You Can’t Move Forward if You Insist on Standing Still

You may not know this, but Medieval China was the world superpower in the first centuries of the second millennium. Yes, Southwest Asia and some of the Mediterranean and North African states had influence and wealth (Europe was in the Dark Ages for much of this period, and America had yet to be invaded by we honkies), but China dominated the civilized world, militarily and economically. Until the early part of the fifteenth century, that is.

In that time, China suffered several economic setbacks that threatened their economy and indeed the very state itself. So they pulled back, abandoned the empire they had spent centuries building, and embarked upon an isolationist period that would last for around 500 years. And during that time, Europe and the Middle East pretty much took over the world that the Chinese used to run: indeed, they took even more of the world and ruthlessly ruled and exploited it. Now China wants its old role back, and is having a hard time accomplishing that feat: because, while they slept, we took the planet and have no desire to hand it back to them.

Why is this interesting? Because America in 2013 is a lot like China in, say, 1423: having spent many years being bold and innovative, building and exploring, daring to do great things in the past, there is now a movement to haul ass backwards, or at least to hold still.

Look at our media figures and politicians: far too many of them preach a gospel of fear, ignorance and falsehood; Lies and panic-mongering, media manipulation, and hardly anyone talks about how destructive this is to our nation.

When this writer was a wee lad, America went to the moon. Yes, we did that. We did brave things, bold things, things that mattered to the world, things that were investments in our future.

Nowadays, America is being ruined by a load of greedy, cowardly, short-sighted poltroons. We couldn’t do an Apollo today, folks. We can’t even keep our roads paved properly or our bridges up in the air. We can’t even keep Grandma fed or Junior safe in his school. America is stuck.

And, just like China in the past, America is choosing to be left behind by the nations who still have a pair. We are dooming ourselves to has-been status. Many of our “leaders” aren’t leading us forward: they are doing the exact opposite, if they are in fact leading at all.

The supreme irony? China, having learned from its mistakes, is leaving America in its dust. Because America not only didn’t learn from China’s mistakes: we are repeating them.

Forward? No, backward march. Double time.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Tax Breaks = Spending. Everyone knows this but the Boehner Brigade and Marching McConnells.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was ever so very happy to find that the New York Times did his job for him today:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/the-real-spending-problem.html?hp&buffer_share=82e17&utm_source=buffer&_r=1&

Those who click the link (and please, please do so) will find what most non-partisan experts have been saying for years: that the Gummint has to quit giving away free money to people and organizations that do not need it. And that tax breaks are the same thing as spending.

Take a moment and let that sink in, because the odds are  better than even that you’ve never heard this from the talking heads or your “representatives”. They act as though spending money on, say, Granny’s medication is different than, say, taxing Mitt Romney at an artificially low rate. But there is no difference whatsoever to the balance sheet: money that goes out the door is money that goes out the door, period.

Money that comes in is revenue. Everything else (be it “spending” or foregone revenue) is expense. Mr. Boehner, remember this simple bit of math the next time you and Boy Munster dream up a “budget”.

Mr. B & C

When Doing Nothing Is What You Do

Recently we discovered that the House of “Representatives” will be giving itself about 2/3 of the year off. So they clearly don’t plan on doing anything for their six-figure salaries.

This morning, Mr. Blunt and Cranky heard a story on the news about how Dizzy City has gotten into the habit of forcing other agencies to do nothing. So the trend is being spread across the government, like mold through bread.

Mind you, the government doing nothing might not be so bad if we weren’t still paying full price. Most of us in the real world don’t get paid if we don’t work. But not “our” government, who take our money and provide little or nothing in return.

There’s a word for such people, who take our money under false pretenses and then fail to deliver as promised.

That word is “thieves”.

Mr. B & C

As Congress Tries to Improve its Image, a Reminder

Congresscritters are, as we know, are regarded very poorly by the public they allegedly “serve”: so poorly, they are ranked just barely above Ebola. Both parties in Congress are so viewed, although “Republicans” are ranked as the lowest of the low.

That being the case, the Boehner Brigade and Marching McConnells are trying to figure out how to change their image, without having to change anything that they say or do. Sort of like re-naming sewage as “treatable water”.

They would do well to remember the results of a recent Mythbusters episode:

They found that you CAN, indeed, polish a turd.

However, it still looked like a piece of s***.

Mr. B & C

The Funniest Joke of the Week

Sometimes, people don’t even realize when they are being funny: that would appear to be the case with this hysterically funny congresscritter:Bob Goodlatte

In an interview about immigration policy, he actually said…give us a second here….oh my….sorry, this is so funny, can’t stop laughing long enough to type…

He said that the President needed to “back off and let the Congress do its work”.

Is that funny, or what? Congress? WORK? Stop it, man, you’re killing me…

Mr. B & C

Why the Right is Wrong (And Will Always be Wrong)

Anyone who has spent time in business or the military knows the difference between strategy and tactics, and that some positions should be occupied by tacticians and some by strategists. Unfortunately, politics seems to be infested with the wrong sorts of people in the wrong sorts of roles. This is why our country is so severely f***ed up.

The Right Wing (which has controlled the “Republican” party since the late 1970′s) is composed primarily of two groups of people: profiteers and Fundagelical “Christans”. Both of these groups are fundamentally incapable of long-term strategic thinking.

Profiteers are concerned with maximizing short-term financial gain. They are not concerned with the long-term stability or viability of the economy, be it macro or micro, local or global. Regrettably, many Right-Wing business types have been “helping” our government with business regulation for decades now.

Fundagelical “Christians” (“fundies”) are convinced that Jesus will at any moment (probably very soon) rapture all the fundies up to heaven where they will dwell in an eternal paradise. For this reason, they do not concern themselves with destructive policies, starving babies, global climate change, and so on. They, after all, will not be around to deal with such problems.

