The Peasantville Blog

Tea is Just Another Flavor of Koolaid and the Gadsden Flag is the Tea Party's Dashboard Plastic Jesus

I don't want 'more' government - I don't want 'less' government' -- I want a effin' government that WORKS!!!  The worst congress in history, the least accomplished in history, the Tea Party 2010 Congress is leaving the flipping building!!  Elections have consequences.  America has discovered that tea is just another flavor of kool-aid and the Gadsden Flag is the Tea Party's dashboard plastic Jesus. 

The Tea Party is the snookiism of politics in the form of popular constitutionalism, a political movement spawned from ignorance - oh, and slogans - slogan upon slogan upon slogan.  Terms and phrases like 'smaller government' which is like putting a 4 cylinder in a Peterbilit; or 'limited government' with no clue what 'limited government' means even when John Roberts showed 'em with Obamacare. 

Then you have those who claim to be patriots but when their faction loses elections they want to secede from the nation for which they claim patriotic feelings. It's way past time to call out the stupid - because, as I've said before - IF YOU DON'T FIGHT STUPID, STUPID WINS.  See the 2010 elections and the Tea Party for examples - then flash forward to the 112th congressional end record.  Best thing about it is this - there are less of them now and if we do the job right there will be less of them in Congress after the 2014 election.

Fiscal Cliff Launch in T Minus 10-9-8 ....

It's no secret I've been more than pessimistic about any deal to avert our going over the Fiscal Cliff.  Between the continued presence of defeated Tea Party legislators who won't be out of power until after the deadline and those who've entered office promising to drive us over the cliff (e.g., Tom Massie, who's expressly stated he'd vote for driving over the cliff) there's no reason to be anything other than pessimistic.   Boehner's Plan B didn't get enough votes to get out of the House, and that was a proposal to increase taxes at $1 Million income - why would we think there's  enough to get out of the House at $250K or even $500K?  To quote a top Democratic aide, "What I want to know is: if Boehner couldn't get $1 million through the House and now McConnell is caving at $450,000, then how does Boehner deal with this?"  

"It's the same 40 to 50 chuckleheads that have screwed this place up all year," complained retiring Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio. Boehner has “done everything to make nice to them. Bring them along. It hasn't mattered. I don't fault him. He's done his best."   In a last hurrah, Allen West and Joe Walsh with the help of Massie - the Chucklehead Chorus - continue to act as domestic terrorists - the Tealiban- and hold Americans hostage to their small box of crayon economic theories. We can only hope more responsible legislators in the next congress will be able to repair the damage done. 

John Boehner can't control the extremists in his own party, he's as weak as any speaker the nation has every seen. Now, less than 11 hours from the precipice, Mitch McConnell is twisting in the wind 'negotiating' with Joe Biden.  When there's no middle ground to be reached.  Oh, there's talk about supplemental legislation to 'soften' the landing -- but that's not enough. There must be a 'cleaning of house' in Congress.  

What Democrats have here is an opportunity -- an opportunity to expose clearly, once and for all, the know nothing intransigence of the Republicans as run by their extremist fanatic wing, the Tealiban.  Next week there's the opportunity to propose legislation lowering taxes on the 98% -- and see if the Republicans will vote against that.  Next week there can be a vote to extend the payroll tax holiday, to invest in infrastructure, to fund education and grow the economy. Next week -- there's an opportunity to bring sanity back to Washington DC while at the same time crushing the plague of ignorance become a political movement - the Tea Party plague.

Fiscal Cliff Countdown to Tea Partymageddon

The Coming Tea Party Depression

Let it be known, I am pessimistic about any deal that will prevent the nation from driving 'Dukes of Hazzard Style" full speed off the imminent Fiscal Cliff.  Certainly the few sane Republicans, Democrats, finance figures, the President and even John Boehner know that when we do disaster will strike in the form of Recession, high unemployment, a hit to the stock market, more foreclosures, less revenue for government to decrease the deficit and debt, higher taxes on the middle class, greater burden on the social safety net that will be diminished by automatic cuts, less funding for the military resulting in even more unemployment --- but, hey, gas prices will likely drop to $1.75 per gallon when business demand dries up.  The American Action Network, described as 'center right,' has produced an ad in which " ... former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin warn(s) of dire economic consequences if Congress fails to reach an agreement to avoid going over the fiscal cliff.  "This isn't a media creation — this is a real threat to the American economy. Going over the cliff means a decline in GDP of nearly 5 percent. That's something that's agreed upon by business leaders, economists and even the Congressional Budget Office," he says in the web ad. "If we go over the fiscal cliff we have a recession and we will not get America's debt problems under control.""

