Some Thoughts From An Angry Old Man

Ya know, if you have to constantly tell everyone that you're an "alpha male", you are definitely not an "alpha male". The proof to this is every guy on Twitter who claims to be an "alpha male".

The only way I can see this country ever having sane gun laws is if a whole bunch of elected Republicans get gunned down. Maybe then...

It's nice that the Supreme Court gets to set its own ethics code--and then ignore it. Nice for them, not for us.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has set a standard for self-hating Black men that may never be broken. I have two words for Clarence: the first one is House...To be fair, he has to wake up next to Ginni most days, and isn't that punishment enough?

And one more thought regarding the highest court in the land: 23% of Americans identify as Catholic, but 66.6% of the Supreme Court are Catholics. And most of them seem to be practicing a positively Medieval version of Catholicism. They are stuck in the Darkest of Ages, and they want us all to join them.

If someone had beaten some sense into Donald J. Trump when he was a young man, he might have turned out to be less of a festering, sexually predatory, turd. Might. My late mother-in-law had a simple solution for rapists: Cut off their balls. She was not a violent woman, but you did not want to cross any of the lines she drew.

Every time I hear "Macho Man" for the rest of my life I will think of a morbidly obese man, wearing a ton of makeup, kitten heels, a poorly fitting blue suit,  a clownishly long red tie, a diaper, and something pretending to be "hair" on his empty head. This is probably not what the Village People had in mind.

Marjorie Taylor Greene desperately wants to be Trumpie the Clown's running mate. The best she can reasonably hope for is adjoining cells.

Kari Lake will never be governor, but there are openings at Fox Nausea--I mean Fox "News", and all she has to do is keep lying her fool head off and she's as good as hired. You go girl!

Every Sperm Is Sacred...Alabama Toodleloo

This country becomes more of a joke hourly.

From the spray tanned Traitor in the White House, to the organ grinder's monkey pretending to be our Attorney General, and all the other Trump appointed misfit grifters polluting our body politic, it's hard to be shocked by anything that happens in the good ol' USA.

But...

A bunch of good old white boys who happen to sit in the Alabama legislature, and the Georgia and Missouri legislatures as well, have decided to put uppity wimmenfolk in their place, and let the poor things know, once and for all, who's in charge of their bodies.

Spoiler alert! It ain't the women.

Obviously, these women just don't appreciate the wonderful blessing they've received when they are impregnated by a mouth breathing hayseed. Even if the hayseed raped them, or is related to them. After all, every sperm is sacred. It says so in the Bible-doesn't it? It must! If it doesn't, it should! Roll Tide.

Under normal circumstances, we could wait for the Supreme Court to explain to all the Bible thumpin' Jethros out there that Roe v Wade is the law of the land, and to mind their own fucking business.

But these are not normal circumstances. Thanks to Mitch McConnell (who, if there is a Hell as described by Dante, deserves his own ring) we now have a Supreme Court peopled with the likes of Brett "I Like Beer!" Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to go along with Clarence "I've Done All You Asked--Now Can I Be An Honorary White Man?" Thomas, Alito and Roberts.

Do not hold your breath waiting for them to do the right thing.

(By the way, there are a disproportionate number of Catholics on the Supreme Court. Way too many. And their religious beliefs tend to color everything they rule on. This is not a good thing.)

So, here we are. Going backward in a hurry.

I would say boycott Alabama, but honestly, who the fuck wants to go to Alabama in the first place?

Inside The Heads Of The Republican Base

Well, first there's this whistling sound, like wind through a hollow space. Then you hear what could be a broken screen door, slapping against its frame...

And then the jumbled grumbling begins:

"Kenyan Muslim Socialist...anti-American...secret jihadist...Whitewater...liars...rapist...Vince Foster...Antonin Scalia...anti-white...liars...murderers...liars...murderers...liars...murderers!"

This repeats itself over and over and over, as if it were on a loop programmed by Fox News.

Let us pause for a second and ask a few simple and indeed logical questions.

If the Clintons had the power to kill Vince Foster with impunity, don't you think that they would have killed Kenneth Starr, too? How about Linda Tripp? Richard Scaife? Monica Lewinsky? Indeed, anyone who got in their way. You know, like MacBeth.

And if President Obama had Scalia murdered, why did he wait so long? Shouldn't he have had that at the top of his hit list? Like item 1 day 1? What about Clarence Thomas? Couldn't it have been a  package deal? A twofer, if you will. That's how I would have done it. Boom boom.

And yet these logical things did not happen.

So...

I don't see how you can have it both ways. Either they are evil incarnate, unconscionable, amoral murderers who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.

Or they aren't.

In which case, the people who believe these things are full of shit.