Both of these types of people (some among the Right fall into both categories) are not fully in touch with the real world. This explains two phenomena: the lack of concern for consequences, and the lack of understanding of our complex world. They just don’t (and won’t) see reality because they aren’t invested in it. Indeed, they oftentimes don’t even believe in it.

Our nation needs people who can and do think long-term, with a strategic mindset. Our leaders must not flinch from the complicated and difficult challenges we face.

As long as the Right insists on not thinking past the next profit statement or prayer meeting, they cannot be trusted to run things.

Mr. B & C

Congress Does NOT Support Our Troops

Mr. Blunt and Cranky’s best friend is a veteran. A decorated combat veteran. And Bush The Smarter laid his ass off, screwing him out of the retirement bennies that he so richly deserved (they called it a “reduction in force”, but a layoff by any other name still stinks). Support our troops? Not so much. That friend got fired by bean-counters, and never mind what promises had been made to him by his government.

Right now, Congressional “Republicans” are ready, willing and intending to screw our military six ways from Sunday, all because the Repubs want to score points on the President over Sequestration. Support our troops? Not if they can be used and abused by cynical hacks on Capitol Hill.

Our veterans are denied the health care they need, the support they deserve, and the respect they have earned. After sacrificing everything for us, they are kicked to the curb with only a “thank you” (if that). And gratitude is worth its weight in gold. (Think about that one, you’ll get it.)

Here’s one example: the guy who killed Bin Laden is unemployed. Yes, you read that right: one of the best American warriors has gotten so little support that he can’t pay his bills:Support our troops? Yeah, right.

Mr. B & C

Lying Sacks of S*** of The Week: Austerity Advocates

This week, the Crown O’ Polished Turds has thousands of worthy recipients: anyone and everyone who still pushes Austerity as a solution for an economy in recession. It hasn’t worked, doesn’t work, and won’t work in the future. Like Supply-Side economics, it is a theory with no supporting evidence and lots of information proving it wrong.

Recent examples include Greece and the rest of the EU, as well as Great Britain. The record pretty clearly proves that Austerity Does. Not. Work.

So to all the s*** heads pushing yet another reverse-Robin-Hood scam, we present even more s*** to put on top of your noggins. Wear it with pride, and to warn the rest of us of your approach.

Mr. B & C

PS: remember the huge 1991 Japanese recession, where they tried Austerity to fix the economy? They are STILL in a recession, 22 years later.

How Do You Spell “Irrelevant”? B-O-E-H-N-E-R

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was not surprised at Speaker John Boehner’s weekend statement announcing that banning abortion was his priority in 2013. Disgusted, yes. But not surprised. Anyone who thought the “Republican” party had learned thing one from the shellacking they took last fall should now be on notice that their hopes have been dashed.

After riding a tsunami of vituperative, irrational, ill-considered and short-sighted (Mr. Magoo could see farther than these yutzes can) rhetoric and actions for the past 4+ years, the Repubs have clearly decided that they are going to stick with that “strategy”, even though it has led to failure across the nation. So, what screwed the pooch the hardest in 2012? Culture-war issues. So of course, Johnny Boehner is going there again.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/25/john-boehner-abortion-march-for-life_n_2552597.html

When we have: a resurgent Al-Qaida; millions of people unemployed; starving children; foreign wars; crumbling highways; a shortage of qualified technical workers; a raging deficit; and a host of other issues that the rest of the country agrees are important; indeed, the House GOP is so deluded they think we all agree with them about their latter-day-Mrs.-Mao-Culture-Crusade, never mind that the results of the election proved them wrong

Last cycle, the Elephants thought they could whip the Donkeys by manipulating their base and rigging elections. Didn’t work, of course. Any person with half an ounce of objectivity would change things up a bit. But the Boehner Brigade figures they can do the same thing they did before, and maybe B.S. a few Latinos into voting for the GOP, and they’ll be back on top. Eedjits.

You know the stages of grief, right? Well, the ‘Phants are stuck in Denial. The rest of the country can’t afford to be all hippie-dippy, fluffy-bunny, tender and gentle, waiting for them to process and take their own time to heal and grow. We pay these fools to work for us, and there is work that needs doing, and that immediately.

We voters need to administer as many electoral bitch-slaps as possible: stop the rigging attempts, vote out every extremist loon we can, and clog their voice mails and email accounts and offices: tell them that we are sick of their lame-assed attempts to project their attitudes onto the rest of us and to get to work on the stuff the Constitution mandates them to do, instead of crapping all over the Establishment Clause while ignoring the real, unmet needs of our nation.

Mr. B & C

One Huge Racist Crock of S***

This disgusting pile of right-wing propaganda popped up yesterday, right on time. Black President being inaugurated on a holiday in honor of a black man, with lots of black folks in the audience. So what do the Right-Wing Race Brigade do? Why, put this image out so lots of gullible jackasses can forward it along.

“Oh, I’m not racist”, we hear you say. Bull-F***ing S***. If you forwarded this on Facebook, email, twitter, or the office copy machine, you are one huge-assed racist. And you make honest Americans want to vomit.

This picture is designed to make you hate those “lazy, shiftless niggers”, by implying that black people don’t work and just lay around sucking on the public teat. And by helping to spread that filthy crap, you endorse it, agree with it, and are therefore a racist.

In reality, 61 percent of welfare recipients are WHITE, you ignorant f***s. Yes, that’s right. How about a picture of a bunch of rednecks at a barbecue with such a caption: ever seen one? We haven’t either.

Proud of yourselves? If so, come on over and this writer will do a “President Bush” on your shoes.

Mr. B & C