July 26, 2024

Irish Dem for the win - coins a great slogan. The only thing Trump is successful at is FAILURE!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219240987

Check down thread on this link above.

The only thing Donald Trump has ever been successful at is FAILING.

July 22, 2024

Joy Reid just reported the AFL/CIO has unanimously endorsed Harris. n/t

July 18, 2024

Well, I am hearing the Pelosi, Schumer, Obama and Jeffries are now pressuring Biden to exit the race.

This whole thing is a bunch of horse shit.

The Democrats have lost all sense. They are pressuring Biden out. What will follow is a bitter internecine struggle that will leave our party divided FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE FUCKING ELECTION.

Two things:
1. If we are STUPID enough to do this because we are so intimidated by polls, we will lose the presidency, and possibly the senate and house. And I didn't capitalize any of those because I'm so fucking disgusted.

2. If we lose the fucking billionaire parasites who want 'just a little more' at our expense will do fine, but we will be fucked. You know why?

The 2025 project. It will create an American Reich and that's no shit. We aren't just talking about huge tax increases for middle class people so the worthless billionaires can pad their pockets.

Nope. We are talking about the end of the ACA, privatization of Social Security, the end of social safety nets. Deportations, concentration camps, and of course our wives, daughters and granddaughters will no longer have control of their own bodies - they won't even have fucking birth control. They are ALL gonna have big government in their uteruses.

And our grandkids. They are NEVER going to hear the truth because school curriculum will be subject to censorship and 'guidance' from know-nothing Trump loyalists and our public monies will go to send rich kids to private school while poor kids suffer.

But no worries! Drill-baby-drill and global warming won't even kill us.

Because Trump will stop supporting Ukraine and disband NATO, which will lead to a world war.

Assuming the American Reich will last about as long as Germany's did, in maybe 10 years enemy soldiers will be picking their way through the ruins of our cities while our grandkids starve and our people's blood runs in the gutters.

You know what kills me? All these people that have become preppers - spouting the bullshit maxim 'only the strongest survive.'

What utter shit! The thing that has kept us from going extinct for millennia is that we cooperate. If we were all social Darwinists believing only the strongest survive, we'd have gone extinct a long time ago.

And this is all happening because of the raw greed of 813 billionaires and the doctrine of shareholder primacy. It's utterly banal, but it will be fucking miserable and bloody. Millions will die because of fanatical fucks like Vance, Johnson, Bannon, Miller and the rest. Millions.

You know what? The last time the Democrats drove a sitting president out, we got fucking Nixon. And that was a walk in the park compared to what we'll get with Trump.

Unfortunately, if the Democrats are so intimidated by polls ordered and bought by publicly traded media companies that want a horserace because its good for fucking PROFITS, then they will be gone as a party. Bannon gave a straight arm salute after telling us they will be 'coming for' leading Democrats. You think he was kidding????

Yep, leading Democrats doing this misguided shit will get exactly the government they deserve, but they will all be rounded up anyway. Nacht und nebel anyone?

See the problem here is I do NOT deserve that government. Nor do my kids and grandkids, but its gonna happen because party leaders, people we've counted on, were too timid to get out and FIGHT.

In the meantime we have 'only the strongest survive' types stockpiling food, guns and building bunkers because they want to help God by ushering in the apocalypse. They are gonna find out the hard way that this 'only the strongest survive' state of anarchy will be just that, and most of them won't last a minute.

I'm sorry for us all. I really am. Because our own stupidity looks like it will usher in exactly what we do not want.

Sigh.

June 15, 2024

Found on Facebook: If the people stand...

It was pointed out the first picture I put on here had anti-Semitic overtones. I am sorry. So replacing it with a cat pic.

But here's a sculpture that has the same (non anti-Semitic concept). The original had a bunch of Wall Street greed-heads playing Monopoly on a table made of working class people. Wish I could have found one that isn't anti-Semetic.

But now, for your enjoyment, here's the sculpture Voldemort put up in the Ministry of Magic after he took over:

/revision/latest?cb=20110401003026

Maybe this one is better...

May 11, 2024

Women's issues now being discussed more openly and more generally, at least on MSNBC.

My wife and I were watching this morning around 10am eastern time, and the host - I think it was Katie Phang - had a woman on and they were talking about how Mother's Day is a scam here in America.

We pay lip service to how great mothers are, but in this patriarchal society, we spend $800 billion on weapons of death, but where are the reproductive rights? Where is the prenatal and postnatal healthcare? Where are the reduced or free school lunches? Where is the childcare?

