Attention, American Women: “Republicans” Really, REALLY Want You to be Stupid.

Almost none of the women that this writer knows are stupid. In fact, a preponderance of them are smarter than, well, stupid old white guys like him. And thank the Gods for that. The world needs more smart people. But the GOP has a desperate need for the exact opposite: they need women to become stupid. Lots of women. In a big hurry. But only until they cast a ballot this November.

You see, Repubs know that their War On Women has pissed off a lot of women. So now they are trying to find a way to fool women into thinking that the GOPee really doesn’t hate them, so that they can get a few more votes. And the way they’re going about it?

By f***ing women out of getting their birth control covered by insurance, and pretending that it is a “benefit”. Here is a good piece on the matter. A few excerpts:

A string of Republican candidates for Senate are supporting an issue usually associated with Democrats: increased access to contraception.
They’re supporting it on the road and in ads, like this one from pro-life conservative Cory Gardner:In it, he says he believes “the pill ought to be available over the counter, round the clock, without a prescription.”

The catch? OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDS ARE ALMOST NEVER
COVERED BY INSURANCE, that’s the catch. It’s Hobby Lobby 2: another way to screw women out of equal access to health care. At a stroke, they would further fatten rich people’s wallets and discriminate against women. Not that Repubs are admitting it. But even NPR has cottoned on:

Calling for an over the counter pill allows Republicans to support access to birth control while also supporting the right of corporations to avoid covering it. Getting the pill at a pharmacy without a prescription leaves insurers and employers out of the picture altogether.

Got it, Gentle Reader? We’re talking maybe hundreds of dollars a year that women would have to cough up. It’s a cynical ploy, and an insulting one at that. Add to that sexist, unfair, and any number of other perjoratives. Republicans hate women and have indeed declared war on them. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t act towards females as Ray Rice does in elevators (Offended by the comparison? Well, OK, maybe it’s unfair. After all, the “Republican” party has injured LOTS more women than Mr. Rice has).

Women are not deserving of such blatant and systemic hostility and abusive action from anyone, be it individuals or an entire political party. We all owe it to ourselves to vote the scum out of office. AND cover everyone’s health care without caveats.

We’re ALL smart enough to know that it’s unfair for men to get their Woody Pills covered while women can’t get their reproductive prescriptions paid for as well. Let’s act like we’re that smart when we vote.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Shop at Hobby Lobby IF you hate women and the Constitution, and want your Boss’s religion crammed down your throat.

That is pretty much what Hobby Lobby is saying. They are demanding the right to discriminate against the  American women who happen to work for them; to dictate the religion of all their employees; and to dump certain of their business expenses onto we the taxpayers.

For those readers who have not followed the case: before ObamaCare, it was easier to get insurance coverage for Viagra than for birth control. This was so obviously, stupidly unfair that the ACA said “stop that discriminatory s***”. So far, so Constitutional, you would say, and you would be right.

But the Fundagelical He-Man Woman-Haters club at Hobby Lobby got all hairy hosed off at having their “right” to f*** over the womenfolk amongst them taken away, so they claimed a ridiculous “Religious” case against the ACA and that “despicable Kenyan” Prexy who stole it from the Romneybots. That idiotic claim is up before the Supremes this week.

And the bad thing is, the Roberts court is as likely to rule on the basis of partisanship as they are the Constitution. So this bit of illegal bulls*** might be made legal by those right-wing robed barbarians. If that happens, we the people will have to render justice.

And we can do so without breaking a single law: we just stop shopping at Hobby Lobby or any other business they are involved in. Run them into the ground and on to bankruptcy.

Because if these misogynistic motherf***ers have no business, they’ll have no employees to discriminate against.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Tough S*** Ohio, You Voted For These A**Hats

“Elections have consequences”. Trite but true, and Ohio is the latest example. In 2010, a lot of Fundagelicals, Raging Righties and other “Republican” voters went to the polls, while a lot of Lefties, Progressives and other Democrats sat it out, or just kinda sorta showed up and voted. The result?

Ohio turned into a Red State. 100% “Republican” controlled, in all three branches of state government. And like all modern “Republicans”, they are doing what they do. Witness the most recent budget signed by The Kasich, containing (among other atrocities):

• a number of unconstitutional anti-abortion laws,
• a huge tax increase on the middle and lower classes,
• a huge tax cut for the upper classes,
• near-elimination of health care services for women,
• more stealing of taxpayer dollars for his cronies at JobsOhio,
• even more stealing of taxpayer dollars for unaccountable charter schools, and
• further cuts to the poor and working poor.

News flash, fellow Buckeyes: it’s our f***ing fault. We voted a bunch of right-wing demagogues into office and handed them complete and total control of all aspects of our lives. And if you didn’t vote for them, most of you either didn’t vote against them, or didn’t do much besides show up and lethargically push the little buttons on the touch-screen device.

Think back a wee bit:

• In 2008, massive and enthusiastic participation by the Left, Progressives and Centrists: Right Winguts got their asses beat like drums.
• In 2010, massive and enthusiastic participation by the Right Wingnuts; Lefties, Progressives and Centrists got their asses beat like drums.
• In 2012, massive and enthusiastic participation by the Left, Progressives and Centrists: Right Wingnuts got their asses beat like drums.

See a pattern here, people?

Kudos to those few Ohioans who actually did some activism during the 2010 election. But to the rest of us, shut your pie-holes: this is what happens when you let a bunch of batsh***-crazy lunatic wingnuts run things.

Yep, that means we all lose. Own it, learn from it, and do better next time.

And if you’re not from Ohio, learn from our mistakes.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

 

WV High School Uses Secret Funds to Hire Insane Fundagelical who Verbally Abuses Students

Sometimes you have to wonder if there is a single law-abiding public servant left standing, ya know? Here’s a strong argument saying there aren’t any: some school officials in West Virginia used a secret slush fund to pay a “Christian” speaker to intimidate, abuse, scare and shame students at an alleged “sex education” assembly.

So, Gentle Reader, we have:
Number A: financial shenanigans,
Letter 2: a potential Constitutional violation ,
Thirdly, a complete and utter betrayal of the trust put in the the school boards in the communities involved.

All in the course of a single high school assembly.

On the yardstick of corrupt, crooked, slimy “public servants”, this crew has got to be right up there at the top. Such criminality, raised to such a level is pure genius. Evil genius, yes, but genius nonetheless.

Here’s a link to the lunatic “Abstinence Prophet”: Pam Stenzel. This maniacal shrieker is truly bugf*** insane. She tells kids things like “If you take birth control, your mother probably hates you”, and that birth control makes girls “10 times more likely to contract a disease than if she were not taking that drug”, among other lies and distortions. We’re not exaggerating, here’s a link to one of her YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq1YJRsLsuE And yes, she has quite a few. And by the bye, she rakes in north of a quarter million bucks a year peddling this tripe.

But a single loony-tune screecher is only part of the problem. The larger issue is what we said at the outset: people who are entrusted with the health, well-being and education of our children are failing miserably at all three: their health is being compromised by the schools’ insistence on telling them lies about their bodies; their well-being is wrecked by screaming orators who belittle, shame and abuse them in school-approved activities; and they are not being educated at all. Not if this is any indicator of what they are being taught, at any rate.

Add to that the clumsy attempt to skate around the Constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State, and the potentially illegal use of a slush fund to pay some jackalope to abuse their students, and it is safe to say that this school has one helluva big problem. And so must lots of other schools. Do the math: this one example of the breed makes $268,799.00 a year, and gets an average of 5 grand a speech, so she has to give an average of a speech a week to make that kind of cash. And since there are lots more of these “speakers” out there doing the same thing, the odds are pretty fair that a school district near you has had a similar experience/committed similar crimes.

This writer suggests you act to protect your community, your kids and your wallet. Get in the faces of your local school board and make sure they aren’t using secret slush funds in your town; make sure they aren’t teaching your kids a pack of bald-faced lies; and make sure, above all, that your kids are safe at their school.

Because at Washington High School in West-By-God-Virginia, the locals are f***ing up on all three counts.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

How Chain-Yankers Hijack The National Conversation

There is a common tactic used by extremists and jackassess of all stripes who wish to dominate public discourse: the most polite term Mr. Blunt and Cranky can use is “Chain-Yanking”. Here’s one example: when it became the law for employers to provide preventative health care (including birth control) to covered employees at no cost (or reduced cost), on Rush Limbaugh called a Congressional witness a “slut” (and worse). The actual merits of the policy were not debated, because nearly everyone (having had their chain yanked) started yelling about the pundit’s sexism blahblahblahbittyblahblah.  This suited the pundit and his cronies just fine, as they were in charge of the conversation and could subsequently control the message to suit themselves.

Mind, this writer does not support sexism in any form, at any time, in any way, shape or form. When sexism (or another ism) rears its ugly head, we should indeed whack-a-mole that head right down, and pound it down again whenever it pops up. We must, however, not lose sight of the point that is being obscured, often deliberately, by the chain-yanker du jour. And we must also call the chain-yankers out, especially when they claim that they are “just asking questions”.

Recently a number of teenaged girls were sexually assaulted in Steubenville and Torrington. The chain-yankers immediately blamed the victims under the guise of asking questions like “what was a 13-year-old girl doing hanging around 18-year-old boys anyway?”  Of course, the yankers denied blaming victims, even though it was obvious that they were doing just that. And they were called on it, to the point that the crime itself was no longer the topic of conversation – instead, everyone was talking about slut-shaming and victim-blaming. Important topics, to be sure, but regardless, we got our chains yanked and thereby sidetracked; thus taking the spotlight off of the criminals, where it belonged.

A woman was mugged, shot in the leg, and her infant murdered a few days ago. What was the first question asked? “Why didn’t she just hand over her purse?”, that was the was the first question asked.  The yanker denied victim-blaming: she was “just asking the question”. Uh-huh. Maybe she was fooling herself,  but she wasn’t fooling too  many other people with that hogwash. But again, a potentially productive conversation on social policy degenerated into a slugfest over victim-blaming.

Yesterday, this writer got his chain well and truly yanked, much to his own chagrin. A sexist comment about men was posted, and  he wound up swirling around the drain with everybody else, even to the extent of losing his temper and saying some unacceptable things. Apologies are hereby offered to everyone  who was offended  by those stupid, uncalled-for remarks.

No matter the topic or the political persuasion of the person talking, chain-yanking happens, and we can all get caught if we aren’t careful. Your humble correspondent will redouble his efforts to remain focused on important topics, and hopes all of us can just let the yankers flush themselves away, leaving the rest of America to get some s*** accomplished.

Mr. B & C

The Hidden Threat of Religious Exemptions from the Health Care Law

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has written on the Constitutional aspects of religious entities cramming their beliefs down the gullets of their employees, the economic aspects of getting rid of the free riders from churches who hide behind their tax-exempt status, and so on. All good stuff, and important facts to know.

However, there is a very scary paradigm emerging amongst the Religious Right.  Example: Hobby Lobby tried to claim a religious exemption in order to undermine the care that their employees could get under the ACA. They said that the owners of the company had a religious objection to certain kinds of gynecological care, and so should be able to opt out of providing them to their workers. The courts have shot them down like bible-shaped skeet. So far.

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing.  Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis. This is a legal church, as legal as the Catholics, Babtists, Methodists and entitled to the same tax and legal benefits as any other religious entity.

If employers are allowed to use their personal beliefs to avoid paying for health care that they find objectionable, this writer submits that many tightwads will quickly “convert” to some sort of faith-healing sect in order to save money by denying their employees the care that that need. Soon, there would be few, if any, people covered by employer-based health care plans.

Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. In a society that rewards greed and glorifies ignorance, it is not only possible; it is predictable.

Mr. B & C

Lying Sack of S*** of The Week: Republicans Who Claim to Support Women’s Rights

Mr. Blunt and Cranky would like to make one thing plain at the outset: all Republicans oppose the right of a woman to make her own choices about health care. Every single Repub of every single variety is anti-choice, no exceptions. Some might claim to feel otherwise, but they elect “representatives” to office (and platform committee members, delegates and such) who uniformly oppose birth control and other vital health services, and further state that the best gynecological advice comes from a wealthy, white, elderly male fundagelical legislator with no knowledge of medicine or even basic science. By so acting and thus choosing, the modern Republicans expose their true attitudes. 

