Sunday, August 25, 2013

AND THEY KNOW IT!

One of the phrases that always bothered me when opposites of the political stage debated was, “And as you know…”
It says to the audience that what is about to be said by the speaker is a well known fact and his opponent is quite aware of it!
It is an annoying tactic that works because the public is basically uneducated, at least in whatever the basis for the debate is, and the speaker knows it!
I have a friend who loves to provoke by always saying the opposite of what I am putting forth.  Sometimes he deliberately takes a silly stance that goes off on a tangent from what we were discussing thus deflecting the conversation completely.
He does it for fun and while it irks me I know it does neither of us any harm.
And this brings me to the current year in politics or rather last decade or so and certainly since President Obama was elected the first time.
Other than personal monetary gain from their wealthy owners harm is the only thing on the minds of the Republican Party.
They have been saying and doing such a multitude of outrageous things that it is almost impossible to recall all of them let alone write them down in this post.
And even if I could write every one of them down I doubt anyone in today’s sound bite twitter mentality would have the patience to read it or even understand it before nodding off.
The world does not need another War and Peace novel, although this would be non-fiction, and they know it!
So let’s get down to some of the most glaring bits of right wing bull cocky that they know are downright lies.

BIRTHERISM: Obama is not an American and his Presidency should be nullified.
President Obama was not only born of an American woman the birth took place in Hawaii.  Counter to popular belief among the members of the vastly under-educated T-Party Hawaii is and, at the time of the blessed event, was an American State. AND THEY KNOW IT!

GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX: Many Republicans in Congress have gone so far as to say that claims of global warming is the greatest hoax ever played on citizens of this country.
One must assume the Congressman, one James Inhofe (R-OK) is forgetting his own party making believe they are governing!
This one will affect every living organism, human or otherwise which possibly excludes some politicians on the right.
The scientific community has shown over and over again that the major cause of our current rise in worldwide temperatures is increased CO2 in the atmosphere and that is the result of man-made machinery and the burning of fossil fuels.  And yet almost to a man (woman) in the Republican Party they deny it.  But do they believe their own denials?  Global warming IS real! AND THEY KNOW IT!

SHARIA LAW MUST NOT BE ALLOWED IN AMERICA!
Seriously?  Are they truly worried we will adopt it here?
Religion is for personal comfort and not to be used in Government.  The so-called Party of Family Values values neither family nor really any religion! The right wing members with several wives, not all at the same time perhaps and a multitude of mistresses would rather pander to the deluded public who believe in the talking snake rather than admit there is no such thing and never has been.  AND THEY KNOW IT!

PRESIDENT OBAMA CAUSED THE DEFICIT TO RISE. Under his leadership we now owe more than ever before and we are headed for a fiscal cliff.
Uh, no, and in fact the deficit has gone down under his guidance.  And the Democratic Party has tried to do even more but has been blocked at every turn. (I apologize to all the RWNJs out there for using the word ‘fact.’ They seem to consider it a four letter word.)  Under Bush and most Republican Presidents the deficit has gone up while under most Democratic Presidents it goes down!  AND THEY KNOW IT!

VOTER FRAUD IS RAMPANT AND NEEDS TO BE STOPPED!
We cannot allow outsiders from other States to vote in our elections. Their radical ideas will harm our way of life!
In every State where Republicans hold the majority such as North Carolina voting restrictions are being placed on any group of voters shown to lean toward Democratic candidates.
Photo IDs such as gun licenses are okay but student IDs are not.  If a college student wishes to vote in NC the parents must pay a fee.  This is called a poll tax. It's absurd, unnecessary and basically against the Constitution of  the United States of America.  But the kicker is that statistics show the number of possible yet unconfirmed fraudulent attempts to vote is 0.0002 percentAND THEY KNOW IT!

WHERE ARE THE JOBS Mr. PRESIDENT?
Unemployment, which rose so drastically while the war mongering pair of Cheney & Bush sat on the throne, has consistently gone down while President Obama has been in the White House.  And these numbers have continued their downward trend to the utter dismay of the Republicans.  The blatant opposition by the Republicans and their hypocritical leader Boehner to any jobs bill proposal is awe inspiring in it's evil intent.  AND THEY KNOW IT!

TAXES ARE KILLING BUSINESS IN AMERICA!
It's time for the takers to start contributing to the country's economy!
This absurd notion while blocking any attempt to raise the minimum wage on those who really need the money is perhaps one of the most insidious of their odious demands.  The real takers of America are the members of Congress who take a paycheck and do absolutely nothing but stir the fires of hate and promote fear while accepting bribes from the very business leaders they claim are going broke! AND THEY KNOW IT!

OBAMA KEEPS TWEAKING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT or ACA SHOWING IT IS WEAK AND NO GOOD!
This is one is actually easy, at least on the premise they put forth.  Tweaking it before full implementation is not only NOT a sign of weakness but the American way!  Every bill ever talked about or enacted into law has been tweaked including our Constitution which as I recall has a whole bunch of, what are they called again? Oh yeah, AMENDMENTS!! AND THEY KNOW IT!

Could it be they have nothing else and once again have to resort to lies?
In a word, and as always, YES!
But while calling them liars may not be nice do you think they know they are lying?
OF COURSE!
If not then they would be truly stupid and their dumb utterances would necessitate their ouster from office.  Their out and out intended lies are well thought out and are able to fool uneducated voters into electing them over and over again!
If every member of the Republican Party and right wingers were told that if caught in a political lie they’d face the death penalty we might never hear another word out of their mouths and conservative talk radio would finally be off the air for good!
And that is the main problem with politics today.
Politicians, especially on the radical right side of every aisle in the country pander and say things that are so ridiculous as to elicit dumbfounded looks from anyone with half a brain.
But so far they have faced no political consequence.

AND THAT THEY SURELY KNOW!

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

The title of this post is an oft used comeback against someone who says something you think is outrageous or at least insincere.
But many do put their money where their mouths are or at least where they silently want everyone else’s mouths to be.
I am speaking of the silent majority of political backers also known as lobbyists.
These days the more money some people have the more they want and they’ll do anything to get it.  And if it means hurting or harming a majority of others to reach their goal so be it!
The bottom line IS their bottom line and money is the way they keep score.
Today my newspaper showed three candidates running for county supervisor but a quick glance merely showed their photos and the amount of money they have collected in donations.  The subliminal message was clearly we do not need to vote because the man with the most will most likely win!  And sadly the trend of putting the worst man or woman for the job in place will most likely continue.
Of course power enters into the equation as well but without money you may find yourself powerless.
Grass roots movements are definitely not a thing of the past but certainly not as powerful as they used to be and that is by design.  And the designers are those in power and those with enough money to keep them there.
President Obama won his first election by obtaining an incredible amount of money with which he was able to get his message across.  He did this with a grass roots organization that collected enough small donations to make the total impressive even by today's standards.
You can be the smartest person in the world and have the best ideas for the most people alive but without money or backers with cash your message remains in your dreams.
The Republican Party is nothing if they are not deviously smart and they see how to keep or get power in America.
Most of the candidates on the proverbial right side of the aisle probably do not believe half the things they say or promote, at least one can hope, but they know their constituents do so they say them.
But the real problem in America today lies in the wallets of the wealthiest greedy power hungry few who spend millions like most of us spend quarters.
These quiet behind the scenes types are insidious.  They know how to dangle their bait in front of unscrupulous politicians afraid of losing a seat in Congress and thus having to actually work for a living!
Their money allows the words they wish to say to come out of their puppets mouths.
If every American of the so-called 98% group donated one dollar to the same cause it would amount to around $300,000,000!  That is approximately half the amount Sheldon Adelson threw away backing the Mittster in the 2012 Presidential campaign And he is promising to double it going forward!
Now admittedly he has only one vote and the 98%ers have around 200 million votes assuming everyone went to the polls next time so he could easily be outvoted but… (I left out those under the voting age.)
Let’s face it, there are too many among us in the country that have little knowledge of what is going on in government and many more who just don’t care.  Then there are the ones who actually believe the crap spewed by the puppets of Adelson and friends.  And his friends while not that many have wealth nearly beyond belief!
Take the Koch brother, Please!
The basically useless Koch boys inherited daddy’s business and starting from the humble amount of billions have been able to make even more billions in their effort to pollute the world. Their causes are generally bad ones for the future of mother Earth but they know they’ll be long gone before our children and grandchildren have to wear gas masks and protective clothing and move to higher ground merely to survive so they continue their quest for more money at all cost!
And they too donate and donate wildly.
One such donation was recently uncovered as David tried to block a PBS documentary entitled Citizen Koch.  An obvious reference to one of the greatest films of all time, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane which was about a ruthless wealthy man hell bent on having his views become those of the world.  The movie was a loosely veiled shout out against Citizen Hearst and clearly not a love note.
And with the money flowing the Republican Party has turned to voter suppression as an additional way to secure a long future in power for their wealthy backers.
In other words the more their money helps their mouths speak the less they listen to yours!
Be afraid - Be VERY afraid!
So how can we stop the creeping creepy creeps who flaunt their wealth and get their way by silently pulling strings in the public sector?
Well for one when we hear a politician say something odd or espouse a cause that may not be right for the majority of Americans we can look to see from whose mouth the words are actually emanating.  Follow the money back to its source.
Then ask yourself if you would want that puppet master to run your City or State or you America.
The answer will most likely be a resounding no!

Then use your hand next November and every November from now on to put your vote where your head is!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

They Deserve Respect & Laughs

And now a brief interlude from the every day drama of politics.
What better way to forget about the insanity of DC and the unbelievably evil way the Repub Party is treating the office of the President of the United States than taking a trip into the past.  The nearly carefree past of "Dirty Dancin" and weekends at the shore?
Or better yet, a weekend in the Catskills!!
Trust the BBC to air this wonderful collection of laughs!
And while the jokes may be old, strike that - While the jokes ARE old the not so old people telling them are as young as they feel.
And do they feel old?
Oy, don't ask!
Turn on the sound and enjoy Old Jews Telling Jokes!

(IF IT STARTS IN THE MIDDLE PAUSE IT AND MOVE IT BACK TO THE BEGINNING! WELL WORTH IT!)