Obama More of a Threat than Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad

Meaner and crazier than Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, more dangerous than Vladimir Putin — it's Barack Hussein Obama!!!

Yes it's getting worse.  Every time you think Republicans couldn't possibly get any more dimwitted and paranoid — they do.  A Reuters/Ipsos poll presented a list of countries, organizations and individuals, and asked respondents how much of a threat each one posed to the United States.  It was on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being no threat and 5 being an imminent threat.

Among Republicans taking the survey:  34% gave President Obama a 5 — imminent threat; 25% rated Vladimir Putin as an imminent threat; and 23% thought Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was an imminent threat.

WTF???  You can't make this shit up.

It's a nuclear bomb...it's a Muslim terrorist attack...it's SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!!!

[sigh]

Who is Congress' Busiest Skankiest Prostitute? Mike Pompeo

Hands down.  Mike Pompeo is so far ahead of the rest of the harem, it doesn't even matter who comes in second.  It might even be halfway defensible for Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) to be the Koch Brothers' favorite boy toy, since Koch Industries is headquartered in Wichita.  But why Monsanto (headquartered in St. Louis)?

Spreading his legs for Monsanto AND the Koch Brothers?  Mike Pompeo is one busy little beaver.

Mike Pompeo has introduced H.R. 4432, euphemistically named the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act. H.R. 4432 would prohibit any state from passing a law that requires GMO products to be labeled.  And needless to say, H.R. 4432 would invalidate the already-existing GMO labeling laws that several states have already passed.

H.R. 4432 is more accurately called the Deny Americans the Right-to-Know Act, aka the DARK Act.

It must be a tough choice for a prostitute/legislator:  Honor the 90% of Americans who want GMO products to be labeled, or keep giving endless blowjobs to Monsanto and the Koch Brothers.

FEMA: No More Disaster-Preparedness Funding for Flat-Earth Governors

YES.  Do It.  NOW!!!

No more taxpayer handouts to red state governors who forbid hazard-mitigation plans that address climate change. Florida and North Carolina are the biggest offenders that I can think of off hand.  

In Florida, government employees are prohibited from using such phrases as climate change, global warming or sustainability.  North Carolina has a Koch/ALEC-dictated law which prohibits coastal planning officials from mentioning or even considering the anticipated rising of sea levels.

Keep it up and it'll cost you.

Among the ten states receiving the most FEMA disaster-preparedness funding (i.e. YOUR tax dollars), eight of these states are governed by Republicans. 

Maybe the Koch Brothers will step in and make a huge multi-billion dollar donation every time a red state gets afflicted by droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes...

Ronald Reagan Smiles Down on Daniel Ortega

The irony. 

President Ronald Reagan spent jillions of taxpayer dollars — while preaching about “limited government” — trying to overthrow Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega.  The American-backed “Freedom Fighters” were as bloodthirsty as any terrorist group ever was.

And it was all for naught.  Despite the mass slaughter and terror perpetrated by our Freedom Fighters — Reagan used to compare them to America's Founding Fathers — Ortega stayed in power.  He stepped down in 1990 (two years after Reagan's presidency ended), and now he's president again (since 2007).

But the good news is, Daniel Ortega isn't that different from Ronald Reagan.  Sure he's a dictator, but that wasn't the reason Reagan wanted him out.  Conservatives only hate dictators who try to redistribute wealth and improve the lives of the masses.  Generations of rightwing dictators throughout Latin America — most of whom were hand-picked and propped up by the United States — were just fine and dandy.

And now it turns out Ronald “If you've seen one redwood you've seen 'em all” Reagan and Daniel Ortega have a lot in common.  They both hate trees, lakes, all that sissy nature stuff; they both love massive development projects; and they both have nothing but contempt for the peasants whose way of life is erased by said development.

Nicaragua's Grand Canal will ultimately stretch 170 miles from the Caribbean to the Pacific.  The Grand Canal is being financed by China.  It will supposedly create thousands of jobs (sound familiar?), but it will displace hundreds of thousands of people who had the nerve to be born where the Grand Canal will be dredged.  There's a lot of public fear and anger, and Daniel Ortega doesn't want to hear about it.

At the center of the controversy is Lake Nicaragua.  It's the largest lake in Central America — 3,000 square miles.  The lake is home to a lot of endangered species as well as being the only water source for hundreds of thousands of people.

A local farmer, whose family has lived in this area for generations, described a visit from Chinese and Nicaraguan engineers who surveyed his property without bothering to ask permission:

“They measured everything, including the laundry, houses, and sheds.  They said they wanted the farm for a five-star hotel.” 