This dialog has been around for decades, for sure, but now it's starting to hit the mainstream, and that is really, really GOOD. I can only hope CNN follows suit. We can be sure Fox won't.

May 4, 2024

'They're sending a message': harsh police tactics questioned amid US campus protest crackdowns

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/04/police-tactics-us-campus-protest-crackdowns

The only comment is these kids are our children and grandchildren.

Having come of age in the early 70s, I cannot help but wonder if the right wing is not paying provocateurs to go in and foment violence so police have an excuse to put down the protests with excessive force. Is this a new face of the old COINTELPRO? There's just no easy way to be free, is there?

Slip Kid, by the Who:
I've got my clipboard, text books
Lead me to the station
Yeah, I'm off to the civil war
I've got my kit bag, my heavy boots
I'm runnin' in the rain
Gonna run till my feet are raw

Slip kid, slip kid, second generation
And I'm a soldier at thirteen
Slip kid, slip kid, realization
There's no easy way to be free
No easy way to be free

It's a hard, hard world

I left my doctor's prescription bungalow behind me
I left the door ajar
I left my vacuum flask
Full of hot tea and sugar
Left the keys right in my car

Slip kid, slip kid, second generation
Only half way up the tree
Slip kid, slip kid, I'm a relation
I'm a soldier at sixty-three
No easy way to be free
Slip kid, slip kid

Keep away old man, you won't fool me
You and your history won't rule me
You might have been a fighter, but admit you failed
I'm not affected by your blackmail
You won't blackmail me

I've got my clipboard, text books
Lead me to the station
Yeah, I'm off to the civil war
I've got my kit bag, my heavy boots
I'm runnin' in the rain
Gonna run till my feet are raw

Slip kid, slip kid, slip out of trouble
Slip over here and set me free
Slip kid, slip kid, second generation
You're slidin' down the hill like me
No easy way to be free
No easy way to be free
No easy way to be free

April 26, 2024

Some thoughts on needless cruelty.

I just read the article on here about Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota who boasted about killing a good dog and then throwing its body into a pit.

A couple of years ago, I remember reading about a conversation Trump had with someone - he was just making conversation, and he said he was at an event and someone collapsed right in front of him. There was blood. What did he do? Turned away and left quickly.

Then he was having affairs with women while Melania was recovering from childbirth.

Let's not forget the Mittster, who tied his dog Seamus to the roof of his car and then drove cross country like that. Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher wrote “your dead kids don't trump my constitutional rights. Jim Jordan turned a blind eye to kids talking about how they had been sexually abused at Ohio State. I could sit and make a huge list of these kinds of things. But here's my question:

How did a substantial portion of our population lose their moral compass? Why are so many of us so needlessly, thoughtlessly cruel? Who made so many of us this way? Why?

And what about all these old white guys who are fine with women dying in hospital parking lots because they cannot get an abortion even if it is the only thing that will save their life? I'd like to ask them what if she was your daughter or granddaughter? You want to let her die because of ideology?

I was thinking about my dad today. He was buffeted by life, and died a bitter man. I watched as he became bitter and it was very sad. He was a lifelong Republican, but he served in the Second World War. You know, the one where we lost 600,000 of our people to get rid of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo and the rest of the fascist monsters. Dad fought in the Battle of New Guinea in 1944-45. He had a couple of medals but he didn't care much about them. He wouldn't talk to me about it either. I can remember once I asked him if he thought the war in Vietnam would still be going on when I got old enough. He looked somberly at me and said, "I hope not."

Dad would not recognize today's Republicans who have been so perverted by the Koch brothers, the Mercers and the rest of these freakish billionaires who are driving wedges between us so we won't notice them picking our pockets. AM talk radio...well, he would eventually have fallen prey to it. Fox 'news.' Same. But if he came back today, he'd shake his head.

We need to take back both patriotism and morality, because the Republicans have clearly become evil. And Russian, Chinese, and other enemy 'trolls' are on our social media working feverishly to keep this chaos going.

We can all help change our course, each in our own way. When I see it happening, I will speak out.

That's all...

April 15, 2024

Found on Facebook - Zappa on SNL with a letter board.

OK, typing it in laboriously, working my fingers to the bone, I tell you!

Frank Zappa pointing to a letterboard that has this poem:

Kind of prophetic, don't you think?

Let's see what 'make a link' does:

[link:https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=833040272193250&set=a.603067458523867|

March 21, 2024

Rustin on Netflix

My wife and I just watched Rustin, a movie on Netflix.

