Los ninos estan bien

While the past year had a lot of good--President Obama's decisive victory in the Presidential Election, winning a bigger majority in the Senate, picking up seats in the U.S. House--it also had a lot of bad:  the Scott Walker fiasco in Wisconsin, the continuing war on workers, the continuing war on women, the ever growing gap between rich and poor, republican obstructionism, lots of losses at the state and local levels.

But to paraphrase the Glimmer Twins, time is on our side.

The best news from 2012 was the continued and growing support of young people and Latinos for the Democratic Party.  People between the ages of 18-29 went for President Obama 60% to 36%.  Between the ages of 30-39 it was 60% to 38%.  The majority of these voters will be Democrats for life.

The Latino vote was even better, as the President won 71% to 27% (improving on his 67-31 margin in '08).  Coupled with the ever growing Latino population in the U.S. (50,000 Hispanic-Americans turn 18 every day), it's only a matter of time before the Democratic Party has an overwhelming electoral college majority (and given the propensity of people to vote a straight ticket, this helps downballot as well).  There are those who believe Texas will be as blue as California by 2030...at which point the Democrats could hold the White House much like republicans did in the aftermath of the Civil War (44 of 52 years between 1860 and 1912).

Modern Democrats are often slow to to latch onto populist principles and live up to the principles and potential on which the current Democratic Party was founded.  Here's hoping the young folks and the Latinos currently driving them to victory can drag the party kicking and screaming into the Progressive fold, striving for an America that truly benefits us all.

That will be a beauty to behold, and is why the future for us Liberals is bright, bright, bright.

Happy New Year!

Peace,
emaycee

A Pyrrhic victory

Isn't this special--the Michigan  House republicans are taking a victory lap, patting themselves on the back for following the will of our state's voters.

Because what we all voted for was lower wages, less rights for women to control their own bodies, our teachers, policemen, and firefighters to be treated like a sacks of shit, less taxes for corporations, more taxes for retirees, and the rights of idiots to drive without motorcycle helmets,  And don't forget to throw in a corrupt House Speaker who laughs in the face of the democratic process and resorts to cheating to win another seat for his party.

If their goal was to make Michigan as barren of a landscape as North Dakota (and what a goal that is!), they have succeeded remarkably well.

Might I suggest in their next term they change our state slogan from "Pure Michigan" to "Don't Move Here, And If You Already Live Here, Get The Fuck Out While You Still Can!"

Peace,
emaycee

That deadbeat 1%

While corporate profits are skyrocketing, corporate taxes are plummeting to all time lows (less than 10% of federal tax revenues).  The effective tax rate on corporations now stands at a little over twelve percent--considerably less, percentagewise, than most of us pay.

While corporations were reaping $824 billion in profits last year, the working men and women of America saw their wages fall to an all-time low, 43.5 percent of GDP (historically it's been over 50%).

Explain to me please, why a) we continue to subsidize corporations, and b) we need to cut the social safety net?  In a better world, the only matter we'd be discussing in the fiscal curb negotiations is how much more American corporations are going to pay.

We ought to just be called the United Corporations of America.

Peace,
emaycee

Welcome (back) to the jungle

Seems republicans, knowing their days are numbered, are rushing to push through right-to-work for less laws everywhere in the wake of their "success" here in Michigan, before voters wise up and put more Dems back in office.

Keep in mind, though, that the republican groupthink on working men and women is that they are expendable--my guess is their thoughts on American  laborers is no different than that of one of their biggest benefactors on Bangladeshi laborers (note that Wal-Mart thought safety precautions were not "financially feasible"--i.e., profits are more important than human life) which resulted in 112 working men and women being burned to death.  You know, possibly burning to death because of callous and greedy corporations is the price you pay for having a job.

And what I'd like to know, in the end, is how these so-called Christian folks are going to look their God  in the eye at the end of their days and tell him how sympathizing with the multi-billionaires who run Wal-Mart over the dollar a day (literally) factory laborers who burned to death is following the Golden Rule, i.e., loving thy neighbor as thyself.

