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

Stop all the f*** ing victim-blaming, OK? Just stop it.

(Your humble correspondent is feeling exceptionally cranky today, so prepare for even less tact than usual.)

Recently, a scumbucket pervert misogynistic motherf***ing hacker stole a lot of nude photos of famous women and posted them online. And a lot of people who really should know better have said really stupid s*** like “it’s her own fault, because she posted them online”. All together now, let us respond from the First Book of Crankitude: “BULL-F***ing-S***”.

This is victim-blaming crap, and it is usually done to women. It takes many forms. A few examples:
“She should have known better than to have nude pictures of herself”;
“She shouldn’t have been drinking”;
“She shouldn’t have gone to a party”;
Or, of course, this writer’s pet peeve; “She was asking for it, dressing that way”.

All of these statements are pretty much equivalent: they are designed to control and degrade women, and have been used towards that end with (sadly) great success. And uttering any of them makes the speaker the moral equivalent of a peeping tom, Fundagelical wingnut preacher, rapist, or all of the above.

We don’t often (if ever) say these things about men. We don’t apply these antediluvian judgements to men. No, it’s pretty much always women who get the shame & blame treatment.

Until men are treated the same way as women, let’s all just stop treating women as if we were living in the dark f***ing ages. That isn’t really all that much to ask.

Mister Blunt and Cranky

The NSA: Not Secure. Not Serving our Nation.

One thing that has gotten lost in the outrage, uproar, and general brouhaha over the NSA’s Domestic Surveillance programs is how utterly inept the NSA has been shown to be. Yes, we hear about their Total Information Awareness yadayadaramaramadingdong, but it’s hard to believe they are capable of doing f***-all in a  secure and competent manner. Why?

Because a marginally-qualified contractor with nefarious intent was able to waltz into a supposedly secure NSA facility  and walk out with Hopper-knows-how-many secret files without anyone noticing. Indeed, the only reason those putzes at Fort Meade knew he had committed those crimes was because he told them he had done so.

Think about that for a minute. No security to speak of, open USB ports,  no checks of personnel on entering or leaving the building, any schmuck who can con his way into a gig with a consulting firm can take whatever information he or she likes and do whatever they want with it.

And where is that information now? Short answer: at least two places we know of (Snowden and Greenwald  both have the files), and probably more by now. Why more, you ask? Very simple: Snowden has had his laptops and other devices in three countries (USA, China, and Russia) who have very large and well-funded IT departments. Any schmuck with a screwdriver could have slipped out and ghosted his hard drives while he was in the shower, and he’d never know.

After that, no matter what sort of encryption he threw at the files, it’s only a matter of time before they are cracked open, and then everybody will know the NSA’s secrets. And that could harm a lot of people. Hell, it could bring down governments. And whose fault is it?

It’s the NSA’s fault, that’s whose fault it is. Time was, NSA security actually meant something. Many of us knew NSA workers, but almost none of us knew they were NSA workers. That agency kept security, by God it did.

Nowadays, any flat-headed flannelmouth with a good BS story can be a contractor for the NSA, get paid more than they deserve, and make off with sensitive national security information. Can you imagine how many foreign agents have already done the same thing? This writer suspects that the answer is “a s***load-and-a-half”.  But since the NSA is not at all secure, we’ll never know.

Not secure. Not serving our nation. So, what value are we getting for the billions upon billions of dollars we taxpayers have given the NSA over the decades? Apparently, not much value at all.

 

This blogger suggests we pull the plug on the NSA, fire the lot of them, and start over with a competent staff who can actually spell “security”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky