weekend smearing Harris, most of which used the sure-fire conservative hot-button terms… “Most progressive Senator ever,” “San Francisco politics,” “Nancy Pelosi,” “Illegal immigrants and gang members” killing people while she was somewhere in the state, etc.

They really love to throw “San Francisco” around. To them it just reeks of hippies, drugs, and free love. They’re all like, “She’s so San Francisco, Rice-a-Roni is suing her for copyright infringement. She’s so San Francisco, it should say Kamala’s Wharf on the sign. Instead of cable cars, she’s pulling tourists up the hills herself.”

And I “can’t even” with the DEI stuff. I mean, wasn’t she elected by her constituents several times for various offices? To the MAGAs, they figure we need to wait for another 42 White guys to become president before they can cope with another person of color. I know I’m not the first person to point this out but the fact that DEI can easily stand for Don Jr, Eric, and Ivanka, all of whom had jobs because of who they were on paper rather than actual skills.

***

I’m more than ready for someone to finally come back at Republicans who are claiming that the current state of high prices can be laid at Biden’s (and by proxy, Harris’s) feet. Rational people know that the prices of anything are influenced by many factors, not least of which is the amount of profit their manufacturers choose to take.

So, what do you think would happen if Biden or Harris said, “You want us to provide price relief? How about this? How about I order a cap on corporate profits? If you get caught gouging in excess of allowable profit, we fine the shit out of you. And let’s prevent corporations from buying up all the housing to turn the units into rentals, so we can keep a lid on housing prices.”

Watch how fast Republicans scream bloody murder about Socialism, Communism, and every other “ism” that they think will scare you. They don’t want prices to go down. Their donors love these high prices because they’re making one record-breaking quarter of profit after another. And then they get to laugh as they blame it all on the Democrats.

Try asking TFG what his plan is to reduce the cost of living. I’ll tell you his answer: “I have a beautiful plan in the works, the best plan ever, many people said so. It will be released in two weeks.” And we know what that means. There is no plan. Someone who takes pride in skipping out on what he owes people will never care how much things cost.

Just like with the border, Republicans don’t want to take action to fix problems, they want to run on them and blame the Democrats.

Anyway, it’s not like any such economic pronouncement from Biden would pass muster with the new Overtly Corrupt Supreme Court. They’re prepared to thwart any economic plan that isn’t directed at the 1%. That’s why they’re there.

***

I’m glad that Biden is at least proposing SCOTUS reforms. Drastic action is necessary at this point. The fact that several justices have been bought cannot be hidden. No one provides the kind of financial favors that Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh received, without expecting something in return.

Sadly, nothing will ever come of it without the Presidency, the House, and 60 Senators onboard. The only way to get Republicans on board will be when the Supreme Court has a Democrat-appointed majority. (And even then, the rich will just buy off more Democrats.) You can already see the Republican panic in this Wall Street Journal headline:

Republicans didn’t do all that work to pack the court with their own flunkies just to give it up due to the public’s (correct) perception. The Journal goes on to say that the number of possible accusations and complaints will provide the appearance that the court is corrupt. How that differs from what we have right now is beyond me. We already KNOW the court is corrupt.

But the biggest no-go is the idea of an amendment eliminating presidential immunity. And it’s not because of the issue itself, it’s just that any new amendment requires ratification by 38 state governments.

My friend, we can’t get 38 state governments to agree that the grass is green. They could be trying to pass a declaration in which if an asteroid were to be discovered streaking towards a planet-killing collision with Earth, the states would unite in trying to divert it. We would still have red and blue states fighting about something. Maybe the Dems want to hire the most qualified contractors and the Republicans want to hire established Defense Department contractors so they can skim the funds. Whatever the case, we can’t even get 38 states to agree to something as basic as men and women being treated as equals. (And I’d bet some of the states that DID sign on would like to change their minds now.) No, unless there’s a complete overhaul in this country’s collective mindset, we’re never going to see another amendment to the Constitution pass again.

BUT, I don’t see the harm in talking about the issue and getting Republicans on the defensive. It’s good to make them show their true colors. Which, in fact, are always “green.”