And not being surprised when She laughs in their faces.

Peace,
emaycee

Bam!

Seems the profits of Darden Restaurants, owners of The Olive Garden and Red Lobster, saw their profits plunge 37% in the second quarter after reports of their trying to weasel out of provisions in Obamacare requiring them to provide health insurance to employees by cutting their employees hours led to a consumer backlash.

You have to wonder what their leadership was thinking--because nothing makes me want to eat at a restaurant like knowing its management doesn't give a shit if its sick employees are breathing their germs all over my fucking twenty-five dollar meal.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks guys! Part II

When you assure the people of a state, when you're running for governor, that you intend to stay away from certain legislation because it's "divisive" and won't further the state's economic agenda--and then change your mind, all the while sounding like a fucking little crybaby, it stands to reason that your standing in the opinion of said state's voters is likely to go down, along with your chances of re-election.

Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan...come on down!

What a shock--after the weak and ineffectual Governor of Michigan flip-flopped on right-to-work for less legislation and let the republican legislature ramrod it through, his approval rating went from a positive 47-37 to a negative 36-58, a twenty-eight point reversal.  There are now only two Governors in all of America less popular than our incompetent boob.

And even better--if you're a Democrat, that is--is that all four Democrats polled as a potential matchup for Gov. Snyder in 2014 beat his ass and beat it soundly, including my favorite, State Senate Minority Leader, Gretchen Whitmer.

Well fucking done, Governor!  Let's hope Michigan voters remember how much of an lying sack of shit you are come November 2014--and allow you to begin your much deserved political retirement on January 1, 2015.

Peace,
emaycee

Thanks guys! Part I

You hate to get too overconfident (we do like to stay home on election day when we're peeved), but republicans are making it so easy on us--it's like a shark taking on a fucking guppy.

After yesterday's massive fail by John Boehner with his fiscal Plan B (mercifully preventing a bad bill, as luck would have it), it's become obvious to fucking everyone that the republican party has gone off the deep end.  The President gave up far too much, and still the Antoinettes rejected it.  Their plan?  Fuck over 99% of us for the 1%--the usual republican plan. 

And as if that wasn't enough, Wayne LaPierre, chief mouthpiece for the NRA, gave a press conference today that, in the wake of last week's mass murder in Newtown, could have been culled from the chaos of one of Dante's circles of hell.  He blamed ancient movies (Natural Born Killers for fuck's sake?), video games, the media, and President Obama in a speech that was completely divorced from reality.  It was a pathetic spectacle--and another nail in the coffin of conservatism.  Average Americans will see the NRA as tone deaf and callous; won't matter to republicans--nary a one of them will vote for an assault weapons ban or clip size limit.  And for all LaPierre's talk about putting a police officer in every school, they ain't about to pay for that without taking food out of mouths of the starving.

With each passing day it becomes more obvious that the ills of America are caused by the republican party.  From the economic collapse under Bush the Lesser to the deaths of children in Connecticut, the problems plaguing America hang over the mantle of the republican party. 

And Democrats and the President should point this out every single chance they get.

Peace,
emaycee

All the playing's stopped in the playground now

When I got home from work tonight, the Beautiful Boy was sitting in his mother's lap watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see the twinkle of the lights on our Christmas tree, and I turned my head and looked at it like I probably haven't since we put it up a few weeks ago.  I noticed the stockings hung above the piano, and the Christmas cards lined along its top.  At the first commercial break the Beautiful Boy came up to me and I beckoned him into my arms and I kissed him and squeezed him again and again.  He, I am certain, had no idea why those hugs and kisses were especially needed tonight.

There are twenty parents in Newtown, Connecticut this evening--not to mention the families of the six murdered adults--who would give everything they own and more to have these simple few moments that I shared with my family tonight.  They will never have them again.