But, of course, we are speaking of facts and logic and some folks are simply immune to logic and facts.

The moral of the story is that we should never, ever, ever underestimate the number of truly stupid people in this great land of ours.

And that's why the idea of President Trump isn't as ridiculously far-fetched as it should be...

White Privilege

Hey, if you know anything about the history of this Best Country There Ever Was Or Ever Could Be, anything at all, it's that white men have been killing black men with relative impunity since almost the very beginning.

For one thing, it's the fucking basis of Southern "culture". Strange fruit, y'all.

For another, it's all that some folks mean when they talk about "law and order".

Consequently, we end up with police who are more than happy to oblige.

Dammit, it's our history, and I'm sorry to say, for some of us, our nature.

Face it, we were extremely naive to think that having a black president would change any of that.

Hell, that just served to "energize the base", as the pundits are so fond of saying. Give 'em something to get really mad about. Distract the hillbillies from what is really happening.

And the claim, put forth by the corporate mouthpiece majority of our Supreme Court, including "honorary" white man Clarence Thomas, that we are living in a "post racial" society? I mean, honestly, what a sick joke that is. At least wipe the blood from your hands before you say it, OK?

No, sorry, but you just can't get away from white privilege. And, obviously, to some that privilege includes killing black men.

God Bless America.

How Many Catholic Male Supreme Court Justices Does It Take To Ruin A Country?

Oh, just a simple majority.

That's all.

The Gettysburg Address ( Supreme Court Approved 2014 Amended Edition)

 
Four $core and $even year$ ago our father$ brought forth on thi$ continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the propo$ition that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, te$ting whether that nation, or any nation $o conceived and $o dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, a$ a final re$ting place for tho$e who here gave their live$ that that nation might live. It i$ altogether fitting and proper that we $hould do thi$. 

But, in a larger $en$e, we can not dedicate -- we can not con$ecrate -- we can not hallow -- thi$ ground. The brave men, living and dead, who $truggled here, have con$ecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we $ay here, but it can never forget what they did here. It i$ for u$ the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfini$hed work which they who fought here have thu$ far $o nobly advanced. It i$ rather for u$ to be here dedicated to the great ta$k remaining before u$ -- that from the$e honored dead we take increa$ed devotion to that cau$e for which they gave the la$t full mea$ure of devotion -- that we here highly re$olve that the$e dead $hall not have died in vain -- that thi$ nation, under God, $hall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people $$$$$$, by the people $$$$$$, for the people $$$$$$, $hall not peri$h from the earth.


Just another nail in the coffin of democracy, courtesy of John Roberts and the Supremes. Nice work boys. I'm sure you will be amply rewarded by your bosses.

Everything is All Better Now, or: The South Has Risen

Thank God for the Supreme Court! Without them, and their omniscient wisdom, we'd all still think that racism was a problem here in the good old U S of A.

But no, it's most definitely not. We're past that. We're better than that. That was, after all, a long time ago. Now we're a post racial society.

Chief Justice John Roberts knows this. Just like he knew Citizens United was the right call. He's a very smart man.

Those of us who aren't as smart might think that the factors that made the Voting Rights Act necessary in the first place are still present and active in a large part of the United States.

We might think that the laws enacted by far wiser and better men than those who struck them down are still needed.

We might consider it a classic case of circular reasoning to say that the laws that made some progress possible are no longer needed because they made some progress possible. A simple person might argue that there would have been no progress at all without the laws and that to weaken them will unchain powerful, regressive forces.

For proof we would simply offer the fact that the election of President Obama unleashed a torrent of race based hatred. Hatred that is stoked on a daily basis by Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News creeps.

And that the day--the same day--the decision to strike down part of the law was announced--Texas moved ahead with a restrictive voter ID law that would not have been possible were the law intact.

But that's why we're not on the Supreme Court. We simply don't recognize all of the progress we've made.

We do not live in the same world as John Roberts.

PS If I woke up tomorrow to find Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito hanging from a tree with carrion birds pecking at their livers I would not shed a single tear. Except, perhaps, for the poor birds, which might die from ingesting something so vile.

Back To The Future, or: Sequester This

And so we are where we started.

Trapped.

With a government hamstrung by a few fanatic lunatics, who owe their allegiance not to the wishes of a majority of the American people, but to a handful of corporate interests and/or their own misguided interpretations of the Constitution.

Fanatics who take their marching orders from a bloated, bilious, radio talking head, an anti-tax lobbyist, the simpering mouthpiece of the gun manufacturers, and, "angels and ministers of grace defend us", the ghost of Ayn Rand!

Oh my.