The liars that really hack this blogger off are Repub females who claim to be pro-choice. What a complete and utter load of mule muffins: all Republican women are effectively anti-choice, because they fund and support the Republican party, which is dedicated to destroying their reproductive and other health-care rights. If they truly were pro-choice, they could not in good conscience (or even in self-interest) support the Republican Party.

Kind of like being Black Klansmen or Jewish Nazis: regardless of their personal interests, they support a party that seeks at best to diminish their rights and legal standing within society. At worst, well, let’s not even go there.

The only difference between the average Repub and Todd Akin is one of honesty. Give Akin his due: the man may be an antediluvian, misogynistic, hateful, willfully ignorant luddite mother***er, but he came out and said what Ryan, Romney, Boehner, and the Platform Committee also think but don’t have the nuts to say out loud.

“Pro-Choice Republicans” – not just the LSoSoTW, but an oxymoron as well. Wear your Crown O’ Polished Turds with pride.

Mr. B & C

Infamous Days, Indeed (Foreign Invasions = Women’s Health Care)

A few years back, terrorists attacked the United States of America (9/11); killing innocent civilians, traumatizing millions, destroying billions of dollars’ worth of property, and starting a set of wars, some of which rage on to this day.

A few more years back, a foreign empire attacked the United States of America (Pearl Harbor); killing soldiers and civilians alike, traumatizing millions, destroying billions of dollars’ worth of property and materials, and starting a war, the scars of which are still visible to this day.

Today, women across the nation will be able to get better insurance coverage for their breast exams, pap smears, screenings, birth control and other health care products (ObamNeycare); killing nobody, traumatizing only a few bigoted billionaires, creating millions of dollars of additional productivity and starting no wars whatsoever.

Yep. All three are pretty much the same. Yupyupyup. Sure thing.  At least they are if you ask “Representative” Mike Kelly (R-PA), who is hugely freaked out about this infamous day, on which employers and insurance companies  might have to cough up a few more shekels than they did yesterday. The horror, the horror.

Ask anybody who was in Hawaii on December 7^th, 1941; ask anybody who was in Manhattan on September 11^th. 2001; ask them if their blood runs as cold over the prospect of cheaper boobie exams as it does when they remember the horrific attacks that maimed our nation.

Mr. B & C

War On Religion? Bull****.

In recent months, a long-standing and uncontroversial policy that was enforced by previous administrations without complaint suddenly became The Biggest Threat To Religious Freedom Ever Ever EVER, Such A Huge Huge HUGE Threat, Oh Yes It IS, Oh My Goodness Gracious:

A policy saying that people must be treated equally when it comes to their health insurance benefits.

Wow. Golly Gee Shucks. Jeepers. Yep, sounds pretty much like Satan’s frontal assault on all things churchy…right?

Of course not.  The Bushies enforced this policy for the better part of 8 years and none of these religious organizations raised an eyebrow. So, what changed? Only one teeny tiny little thing: Money.

A change in cost allocations associated with prescription birth control medications was proposed, and THAT is when the churches started screaming. Yes, only when it looked like it might hit the churches in their tender pocketbooks did it turn into a problem. Note this well – the coverage requirement itself was never an issue. Look back to beginning of the century, and you’ll find almost nothing about it in the news or from the pulpit.

Also please note that as soon as the Administration agreed to shift most of the cost responsibility away from the churches, most churches shut up about it. They got what they wanted.  This was never about religion. It was all about the cash.

Brings to mind a little story about a rabbi who caused a kerfuffle in a temple back in the day;  He read the riot act to the money changers who were working therein, after which He proceeded to boot them out of the temple.  Sounds to this writer like the money changers have moved back in – indeed, it sounds as if they are running the joint. 

But this time, the money changers have brought some really slick P.R. types with them, to help keep those pesky rabbis away.

Mr. B & C