Category: Liberal Rants

Thoughtful posts on why the neopaleolithic viewpoint, while perhaps valid for its adherents, is yet not the way I want my country run.

Oh, Republicans

Posted on by Dale

So here’s an odd thing:

U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama has politicized the Supreme Court nomination process by putting forward veteran appellate court judge Merrick Garland during a presidential election. (Reuters, 3/16/16)

He did what now?

Let’s back up a bit.  This is not news, of course.  The republicants have been pissing and moaning about how it tain’t fittin’ for them to even consider a Supreme Court nominee ever since Tony Scalia was found dead in a bed with a sheep.  Allegedly. [1]

Here’s Orrin Hatch, just last week, pissing and moaning:

“[Obama] could easily name Merrick Garland, who is a fine man,” he told us, referring to the more centrist chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia who was considered and passed over for the two previous high court vacancies.

But, Hatch quickly added, “He probably won’t do that because this appointment is about the election. So I’m pretty sure he’ll name someone the [liberal Democratic base] wants.” [Newsmax (!) 3/13/16]

Well, okay then.

So now that President Obama has nominated the very judge that Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Oopsies) has said would be the perfect nominee, we can all go back to wondering where Ted “The Zodiac Killer” Cruz was the day Scalia was murdered.

Wait, what?  What’s that?  Senate republicants are still pissing and moaning?  You don’t say!

They want the “American people to have a say” in the Supreme Court nomination by voting for the man who makes the nomination.[2]  Like we’ve already done.  Twice.

Not only that, but surveys indicate that a yoooge majority of Americans want the Senate to do its damn job.  Sounds like the people have had their say.

Republicants have also been pissing and moaning about how Democratic senators have said terrible, terrible obstructionist stuff about republicantist Presidential nominations in the past, which was just terrible.

And that’s what I really wanted to talk about today.

We have Sen. XYZ (R-Natch) pissing and moaning that Sen. ABC (D-The Past) once said they’d rather the Current Occupant nominate someone they like, so it’s only right that they (the republicants) refuse to consider any nomination made by President Obama, who has only 307 days left in office.  Why, that’s hardly any time at all left to do any real governing! [3]

So here’s what I always want to know when our republicant officials trot out the old tu quoque defense:

Are they saying 1) that what the Democratic Party did when they weren’t thrilled about potential SCOTUS nominees was a good thing to do and so they (the republicants) are going to do it too?  Or 2) that what the Democratic Party did was a vile and reprehensible thing to do and so they (the republicants) ARE GOING TO DO IT TOO?

I mean, there’s not really a third choice there, is there?

Do your damn job.

—————

[1] Tony Scalia was not found dead in a bed with a sheep.  That we know of.

[2] Or woman.  Heh heh.

[3] We may raise our eyebrows and purse our lips at this claim since Congress worked only 132 days in 2015.  That means President Obama has almost exactly 2-1/3 Congresses in which he must not try to accomplish anything.[4]

[4] Which, given this particular Congress, would not be difficult.

The Lyles Rule of Outrageous Truthiness: a review

Posted on by Dale

So today on Facebook…

Never Would Have Guessed

WHY MR. ROGERS WORE
A SWEATER?

Captain Kangaroo passed away on January 23, 2004 at age 76 , which is odd,
because he always looked to be 76. (DOB: 6/27/27 )
His death reminded me of the following story.

Some people have been a bit offended that the actor, Lee Marvin,
is buried in a grave alongside 3 and 4-star generals at
Arlington National Cemetery His marker gives his name,
rank (PVT) and service (USMC). Nothing else.
Here’s a guy who was only a famous movie star who served his time,
why the heck does he rate burial with these guys?
Well, following is the amazing answer:

I always liked Lee Marvin, but didn’t know the extent
of his Corps experiences.

In a time when many Hollywood stars served their country
in the armed forces often in rear echelon posts where they
were carefully protected, only to be trotted out to perform
for the cameras in war bond promotions,
Lee Marvin was a genuine hero.
He won the Navy Cross at Iwo Jima There is only one
higher Naval award… the Medal Of Honor!

If that is a surprising comment on the true character of the man,
he credits his sergeant with an even greater show of bravery.

Dialog from “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”:
His guest was Lee Marvin….
Johnny said,”Lee, I’ll bet a lot of people are unaware
that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima ..
and that during the course of that action you earned
the Navy Cross and were severely wounded.”

