Another Must Read.....and bonus! a rant

One of the pages I follow on Facebook posted this earlier and I must say, it blew me away. Remember a while back, when I said that I don't think the Civil War ended? What I didn't do was say it nearly as well as Charles P. Pierce does in this article. 

It really needs to be spread far and wide to every one who really wants to hold us together long enough to repair the damage and the wounds of the last 150 years....hell, from the pilgrims forward truth be told.

With our corporate media rushing to blame Islamic terrorists for the recent horrible events in Norway  when it turns out he is a blond, blue-eyed Nazi-type nationalist, makes me remember all the right wing nationalist attacks on American soil that no one talks about with any semblance of rationality. It's all about who wins and who loses the media day and the ratings and the whining from the very people who encourage and support these same ideas for political gain and power and wealth. Greed basically. All these christo-facists who will reap the rewards by the people too dumb or lazy or apathetic  to really pay attention that the 'religion' they all espouse is nothing but a facade to keep or gain power and money. And here they are ready to plunge the entire fucking world back into the worst depression any of us have ever seen, worse than the Great Depression of my grandparents era, by using peoples faith.
That worldwide depression led to the rise of Hitler, a world war and a cold war. World War II may have brought the United States out of depression, but what did we get for it? A literally divided world between free people and not free people. For 50 years we lived like this. Many innocents suffered in the undeclared wars of the 50's and 60's into the 70's. Korea, Vietnam, Hungary, Germany, Romania, Czechoslavakia, Iran, Iraq (funny, that) and another fun trip back in time in Afghanistan and on and on and on.....
Then the Cold War ended. (I have to say that as a military brat, the youngest of 4 girls, during the 60's and 70's that my sisters had no idea what the Cold War was....I was and still am, astounded by that. For those of you who share my sisters ignorance, go here.)  
So what happened after that? We turned on each other. Funny thing about us humans, we have to have an enemy. I don't know why, but I wish evolution would hurry up, we'll never get to the 24th Century that Gene Roddenberry envisioned and I want. Anywho, the entire era of the Cold War, it was politically advantageous for republicans to win elections by painting the democrats as weak on foreign policy. The reason they could safely have that ground was because they would actually cross the line and do things that democrats wouldn't. But on the other hand, the dems with the Gulf of Tonkin, some dems would and could. Which may be the genesis of the 'both sides do it' meme that is so familiar today. Then Nixon came along and did what he did and got away with it which enabled people like Donald Rumsfeld, Roger Ailes and Dick Cheney to do what brings us to the United States electing a black man for President. Can you imagine? It wasn't supposed to be like that at all....they have to have been so disappointed when that happened. But then, they got together at a Koch Brothers event in Palm Springs or somewhere equally posh and thought up the wonderful world we live in now. Just writing that feels like a conspiracy theory and maybe that's by design? Because there wouldn't be people out there who would deliberately want to destroy the entire nation and economy on purpose....right?
Well, I don't really think so.....I think their motives were, and are, greed and power and money. I don't think they realized the economic situation in the country....and really, how could they? They live in a world that knows no limits, none. They don't live in the world that the rest of us do. Where people like me have to budget the $20.00 co-pay to see the doctor. They don't worry about people out there who have to wonder, should I pay the electric bill or put gas in the car? They didn't know that was there when they started I don't think. Maybe they thought it was like 1992 and all we needed was a little political wrangling to get them more. I don't know. What I think is that they didn't realize the economic situation or, and this is the important part, the level of fear that they had been fomenting for years with faux news and rush and all the others....they had control before, why would this be any different?
So here we are, on the brink of default. Yay for us.

My question then is this, what do they do now? They have made compromise of any sort impossible with their behavior during President Obama's tenure. So what happens? They give? The President gives? I honestly cannot believe they have put him in this position. And it won't matter who will 'win' this battle. The politicians win. The corporate media wins. The losers? Me, you, the entire world that isn't in the top 2%. And the people who have brought us here? Only 27-33% of the Grand Old Party of the United States of America. The people who have been shunned, rightly, by civil society. The people on the fringe. This time though, the corporations had media holdings to bring the people too dumb, lazy or apathetic a story they could accept and make themselves feel better.
That doesn't seem like a fair deal. At all.

That's it. Rant over. But go read Charles P. Pierce's article which brought us all here. :) You can read it here.

Must Read

Amen Brother Steve, Amen......

The problem with the 112th isn’t a structural impediment; it’s the result of a radicalized Republican Party that has no use for compromise, evidence, or reason. We have a congressional GOP abandoning all institutional norms, pushing extremist policies, rejecting their own ideas if they enjoy Democratic support, and engaging in tactics that were once thought unthinkable from policymakers who put the nation’s needs first.

as usual, he nails it....read it here.

We're living in a demented Chocolate Factory without any chocolate....