I had never heard of Bayard Rustin, but he was a major player in the Civil Rights movement, and he was the organizer of the March on DC in 1964.

The reason I never heard of him is that historians in the past downplayed his participation because he was gay. Obama gave him the Medal of Freedom in 2013 posthumously because he died in 1987.

The movie was GREAT. Colman Domingo turned in a stunning performance as Rustin, and Aml Ameen played Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was outstanding. Those people, all of them, were heroes. They really were. And now we know about Bayard Rustin.

Here's the trailer:

March 21, 2024

A thought about our culture of punching down.

Hello, all. I have just been thinking about getting kicked while you are down. Because I have been there. While the American people are generally good, we have a system - shareholder primacy capitalism - that nickels and dimes pretty much everyone to death.

For example, I pay for cable streaming. In August 2023, the company I use for high-speed internet, cable TV and yes, a land line (I know I'm a dinosaur), suddenly raised my monthly subscription price by 10.7%. I went into the soul-sucking black hole that is this company's 'customer care' system. After two marathon four or five hour sessions, I finally was connected with what can be called a 'churn manager,' which is a person who has just enough power to lower your price to where it is close to what you were paying - just a little higher, but hey, better than 10.7%.

This last month, I noticed they once again raised my price around $8 per month.

All about shareholder profits. That Wall Street bull be hungry!

My wife and I were watching John Oliver's show on student debt, and there was a young lady who had a loan balance of $80K to begin with. She has PAID ON THIS LOAN for ten years. Ten years, and she has paid in over $100K!

She still owes $76K. In the video, she asks, "How is this fucking possible?"

Oliver did a nice shout-out to Biden on that too, because he has acted to forgive billions in student debt. Biden's a good guy, and has been a really good president.

Anyway, I'm thinking about Trump. For years he has been the personification of zero-sum (for me to win, you must lose) capitalism. He has a long record of failing to pay people who provided goods and services to his business, and there are dozens, possibly hundreds of businesses who did work for Trump in good faith who are now bankrupt because he did not pay them.

He has also mocked individuals who have disabilities, incited violence and so on.

It is ironic how he now cannot come up with the money he needs for these settlements. Years of punching down, and now he is finding out what it is like to not have the money he needs.

My career life has been dedicated to bringing the peace of having enough to those who are victimized by economic violence. Because make no mistake. Poverty - simply not having enough is economic violence. Actual war accelerates this, as we see with the plight of Palestinian civilians, and the millions in Ukraine and Russia who have had their lives destroyed because of one monster.

But poverty is a slow burn. Grinding, perpetual economic violence. I'm talking about the people who are victims of poverty, hunger. People who do not have enough. Eleven people a minute on this planet starve to death. Millions of people in the US, including children, go hungry once in a while. Our kids are saddled with forever loans that keep them enslaved to predatory lenders. Like the young woman who still owes $76K after paying over $100K on a student loan originally in the amount of $80K. Old people like me continue to work because of HEALTH CARE DEBT.

This is economic violence. Working your ass off for $7.25 per hour, working two jobs because one won't do. Being a sick kid or flat tire away from losing your job. Being homeless because this country is so unforgiving to its poor. Kick 'em while they are down. Greed is good. That's the mantra. Privatize, deregulate and GUT government programs.

Anyway, the proverbial chickens are coming home to roose for Trump. No one will give him any money. I'm sure he 'went to Jared' who got $2 billion from the Saudis, but Jared isn't coming through. In fact he's been talking about expelling Palestinians from the beachfront in Gaza so he can profit off development.

Shareholder primacy capitalism is rotten to the core.

You wonder why the media is now reporting Trump is considering 'little Marco' as a running mate? Why they perpetuate the horse race narrative? Why they continue to tout poorly constructed polls that show Biden is supposedly 'deeply unpopular,' while it is their own failures in reporting the actual truth that has caused this hypothetical unpopularity.

Here's the thing to know:

CORPORATE OWNED MEDIA COMPANIES ARE PUBLICLY TRADED.

This means that their corporate officers, essentially everyone in managerial roles, including executive producers and directors have NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR TRUTH IN NEWS REPORTING.

Nope. Their ONLY fiduciary responsibility is to generate profits for shareholders. Back to my earler story about my cable company - MSNBC and NBC are owned by Comcast.

That Wall Street bull be HUNGRY, and that is why we do not get truth in news.

Punching down? Wall Street is a master at that, and we are all affected by their insatiable greed.

Oh well, rant over....