“Yeah, yeah… I got shot square in the bottom and they gave me
the Cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi.
Bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys getting
shot hauling you down. But, Johnny, at Iwo , I served under
the bravest man I ever knew… We both got the Cross the same day,
but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison.
That dumb guy actually stood up on Red beach and directed his
troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach..
Bullets flying by, with mortar rounds landing everywhere and he
stood there as the main target of gunfire so that he could get his
men to safety. He did this on more than one occasion because
his men’s safety was more important than his own life.

That Sergeant and I have been lifelong friends. When they brought
me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and
passed it to me, lying on my belly on the litter and said,
“Where’d they get you Lee?” “Well Bob….
if you make it home before me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse!”

Johnny, I’m not lying, Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man
I ever knew.
The Sergeant’s name is Bob Keeshan.
You and the world know him as Captain Kangaroo.”

On another note, there was this wimpy little man
(who passed away) on PBS, gentle and quiet.. Mr. Rogers is
another of those you would least suspect of being anything
but what he now portrays to our youth.
But Mr. Rogers was a U.S. Navy Seal, combat-proven in

Vietnam with over twenty-five confirmed kills to his name.
He wore a long-sleeved sweater on TV, to cover the many
tattoos on his forearm and biceps.
He was a master in small arms and hand-to-hand combat,
able to disarm or kill in a heartbeat

After the war Mr. Rogers became an ordained Presbyterian minister

and therefore a pacifist. Vowing to never harm another human and also dedicating the rest of his life to trying to help lead children on the right path in life… He hid away the tattoos and his past life and won our hearts with his quiet wit and charm..

America’s real heroes don’t flaunt what they did; they quietly go about their day-to-day lives, doing what they do best. They earned our respect and the freedoms that we all enjoy.
Look around and see if you can find one of those heroes in your midst.
Often, they are the ones you’d least suspect, but would most like to have on your side if anything ever happened……. Jus sayin

Oy.

The Lyles Rule of Outrageous Truthiness states that “Any time something from the internet sounds too outrageous to be true, then you can safely bet that it’s not.”

That can be boiled down to “Cool story, bro—whoa, if true!”

The above is a lovely story, born I guess of our national fetishization of the military.  Yes, it ends talking about leading children on the “right path in life,” i.e., kindness and gentleness.  But first, boys, make sure you shoot guns and get tattoos!  After all, they’re our “real heroes,” not men like Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers.

And of course, the story is not true. Not in a single significant detail.

Jus sayin.

Holy crap.

Posted on by Dale

I think that on the whole it is better if we don’t delve too deeply into the fever swamps of deluded rightwing conspiracies, but today a “friend” on Facebook shared a meme from Exposing Satanic World Government.  That’s a Facebook group, folks.  (I would like to say that this “friend” is a recent addition, and I do—I really do—look for signs of this kind of thing before I click on the Accept button, but sometimes they just slip by you, you know?)

Here we go, straight into the deep end.

Let’s start with an easy one.

—click for the original article—

This is the kind of thing that one usually gets: the government is out to get us, etc., etc.

Nothing new or exciting really.  Just your run-of-the-mill, take-a-standard-government-program-and-turn-it-into-ONE-WORLD-GOVERNMENT-WAKE-UP-SHEEPLE stuff. As one does.

But I would like to draw your attention to that first comment. The poor guy meant “patsies,” I guess.  Easy typo, or perhaps an autocorrect, but I’m comfortable thinking that he just didn’t know the difference.

This is the level of discourse we’re dealing with here. Literacy is not this kind of person’s strong suit.

I should say at this point that the whole group is purely Christian in its approach.  I think it’s part and parcel of the whole authoritarianism thing that has recently caught the attention of the pundits trying to explain why Donald Drumpf is leading the Republican pack—and is closely followed by the even bigger horrorshow of Rafael Cruz.

(Of course, the hippies have been making fun of Republican “strong daddy” types since the days of W, but just like the Iraq War it sometimes takes time for the Very Serious People to catch up.)

Anyway, this is the kind of group that seeks strength through Christ, and by that I mean pure, naked power, not the strength of quiet faith and good deeds that the wiser among us picked up in Sunday School.  Since they seek power, they see it everywhere.  Since they want dominion over the earth, they a) create a self-image of being righteous warriors, and then—because what good is a flaming sword unless you have someone to smite it with—indeed, why does the flaming sword even exist unless there were, of course, b) an all-powerful Enemy?

Once you have this mental framework in place, then every waking moment of your life is spent looking under the bed and in the closet for that Enemy.  Every. Waking. Moment.

What was it the man said?  “Seek and ye shall find…”?

—click to see the original video—

EVERY WAKING MOMENT, KENNETH!

