Thanksgiving Poem

Kopis'taya (A Gathering of Spirits)
by Pueblo and Sioux writer Paula Gunn Allen

Because we live in the browning season
the heavy air blocking our breath,
and in this time when living
is only survival, we doubt the voices
that come shadowed on the air,
that weave within our brains
certain thoughts, a motion that is soft,
imperceptible, a twilight rain,
soft feather's fall, a small body dropping
into its nest, rustling, murmuring, settling
in for the night.

Because we live in the hardedged season
where plastic brittle and gleaming shine,
and in this space that is cornered and angled,
we do not notice wet, moist, the significant
drops falling in perfect spheres that are certain measures
of our minds;
almost invisible, those tears,
soft as dew, fragile, that cling to leaves,
petals, roots, gentle and sure,
every morning.

We are the women of the daylight, of clocks
and steel foundries, of drugstores
and streetlights, of superhighways
that slice our days in two. Wrapped around
in plastic and steel we ride our lives;
behind dark glasses we hide our eyes;
our thoughts, shaded, seem obscure.
Smoke fills our minds, whiskey husks our songs,
polyester cuts our bodies from our breath,
our feet from the welcoming stones of earth.
Our dreams are pale memories of themselves
and nagging doubt is the false measure
of our days.

Even so, the spirit voices are singing,
their thoughts are dancing in the dirty air.
Their feet touch the cement, the asphalt
delighting, still they weave dreams upon our
shadowed skulls, if we could listen.
If we could hear.

Let's go then. Let's find them.
Let's listen for the water, the careful
gleaming drops that glisten on the leaves,
the flowers. Let's ride
the midnight, the early dawn.
Feel the wind striding though our hair.
Let's dance the dance of feathers,
the dance of birds.

hat tip = The Rude Pundit

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)

Wonkette Rulez

Today at Wonkette:

You guys, Cher said a cuss about Sarah Palin, and not just any cuss but the worstest most terrible cuss in the whole wide world unless you live in England where they call their moms that, and also the postman, and also, like, a cup of tea. They are all like, would you pass me that cunty cuppa, and yes I would like some cream. My point is, they do not seem to think it is the worstest most terrible cuss in the whole wide world, but here in the good old US Amercia, we surely do! And that is why Ben Shapiro, the escaped patient from Ghost Andrew Breitbart’s Internet Hospital for the Criminally Sniveling, some chick, whatever, is so, soooo, sooooooo mad at Cher for calling Sarah Palin a “cunt,” except she did not actually say “cunt,” she said “dumb c-word,” because we are all children apparently.

Cher’s current hit, “Woman’s World,” is her eighth song to hit number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Song list. A repeated lyric in the song is “This is a woman’s world.”

Instead of celebrating her hit the liberal feminist decided to tweet out a vitriolic and disgusting slang word toward Sarah Palin, the “C” word. The use of the “C” word is the lowest low anyone could use to describe a woman. Apparently in Cher’s “Woman’s World,” it is appropriate to call a fellow female this disgusting and inappropriate term.

You guys, let’s talk about cunts. And also pricks. And assholes. Let’s talk about all kinds of things!

Do men fall on their fainting couches every time someone calls them a dick? Is a vagina a worse thing to have than a penis? THEN THEY ARE THE SAME INSULT. GET THE FUCK OVER IT. Women! Did someone call you a cunt? Stop weeping, and thinking it is the worst thing in the universe. You have one. Love it. Nurture it. Put some fucking glitter on that shit and get all Jennifer Love Hewitt up in there. (Also, STOP WAXING IT. Why would you repay a body part that’s given you so much pleasure, with so much pain?) Men! Does a woman calling another woman a cunt make you want to pretend to be very, very angry at antifeminist acts of non-sisterhood? Shut your fucking dickholes, and let the women fight their own fucking battles, Sir Knightly Knight-Errant of the Hoboken Knights-Errant.

Also, in German, the worst name you can call a woman is “schlampe,” which means a slobby woman, or a bad housekeeper. You want to insult someone, try that. Fuckin’ OUCH.

We need a name for when people become temporary feminists every time Sarah Palin gets a mean word said at her. Doktor Zoom suggests “palio-feminists.” Internet, make it happen. 

Jesus Was Beast, Man

So, in the face of the criticism that they're not following the teachings of their savior, do these TheoCons change their approach?  No, of course not - they just change Jesus.  They change history all the time - why not simply redefine the "son of god" to fit their political narrative?



