Clarence “Uncle” Thomas Doesn’t want other Blacks to have Voting Rights

He and his fellow racist, bigoted, partisan, Ayn-Rand-worshiping , Teabagging “Republican” Supreme Court “Justices” pretty obviously want to disenfranchise every person of color who does not sit on the high court. Yesterday’s “f*** those poor black voters” ruling is just the latest example:

“Tens of thousands of North Carolina voters, especially African-American voters, have relied on same-day registration, as well as the counting of ballots that were cast out of precinct, for years,” Barber said in a statement. “As the appeals court correctly concluded, eliminating these measures will cause irreparable harm of denying citizens their right to vote in the November election – a right that, once lost, can never be restored.”

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Barber said, the NAACP and other organizations plan to make “sure that, county by county, as many votes as possible are counted despite the barriers posed by the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

Prior rulings in Ohio and indeed, nationwide, demonstrate that the Roberts Court has a 100% racist agenda when it comes to voting. The “conservatives” ALWAYS vote to f*** people of color. Even when they themselves are POC, people like Clarence “Uncle” Thomas do all they can to oppress and abuse others.

And the most disgusting aspect of this loathesome man, beyond his massive hypocrisy, is his near-sociopathic greed, lust, and lack of concern about anyone but himself. He has been a huge beneficiary of Affirmative Action, but wants no one else to get those benefits. He has profited greatly by Civil Rights laws, but wishes to deny those benefits  to anyone else.

The other four “Justices” who routinely vote to turn non-white American citizens back into slaves (Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Kennedy) are, of course, white, so their racism, classism, and discriminatory actions are to be expected from scum such as they. But for a black man to oppress other black people, and to do so with such consistency and enthusiasm, is truly inhuman and borders on the demonic.

And what is the quickest and best way to turn people of color back into second-class citizens? Why, taking away their access to the polls, of course. Clarence “Uncle” Thomas knows this, and that is why he rules as he does. Take away the voting rights from black citizens, and they won’t truly be citizens any longer.

People of color need to vote. They need to vote for politicians who don’t hate minorities, so that future Supreme Court jurists are worthy of being called “Justices”. Without the scarequotes.

Because “Republicans” put that bastard Uncle Thomas on the court. Given the chance, they’ll put more black-hating motherf***ers up there with him. Vote, while you still can. Against the racist Republican  motherf***ers like “Uncle” Thomas.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky
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Putin was not “emboldened by Obama”: he was inspired by Bush

Take a gander at that flock of sphincter birdies: they were paid political operatives sent to Florida to stage a fake riot at a Board of Election, thus helping steal the 2000 election for Gee Dubya Bush. The idea was; create a false impression of public outrage and dissent that the government “had to deal with right away”, thus allowing “extraordinary measures” to be taken to “preserve public order”. As we all know by now, that effort was a success, and the Bushistas robbed, pillaged, and murdered their way across the country and the Middle East for 8 interminable years of illegitimate government.

This year in Crimea, Vladimir Putin and his oligarch buddies followed the same model: they sent in faux “demonstrators” to create the impression of disorder, and so Russia just HAD TO send in troops to restore order and allow the oppressed locals the opportunity to shuffle off those dreaded shackles of Western Oppression, blahblahblahblahBLAHblahblah. (Guns were required in Ukraine because they, unlike we wimpy Americans, were unlikely to allow a bunch of corrupt billionaires to steal their entire nation. We rolled over and accepted it without a fight.)

Now in Eastern Ukraine, what was done in Crimea and Florida is being done again. The Russians are staging more fake riots and creating a “need” for “immediate intervention” yadayadayada. And any number of Right Wingnuts would have you believe this is being done because of Obama’s “weakness”.

Nonsense: a President who orders the invasion of sovereign countries to kill our enemies there (via drones and SEAL teams, mostly) is not a wimp. Obama is a hard-assed Chicago lawyer who would cut off your wedding tackle if need be, were you a threat to him. And we have ample proof of this. Ask the Taliban and various Al-Quaida groups: well, ask the surviving members, that is. He has killed a s***load of ’em, and never shed a tear.

No, if Putin needed guidance from an American Prexy, he got it from the Shrub. What Russia is doing in Eastern Europe is straight out of the “Republican” south Florida playbook.

It’s just as transparent, just about as illegal, and just as successful as it was in 2000.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Why vote for a party that is taking away the right to vote?

That would be the “Republican” party, of course. They are, as they have been for many years, trying to suppress the vote, in order to limit the franchise to people like themselves, thereby cutting anyone is not male, rich, and white (and of late, a right wingnut) out of the action. From the article:

Pivotal swing states under Republican control are embracing significant new electoral restrictions on registering and voting that go beyond the voter identification requirements that have caused fierce partisan brawls.

The bills, laws and administrative rules — some of them tried before — shake up fundamental components of state election systems, including the days and times polls are open and the locations where people vote.

Republicans in Ohio and Wisconsin this winter pushed through measures limiting the time polls are open, in particular cutting into weekend voting favored by low-income voters and blacks, who sometimes caravan from churches to polls on the Sunday before election.

Notice this: it is an admittedly targeted set of blatantly unconstitutional laws that are designed to rig the game against those who might vote for the Democrats. The supposed reasons have been changing from “voter fraud” (which almost never happens) to “uniformity” ( demolished here ), but the measures remain the same.

One might think that when a problem changes, the solution would likewise change. And one would be right. The fact that the actions taken to remove our voting rights aren’t changing is all the proof you need that we are being screwed.

This writer sees a different problem, and thus a different solution: the problem is scumbucket politicians taking away our rights. The solution is to throw them into prison, and keep our rights intact.

Oh, and stop voting for the party that wants to take away your right to cast that ballot.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Shop at Hobby Lobby IF you hate women and the Constitution, and want your Boss’s religion crammed down your throat.

That is pretty much what Hobby Lobby is saying. They are demanding the right to discriminate against the  American women who happen to work for them; to dictate the religion of all their employees; and to dump certain of their business expenses onto we the taxpayers.

For those readers who have not followed the case: before ObamaCare, it was easier to get insurance coverage for Viagra than for birth control. This was so obviously, stupidly unfair that the ACA said “stop that discriminatory s***”. So far, so Constitutional, you would say, and you would be right.

But the Fundagelical He-Man Woman-Haters club at Hobby Lobby got all hairy hosed off at having their “right” to f*** over the womenfolk amongst them taken away, so they claimed a ridiculous “Religious” case against the ACA and that “despicable Kenyan” Prexy who stole it from the Romneybots. That idiotic claim is up before the Supremes this week.

And the bad thing is, the Roberts court is as likely to rule on the basis of partisanship as they are the Constitution. So this bit of illegal bulls*** might be made legal by those right-wing robed barbarians. If that happens, we the people will have to render justice.

And we can do so without breaking a single law: we just stop shopping at Hobby Lobby or any other business they are involved in. Run them into the ground and on to bankruptcy.

Because if these misogynistic motherf***ers have no business, they’ll have no employees to discriminate against.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Foreigners are buying American elections, thanks to the Supreme Court.

Remember Citizens United? It was a Supreme Court ruling that allowed billionaires and corporations to buy elections. It also created a secret world in which politicos can be bribed with no way for us to bust them for being corrupt.

Oh, and remember how Obama warned that Citizen’s United could open the door to foreign money buying US elections, and the Chief Justice called the Prexy a liar? Well, golly gee whiz, it turns out that President Obama was right. As the linked article says:

In a first of its kind case, federal prosecutors say a Mexican businessman funneled more than $500,000 into U.S. political races through Super PACs and various shell companies. The alleged financial scheme is the first known instance of a foreign national exploiting the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision to influence U.S. elections.

It turns out that although Citizens United did not change the legality of foreign contributions in the U.S., it enabled the type of illegal schemes now being alleged by federal prosecutors.

“Before Citizens United, in order for a foreign national to try and do this, they’d have to set up a pretty complex system of shell corporations,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance expert at the law firm Arent Fox. “And even then, there were dollar limits in place. After Citizens United, there are no limits on independent expenditures.”

Got it? Either the Supreme Court intended for this to happen, or they were so shortsighted and pig-ignorant as to ignore the possibility. No matter which, the result is as predicted: foreign nationals are buying American elections and politicians. And this is only one that we caught. Who knows how many other cases there are, buried in the labyrinthian snakepit of American political “financing”?

Thanks to Presidents Reagan, Bush and Bush for stacking the Supreme Court with Raging Righties in Tightie Whities; because of the hyper-partisan Wingnuts on the Court; the integrity and independence of American government has been gravely damaged. Until Citizens United is repealed, none of us can ever know which of our politicians is actually in the service of a foreign national or even an unfriendly government.

Remember this, Gentle Reader: it is because of “Conservative” “Republicans” that our elections are being bought.And they ARE being bought. This could (and likely will) lead to a foreign takeover of our government if we don’t put a stop to it.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Hobby Lobby is a threat to your religious freedom. And your health. And your wallet.