The comment on this one is representative of many of the comments on this page, a kind of pearl-clutching fantod that reassures the commenter and the readers that yes, they are servants of the Risen Lord and all manner of things will be well.  I’ve written about this before, this curious split-brain thing of thinking that one is simultaneously on the losing end of this corrupt world and yet the victor.  I still don’t get it.

—Do click on this one—

Mercy.

I mean, these kinds of theories have abounded about the Beatles since the 60s, but it’s still hysterical to see all of them so tidily presented (and by a 24-year-old author!).

You may have noticed by now that there seems to be no dearth of websites dedicated to exposing the TRUTH to the world.  Once you start clicking, there is no end to them.

None of them explain why the Illuminati/Bilderberg/Freemasons/Satanists are taking their own sweet time in implementing the New World Order. You would think that our all-powerful overlords would have lost patience with teh sheeple and just taken over by now, but no, it’s clear they must get a kick out of teasing us with the threat of a nightmare future.

Again, I’ve written about this before, but it’s important to remember that this frisson of fear is a feature, not a bug, in these people’s worldview.  They wouldn’t see it that way, but their brains love that little tickle of terror they get when they imagine Satan just sitting there like a spider in a web.  They’re addicted to it.

Moving on…

 

Closer to home:

It all seems so clear now, doesn’t it?

I like the part about “intelligent people who actually understand socialism.”  This is something I have not noticed to be true in this election, especially from this kind of voter.

And the comments… The old “Marshall law” gambit: remember when the crazier liberals thought the same thing about W?  But this time… You know it’s true.

The energy expended by these people is incredible.  How do they keep it up when none of their fears are proven to be true and they just transfer the fear to something new? It exhausts me just observing it.

As for the “will of God” gambit, mercy, people, when are you ever going to think that perhaps God is working his spirit out through Barack Obama or Bernie Sanders or even, Cthulhu help us, Clinton?1

Spoiler alert: never.  It will never occur to them that God might be a liberal.  Or that she might not even care.

And if “our blessings will be just the same,” then why all this energy directed at identifying, exposing, and defeating the Satanic World Government?  I’m not sure what the point is, if nothing you do matters because God has his eye on the sparrow.

 

Last one, I promise:

—Really. There’s a video.—

There is a 15-minute video which I have not watched—nor am I going to—positing that Donald J. Drumpf is a high-ranking priest in the Satanic World Order.

This is not an isolated viewpoint.  Click through and a) read the comments; and b) check out all the videos recommended over on the side.

Jebus.

As I’ve said, folks, EVERY. WAKING. MOMENT.

Once you’ve committed to this mindset, the whole of the planet must be viewed through that lens, and everything must be made to fit the madness.  Donald Drumpf is just a egotistical bully?  Nonsense: he’s part of the conspiracy to elect She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  The Beatles were a talented group of men who hooked into the zeitgeist of a world waking up to possibilities of not despising those different from you?  Crazy talk: they were puppets of a conspiracy so vast that it is capable of destroying all that we hold dear.2

Personally, I blame the Wachowski sisters.  Red pill/blue pill, my ass.

——————

1 Just to be clear, I am not a Clinton basher.  It’s just that she’s the current repository for all the irrational fear and hatred.  What do people think is going to happen if she’s elected? What on earth could it be that would make it better to vote for Trump or Cruz??

2 Because, really, who wouldn’t want to rule over a world that you’ve wrecked beyond repair?

Not the Drumpf you’re looking for

Posted on by Dale

I would like to entertain the idea that Donald Drumpf is a Jedi master.

I mean, his whole campaign is kind of a “these are not the droids you’re looking for” hand wave, right?  He has his supporters give a Nazi-like salute; he says he will order our military to act illegally and they will do it; he vamps about deporting immigrants while hiring them, and snagging jobs back from China while exporting them; he’s endorsed by David Duke and the KKK.

And when quizzed about any of this, he just waves his hand: “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.” “I don’t know anything about that.” “That was taken out of context.” “We were just having a good time.”

I’m sure the press thinks they are doing their job just by allowing him to expose himself as a lying liar who lies, but that’s not what is happening.  What’s happening is that people see him successfully elude the mainstream media and think he’s more majestic than ever.

Help us, Obi-Drumpf, you’re our only hope.

Jebus.

Honey please: on the wheel-spinning martyrdom of the right wing

Posted on by Dale

This turned up on the FacePlace today:

[VIDEO] Obama Wants To Shut Down Judge Pirro After She Exposes Damaging Leaked Info About Him…

Here’s a brief (yet complete withal) summary: Jeanine Pirro thinks Muslims are scary and said so.

Really, that’s it.

