Republicans Must Not Hold America Hostage Any Longer

According to the Stockholm Syndrome if one is held hostage by an evil person or group long enough the person may start to exhibit protective tendencies of one's captors.  In fact after a while a strange sort of irrational love may even develop.
Once set free the hostage must seek or be afforded psychiatric help to return to a normal productive life.
For the past 6 years America has been held hostage by the Republican Party and too many voters are exhibiting the same mental defect described above.  They are answering polls showing how much they would vote for the same Republican party that blocked any and all progress in America all the while blaming President Obama.
And just like a kidnapper who brainwashes a child into believing his real parents deserted him and do not love him anymore they have convinced their base that the President is not only at fault but not even an America citizen or worse!!
Polls show that Congress has a favor-ability rating less than that of gonorrhea or root canals so why would any sane, rational human being listen to them let alone vote for them again.
Perhaps the answer lies in the question itself and the words sane and rational.
Is it possible that the majority of the Republican base is so consumed with hatred and sublimated racism that they are willing to believe anything bad said about the President to the point of voting against their own best interests?
The answer to that is a resounding yes!
We have seen this happen over and over again and even read about it in a now famous (or should be famous) book by Thomas Frank.
In Florida, that wonderful State that gave us the hanging chads, Kat Harris and appointed a President that did not win the majority of votes we are now witness to a Governor with a terribly low approval rating leading in the polls due to $26 million worth of negative ads about his far better and more deserving opponent.
Generally when a candidate ONLY runs negative ads it's because he has nothing positive to say about himself. That could not be more true than in this race between a generally hated awful Governor Rick Scott and his 'for the people' foe Charlie Crist.
Neither man is a saint but then they are both politicians.
However when push comes to shove Mr. Scott is awful and deserves to be shown the door as soon as possible!
And speaking of awful, in Kentucky it is quite possible that another member of the hostage takers may hold his seat in Congress even though he has said publicly and in private that his entire agenda is to hurt the President and keep America down.
He will stop us from doing anything for at least the next two years and affirmed his affections for the anti-social Koch brothers and their bribe money with a treatise of love and promises to help them increase their massive fortune! (If you can sit through the recording of his promises to the Koch billionaires click the link above.)
He aims to block any regulations aimed at reining in business at the expense of the environment and human lives!
And this creature is leading in the polls?
As for the President's foreign policy is it so terrible to think about all the consequences of bombing other countries and starting or entering a war before actually doing so?  Haven't we been there done that already?  And aren't we and the World still paying for the rash ill-advised behavior of the previous war mongering administration?
Who died and made the United States the sheriff at the O K Coral?
If the President can make his case to World leaders and have them join us thus spreading the responsibilities as well as the costs are we not all better off?  Do we wish to send our young men and women into another far off battleground?
We have already been through two World Wars.  If the World cannot come together to squash small factions hell bent on global destruction in the name of some absurd religious belief then shall never have World peace.
Think of what a united Planet Earth could accomplish if testosterone driven machismo, personal greed and religious zealotry could be relegated to an embarrassing footnote in the annals of history.
It may be naive to think this could happen but at least I am not giving in and falling for my abductors!

Dreams, But Why Bother!

We seem to always have a political treatise or memoir hitting the book stands.  Most of them are self-serving and annoying.  But the number one job of a politician is to keep his job and basically not give a damn about yours!

A while ago a man who currently resides in the White House wrote a personal book that was not meant to garner him political gains, at least not yet.  The book was a big seller made even bigger with his eventual rise in World prominence.

This post merely uses his title to play off and it is with some small apologies to Mr. Obama that I do so.

But frankly it fits with the current atmosphere of America so...

In America we are all given a fair chance to succeed.  This is what we have commonly called the American Dream.

And we want that America Dream for ourselves and even more so for our children.

But just what is The Dream?

Back in 1928 it was simply a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage as then candidate Herbert Hoover pronounced.

Sadly after winning by a landslide over Alfred Smith he and his Republican Party could not deliver on his great claims. Funny that from them not much has changed in that department in the 4 score and 6 years since.

In fact the only thing great about his Presidency turned out to be the Great Stock Market crash and subsequent Great Depression.

The American Dream then became a next meal and a roof over one’s head.

Millions were out of work and looking to Washington for help.

Mr. Hoover did get some small accomplishments during his tenure such as increasing our Nation’s National Park footprint but basically far too little to help those who found themselves on the ground, literally!

It was the Great Depression that outlasted him and catapulted Franklin Delano Roosevelt into the White House.

And after several social programs were put in place by Mr. Roosevelt the nation appeared to be headed back in the right direction.

But we still needed something more.

And we got that nudge when Germany and Japan decided to take over the world.

World War II turned our economy around and it only took the lives of some 60 million people worldwide to do so.

Naturally there were many in politics upon whom that fact was not lost.  I mean the first part, the part about the economy, although the collateral damage probably slipped into their equation at some point.

These, for lack of a better term, war mongers realized the monetary benefit of war.  Of course only if they did not have to fight it themselves.

Former General Eisenhower famously warned about these hawk archetypes in his Presidential farewell speech when he coined the phrase, the vast industrial military complex.

And today that vast industrial military complex sucks the air out of America in many ways.

When the right wing continues to kow tow to their owners in the 1% by lowering their taxes while keeping the middle class down there is only one thing the country can do and that’s cut services!

Now of course you may say that we are all affected by service cuts but be real!  The uber wealthy do not need publicly funded services when they can literally buy an island with the petty cash in their pockets.

So service cuts hurt, harm and eventually kill the poor and middle class.

And let’s face it, when you’re dead the American dream is the least of your worries!

So we may still dream but between the Republican Party trying to gerrymander Democrats out of existence and the wealthy pulling the strings behind them there isn’t really any chance of a Disney ending for most Americans.

We will go into the big sleep with only our dreams perchance to keep our hopes alive.

Rudyard Kipling wrote “If you can dream—and not make dreams your master…“

Well we can dream but unless and until the American voter wakes up from their stupor and realizes what a terrible blight the Republican Party has become we shall only have dreams without any hope of achieving them.

And until then I must admit, Dreams? Why bother!

Suppression, It's Only Good in Cough Medicine.

I would like nothing better than having the entire world bow to my will.
To some degree the above egotistical wish is in all of us.
But the obvious truth is that will never happen no matter who we are or think we are.  And that is of course a good thing.
Throughout history many have tried it from Alexander the Great to the not so great would-be Alexanders of our time.

Should this be the face
of World domination?

All political or religious dictators want the same control over their environs and the degree to which they impose their will determines their fate as well as ours.
While typically the means by which these tyrants wield their power is physical force do not discount the use of mental anguish and fear of the other guy as an important factor.
And while World domination has become harder to even contemplate controlling one's own world, the sphere within which one lives, is still in play.
We see this tactic in use every day by the Fox network of right wing entertainment news media people as directed by their mogul, Rupert Murdoch. His agenda is and for quite some time has been domination of all he can get his fingers on or near.
We cannot turn a closed eye to the inherent dangers in allowing any one person or small cadre of people enough power to control every aspect of our lives.
The experiment that is America started with the idea that no one body of government should be allowed complete control without oversight and acceptance by two other bodies.  And even then rules and laws must pass inspection, the smell test if you will of our Supreme Court.
Sadly even that august body has become politicized in the wake of the increased polarization of our political system.

How could anyone hate and fear a
14 year old Pakistani girl so much
as to want her dead?

But we at least America has not yet devolved into the toilet of religious control as has happened in many Muslim countries.
While women in America are targeted by right wing politicians for unnecessary medical procedures to keep them in line and stop them from having a say in their own bodies at least we have not started to actively hunt them down and kill them.
This week in Pakistan a group of lower than low-life creatures even Neanderthals would be ashamed to be associated with who call themselves the Taliban boarded a school bus to seek out and shoot to kill 14 year old Malala Yousafzai whose crime was she desired an education.
The cowardly act of this religious political coalition of scum and the devil has made the world sit  up and take note, for at least the current news cycle.
Malala defied the odds and lived through the heinous act but both she and her father remain under death threats from the Taliban.
They are so afraid of allowing humans an education because they rightfully fear that knowledge will prove them unworthy of life on this Earth.
But they may have actually taught  larger lesson than the ones they have attempted to suppress.
It is too early to predict the outcome of this disgusting episode but already young girls around the world are declaring themselves to be Malala!
Not nearly as graphic but almost as desperate are the tactics being used by business owners in America basically threatening their employees with their jobs if they do not support the boss' candidate in the upcoming elections.
Demanding money or unpaid time off to make mandatory appearances at fund raisers for candidates NOT OF THEIR CHOICE is tantamount to suppression of ideas and ideals.
The use of fear of loss of income to turn someone's opinion is reprehensible and un-American.
But this IS America and therefore the act, considered to be free speech is protected under our enlightened law.
But do not mistake legal for moral.
Charles Dickens once famously stated in "Oliver Twist" that, "The Law is a ass!"
And the suppression movement of the right wing sector of the Republican Party has not stopped with company-wide threats.  They have actively sought out to destroy labor unions and other Democratic leaning voter groups.  And in case that failed they have attempted to stop obvious Democratic voters from even being allowed to cast their ballots.
They claim they are trying to stop voter fraud, a noble cause indeed.

Forget 200 million voters
I love Jeb & I want his
baby brother to be
President

But to date the only party that has successfully utilized voter fraud to steal elections has been the Republican Party most notably when George Bush was anointed king of the White House not by hundreds of millions of votes but by a 5 to 4 decision from a friendly Supreme Court as requested by one individual, Florida's State Attorney General Katherine Harris.

Anytime someone tries to stop someone else from expressing themselves; or bettering themselves as in getting an education; or from listening other view points be they supporting their own opinions or opposing them; or merely by voting as they themselves wish IT IS WRONG!
Suppression must be called out and reported every time it is used or attempted.
It must be declared as evil and un-American or America as we know it will cease to exist.

I'll Get You My Pretty! And Your Little Dog Too!

With their inexorable push toward controlling everything the American public thinks and or does one political party is making a mockery of their self proclaimed nickname, that of ‘smaller government.’

After all when a group says they want smaller government and then attempts to pass laws enabling them to peer into every woman’s vagina in order to keep her reproductive system in check warning bells should blare everywhere!

And they give themselves the subtitle, The Family Values Party!  That's as inane as me calling myself the Supreme Ruler of the Universe (although current polls do have me in the lead.)

But total control is still tantalizingly just beyond their reach. In order to attain this totalitarian feat the Republican Party must do one more important thing, take over all media output.

Fox and affiliates have made incredible inroads in print media; right wing talk radio and of course faux news but more must be done.

Too many people are allowed to watch unrestricted television. And programs such as ‘The Daily Show’ and movies from Hollywood that may depict underdogs winning send messages of hope that could, if continued lead to uprisings.
Occupy groups could even demand fair and balanced government and that would be disastrous for the Republican Party, not to mention their obscenely wealthy backers who own them and direct their movements.

But we the people must be ready for the future, so as a public service I hereby offer a representative glimpse of what to expect from the entertainment industry should the inevitable happen and the 'Right Wing' takes over Hollywood.

Selected excerpts from movies after the Republicans remake some old classics:

Gone With the Wind:

Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn penny to charity! It’s your own fault you’re poor. All poor people made their own beds! (Line now in response to “Rhett, I’ve lost my healthcare insurance! What shall I do?)
&

I don’t know nothin bout birthin babies ceptin when it happen due to what I does wif my own lawfully wedded husband in the privacy of our own married bedroom and a course only in the missionary position.

Star Wars:

Use the force of restraint Luke, not a condom.

Godfather:

I’m gonna give him a bribe he can’t refuse!
&

This is just business Sonny, nothing personal. Aw hell, you got me, it’s personal too! I just don’t like you! (Takes out concealed weapon and shoots him.)

Jaws:

We’re gonna need a bigger tax break.

King Kong:

No it wasn’t the planes and bullets that killed the beast it was his desire to marry outside his race.

Back to the Future:

Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads, or any infrastructure repair for that matter. It’s way too costly.

Planet of the Apes:

Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape! (The words are actually the same as the original but the ape will now be played by an Obama look-alike!)

Treasure of the Sierra Madre:

Badges? We don’t need no stinkin badges, just a couple of concealed 45s and some patrol buddies at the border.

