NAFTA is Becoming a Campaign Issue

And it’s about time. NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was supposed to provide hundreds of thousands of new jobs in America; and higher wages for American workers. And — get this! — NAFTA was going to boost the economy in Mexico so that impoverished Mexicans would no longer have to sneak across the American border. Hahahahahahaha.

You know that sheepish beat-yourself-up feeling you get after you’ve sent $50 to a post office box so you can find out about stuffing envelopes at home for thousands of dollars a week? Well, that’s how gullible Congress was when they bought this bill of goods in 1994.

This agreement has been etched in stone all during Clinton’s and Dumbya’s presidencies. But now Obama and Hillary (it has sort of a hollow ring to it in her case) are both talking about rewriting NAFTA so that it includes workers’ safety and environmental protections.

NAFTA was rammed through Congress by some of the world’s largest corporations. Undoubtedly these same 800-pound gorillas will throw their weight around if the next president tries to renegotiate the agreement.

McCain is taking the opposite side, warning of the dire consequences that will occur if NAFTA is renegotiated.

McCain said tampering with NAFTA could jeopardize the crucial military support we've been getting from Canada. Gee, I thought Canada was just a bunch of anti-war potsmoking gay-marrying socialists. Isn't that what Rush O’Hannity is always saying?

McCain needs to get his Talking Points straight.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Ripped-Off Customers: Light at the End of the Tunnel?

According to this Business Week article, 2007 might be remembered as the year angry customers started fighting back. We all heard about the 76-year-old woman who came storming into her local ComCast office with a hammer and started swinging. After damaging a keyboard and a phone, she yelled out “have I got your attention now?”

And last Spring a pissed-off Apple customer made a YouTube video of himself smashing his Macbook with a sledgehammer after Apple refused to honor a service warranty. So far over 340,000 people have seen the video. (And Apple has agreed to replace his defective computer.)

The author, Jena McGregor, says: “Consumers already pushed to the brink by evaporating home equity, job insecurity, and rising prices are more apt to snap when hit with long hold times and impenetrable phone trees.”

She uses the term Consumer Vigilante. Even if you don’t settle your grudge with a sledgehammer, more and more people are discovering that there are other options besides sitting there waiting on hold all afternoon because both operators are busy.

The e-mail carpet bomb is becoming more popular.

Last October a National Public Radio host created a website called ComCastMustDie.com. The article has a few other examples of pissed off customers who settled things their own way.

And occasionally the courts come through. A few days ago, one of those slippery HMOs got hit with a crushing left hook to the bank account. In 2004, Health Net canceled a woman’s medical insurance while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She was left with $129,000 in unpaid medical bills. A judge has ordered Health Net to repay the $129,000 plus $750,000 for emotional distress and $8.4 million in punitive damages.

As conservatives are always saying, severe punishments are the only way to deter criminals.

Health Net is also being sued by the City of Los Angeles for illegally canceling the health insurance policies of 1,600 other patients. The company had an incentive program: administrators had to meet a certain cancellation quota, and if they exceeded their quota they'd get a bonus. (See, this isn't just something Michael Moore dreamed up.)

Maybe these are just isolated incidents, or maybe there's a positive trend. No matter who or what gets elected next November, maybe this 21st Century Gilded Age is starting to wane.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

And Jesus Said: “Gouge Thy Neighbor”

It might seem to you that Evangelicals — the same people who go apeshit over abortion and the “Homosexual Agenda” — have been strangely silent about the cheating and gouging done by corporations. And you would be right.

This article, along with the accompanying map, shows a strong correlation (by state) between payday lenders — and other legalized loansharks — and the percentage of Evangelicals and Mormons who live in that state. Basically, the more lily-white and Jesus-spouting the population is, the more tolerant they are of those money-changers that their idol drove from the temple.

This map also gives new meaning to the term Red State. The deeper the shade of red, the more payday lenders the state has per 10,000 residents. Utah and a whole slew of southern Bible Belt states are the reddest in terms of payday lenders and Biblehumpers.

