Neolithic Pilferage

Neolithic Pilferage

A Mouse-hole Flicker in a Dark Auditorium:

Ya know, I don’t like to always criticize or badger, but ‘wholly’ within my opinion, Republicans feel their opinions are too ‘holy.’ There have been of recent though, a couple of Republican sparks in lighting a bright spot or two. So, I’ll tip m’hat to ‘em.

Republican Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin has represented the state’s fifth district going all the way back to 1979 and has been a constant thorn in the sides of Democrats ever since. He is not immune to criticizing President Obama at every turn he gets and has even hit First Lady Michelle Obama in emphatically stating she has a “big butt.” He said these disparaging words in public to his constituents no less at a church fundraiser. Sensenbrenner personally apologized to Michelle and I suppose for good reason too, for his own derriere is most certainly of broader magnitude from average proportion.

Recently though, he countered his fellow Republican, Representative Louie Gohmert during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on e-mail privacy, which Sensenbrenner heads. Gohmert whines, “Just so that the simpletons that sometimes write for Huffington Post understand, I don't want the government having all that information.” Sensenbrenner fires back with, “With a point of personal privilege, my son writes for The Huffington Post. He does have a Ph.D.” Gohmert, insisting on getting the last crack in, smirks back mumbling out each letter as he’s leaving, “Well ya can still be a P-H-U-L.”

But what puts Sensenbrenner in my hopes of realistic Republican legislating for the common good of the country, concerns the SCOTUS decision in striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Sensenbrenner feels that the law is vital in protecting all voters’ rights, due in part to his office’s extensive compilation of voter discrimination in 2006. He states the justices who voted it down “ignored all of that.”

Now, it is up to congress to come up with an updated formula to address what Section 4 entailed. There just aren’t a lot of Republicans coming up on deck to bat for it. Sensenbrenner is about the only hope to get legislation done on it that is honestly fair and equitable, although he realizes it is a humongous task to get a bill passed in the Republican majority House.

Sensenbrenner has since teamed up with Representative John Lewis (D-Ga.) urging a Senate Judiciary Committee panel to restore voting rights protections. In confronting the senate panel, he warned that failure for congress to act would “undermine the progress that has been made over the last 50 years.” He concluded in testifying, “Free, fair, and accessible elections are sacrosanct, and the right of every legal voter to cast their ballot must be unassailable. Voter discrimination still exists, and our progress toward equality should not be mistaken for a final victory.”

Another common sense act put out by a Republican was Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina. In Senator Mike Lee’s efforts to shut down the government Senator Burr not only denounced it, he said, “I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard of. Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law.”

Interviewed by AP reporter, Andrew Taylor, Burr also stated, “I think some of these guys need to understand that if you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that’s achievable. Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable through shutting down the federal government. At some point you’re going to open the federal government back up, and Barack Obama’s going to be president, and he won’t have signed this illusion of the Affordable Care Act.”

Lee has had fifteen other Republicans sign on to it, while the rest have refused to, even Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) rebuked the idea publicly and Senator John McCain (R-Az.) warned his fellow Republican senators that Americans won’t stand for another bout of holding the government hostage over political partisanship.

Even Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia isn’t quite biting into the rebellious fray, although only for the reason he knows it’s a losing battle. He had this to say on MSNBCs ‘Morning Joe’ 07/31/13, “We’ve been down that road. We shut down the government and we got our butts kicked over shutting down the government.” 

On the House side it’s a bit of a differing story. Sixty Republicans signed a letter addressed to House Speaker John Boehner encouraging him to follow the sixteen Republican’s ludicrous example. The only holdout Republican was Representative Tom Cole (R-Ok.) who voiced, “Seems to me there’s appropriate ways to deal with the law, but shutting down the government to get your way over an unrelated piece of legislation is the political equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum.” Amen to that brother.

In a July 24 ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday interview, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew stated, “Congress needs to do its job. It needs to finish its work on appropriation bills. It needs to pass a debt limit.” 

Hostage taking of the debt ceiling by the GOP House is strictly partisan politics and has nothing to do with taking care of this nation’s debt...in fact it worsens it by lowering credit ratings in not paying the bills.

None of these congressmen, except for the rookies, ever had an issue with the debt ceiling under any other president...Republican or Democrat...its sole intention is to make this sitting president look bad at the expense of the nation’s economic health.

There is not one policy I can think of that Boehner’s House has actually cooperated in bipartisan fashion to address the pressing issue of curbing the financial ills the Great Recession’s wrath has brought down on us. They’ve even voted down jobs bills...

It was the GOPs financial deregulation policies and the blind support of their finance/wealth base that actually promulgated the economic recession, while on top of that...willfully absolve themselves in having any responsibility as being its quake.

Then the GOP has the gall to do nothing in countering its devastating effects to the dwindling middle class simply to make it appear as Obama is insufficient to get a leg up by blaming the country’s debt, deficit and economic state all squarely on the backs of the WH. So, who can disagree with Lew in scolding the spoiled brat...

Admonishment is an amazing tool when the true admonish(ee) can pull off the ruse that they’re the untrue admonish(er).

One last note here on the flicker before we move to the dark side is that the GOP at large, with over 170 new anti-abortion laws is trying to slow down the push for even more and more stringent anti-abortion measures that have been put in place in at least three-fifths of the states that are red. I’ll only give them a D for effort though. It’s still a passing grade but barely due to their reason. The GOP doesn’t care anything about the topic ethically or morally, nor whether hampering women’s health is a viable issue. They simply are doing this on a political maneuver as not to push too fast in making a turnover that is in direct conflict with Roe v Wade. Point is they don’t want to rankle the ire of too many female voters.        