ET The Extra Terrestrial:

E T phone home and go home you stinking alien terrorist! We must keep America safe for red blooded God fearing citizens!

Field of Dreams:

If you build it you will pay for it! And you better damn well have a permit!

Jerry Maguire:

Show me the money before I vote for your proposal!

When Harry Met Sally:

I’ll have what she’s having! In fact I’ll have what everyone’s having and then some!
(Many Repubs in Congress actually love Sally because they too like to have a little something on the side!)

Funny Girl:

“…And if I’ve fanned out, I’m still at bat sir, I guess I didn’t make it, bail me out sir, give me money I can take it…”

A Few Good Men:

“You want answers?”

“I want the truth!”

"He wants truth..."

Followed by uncontrollable laughter from the entire cast for minutes during which an occasional ‘you want the truth’ is heard amidst snorting.

Spiderman:

With great power comes great responsibility and incredible healthcare with unbelievable pay for speaking engagements after you are deemed useless by everyone.

Aliens:

“Get away from her you BITCH!” But this time the line is directed at Michele Obama as she tries to serve a healthy salad to an obese little girl.

Forest Gump:

Life’s like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get but if you grease my palm I can assure you of getting the cherry!

The Terminator:

I’ll be back! (Role played by Newt Gingrich.)

Cool Hand Luke:

What we got here is a failure to communicate! And we must keep it that way if we’re going to succeed. (Line spoken by top dog in the Republican Party at time of remake.)

The Wizard of Oz:

Oh Auntie Em I just kept saying, there’s no place like C Street!

Sixth Sense:

I see dead people. I see them all the time. They couldn’t pay for healthcare. They should’ve planned better!

The Graduate:

One word, Plastics! Or any petroleum product for that matter! Remember Benjamin, oil companies are our friend!

Altered Endings:

Avatar:

The disgusting blue aliens are routed and destroyed and mankind is free to deplete another world’s resources.

It’s a Wonderful Life:

This time Potter wins!

Beauty & the Beast:

No remake, just a change in rating from “P” to “XXX” for implied sex between lovely young white virgin woman and filthy beast.

Casablanca:

When Bogie & Henried walk into the fog the line is changed slightly to “You know this could be the start of a beautiful joint venture yielding great profits with low taxes!”

Title changes of necessity, (you’ll see why:)

You all remember that great old time hit starring Bogart, Bergman & Henreid, “House White” (formerly Casablanca)

And who can forget the Edith Piaf story, My Life in Pink (In French it's La Vie en Rose & we all hate the French, right?)

Freedom Fries will be sold at all performances.

And finally we come to Republican Favorites:

Fave Flix:

Patriot Games

Rambo (1 through 74)

Any John Wayne movie

Any gun movie!

Honorary Mention:

The Guns of Navarone (It’s a foreign thing so they’re not that thrilled with it!)

Least Fave Flick:

Any underdog triumphing against an overlord movie –It gives them nightmares!

And in fact it's mainly why they hate Hollywood to begin with.

Least Fave Broadway show:

La Cage Aux Folles – On so many levels

Least Fave Broadway show & Flick:

Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
 

Fave Cartoon Character:

Yosemite Sam (Just gotta love those guns!)

Fave TV Show Title:

Married with Children (But that’s as far as it goes with that show!!!)

Fave TV Oldie:

Gunsmoke. Duh!!

Least Fave TV Show:

Glee (Ditto on the Duh!)

Most hated Sentiment on Public Statue:

Send me your poor, your tired, etc. It makes their skin crawl.

Fave Movie Line:

I love the smell of napalm in the morning.

Fave Comedy:

Grapes of Wrath

Fave Moral:

From Rosemary’s Baby, the story of what happens when a white woman strays from her lawfully wedded white male husband and has illicit sex with a demon or member of a darker race.

Beware the devil child that results `for it will take down all God fearing Christians.

(And don’t even think of aborting the monstrosity!  You made your bed - You should have slept in it.

What do you mean rape? How were you dressed slut?...)

And one final thought, as for home viewing, before watching any show the following disclaimer will appear:

“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear.”

Heaven help us

Remember in November

Vote D!