Cranky’s First Law: Whenever a Politician accuses someone else of immorality, they reveal their own Iack of morality.

The whole Teabagger Meltdown over Caitlyn Jenner is just the most recent example of hypocritical moralizers with their own secretly amoral lives: for instance, the many-times-married, closeted gay foghorn Rush Limbaugh lambasted her for, well, being a her. Mike Huckabee responded to the Vanity Fair photo of Ms. Jenner by extolling the joys of showering with underaged girls. And so on. And on. AND on.

Every time a politico excoriates an opponent for conduct unbecoming, we come to find out that they have a related skeleton in their own closet. Like “pro-lifer” Scott DesJarlais, who pressured his own wife and mistress to get abortions. Or David Vitter, who hates all sex offenders except himself? Or the crew of Congressional Sluts (Hastert, Hyde, Gingrich, et. al.) who prosecuted Bubba in Blowjobgate?

Sometimes, a fiscal hawk can indeed be a good money manager. And some defense critics actually have served in combat. But never will you see a preachy poltico or pundit rant and rail about dah gay, or women’s healthcare, or anything related to sexual morality who doesn’t have his or her own little secret sex life. Usually one that they are pretending to hate.

Put another way,Orin Kerr recently said these few pithy words:

“If I understand the history correctly, in the late 1990s, the President was impeached for lying about a sexual affair by a House of Representatives led by a man who was also then hiding a sexual affair, who was supposed to be replaced by another Congressman who stepped down when forced to reveal that he too was having a sexual affair, which led to the election of a new Speaker of the House who now has been indicted for lying about payments covering up his sexual contact with a boy.”

Cranky’s First Law has been proven. NEVER trust a politico, pundit, or plutocrat who claims to hate ANY sort of sex or gender-related activity. Sure as eggs is eggs, they are down with some serious private (and mayhap illegal) naughtiness of their own.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Republicans: Cop-Killing Political Necrophiliacs.

How quickly we forget, amongst the current din of Liberal-bashing: ’twas only a few years ago that G. Gordon Liddy (he of Watergate and Steely Dan infamy) said, and we quote him verbatim:

Now if the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms comes to disarm you and they are bearing arms, resist them with arms. Go for a head shot; they’re going to be wearing bulletproof vests. … They’ve got a big target on there, ATF. Don’t shoot at that, because they’ve got a vest on underneath that. Head shots, head shots…. Kill the sons of bitches.

That is a right-wing thought leader and convicted felon saying things that far exceed anything that, say, Obama, DiBlasio or LeBron have said about cops. That is not someone asking for Justice: it is a mainstream “Republican” advocating the wholesale execution of law enforcement personnel. A Nixon Repub salivating over the possible bodies of dead police. And he is not alone:

How about Teapublican Craven Cliven Bundy acolyte Jerad Miller, who actually ambushed and murdered two innocent cops in Las Vegas?
Or Larry McQuilliams, who shot up a Texas courthouse and was, yes, a Republican, Teabagger-on-steroids, right-winger?

Do you hear about the manifold anti-cop words and deeds of Teapublicans like these today, Gentle Reader? No, you don’t. You hear a pack of lies and selective omissions about liberals and people of color, who supposedly hate cops, that is what you hear. And it is ALL you hear.

Never mind that DiBlasio already gave the NYPD $400,000,000.00 in EXTRA funding, in less than a year. Nearly half a billion ADDITIONAL DOLLARS to the NYPD from the mayor the NYPD union blames for the killings of two officers. Screw the soundbites, that is supporting the cops. But do the Raging Righties in their Tightie Whities acknowlowledge this? Of course not.

It’s one thing to call for Justice, as people in the Center and the Left have been doing. That is constitutionally-protected free speech and is not violent. Indeed, it is aimed at the same ends pushed by honest cops and prosecutors: a fair, just, and orderly society. One in which the police are our public servants and we their supporters.

But when Right-Wing Jackalopes like Fox News talking heads and other Repubs (like Police Union Chiefs in St. Louis, Cleveland, and New York) blame people of color, liberals and non-Wingnut politicians for the killings of cops, it is not aimed at justice. Not at all. It is “Republicans” trying to use the dead bodies of Americans for political advantage.

Like Bush did after he crawled out of his hole after 9/11 and many occasions therafter, it is what Repubs do these days. A sort of political necrophila, in which the dead are merely tools to be used for partisan advantage. Ghoulish, revolting, disrespectful behavior that SHOULD be beyond the pale. But, alas, in these sorry times, nothing is too extreme, too disgusting, too taboo for a “Republican” to say or do in the pursuit of his or her own power and wealth.

Those two dead cops deserve better. So do Brown, Gardner and other murdered police and civilians. They are, all of them, deserving of justice; not having their corpses used for the profit and pleasure of Right-Wing Necrophiliacs.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Torture Report proves, yet again, that Teapublicans are a load of cowards.

Here it is, if you can stand to read it: the report showed how the Bushistas, PNAC types, and “Republicans” in general shat themselves in terror after 9/11, resulting in idiot wars of choice and manifold panic-driven decisions, including the ones that involved torture.

Cowards they are, as has frequently been written on this very blog. But the Torture Report gives a horrifying view into the consequences of that cowardice, that fear, that wimpiness-concealed-by-bravado that characterizes modern Repubs. In their panic-stricken, fear-blinded, gutless, craven states of “mind”, the Bush/Cheney regime lashed out in a manner that was far beyond normal evil:
* People were tortured.
* People were tortured to death.
* The torture was completely f***ing useless, and in fact caused a lot of damage.
* Innocent people were dragooned and tortured.
* “Republicans” proposed, created and implemented these programs.
* “Republicans” STILL think we should be torturing people.

Since then, the GOP has continued to show its yellow bellies on repeated occasion: by making the Prexy keep Gitmo open (said Gitmo being full of tortured people); by not allowing the tortured people to have fair trials; and by trying to cover the whole sickening mess up, even after the world already knows what we did. Cowards, poltroons, pusillanimous dastards, faint-hearted, lily-livered scaredy-cats: that, friends, is what the GOP is composed of.

And the fact that the majority of American voters recently opted to bring in even more GOP “representatives” means that those voters are, what, themselves, exactly? Ponder that one, peeps.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Teapublican Obstruction leads to Fewer Millennial Voters. Was that Planned?

It’s a fair question. Did Boehner and McConnell and all the other Kochsuckers work to cut down on Democratic voter turnout at the same time they stuck it to the Prexy all these years? It’s one way to interpret those falling numbers of Millennial voters:

And for a while, it didn’t look like millennials would need much convincing. As more members of this generation reached voting age, participation among young voters rose. The peak year was 2008 (52 percent). In 2012, the turnout among voters 18-29 dropped to 45 percent.

On top of that, the rate of voters under 30 who could say with certainty that they were registered to vote fell steadily after 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. By 2012, it hit 50 percent — the lowest number Pew has recorded going back as far as 1996.

Ashley Spillane, the president of Rock the Vote, says it’s no mystery why millennials, or any voters, would be turned off from the process: “Politics right now is really disheartening. I think it’s why you see in the polls that young people are not affiliating with political parties.”

Think about it for a second: right before the “Republicans” started their “f*** Obama and the voters he rode in on” campaign, youth voting numbers were frickin’ huge, because the kids believed change was possible. But after 6 years of deliberate Teabagger destruction of change, the youth of America are disillusioned and are disengaging. And Millennials tend to vote for Dems.

Coincidence? In these times? Yeah, right. There is no way to prove it, of course, but in the end it doesn’t really matter whether or not the GOP has been manipulating Millennials on purpose or just enjoying a fringe benefit of their racist, treasonous, corrupt plan to seize power.

It doesn’t matter for two reasons:
Number A: it is wrong to suppress votes, whether it is a primary or secondary goal, and
Letter 2: the way to fight back is to defy expectations, by voting.

Millennials, wake up: you have been played. Strike back by voting against every Repub in every race, every ballot, every election. Vote to show them you are smarter than they think you are. Vote, because they don’t want you to.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Attention all violent extremists: take your death threats and shove ’em up your kazoos.

Assuming you can get them past your heads, that is.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky got another threat from a Right wingnut yesterday in response to this post. Here is the stupid-f*** blowhard’s idiotic, infantile screed, submitted using someone else’s name and via a bogus AOL account:

One of the main reasons we should not go to war, not only now but anytime soon, is because Obama is an incompetent idiot. In facts, all liberals are incompetent idiots. If North Korea were to row over in canoes and invade the USA, and there’s a Dem/liberal in office, we should just let them do what they want. Anything democrats and libs would want to do would only be another screw up.

Putin is more intelligent than Obama can ever hope to be. At least until 2017, we’re stuck with a prez in office that’s as stupid as that ******idiot at DU, and you can’t get any more stupid than him. In fact, ** better watch his mouth in response to this or he might just wake up one day to find out he’s dead. Got it, jackass? No, I’m not fucking kidding.

Judging from the IP address, this is either Born-Again Bill in a different location, or a kissing cousin of his. And his pathetic diatribe is as good an example of why this blog is needed as any: violent extremism in all of its forms, no matter the reason or cause, is wrong. And my writing promulgates the antithesis of the “reasoning” behind violent, extreme, “revolutionary” people and their organizations.

Radical Centrism is, in large part, the renunciation of murderous means in service of ideologies; both those I agree with, and those with whom I do not agree. Said extremism being exemplified here. This cyber-bullying skidmark on the Tightie-Whities of American Politics, with his stupid and impotent threats and fantasies of murdering anyone who does not agree with him 24/7/365, is well deserving of being flipped off, with a Bronx cheer as accompaniment.

Bullies should never be allowed to succeed, and unlike the kind and gentle practices advocated these days, your humble correspondent is a firm believer in whooping right back on that bully’s ass. This wussy-boy assassin wannabee who cowers behind other peoples’ identities whilst broadcasting ineffectual threats of bodily harm and death is just another bully. And an example of everything that is wrong with America in the modern age.

Instead of promising to kill a writer with whom he disagrees, the needledicked yutz could simply not f***ing read this blog. That is how free speech works: we have the right to speak, and we also have the right to not listen. There is no need to kill someone we don’t agree with: just ignore them. Problem solved, without first-degree murder having been committed.

Of course, the relevant authorities have been alerted, as well as AOL and the individual this toerag was impersonating. Including IP and email addresses and all that jazz. Not that I believe he has the testiclar fortitude to actually carry out his jackass threats, but it’s always a good idea to have the cops on your side when whackos rear their butt-ugly heads.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

It’s Just a Friggin’ Cheerios Commercial. Calm Down.

Much hoo has been ballied and wroth been waxed over the new Cheerios commercial featuring three actors representing a family with different skin colors. Indeed, at crazy sites like this one, the racist loons are predicting the imminent demise of “white America” and other such hysterical hate-filled rants.

People, it’s just a standard cereal commercial: precocious kid, smart mom, clueless dad. General Mills, Quaker et al have been using this ad format for decades now, and not for purposes of social engineering; no, they make advertisements in order to sell products. That is how businesses make money, ya know.

And businesses are here to make money. That is the only reason most businesses exist: to turn a profit. Advertising helps increase profits. That’s it. The only reason for the ad. Ain’t another one. Profit is why that ad was made.

“So why”, we hear you ask, “did Cheerios cast people who look like a ‘mixed-race’ family”? Very simple: there are one whole helluva lot of such families in America, and when people see themselves represented in advertisements, they tend to buy the advertised product. That’s why you see white folk, Latinos, gays, men, women, youngsters, oldsters…lots of different types of consumers in ads: to make a connection with a market segment.

So calm down, all you outraged Wingnuts and racists. It’s all about making money. The cereal companies don’t care if we all turn beige or any other color, so long as we keep buying the stuff they advertise.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

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

Stupid Wussy Right-Wingers Have No Nuts

We are all familiar by now with the cowardly Ted Nugent, who literally crapped his pants when he thought he might be drafted, yet talks a big game about guns and shooting other people (like the Prexy, for instance). What a sorry little needledicked pussy is Teddy Poopy Panties.

Turns out there are a lot of little Teddy Bois running around out there: Wimps With Tweets. These are tweets from momma-threw-away-the-baby-and-raised-the-afterbirth types who think that Presidential Assassination is great fun. Not that any of these zeebs would have the guts to do so.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was around for the assassinations of both Kennedys and MLK, and the attempts on Reagan and Bush The Elder. None of these were funny. None of them were good. All of them were despicable crimes against people and our nation as a whole. The difference between then and now?

Why, back then there were far fewer hate merchants promulgating their filth on the airwaves, in print and via social media. The Limbaughs, Hannities and others of their ilk have made it ordinary and thus socially acceptable to shout violent hate speech 24/7/365, and so it is hardly surprising that others have chosen to emulate them.

Hopefully all of these chicken-shit big-mouthed tools will get a visit from the Secret Service, so they can further emulate Nugent by crapping their own pants in fear. It is probably too much to hope that they would grow a pair and perhaps even learn to speak in a responsible, adult, and rational manner.

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

“Republican” Leaders – Teaching Teens That Rape is OK

We all remember the s*** that was spewed about rape by Akin, Mourdock, Limbaugh, et. al. How women are sluts, how they “rape easy”, and how some rapes are “legitimate” and some are not rape at all. Much condemnation was heaped upon their heads, and deservedly so.

But our words and actions have consequences, and on Wednesday we saw a truly revolting example of what lessons are taught to our children by our “leaders”. Anonymous (not typically on Mr. Blunt and Cranky’s good-guy list) released a video of teens laughing and glorifying a gang rape: Steubenville Rape Jokes

Let’s put it bluntly: these kids see the adults who run the country either promoting such attitudes or standing idly by whole others do. And they learn from the examples that our “leaders” set. And having seen that our leaders think rape is either OK or a big joke, they follow the examples that have been set for them.

Much shame is being showered upon the dolt in the video and the insufficiently-prosecuted rapists who committed the revolting crime of gang raping an unconscious girl. This writer wholly approves of this public shaming and hopes it teaches the scum a lesson.

But the “leaders” who told those kids that rape was no big deal? As is usually the case, there is no accountability or responsibility for these people. The wealthy, influential and powerful are not subject to the same laws as we little people.

It is time for grownups to act like grownups: regardless of our station or circumstance, we are (like it or not) role models for young people. And they will follow our lead. Even if it is on a path towards disgusting, criminal, or sociopathic behavior.

Watch the video. After you are done vomiting, remember the words of the “Republicans” who told these kids that rape is OK. Then do what you can to give our children some better role models. Maybe the next teenaged girl who passes out will get help from her classmates instead of being brutally raped by them, and mocked afterwards.

Mr. B & C