Today's Toon

Happy Black Friday, Everybody

Because only in USAmerica Incorporated is it considered a time-honored and almost sacred tradition to trample each other trying to get into Wal-Mart less than 24 hours after we gave thanks for what we had the day before.

You go, America - all the world looks to you for your inspiring leadership.

OK - Maybe Just One

1. "How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion."

2. "Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape."

3. "Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be used and then discarded. We have created a 'disposable' culture which is now spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new."

4. "Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system."

5. "Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples is reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence."

--Pope Frank

I don't put any credence in it just because the guy happens to be the pope; I put some credence in it because the guy happens to be right.

(I said I was takin' a little break - not crawling off to die)

Break Time

Call it burn-out or fatigue or I-Just-Can't-Take-This-Shit-Right-Now, or whatever.

I'm off for a bit.

In the meantime, gitcher headphones on and enjoy some Paul Simon (from One Trick Pony).

Late In The Evening




How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns




Nobody




Oh, Marion




One Trick Pony

Make Me Wanna Holler

Inner City Blues --Gil Scott Heron

Today's Pix

Today's Toon

I don't much care for removing some of the safeguards that're supposed to help a democracy function - and I'm pretty sure the filibuster was intended to ensure that the minority's right not to get pushed around was properly looked after.  Of course, that was when (we think) there was still some honor in politics, and when the point of the exercise was to do a little thing we used to call "governance according to the outcome of recent elections".   But when it becomes clear that the minority is gaming the system, and abusing the power, then something has to change.

We do need to remember that these changes cover Executive Appointments, and Federal Bench Appointments - but not SCOTUS or Legislation.  So Little Mitchie can go right along fucking up his own part of Da Gubmint all he wants - he just won't be allowed to continue metastasizing his fuck-up-ed-ness to the other branches; which is kinda how it's supposed to be, innit?  It's set up to compartmentalize the power in order to isolate the damage any one guy or one faction can do to the whole thing.  Oooh - Checks-n-Balances; what a concept; maybe we should write that one down somewhere.

And isn't it interesting that "conservatives" spend so much time and effort complaining about how they think brown people (eg) are always exploiting their status as a minority to gain special rights and privileges, but they can't see the same behavior in themselves when they're the minority in question?

Then again, maybe they do see it in themselves, and they just project it onto the nearest target of opportunity, hoping we won't notice something a lot more important.  Ya think?

Seriously, They Just Lie

Via Rude Pundit (cain't hep muhsef - the guy's on fire):

And notice the kicker (from the GOP.gov website) - they "repealed" ObamaCare on 01-19-2011, and then, a day later, they passed a resolution instructing their committees to come up with a replacement.

They've got nothing.  They know their little scheme is going nowhere in the senate, and they know Obama wouldn't sign it into law, and they know they can't override a veto.  So they pretend - they literally just make shit up.

But to hear them tell it, Obama's the one who's lying about everything?

One last thing - their website also has this:

On the rare occasion when the Press Poodles aren't busy wearing their asses for hats, we've heard a tiny bit that the Deficit's been coming down in almost remarkable fashion (which means the Debt will be reduced as well).  And I've wondered why the Repubs aren't playing it up a little more, trying to claim it's because of their steely-eyed grit and determination to hold Obama's spend-thrift instincts in check blahblahblah.  They've tagged Sequestration as Obama's idea (in an obvious attempt to cause pain and then blame The Prez) but gosh - it seems to be backfiring on them.

Sequestration's still a pretty stupid thing, but they can't afford to own it and they can't afford to let it make Obama look good.  So by trying to have it both ways (as usual), they get dick (as it should be).

The Fuckery Of It All

From The Rude Pundit:

11/19/2013
GOP Gov. Scott Walker: Obamacare Sucks Except When It Doesn't:
Okay, kids, let's all follow the bouncing ball of fuckery, this time starring Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican and a man who looks like he just huffed spray paint fumes while rubbing a dead possum against his face:
So Walker has been hatin' on the Affordable Care Act for a while now. No way, no how was he gonna allow his state to set up an evil state exchange of evil heath insurance because fuck Obama and the care that bears his name. And no way, no how was he gonna expand Medicaid in his state because a man can't have helping the poor on his conscience if he's set his narrow, child molester eyes on a presidential run. 

Indeed, Walker hates Obamacare so very much that he has been on TV touting his book that not a fucking person will read by choice and saying he hates him some Obamacare. He told the conservative shithouse Newsmax, "[I]f I had a direct line into the president, and he was listening, I'd tell him that you need to back off on Obamacare. It's not just a failure in terms of the rollout, it's not just a failure in terms of getting people signed up, it has had an abysmal impact on our nation's economy."

Man, that dude is a drippy pustule of anti-Obamacare rhetoric. You can bet that he'll have not a goddamn thing to do with the president's health care folly. Except one thing.

See, Walker announced in February that the income level to get Wisconsin's Medicaid program, stupidly named "Badgercare," a previously "generous" 200% of the poverty rate, would be rolled back to 100%. What that would do is allow 83,000 childless adults to get health care by kicking 77,000 people, including families, off the badger teat.

Remember, kids, this is a bouncing ball of fuckery, so it's gotta go somewhere next.

So those 77,000 people are getting the dreaded cancellation notice - not from a company that's becoming Obamacare-compliant with its policies, but from Badgercare. Hopefully, the letters have some cartoon badger giving a thumbs-down to ease the hit.

Now, this is where it gets fun. What Walker expects is that the now-uninsured will get their health care coverage from...wait for it...the federal exchanges. Or, you know, Obamacare. According to NPR, "Walker says everyone losing coverage will be able to buy subsidized plans under the Affordable Care Act, and many will find monthly premiums under $20." Walker said that the federal subsidies bring down the cost a great deal. And then he added, "But Obamacare still sucks dog balls and I hate it. Really, really."

Do you get it? A Republican governor has proudly refused to legitimize the Affordable Care Act because it's just terrible, but he feels free to cancel insurance for tens of thousands under the pretense that the Affordable Care Act will get them the coverage they need because it's so good and affordable and saves the state money it can use to get others on Medicaid. 

To go further, every person who has had their policy canceled because of the ACA is expected to get insurance through exchanges, federal or state. For that, President Obama is getting raked over the coals of a gross media narrative. Scott Walker does the exact same thing (no, really, it's the exact same thing, except that it involves poor people), and you hear not a whisper of anger from conservatives.

And that's your right-wing fuckery for the day.

Another political angle of this maneuver is that Walker needs those 77,000 people pissed off at the Federal Government by blaming Obamacare for "canceling" their coverage - counting on those thousands of people having lots of trouble getting help through a glitchy website - all in order to deflect criticism of his administration for fuckin' 'em over in the first place.

No soul and no honor.

The Gettysburg Silliness

On the grand occasion of the 150th anniversary, Obama reads a version of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (one of 5 known versions, btw), and because that version doesn't include the phrase 'under god', the Bloglodytes have their frenzy du jour, and everybody gets to boost their site visits by doing battle over something that means nothing - again.

Try to remember - the "original" apparently doesn't exist, so we can chase our tails in tighter and tighter circles til we disappear up our own assholes, and we still won't know for sure what the guy actually said.

For me my own self, any time somebody leaves god the fuck out of it - well, that just feels like a breath of clean fresh air to me.

The Gettysburg Address (pointing out a few discrepancies with the Ken Burns version below)