The one exception to this trend is Nevada. They have a lot of payday lenders, but at least for them it’s consistent with their freewheeling anything-goes attitudes. And Nevada still has a lower ratio of payday lenders than those Family Values states in the south.

Now, the same Holy Book that (supposedly) screams about homosexuals, abortion and premarital sex also has a few things to say about usury:

“If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.”

“If he has exacted usury Or taken increase — Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be upon him.”

Check out the link; there's a whole screenload of passages about usury (hint: none of them are in favor of it).

Funny how the Holier-Than-Thou brigade has “forgotten” about these Biblical passages. But hey, at least they have Values.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

The Terrorists Have Won!

Those F&%^$#!%$# Democrats If they hate America so much, why don’t they just leave???

We had such a nice cozy arrangement between the federal government and the telecommunications industry. The telecom companies were enabling our intelligence agencies to spy on Americans — anybody, any time they felt like it. And in return, we promised the telecom companies they wouldn’t be sued over civil liberties or the Bill of Rights or whatever it is those whiny liberals are always wailing about.

And now, the House of Representatives has shown us — once again — whose side they're on. They’ve allowed the Protect America Act to expire. The telecom companies are no longer immune from lawsuits triggered by their spying activities. And because of this, they might be less willing to help the government spy on American citizens.

The spoiled drug-addled fratboy President of the United States has been begging, pleading and stamping his foot, trying to get Congress to provide retroactive immunity for the telecom companies so they can't get sued by every whiner that comes along. These Congressional Democrats had better hurry up and bend over for Dumbya — and you know they will; they always do — before the terrorists attack.

If the telecom industry doesn’t have retroactive immunity from lawsuits, what dire circumstances can we expect? Well, for openers:

This means Osama bin Laden and Hillary Clinton can talk on the phone with no fear whatsoever. There'll be nothing to deter them. They can talk about their plan to bring America to her knees, and we won't even know about it until it’s too late. That smoking gun will turn out to be a giant mushroom cloud!

Barack Obama is probably sending a triumphant e-mail right now to Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (with a copy to Hugo Chavez). “Yes!!! It worked. Those stool pigeons in Congress fell for our propaganda, hook line and sinker. Now we can hatch our evil plans and get all of our codes and signals worked out. And then — BWAAAHAAHAAHAAHAA!!!!! Praise Allah!”

cross-posted at Bring It On!

When Sleazy Companies Shortchange Their Workers, It Can Get Expen$ive

Three cheers for the IRS! As hated as they are, sometimes they end up doing the jobs of our government “regulators,” using the term loosely.

The IRS has ruled that FedEx is no longer entitled to receive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of welfare payments. These handouts were being given by FedEx workers to their bosses.

Here's how the scam worked: 13,000 FedEx employees were reclassified as “independent contractors.” The IRS ruled that this classification was incorrect, and that FedEx illegally “saved” $319 million in taxes in 2002. The IRS is still auditing FedEx for 2004 through 2006.

The Teamsters Union — who's been pushing this case — thinks FedEx could ultimately owe the IRS a billion dollars.

Companies save a fortune when they redefine their employees as “independent contractors.” A company doesn’t have to pay workers’ compensation, unemployment or disability taxes, Social Security or Medicare taxes to an independent contractor. Independent contractors also aren't subject to minimum wage laws and they have no government guarantee of a safe work environment.

It must have seemed like the best of both worlds for FedEx: they could keep their workers straitjacketed with a million company regulations, and then wiggle out of paying their fair share of taxes by calling them “independent contractors.” Fun’s over, Assholes.

If you want to decide whether these FedEx workers are employees or independent contractors, take the “DUUHH” test: they use FedEx equipment, they wear FedEx uniforms and they work under strict FedEx rules. Independent contractors???

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Chickenhawks: What Makes Them Tick

Whatever you want to call them — Chickenhawks, Keyboard Warriors, the Chairborne Division — this species has been with us for a long time.

This article by Glenn Greenwald offers a glimpse into that pitiful mindset. There's nothing new about today’s armchair warrior who bravely fights Evil and Terror from behind his computer console. In 1776 Adam Smith wrote:

“In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies . . . .
They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war.”