But Dale, you will marvel, what was the damaging leaked info about Obama that “Judge” Jeanine Pirro exposed?  And what exactly does her furry look like?  (Okay, so you might want to go read the first sentence.)

Spoiler alert: there is no damaging leaked info about Obama.

Nothing.  Nada.  I read the article three times thinking I had missed something.  But no, it’s not there.  The headline has nothing to do with the article.

And the article is simply telling us that “Judge” Jeanine Pirro said some things.  On the teevee.

By doing so, of course, she’s become a “political enemy of the White House.”  We guess.  There’s no link to any kind of statement from the White House.  There’s not even an educated guess about an Enemies List, which I think is just lazy rightwing martyrdom-doing.

But given how vindictive the President is—oh, come on, you know how he yells on the teevee and calls people names and threatens them1—we all would be astonished if Pirro’s days were not numbered.  You just know we’ll find her in a ditch any day now.

I like the way Pirro rants about House Resolution 569, or Condemning Violence, Bigotry, and Hateful Rhetoric Towards Muslims in the United States Act; the author of the article immediately confuses it with an actual bill before Congress.  I guess she didn’t get to that webpage when she was homeschooled.2

Somehow neither Pirro nor the author of the article seems to realize that this “bill” “establishing Sharia law”3 had to have been passed by the Republican House.  Such is the power of Islamic terrorists, I suppose.

Pirro also makes the whoa-if-true statement that Islam is the only religion “protected” by this “bill.”  I wonder if she read it.4  Yes, Islam is the only religion mentioned in the resolution, but perhaps that might be because the House of Representatives wanted to offer their “thoughts and prayers” to any member of that religion who finds themselves in danger because of rightwing demagogues like “Judge” Jeanine Pirro.

::sigh:: Another day, another rightwinger throwing stones at themselves because no one else is doing it.

I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t enjoying it so much.

—————

1 Oh wait.  That’s Donald Drumpf I’m thinking of.  My bad.

2 Sorry, homeschoolers, that was a cheap shot.  I apologize.  I was just highly amused that the first and most succinct explanation I found of the difference between a resolution and a bill was on a conservative homeschool site, i.e., this author had resources congenial to his/her worldview and failed to use them.

3 No, really, another nutjob website headlined the resolution exactly this way.  I will not link to it, if only because ALL THE TEXT ON THE PAGE IS CENTERED, KENNETH!

4 Spoiler alert: she didn’t.

A reason not to vote Republican that you may not have considered

Posted on by Dale

This message is intended for those who are going to vote for Donald Trump. Please feel free to pass it along to someone like that.

In this post I am going to outline what I feel is a very strong rationale for not voting for the Republican candidate for President (and by extension, for Republican candidates for Congress), even if you are a die-hard GOPer.

Warning: there’s a lot of reading here. I’ve linked to original articles, but I will summarize each. Trust, but verify. (But you can trust my summarization.)

Point #1:

Dow Chemical was involved in a class action suit that was on the docket at the Supreme Court. When Antonin Scalia died, Dow settled the suit because they could not count on Scalia’s vote against the citizens suing Dow. They said so. This is not liberal fantasy. They said so.

Likewise, the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA) has abandoned its suit challenging New York’s ban on assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines for the very same reason.

“There is, however, a very great risk that, in the absence of Justice Scalia’s influence, a majority could in fact vote to affirm the Second Circuit case, which would result in binding Supreme Court precedent and create a potentially insurmountable obstacle to the practice and enjoyment of those rights elucidated in the Heller decision.” (Here’s an actual news article about the case.)

Point #2:

Republicans almost always side with corporations over us citizens. Note their stated (and continuing) opposition to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; the refusal to allow Medicare (Part D) to negotiate the price of medications with the pharmaceutical companies; or even support for predatory lending companies over our service members.

Point #3:

This preference for capitalist cronyism over the private citizen also manifests in the fetish for privatization: jails, internet service, defense mercenaries, schools.

Point #4

Go read this one: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/24/nestle-chairman-time-to-turn-off-the-water-taps.html

Got it? Nestle wants to privatize water systems. To protect humanity, of course. It’s a privilege to pee.[1]

updated 3/21/16 to add: Bills Would Make It Easier to Privatize Public Water Utilities and Chris Christie Is Turning Tap Water Into a Private Commodity

Point #5

Flint, Michigan. Look up your own articles.

And so…

Nestle, with the support of Republican lawmakers,[2] privatizes your water system.

They bungle it. Your water is unsafe.[3]

You and your city file a class action suit against Nestle because you’ve suffered significant and irreparable damage.

The case works its way up the appellate system, and finally the Circuit Court rules in your favor. Nestle appeals to the Supreme Court.

And there…

Here’s the question you have to answer honestly to yourself: Do I want my recourse to compensation and damages handled by Antonin Scalia?

I put it to you that even if you hate Hillary Clinton with the heat of a thousand suns, even if you fear that Bernie Sanders is going to turn the U.S. into a communist hellhole,[4] even if you’re positive that Donald Trump is going to somehow make America great again5]—you might want to rethink your long game in this one respect alone.

Don’t vote for a candidate who’s going to nominate Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. The life you save may be your own.[6]

—————

[1] I know, conflicting messages in that one.

[2] And the support of any corrupt Democratic ones who are on the take from Big Water—but trust me, it will originate and find its main support from the Republican Party.

[3] “But a corporation has to maintain safety/not harm customers because…” Because why, exactly? You’ll take your tap water business elsewhere? They might get sued?

[4] Spoiler alert: he’s not.

[5] Spoiler alert: he’s not. Nope. Not going to happen.

[6>] Because even if you stop abortions from ever happening ever again,[7] the resulting children are going to be poisoned by Nestle.

[7] Spoiler alert: you won’t.

I come to praise Scalia, not to bury him.

Posted on by Dale

Because it is considered to be bad breeding to speak ill of the dead, I will now say something very nice indeed about Antonin Scalia, the dead jurist.

Without Scalia’s scathing and snarky dissents in Lawrence v. Texas and United States v. Windsor, we would not have gotten to marriage equality as quickly as we did than if he had just kept his mouth shut.

You can read real reporters’ commentary here and here, but I’ll lay out the basics for you.

In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court struck down Texas’s sodomy law and in so doing struck down every state law criminalizing sodomy (as legally defined) in general and homosexual behavior in particular.  Scalia’s dissent essentially said, “Well, if you’re not going to rule on cases by going on what most people think is icky, you’re going to end up letting the homos marry, mark my words.  Get off my lawn.”1

In United States v. Windsor (2013), the SCOTUS struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and its discrimination against same-sex marriages, which were already legal in several states.  Scalia whined, “My esteemed colleagues are poopy-heads for making me look like a bad guy for hating the queers, and now all the fags are going to sue and we’re not going to be able to stop them from marrying like normal people, believe you me.”2

His words came back to haunt him as circuit court judge after circuit court judge wryly used his dissents to underscore the basic fairness and justice of overturning marriage equality bans in the several states where, in fact, all the fags sued. The axe fell when the Sixth Circuit refused to overturn a couple of states’ anti-icky-homo-wedding laws—when the circuit courts disagree, the cases end up in front of the Supremes for a final decision.

And that, my children, is how we got Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).

I like to think of it all like a real-life version of the final episode of Boston Legal, in which Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner) argue before the Supremes that Denny be allowed to use an experimental drug to ameliorate his Alzheimer’s.  At the end of the episode, having stopped an injunction preventing them from marrying morganatically, they fly to their remote Maine resort to get married, only to find that they have no minister or justice of the peace.  Iudex ex machina, Tony (who had been grousing from the bench that he wanted Shore to stop talking so he could go on vacation) shows up, fishing reel in hand, and is prevailed upon to marry the two.  Which he does, albeit grumpily.

So here’s to the good a man does in his life—we all owe a debt of gratitude to Antonin Scalia for moving us into the 21st century.

——————

1 I may have paraphrased a bit.

2 Here too.

Bless their hearts

Posted on by Dale

Georgia Legislature Passes ‘Pastor Protection Act”

Because of course they did.

It seems like just yesterday I wrote, “[Christianists are] really more comfortable believing they’re in the minority and are persecuted like Paul or Stephen. Lacking convenient ways to be crucified upside down or to be stoned by the community, they pretend someone is throwing rocks at them anyway.”

Okay, it was day before yesterday, but still…

What kind of CRAP is THIS? There oughta be a law!

These religious protection acts are identical in intent to the old racial purity laws of 100 years ago: to keep “those people” from gaining full access to what those of us on the inside enjoy.  No more, no less.

Oh, but Dale, if we don’t pass these laws, then the defenseless white women Christians will have to… do… something…

Listen, here’s the deal: every law like this presumes that what it “protects” is in fact the unvarying Way Things Are Supposed To Be—and it’s not.  I can not stress this enough.

Think of it this way.  How does your family make dressing/stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner?  Because that’s the Way Dressing Is Supposed To Be, right?  And “those people” who make, well, you know, that other kind of dressing… We should pass a law.

Despite what Ralston/McKoon/et al. believe, they’re legislating stuffing.