Now, on top of everything else, Supreme Court justice Antonin "Clarence Thomas Is My Bitch" Scalia, who is just barely, recognizably human, tells us that protecting the rights of African-Americans to vote amounts to a "racial entitlement." This after the Republican Party spent an entire election cycle trying to figure out new ways to suppress the black vote--something which Republican controlled state legislatures gleefully continue to do 24-7.

Jesus Christ.

John Roberts....A Fantasy

INTERIOR: the chambers of the Chief Justice of the United States' Supreme Court--day

[John Roberts, an insignificant man in a black robe, stands before a full length mirror]

Roberts: Well, today's the big day! Yep, the big day. Obamacare, heh heh heh.  Frankly, I don't see what the big deal is. I think liberals just like to complain about things. I'm very happy with my health insurance, and so is everyone I know. Scalia, and Alito, and Thomas. And sometimes Kennedy. You never can tell with him. It's something, though, to hold the fate of millions of people in your hands. Makes me kind of giddy.

[A 3 headed devil, bearing a remarkable resemblance to Rush Limbaugh and the Koch brothers, appears on his right shoulder]

Devil: You know what you have to do, don't you?

Roberts: Yes, Master. I do.

Devil: Just like Citizens United.

Roberts: Yes, Master.

Devil: This will finally be the end of our first--and last--black President.

Roberts: Yes, Master.

[An angel, who is the spitting image of Abe Lincoln, appears on his left shoulder]

Angel: Now John, you don't really want to do that, do you?

Roberts: Who are you?

Angel: I'm the better angel of your nature.

Devil: Shut up!!

Roberts: I didn't know I had one.

Angel: Oh John, we all do. It's just hidden in some people.

Devil: Shut the fuck up!!

Angel: John, don't pay any attention to them. They're living in the past and we're talking about the future. The future. Listen, do you really want to be remembered as the biggest asshole in the history of the Supreme Court?

Roberts: I thought that was Scalia.

Angel: Besides him I mean.

Roberts: No! No, I don't!

Angel: Good, there's hope for you yet.

Devil: God damn it!

[The 3 headed devil disappears in a puff of smoke. The angel chuckles and then he, too, disappears]

Roberts: The better angel of my nature. Wow!

[Roberts brushes the dandruff off his shoulders, and exits]

Fade to black

Last Night I Had This Crazy Dream...

Willard Mitt Romney was elected president and to celebrate the Koch brothers threw a big party for all of their friends. Justices Scalia,Thomas, Kennedy, Alito and Roberts were there. And Grover Norquist, Rush Limbaugh, Roger Ailes, Paul Ryan, Allen West, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin and all the rest of the goon squad. Oh, it was grand!

They laughed and laughed about what saps the American people were. Such sheep, so easily led, with no historical perspective and prone to believing whoever shouted the loudest and the longest, true or not.

The party got wilder and wilder as they took turns screaming out the next steps in their plan:

"Privatize Social Security!" "Vouchers for Medicare!" "Do away with the EPA!" "Criminalize abortion!" "Do away with Public Education!" "Drill Baby Drill", "Privatize! Privatize! Privatize!"

They were having such a fantastic time they didn't notice the fire that started when Limbaugh and Chris Christie, wrestling over the last shrimp, knocked a sterno can over.

The fire sprinkler system had been made in China (cheaper steel) and assembled by non union labor (cheaper labor).

Because of government cut-backs (necessary austerity measures) the understaffed city safety inspector's office had been too busy to inspect it properly.

And even if it had worked, the antiquated water main (circa 1900) was leaky (infrastructure repairs aren't as important as cutting taxes) and couldn't carry the necessary pressure.

The Fire Department, which was suffering from its own cutbacks and from constantly being demonized as "union thugs", arrived too late.

So they all burned to death.

Oh, it was grand!

Heaven

I don't put much faith in an afterlife...

But if there is one, I'd pay good money to someday see Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito explain to Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Franklin how corporations are people and money is speech.

I'm guessing there would be much amazement and even some laughter from our Founders.

And imagining what would happen if that noted "originalist" Antonin Scalia, whose belief in his own intellectual superiority is somewhat detached from reality, began to lecture Tom, James, John and Ben about what they really meant, fills me with immeasurable, dare I say heavenly, joy.

Allen West Is An Idiot

And here I thought I'd have a relatively peaceful, stress free Sunday.

But no...

Allen West, R-Crazy Man, who is dangerously unbalanced enough to be an elected official from Arizona, but by shear geographic luck is instead representing Florida in the Congress of these United States, apparently has a problem with liberals and progressives.

And by "liberal and progressive" I mean anyone who doesn't agree with the ugly, delusional ravings of Allen West.

West's latest blast of bilious stupidity urged President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to "get the hell out of the United States of America."

