Hillary Clinton says Something Obvious about Iraq. Teapublicans lack the Courage to do Likewise.

Hillary Clinton has finally come out and said something completely obvious and true: she said that her vote to give Gee Dubya authority to invade Iraq was a mistake. And that the Iraq war itself was a mistake. Good on her for stepping up when all of the “Republican” Presidential candidates lacked the intestinal fortitude to acknowledge the facts.

Given that each and every reason for Operation Iraqi Liberation (or OIL, for short) turned out be incorrect at best or a farrago of lies at worst, most people on planet Earth already knew that OIL was a huge f***-up, caused by a motley assortment of deluded fools, greedy crooks, and sociopaths (some of them, like Dickless Cheney, were all of the above). And that the lot of them were “led” by a cowardly, coke-headed, draft-dodging, illegitimate occupant of the White House who was driven primarily by his daddy issues. So it’s not surprising that Ms. Clinton is aware of these facts.

What IS surpising is that her statement is, well, surprising. It is notable. It is seen as a brave, bold move. And that, Gentle Reader, is a very sad thing indeed. A politician stating something obvious, fact-based, and backed by all the available evidence? This has become an unusual event.

Meanwhile, the Teapubbies are unwilling, unable, or just too s***-scared to do likewise. They can’t, or they won’t, tell the truth. It took Jebbie Bush a week to kinda-sorta-maybe-mostly admit that his Eedjit-In-Chief brother f***ed up, ferchrissakes. That got a little press, but not much, because it is what we’ve become used to these days. Cowardly politicos, unwilling to fess up to even the most basic facts for fear of losing votes. Normal American politics.

This is how far America’s “leaders’ have fallen – stating the obvious is too risky for them. Kudos to Hillary Clinton for being an exception to the rule. Maybe she’s not as gutsy as often as, say, Bernie Sanders, but it’s a step in the right direction. And it’s another indicator of which party sucks worse, and which party needs flung out of power on its elephantine ear.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

All the Current 2016 Presidential Candidates, in 15 Words or Less:

Bluntly and Crankily summarized, here are the likely candidates for President in 2016:

Bernie Sanders: If there are more smart people in America than the polls indicate, he’s in.

Hillary Clinton: Meet the new Democratic President, same as the old Democratic President.

Jim Webb: Might as well be a Republican.

Lincoln Chafee: Pretty much still IS a Republican.

Joe Biden: Good at calming shoulder rubs. Would like to calm the entire country.

Marco Rubio: Can’t even handle a water bottle. Wants to run an entire country.

Mike Huckabee: Optimistic hypocrite who doesn’t have the nerve to quit.

Ben Carson: All Brains. No Heart.

Ted Cruz: Because Birthers and Teavangelicals are complete idiots.

Rand Paul: Because Libertarians and Teabaggers are even bigger idiots.

Carly Fiorina: Proud of her failure in Tech, wants to proudly fail the entire country.

Chris Christie: Christ in name only. Still unindicted.

Jeb Bush: Helped steal the White House in 2000. Would love to do it again.

Scott Walker: Will destroy everything Americans hold dear. Will get votes anyway.

Donald Trump: Told his hair stylist, “You’re Fired!”

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Baltimore is Another Wake-Up Call. America, stop Hitting the Snooze Button.

Over and over again, we get these wake-up calls. Over and over again, America listens for a little while, and then goes back to its usual state of willful ignorance. Rinse and repeat. STUPID.

It’s not like we haven’t seen this before: people are oppressed for so long and in so many ways, they can’t take it any more and lash out in blind rage. Baltimore today, Ferguson yesterday, and running back through history: Watts, Little Rock, the French Revolution, the American Revolution, all the way back to ancient Rome and its predecessors. An insular ruling class oppresses the masses, and eventually the masses revolt.

And there are always those who TELL the ruling class what is going on, pleading with them, exhorting them to change the arc of history, to learn from history, to not repeat the mistakes of history. So it was, and so it is. For example, here are the words of Baltimore Orioles COO John Angelos:

That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage, and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle-class and working-class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the US to third-world dictatorships, like China and others; plunged tens of millions of good, hardworking Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil-rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.

