Apr 14, 2016

Today's Tweet

Day-Before-Yesterday's Tweet actually.  But hey - my blog, my rules - fuck off.

(whoa - that sounded way more like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz than anybody should be at all comfortable with. Sorry)

Anyway:



So - again - all you clear-eyed pragmatic super-genius "conservative" bidness folk, please tell me how you wouldn't completely lose your shit like a Cocoa-Puffs-Denied 4-year-old at Kroger if a customer expected you to deliver 100% of the goods and services while intending to pay 79% of the invoice.

Today's GIF

...is possibly the best GIF ever.  I may hafta post this one every week or so, and retire the GIF posts altogether.

 

Apr 13, 2016

Today's Tweet



Cuz when you're a clear-eyed pragmatic business super-genius (as are all "conservatives"), you have an innate understanding that the way you grow your enterprise into a thriving overarching success is to make sure your Prospective Customer Base is as narrow and shallow as possible - just like your dumb-as-a-fucking-stump attitudes.

Apr 12, 2016

Lest We Forget

Joe Biden is the first US Vice President in over 10 years not to have shot somebody in the face.

True story.

hat tip = Twitter pal Miles

Today's Pix













C'Mon You Guys


And I'll keep asking: Why does a once-a-week comedy show have better reporters and better investigators and better writers - and producers with more balls - than every fucking news organization on the air!?!

Apr 11, 2016

Today's Tweet

Dots

Fun fact reminder: the American economy took a 12-14 Trillion-Dollar hit starting in 2008.  

And tax-payers had to borrow that much (paying interest, of course) from our buddies around the world, and that means - lemme see - about 13 Trillion plus about 2-and-a-half percent interest - gosh, it seems we might have a number that fairly closely resembles the horribleness of the $15 - 18 Trillion added to our national debt that "Conservatives" love to bitch about.


Or maybe it's purely coincidental.  I suck at math, and I'm often real wrong about a lotta things.  But my Spidey Sense tells me the guys who make billions off of Other People's Money aren't likely to become saintly and altruistic just because their shit hits somebody else's fan.  They'll do what they know how to do - which always comes down to making sure they're not the ones left holding the bag.

And oh yeah - I want Elizabeth Warren to stay where she is, doing exactly what she's doing for a good long time.  Dang - the mad crush on that woman continues unabated.

"Breaking"


Wow. Hey look - breaking news.  Corporatized Lobbyists don't just write the legislation; and they don't just bribe our Coin-Operated Politicians to vote for or against it - they also tell us what our opinions are.

OPINION COLUMNS PUBLISHED in California newspapers over the last year in support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership use language nearly identical to drafts written and distributed by public relations professionals who were retained by the Japanese government to build U.S. support for the controversial trade agreement.
Take this column by former San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders, who now serves as the president and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, titled: “Trans-Pacific trade pact benefits San Diego.”
Much of the language in Sanders’ op-ed also appears in a “San Diego Draft op-ed” distributed by Southwest Strategies, a consulting firm paid by the Japanese government to promote the TPP:

Jerry Sanders: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is significant”

Southwest Strategies: “Notably, the TPP includes Japan, which is critical”
And somehow, this is news.  Full circle. The loop is closed.  Has been for a while, actually.  Nothing to see here.  Get back to work; or go back to sleep; or watch some more of the Daily Freak Circus on TV.

They pretend to tell us what's going on, and we pretend that none of it really matters.


Isn't it great to live in a free society like USAmerica Inc?

Apr 10, 2016

Things We Dare Not Do

Public schools
End slavery
Trust-Busting
Federal income tax
Allow labor to organize
Child labor laws
Voting rights for women
Regulate banks
Federalize the currency
Minimum wage
Social Security
Desegregation
Voting rights for 'blacks'
Medicare
Head Start
Childhood nutrition
Permit interracial marriage
Pollution prevention
A woman's right to choose
AIDS research
Sex Education
Stem cell research
Marriage equality

and on and on and on.

"Conservatives" have always argued against these things, saying they'll cause the collapse of industry, or the ruination of the family, or the end of America.

"Conservatives" have railed against policies that are in keeping with a basic rock-solid American value of doing what we can in order to form a more perfect union.  They've argued against doing the right thing; against doing what's best for the most.  They argue against keeping the promises we've made to ourselves, and to each other, and to generations beyond what we can see from where are now.

Every time.  Every issue.  The argument is always overblown, and it's always wrong.

How does anybody with pubic hair stay with these clods?

Today's Pix











Apr 9, 2016

Why I Love it

Well, to be a little clearer, I love parts of the silly season - I'm gettin' pretty tired of the Silly Season That Won't Fucking End, but there are certain things about it that I do still truly love.

This for instance:



Somebody always comes out with a version of this, and I love that part of the silly season a lot.

It might be a repeat - don't know and don't care.

Saturday Tunes

Feelin' The Itch

Today's GIF

Lungs are nuthin' short of amazing.

Apr 8, 2016

GOP Ain't Shit

So I'm thinking there has to be something wrong with the GOP - no really, something way wronger than the usual junk we see every day.  Something fundamental.  There's a serious rot problem in the heartwood. 

They're always telling us that the only polling that counts is the polling that happens on Election Day, and we hafta let the people decide.  Well first, how come Repubs are working so hard to keep people from voting? And second, why are Repub leaders in Congress so sure the people didn't decide they wanted Obama to appoint a Justice to SCOTUS (eg) if need be? They say all these high-sounding things about democracy and then ignore the decisions people make when those decisions don't jive with GOP thinking?  If that thinking is so obviously superior, why is it so often a direct contradiction of what so many people are  telling them?  Elitist much?

Here's the kicker - Repubs and "Conservatives" (and Neo-Liberals too) love to link themselves to Business; they preach at us every day that we have to run the joint like a business; "the free market" - that magical marketplace of ideas - provides all the truly great pronouncements about quality and truth and America-ness because we're "letting the market make the call".

But it's largely an upside down bullshit little game.  People have been polling and voting in favor of (eg) Zero-Emmission Cars and Solar Energy and a Greener Planet for a coupla generations now, but the (mostly) Republicans have perverted that message and have been telling us that what we're really saying is that we want more Ford Pintos and Coal Mining Jobs and 8-Dollar Toasters.

Gotta remember that popular doesn't necessarily mean good and unpopular doesn't necessarily mean bad, but over a period of time, when millions of your "customers" are trying hard to send you the message that your product stinks because your company's been taken over by people who can't be trusted to run a high school car wash, ya gotta brighten the fuck up a little and make some changes.

That's the "Marketplace", guys - it's speaking in loud clear ways; has been for years. You can't take all that feedback and pretend forever that it doesn't say what it says.  And you can't just throw some pixie glitter in the air and wish for a whole new set of customers.

You have to make some changes.

(And BTW: let's not hear any more about "conservatism hasn't failed us, we've failed to be conservative enough".  Cut that shit out.  The Soviets sounded stoopid when they were singing their version of it in the late 80s and you don't sound any smarter now. So just stop it.)