But odds are we're going over anyway.  Why? Because Tea Party simpletons and their simplistic economic theory applied to government will likely not have it any other way.  We've seen it before -- remember the Tea Party Downgrade?  Tea Party intransigence coupled with their 'theory' resulted in a credit rating drop by S&P as well as higher credit costs, economic uncertainty, a threat to national and global stability -- such intransigence reduces the Tea Party extremists to no more than economic terrorists holding Americans hostage to their agenda, an agenda that will only do more damage and nothing to repair any damage done over the last decade by other reckless leaders in our own government. The Tea Party and extremist Republicans will hold middle class, working Americans hostage in their efforts to alter Medicare, destroy Obamacare, diminish Social Security -- and call it 'freedom.'  That payroll tax holiday? Gone.  Bush tax cuts? Instead of simply raising taxes slightly on the 1% there'll be a raise in taxes across the board for everyone.  Why? Because 'Job creation trickle down,' proven failure that it is, is sacrosanct for the extremists. 

To know the future all one has to do is examine the past --- and all one has to do is look back at 2011's debt ceiling fight to foresee the future.  Joe Walsh and Allen West are still in congress in the House of Representatives, most of the incumbent and incoming senators and congressmen signed Grover Norquist's idiotic pledge  - and even though some Republicans in the Senate are distancing themselves from that pledge, Walsh, West and Thomas Massie embrace it (Massie has pledged to vote to drive off the cliff). 

There will be a compromise in the Senate, and that gives some slight hope the House will do 'something' -- but it's very slight.  Mitch McConnell will not be able to prevent, should he choose to try, some Republicans from voting with Democrats in the Senate to reach compromise. Conversely, John Boehner, who would compromise to avoid the Cliff, will not be able to bring his Republicans to the table.  He's cornered. The Tea Party, Norquist's shreds, unwillingness to deal, pet agendas -- Boehner's effort will be like herding cats -- but more difficult.

Hang on - it's going to be a bumpy ride over that Cliff and at the bottom we'll find the Tea Party Depression. 

"How the heck do you win if you don't engage in the conversation?"

The worst thing the Democratic Party could ever do is take for granted a voting bloc - e.g., the votes of African - Americans.  Lines of communication, interaction, understanding must be maintained!!  The simple understanding that Republicans and the TEA Party are negative to your future and you should vote Democratic for that reason is not enough. 

The Democratic Party through representatives and candidates must continuously interact and explain and communicate WHY that specific group should vote Democratic - not just during elections when the approach of a candidate to an ethnic institution, i.e., a predominantly Black church, is not dissimilar to the approach of a salesman on a used car lot and elicits some of the same reaction in the cornered 'customer.'  We must maintain the WHY so as to EARN the votes of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian- Americans -- so as to EARN the votes of AMERICANS.

The one warning in this story I've linked to comes, albeit unintentionally, from Michael Steele:  "How the heck do you win if you don't engage in the conversation?" I fear that in this most recent election the Republican failure to engage African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian- Americans  was a greater factor in their loss than the Democratic effort to engage was in their win.  ENGAGE!!!

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/11/23/2418376/black-voters-look-to-leverage.html#storylink=cpy

Tea Party Downgrade set to become the Tea Party Recession?

Over a year ago extremists of the Tea Party held the middle class tax cuts hostage to their agenda of furthering the same policies put in place by George W. Bush that helped bring about the Great Recession.  The destabilizing effect, the lack of certainty, the damage to American economic stature and the global perception of a weaker United States caused by Tea Party intransigence, resulted in a downgrade of America's credit rating for the first time in our history.

Today another threat of economic crisis, the Fiscal Cliff - another result of right wing extremism and intransigence.  The result? Higher unemployment; $600 billion removed from the economy; a tax increase not only for the 2% but for everyone, including the middle class; the repeal of the payroll tax holiday resulting in another 2% increase for both business and wage earners; and the across the board mindless cuts to spending that will leave no one unscathed.  Grover Norquist's goal to destroy America? If it's up to the Tea Party then "Mission Accomplished." 

At least Thelma and Louise only drove themselves over that cliff - the Tea Party is quite content to drive over the cliff and take us with them. 

The GOP's Own Approaching Cliff: The Extreme Right/Tea Party Cliff

It's bitterly amusing to watch the GOP's convulsions these days in the wake of Obama's landslide victory over Romney.  Finger pointing and blame, head scratching and remorse.  Karl Rove's epic 'are you lying to yourself or Fox viewers' moment - priceless.  Five out of six contested gubernatorial races go to Democrats, Allen West, Joe Walsh, Mourdock in Indiana and Akin in Missouri and so many other right wing/Tea Party types go down in defeat as Democrats pick up House and Senate seats.  But now- now we have Bobby Jindal multitasking in his attempts 1) to talk the GOP off the Cliff of extremism and away from the drag of the Tea Party; while 2) discussing and planning in broad daylight how the Republican Party is going to con working people, Hispanics and the 47% into voting for Republicans - in other words, how to con the many to vote in the interests of the very wealthy few. 

Health care, education, the economy, national security, immigration -- these are face cards in politics and if played correctly the player wins.  But for a lesson in how not to play those cards, Mitt Romney did it best and the Tea Party just sat in the corner playing a whole different game with blunt scissors and paste. 

Health care -- a major problem ignored by the right, the same old failed 'free market' solutions floated yet again, myth to repair reality. 

Education -- a student loan crisis in the form of student loan debt now in excess of national credit card debt while college costs are exploding making higher education more and more inaccessible.

The economy -- this is special.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and Romney all went back to the George W. Bush playbook and trickle down cum Job Creation. Bad strategy as it comes only 4 years after the epic fail of those policies in the form of September 2008 and the Great Recession.  But this is capped by insult - "don't look at that man behind the curtain" exposed.  The DISDAIN with which the right looks upon the rubes in continuing to portray failed fiscal policy as solution and expect the rubes to beleive something different would happen.  (Of course, there are those who seek comfort in believing such fallacy - they attend Tea Party meetings)

National security -- bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda on the run, the Taliban in disarray and the GOP in tatters.  Terrorist organizations -0; Obama 332.  But there's always Benghazi -- Benghazi played by Rep. Peter "Chicken Little' King for whom sky fall is not a movie but a cry of alarm and Benghazi played by Sen. John McCain for whom integrity today is just a word without substance.  These two and so many right wing columnists pushed by Fox News have been playing Benghazi Clue for weeks now - 'it was Colonel Mustard with complicit Obama and Hillary in the kitchen with a candlestick made by Al Qaeda at Langley while Petraeus was sleeping with both Broadwell and Kelley."   Here's the rub - in doing these contortions of logic and fantasy, Fox and King and MCain and all those who engage in such drivel are ENHANCING any advantage our enemies might enjoy from the sad events in Benghazi.  The myth that the GOP is superior in national security, exploded and exposed by the Blunder in Iraq and the Poochscrewing in Afghanistan (as well as the snatching of defeat from the Jaws of Victory in 1991), is not to be resurrected from any ashes because it was, is and will always be known as myth.

Immigration -- Marco Rubio is to the GOP what black shoe polish was Al Jolson.  Joe Arpaio playing Bull Connor, Arizona playing Montgomery, Alabama circa 1963 and along comes Mitt Romney to play multiple roles depending on what day it was and what he thought the audience wanted to hear consistency and principle be damned -- and immigrants should vote for Republicans?  This subject is special -- 50% of doctoral candidates are foreign students and when they finish their studies they go back home and that's a brain drain (but one wonders why more Americans aren't given the opportunity to excel as doctoral candidates).  But then there's the contradiction of so many who use immigrant labor and want to ease visas for that purpose (and those are the same people who don't want to pay taxes but demand the deficit/debt be paid off quickly).  Now, place this issue in the context of Storm Front supported/militia threatening/secession advocating extremism -- and, please, explain to me why Hispanics would ever vote Republican/Tea Party.

