When Ignorance and Authoritarianism Combine:Today’s GOP

Scary stuff, Gentle Reader, scary stuff. The party that controls most of our country prides itself on being a load of scientifically illiterate, math-challenged yahoos who want to monitor each and every intimate detail of your life.

If that doesn’t scare you, you aren’t paying attention. We heard a prominent member of the Senate Repubs call for a miltary coup, forcing the government at gunpoint to starve the poor and feed the MIC.

We have a plethora of elected and appointed Teapublicans who loudly proclaim their willful ignorance on matters such as climate, rape, and even basic arithmetic, ferchrissakes.

So the same people who want to shoot anyone who disagrees with them are also those who take pride in their lack of knowledge about pretty much anything except for about 10% of the Bible. They are running things. And they are running things because they got the most votes.

Which means that stupid voters are in the majority. That is even scarier.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Teapublican Lindsey Graham Promises to Turn the U.S. into a Military Dictatorship

In his own seditious words:

And here’s the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn’t let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We’re not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.

And as the source article points out:

Graham would use the military to force members of Congress to not just vote on the bill — but to pass it. Graham didn’t say “until I get an up-or-down vote on restoring defense cuts.” He said “until we restore these defense cuts.”

In other words, Graham is proposing that his first act as president would be to use the military to force the legislative branch to pass his agenda.

You might not have heard about this latest extraconstitutional move by the GOPee, since there have been so many others of late: manifold examples, including Joni Ernst’s flagrant violation of the UCMJ, Tehran Tom’s letter and the bribes that made it happen. But we all need to know about this neo-secessionist scumball and his plans for a military junta.

The sad thing? It’s not really all that surprising. Since the Reaganistas took power, “Republicans” have been grabbing more and more control over our nation, by means both legal and otherwise. All Graham is proposing is pointing actual machine guns at the heads of lawmakers, threatening them with death, imprisonment, or perhaps Gitmo if they don’t do exactly what the Teapublican Treason Team want at any particular moment.

Repubs aren’t even pretending anymore. If an armed overthrow of our nation is what they need to impose their will upon us, that’s what they’ll do. Don’t think for a moment that they won’t  do what they promise to do.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Russia, Crimea, the West, and Ukraine: a Parable.

Suppose, Gentle Reader, that your belligerent neighbor finally stops trying to talk you into selling him your property, and does a home invasion with a load of his shady cronies. He points guns at your head (and the heads of your family) and gives you two choices: sell him your land, or lease it to him for now (but he will be in total control of you and your property for the duration of the lease: and you know he’s gonna take it in the end, anyway).

When you say, “no, I don’t like either option, this land is mine and I want to keep it”, your invading neighbor says, “not an option”, and you hear the clicking sound of the safety on his gun being disengaged. That weapon is cocked, a round is in the chamber, and your head is about to go splat, in a very noisy manner. The only person in your family who likes the situation is your estranged daughter, who thinks the neighbor’s thuggish son is hot. So even if the motherf***er shoots you dead, he gets the land.

Thus, the situation in Ukraine writ small. Russia strolled into Crimea with guns, took control of the situation, and presented the populace with a “heads you lose it all now, tails you lose it all later” set of options. A few of the locals like it, most don’t, and some are vehemently opposed; but that gun is pointed at their collective noggin, and they don’t want to die, especially since they are f***ed no matter what.

This parable is accurate so far as it goes, but of course the real-life version is far worse. Putin’s thug cronies have already declared the outcome as a done deal, never mind how the vote turns out. And the other “neighbors” can’t call the “cops” to protect the Ukranian people, even though (or perhaps because) they know they could be next on the chopping block. These poor people are SO f***ed.

That, my friends, is what is going down in Ukraine. And it sucks.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Here is why Russia wants control of Ukraine: Money and Power.

Pretty much the usual reason for imperialist ventures. Vladdy-Boy is trying to hold onto the leverage he has over Europe (said leverage is the natural gas Russia exports), and as you’ll see below, Ukraine has a LOT of gas pipelines:

Now for the fun bit: other countries want to make money, too, so they would love to sell Ukraine some gas:

This is what Putin’s bitch stooge assclown partner-in-crime Yanukovic was trying to stop, and why he got run out of Kiev on a rail. And now Vlad is mad, sad, and bad, so he’s taking Crimea to sooth his hurted feewings. Plus to intimidate, and gain greater leverage to negotiate.

It’s all about money and power. It’s why the Shrub tried to take over Iraq, and it’s why Putin tried to take over Ukraine. No conspiracy theories needed.

As soon as Western companies started drilling gas wells in Ukraine, Russia’s power and influence were threatened, so Putin tried to take over: first via a puppet government, and now with guns.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

While we’re watching “Putin’s Olympics”, his policies are killing people in the Ukraine.

That is a picture of one small part of the people’s uprising against the Government of Putin-Puppet Yanukovic. He took power in a rigged election, imprisoned his predecessor, and started to run his country like his KGB boss Vladimir told him to. Now the whole country is in a meltdown.

At least 25 are dead, hundreds imprisoned, and thousands injured in their fight against the nouveau Soviet state that Putin is helping to set up. The Ukrainian Olympic athletes are being muzzled to an extent, so as to keep the coverage of the games all light and fluffy, but they are sending out tweets of support and consolation to their countrymen back home.

Remember, folks, while we are looking at Sochi, Putin and his pals are murdering their subjects over in Kiev. Enjoy the skiing and skating, but we can multitask: let us also stand with the brave citizens of the Ukraine as they fight for their freedom. Freedom that they already fought for, and thought they had won.

Stand with them, because the same could happen to us someday.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

House Repubs admit it: all they care about is seizing total control of the country.

That is why they don’t worry about governing, the budget, or even keeping the government functioning. The Teapublicans are concerned with nothing but taking over the rest of the government of the United States. And they say so themselves:

As a two-term chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Pete Sessions has never been known for reaching across the aisle.
In the year since relinquishing that gig and taking the gavel of the Rules Committee, the Texas Republican is still focused on politics and elections — and scoring points for the GOP.
And right now, he’s got one target in his sights.
“Everything we do in this body should be about messaging to win back the Senate,” he said. “That’s it.”

It’s not the first time we have heard such statements. But lots of Americans keep acting as though these power-hungry motherf***ers are kidding, or don’t really mean it. (Remember THIS? http://wp.me/p2jksg-Y ) Wake up, peeps, they really do. And they show it, every day. By ignoring the needs of the nation and spending 100% of their time on partisan politics. What other reason could there be for acting thus?

There isn’t another reason. Their words and deeds align with the reality: “Republicans ” are focused on taking complete control of the entire nation, and the lives of the people who inhabit it (and that means US, Gentle Reader). Vote them out before they accomplish their clearly-stated goal – a coup.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky