So, if Kim Davis is jailed, she becomes a martyr for the "religiously persecuted".

If you fine her, the taxpayers will more than likely be footing that bill.

Is there ANY way this woman loses in this scenario?

I cannot do it.

I cannot in all consciousness support an economic platform that relies on the assumed benevolence of the wealthy, the hope that a business will pan out to a sustainable fruition, the demand that children finance a high-interest mortgage merely for their economic advancement, the vanquishing of an underfunded but highly necessary social safety net, and most laughably, the almost sarcastic assurance that an individual's "gumption and hard work" will save them despite the sheer lack of solutions as to how that's going to happen.

Can we finally say that the GOP's platform should be coined "Lottery Politics"?

With Jeb Bush's (the newest contender of Mitt Romney's "Most Tone Deaf Politician" title) latest commentary on Medicare, which amounted to "Build the moat, draw the bridge" and warranted more than a few deserved angry responses from those with a brain stem, it's about time to say it once and for all:

The GOP's social and economic platforms almost entirely depend on either patronage, privilege, great luck or all three at once in order to work. In other words, lottery, albeit with various odds.

In the GOP's strange little world:

* You'd better be born to the correct set of parents. Preferrably upper middle class to rich ones.

* You'd better be born in the correct time period (it varies based on economic position in life, location, and employability).

* You'd better be born in the correct country (again, varies on . . . see above).

* You'd better subscribe to the correct mythology, or you're either getting persecuted or have the Bejeezus bombed out of you (and hey, it's a no-brainer, because you can turn all criticisms of your judgement right back to them!).

* Your sexuality better be to their liking, because Bible. And it somehow IS their business, because reasons.

* You'd better have an awesome set of DNA, or it's off to the bake sales and gofundme hell for you, you wealthcare liability.

* You'd better know what you want to do for a living starting around 13. And it better be economically viable.

* The GOP prefers you have a great mind for business. And that business better be a successful one, because everyone working for someone else is eventually going to get replaced by a robot.

* As far as college goes, anything other than STEM is a waste of money, so be inclined to do the right thing for the greater good.

I could go on for days, but the point is this: I would like to think that the path to making life fairer for everyone probably shouldn't involve having the people who don't believe in concepts such as privilege, patronage or luck running the show.

Seems every time America does something right . . . .

. . . . it really brings the fucking creeps, regressives, racists, sexists, hypocrites, historical revisionists, Defenders of the Faith-Based, size-shamers, misogynists, victim-blamers, victim-deniers, the logically challenged and the human rights deniers out of the rotted wood steps of humanity, doesn't it?

Dumb Letters to the PD Dept: Whole Heaping Helping of Hatred.

I see that Conservatives are getting tired of reliving the past.

That they want teh lib'ruls to talk about something other than a racist cloth of treason and sedition

. . . FINE.

LET'S DO THAT.

1. Explain to me how job offshoring, job inshoring, union-busting, wage suppression, corporate tax breaks, the shareholder value myth and automation, all business practices America (particularly conservative America, regardless of political affiliation) wholeheartedly supports, are conducive to the long term health of a consumer-based economy.

2. Explain to me how keeping, lowering or even more hilariously, eliminating a wage that already represents a buying power LOSS over time is a smart and economically sound move.

3. How do thousands upon thousands of debt-strapped millennials purchase big-ticket necessities such as homes, cars, education, health care, day care and appliances?

4. Is governing by mythology a sound idea?

5. Why do we still feel the need to be the world's cop when our infrastructure is crumbling?

6. Say a political party puts forth a serious candidate for President. How does anything get accomplished with a gerrymandered Republican House that controls all of the purse strings?

7. Why do Conservatives feel that any action that could help America is a giant waste of money, but are perfectly OK with allocating tax dollars to help destroy things (like human rights, a foreign country, etc.)?

8. Do Conservatives still believe there's no such thing as racism, sexism, human rights suppression, privilege, patronage or luck in 2015?

Hey, NO one wants to talk about an ugly and stained past, amirite? What's important is that we make them examine themselves on America's counterproductive present and inevitably ugly future.

Peasants are funny.

The funniest peasants are the kind of peasants that refuse to accept that they're peasants.

These peasants are extra hilarious when they ridicule other peasants they deem lesser than them for not remaining in their station and raising awareness about a wage that's LOST real-dollar buying power since 1968.

Rather than have every peasant unite for better wages for everyone, these better-than-thou peasants instead absolutely cannot sleep at night without assurance that the lesser peasant's life MUST SUCK worse than theirs does.

"Because absolutely NO ONE ON EARTH works harder than ME, Goddamnit! THEY are the stupid and lazy ones!!!"

The owners wholeheartedly thank you for carrying their water and keeping the heat off of them. Peasants.


"YEW WANT BETTER THEN 8 BUCKS AN HOUR, STUPED? MEET YER REPLAECMNT!! HAW HAW HAW HAWWWW!" - someone who's super-assured THEIR job cannot be automated.

Is trolling a board/page of a stance you hate generally a conservative phenomenon?

Say a page/board/ has a political, dietary, environmental, academic or cultural stance you are completely against.

Is it really a constructive use of one's time to troll that page? I don't get why someone would care SO MUCH; or worse yet, assume the board's regular participants who WANT to be there care so much.

For example, would any one of US be on sites like The Washington Free Beacon, The Moonie Times, Faux News or Conservative Tribune? Likely not . . . no minds would be changed (or, really, even penetrated), and you'd just get peppered with logical fallacy after ad hominem after stupidity.

I never understood the logic behind insulting people, yet it's the conservative that's on a board pertaining to something they don't like and assume people care about what they have to say. But . . . . we're somehow the assholes here.

Explain This To Me Like I'm A Complete Idiot, Part 15: No Millennial Left Behind?

Joseph Stiglitz on CNBC . . . man, this is TAXING to watch.

A reasoned professor of economics from Columbia University is really, REALLY trying to hold his own regarding income inequality against two reasoned hosts and one supreme wingnut joker in Joe Kernen.

My GOD, just put Joe on Faux already and get it over with.

Professor Stiglitz is offering reasonable and long-term solutions to a complex and long-standing problem - we're not taxing the wealthy enough, there needs to be reasonable regulations and tax regimens for small businesses vs coroporations, interest rates, Fed/Government involvement, etc etc etc

And what is Wingnut Joe doing?

* Joe trots out a long anti-Obama quote from Mr. Trickle Down UBS Bastard Phil Gramm of all people, cited in the Murdoch Street Journal, of course.
* Joe is still trotting out the same discredited right-wing canards of "entitlements", "Highest coroprate tax rate in the world", "stifling regulations", "The middle class of the 50s-70s was an anomaly because the rest of the world couldn't compete like they can now (which means a few of them volunteered to be corporate slavestates to the likes of Neutron Jack Welch)" . . . .
* Joe is still offering false dilemmas of "You want an entire country on the government dole??"
* Joe is STILL blaming Obama Obama Obama Obama even after, what, 60 consecutive months of positive private sector job growth. Fucking TIREsome.

It's amazing, truly, how large of a laughingstock our Fourth Estate is. We cannot even have a serious discussion with a Nobel Laureate regarding long-term concerns without turning it into a over-partisan comedy act.