Pretty clear, isn’t he? America can (and should) listen to him, wake up and take action. But no, America will probably just roll over, smack the s*** out of the snooze button on the alarm, and go back to sleep. Eventually, the wake-up call will be so loud, it can’t be ignored any longer.

By then, it’ll be too late. America will finally wake up, only to find out that it died in its sleep.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Reagan’s Teabagging followers are wrong: Government is GOOD for Business.

Latest example of Adam Smith’s wisdom: Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since the private sector wasn’t going to provide the requisite infrastructure to support 21st-century businesses, the local and Federal (but not state) governments did the job. And now businesses are clamoring to relocate to the city with some of the best Internet access in the country:

Chattanooga rolled out a fiber-optic network a few years ago that now offers speeds of up to 1000 Megabits per second, or 1 gigabit, for just $70 a month. A cheaper 100 Megabit plan costs $58 per month. Even the slower plan is still light-years ahead of the average U.S. connection speed, which stood at 9.8 megabits per second as of late last year, according to Akamai Technologies.

As federal officials find themselves at the center of controversy over net neutrality and the regulation of private Internet service providers like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC), Chattanooga offers an alternative model for keeping people connected. A city-owned agency, the Electric Power Board, runs its own network, offering higher-speed service than any of its private-sector competitors can manage.

” People understand that high-speed Internet access is quickly becoming a national infrastructure issue just like the highways were in the 1950s,” Berke said. “If the private sector is unable to provide that kind of bandwidth because of the steep infrastructure investment, then just like highways in the 1950s, the government has to consider providing that support.”

The comparison to the Eisenhower Interstate Highway is appropriate. One might also consider the government’s essential role in providing electricity, water and flood control, and a host of other infrastructural necessities on which businesses rely.

Businesses need to make a profit. It’s what businesses do. No ethical (or rational) business would or could build something like public infrastructure. If a CEO were to propose building a, say, city-wide fiber network that would not make his or her company a profit, they would be (rightly) escorted to the door with their personal effects and never allowed back into the building. In fact, they could even be sued.

That is why governments are good for business: they provide an environment in which businesses can provide goods and services, and by so doing earn a profit. Anybody who thinks otherwise should try starting a business in a place with little or no government and see how they fare. Somalia comes to mind.

We should also note that the state government of Tennessee is full of Teapublicans and is a royal mess: they think that the Randians and Paulbots are correct about Reagan’s “government is the problem” crap. Indeed, the state is busily shooting itself in its supply-side foot. The Feds and Chattanooga locals pulled off their huge Internet success in SPITE of their Red State, not because of it.

(Teapublicans like to pretend that Adam Smith was somehow an Ayn Rand/Ron Paul/Rand Paul anti-government ideologue. But anyone who has actually READ his work knows that he was a lot smarter than that: he knew that some things that businesses wouldn’t build on their own were necessary for the people, society, and indeed businesses themselves to survive, thrive, and prosper.)

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

Teapublicans are out to steal YOUR retirement insurance premiums.

Let’s call some spades, here, OK? Social Security is INSURANCE for which we are forced to pay premiums. Some of us have paid for this insurance for decades and have the right to expect that the seller will deliver the product we had no choice but to purchase. Sounds simple, yes? We pay, we should get what we pay for, like any other insurance (car, home, life) product.

But not according to “Republicans”: they are out to breach our contract and steal our money:

As one of its first orders of business upon convening Tuesday, the Republican House of Representatives approved a rule that will seriously undermine efforts to keep all of Social Security solvent.

The rule hampers an otherwise routine reallocation of Social Security payroll tax income from the old-age program to the disability program. Such a reallocation, in either direction, has taken place 11 times since 1968, according to Kathy Ruffing of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The most cynical aspect of this attack is that it comes from some lawmakers who were helped by Social Security in their own lives. The roster includes Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who received Social Security benefits during his college years, after his father’s untimely death, and now thinks that the nation can’t afford to keep paying them as currently scheduled.

Another is Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), the sponsor of the House rules change, whose father died when he was 2 and then was raised by a single mother on Social Security and veterans benefits. Now he talks about Social Security going “bankrupt,” which is flatly incorrect, and promotes a measure aimed at cutting benefits for all. This is known as climbing the ladder and pulling it up behind you.