One year ago, this writer wrote a prophetic post about Hobby Lobby’s attempts to use their personal religious beliefs to screw over their employees. Here’s a brief excerpt:

However, there is a very scary paradigm emerging amongst the Religious Right. Example: Hobby Lobby tried to claim a religious exemption in order to undermine the care that their employees could get under the ACA. They said that the owners of the company had a religious objection to certain kinds of gynecological care, and so should be able to opt out of providing them to their workers.

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing. Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis.

Now they have made it to the Supreme Court,  which seems sympathetic to the religious loons’ point of view. And that means there could be a ruling that would take away employees’ rights to birth control, and any other health care offerings that your employer may object to on religious grounds.

In addition, there is a deeper matter to consider: whether your employer’s religious beliefs are allowed to control yours. You see, Hobby Lobby doesn’t believe in birth control. And if you, as an employee, DO believe in birth control, well, tough rocks pal: your religious freedom is not as important as that of your employer.

Remember Animal Farm, where everyone was equal, but some were “more equal than others”? That is what the Supreme Court is all too likely to decide. Don’t scoff, they did it before with the Citizen’s United ruling, in which they decreed that while we all have the right to freedom of speech, rich people have more free speech than do the rest of us.

We are talking about a potential assault on the very principles on which our nation was founded, and on which our Constitution was based. The idea that your boss’s religious beliefs can overrule yours is not all that different from having your government’s religious beliefs likewise trump yours. This would completely take away our constitutional freedom of religion as hitherto guaranteed under the Establishment Clause.

The Supreme Court has the power via this ruling to take away your personal religious freedom, deny you access to health care, and potentially bankrupt you by taking away that access: pushing us further towards an Orwellian dystopia, all at a single stroke.

Not scared? Then you’re an idiot.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

A Sad Dose of Reality for the Obama-Bashers (Left- and Right-Wingers Alike)

One of the many things Wingnuts blame Obama for is the recently “revealed” Domestic Surveillance State. These fools forget that domestic spying goes back at least to the end of World War II, and has been doing nothing but grow ever since. So blaming any one President is ignorant at best. And blaming Obama is particularly idiotic.

If you’re going to complain about some of the more recent manifestations of our “one nation under surveillance” state (and really, you should be complaining, and that loudly), you have to go back to the reign of Bush the Dumber, the so-called “Patriot Act”, and all of its bastard children. These shameful bits of fear-based liberty destruction were rammed through after the Bushies let 9/11 happen, and have been the bane of  freedom ever since.

One surprising little part of that law can be found in this article from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/05/did-you-know-john-roberts-is-also-chief-justice-of-the-nsas-surveillance-state/  Briefly put: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court is made up of 11 jurists who have the power to approve or disapprove of wiretaps, email monitoring, and all the other spying activities many of us seem to just be finding out about.

And one man, with no oversight, guidelines, checks or balances, chooses each and every one of those judges: John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court. And he has picked “conservative” judges that pretty much follow the Bush/Cheney philosophy towards the Bill of Rights: that being, “f*** your so-called-rights, peons”. Small wonder that pretty much every request for surveillance gets approved. From the article:

“No other part of U.S. law works this way. The chief justice can’t choose the judges who rule on health law, or preside over labor cases, or decide software patents. But when it comes to surveillance, the composition of the bench is entirely in his hands, and, as a result, so is the extent to which the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation can spy on citizens.

“It really is up to these FISA judges to decide what the law means and what the NSA and FBI gets to do,” said Julian Sanchez, a privacy scholar at the Cato Institute. “So Roberts is single-handedly choosing the people who get to decide how much surveillance we’re subject to.”

Roberts was and is, of course, a Bush appointee, and Obama has no power over him. None. Zippo, Zilch. Nada. Ixnay. So, to blame Obama for the actions of the FISA court is far, far, FAR beyond stupid. There are many things we can blame him for, of course, but not this.

Memo to wingnuts of all sorts: Before blaming Obama, check to see if the facts support your case. If they don’t, then kindly STFU.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

P.S.: Another Supreme Court action, taken before Obama took office, helped make this current state of affairs possible: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323873904578571893758853344.html#articleTabs%3Dvideo . He’s not to blame for that, either.

Two Tiny Words. One Big Supreme Court Case.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky saw this article today about a possible Supreme Court decision in the recess appointment dustup in DC, and was struck by the narrow path our nation walks sometimes, and how easy it is for the Supremes to push us off that path, as they sometimes have in the past.

In this case, they would pretty well be deciding whether a President can use recess appointments at all. In theory, the Constitution gives him that power. But Senators from both parties have come up with tricks to make it look like they aren’t technically in recess, even when they actually are totally out of Dodge. So the current Prexy decided to recess-appoint some peeps docs to get stuff done, and pick a partisan fight into the bargain.

