The new Teapublican Congess is doing exactly what they said they’d do. Stop acting surprised.

Really, people, come on. A party full of corrupt, seditious, hypocritical, mendacious motherf***ers was given expanded power by America’s Idiot Electorate,and they are doing just what they promised to do. In the first day or so of “Republican” control, they have:

Number A, elected a KKK-loving white supremacist to a senior leadership position;

Letter 2, tried to destroy a vital part of Social Security,

Thirdly, tried to once again violate the Constitution’s separation of powers by pushing foward to a vote “approving” the Keystone XL pipeline.

And that was in a matter of hours, with lots more to come. Nobody should be surprised: all of these things (secessionism, classism, racism, corruption and greed) have been core GOPee values for decades now. They said, over and over, that they would gut the social security system, throw the environment in the crapper, oppress people of color, and steal our money to give to their 1% cronies. Now they are fulfilling their promises.

America, you knew this would happen, and most of you either helped it happen, or sat back and let it happen. Unless you, personally, were either: not allowed to vote; or voted so as to defeat each and every Teapubbie in each and every race when last you cast a ballot, it’s partly your f*** ing fault.

We are all about to suffer because many Americans are: stupid; evil: lazy; or some combination of the three. Just don’t try to convince this writer that you are shocked. You’re not. We all knew what it would mean if the Repubs took control, and now they have control.

We’re all about to be f***ed. They told us they would f*** us, and they are now dropping trou and bending the lot of us over their desks. Surprising? Not at all.

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

Uh, You DO Know that Obama’s Not on the Ballot, Right?

Just checking, because lots and LOTS of people are yammering on about him during this year’s campaign. Which is pretty f***ing stupid, because OBAMA CAN’T BE F***ING RE-ELECTED. The pundits and “news” types are all ratchet-jawing about the man, but in truth he matters not one bit for next Tuesday’s contests.

The Senatorial candidates matter. The Gubernatorial candidates matter. The House candidates matter. So too do the other state and local ballot options. They matter, and they matter a LOT. (For example, McConnell, Boehner, and a host of other politicos are up for re-election or de-election.)

By your actions you can help turn this country into a Red Hell or a Purple Patchwork (It’ll take a Helluva lot more than one election to turn America Blue). You can take away our rights, or give them back to us. You can enable us to: feed the kids or starve them; fight or cower; fix or ignore; pay or go broke; function or fall apart; all of these vitally important matters are in the hands of voters on November 4th, 2014.

But Obama is NOT on the ballot. We kinda need to ignore him when we hit the voting booth, because the people for whom we DO cast ballots can actually make our lives better or worse.At the very least, we need to focus on the people and issues that are on the table this coming Tuesday.

The media moguls and bribe artists would love nothing better than to have us focus on a lame-duck President: that enables them to play their sleazy shell games via distraction and misdirection, f***ing us over royally in the process. We The People need to see past the sleight of hand and focus on the task at hand.

Like Obama or loathe him, as you choose: but you can’t vote for him this year. Concentrate on the people you CAN vote for instead.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

One of the best investments out there: Unemployment Insurance.

A return of $1.61 on a $1.00 investment is awesome, and you just can’t beat it. So why do all the “run our government like a business” types oppose it? Anybody with any actual business experience knows that you can’t hardly get that kind of bang for the buck.

The answer, alas, is that the right-wing nutjobs who oppose UI are uniformly incapable of doing basic math. The lot of them live in a fantasy world full of Ayn Rand and Laffer Curve claptrap, acting as if their fervent belief will somehow make their crazy ideology come true. Belief is NOT a substitute for actual numbers on investment and returns.

Speaking of investment; looking for a job costs money, and it is money well spent. As ChisholmTrailDem reports:

The last time I searched for a job my expenditures for just that purpose, while on UI mind you, was nearly $3000, most of it on fuel to go looking for a job, before I finally found one. And all of that came right out of my UI benefits, right along with all my other financial obligations.

No one seems to be talking about the cost of looking for a job. And those expenses come right out of UI checks. Now, not only can these people who have lost UI benefits not pay their bills, they also now have no money to look for a job.

Once again, Business 101; you have to spend money to make money. Teapublicans seem to think that money magically appears if you think it will. In reality, if you have no money to invest, you’ll get no return.  People need Unemployment Insurance to invest in finding a job. So if you want people to earn a living, then Someone. Must. Provide. The. Capital. Required. That, friends, is how business works.

And there isn’t anybody else out there who is providing that investment. Not neighbors, not churches, not anybody. If the Government wants fewer people on public assistance, then the government must invest in getting people to work. Spending nothing provides nothing in return.

Spending money on Unemployment Insurance provides a proven and positive return. So the Repubs need to shut up, nut up, and pony up.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Never Hire a Hothead (Chris Christie Edition)

New Jersey’s Governor is a vengeful, rage-filled bully with a room-temperature emotional IQ. All of these negative characteristics are on full display as the Bridgegate scandal unfolds. For those readers who aren’t familiar with it: Christie had his minions close parts of a vital bridge on order to get payback when a Democratic mayor did not endorse the Repub Guv’s recent reelection bid. He deliberately and knowingly endangered people, property, lives and livelihoods, wasted many taxpayer dollars and cost hundreds of businesses many thousands of dollars, all because he had a temper tantrum. His lackeys are being subpoenaed by the state, and are (when they can be found) testifying to just that effect.

Adding to the scrutiny, the Feds are asking just what the Mouth that Roared was up to. From the article:

In a letter to Port Authority Board Chairman David Sampson, Rockefeller wrote: “Unwarranted lane closures with no public notice can have serious ramifications on interstate commerce and safety in the region, and as the Committee with oversight responsibility of the Port Authority, I continue to have serious concerns about the actions of this agency. The gravity of this situation demands a comprehensive investigation. It also exacerbates my concerns with the governance and previous oversight of the Port Authority.”
Rockefeller also wrote to US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx Monday urging that the federal agency open its own inquiry into the Port Authority.

And this emotional infant, who thinks only of ignoring, abusing, mocking or intimidating those who don’t bow and scrape before him, who put an entire region at risk of calamity if a disaster or terrorist attack had occurred during these ill-advised closures… This hotheaded son of two strangers wants to be the President of the United States. The one person in the world who can launch a nuclear attack on his own. That is NOT a good idea, Cranky Nation.

We allowed an immature, spoiled, petulant, willfully pig-ignorant hothead to run this country before: his name was George W. Bush. Remember how well that worked out? Billions of dollars stolen and wasted, crimes committed, thousands of lives lost, all because America sat back and let him have free reign to unleash his temper tantrums upon a world that didn’t need or deserve them.

It’s bad enough that the voters of New Jersey got conned into electing Chris Christie again. But let’s stop there. We don’t need another vengeful, impetuous, angry idiot in the White House.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A simple way YOU can fix Congress: Vote in Primary Elections

Mr. Blunt and Cranky was driving home from The Place That Pays Him To Go There yesterday, and was listening to the news (because really, be honest, 95% of the “music” on radio is either old stuff you’ve  heard too many times already, or new stuff that you hate), and heard a story about the polarization and radicalization of Congress (link below). Here’s the important bit: the reason that “Republican” legislators listen only to the Raging Righties in their Tightie Whities is because those are the voters who show up and vote in primary elections. And you can’t win a general election if you don’t win the primaries.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=230976609&m=230989354

What this means is that only loons and extremists can get elected to a “Republican” seat in the House or Senate (this does not apply to Dems, since there are no Loony Lefties in elected office anymore, and haven’t been for years): the voters they have to satisfy are as crazy or crazier than the nutballs they elect. And whoever turns out in November will probably vote for whichever party the candidate is labeled with.

It also means that a cycle is created, with candidates growing ever more partisan, to try to out-wingnut each other, so the party base becomes ever more wingnuttified with each passing year. Like any media campaign that relies on ever-increasing hype, the Repubs are forever ramping up the level of crazy in order to appease the teeny tiny but very vocal “base” of their party. If they don’t, they’ll lose the next primary, lose the next election, lose their cushy government jobs, and have to return to the real world and have to earn an honest living. Such a prospect is anathema to any elected official, and terrifying to boot.

The only way to break this cycle of ever-increasing insanity is for sensible, normal, rational Americans to vote in primary elections. Even if you’re not a party member, you can pick the one that is closest to you and vote for the sensible grownup who is running for a particular office, and by so doing kick the crazy wingnut candidate to the curb. It’s simple, takes less than an hour, and solves the root cause of DC’s problems.

Simple, easy, cheap, not a hardship, solves the problem. How often can you literally say you helped save the country in such a manner? If enough of us do this, we can end partisan gridlock, stop all these phony-baloney crises, and have a Congress that truly represents the majority of Americans. Because right now, it represents a minority.

Congress will represent the people who can put them into office and remove them from office. Those people are primary voters. Let’s all be  primary voters. And take our country back from the crazies.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Obamacare is a Compromise. America itself is a Compromise.

Back in the 1700’s, there was a lot of debate as to what sort of government we should create. Some wanted a democracy, some a republic, some even wanted a constitutional monarchy. In the end, no side won the argument, and we have a hybrid that isn’t a pure version of any model that was considered.  Our very system of government is a compromise.

So when House “Republicans” shut down said government because they refused to compromise, they weren’t just being petulant little brats; they went outside of the Constitution and indeed,  acted in a manner that is fundamentally opposed to the entire history of America. America is always arguing – it is who we are and what we are. Our nation was founded on an argument that was never settled, and never will be.

And the same is true of our laws. Very few of them are “pure”. Obamacare is a good example. It is a private-sector solution with government oversight, requires participation but doesn’t enforce it, based on Republican ideas but passed entirely by Democrats. Nothing there is free of compromise: everything there IS compromise.

Anyone who refuses to compromise is not functioning in reality. That means the Teabagger caucus is living in a friggin’ dream world, and someone needs to wake them up,  kick them out, or both.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

 

President Washington Warned Us. We Didn’t Listen. Now the Government has been Shut Down.

A pplitical party,  acting solely for its own selfish interests, is causing great and lasting harm to the people of the United States of America.  The “Republican” party, in order to raise campaign funds and dominate those interests that oppose it, chose to damage the entire country, just so it could gain even more power than it already had. This is bad, Gentle Reader, very bad indeed.

Here is what President Washington (remember him? War hero? Father of our country? Right, THAT George Washington) said about political parties, way back in 1769:

“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

“It serves always to distract the public councils, and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another; foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”

“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”

Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? What he predicted is exactly what Speaker Cruz Boehner  and their political party are doing right now. The “Republican” party, even though it has lost two straight Presidential elections, multiple Senate elections, lost the popular vote for the House, and got its collective nuts kicked in time and again by the Supreme Court, is still trying to take over the government. What they could not do via the will of the people, they are attempting to do via corrupt and extra-Constitutional means.

America, listen to your Father. It is past time that We the People settled things with those partisans who are trying to overthrow our very system of government. The “Republican” party needs its wings clipped. In truth, all parties might need this treatment, but the Repubs are a clear and present danger.

It’s time to honor our founders. The best way to do that is to listen to their wisdom, and act on it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Bulls*** That is Ohio (yes, the asterisks are back)

This is life in a state that is completely controlled by one of our parasitic political parties: the “Republicans” can do anything they want, to anyone they want, whenever they want. And they do, oh yes they do.

Adding to this is our Wall Street Millionaire Guv with a severe transparency allergy, John The Kasich. In the next few days, he will sign a bill that will, at minimum;

Number A: cut taxes for the rich and raise taxes on the rest of us,

Letter 2: steal more of our money to give to unaccountable charter schools,

Thirdly: erect a legal wall around the money that The Kasich has been stealing for his cronies at Jobs Ohio,

And may also include various unconstitutional laws and measures into the bargain.

That, you’ll agree, is a lot of bulls***.

You know what’s worse? We elected these partisan thieves. That, friends, is an enormously large and fetid pile of bulls***.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A One-Handed Game of Calvinball (Politics in the American Present)

Ever heard of Calvinball? It is a game in which the rules were made up by two comic-strip characters (Calvin and Hobbes) as they went along, changed at a whim, and sometimes resulting in injury and humiliation: however, the the game rarely results in a clear winner. Calvinball generally seems quite chaotic to an outsider.

The resemblance to politics seems quite apparent to this writer: two teams, each seeking to win, and employing all manner of artifice, cunning, and sneakiness to win the “game” (or at least have fun playing). Indeed, Calvin himself once said, “This game lends itself to certain abuses”, and that reinforces the political analogy.

Confession Time: Mr. Blunt and Cranky despises political parties, seeing them as inherently and actually corrupting organizations. Indeed, they have proven themselves to be every bit as detrimental to our nation as President Washington predicted. But as long as both parties played by the same set of “rules”, one could at least guess what sorts of nonsense and brouhaha would spew forth from our governmental entities.

Of late, the “Republican” party would seem to have decided to play a one-handed game of Calvinball: they have discarded the old rules of the political game, and decided to make up their own rules as they go along, without consulting the other “team” (or sometimes even members of their own). Not surprisingly, this is causing problems, for their party and the nation as a whole. Because, even in a game like Calvinball , both parties need to agree to the same overall framework. As said in the link above, “Calvinball cannot be played by enemies”: all sides must have a certain amount of trust in, and respect for, each other if the game is to be successfully played.

But the Repubs hate hate HATE President Obama in particular, and Democrats in general. Respect is long gone, and trust is nearly as dead. So as they change rules, the Boehner Brigade and Marching McConnells (and their counterparts across the nation) play their one-handed game not just to play, and not just to win; rather, their objective is to destroy their enemies. And that, Gentle Reader, is a really big problem.

The nature of a two-party system is that of a constant tug-of war: but not war. The one is people pulling on opposite ends of a rope to see who can pull the hardest, and the other is about wiping the opposition off the face of the earth. The Dems (especially the Prexy), bless their pointed little heads, are still acting like both sides are pulling on that rope: but the Repubs see the rope as a fuse, which they would love to light so as to blow the other party to smithereens.

Another analogy: in a game that has always been somewhat akin to a full-contact version of baseball, the Jackasses are throwing slow-pitch softballs, and the Elephants have switched to hand grenades. And put land mines under the rest of the field. And packed the stands with little baby elephants, each with his or her bag of peanuts, flag pin, and rocket launcher. And are adding new “rules” as each minute goes by, to boot.

If politics has become a game of Calvinball, then all the players must agree to play Calvinball. Right now, the “Republicans” have switched not just the rules, but the entire game: either the Democrats must also play Calvinball, or their antagonists need to go back to the old game and its rules.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Special thanks to a favorite blogger: NameBrandKetchup for reminding this writer of Calvinball in his post about relationships. Y’all ought to read his blog. Not sayin’ just sayin’.