As far as the more normal dark side goes to Republican issues, one that peeves me a level higher than the rest of their antics is that the Republican House just passed the REINS Act. House Republicans attempted to pass this legislation in 2011, but were thwarted in the senate where it was voted down. It also gave congressional power in blocking new, or deleting older regulations set up by the executive branch’s departments.

Also in 2011, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced S. 299 that is a version of the ‘Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny’ (REINS Act.). Paul has just now introduced a companion bill with yet no senate number to compliment the House’s passed version.

Now, they’re at it again packed with more Jonestown punch. With a 241-184 vote count for H.R. 367, all Republicans with four Democrats passed the bill. If this bill passed the senate and Obama signed onto it, simple gridlock, which is the current norm of the Republican day could block essential regulatory protections for the public, consumers, investors and the environment. This would be detrimental to health and safety, jeopardize sound investments and put small businesses on an unfair competitive playing field. In this new bill, Medicare and Medicaid payments would require a round of congressional squabbling approval.   

The REINS Act is simply an attack on regulations enforced by governmental departments to protect the public from corporate, industrial and financial abuses and also axe the power of government to punish these entities when regulations are broken. It would greatly curtail the efforts of the EPA to the SEC in monitoring abuses that the public and environment would suffer from. They’re doing this under the auspices that if you give businesses more freedom to do as they please, a wealthier business will begin hiring.

This simply isn’t true. Yes it will give corporations a higher profit margin in skirting responsibilities to the public and environment, but it won’t entice them to hire. The trickle-down effect was attempted under the W. Bush era and only amounted to handing Bush the lowest private sector hiring percentage of any recent president, along with the lowest wage scale, due to the corporate developed appetite in only hiring part time. Since the mid-late 2000s, American corporations have been sitting on an amassed stash of cash totaling over $2.1 trillion dollars and have not used it to hire, invest or conduct research with.

This is the only measure Republicans know in creating jobs, but it only allows the corporate to become wealthier and it certainly doesn’t create jobs; in particularly living wage permanent jobs. But as the likes of Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx.) said in promoting the measure, “It forces accountability. It simply weighs the benefits of a regulation to be balanced with the cost to our own jobs. Jobs ought to be number one in this House, and the number one jobs bill we can pass is the REINS Act.”

“Jobs ought to be number one” my wicked eye and it actually forgives accountability. Hensarling’s simply promoting corporate greed. Oh, Boehner continually waves some kind of a red card on his Sunday morning talk show rounds that supposedly lists 30 jobs bills constructed by the House, but in reality they all have been promoted by corporate special interests for corporate interests and have nothing to do directly in creating viable employment opportunities. 

This Republican House can repeal funding for the fourth time to an entity(Acorn) that is no longer in existence...they can attempt to repeal an entity (ACA) that is current law without success for the 40th time. They can even legislate pizza as a vegetable...but they cannot during this time of economic duress pass one realistic jobs bill.

Sidestepping a bit here, but still concerning the no-nothing congress, this is where another Republican has some sound reasoning. Representative Scott Rigell (R-Va.) stated last week that it’s very unwise for congress to go on August recess with serious concerns still dangling and unfinished like a jobs bill. In congress taking most of the month of August off with the House having only nine work days penciled in for September, Rigell chastised House leaders for thinking recess is “calcified in tradition,” arguing it is not unchangeable.   

I got an e-mail from Representative Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) who represents the 12^th District north of Pittsburgh. In it he was defending passage of the House REINS Act in attempting to say it’s Washington elites who are against it, when in all actuality, whether from Washington or anywhere else in the states…it is elites who are for it. He rants as well in an op-ed that the bill will stop government abuse ignoring the fact that regulations are setup specifically to stop industry abuse. Government regulations do not abuse, they only annoy corporations who would like to further exploit abuses. Rothfus claims the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states H.R. 367 “could have a significant impact on spending subject to appropriation” whatever that means, for the CBO does not assume enactment of subsequent legislation in estimating a bill’s effect on direct spending and revenues. Also, the CBO in the 2011 Republican attempt to pass the bill emphatically stated in a released report that REINS would not create jobs.   

He also references ‘The Competitive Enterprise Institute’ (CEI) stating that the institute concluded in a study that “burdensome regulations cost the average American family almost $15,000.00 each year.” Great institute to reference I suppose for a Republican, for the CEI is more than conservative, they’re libertarian in their ideology.

CEI purports to advance economic liberty and one primary method is in attacking corporate regulations. The organization won’t report the sources to their final report, so it makes their findings and garnered statistics questionable. In their history, their longest support has been on behalf of the tobacco industry in filing lawsuits for the industry and opposing government regulations on tobacco advertisement as unconstitutional. They are listed as a non-profit group supported by industry, corporations and wealthy individuals. Lawson Bader is currently CEIs president coming from the ‘Mercatus Center’ that was fronted more than $30 million by none other than the Koch family in its earlier years to kick start its agenda.

How so soon Republicans forget the ‘Great Recession’ caused by deregulatory derivative speculation. As a financial contract, derivatives have been employed for decades and under regulation worked, for its value derives from the underlying value of an asset such as commodities, currency or securities. The initial set value has no dollar equivalent amount and is a bet that over a period of time, the value will mature into a set dollar value. Therefore, tight management control had to ensure the bet wasn’t too extreme.

