Winter Sucks Now

I'm thinkin' I might hafta skip Leg Day tomorrow.  

And Cardio on Tuesday?  Yeah - that's lookin' a little iffy too.

What Bill Said

I'm not much of a Bill Clinton fan anymore, but here's a good one from a few years ago:

"It's arithmetic.  The top 25 Hedge Fund Managers made $14.14 Billion in 2012. They pay a 15% tax rate.  That's equivalent to 314,222 workers earning $45,000 a year.  And they pay a 35% tax rate.

It takes all of the income tax paid by 180,000 of these workers just to pay for the tax loophole for these 25 Hedge Fund Managers.

And that, my friends is only $2.8 Billion of the approximate $660 Billion in tax cuts that go each year to make the wealthy wealthier.

 Get up on your hind legs and push back - vote against this shit.

Bando del Diablo

We always tho't the kids in band were a little strange in high school.  Took all 45 years since then for me to learn how cool strange can turn out to be.

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

The Bullying Of America

Stand up.  Stand together.  Push back.

To borrow and paraphrase the old saw - getting bullied doesn't build good character in the victim, it reveals a lack of character in the bully.

Obama Roll

I used to call him President Lawnchair - mostly because I tho't he folded completely instead of really sticking it out on ACA (Public Option in particular).  And I continued that criticism for quite a while because it just looked like the guy wasn't all that willing to smack the Repubs around the way I tho't he should.

I can tell y'all now that I've changed my tune a bit lately, and while it'll take some study from an historical distance to see what all is what, I gotta say there might actually be something to the meme about how this guy plays a mean game of Fourple Dimension Chess; and we may be seeing a pretty good example of just how far into the future he's able to play.

I guess it's also possible he's been playing for this point in time all along, and he's about to kick over that one pawn that puts things in motion like a political Mouse Trap Game. (hey - let an old guy dream)

Obama wants to do something meaningful on Immigration, but he knows the Teabillies insist on forcing Baron von Boner and Mitchy-Mac to give guys like Chuckles Koch a loud sloppy blowjob in public, which makes it nigh-onto impossible for them to do anything else but stand in the way (or kneel if they're feeling particularly adept at multi-tasking), so Obama decides to use his authority as the boss of DHS to move ever so slightly forward.

Which means Boehner has only one tool, which is to threaten to withhold the funding for DHS, which means the "National Security Party" is saying "we're willing to drop all this pretentious chest-thumping bullshit about keeping America safe just so we can fuck over the Mexicans - and Obama".  Oops - Im betting they didn't mean to let it slip that DHS really is mostly pretentious chest-thumping bullshit, but for most of us, that cat's been outa the bag for quite a while - so maybe it's just time to let it go(?)  And as for "fuckin' over the Mexicans" - who doesn't know by now that that's what they wanna do?  Fuckin' somebody over is always what they wanna do, is it not?

Obama kinda has 'em by the nuts on that one.  

Now, add that to this:  The pentagon's latest assessment (QDR 2014) has concluded (again) that Climate Change (ie: congressional paralysis due to Climate Change Denial - hint hint) poses a significant threat to US National Security.  And that's across the board; from "Threat Multiplier" to just plain "making our job harder than it has to be".

Climate change poses another significant challenge for the United States and the world at large. As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather patterns are accelerating. These changes, coupled with other global dynamics, including growing, urbanizing, more affluent populations, and substantial economic growth in India, China, Brazil, and other nations, will devastate homes, land, and infrastructure. Climate change may exacerbate water scarcity and lead to sharp increases in food costs. The pressures caused by climate change will influence resource competition while placing additional burdens on economies, societies, and governance institutions around the world. These effects are threat multipliers that will aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions – conditions that can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence.

CHAPTER I: FUTURE SECURITY ENVIRONMENT 8 

(quick little note - this kind of straight-up declarative statement doesn't make the final cut without the approval of a lotta people who wear some very heavy hats)

So what's a poor Boehner to do?  

Obama is saying he wants DHS to do something about immigration and the Repubs are saying they'd rather close DHS down altogether than take the risk of getting something done on one of the GOP's favorite issues. (say wut now?)

