From The Other Side

Guys like Mike Pence just always seem not to understand that laws regarding anybody's rights have to ensure everybody's rights - and it doesn't matter that you didn't think of all the extreme shittiness that follows the logical progression of the effects of the law - you don't get to elevate the rights of your favorite group over the rights of any other group based solely on who they are, Mr Pence.  And the fact that you were completely in the dark about that shittiness shows how insular and beholden and captive you are to a radical cadre of Theo-Fascists.

And we're off to the races now.

I hereby do establish my religion - the Church of Our Lady of None Of Your Fuckin' Business, and I do further establish and ordain myself Lord High Inquisitor and Defender Of The Fairytale.  I will therefore go forth to impose upon the great unwashed the Holy Admonition according to The Gospel of The Coital Conifer Flower, for it is truly the foundation of faith for all who are stoopid enough to believe as I do - and judging by the current crop of idiot rubes who're more than willing to subscribe to just about any nonsense anybody can imagine as long as it allows them to feel special by slagging people they need to believe are worthy of being beaten down, my coffers will be filled beyond the dreams of Croesus in no time at all.

So here's the thing - my religion requires me to tell Gov Pence to go fuck himself with a pinecone, so the laws against public verbal assault and threatening behavior towards public officials mean nothing.  As of this summer, Indiana law requires the cops and the prosecutors to leave me alone and let me scream my silly little profanities at the governor every time I'm in earshot of him, or any of his staffers, or any of the suckers who think this stoopid law was a good idea.

But also, I wanna say it loud and clear to every eligible voter who stayed home on election day; everybody who was eager to sit on their asses while somebody else was out there doing the work of self-government.  Ya'll sat there and let this happen, so you can all go fuck yourselves with a pinecone too.

A Giant Killer

Elizabeth Warren continues to be a great example of what political courage looks like; and what happens when somebody who knows a little something about leadership in a representative democracy stands up and speaks the kind of truth that makes oligarchs very uncomfortable.

(Reuters) - Big Wall Street banks are so upset with U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's call for them to be broken up that some have discussed withholding campaign donations to Senate Democrats in symbolic protest, sources familiar with the discussions said.

Representatives from Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, have met to discuss ways to urge Democrats, including Warren and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, to soften their party's tone toward Wall Street, sources familiar with the discussions said this week.

Bank officials said the idea of withholding donations was not discussed at a meeting of the four banks in Washington but it has been raised in one-on-one conversations between representatives of some of them. However, there was no agreement on coordinating any action, and each bank is making its own decision, they said.

The amount of money at stake, a maximum of $15,000 per bank, means the gesture is symbolic rather than material.

Moreover, banks' hostility toward Warren, who is not a presidential candidate, will not have a direct impact on the presumed Democratic front runner in the White House race, Hillary Clinton. That's because their fund-raising groups focus on congressional races rather than the presidential election

Still, political strategists say Clinton could struggle to raise money among Wall Street financiers who worry that Democrats are becoming less business friendly.

The bit that I hi-lited in yellow wins this week's Corporate Bullshitter award.  A "cap" of $15,000 is window dressing.  It's "symbolic rather than material"?  Well dip me in shit and call me lonesome - whooda thunk it?  When you threaten to take that away from a candidate, it's a signal - it means you'll (prob'ly) be spending hundreds of times that amount on attack ads and mailings and blowjobs for the pimps at AEI so they'll pop up on DumFux News & Meet The Press Poodles to spout warnings about all the horribleness that's just gotta happen if Bad Ol' Perfesser Egghead won't let the Giant Vampire Squid continue sucking the life out of everything we thought we were all supposed to be working for.

But the red part's the real kicker.  More and more, it's not about who lives in the White House.  It's about who owns the US Senate and the Governors' mansions, and the state legislatures and on down the line.

So we're busy arguing over the Federal-level shit - where we get to have a president and a coupla dozen high-profile Senators and Representatives in order to maintain the illusion of "self-government" (and that's not bound to last much past the next few cycles if things don't change in a big fuckin' hurry) - while the American Aristocracy is even busier puppeteering the rubes into slashing and burning at the state- local- and municipal levels.

And one last item: I know it sounds like I'm railing against all the doom-and-gloom coming from "the right" by railing about doom-and-gloom from what you might see as "the left".  If that's how you hear it, then you've internalized all the Middle-Ground bullshit we hear every day from practically every media outlet everywhere, and you must get the fuck over it.  

The difference is that I'm arguing in favor of the firewalls that have to be in place as a way of preventing the toxic and corrosive effects of having too much power concentrated in too few hands, while the other side is pimping the wholesome goodness of outright authoritarian rule.

Get up on your hind legs and make some noise.

God Love Larry Wilmore

Sunday Music

My Oh My, Boll Weevil, Magnet, Julep --Punch Brothers

Peace Train (cover) --10,000 Maniacs

Today's Pix

New Media News

Get hip, hippies.  Ya wanna beat back the raging Tide Of Assholes?  Use your available resources.

The State Of The Fourth Estate (updated 0952EDT)

...is pretty fucking bad.

"...I've seen scaffolding that covers congress better than you guys."

hat tip = Blue Virginia

And now this:

Listening to Bill O'Reilly out-gassing about how journalism is supposed to work is like being lectured on fire safety by Mrs O'Leary's cow.

Questions On Sunshine

Why do we need "outsiders" to make us see these things?  

And just how fucked up is the "American Press" when they miss this to the point of it being totally unknown to practically everybody?

How have we managed to forget that allowing government to operate in secret is always the best way to encourage Official Skullduggery?  Weren't we supposed to be the exception to all that?

hat tip = truthout

Friday Tunage

Rock On --David Essex

Can't You See --Marshall Tucker Band

I Hear You Knockin' --Dave Edmunds Band

Ticket To Ride --Beatles

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover --Paul Simon

It Bears Repeating

“Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home – but not for housing. They are strong for labor – but they are stronger for restricting labor’s rights. They favor minimum wage – the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all – but they won’t spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine – for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing – but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think the American standard of living is a fine thing – so long as it doesn’t spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.”  --Harry S Truman

I posted this one a while back - and I think I may have tagged it with something like:

Gee, the more things change, the more they (the Grifters-On-Parade) stay the same.  

If I didn't, I should've.