Enter the era of deregulation during the W. Bush and Republican congressional majority years, where speculators entered the fray under a dome of secrecy packaging and repackaging newly devised derivative contracts that already possessed bad credit and failed contracts. To push these onto investors, they were paid up front huge fees while relinquishing all the packaged risks to the investor. This continuous re-repackaging of the repackaged was still being conducted as the recession had already hit ground zero (America’s Wall Street) and spreading its gnarly tentacles throughout the financial globe with speculators scurrying to get that last upfront fee. Unfortunately, pension plans, which were once protected by regulatory law to not be included in derivative contracts, were now invested heavily in deregulated speculative derivatives. As a result, millions of American pensioners lost all their pension investment money.

To conclude talk concerning the REINS Act and all that comes with its package, Congress doesn’t have the expertise to evaluate the information within every bill. Writing regulations requires detailed technical, economic, and legal knowledge. Whether a regulation is enacted or not shouldn’t be contingent on the opinions of 535 elected officials who lack expertise in the relevant scientific, technological, and economic matters. Major rules are frequently revised based on input from lengthy public comment periods and often-contentious lawsuits. Leave that to the ones that have the expertise and experience in their perspective fields.

Two more quick dark sides: Representative Ted Yoho (R-Fl.) in all his mighty wisdom said in a Gainesville Florida town hall meeting that Obamacare is racist because there will be a 10% new tax on tanning beds. Apparently because only lighter skinned people use tanning salons and darker skins don’t then the little tax stipend must make ACA a racist policy. Only in the Republican way could paying for a tanning booth be perceived as racist…but voter minority suppression isn’t. But this isn’t the dumbest…

Representative Steve Stockman (R-Tx.) is conjuring up new efforts to deem Obama as born in Kenya. I tell ya what, for it’s an amazing dilemma. The very ones who have attempted to invent and profess all these false claims that Obama is foreign born, would be the first in line to pull the voting booth lever for Ted Cruz if he runs for president in 2016. The mind boggling jar is that no one has to make up any foreign born stories for Cruz, for he indeed was born as foreign in another country…Canada.

Now for the darkest final…Representative Matt Shea (R-WA) on this last July weekend told a group of Tea Party members at a group gathering in an Idaho state park that they need to start taking up arms and gathering ammunition for the inevitable Armageddon collapse in America.

His exact words were, “When it happens, we need to look at this as an opportunity, not a crisis. Whose job is liberty? That’s our job. One of my superiors [while in the military] told me something I will never forget. Be prepared at any given moment to give up your job to do what is right. You have to stand up for what is right, even if it means you have to stand up to your government.”

Then Shea pleaded to all listening to stock up on thousands of rounds of ammunition, to stay in shape, practice shooting, learn self-defense and special tactics. A bit somber to say the least, but for a political leader to urge this sort of behavior, it’s also a tad disgusting.

             

Infiltration:

We earlier discussed the $2.1 trillion pile corporations are just sitting on, but they indeed have other sources of wealth. Intangible assets are complex to define, but are basically an identifiable non-monetary asset without physical substance, such as distinct computer software, copyrights, patents or when one corporation is willing to spend a certain amount of money over the fair value of  net assets in acquiring another company. With that said, when it comes to intangible assets, American corporations hold a whopping $14.5 trillion as reported by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM), a well-respected bimonthly business magazine.

In point of fact, the corporate/wealth has a strong hold in American politics and therefore in the nation’s legislation and laws. Some could even go so far as to descriptively argue they have a stranglehold.

Corporations are truly taking over politics through corporate lobbyists who more and more are writing legislative policy. In the process the nation’s sovereignty is getting trimmed. They do indeed have a few Democrats in their pockets, but wholly, Republicans are seated deep in the pocket’s recesses. Democrats like Senator Chuck Schumer represents New York, therefore all contained within it which includes Wall Street. Even Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein, a staunch liberal favors legislation to benefit Silicone Valley business in California. These Democrats recognize big businesses in their respective states as employers of constituents, but with virtually all Republicans, big business is their base.

Sam Geduldig is a corporate lobbyist with ‘Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford’ a lobbying firm representing corporations and Wall Street. A few weeks ago he was an invited panelist at an ‘American Enterprise Institute’ discussion board. While debating, he felt sympathy for multimillion dollar corporations and argued that corporations are squeezed between being restricted by regulations and having to pay lobbyists like him.

So what’s the problem here? To solve the system corporate is addicted to, how about we simply rid our political system of all lobbyists and special interests right away and allow our government to do its own legislation for who it is really indentured to…the American people. Then put in place fair but sound regulations that can be enforced without the hands of regulatory officials being tied. Regulations would be objective and equitable that corporations could work under keeping them honest in protecting our economy, health and environment. Though they are despised, regulations are not the enemy, for corporations are not democratic, they are authoritarian and if one might recall...when you have a few greedy people with tons of others’ money under a dome of secretiveness and silence...the resultant ‘Great Recession’ unfolds.

As stated before in other articles, since the Reagan era, the 1% wealthiest population has seen their wealth sky rocket 256%, while under the W. Bush reign the average American’s median wages have dropped -7%. For a comparison of this imbalance, see the graph below relevant to jobs generation versus corporate profits. Simply put, trickledown effects are an aberration of Republican policy, for their policies only adds to corporate coffer’s profit margins. Pay special study where the rift first begins during the 2001-2004 Republican era.

  

In this context Republicans are pushing all government entities to be taken over by private corporate for-profit ran businesses. To have education or FEMA be taken over by for-profit corporations does not take the taxpayer off the hook, for that is where these corporations’ paychecks will be deriving from. In addition, a for-profit business is not going to hire more teachers if needed due to increased student enrollments if it digs into their profit margins, unless it increases their profit margins by the government dishing out more taxpayer dollars. A for-profit business is not going to keep hired employees waiting idly for the next disaster to strike if it is eating into their profit margins. Of course, there isn’t any business sense to this whatsoever, for if they only kept employees on unpaid standby to only begin work after the fact of a natural or manmade tragedy, it is too late…first response would be out the window when most needed.

Another leech wiggling in on the legislation process thru the ‘Republikoch’ beltway are these conservative corporate entities listing themselves as nonprofit organizations. We already know about the ‘American Legislative Exchange Council’ (ALEC) whose members are millionaire businessmen, corporate CEOs and politicians themselves. ALEC, in gaining no headway on the national front, went down a notch to the state levels. In the red states they were behind the Voter ID (suppression) legislation that is now going to be law in thirty states thanks to the SCOTUS decision in striking down the Voters Right Act’s Section 4 as unconstitutional. ALEC also fabricated public school failures to benefit private schools and currently is plowing straight away with a pro-gun agenda in influencing legislation on behalf of the weapons and ammunition manufacturers.

As mentioned earlier CEI helped promote and write Republican legislation with the new REINS Act from the Republican House. One brewing on the horizon that may develop into a hurricane blowing all legislation to the winds of their whims is ‘Groundswell.’

‘Groundswell’ not only wants legislation, they want to tutor Republican politicians on strategies to subvert Democrats and Independents. Some active members are the infamous John Bolton, Ginni Thomas who is Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, Jerry Boykin, a former general and current Christian fundamentalist which got him in trouble in 2003/2004 by enflaming Iraqi Muslims with religious derogatory speeches, Stephen Bannon of ‘Breitbart News’ and former right-wing congressman Allen West. Before getting down to business in message coordination, corrupt strategies and scandal infusion, they always open up with a prayer.

Majority House Speaker John Boehner and Representative Darrell Issa have been regular pupils attending their weekly meetings. They coached Issa on the finer devious arts of how to gear up a mishap situation and turn it into a scandal and told both Issa and Boehner to constantly keep propped up scandals in the news such as Benghazi and the IRS with Boykin playing the role as the main tutor. All this has been revealed from a secret taping that received exposure. No one involved can deny it as their voices are distinctly clear on the audio.

Other political visitors seen going to or leaving the group’s meetings have been Representative Jim Bridenstine (R-Ok.), Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Al.) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx.). 

‘Groundswell’ members are also changing Republican strategies on how to bash President Obama over issues such as immigration, the sequester and the phony scandals. Their tactics also include the changing of names like ‘Tea Party’ to ‘Frederick Douglas Republican’ to get the attention of minorities and changing ‘voter ID’ to ‘voter rights.’ This organization is advocating ideology to politicians for a “thirty front war” to fundamentally change the nation. This includes putting pressure on Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) to back away from his cosponsored immigration bill, for they feel if immigration reform is passed, they will lose out on many fronts. I dunno, ‘Groundswell’ merely sounds like a looney tune to me.

There was a huge Republican uproar when a left-centrist group that even had a few conservative members out of their 200 membership called ‘JournoList’ was exposed. All the ‘Fox News’ commentators and hosts among Republican officials were outraged that a semi secretive “left-wing” group could come together and have meetings discussing their views on politics. The group was composed of journalists and news writers, with no politicians involved. Now with the exposing of ‘Groundswell’ with politicians involved and full intentions to influence American politics in a thirty front war…you hear nothing…only silence of the lambs.

Below is a ‘Media Matters’ video display of the Republican outrage in response to the learning of ‘JournoList.’

On this week’s ‘Fox News Sunday,’ House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) rhetorically says to host Chris Wallace, “What we need to have happen is leadership on the part of this president and the White House to come to the table finally and say we’re going to fix the underlying problem that’s driving our deficit.”

Ya see, what Cantor is concealing is that the Republican House only needs a simple majority to pass a bill, they don’t need the president or the senate, nor do they have a minority filibuster policy. They could easily pass amongst themselves a compromissory bill. What he actually means under the guises of compromise is that...if the president does everything I want and what most of the GOP wants, then and only then can we sit down and make legislation. In Cantor’s winking eye...the president must not be accountable to the majority American public who elected him...

Cantor’s excuse in the discussion where Wallace accused the Republican House for passing 40 symbolic Obamacare repeals, but not one jobs bill is that “the government doesn’t create jobs.”

He also falsely states that entitlement programs, along with discretionary public program spending are the biggest contributors to the nation’s debt and states “the growing deficit.” Uh, Cantor got news for ya…the deficit is currently dropping by billions and projected to continue dropping by CBO studies. By now, for anyone still biting into that Republican lark, are beyond even the scope of idiocy.

First off, Social Security (SS) and Medicare are not entitlements; they are earned from every paycheck deduction in every American’s working lifetime. SS is a trust fund and does not contribute one cent to the debt. SS is also solvent as it is until 2033 and at 75% through 2086. That could be easily adjusted if higher income payroll deductions were incorporated. Medicare is perhaps one of the most sound, ethical and solvent programs during its history than any other government program. Public discretionary programs such as SNAP only account for 1.7% of the national budget.

Meanwhile not one thing is said in the 100s of billions of dollars per year given to corporate/wealthy in the form of subsidies, free land grants, low interest rate loans, free development cash grants, offshore financial accounts and tax forgiveness. There is already 16 million American children going to bed hungry and now Republicans are gearing up to slash the SNAP food program to increase that 16 million even more. Honestly, they should be looking at ways to keep all these programs solvent instead of attempting to do away with them.

Oh, and by the way guess who tried to sneak off to a Koch Brothers secret meeting today (08/08/13), but was found out due to their congress hall absence…that’s right…along with buddy Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wi.), Cantor snaked off to meet a host of business millionaires propped up by the two brothers.       

As a result of Republican efforts in privatization and corporate/wealthy welfare, I’m going to pick on Governor Rick Perry of Texas as an example of its spinelessness in fortitude for the average American Joe and Jane.

Under his reign as governor of Texas, Perry has pushed for and received from the super majority Republican Texas legislature defunding of public schools and funding increases for private, religious and charter schools. As a result, public school teachers are beginning to complain about out of pocket costs to supply their pupils with the necessary school supplies due to shrinking budgets.

In defunding Planned Parenthood and facilities not associated with the organization, none of these shuttered clinics offered abortion...only medical care, in which the backlash of unplanned pregnancies between 2014-2015 are now going to cost the Texan taxpayer $267 million. That is perplexing in itself for I thought Republicans were all about less taxation, not more...

When it comes to professing pro-life, ‘500th executed in Texas Perry’ is not...and shutting down women’s healthcare clinics is not remotely a semblance to pro-life.

Anyway ya look at this conundrum, Perry is not practicing pro-life he is its oxymoron...he is not practicing women’s healthcare he is its misogynist...

From all his governing in cutting public programs, limiting workers social mobility while fattening corporate welfare, this is the overall legacy Perry is leaving the Lonestar. The state of Texas is:

1)    #1 in worker deaths

2)    #1 in poverty level jobs

3)    #1 in corporate welfare (just corporate tax breaks average $19 billion/yr.)

4)    49^th in school funding

5)    50^th in high school graduates

6)    4^th out of 51 (including D.C.) in teen births

7)    5^th out of 51 (including D.C.) in teen pregnancies

8)    #1 in executions…Perry oversaw the 500^th state execution, overseeing 234

9)    Ranked 50^th on per capita spending

10)                       50^th in workers compensation coverage

11)                       #1 in uninsured children

12)                       #1 in overall population uninsured

13)                       #1 in amount of carbon dioxide emissions

14)                       #1 in amount of toxic wastes released into waters

15)                       #1 in amount of hazardous wastes generated

Farewell Governor Perry and let the door slam the backside when ya leave.

After all this corporate pandering, Republicans feel it is also apparently OK for a defense contractor to bid on a contract for a certain amount of cost and time period only to repeatedly overrun the costs and time frame, request more money and time and receive it multiple times over.

A contract is a contract between two groups. If a defense contractor overruns his bidding limit, then fair enough…he should eat the cost. There are also many government contractors that have millionaire CEOs paying minimum wages, while in some instances even paying their workers below the minimum wage.

     

Voided Bowels:

Really, for today’s extreme right-wing...what does it mean to be Republican? Hate is a cruel concept and can eat one up alive. But it too, is a motivator, for we all have our prejudices. The GOP uses it to a great extent. Republicans are adept at combining the self-righteous religious/bigoted juices stirring, but the ladle is becoming worn...the stirring is not as tepid and is wavering. So to keep it pitched, they gathered a smaller pot to keep the stirring juices concentrated.

Evolution is naturally selective, but with unreasoned minds, we can contradict its natural evolvement and instead of embracing the progress of people as one, some can devolve back to the primal state where greed and aggression was the innate reaction to survival. I have little reservation in stating that is where the more extreme Republicanism is headed...

The above video is an example of the right’s extreme behavior. Mark Kessler is the police chief of Gilberton, Pennsylvania. He harbors an extreme hatred for all things he considers liberal and as the video examples, is quite proud in displaying it. Kessler is misguided patriotism gone awry. He most likely doesn’t even know why he hates; he just does through unfounded fears and living within a right-wing bubble world of deceit, misinformation and unsubstantiated facts. 

The mayor of Gilberton, Mary Lou Hannon defended Kessler when she told the Allentown ‘Morning Call’ newspaper that Kessler has every right to express himself. She said, the city would “not take action to quash free speech, whether or not each member of council or any member of council agrees with it.”

Free speech?…it’s more like abuse of free speech. Since the original newspaper article, the story has gone viral along with a few of Kessler’s ‘You Tube’ videos and currently Kessler has been put on leave of absence.

If Mayor Hannon did not or cannot see on her own accord the egregious behavior in her police chief, then perhaps she should step down from her mayoral duties as well, for this type of behavior does not represent all her constituents she promised to represent.

Fake stories by fake people...the only problem with this is that the fake people promote the fake stories to make themselves feel real while ironically only in the hastened end, makes them appear more fake...

Is this today’s Republican way...

Ya know, it’s one thing when it’s a fanatic Obama hating individual spewing out their vile, but when an organized event promotes that behavior...it’s time to step in and simply not laugh it off, but call it out.

Yet, this is what occurred at the Otsego County Fair in New York. There was a dart throwing booth not with balloon targets, but with yellow stars intermingled with photos of President Obama as the bigger prize targets.

It just appears to me anyway, that the Republican party and right-wing groups who claim sole ownership to “real” American patriotism but encourage and are even so willing to bash our president through manners unbecoming to any individual with an ounce of patriotism is the essence in utmost hypocritical and unpatriotic malfeasance performed.

They have no real reason for their disdain, so to accommodate, have simply made-up scores of lies (birther, Moslem, commie, Marxist, Nazi, make believe scandals, economically worst president, traitor, etc., etc.) about the president to satisfy their unfounded disdain.

Go ahead...ask a right-winger his reason for hating the president and it will all be based on misinformation, deceit and a pack of lies...or simply for no reason at all.

Progressives need to hammer home that:

(1) The real job creators are consumers

(2) The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly-growing economy than their current big share of an economy that’s merely trudging

(3) Slightly more higher taxes on the corporate/wealthy to finance public investments in roads, bridges, public transit, better school buildings/teaching equipment, affordable higher education, and healthcare…all of which aids all, but in particular the middle and lower classes

(4) Generate livable wage earnings and increase the minimum wage

(5) Democracy only works if wealth is more evenly distributed outwards in increasing chances of social mobility rather than remaining in the hands of a few creating a plutocratic caste system

The venerable short in stature but tall in word Robert Reich has explained why Republican ‘Regressives’ would say no to every one of these points, with reasons being:

(1) They like high unemployment for it keeps wages low and corporate purses fatter.

(2) It keeps stock prices up as long as the Fed is committed to buying long-term bonds while unemployment remains high pushing investors into equities. This in turn helps boosts executive pay and Wall Street commissions.

(3) It keeps most average people economically fearful and financially insecure, which set them up to believe falsities that their biggest enemy is “big government” 
(4) “Big government” taxes away all that the corporate/wealthy have, giving it to undeserving minorities.

(5) All Americans should support low taxes or even none on corporations and wealthy “job creators” while stressing immigrants threaten jobs.

The word demagogue arose during the height of the Greek era. The Greeks recognized what demagoguery was and decided to give its action a proper name. As defined, the word describes any political leader willing to seek support by appealing to desires, biases and prejudices rather than using rational and just argument.  

Demagogues do not really need to tell the truth or to believe what they say. They just need the bulk of their followers to believe what they say. Sadly, even though many of the followers know the words broadcasted are blatantly false, they still prefer to support him in his lies out of loyalty to their cause and his petting of their biases.

A lie to support the “cause” is not a bad thing so long as it advances the “cause.” Say whatever it takes, the truth is irrelevant…              

Just as in Rep. Matt Shea’s case mentioned above, what is this fanatic’s expertise in economics to be so bold as to proclaim the beginning of the end? Shea is only doing what ignoble Republican leaders only know best in relating...spreading brimstone fear to the ignorant masses. Shouldn’t anyone who listens to such a claim, first wonder what qualifies him to make such a proclamation much less his inane dictates for the solution. Just another GOP leader who the right-wing should ponder...who or what are we becoming…

Below, is a small representation of the milder comments from two right-wing blog sites I signed up for and got hammered in. No matter if some substantial fact bites their rears they will not recognize it preferring instead to feed each other with vile content to allow their hatred to fester and stew to the point in giving the positive phrase of ‘frosting on the cake’ to a negative twist of ‘frothing on the cake.’

1) Concerning the upcoming CNN and NBC Hilary documentary and TV project: “It is all commie, progressive lies and propaganda!! WHO would be stupid enough to even watch it!! Oh, the liberals would suck it up!!! Lick it up!! Stupid is, is Stupid does!!” Now, he says this in his overactive way, just like RNC chairman Reince Priebus before knowing what either show entails as they are still both in the development stage. 

2) Simply not on topic, but instead accusing me in not being one of them, in which I suppose is true but not how he perceives it: “BJA--Are You one of those Professional’s paid by the Administration to sprinkle Rose petals and crap all over Us, or what?? The Only reason our trade deficit with China is as good as it is, is because their Economy is sucking pond water right now....I do think He is a shill for a notable Billionaire Socialist, and has no compassion whatsoever for the American Taxpayer...”

3) On an article concerning Obama’s economic policies: “Ridgerunner-Well if you won't say it I will. Barack Hussein Obama is a liar, cheat, thief, coward, raceist, sexist, self centered, egotistical, narssistic, socialistic (at best) communistic (at worst), incompetant worthless pile of dried dog droppings with delussions of granduer. The best thing that could happen to this country would be if he and Biteme had a sudden and fatal accident. As it stands right now he is a great recruiting poster for the KKK and the Nazis (and I hate both groups). Wait a sec I take the part about dog droppings back. Dog droppings helps fertilize the grass.

4) Another on the economy: “In all my long years of living, I have never known a president to be as hated as big ears Barry, yet for all his crimes, and the animosity that faces him, he is still in office, instead of prison. What a sad state of affairs when our elected officials are useless wimps.”

6) On job creation: “These are the kind of jobs this muslim moron always brags about. He put a 100,000 new workers back on a payroll again, yeah all Part Time, with no benefits to talk about anymore, so then next year when his fines kick in they have to pay for not having any health insurance, he screws you again. The IRS does his dirty work again, like a bunch of monkeys, see no evil, do no evil{yeah right} and say no evil to protect the head monkey in Wash.”

7) Concerning economic issues: “this boy in the white house has no allegence to this country as he was born in a foriegn country which makes him inelgeble to be pres. yet by some hook or crook he in therean is agenda is to destroy this nation from within and he is getting the job done at a fast rate and the pantie waist politicans will not do any thing about it they are scaredy cats trying to hold on to thier jobs.”

8) On Obama policies: “Every day i read more of how Obama and his American haters are destorying America ,.............. Wonder when America will decide to throw the no good BAST__ D.... Obama out on street ???????????? Enough is Enough

9) This one had his moniker as ‘An-American-Patriot’: Working Americans do not leave the workforce. Obama and every member of his administration are liars. They have worked diligently to destroy our economy and enslave the American people with debt. Barry Hussein is a traitor in every aspect of the word, has violated his oath of office and deserves to be impeached, tried for treason and executed He and his administration are nothing more than common criminals and racists. The most unfortunate thing is that the only folks that can impeach him are the members of Congress and they are almost all complicit in the crimes Barry has committed. That being the case, the only remaining option is for the people of America to rise up and take back their country. The corrupt federal government knows exactly what took place during Fast & Furious and have chosen to do nothing about it. Holder should be in jail, along with hundreds of other who serve with him in the Dept. of Justice. Hillary Clinton should be tried for treason and executed for her role in Benghazi. 4 Americans were murdered as a result of her ineptness as Secretary of State and although the federal government knows exactly what took place, they have chosen to do nothing.”

9a) My response to his post: “Whoa now, An-American-Patriot...ya sound more like an Un-American-Patriot, ya know writing that our president should be executed and all. What gives ya the idea to think that only if yore conservative are ya American...progressives are just as much so, regardless of yore little disdain speech here...”

10) And finally one that slipped through the conservative radar that kind of fits right in with my above piece on Governor Perry: “I’ll believe that corporations are individuals when I see Rick Perry execute one.”  

Besides poor spelling and grammar, right-wingers as a whole just appear they’ve lost the reasoning ability to extract fact over opinion. Now mind you, these comments were the more mannered ones.

Tarred, Sanded & Alas Feathered:

At first glance, one might think that the above photo is yet another rehashed picture of the BP Deepwater Horizon platform explosion. It is not. It is the image of another platform explosion owned by Hercules Offshore sitting off the Gulf Coast that just happened at the end of July this year. In having a natural gas blowout, workers could not fully engage the blowout preventer and had to abandon the platform.

Scenes like this are occurring often, but with most unaware as they are kept from the public eye and the media not informed. Ya see, it harms the oil & gas industry’s PR. Fossil fuel spills and accidents are hard to conceal, but just like the Exxon/Mobil pipeline heavy crude spill in Arkansas this past March, they have the ability for some reason to keep the public, media and in some instances federal officials at bay away from the affected sites.

Other recent spills was another one this past March in Minnesota where a train carrying Canadian crude derailed spilling 30,000 gallons. Of course this past July the runaway train derailment and resultant oil explosion and fire killing 30 people in Quebec could not be concealed from view.

As far as pipelines go, this past Spring Shell shut down their bay operations near Houston when a pipeline burst filled with dirty oil and about 30,000 gallons made its way into the Gulf of Mexico.

From its supposed state of the art “world class safety and environmental standards” TransCanada CEO proclaimed there will be zero accidents from our pipelines. CEO Hal Kvisle professed this in June of 2010. Just one year later in 2011, TransCanada experienced no less than 12 pipeline spills from leaks to a gushing geyser six stories high. 

          

Tar sands is an appropriate nomenclature, bituminous sands is even more descriptive of the sludge-like bituminous material, but don’t ever listen to someone calling it oil sands. It is also a material that is much more corrosive and abrasive to steel piping than conventional crude oil.

Folks, ya have to understand this is not crude oil...a dirty substance in its own right...but tar sands are far more hazardous and far more difficult to refine, so now we want to send a pipeline directly through the heart of the nation...that’s mind boggling...

There will be leaks and judging from those that already have occurred in piping tar sands...they’re virtually impossible to clean up.

Actually Obama was quite liberal when stating anywhere from 50-100 jobs would be produced with the pipeline. The estimate for permanent jobs linked to the pipeline is more conservative as between a mere 21-54.

It is so past time to quit pursuing fossil fuels that are not renewable. Like the dinosaur they’re becoming extinct...should our political leaders lead us into war over that last drop of oil?

Public issues to seriously consider in the pursuit of fossil fuels:

A)  The Republican friendly Fracking Bill push could take the ‘Public’ out of Public Lands

B)   Due to the entire platform drilling activities’ leaks in the Gulf Coast, there is now a dead zone in the waters the size of Connecticut

C)   95% of water used in tar sands mining is so polluted it has to be stored in permanent humongous toxic sludge pits that leak

D)  2 of the top 3 world’s largest dams have been built to hold back the toxic sludge

E)   Over 2.9 million gallons or 11 million liters of toxic sludge seep out from the pits into the surrounding arboreal forest

F)    If tar sands strip mining continues unabated, it will scar 87,000 square miles or 140,000 square kilometers of land surface, the size roughly of Florida

G)  In extracting tar sands, they are not only conducting pit and strip mining, but are also pressurizing underground deposits in fracking-like fashion which have the potential for blowouts as has occurred; Near Cold Lake, Alberta, an underground pressurized deposit blew out and is continuously seeping to the surface and streaming out. No one as yet has figured out how to stop or clean it up for there is no “off button”

H)  In attempts to halt the furtherance of climate change, a global fee on carbon emissions may be issued, if so, tar sands would become very expensive to mine, refine and purchase its finished products

I)      Producing a barrel of crude from tar sands produces 3.85 times (> 82%) more greenhouse gases than conventional oil

J)     Quietly tar sands are being railed into Chevron’s San Francisco bay area refinery and has already experienced an explosion this summer spewing out toxic hydrocarbon pollutants        

Chevron's Tar Sands Refinery Explosion

‘Fox News’ and ‘Fox Business’ are on a warpath of misinformation and deceit when it comes to facts of renewables. ‘Fox Business’ reporter Shibani Joshi states renewables will not work in America as it is now doing in Germany because the U.S. does not have the sunshine Germany is bathed with. Apparently she’s only talking about solar renewables, but let’s look into just that. Only the state of Alaska receives less sunshine per annum than Germany. The rest of the states are far more solar endowed than Germany as verified by solar resource maps of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Yet, with more dreary days, Germany has 21 times more solar power per capita than the U.S.