The blood of the children killed today is not, as one gun rights organization suggested, on the hands of gun control advocates. It's on the hands of gun advocacy groups like the NRA who lie to the American people about the efficacy of guns and insist that, unlike any other right we possess via the U. S. Constitution (speech, assembly, press, etc.), that somehow the second amendment is sacred and cannot have limits that keep the peace.  The killings today are not the result of taking God out of the classroom, as Mike Huckabee so callously said today.  They are the result of pseudo-Christians who can quote every picayune detail of the Bible to support their agenda (usually interpreted incorrectly) but always seem to forget Christ's admonition that we love each other as we love ourselves; God-loving people who sold their souls to further their beliefs and in the process proved that they are not pro-life, as they claim, but rather, pro-birth.

I was very glad that Barack Obama is the President of the United States today and not some soulless republican who would have stood before the American people this morning and babbled on while still keeping their lips on the teats of the NRA.  As much as I appreciate the President's acknowledging that we need "meaningful [gun] reform" I don't hold out much hope that change to our gun laws will be coming any time soon (especially since an administration spokesman almost immediately responded that today is not the day to discuss such gun law reforms--and to which we should all respond, "why not?").  I don't believe this will make our will any greater.

And so we'll sit in our cars at lunch and cry while we're chewing on a bologna sandwich, and give thanks that when our workday is done, we're going home to a family that's still in one piece.

Peace,
emaycee

What goes on behind closed doors

In a move that surprised no one, Governor Gutless signed Michigan's right to work for less law today behind closed doors because those mean old unions weren't going to be nice to him.

It was a particularly pathetic showing for what passes for a republican governor in Michigan these days.  Our pantywaist-in-chief lied to the voters of Michigan, blamed unions for his cowardice, and then hid behind closed doors.  Another in a long line of reasons why voters should fucking never vote former CEOs into office.  They're used to telling workers who have no choice if they want to continue feeding their families to fuck off; can't do that when you're voted into office so they hide like a little girl from the monsters under her bed.

Governor Gutless ran as "One Tough Nerd"--unforunately for the good folks of Michigan, what they got was "One Weak-Willed Weenie."

Myself, I voted--proudly, even moreso now--for Virg Bernero.

Peace,
emaycee

Governor Gutless and the Michigan republican legislators circle jerk

What a fucking surprise this is:  today the Michigan legislature forced through right-to-work for less laws in their usual cowardly fashion (as Senate Minority leader Getchen Whitmer so accurately pointed out), here in, of all places, the place where labor unions were born and grew the middle class to a point where many of the castrati who voted for it today reached their status in life because of the wages and benefits unions created for us all. 

A few thoughts:

• Somehow I always knew that Gov. Snyder was a numb nuts, but he proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt today.  After all of his posturing about how right-to-work for less laws weren't part of his agenda, the Governor is either a liar (possible as he was a CEO and their psychopathic tendencies are well documented) or else he has all the backbone of a fresh can of Play-Doh.  My guess is the latter--he's let the republican legislators smack his fanny at will since day one.
• My long held conviction that Michigan was on its way to becoming like North Dakota--known for being freezing fucking cold and the fact that nobody wants to live there--received another push toward becoming reality.
• On the bright side, with the Governor's approval numbers being about equal to his level of integrity (pretty closed to zero) and a fired up labor base, the odds of defeating Gov. Numbnuts in 2014 just grew exponentially.  It's still a tall order, but with the right candidate, it can be done. 
• If you are considering moving to Michigan...FUCKING THINK AGAIN!  For fuck's sake, the state is doomed to republican control because of gerrymandering and is hostile to women, hostile to workers, does not have any hope for having a significant amount of good paying jobs, and is freezing fucking cold six months of the year.  Mississippi might be a shit hole, but at least you won't be shoveling several feet of snow and driving with the windows rolled up half the year.

What a fucking embarrassment--we're quickly on our way to being as irrelevant as the South.  And as big of a drain on the rest of America.

Peace,
emaycee

Feelin' lucky, punk?