Obama and DoD want to do something about Climate Change (even if it's just some attempt to mitigate the negative effects), while the Repubs insist first on doing nothing about Climate Change, and oh by the way, then insist again on doing nothing while Sequestration strips away the tax dollars that get poured into Defense Contractors' pockets; then laundered thru PACs; and then eventually find their way back into the campaign war chests of Coin-Operated Politicians - like John Boehner.

So who's all about the security of the homeland, and who's not?
Who's all about supporting the mission of our exalted military, and who's not?

From where I sit, I'm just wondering if there's ever been a Speaker of the House who ended up switching parties.  That dude is fucked 9 ways from Sunday.

But wait - do we need to talk about how maybe Boehner's playing the role of Sacrificial Savior of the Party?  Maybe he's whipping this thing into a rich creamy lather on purpose, making all the bubble brains float to the top so they can be skimmed off into the shitter(?)

Yeah, OK.  We'll call that one Low Probability #37, but I purely do like to hedge my bets.

Get 'Em, Charlie

Charlie Pierce is a fucking hero:

William Kristol is what you find at the bottom of a dumpster outside of a think tank on a hot day in July. Nobody has been more wrong about more important things with more devastating consequences, and somehow remained out of jail or a locked ward. A chickenhawk's chickenhawk, he slaves constantly to send other people's children off to be maimed and to die, and he still gets invited to all the best places as a "public intellectual." Yeah, and Charlie Manson taught thoracic surgery. But, against all possible odds, he may have outdone even himself this time.

Searching for new ways to call the president a coward -- And we'll get to the obvious joke in a minute -- he fastens on the two-fisted youth of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who has been invited by John Boehner to come over here and heckle the president as part of Netanyahu's campaign to compromise the president's foreign policy intiatives regarding Iran. The sneer behind the words is what you see on the face of a jackal that has found an apex predator to hide behind. 

Today's Pix And A Few Toons Too

Expanding The Narrative

And we're back for a bit longer look at some aspects of "Black History" that we (ie: I) never even thought about thinking about.

I got outa school a very long time ago, but the way I recall it, we were taught American History as The History of White People in North America.  And then once in a very long while, we also got this other thing - Native-Americans or Afro-Americans or Spanish-Americans or even on very rare occasions, Sino-Americans.  But nobody ever referred to Franklin or Jefferson or Lincoln or Calhoun or Lee or Davis or TR or FDR or or or;  as Euro-Americans.  Ever.

"Our" history of "our" country in "our" terms from "our" perspective, as told to "us" by "us".

Exclusive.  Restricted.  WASPs Only.

Here's a peek via HuffPo:

Every February during Black History Month, we recognize pioneers like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King who have pushed the civil rights agenda forward. However, the integral work of other activists is often ignored.

Rutgers University assistant professor Brittney Cooper joined HuffPost Live on Monday to discuss the exclusion of prominent black LGBT activists like Pauli Murray, who helped in the the progression of the civil rights movement.

From her campaign to matriculate into the University of North Carolina to her countless articles on race relations, Murray was an influential civil rights activist. Even with her list of accomplishments, Murray, who was of mixed-race heritage, saw her complex gender and sexual identity muted in favor of "respectability politics," Cooper said. Murray’s queer identity likely pushed the NAACP to ignore her case after she was arrested for refusing to move to the rear of a Virginia bus 15 years before Rosa Parks did the same thing in Alabama.

And here's a bit more on Pauli Murray: black, woman, LGBT.  Pretty much the trifecta.

Come To Where The Journalism Is

Dear American Media,

Where the fuck are you guys, anyway?

And why is it that we have to count on Jon Stewart, Larry Wilmore and John Oliver to do a better job of covering shit like this than all of your over-paid & under-performing Press Poodles who do practically nothing but pollute the public airwaves?

Get your shit together and try to act like you know what the fuck you're supposed to be doing.

Freedom Rings A Little Hollow

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over.

hat tip = FB buddy VWE and Addicting Info