To Bobby Jindal -- thinking Americans aren't buying what you're selling.  And the Tea Party, that bloc of unthinking Americans, can't sell it either. 

 

Mitt Romney - Tea Partier Extremist and the Danger Within

The Tea Party, the right wing extremists, are now claiming Mitt Romney was 'too moderate' to win as an excuse for Barack Obama's landslide victory 332-206 electoral votes. Contrary to the tinfoil tricorner hat fantasy, if anything, Romney was too extreme.  Evidenced by his 47% remarks he subsequently denied and now exposed by his latest phone call to donors, Mitt Romney is the quintessential Tea Partier extremist.  That extremism was soundly rejected by the nation on November 6. 

Mitt Romney is a relic of the past and so is the Tea Party.  They ripped a page from Joe McCarthy to redbait the president and his supporters - Tailgunner Joe wants that page back.  The Tea Party applies 1812 principles to 2012 realities and the result is Hector Heathcote parodies portrayed as principle and ideal.  Hector wants to take the country back - but back to a time/place/circumstance that exists only in that wasteland between a Tea Partier's ears and in cartoon form.

The real problem is a group of extremists, too many, who look back with longing to their fantasy of the 1800s and imagine what it would be like to cross the prairie with a Kentucky rifle living off the land. Sadly, the delusional right wing extremists want to do the same thing today - with an AK 47 while living off the remains of a ruined society.    The extremists are doomsday preppers and survivalists who think Armageddon is a good idea, let's get on with it.  They think they'll watch it in their bunker on ESPN and the popcorn supply will be endless. They'll do anything to make it happen - destroy the economy, prioritize making the president a one termer (how'd that work out?), lay off workers - one even killed himself because Obama won (some might call that a good start).  Now they're suicidal fanatics.  That makes them the danger within.

Einstein's Definition of Insanity Illustrated

Albert Einstein - "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."    

The Republicans in this new Congress elected, yet again, Mitch McConnell as Minority Leader.  Just in time to deal with the Fiscal Cliff.  Not good.

 

Unfinished Business

The War in Iraq was the Blunder to End All Blunders (one would hope).  It's the inappropriate gift given to your toddler by some crazy aunt and you try to be polite as you accept it then try to hide it.  From Day One in March 2003 this nation skidded into an abyss, into a condition that can be likened to mental illness - 'bi-polarization' if you will.  Attempts to rationalize away the error, promote it as an asset or as progress or even as a "Good War" of liberation were used as bludgeons against those who didn't 'support the troops.' Those attempts are symptoms of that illness.

But the one constant in war is casualties, and casualties as a result of a Blunder like Iraq are seen (and should be) as a higher cost, one too high to pay.  That's why this story  about Sgt. Jacob Butler is offensive.  It's a step beyond accusing those who opposed the War in Iraq on various grounds, some because they are pacifists, others, like me, who recognized the mistake that Iraq is/was, of not 'supporting the troops' as a way to quiet the discussion.  It's a betrayal of those who served by those who lead them into that abyss.  It's using someone like Butler as a pawn and a prop to promote the lie. 

From Propublica:

"The day after Jim Butler learned his son had died in Iraq in 2003, a U.S. Army casualty officer showed up at the family's small ranch to explain what happened....

Part One

Lost to History: Missing War Records Complicate Benefit Claims by Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans

by Peter Sleeth, Special to ProPublica, and Hal Bernton, The Seattle Times, Nov. 9

So Butler made a simple request to the Army — for Jake's casualty report. Rules require one when soldiers are killed in a war zone. Unit commanders are supposed to create and maintain them, along with numerous other field records.

"They said, 'We'll have to see,'" Butler recalled, "because one should have been made."

Nine years later, Butler is still waiting for a report he may never get."