A couple of weeks ago, I assured myself and others that even though the current republican party was insane they were not going to let the full faith and credit of the United States of America explode into default for the sheer and shameful politics of ideology. I thought they would listen to Wall Street. I am amazed they think the United States government would lie to the entire world about whether or not we would lose this only good spot in our current economic crises. We can now, at least, borrow money at insanely cheap interest to finance everything the previous administration and previous Congress' passed. Because that's all this is...we have the ability to raise our credit card limit. I understand the danger of that, lord knows, I would do it if I could get away with it. And here is what I don't think they understand about government. You can't run a government like a household no matter how many republicans tell you you can. You can't run a government like a business no matter how many republicans tell you you can.

That the current batch of nutjobs would be so totally convinced the Secretary of the Treasury would lie is not completely surprising. I understand why they would think that. They project everything they do, would do or have done onto the democrats....it's who they are. But to be so cynical and petty and partisan and ruin the credit of the US to "win" against a democrat in the White House, black, white or purple for that matter...is just beyond my comprehension.

They really are those 4 other kids in the Roald Dahl book and my favorite movie from childhood, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The United States is Charlie and the nutjobs are Veruca, Mike, Augustus and Violet. They are spoiled children riding a sugar high.

I am now very afraid that if the adults in the GOP don't just run a clean debt ceiling increase in both houses, we will invite catastrophe and god/fsm/thor knows what else.

I cannot believe that the media is still spinning this as a horse race. This is one of the fruits of Rupert Murdoch's gifts that keep on giving. If the media will not make them see what they are doing and keeping the 'both sides blame each other, oh the sameness of it' meme, we are doomed.

I don't want to be doomed. I want to shake people and ask them what they hell do they think they're doing? for fucking politics?!
This is what happens when kids are allowed at the adults table....

though, a silver lining,perhaps, may shine through this angry and destructive cloud....if the United States' defaults, every one's credit score is going to suck
and mine won't seem that bad:)

must reads

This isn’t government we’re watching; this is junior high.

It’s unclear where the adults are, but they don’t seem to be in Washington. Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it’s painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be.

 What does all this mean? That we’re governed by self-absorbed, reckless children. Further evidence comes from a new study showing that American senators devote 27 percent of their press releases to “partisan taunts” rather than substance. “Partisan taunting seems to play a central role in the behavior of many senators,” declared the study, by Justin Grimmer of Stanford and Gary King of Harvard.

 Read it here.

....and the beat goes on....

I am all for reading the Constitution. I am more for comprehending the Constitution. But if you're going to read it, read it. Flaws and all. That's why it's called a living document. duh.

But before the political world moves on, it's worth noting that those who listened to the reading didn't hear the entire Constitution -- there were some omissions organizers of the p.r. stunt intended to make, and then there were the omissions that happened by accident.
On the former, the reading left out any constitutional text that had been invalidated by subsequent amendments to the document. This, conveniently, spared members the embarrassment of having to read portions that, for example, counted slaves as only three-fifths of a person.

 and then...

To briefly recap, Reps. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) missed the official swearing in ceremony, but claim that they raised their hand and took the oath while watching the proceedings on television from the Capitol Visitors Center. Legally, that doesn't count.

They voted twice. idiots. They can read a whitewashed version of our most important document (while the leadership gives a press conference.) but they take the time to tell our national stenographers how wonderful they are. They have been in the House a long time and have demonstrated their lack of respect for the institution (I'm looking at you Joe Wilson) but really? You think you can be sworn in by watching teevee? wow, the dumb runs thick in them.

You can find the first post here.. You can find the second post here.

must read....

You absolutely have to read this....

In this article, Matt Taibbi tells the unvarnished truth about Washington. He also informs me that there is a tea party person out there who agrees that the repubs caused the mess we're now in. weird.

Littleton recounts some of the ways the party has tried. One tack was dazzling the hayseeds with splendor and bullshit. During a visit to Washington, for instance, Littleton was meeting with Republican officials to go over "nitty-gritty" stuff like monetary policy, when an aide suddenly stopped the session. He was surprised, he told Littleton, that they were bothering with all this serious stuff — he thought the Tea Partiers just wanted to meet famous politicians. The aide's attitude, Littleton recalls, was: "I thought we could just throw you a bone, and bring in my rock star, and you're just really so impressed by him that you're going to smile and hug him and go out and do whatever we need you to do." Another time, when the Tea Party was making noise about a farm subsidy, a staffer for a prominent Republican congressman simply called Littleton up and asked him to be quiet. "Hey, would you mind leaving that issue alone?" the staffer said. "The congressman would really appreciate it — we work with a lot of farmers." Littleton was amazed that Republican leaders seemed to think the Tea Party was engaged in a collaborative effort to keep Republicans in office, but this is just the way things are done inside the Beltway.

and while I don't agree with Littleton regarding the debt ceiling or shutting the government down, here is what I have never heard from a teabagger....

In this regard, the contrast between Boehner and Littleton, the Tea Party leader in Boehner's home state, is interesting. The two men live in the same place, the small township of West Chester near Cincinnati, so Littleton is very familiar with Boehner. But Littleton's opinion of the Republican establishment couldn't be lower: It was precisely programs like the Medicare drug benefit bill and No Child Left Behind, programs he considers unacceptably wasteful and intrusive, that moved him to get into politics. "These were all Republican programs," Littleton says. "If you look at Republican congressmen from Ohio, they all voted for this stuff."

go read the whole thing.