Oh yeah - please tell us General Boykin, if a real man (like Jesus) has bulging biceps and a thin waist and veins popping out on his forearms - and not the "effeminate" wuss you claim the church has turned him into - I guess I'm wondering why you're not trying just a little harder to follow that example?  Looks to me like you could benefit from lugging a few rocks around your own bad self.

You can't be like that Girlie Jesus, so you turn him into Hunk Jesus; and then you can't be like that Jesus either.  Fail at every turn.  Here's what ya do: head down to the bank, take out all your money, and then go buy yourself a fuckin' clue.

hat tip = Addicting Info

Unwitting

Remember "Total Information Awareness"?

It's been kinda interesting to hear how outraged people said they were when they found out NSA was scooping up emails and phone calls, and then to see how it's all but become a non-issue lately.  I'm not saying they should've done everything it appears they've done - there's a bunch of it that's flat out illegal, and I stand by my "fuck you, NSA" campaign all the way.  But really, how hard do we make those guys work, considering all the little pieces of info we leave lying around almost every minute of every day?



Privacy only works if you close the door and draw the curtains once in a while.

Best Be Doin' Somethin' About it

Paraphrasing JC Cregg: "Does it bother you at all that they have to stop every few minutes because somebody requires medical attention?"

KUSA - Denver Broncos safety Rahim Moore had surgery Monday morning for lateral compartment syndrome in his lower leg, interim coach Jack Del Rio said.

Moore is out "this week for sure, possibly longer," Del Rio said. He was experiencing pain during Sunday night's win against Kansas City.

Compartment syndrome occurs when pressure within the muscles builds. This pressure can decrease blood flow, which prevents nourishment and oxygen from reaching nerve and muscle cells, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

"It's a new one for me. I'm learning about it. It's kind of one of these freakish things that kind of occurred," Del Rio said. "It can be a very serious injury and can lead to loss of limb or loss of life."

Concussions and Brain Disease and Crippling Joint Damage and Steroids and Thuggery and and and - I wonder if we're seeing the beginning of the end for football.

But then I get the feeling that it's all part of Bread and Circus - it keeps us occupied with trivial spectacle while our "leaders" busy themselves making our decisions for us.

Today's Pix

The KrugMan Speaks

Paul Krugman - NYT

Barry Ritholtz reminds us that we’ve just passed the third anniversary of the debasement-and-inflation letter — the one in which a who’s who of right-wing econopundits warned that quantitative easing would have dire consequences. As Ritholtz notes, they were utterly wrong. Also, rereading the letter now, you have to wonder what kind of economic model they had in mind. They asserted that:

"The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment."

So they’d be inflationary without being expansionary? How was that supposed to work? There were a few actual economists in the group; do they subscribe to the doctrine of immaculate inflation?

When you get it wrong, you're supposed to say something along the lines of, "Oops - sorry - my bad", and then you're supposed to shut the fuck up for a while so people who haven't got it wrong can be heard.  That's the way I learned it; I'm pretty sure that's the way most of us learned it; so why do we continue to listen to these Wrongsters, and keep giving them any kind of platform to say wrong things?

Oh yeah - because it's not about getting it right, it's only about getting it "balanced".

Silly me - never mind.

BTW: Immaculate Inflation?  Fuckin' genius is all that is.

Today's Gun Freak

From our dear neighbor to the south:

WILKESBORO, N.C. — A man accidentally discharged his gun inside a Wilkesboro GNC store during a discussion about the second amendment, striking a printer, according to police.

According to a Wilkesboro Police Dept. incident report, officers responded to the GNC store on Winkler Street around 8 p.m. Tuesday.

A witness told police he was speaking to a customer and they were discussing second amendment rights and guns around 6:50 p.m. The customer then pulled out his handgun and accidentally fired a shot, striking a printer, the witness said.

The customer then reportedly told the worker “he could not go down for this.”

The customer was described as a white male, younger than 28-years-old, brown hair, brown eyes, 5’8″ and around 170 pounds. He left the store in an early 2000s model dark colored Honda Civic.

No injuries were reported.

Just remember - office machines can be dangerous and vicious.  Damned thug printer prob'ly had it comin'; it must've threatened the poor guy and he had no reasonable alternative but to stand his ground and shoot the thing before it inked him or paper jammed him or violently taunted him again with another indecipherable error code message.

One From The Rude Pundit

Hard to say it better'n this:

11/14/2013 Obama to Nation: Keep Your Fuckin' Plans, You Stupid Cowards:

In a sane era, not an ideal one, but a sane one, the President would have gone to congressional leaders and said, "Hey, what are some things we can do to make the Affordable Care Act work better?" Now, in the fantasy sane era - and, again, we're not saying it's some fuckin' "Kumbaya" era of holding hands, but just a time when people in the government actually want the government to, you know, function like a government - members of both parties would offer things that they would like to see in the law. Democrats might have said something about outreach. Republicans might have said something like "Why don't we let people keep their heath care plans?" Things would have been negotiated and the law would have been strengthened or, at least, smoothed up a bit.

Alas, we do not live in such an era. Instead, we must deal with the constant buzzing of our water boatman politicians. The water boatman is an insect that, relative to its size, gives off a mighty sound. It makes this annoying chirp/buzz by constantly rubbing its dick on its belly. There's your picture for the day: Ted Cruz grabbing his tumescent cock and scraping it back and forth across his hairy stomach as it emits a call for perverse teabaggers to mate with his narrow, self-serving ideology.

Instead of Barack Obama and the House GOP agreeing that the law is the law and making it function for Americans, we get the sight of Obama appearing before the press corps and saying, more or less, "Goddamn, I'm sick of you motherfuckers whining about your shitty ass health insurance getting canceled because your provider is just a bunch of sick, greedy dickheads who would murder you where you sit if it would squeeze one more cent of profit out of your useless bodies. You wanna cling to your high deductible, low benefit policy for another year because you're scared that the black man president might be right and all that Fox 'news' noise might be wrong? Fine. Fuck it. Kiss my ass and keep your shit plan. Don't come whining to me when it turns out that your insurer drops your sorry ass when you get too sick for it. You asked to be grandfathered in, so lick grandpa's balls and tell me how tasty they are now. Now, can we please talk about the fact that Republicans want to kick over 100,000 people who just got insurance off it?"

Imagine for a moment, just one clear moment, what would have happened if, after the law passed, Republicans hadn't been such total pricks about the ACA, if just a quarter of the votes to repeal Obamacare had been on things that make the law stronger (or even more Republican). No, they couldn't. That would legitimize the law and Barack Obama as president. They have to keep hitting at the ACA as if it's the last windmill in Spain. Just think, though, what would have happened if all states had set up their own exchanges, if they had accepted the Medicaid expansion, if, if, if. It wouldn't have been perfect, but at least it would have worked as it was created to work instead of the horrific Frankenstein monster of a thing it was forced to become. The only way not having a public option for insurance works is if the states acted responsibly. They did not, in a way calculated to undermine the President and a Congress from just a few years ago. Democrats got suckered, again, into thinking that Republicans would behave honorably.

If President Obama seems frustrated, it's because he should be. Used to be people gave a damn when a law was passed. They shifted their perspective and acted in concert with the law. If they disagreed with it, they elected new people who overturned it (if the courts wouldn't). The tactics used by the right on Obamacare would have made Abbie Hoffman at his most radical say, "Goddamn, that'll lead to anarchy." On January 1, there's probably gonna be hospital sit-ins or some such shit. And it's hilarious that the GOP is acting as if, pre-ACA, it was all free gold and pussy for people with health insurance, not that it was (and is) a cruel, callous, capitalist system that saw people routinely kicked off their policies for taking one too many pills or being a little late with a payment.

So can we move forward now? Is it possible to get to that place where we simply try to, for fuck's sake, get people some health care and not act like it's a privilege for the few?

When The Law Is An Ass

From The New Statesman:

The second kind of civil disobedience, which is the one that I wish to consider, is its employment with a view to causing a change in the law or in public policy. In this aspect, it is a means of propaganda, and there are those who consider that it is an undesirable kind. Many, however, of whom I am one, think it to be now necessary.

Many people hold that law-breaking can never be justified in a democracy, though they concede that under any other form of government it may be a duty. The victorious governments, after the Second World War, reprobated, and even punished, Germans for not breaking the law when the law commanded atrocious actions. I do not see any logic which will prove either that a democratic government cannot command atrocious actions or that, if it does, it is wrong to disobey its commands.

It's a bit dense and wordy and even a little passive, but the guy makes a point worth remembering.