Ronald Reagan is beaming from his grave.

Which is Worse, Koch Industries or Monsanto?

Ideally, we should boycott Koch Industries AND boycott Monsanto.  Period.  But for those rare occasions when every product seems to be a choice between Koch Industries or Monsanto, is there a lesser of two evils?  Example:  Try finding toilet paper and paper towels that AREN'T made by Georgia Pacific (owned by Koch Industries) or Proctor and Gamble (owned by Monsanto). 

The companies and products shown below are owned by Koch Industries:




List of familiar Koch products and brands:
-American Greetings** (took heavy Koch investment, upwards of $200 million)
-Angel Soft
-Angel Soft Ultra
-Brawny paper towels
-Dixie products
-Insulair cups
-Mardis Gras napkins
-Perfect Touch cups, paper products
-Quilted Northern
-Sparkle paper towels
-Vanity Fair napkins & paper towels
-Zee Napkins
-Georgia-Pacific Office products
-Spectrum paper
-Georgia-Pacific's enMotion paper towel dispenser
-Georgia-Pacific's engineered lumber

INVISTA Brands
-INVISTA’s PET polymer is used in oxygen-sensitive packaging for food and beverages.
-ADI-PURE® Adipic Acid
-ANTRON® Carpet Fiber
-C12™ Intermediates
-COMFOREL® Fiber
-COOLMAX® Fabric
-CORDURA® Fabric
-DACRON® Fiberfill
-DYTEK® Idea Intermediates
-FLEXISOLV® Solvent Solutions
-LYCRA® Fiber
-LYCRA HyFit® Fiber
-OXYCLEAR® Barrier Resin
-POLYCLEAR® PET
-POLYSHIELD® Resin
-SENZAA™ Additive
-STAINMASTER® Carpet
-SUPPLEX® Fabric
-SUPRIVA™ Fiber
-TACTEL® Fiber
-TECGEN® Garments
-TERATE® Polyols
-TERATHANE® Polyether Glycol
-TERRIN™ Polyols
-THERMOLITE® Fabric
-TORZEN® PA66 Resin

And Monsanto:




See what I mean?  Every time you go shopping, you're probably putting Koch and/or Monsanto products into your cart.  So, when you find yourself in that rock-and-a-hard-place position where you have to feed one of these two monsters, which one is the lesser of two evils?

IMHO, the Koch Brothers are not quite as malevolent as Monsanto, for the following reasons (in the same way that being burned at the stake is better than being crucified):

Fossil fuels will ultimately be replaced by renewable energy sources.  Koch Industries, and other fossil fuel barons, can use their trillion-dollar bribes to make this happen later rather than sooner, but it is happening.  At some point the fossil fuel tycoons will just be standing at the shore, screaming for the tide to stop coming in.

Also, I'm not aware of any instance where Koch Industries filed a patent infringement lawsuit against a neighboring landowner because some oil vapor from a Koch drilling operation drifted over to the neighbor's property.

Monsanto has spent quatrabazillions of dollars purchasing entire governments for the sole purpose of keeping the public in the dark, i.e. not knowing whether or not they're purchasing a GMO product.  The Koch Brothers would love to pull off something like this if they could, but as far as I know there's never been a case of:  “What???  Those aren't solar panels on your roof!  They're running on tar sands oil, you dummie.”  “Those fake windmills are being run by a nuclear power plant!”

Somebody can Agree with Your Political Views and Still be an Asshole

This column by Leonard Pitts Jr. is titled Why I Don't Like Bill Maher. I personally don't have any opinion one way or the other on Bill Maher.  I don't get HBO so I only see occasional YouTube links to some of his jokes from Real Time With Bill Maher.  I loved Politically Incorrect when it was on Comedy Central and later got moved to one of the main networks.  But I can picture him being a “smarmy, self-satisfied, condescending and just plain nasty” person, as Leonard Pitts Jr. describes him.

I can be somewhat opinionated politically, as some of my previous posts on this blog would indicate.  But I don't hold other people's opinions against them, or assume somebody must be a F#%$$!&%# just because he/she voted for _____________ instead of ____________.

About thirty-odd years ago I worked for a nonprofit health reform organization.  Great cause and all that, but most of my coworkers and supervisors were assholes.  We could have sat around all day discussing politics and not disagreed on anything.  But I've never seen as much backstabbing, infighting, self-righteousness and just plain meanness as I did during the year I spent with that organization.

In contrast, my previous job had been as a telemarketer with a sleazy organization working for an even sleazier cause.  But most of the supervisors and other telemarketers were nice, likeable people.  Workplace morale was very high.

I live downtown in a town of about 20,000 people, and a lot of local/downtown issues completely transcend any sort of political labels.  I often agree with people — whom I know to be conservative — on certain local issues, and vice versa.

And this brings me to the first person I thought of as I was reading Leonard Pitts' column:  a local progressive/liberal city councilman who turned out to be one of the biggest douchebags I've ever met.  I knew him personally; he seemed pretty likeable and we agreed on practically every local and national political issue.

As he was nearing the end of his single term on the city council (more on that later), he e-mailed everyone he knew to announce that his wife — also liberal/progressive — was running for a local office.  He assumed that everyone he knew would jump on the progressive bandwagon and start marching in lockstep behind his wife's candidacy.  Anyone who didn't — I'm in that category — instantly became The Enemy.  A Traitor to the Progressive Cause!  One of Them!

Anyway, his wife got defeated in her election campaign.  Immediately after that  — before his term was up — the city councilman resigned from office, had several embarrassing (or at least they should have been) public tantrums, and the two of them fled to Oregon.

The disgraced has-been city councilman started a blog about a year ago (sorry, no names or links provided) with the sole purpose of condemning and libeling the town that hadn't appreciated him or his wife.  Needless to say, he hides behind a screen name, but there's no question who it is.  I don't know whether anything on his blog is technically libel or not, but he continuously spews out the kind of shit you'd never say to anyone face-to-face unless you wanted your internal organs rearranged.

Every post at this person's blog has 30, 40, 50, maybe 80 comments — all Anonymous — all congratulating him on yet another brilliant post.  “LOL.”  “Hey, thank you for what you're doing.”  “Another courageous post.  Keep up the good work.”  And on and on and on...

Trouble is, this person has alienated virtually everyone he ever knew in this area.  The only explanation I can think of is, the jillions of comments at his posts are all from him.  “The calls are coming from inside the house!”

Kind of sad — once a charismatic politician on the rise, now reduced to sitting at home spewing on his blog, blubbering back and forth with his imaginary friends.  Guided by the voices in his head.

Anyway, to steal the same quote again from Leonard Pitts Jr., this disgraced former city councilman is “smarmy, self-satisfied, condescending and just plain nasty,” in addition to being more slippery than a road covered with wet leaves.

Elephant Protection Association

People around the world are becoming more concerned about saving elephants from going extinct.  Aside from the humanitarian angle, wildlife tourism brings countless jillions of dollars into African economies.

Poaching, which is driven mostly by the ivory trade, killed over two hundred thousand elephants between 2010 and 2012.  Because of the international groundswell, the governments of China and Kenya, among others, have destroyed tons of confiscated ivory in order to discourage poaching.  New York and New Jersey have both passed laws cracking down on the ivory trade, and similar legislation is pending in twelve other states.  And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is expected to pass new rules that will restrict the commercial ivory trade.  A FWS spokesperson said:

“By significantly restricting ivory trade in the United States, it will be more difficult to launder illegal ivory into the market and thus reduce the threat of poaching to imperiled elephant populations.”

And this brings us to the Elephant Protection Association. This must be an organization dedicated to saving elephants, right?  Unfortunately, the Elephant Protection Association is in the same category as right to work laws and Crisis Pregnancy Centers; i.e. don't get fooled by the name.

The Elephant Protection Association is a front group made up of NRA members and commercial ivory traders.  As despicable and on-the-wrong-side-of-history as this gang of perverts is, they actually have some political clout.  Congressman Don Young and several state legislators have already gone down on the Elephant Protection Association, promising to derail anti-ivory-trade legislation in return for, well, you know...

If an organization is ever formed with the specific purpose of killing members of the NRA (now mind you, I'm not condoning any such thing), maybe this group could call themselves Patriotic Americans Dedicated to Protecting NRA Members.

Confess: YOU have been Patronizing Monsanto. Stop It!!!

Scott Walker's Union-Busting is driving Employers OUT of Wisconsin

Hoffman Construction Company of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, will be relocating to Minnesota.  Hoffman Construction specializes in mining and road-building.  And why is the company moving?  Because of the “right to work” (euphemism alert!) legislation that Scott Walker has just signed; and because of Wisconsin's (and other red states') refusal to maintain their roads and highways.  According to the Duluth News Tribune:

“Hoffman said Monday night that the reason is twofold:  he believes the right-to-work law will ultimately cost his company money, and he sees Minnesota’s proposal to increase transportation funding as offering greater business opportunities.”

All right!!!  Let's hope Hoffman Construction Company is starting a trend.

The score so far:  tax-and-spend Blue States 1, “Job Creators” 0.

47 GOP Senators' Letter to Iran

What if — During the throes of our Iraq invasion, a group of Democratic senators wrote an open letter to the Iraqi people:

“Hey, sorry about our bone-stupid cowboy-wannabe chickenhawk president.  His only reason for invading and desecrating your country is so he can finish what his father started and get back in his mother's good graces.  And feel free to interpret 'good graces' any way you want.  [see Oedipus].  Don't worry, as soon as George Dumbya Bush gets replaced by a new president whose IQ is higher than his shoe size, we'll be outta your country and you can get your lives back.”

The Republican/Conservative reaction would have been ________________________

Say “Climate Change,” Go To Prison

The State of Florida has FINALLY come to terms with climate change.  No, not the actual phenomenon of  climate change itself, of course.  According to the Florida Powers That Be, the best way to solve a problem is to simply not talk about it.  ssshhhhh!!!

Therefore, employees of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection are now prohibited from using the following phrases:  “climate change,” “global warming” and “sustainability.”

Problem solved.

Ferguson, Missouri: a Modern-Day Debtors' Prison

Combine the debtors' prisons of 18th century Europe with the Jim Crow era of the Deep South, and what do you get?  Ferguson, Missouri.

The conclusions of the Justice Department's investigation are beyond disgraceful. The black citizens of Ferguson are basically a cash cow for the city government.  Blacks have been targeted and fined — way out of proportion to their percentage of Ferguson's population — for everything from Driving While Black, Walking While Black, Talking While Black and anything else the local inbred excuses for “police officers” can dream up.  From the linked article:

“Ferguson officials leeched off the black community as shamelessly as would mafia bosses.  Police officers were judged not only on the number of stops they made, but on the number of citations they issued. Officers routinely conduct stops that have little relation to public safety and a questionable basis in law.  Issuing three or four charges in one stop is not uncommon. Officers sometimes write six, eight, or, in at least one instance, fourteen citations for a single encounter. Some officers compete to see who can issue the most citations in a single stop.”

The Ferguson police chief oversees the municipal court.  Ferguson's municipal court judge is appointed by the all-white Ferguson city council, and his job performance evaluation depends on how much revenue his court brings in.

The fines for the above-listed “offenses” are totally out of proportion to the “crime,” and these fines escalate rapidly.  Long prison sentences are frequently handed down to residents who are unable to pay their fines.

The Justice Department needs to step in and drain this festering swamp.  Every one of these corrupt Ferguson goons should be fired (at least).  Incarceration would be preferable; maybe in the local debtors' prison.

For a bit of humor (not that this should be funny), check out Larry Wilmore's skit from last night on The Nightly Show.

Exclusive Photo of Netanyahu's Speech to Congress

How many members of Congress boycotted Netanyahu's speech?  How large an audience did he actually have?

See below:

Does Obama Have a Secret Contingency Plan in case Obamacare Gets Overturned?

Republicans are determined to do whatever it takes — no holds barred! — to derail the Affordable Care Act, i.e. Obamacare.  The upcoming Supreme Court case, King v. Burwell, is based on the most braindead “reasoning” imaginable (that's a whole 'nother post), but according to legal experts the SCOTUS is likely to rule in favor of the plaintiff.  This will pretty much gut the Affordable Care Act as well as the ten million currently-insured Americans who will instantly lose their health coverage.  Anything to make a political point, right?

And now, in response to their own foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy to repeal Obamacare, these same Republicans are simultaneously:  1) accusing President Obama of having a secret backup plan in case the Affordable Care Act gets overturned; and 2) accusing the President of executive malpractice if he doesn't have a contingency plan in place.

This is right up (or down) there with the kid who murders his parents and then pleads for mercy because he's an orphan.  Or worse.  I think it's more like a rapist hollering at his victim:  “What, you weren't using any birth control???”

Or it's like those amazing-but-true stories where a burglar falls and gets hurt, inside the house he's just broken into, and then sues the homeowner.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris said:

“It would be executive malpractice not to have a plan, a contingency plan, for what happens when that court ruling comes down...No credible person would believe that.” 

Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Pitts is planning to interrogate Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and get her to reveal the Obama Administration's secret contingency plan:

“It's hard to fathom that the administration would bury its head in the sand and fail to engage in any contingency planning.”

[sigh]

And Republicans wonder why they're called the Party of Stupid.