GOP Extremists vs. GOP Mainstream (what's left of it)

California Ballot Measure will Require Politicians to Wear Their Corporate Owners' Logos

And it's not a hoax or just a joke.  San Diego entrepreneur John Cox is running the California Isn't For Sale campaign. Signature-gathering will begin this January.  John Cox said:

“This is a very serious initiative. This is not a joke. If you came down from Mars and you looked at our electoral system, you’d say to yourself, ‘How dumb is this?’ You’ve got a system under which people who want something from government fund the campaigns of the people who make the decisions. How stupid is that system?”

Undoubtedly this won't be legally binding when (not if) voters approve it.  But it'll bring a lot of publicity and sunlight to an issue that the Powers That Be would rather keep in the dark.  And if there are millions of dollars' worth of TV ads warning about the scary consequences of this initiative (funded by anonymous donors of course), the irony will be unbearable.

Exclusive Coverage of the War On Christmas: The Horror Continues

BREAKING: Obama has Just Declared Himself President-For-Life!!!

NOOO!!!!!

Oh God!  How did we let this happen?!?!?!?  The teabirthers and Foxsuckers kept warning us about this, and we just laughed at them!!!

Error: Congress Not Responding

America's Biggest Export

Carbon Footprints

Who's the Worst of the GOP White House Contenders? Marco Rubio.

By a mile.  Nobody else in the GOP Clown Car even comes close; mostly because the rest of them don't have a snowball's chance in Hell of ever winning a national election.

Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina are batshit crazy.  Donald Trump is too loud and obnoxious.    Ben Carson??? ROTFLMAO!  Ditto for “Jeb!”

Marco Rubio is every bit as Far Right, every bit as corporate-owned-and-operated, as the rest of the GOP Clown Car, but without the foaming-at-the-mouth bug-eyed craziness that would scare off Middle America.  Marco Rubio COULD get elected if he wins the nomination.  And that is just plain fuckin' scary.

Underneath that smiling personable Ricky Martin demeanor, Rubio is just another corporate prostitute who's being paid to pick up where George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan left off.  Here's Matt Taibbi's impression of Marco Rubio in a Rolling Stone article:

“He is short but prickishly good-looking, all hair and teeth and self-confidence. He's the kind of guy that no group of men wants to go to a bar with, both because he spoils the odds and because he seems like kind of an asshole generally...There are young women in the crowd looking up at him adoringly, like a Beattle... He's so slick, he could probably sell a handful of cars at every speech...He checks all the boxes of what the Beltway kingmakers look for in a political marketing phenomenon: young, ethnic, good-looking, capable of working a room like a pro and able to lean hard on an inspirational bio while eschewing policy specifics...Rubio sells a kind of strident, bright-eyed dickishness that in any other year would seem tailor-made for roping in conservatives.”

Scared yet?  Here are some of the “policy specifics” that Marco Rubio wants to eschew — at least until AFTER he wins the White House:

If you like Private Prisons — aka the Prison Industrial Complex, For-Profit Prisons, the various Kids-For-Cash scandals (Google it) — You'll love Marco Rubio.

And don't you just hate those FCC commies with their nanny state Net Neutrality?  Wouldn't you love to crack down down on those municipal governments who are providing low-cost high-speed Broadband access?  So would Marco Rubio.

And needless to say, Marco Rubio wants to return control of banking/financial regulations to the Wall Street thugs who have purchased him.

Be Very Afraid.

Woodland, North Carolina bans solar energy because solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun

No, this is not from The Onion; it's not an SNL skit with Tina Fey imitating Sarah Palin.

The Woodland, N.C. Town Council has denied a permit for Strata Solar Company to build a solar farm near the community.  The Council's decision was in response to the hysterical outcry from Woodland residents.  In fact, Woodland's leaders were so moved by their residents' panic-stricken responses, they also established a moratorium on solar farms.

According to some of Woodland most enlightened citizens, solar panels not only suck up all the energy from the sun; they also cause cancer, kill nearby vegetation and bring down property values.  (Fracking and mining operations are so much better for preserving property values and quality of life.)

Oh, and solar energy companies have “hidden agendas.”

Well, in case anyone was still wondering how North Carolina's voters have allowed their state government to be completely taken over by the Koch/ALEC Syndicate:  Mystery Solved.

Why Do We Have Wars? (A Rhetorical Question)

GOP's Obamacare Pledge

Who Wants War in Middle East? Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Raytheon...

Some things never change.  Remember those quaint old concepts like “Conflict of interest?”  Or if you're old enough, you might remember a few of those hippie posters:  “War is unhealthy for children and other living things” and the tongue-in-cheek counterpart, “War is healthy for poster-makers and other living things.”  And don't forget “War is good business.  Invest your son.”

Fast-forward to 2015 (and without the satire/tongue-in-cheek factor):  War Is Healthy for Lockheed Stockholders and other trust-funded chickenhawks.

Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner told an audience of shareholders that they will see “indirect benefits” from the war in Syria, which will provide “an intangible lift because of the dynamics of that environment...”

The CEO of defense contractor Oshkosh beamed that sales opportunities are booming “with the ISIS threat growing.”

Raytheon Chief Executive Tom Kennedy is seeing “a significant uptick” for “defense solutions across the board in multiple countries in the Middle East...It’s all the turmoil they have going on, whether the turmoil’s occurring in Yemen, whether it’s with the Houthis, whether it’s occurring in Syria or Iraq, with ISIS.”

Now [ahem] the above quotes have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Congress has just authorized $607 billion in “defense” spending (or more accurately, taxpayer handouts for corporate chickenhawks).   As Lockheed's Welfare Recipient-in-Chief Bruce Tanner said:  “Move Along!  Nothing to see here! Our programs are well supported in the budget.  We think we did fare very well.”

And so it goes...