Welcome to West Kansas

Ya gotta give it to Arizona's Governor, Doug "Cup Or Wafflecone?" Ducey.

He can follow a plan!

ALEC and the Koch Brothers tell him what to do, and by golly, he does it. After all, he's already been bought and paid for, so he better deliver if he knows what's good for him.

What we see happening in Arizona is an almost exact duplicate of what's happened in Kansas.

A little something I like to call Modern Reactionary Republicanism Run Wild.

Now, if you keep up with current events you know that Kansas is a fucking disaster zone.

That's a fact.

And it's all because of the Republicans who control that state's government.

Their only goal is to cut taxes to "starve the beast" and put a few more dollars in their rich backers' pockets.  So public services fall apart, including education. And, of course, the economic miracles that are supposed to result from cutting taxes never happen.

But "facts" have no place in today's GOP.

And Republicans are incapable of learning from their mistakes.

With time and repetition tragedy becomes farce.

So welcome to West Kansas, er, I mean Arizona!

Clarifying The Situation

Personally, I think it's great when a state codifies its prejudices and/or general stupidity. For one thing, it removes all doubt about what vermin they have as their governor and in their legislatures.

And that's a good thing!

Because now, when they pretend that they aren't bigoted, phony Christian, science denying, gerrymandering, vote suppressing, homophobic, misogynistic, sociopathic assholes, we can say, "hey, but you made this law, which clearly indicates that you are!"

Ha ha ha.

Not that it will matter to the idiots that elected them, but still...

So go Indiana! Go Arizona! Go Arkansas! Go Texas! Go Florida! Go Mississippi! Go North Carolina! Go South Carolina! Go Oklahoma! Go Kansas!

Hmmm, I see a definite pattern here...

False Advertising

So I'm driving through the neighborhood, burning some more precious fossil fuel, because why the hell not, and what do I see?

There, on one of my more prosperous neighbors' front yard, not one, but two Doug Ducey for Governor signs!

And what does it say on the sign?

"Opportunity for all".

See, now this is the kind of shit you just can't make up.

Opportunity for all? Really? 

I guess "opportunity" doesn't include public education. 'Cause the Ice Cream Man doesn't give a single dip whether the schools are adequately funded.

Says we can't afford it. No, the best thing would be to do away with the state's income tax. That will lead to all sorts of cool stuff! Just like cutting taxes always does! Trickle down, trickle down, hooray hooray!

That old fraud Reagan is rotting in his grave, but we are still plagued by the spawn of his "government is the problem" dictum. That, and its evil, retarded twin "run government like a business."

Government isn't a business. No, not even an ice cream business. And people who believe that government should be run like a business don't understand much about government or business.

But hey, for the sake of argument, let's say that government is a business. Ducey still isn't a good choice. After all, look at the jobs he created: one guy got very rich (that would be Ducey), a few people did well (those would be his franchisees--except for the ones who went under and ended up suing the Dougster), but the vast majority of jobs created were of the minimum wage or just barely above minimum wage variety. You know, the people who need public assistance to get by? Now, I understand that that is the ideal Republican economic model, but I'm not convinced that having a bunch of folks trained to stick gummy bears into ice cream is the best way to face the economic challenges of the future.

If you want to see what the Ducey brand of Republican economic "opportunity for all" can do to a state take a good, long look at the disaster that is Kansas.

Once elected one of the first things all of these parasites do is sell off the public commons to their rich buddies. Because the free market is the best solution for everything! And all of those things that you thought belonged to "we the people"? Well, guess again.

Unless you're an oligarch, a complete idiot, or the kind of person who wants to see just how bad things can get, Fred DuVal is the only choice for Governor of Arizona.

By the way, my well off neighbor with the Ducey signs made his money in agriculture. Which means he definitely benefited from government subsidized water and quite probably benefited from unskilled, cheap labor, i.e. Mexican migrant workers. Other than that he's just another "self-made" rugged individualist Republican.