‘Fox News’ cohost, Gretchen Carlson, continuously ridicules Obama for supposedly having “failed solar subsidy policies” without anyone ever there to counter that knows the true facts. When unity scale installations in residential and commercial solar power has grown and almost doubled from 1,900 to 3,500 megawatts within one year from 2010 to 2011, I’d say the Obama administration’s solar subsidies are showing a vast improvement and outreach in solar technologies.

‘Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld along with oil friendly guests like Marc Morano constantly point out and elaborate on the effects of wind power on birds. As if they really would care about birds, but they constantly refer to wind turbines as “bird blenders.” It is true. It’s estimated that on average 25,000 birds are killed per year from flying into wind turbines. But unlike the oil industry, the wind energy industry is ethical enough to approach this problem on their own accord and already have come up with bird-proof wind turbines they are installing and replacing older versions with. In all actuality, wind turbine bird deaths account for less than .10% of overall bird collision fatalities at .03%. 

‘Fox News’ who really could care less about birds, use this in their oil industry propaganda to appeal to bird lovers and that there is nothing else they can utilize to criticize the industry with. What they also neglect to state, is that communication towers account for on average 45 million collision deaths, while automobiles and pesticides account for an average of 70 million each. Power lines account for 130 million-170 million deaths per year and anywhere from 100 million to a billion birds are killed per year in building collisions.

‘Fox News’ would also never express their so-called bird concerns on the coal industry’s mountaintop removal projects in the Appalachians, America’s oldest and most diverse mountain system. Besides the burying and polluting of over 2,000 miles of once viable Appalachian waterways, atmospheric and ground pollution, the removal of an entire mountaintop eliminating 1.2 million acres of forest, entire bird species have been extirpated. Birds who subsist on mature forests like numerous species of warblers, migrant neo-tropical birds and the tiny Bewick’s wren are now gone from these vast mining sites.

If you click on any ‘Fox News’ article concerning the XL Pipeline…it will be slanted friendly, while all renewable energy articles will be unjustifiably hostile.        

As a nation, we have got to get serious with renewable energies. With such high volatility in the fossil fuel market, it is beginning to drag the country instead of transport it. Already, even with the lack of interest, but no lack in technologies, renewable fuels are fulfilling 10% of America’s energy needs. Imagine the price of gasoline if it wasn’t...imagine the price of gas if that percent doubled to 20%, for it is one of the few stabilizers in gas prices. The only way to become less dependent on foreign fossil fuels is not by more drilling of nonrenewable energies, but through investing in renewable energy sources.

Fossil fuel pricing is dictated solely by the international market these days with a barrel of oil price benched by speculators. Energy companies do not keep the sale of refined oil in the country of origin whether it’s the states or any other country; it flows to the highest spot market. That is the capitalist way. Why do you think TransCanada, the Canadian company which owns and will operate the Keystone XL Pipeline is fighting so hard to get the tar sands refined at a coastal port?

Both the East Coast provinces and British Columbia on the West Coast of Canada have refused the pipeline. That is the sole reason TransCanada is even entertaining splitting the belly of America in half by sending a pipeline to the Gulf Coast. It’s not out of generosity in aiding America’s economy with two neighboring countries working together as Republicans purport. It’s simply the need in access to a port to ship the refined tar sands petroleum worldwide to the most lucrative bidders.

The real truth to the Republican backbone when it comes to anthropogenic degradation of the environment and climate denying is merely...greed...

With the Republican main base as corporate/wealth, they don't like regulations or contentions that what they do has adverse effects on health, climate and the environment.

Republicans are willing to act stupid and deny factual evidence to protect their corporate base. They’re supposedly grown adults...they know science is valid for they use it and its technology every minute of the day and night.

They only wait for the scientists who have done decades upon decades of empirical evaluations to state their conclusions then after waiting in the aisles deniers pounce on the results to simply cast doubt into the winds...

Their side has virtually no studies no matter what they say. If so, then prove the claim...show the GWP results, the radiative forcing capacities, integrated infrared absorbance findings, radiative efficiency ratios, thermohaline circulation & oceanic variability changes and ice core time frame logistics of gas variability.

They can’t because they haven’t conducted them...they can only throw doubt at the ones that have.

Sensible thinking versus ingrained beliefs is all it amounts to in evolution versus creationism and nothing more. So, if anyone pushes creationism into our school classrooms, then they should be exposed as what they are...silly…for just the same as anyone would be in pushing evolution into our Sunday school classes. The same scenario has parallels that apply to deniers of the changing climate and how we still insist on fossil fuel addiction that allows the major oil companies to have bigger moneybags at the expense of rising fuel prices and a worsening climatic environment. 

Reported as Called,

BJA

08/09/2013