Of course the Senators who were using the faux non-recess recess to obstruct the President were irate, and started the court process, in order to be able to keep obstructing, and to pick a fight right back.

Fat Tony and the rest of the Court will be deciding the meaning of two words: “the” and “happen”. They may or may not consider the Senatorial obstructions that gave rise to this case, or the many unchallenged recess appointments that would be invalidated if they rule narrowly. They WILL be ruling on the meaning of two little words.

And depending on how they rule, we might see our entire government held hostage to the extremism of a minority of Senators, or we might see a return to negotiated legislative activity. A big ruling, with huge ramifications for our nation.

Two little words. One huge ruling.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Under Prop 8, My Straight Marriage Would Not Be Legal

Yesterday, at the Supreme Court, the backers of California’s gay-hating piece of crap Proposition 8 (which outlaws marriage between people of the same gender) came up with this ludicrous bit of specious nonsense legal rationale to justify their hatred of gays support of the law: they claim that the only reason to get married is to make babies and raise them. The Supremes (literally) mocked this notion and the audience laughed at Charles Cooper, the poor schlub who had to try to sell the Court on this idea.

Mr. and Mrs. Blunt and Cranky are not on their first marriage: indeed, their children were pretty much grown and had flown the nest by the time they crankily tied the knot. And they cannot have more children (although to be honest, at this time of life, grandbabies are a lot more fun anyway). So, since procreation is the purpose of marriage, this would seem to mean that this marriage between two straight Americans should be illegal according to the Prop 8 Backers.

When pressed by the Justices, Mr. Cooper could not talk his way out the hole he dug with his legal reasoning. Which means that whether you are gay or straight, if you can’t make babies, the backers of California’s Existing Constitutional Law are saying that your marriage is illegal.

Fortunately, the Cranky Fam does not reside in Californ-ai-ay, but in Ohio. Unfortunately, Ohio also has outlawed same-sex marriages, and for all we know, the backers of that law think the same way as the whackadoodles who are backing the Left Coast Law. Which would mean that millions of Americans could wind up getting ripped off by the IRS, Insurance companies, and lawyers; just like gay folk get ripped off right now.

Think you don’t have a dog in the same-sex marriage fight? Think again, Gentle Reader. This type of reasoning, if allowed to stand, could put straight people in the same second-class-citizen status that gay people presently occupy in our nation.

Yes, maybe you should care because of basic human kindness, Christian charity or some such reasoning. This writer does. But let’s say you don’t give two s***s about the Gays, Lesbians, and Transgender individuals who are your fellow citizens: you should at least be aware that after these thinly-disguised Puritans take away the rights of GLBT people, they will take away yours next.

Want your marriage rights protected? Stand up for the marriage rights of others. As Thomas Jefferson said, “If we do not all hang together, we shall all surely hang separately”.

Mr. B & C

Memo to the U.S. Supreme Court: Please Abolish the “Gay Tax”

As Mr. Blunt and Cranky noted in Monday’s post, there are cases coming up before the Supremes Tuesday and Wednesday regarding “Gay Marriage” (one of the more inane bits of phrasing of the modern era, but ah well). They are being fought on the grounds of human rights, equal protection, Constitutional minutiae, and other such legal-beagle considerations. This writer would like to focus on one ill-reported aspect: taxation.

Inequality of taxation is one reason our nation was founded in the first place (Google “Boston Tea Party” if you’re clueless), and Americans are usually pretty sensitive to any sort of IRS overreach. But somehow, the fact that gay folk get taxed at an absurd rate has flown under the radar, what with all the Culture War B.S. cluttering up the Zeitgeist.

Gay folk cannot file taxes as “married”, even if they legally are. They have to pay taxes that we straights do not (check out Evie Windsor and her 1/3 million-dollar tax bill for just one example). Because of irrational, unconstitutional restrictions, they often have to pay more for taxes on insurance products, financial transactions and a host of other items.

Call this what it is: the Gay Tax. You can’t be taxed for the color of your skin, your gender, your religion, or indeed much of anything but your economic status. But you can be (and will be) taxed for being part of the LGBT community. And that, fellow citizens, is a monstrous, unfair, discriminatory, unconstitutional abuse of power. Indeed, to coin a phrase, it is “taxation without representation”.

Here are some links for those who won’t take some random cranky codger’s word for it: http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2007/12/pdf/domestic_partners.pdf

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/lgbt/news/2012/04/17/11451/unequal-taxation-and-undue-burdens-for-lgbt-families/

Mr. B & C