Got it, folks? The Teapubbies are doing exactly what they said they would do if elected. They are out to wreck Social Security, pocket our premiums, and throw anyone who is retired or disabled onto the streets instead of giving you the insurance benefits you paid for.

F*** those people. And if you voted for a “Republican”, f*** you too.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Even Big Business’s Mouthpiece Admits It: “Republican” Policies Suck.

When Forbes, of all magazines, says “Obama kicks Reagan’s ass”, or words to that effect, you know that the Supply-Siders are totally f***ed. And that they suck dead elephant d***s. And are too f***ing stupid to realize how stupid they are.

But Big Business follows data, and data proves that Voodoo Economics is a giant, stinking heap of dinosaur bollocks:

Bob Deitrick: ”President Reagan has long been considered the best modern economic President. So we compared his performance dealing with the oil-induced recession of the 1980s with that of President Obama and his performance during this ‘Great Recession.’

“As this unemployment chart shows, President Obama’s job creation kept unemployment from peaking at as high a level as President Reagan, and promoted people into the workforce faster than President Reagan.

“President Obama has achieved a 6.1% unemployment rate in his sixth year, fully one year faster than President Reagan did. At this point in his presidency, President Reagan was still struggling with 7.1% unemployment, and he did not reach into the mid-low 6% range for another full year. So, despite today’s number, the Obama administration has still done considerably better at job creating and reducing unemployment than did the Reagan administration.

Big businesses may not like Obama, but they (unlike brain-dead ideologues like Ted Cruz) can read a balance sheet. They know that good old-fashioned math-based accounting proves that supply-side economics is deader than a doorknob. So too do most normal Americans.

Why, then, does our nation persist in its apparent infatuation with such a bankrupt ideology? Simple: the Teabaggers who are dumb enough to buy the voodoo potion turn out and vote; and the precious few in the business world who are profiting by the Reagan-era policies spend lots of money buying elections for ideologues like Ted F***ing Cruz.

Sad to say, mere facts and common sense matter litlle when politics rears its ugly head. This writer hopes that you, Gentle Reader, will at least consider facts when you express opinions and cast ballots. The same facts that even the Repubs at Forbes are acknowledging.

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

Since Rick Perry, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn don’t care about Texas, Obama does their Job for Them

Obama stepped up to take care of West, Texas, because none of the responsible officials would do the jobs they were elected to do. And why, we hear you ask, did they not do their jobs? Answer: they are being bribed not to.

“Legislative fixes have failed in recent years, in part, because of business lobbying efforts. The chemical and manufacturing industry doubled its total lobbying spending to $55million during the decade ending in 2012, according to an analysis by the nonprofit group OpenSecrets.org. The agricultural services sector, which includes fertilizer makers and retailers, increased lobbying spending by about 50 percent over the same period to $35million last year.”

Since Obama isn’t beholden to these industries, he is free to act: first, he told the regulatory agencies to, well, regulate for a frickin’ change; and he also put the smack on FEMA, making them give West disaster relief.

So, yay for the Prexy and all that. He has done good work here. The real question is: why won’t the “Republican public servants” that Texas keeps electing do that good work themselves?

And since Repubs don’t take care of Texas, why do Texans keep electing Repubs?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Senate’s Pro-Killer Caucus

Today, some parents of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown will be on Capitol Hill begging lawmakers to allow debate on background checks and other gun-related legislation. And thirteen Senators have already told these grieving families to go pound sand. Yes, they did say that.

You see, the Senators in question (add Bitchy Mitchy McConnell to the list from yesterday) are much more sympathetic to the Adam Lanzas of the world than they are to the victims of gun violence. Put another way, they support the rights of killers over the rights of the killed.

This writer suggests that you contact the thirteen members of the Pro-Killer Caucus (feel free to use that phrase): Senators Paul, Cruz, Rubio, Lee, Moran, Inhofe, Burr, Johnson, Enzi, Risch, Crapo, Coats, Roberts and McConnell. Tell them that you support the rights of the 99.999% of Americans who are NOT killers.

As opposed to these Senators, who support the killers’ right to bear arms: arms they can use to kill little children.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky