The Repub Letter to Iran is not Unusual. Repubs have done this before.

And that more than once. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, Repubs met in secret with Iranian motherf***ers to steal the 1980 election (Nixon did the same with the Vietnamese government during his era). This was illegal as Hell, of course, just like this week’s letter from the 100% Teapublican Treason Team.

At the previous election in 1968, Nixon’s aides were charged with persuading the South Vietnamese to delay their participation in peace talks to deny possible advantage to the Democrats, then in office. But that was only a precursor for 1980. In that year, when Ronald Reagan was the Republican candidate trying to stop the re-election of President Jimmy Carter, a potentially treasonable plot was hatched, which came to be known as the ‘October surprise’. To stop Carter getting the credit for securing the release of the 52 US embassy hostages seized after the Iranian revolution, members of the Reagan campaign flew to Paris to meet Iranian and Israeli representatives in October, less than a month before the election on 4 November. Several sources, including the New York Times (15 April 1991), confirm that not only did William Casey, the [subsequent] CIA director [from 1981 to 1987], attend those meetings, but so did the vice-presidential candidate George Bush (father of George W). It was agreed with the Iranians that the hostages would not be released before the election. In return, the Reagan-Bush team promised to supply $40m of military equipment if elected. Military equipment started to flow to Iran from Israel on 21 October, the proffered release of the hostages was withdrawn, and Carter was defeated. The hostages were finally released on 21 January 1981, minutes after Reagan was sworn in as president.”

Got it? “Republicans” will break any law, at any time, even the Logan Act:

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

So, we have the Republican Senators clearly violating that law. They are acting without authority; they are illegally corresponding with a foreign government; and they are doing so to influence Iran’s government, in order to defeat the measures of the United States.

This isn’t a new thing, Gentle Reader. It isn’t even unique. Teapublicans, like their “Republican” predecessors, will trample the Constitution and the citizenry of the US whenever they see a chance to line their pockets and seize more power. We have here three documented examples (no doubt there are others, but this blogger hasn’t the time to research them all) of Republicans betraying their country for their own personal gain. Nixon. Reagan. Bush. And now 47 Teapubbie Senators. That’s a lot of illegal and disloyal mother***ers. All members of the GOP. Every. Single. One.

The only thing different about this week’s shameful episode is: now, they don’t even try to keep it a secret. Ask yourselves why the Teapubbies don’t even bother to try to hide their anti-American, extra-constitutional deeds anymore.

Ask that question, and you’ll begin to realize how well and truly f***ed we are.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

You are NOT a Conservative. Stop calling yourself one.

Unless you actually fit the definition of a “Conservative”:

noun
1: a person who believes in the value of established and traditional practices in politics and society : a person who is politically conservative.
2: a: one who adheres to traditional methods or views
b :a cautious or discreet person.

Sadly, most “conservative” Americans bear little or no resemblance to the agreed-upon meaning of the word. Some examples:

Number A: The “Reagan Revolution”. Helpful hint: there is no such thing as a “conservative revolutionary”. Real conservatives abominate the very idea of radical change. So all you NRA machine-gun nuts, anti-abortion screechers, morals policemen and theocrats are not one damned bit conservative.

Letter 2: Intentional ignorance is not at all “conservative”, because existing knowledge is something built up over history, and thus part of our intellectual tradition. People who pretend that facts are debatable are not conservative; they are radicalized f***wits.

Thirdly: real conservatives respect the Constitution and its amendments. They do not advocate sedition, the violent overthrow of the government, secession, or unconstitutional disenfranchisement and/or discrimination against women, LGBT citizens, or non-whites.

And shut up with the “words can mean something different to me than you” horses***. The word means what it means, and all the NeoCons are doing is rebranding themselves so that people won’t see them as the violent, hateful, extremist, treasonous scum that they are. By changing the meaning of the word, a’la Orwell, the Raging Righties in Their Tightie Whities are trying to (and succeeding at) conning the populace into supporting them as they slowly slice our government’s throat.It’s lying, propagandizing, anti-American crap.

The crowning irony of all this: it is the Liberals who are actually trying to stop the right-wing, libertarian, teabagging revolutionaries from burning down and blowing up our democracy. Yes. Liberals (along with the few true centrists and other antidisestablishmentarianists remaining) have become modern America’s true conservatives, because they fit the definition.

Ain’t that some f***ed-up s***? But not as f***ed as all the douchenozzles who lie when they call themselves “conservatives”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

It used to take days or weeks to execute an innocent black man. Now it can be done in a few minutes.

Back in 1944, a young black male named George Stinney, Jr. was accused, tried, convicted and executed in a matter of days for a crime he almost certainly did not commit. By white people. White people who hated black people:

“It took less than a day for a jury to convict George Stinney Jr. and send him to the electric chair,” NPR’S Hansi Lo Wang reports. “He was convicted of the deaths of 11-year-old Betty June Binnicker and 7-year-old Mary Emma Thames in deeply segregated Alcolu, S.C.”

Matt Burgess, an attorney for the Stinney family, tells Hansi, “There were no African-American people in that courthouse. It was a jury of 12 white men. Everyone in that courthouse was white.”

George Stinney Jr. was executed less than three months after the two girls were murdered. His trial lasted just one day. After the jury needed less than 10 minutes to declare him guilty, no appeals were filed on his behalf.

“His executioners noted the electric chair straps didn’t fit him, and an electrode was too big for his leg,” The State newspaper reports. The paper adds, “It took Mullen nearly four times as long to issue her ruling as it took in 1944 to go from arrest to execution.”

70 years later, in 2014, lots of black males were murdered by racist white government employees in Cleveland, Ferguson, Staten Island, and many other places across the country. The only difference? Time.

The 2014 cops didn’t even pretend to bother with courts or silly things like due process: no, they arrested, accused, tried, judged, and killed, all in a matter of minutes. Or seconds, in the Cleveland case.

Those who say we have “made progress” in terms of equality are correct. However, that progress is NOT in a good direction. It’s going backwards. Until we as a society admit that our institutions have been made into Ayn Randian, apartheid-esque, Teabagger havens for a load of Ted Nugent wannabees, things will only get worse.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

When a Nixon Called out the National Guard…

Back in the day, a bunch of protesters were, well, protesting, and a politician named Nixon had the National Guard called out (by a crony of his), loaded weapons and all. Here’s what happened:

Nobody needs automatic weapons pointed at them when they are exercising their First Amendment rights. No one deserves that. And no ethical politician should EVER make that their option of first resort.

” Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. ”

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Forty-Year Hissy Fit (Why “Republicanism” is doomed)

When your Cranky Correspondent was a wee lad, there were Republicans (without quotes) with a sane, sensible platform that mentioned equality, living wages, economic sanity, and lots of reasonable ideals like that. And had the Republican Party remained sane, this writer might still be one (he was raised to be, after all). But then came Kent State and Watergate, and the GOP got spanked. Hard. So the Elephants got angry. Really angry.

That anger is the core of the modern “Republican” party, and once you understand that, everything about their behavior makes sense:

“Why do Repubs seem irrational?” Angry people aren’t rational.

“Why are so many Repubs trying to steal elections?” Because in their irrational anger, they see themselves as victims who are trying to take back what they think is rightfully theirs, never mind the law.

“Why do so many Repubs steal?”
See previous answer.

“Why do Repubs hate minorities, gays, foreigners, and other non-Repubs?” Because they see themselves as a uniquely and horribly wronged people, and if you aren’t one of them, you are the enemy.

“Why do Repubs want to destroy the Constitution as we know it?” Because that Constitution is what Nixon and the Republicans tried to subvert, and it was what was used to thwart their crime spree. Show me a crook who likes the rule of law. Good luck finding one: crooks hate laws.

The problem is, anger by itself is pretty limiting. Repubs have no agenda, only a raging, vindictive, spiteful urge to lash out at the rest of the nation (note: that “rest of” is in fact the majority). And no matter how much damage they inflict, how much wealth they amass, how much power they grasp, it will never be enough. Because all they have is anger. All they can do with that anger is attack.

And eventually, that pathological hatred and rage will be turned upon themselves (indeed, that has already started), eventually destroying the party and perhaps the country as a whole.

It’s too bad that Ford ruled out further spankings of Nixon and his cronies: perhaps that punishment would have taught the Repubs a lesson, but that ship has long since sailed. No, we are stuck with a petulant, spoiled, perpetually angry party that hates us all and is bent on punishing US in return for the slap on the wrist it got.

A forty- year Hissy Fit. A four-decade temper tantrum. And it doesn’t look like ending soon.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

As predicted, “Voodoo Economics” has created a “Zombie Economy”.

This blog sneers ofttimes at “Republicans” and their stupid-f*** “supply-side” economics. (Here is one example of said mockery.) The gist is: tried and true data-based economic practices are the way to succeed, and Randian, Lafferesque Voodoo economic policies are the way to fail.

In Kansas, one of several states that have decided Ayn Rand was the false Goddess they shall worship, Voodoo economics have had the result most of those in the Reality-Based community have predicted:

In Kansas, the right wing has completely run the show in the state capitol since the 2012 elections, when Sam Brownback (who became governor two years earlier) led a purge of moderate Republicans who were acting as a brake on his agenda in the state Senate. Kansas is now a laboratory for what would happen if conservative Republicans gained full control of government. Empowered state Republicans slashed taxes for the rich, arguing that an economic boom would follow. It didn’t, as job growth in Kansas has underperformed the national average (as has Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, another state that moved hard right around the same time). But what did follow was a huge hole in the state’s budget (while liberal-dominated California is running a surplus and paying down debt).. (Emphasis via Cranky)

In state after state, the predicted results have occurred: Voodoo economics have created a sort of Zombie economy. What might seem just a mildly amusing turn of phrase is in fact a devastating blow to those of us not in the 1% (said 1% motherf***ers not being in the least incommoded by the Undead Economy). The economy is limping along, barely alive as far as most of us can tell, and that is not a sustainable path.

In Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, and indeed across the nation, we see the results of “Republican” policies: and rotten results they have proven to be. Using millions of people to test their voodoo theories was unethical at the outset, and has since sucked most of the life our of our economy.

Unlike the zombies one sees in movies, our Repub-afflicted economy can be healed and brought back to life. All that is needed is to lay off the voodoo, apply some healthy policies, and the rotting ambulatory corpse of our nation will be restored to health.

And the first step of that cure? Get out and vote. Vote against each and every “Republican” in every race, in every location. Banish the witch doctors and bring back the trained, educated professionals that had served us so well for centuries. Ditch the dream of Supply-Side, and awaken to reality.

That ‘dream’ turned out to be a nightmare the likes of which even Romero could never have envisioned, anyway.

Mr. Blunt and Crankly

The Ferguson protesters are a lot like our Founding Fathers:

They are upset about oppression, a non-responsive and discriminatory government, and taxation without representation. Yes, that is correct. The good people of Ferguson we see out there picketing and marching may not be dressed like, say, George Washington, John Adams or Thomas Jefferson; but their complaints are eerily like the ones identified in the Declaration of Independence.

Here is a good article on the matter. Ferguson is making up for revenue shortfalls by levying burdensome taxes and fees upon the populace; said charges not having the consent of the governed:

Traffic fines are the St. Louis suburb’s second-largest source of revenue and just about the only one that is growing appreciably. Municipal court fines, most of which arise from motor vehicle violations, accounted for 21 percent of general fund revenue and at $2.63 million last year, were the equivalent of more than 81 percent of police salaries before overtime.

And the fees are applied in a discriminatory manner, much like what King George did back in the 1770’s:

“If you’re black, they’re going to stop you,” the study quoted one traffic defendant as saying.

In 2013, 86 percent of all Ferguson police traffic stops involved black drivers, the largest share since the Missouri Attorney General’s Office began tracking the data in 2000. According to 2010 U.S. Census data, the city is 63 percent black and 34 percent white.

Got it? The local government is a minority oppressing the majority, and doing so via corrupt, discriminatory and violent means. Just like what sparked the American Revolution. The differences are minor when compared with the similarities.

And just like the American colonists, the people of Ferguson aren’t asking for anything unreasonable: to be treated fairly, have their rights respected, and to have a voice in how they are taxed by the government. Unfortunately, the local administration is likewise resembling its historical counterpart and therefore refusing to change its corrupt and mendacious ways. No way this is gonna end well.

If you repeat the mistakes of the past, you’ll repeat the consequences of those past mistakes. There may not be many powdered wigs to be seen on the streets of Ferguson: but then, when s*** was getting real back in 1776, not many of the American Revolutionaries were wearing them out in the streets, either.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky (whose ancestors were here before the revolution in 1776)

Paying for the bullets they use to kill you. (Michael Brown and others have done so.)

That sounds crazy, and it is. But it is how we roll in these United States, and have done since the country started. Minorities and malcontents pay taxes like everybody else, but unlike everybody else, their tax dollars pay for the tear gas, bullets, billy clubs, tasers and other tools that are employed against them. We pay the government to shoot us, gas us, and beat us. Pretty sick, innit?

Michael Brown is but one example. He and the rest of Ferguson’s black community pay taxes, lots of taxes to the almost completely white government. And what did these citizens get in return for their hard-earned?

Michael Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, when he was killed by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, according to a preliminary autopsy.
The results, first obtained by The New York Times, showed that Brown was shot four times in the right arm. Dr. Michael Baden, the former chief medical examiner for the City of New York who conducted the autopsy, said the bullet that caused the fatal injury struck Brown near the top of his skull and suggested he was bent forward when it hit.

Mr. Brown and his family paid for that rogue cop and the six bullets said cop pumped into him. That is beyond adding insult to injury. And the rest of that St. Louis suburb? They too are paying to be abused-or at least, those on the poor side of town are paying:

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Ferguson on Sunday night. The situation quickly spiraled out of control when police fired tear gas into the crowd well before the midnight curfew. It’s unclear what prompted the police action.
Capturing the dramatic events for the world was Mustafa Hussein, a student who works at a local all-volunteer music station, Argus Radio. The station is using video equipment it purchased to live-stream concerts to broadcast the protests in Ferguson.
Tonight, as tens of thousands of people around the world watched, Hussein was threatened by an officer wielding a weapon. “Get the fuck out of here! You get that light off or you’re getting shot with this!,” the man shouts. That portion of the live-stream was uploaded to YouTube:

It is absolutely clear that Mr. Brown was murdered by that stinking racist pig of a cop. No doubt. And it is clear that he and his parents, and indeed the community he lived in are being abused by the government that they pay to protect them. The white people in Ferguson, MO are getting their money’s worth for the taxes they have paid.

But the black community is paying in cash so that they can be gassed, beaten and shot by those who are supposed to protect and serve them.

That, Gentle Reader, is SO f***ed.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Sunshine Week, Day Four: All Secrets are Not Created Equal

Back in the 70’s, a truly epic bit of criminal activity was committed and then covered up by the Nixon administration. The crime and the cover up both got people ticked off, and Nixon got ridden out of office on a rail. Deservedly so.

In the 90’s, a jackass Prexy was boinking an intern, which was not a crime in and of itself. The cover up was, however, and B. J. Clinton barely survived the thrashing he so richly deserved.

In the early Oughts, the Bushies leaked the name of one of our clandestine agents in Iran. None of the scumbucket traitors who committed this crime got the punishment they deserved. Many innocent Iranians did get punishment that they did not deserve.

Many conspiracy theorists are convinced that the government is keeping secrets about UFOs, 9/11, and other such things. There is no punishment for being silly.

Not all of these secrets are equally worthy of being revealed. When we let the sunshine in, we need to make sure are illuminating the deserving, and keep the innocent from becoming collateral damage. Example: Steubenville, Ohio, where an attempt to cover up a ring of gambling, sex crimes and corruption has now thrust both the innocent and the guilty into the spotlight.

Mr. B & C

You Don’t Need Guns to Overthrow our Government

Lots of people have been conned by the gun industry (and their stooges at the NRA) into stockpiling weapons and ammunition so as to be “ready to resist a government takeover” or some such twaddle. Millions of dollars have been taken from the gullible and deposited in the bank accounts of weapon merchants, and of course all for naught.

Naught, that is, if it’s overthrowing a tyrannical government you’re wanting to accomplish. First of all, your knock-off versions of Mattel toy rifles will accomplish doodly-squat against a trained and well-equipped military force; and secondly, there are better ways to take over the the reins of power in America. Ways that have already succeeded, and that you probably didn’t notice.

Example: the “Republican” takeover of the United States of America, which occurred between 1976 and 2007. Never a shot fired, done legally, and very effective indeed. You missed it, you say?

Short version: after Nixon, the Reeps and their corporate paymasters got their collective wedding tackle kicked in so far they had craters in their crotches, they got together and planned their revenge: said plan contained in the Powell Memo. The gist? To take over the media, deregulate businesses, concentrate wealth, rig elections, rewrite laws and create think tanks that would re-invent reality a’la Orwell: all for the benefit of the “conservatives” involved.

Here are two sources that explain how the Elephants planned and executed their coup:
Number A: a thoughtful (if somewhat partisan) analysis along with source documents for the wonkier folks: Should be Required Reading
Letter 2: a shorter version that hits the high points and captures the essence (focus on the lyrics ): Ignoreland by REM.

Needless to say, the “revolution” was quite successful indeed: look at the results in terms of law, media, income inequality, gerrymandering, government philosophy, and a host of other elements of modern American life. The “conservative” “republicans” have managed to largely remake the nation on their terms and to their benefit, and to the detriment of the majority. Nary a single assault rifle was used in this overthrow. Hell, not even a single round from a BB gun was fired.

And now you, with your little gun safe full of crappy little imported weapons, are going to do better than that? This writer rather thinks not.

Mr. B & C