More "News Wheel of Fortune"

With Pat Sajak newly retired, it’s bedlam at the ole Spinning Wheel, so I’ll step up with my ongoing audition for the News Wheel of Fortune. There have been a lot of stories from the last month upon which I haven’t been able to comment. So let's give the wheel a spin and see what comes up.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Republicans went from not having a platform to having one and it’s still the same platform: Whatever TFG says it is. While they did try to soften their abortion stance, we have to remember that this is a political document, intended to get them elected. What they’re actually going to do is another matter. (See Project 2025.) So, minimized or not, abortion is still in danger of a national prohibition if Republicans regain power. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Let’s take another spin.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Somewhere, a photo editor suggested that the famed “bloody-faced fist pump” shot might be considered partisan and probably shouldn’t be used by unbiased outlets. So naturally, Fox “News” takes umbrage because the whole point of what they do is biased towards gathering and maintaining conservative power. They’re basically making the editor’s point in that the shot has become iconic in Republican circles and to use it is to endorse TFG. This shows why you can’t take Fox seriously as a news organization.

And speaking of Fox “News” distorting a story, consider:

Ooh, this looks bad for the VP and nominee. The lead sentence of the article: “MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend suggested she had a bad experience working for her ex-boss, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Uh-oh, we could have a new scandal here. But then, the article goes on to talk about how hard it is to represent a woman in politics because of how much abuse gets thrown her way from misogynistic haters. That’s not at all what the headline implies and it’s just one more way Fox “News” skews their coverage. They know that far more people skim the headlines than read the article, so why not leave the masses with the impression that Madame K is a bitch to work for. Never trust anything with a Fox byline. Oh, and there’s more!

This is the same deal, only in print, made possible now that the founder of conservative “news” outlet Sinclair Broadcasting bought ownership in the Baltimore Sun.

The headline screams that a major donor is abandoning Harris. The actual story says that the guy already gave the Biden/Harris campaign a million bucks, which they can keep, but he’s not giving them anymore. Shit, after a donation like that, I’d be done too. That is NOT a lack of support, it’s a statement of prior support. But they framed it as a blow to the Dems in the headline, again knowing that it would leave a lasting impression on more people than those who read the story. Conservatives game the system at every opportunity! OK, that was three stories for one spin. Let’s spin again:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Herein lies one of the major differences between modern Republicans and Democrats. When a Dem fucks up, he’s out of the club. Have you seen or heard any stories about Dems denying the guy took bribes (in gold bars), saying his trial was rigged, that there was no influence peddling or any other excuse? No, you didn’t because we don’t play that shit. All you saw were calls for him to resign. He got caught and was proven guilty, so he’s gone. That’s how it is and how it should be. We don’t want crooks like this tarnishing the brand. Let’s spin again:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

Boy, talk about a way to get people angry at you, try suggesting that childless people should be treated as second-class citizens. What a maroon, as Bugs would say. They should get on their knees and thank childless people for continuing to fund things like public education, even though they only get the peripheral benefit from it having a less ignorant population. And while they’re at it, thank us for picking up that slack at work when they go on maternity or paternity leave and dump all their work on their single or childless friends. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have leave, but how about a little something for the effort here?

And how smart is it to alienate the nation’s cat ladies not to mention one of the biggest social forces in the country, the Swifties, by smearing their idol, the Single Cat Lady in Chief? This guy looks like a bigger boob with every news cycle. If they ever had a chance to peel off some of the Swiftie votes, it’s gone now. Somewhere, there’s a countdown going, ticking down to when this putz gets replaced on the ticket by Governor Nikki. We’ll spin again:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

And there it is, my friend. TFG is finally speaking the unspeakable truth about his intentions if he were to win in November. I know his handlers are trying desperately to spin this as a joke, but we all know that this guy doesn’t joke. He smears. And this wasn’t a smear, it was a statement. It’s what he thinks because we also know he has less filter than a carton of old Pall Mall reds. He knows exactly what’s in Project 2025 and he’s behind it all the way, no matter how hard he tries to distance himself from it. It just keeps creeping back.

This is what Republicans are defending: a guy who intends to install himself as a dictator by any means necessary and stay there for life. After replacing everyone at Justice with his lackeys and reconfiguring the military…

…who’s to say he doesn’t disband Congress? With his own law enforcement operation, lacking civil laws to keep him in check, and a Congress to impeach, we’ll be stuck with him until he has a massive heart attack. Or someone comes along who’s a better shot than that jagoff from PA. Who knows what damage he’s prepared to inflict on the country before then, or how much of the US Treasury he and his enablers will be able to loot?

That’s it for our show tonight, go forth with your eyes open, engage your mind, and believe nothing you hear from the conservative media (which is basically everything now).

Now one last spin, just for shits and giggles:

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZINGGGGGGG tika tika tika tika tika  tika   tika    tika    tik:

This is a picture from the intro to this year’s MLB All-Star Week Home Run Derby. Is it me, or does this look like they’re in the Hunger Games? It’s like suddenly a siren is going to sound and they’ll all start hitting each other with bats. Which would be no doubt more entertaining than the Home Run Derby.