Now, based on my own set of beliefs and values, none of those named is especially "liberal", and certainly not as progressive as I'd like them to be, but in that festering mass of misfiring-and possibly syphilitic--ganglia that passes for Allen West's brain they are all dangerous leftists, bent on destroying "his" country!

Hmmm.

It should be pointed out to Mr. West that without some form of "liberalism" he, and his soul mate Clarence Thomas, might still be picking cotton somewhere in Dixie, under the lash of someone who looks a lot like Newt Gingrich or Rush Limbaugh.

Just sayin', y'all.

PS Though my mother was born there, many many years ago, I have never been to Florida. However, based on their recent run of elected officials, including Jeb "I'm The Smart One. No, Really" Bush, Rick "Spawn Of Voldemort" Scott, Marco "I'm Too Much Of A Cipher To Have A Nickname" Rubio, and Mr. Allen "Completely Detached From Reality" West his own self, it must really be a shithole.

Gutless

Being essentially an understanding, compassionate, bleeding heart liberal, (I consider these to be virtues, by the way), I'd like to think that President Obama had no choice but to go along with the latest Republican attack on the well being of the American people.

The Israelis may have the luxury of saying that they don't negotiate with terrorists, but when the terrorists are duly elected members of the United States' Congress it is a slightly different matter. And when the credit and honor of the nation is at stake in addition to the economic well being of much of the world, well...

It is true that nothing good can get through the House of Representatives at this point. The Tea Party Jacobins have scared whatever little sense there was out of the other Republicans. So maybe this is the best deal he could get. I don't know.

I do know that Mr. Obama is a cautious man who likes to calculate and re-calculate and run through every possible hypothetical. And it may indeed be the case that invoking the 14th Amendment, and telling Boehner and Cantor and McConnell and the rest of the scum to go to hell, might have ended up with the Supreme Court--which at this point is about as corrupt an institution as I can imagine--having to decide the matter. So what?

Let Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy, and Alito--the Supreme Corporatists--explain to their "owners" why they let the US default. I for one don't think they have the balls to do it. I mean, what would their country club buddies say?

But now we'll never know.

One thing is for certain: if you believe in the hereafter, then at some point Barack Obama will have to answer to Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, JFK, MLK, RFK, LBJ, Gene McCarthy, and Teddy Kennedy for what he's helped the Republicans do to the citizens of this country.

A Confederacy of Dunces

I'm not sure what to make of the Republican Party these days. In the latest Presidential poll, Michele Bachman is in a statistical dead heat with Mitt Romney. Now Romney has been known for at least four years as the man who will change his position on any issue to best reflect the views of whichever constituency he is trying to appeal to at that time. His flip-flops make John Kerry ("I was for the war before I was against it") look like a statue of rectitude. Remember, Romney was the man who brought healthcare reform to Massachusetts, before he decided that almost the same plan is terrible for the country. He was pro-choice before he was pro-life. And the list goes on. Meanwhile, Bachmann is the gift that keeps on giving to comedians nationwide.Ssomeone needs to install a switch somewhere in her brain that prevents her every thought from reaching her tongue. As Keith Olbermann put it, "that woman is an idiot." What does it say about the Republicans that these two candidates are currently leading in both the Iowa and national polls?

In the meantime, we have the tea party folks who keep chanting something to the effect of we must take America back. My question is, "from who?" I should think they would want to take it back from the corporate oligarchy that is strangling the middle class and our republic even as we speak. That doesn't seem to be the case though. We have Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, a justice so morally deficient that he doesn't even try to hide his conflicts of interest on cases he is charged with deciding -- and I can tell you everytime which side of the case he will choose, without my having to bother reading the briefs. Justices Alito, Scalia and Roberts are not much better, and Justice Kennedy continues to disappoint with almost every decision since he represents the deciding voice on almost every case. I'm not speaking here of the "social" cases -- although abortion is surely going to fall this way as well. I'm speaking more of the financial cases -- with this court, whatever corporate America wants, corporate America gets.

Next let's look at those twin stalwarts of the Republican Party in the Congress, Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor. Turns out that on close inspection each stands to benefit from screwing the rest of us. If Ryan's budget somehow were to pass, then Congressman Ryan will make a small fortune by privatizing Medicare. If the U.S. defaults on its debt by not raising the debt ceiling, then Cantor will make wheelbarrows full of money. See, he's been betting AGAINST treasury bonds. It's no wonder he decided to walk out on the debt ceiling talks last week. The chutzpah these guys show knows no bounds.

I could go on this way for some time -- but to be quite frank, thinking about the modern Republican Party and the disastrous effect it is having on the country I so proudly served is giving me a massive headache.