Now fast forward to 1964 for this Harper’s Magazine essay: “The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms — he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point.”

And now we arrive at the 21st century for this New Yorker description of Joe Lieberman: “A few years ago, I was in a movie theatre in Washington when I noticed Lieberman and his wife…The film was ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ in which Owen Wilson plays a U.S. pilot shot down in Bosnia. Whenever the American military scored an onscreen hit, Lieberman pumped his fist and said, 'Yeah!' and 'All right!'"

It’s hard to picture that mealy-mouthed whiny-voiced little dweeb pumping his fist and yelling, but anyway…

As Greenwald says: “Far from being ‘psychologically exhausting,’ the Wars against the Most-Evil-Enemies-Ever that take place inside the head of the Mark Steyns and Joe Liebermans are exhilarating and fun, and they provide the weak, purposeless and powerless with their only opportunity to feel strong, purposeful and powerful.”

He also says: “This is why our nation's faux-warriors can never be reasoned with. It's why their greatest fear is having the Threats from Our Enemies be put into rational perspective, alongside all the other garden-variety manageable threats we face. To argue that they are exaggerating and melodramatizing the Enemy and the threat is to take away from them that which is most personally important to them.”

Kind of sad, isn't it. If you're a veteran and/or have lost family members or friends in one of America’s elective wars, there's a natural tendency to hate these sheltered keyboard know-it-alls. But maybe we should feel sorry for them instead.

Nah!

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Barack Obama: a Threat to Big Business

There are exceptions; not everyone in the business community is threatened by Obama.

Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman, endorsed him last month. And Obama has been consulting with Warren Buffett and international financier Robert Wolf. Wolf said “When I sat down with him, I found him to be unbelievably refreshing and smart and thoughtful.”

One Democratic strategist said “He's been pretty clear that business would have a seat at the table, but business wouldn't be able to buy all the chairs." Communist!

No wonder the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has given Obama the lowest rating of the three White House contenders. They gave McCain an 80% favorable rating; Hillary Clinton got 67%; Obama got 55%.

The National Association of Manufacturers (not that they're partisan or anything) gave a zero rating to Clinton and Obama; McCain got 100%.

Here are some of the reasons the Good Ol’ Boy Network doesn’t want Obama:

He sponsored a bill that would give shareholders (i.e. the owners of the company) a nonbinding proxy vote on executive pay.

He also voted for a free trade agreement with Peru which would include protections for Peruvian workers and the local environment. What?!?!?!? God created those Peruvian peasants for American businessmen to exploit!

And that’s not all: Obama might amend NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) to include environmental and workers’ protections.

Congressional Democrats: Nothing But Smoke and Mirrors

If you’ve been following the news in the past year, you’ve probably noticed how completely useless our new Democratic “leaders” have been. And you were probably wondering: is this something calculated; some sort of sick variation on Good Cop Bad Cop? Or are the Democrats really this timid and scared shitless of their own shadows?

Well, wonder no more. It’s a scam. (Hope you'll read this whole article by Matt Taibbi; and preferably bookmark it. It'll piss you off, but we need to know this.) We've been had. And with all due respect to that song by The Who, we probably WILL get fooled again. And again and again…

The Democrats have made a conscious decision NOT to focus on getting us out of Iraq. Instead, they're focusing all of their time and energy on defeating Republicans in the upcoming election. I would’ve thought that getting us out of Iraq (since that was the reason we ELECTED them!) would be the best way to win the ’08 election, but what do I know?

Harry Reid actually came out and said that he can't fit Iraq into his busy schedule. "Sorry about those 4,000 dead American soldiers. I’ll get back to you on that We have the presidential election. Our time is really squeezed."

And Nancy Pelosi actually said — this is no joke! — that she’s putting Iraq on hold until 2009, because by then "we'll have a new president. And I do think at that time we'll take a fresh look at it." Whoa! Stand back! She's planning to "take a fresh look at it." OOOOOOHHH!!! Talk about somebody who jumps right in there and grabs the bull by the horns.

But the most infuriating thing about this whole charade is the fact that it’s so calculated and devious. They're pulling the same sleight-of-hand tricks over and over. They don't want to solve any problems. Fuck no, they want to keep the Iraqi war and all the rest of Bush’s scandals front and center so they can keep campaigning against them. “Goddammit, this time we’re really gonna stand up and say NO to Iraqmire / waterboarding / the Patriot ACT / the Military Commissions Act / telecom immunity…oh darn, we lost again. But by golly we sure tried.”

An aide to one anti-war House member said: "It was all about the public show. Reid and Pelosi would say they were taking this tough stand against Bush, but if you actually looked at what they were sending to a vote, it was like Swiss cheese. Full of holes."

He also said: “Can you imagine Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert taking no for an answer the way Reid and Pelosi did on Iraq? They'd find a way to get the votes. They'd get it done somehow."

Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee are two Democrats who are fed up with Reid and Pelosi. Woolsey said: “If we'd been bold the minute we got control of the House — and that's why we got the majority, because the people of this country wanted us out of Iraq — if we'd been bold, even if we lost the votes, we would have gained our voice."

The article says: “Before the 2006 elections, Democrats told us we could expect more specifics on their war plans after Election Day…and now they are once again telling us to wait until after an election to see real action to stop the war.” Film at eleven.

Matt Taibbi ends the article with: “Just get it done. Because if you don't, sooner or later this con is going to run dry. It may not be in '08, but it'll be soon. Even Americans can't be fooled forever.”

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Driving Miss Hillary

An exclusive interview with Hillary Clinton reveals her shocking secret ambition: "You think I give a flying F$&# about the White House?? THIS is what I really want!"

cross-posted at Bring It On!

America’s Newest Export: Jesus

No, it’s not true that America has to import everything and that we have nothing to contribute to the rest of the world. We do too.

Even as we speak, boatloads of Bible-totin’ fire-and-brimstone-spewing Christians are being shipped out to ports all up and down Europe and Britain. They're cheaper by the gross.

Ah heck, maybe this will do ‘em some good. Europeans are too bland; too much ennui and sophistication. Maybe a little holy rollin’ and hootin’ and hollerin’ will inject some life into them.

Answers in Genesis is an American organization — based in Kentucky — that’s trying to spread Creationism throughout Britain and the rest of Europe. Battles over Creationism vs. Evolution have actually been spreading to Britain, Germany, Poland and Italy.

Creationism is still pretty much marginalized in Europe, but it’s increasing. Evangelical worship is spreading all over the Continent. Don’t they have enough problems already?

And now some homegrown organizations are following in the footsteps of Answers in Genesis. A British group called Truth in Science has been sending DVDs to every high school in Britain, trying to argue for “intelligent design.” And if that’s not bad enough, an organization called AH Trust wants to build a Christian theme park in northwestern England.

The president of Britain’s National Secular Society (founded in 1866) is concerned about the increasing spread of Evangelicals: “Creationism is creeping into the schools. There is a constant pressure to get these ideas into the schools."

Simon Barrow is the co-director of Ekklesia, a British-based, Christian-oriented research group. He says that until recently, there were lots of people who held Evangelical views but also endorsed mainstream science. He says the militancy and the "either-or" battles have been imported from the United States in the last few years. "There is a lot of American influence, and there are a lot of moral and political and financial resources flowing from the United States to here. Now you have more extreme religious groups trying to get a foothold."

The Council of Europe is a human rights watchdog group consisting of 47 countries. They're worried about the quality of education in Europe being jeopardized if their schools are flooded with Creationism and other religious dogma. They're right to be worried. All they have to do is look across the Atlantic. Note the extreme mass gullibility and lack of critical thinking skills in that country. Be very afraid.

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Iraqi War: What is it Good For?

Iraqmire — the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks to our soldiers’ long tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan — and too short a rest period between tours — America’s military readiness has been jeopardized. Our military forces are now less prepared to respond to a new crisis.

The Pentagon wants to improve this situation by forging new partnerships overseas. Aye, there's the rub. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to persuade our European allies (if they can even still be called that) to help us in Afghanistan by sending some of their troops over there. And for some odd reason, they aren't too enthusiastic about that idea.

They’ve already seen what a total disaster Iraq has turned into, and now they won't touch us with a ten foot pole. Even if these European leaders are confusing the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars — as Gates says they are — our credibility is shot. Toast. Finito. Thank you Boozo the Clown.

Let's see, what other gifts has Iraqmire given us? Ah yes, the recession. Yup, the R word — nearly two thirds of us think we’re in one right now. And 68% think the surest way to fix the economy is to pull out of Iraq. (48% said pulling out of Iraq would help “a great deal,” and 20% said it would help “at least somewhat.”)

The idea that pulling out of Iraq, and plugging up that trillion dollar rupture in our treasury, would help the economy — this should fall under the “DUUUHHH” category. But surprisingly (or maybe it isn't surprising), most Republicans think that pulling out of Iraq would not help the economy.

[sigh] where to begin…

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Government “Regulators” and Big Business: Goliath and Goliath

Sometimes it seems like government and industry are so closely intertwined that it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. In one of the most blatant examples of this, some state governments have teamed up with Monsanto to PREVENT food companies from labeling their ingredients accurately.

Ben & Jerry’s has been advertising that their ice cream doesn’t contain the synthetic bovine growth hormone made by Monsanto. This hormone was approved by the FDA in the 1990s in the United States. Canada, Japan and the European Union have never approved the drug because of safety concerns.

Just when you think you’ve seen the most absurd intelligence-insulting Astroturf organization yet, the bar gets lowered even further. American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology is the "grassroots" organization that's trying to prevent Ben & Jerry's from even telling you that their ice cream doesn't contain rBGH. Take a wild guess: this gang of douchebags consists mostly of (A) farmers; or (B) Monsanto lobbyists.

psssst! The answer is (B).

And just to make the whole situation even more Orwellian, a Monsanto spokesperson said “Monsanto is really an advocate in support of accurate labeling of dairy products in the dairy case.”

So now we have a popular organic ice cream company being squelched by two 800-pound gorillas (hereafter referred to as David vs. Goliath & Goliath).

Monsanto’s growth hormone (rBGH) was banned in most other countries for the effect it has on animals. It doesn’t directly affect humans. But rBGH causes increased levels of another growth hormone in cows; and that hormone is believed to cause cancer in people.

sssshhhhhh!!!! Move along! Nothing to see here!

cross-posted at Bring It On!

The Constitutional Right To Not Be Sued Too Harshly

I've never seen it in the Constitution either, but U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett seems to know all about it. For once, conservatives are right when they talk about “unelected judges legislating from the bench.”

Last October a jury ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church — that’s Fred Phelps and all of the other “church” members who look just like him — had to pay $10.9 million to Albert Snyder and his family. Snyder’s son Matthew was a Marine Lance Corporal who was killed in Iraq. Fred Phelps and his gang of mutants were picketing Matthew’s funeral. Their reason — as we all know by now — is that American military deaths in Iraq are God’s way of punishing America for tolerating homosexuals.

So Albert Snyder sued Fred Phelps’ “church” for emotional distress and invasion of privacy and was awarded $10.9 million. And now Judge Richard Bennett has reduced the award to $5 million. His reasoning was based on “the need to weigh any harm Snyder suffered against the financial resources of the church.”

Oh.

Or maybe it’s up to Fred Phelps to worry about his own financial resources. He could protect them himself by not engaging in hateful acts which would logically result in a $10 million verdict. You know, that “individual responsibility” that conservatives are always talking about.

People have lost their homes and businesses, and been forced into bankruptcy, by expensive lawsuits. Whether that’s right or not, it’s a fact. Since nobody else has any guarantee that they won't be sued into bankruptcy, why should a hateful shitbag like Fred Phelps have his own personal safety net that nobody else is entitled to?

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Open Your Window. Look! There's a World Out There!

Calling all vegetables. Stand up (slowly, so you don’t get a head rush). Now, step slowly away from your computer. Walk toward your front door, open it and keep walking. Breathe (slowly, in case your lungs aren't used to that strange cold air).

While you're slowly getting your sea legs, look around. Plants, birds — what the hell are those things? Back in the old days, before everyone was glued to their TVs and computers 24/7, these strange experiences were actually normal.

A study has shown that camping, hiking, fishing and visiting parks have all declined drastically. Hunting has declined more slowly than other outdoor pastimes. This report is from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors are Oliver R. W. Pergams and Patricia A. Zaradic.

The report says: “The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health, especially in children. Videophilia has been shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders and poor academic performance."

And: “Declining nature participation has crucial implications for current conservation efforts. We think it probable than any major decline in the value placed on natural areas and experiences will greatly reduce the value people place on biodiversity conservation.”

This decline started during the 1980s and it’s been happening in the U.S. and Japan.

No wonder the environment isn't a high priority. When we hear about forests being mowed down and species going extinct, more and more people will be thinking “so what's your point?”

cross-posted at Bring It On!

Super Bowl Sunday 2008

All Right!!! Was Super Bowl XLII one kickass game or what?!? The New York Giants came from behind to upset the New England Patriots in the last 35 seconds of the game. The Patriots got their asses handed to them, 17 to 14. You Go Giants!

Tom Brady played a hell of a game but he was sacked five times; pretty shocking for a record-setting quarterback. Eli Manning is now out from under his brother Peyton's shadow — excellent work! And that incredible leaping catch by David Tyree was just too much.

Jordin Sparks opened with the National Anthem — a nice arrangement with some unusual chords that livened up a traditionally dull tune. And Tom Petty rocked the house during halftime.

OK, if you’ve read this far (and clicked on the links) you’ve figured it out — you’ve been had. You fell for the ol’ Bait and Switch. Gotcha! But you're also a little bit more aware and informed now, right?

The World is Glued to America’s Presidential Race

Picture this: Your community is being controlled by a shadowy secretive gang of outlaws. They walk all over your local government, your culture; they do exactly what they want when they want. It’s all about THEM. They're the center of the universe, and you're just a pawn on their chessboard. For the past seven years this gang has been worse than ever. But now you’ve heard that the gang’s current leader will have to step down in January 2009.

Several people — with different viewpoints and qualifications — are jockeying for this leadership position. All of these wannabes are keeping as much distance as possible between themselves and the current leader. They didn’t vote for him; they don’t know him; they don’t know anybody who voted for him or who can even stand him.

Whoever wins this political race, things have to be better in your community after the #$%&!#!$ gets replaced. Are you interested in this race? Damn right you are!

In the furthest reaches of the world, people are glued to our presidential campaign. How could they not be? It’s bad enough to have an 800-pound gorilla dominating the world. But since January 2001 this gorilla has been crazier, meaner and dumber than ever. Things just have to get better next year.

A senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said: “They feel there's a real chance to work with the U.S. America's image in the world is really on the line. Non-Americans are looking for someone who can restore faith in the United States."

A political scientist from the London School of Economics said: “Thank God that retched shitstain will finally be scrubbed out of the White House People all around the world are pretty worried. They want a president who will restore a kind of U.S. legitimacy in the world."

This article uses the term “Soft Power” to describe the worldwide power America, uh, used to have (not mentioning any names here). It’s too bad the author couldn’t think up a better name. Millions of knuckledraggers will have a field day with “huh huh huh huh huh huh what kind of wimp cares about Soft Power huh huh huh huh huh uh uh uh uh.”

Soft Power refers to the admiration and empathy the world used to have for America. It’s much easier to be persuasive with other countries if those countries respect your integrity and what you stand for. Lately, any time we try to “persuade” another country, they either laugh or they brace themselves for an invasion. Either way, more terrorists get recruited.

Whoever inherits the White House is gonna have one Godawful heaping putrid mess to clean up.

cross-posted at Bring It On!