I read a lot of politically oriented posts on various web sites that are quite good, but only a very few that I think, "Man, I wish I'd written that."  This post by Mark E. Andersen for The Daily Kos, "Lucky to have a job," is one of those pieces.

Like many people, I hear this a lot.  And like too many people, I'm quick to be nice and give some inane response like "We sure are,' or "Boy, isn't that the truth."  But even as I say it, I don't believe it. 

We're lucky when we have good jobs--jobs that pay a wage that lets us get ahead, jobs where we get rewarded for hard work, for improving sales, for loyalty.  Jobs where we can grow into greater responsibility, provide a decent standard of living for our families, with good benefits so that our health and retirement are well taken care of.  Jobs where our bosses are actually paid commensurate to their abilities, and not how much bullshit they can spew or vitriol they can spit at the people who actually do the fucking work.

But we're not lucky to have McJobs, we're not lucky to be paid minimum wage (like Chris Rock said, minimum wage means if they could pay you less, they would), we're not lucky to have jobs with expensive health care premiums for plans run by HMOs who couldn't give a shit less if you--or even worse for some, their kids--live or die as long as they save a fucking nickel in the process.  We're not lucky to have jobs where we're told to do it or lose it, we're not lucky to have jobs where corporate executives are overpaid for their incompetence while we're asked to go without raises or take pay cuts, we're not lucky to have jobs where we're given all the autonomy of cattle.  We're not lucky to have jobs where we're considered an expense and not an investment.

Perhaps when more Americans begin to extol the former and eschew the latter, we'll actually be lucky to have jobs.

Peace,
emaycee

The circle game

One has to wonder--in lieu of a recent New York Times investigative report this week that shows we get little or nothing from corporate welfare--when the light will go on in a lot more American's heads that giving tax breaks and incentives to corporations is as big a waste of money as would have been the bridge to nowhere.  To think of the infrastructure work we could do with this wasted money, not to mention the grants and scholarships for college, the investment in small businesses which actually create the most jobs, the shoring up of Social Security, or single payer healthcare, or....

It's just too bad more of those Americans who spend so much time whining about the relatively small amount of money we spend on welfare for individuals who actually spend the money and grow our economy aren't bright enough to figure our the tax gifts we give to corporations cost a lot more and give back a lot less.  And that corporations are basically lazy, wanting the government to grow their profits rather than do the actual work to make them grow themselves. You know, to actually earn it.

Nothing worse than a corporate welfare cheat.

Peace,
emaycee

Let's get serious

Defense spending in the U.S. currently makes up 40% of the defense spending in the entire world.  The next closest nation to ours is China, which makes up almost 8% of the world's defense spending.  We spend five times as much as our nearest competitor, and nearly as much as the rest of the world combined.  Unless our military is completely incompetent, there is no reason for this discepancy in spending between us and the rest of the world.

If the republicans are indeed serious about cutting spending, then they should be more than willing to slash defense spending significantly.  Cuts of 30-40% would  leave us no weaker in the face of any threat to our national security.  We would still have a tremendous edge in firepower over any potential enemy.

Alas, republicans are not serious about cutting spending.  They're only interested in cutting spending that their moronic base hates or their wealthy benefactors think would make them wealthier.

Most of all, they aren't about to give up their continuous gluttony at the trough of the military-industrial complex.  It's not about austerity--it's about filling their coffers with blood money.

And there's no way we should ask the poor and the middle class to shoulder more of the burden than they already do because of republican psychopathology.

Peace,
emaycee

Nothing

"Senator? You can have my answer now, if you like. My final offer is this: nothing."--Michael Corleone

The Obama administration may have finally figured out--as noted by Ezra Klein on The Last Word last night, with its Godfather II theme--how to negotiate with republicans.  Seems the President sent them the initial proposal for the fiscal slope negotiations by raising his middle finger and saying , "Here's my offer, motherfuckers.  Suck on it."

The Obama administration has realized they won the election, won with their message, and won it handily.  They don't have to negotiate and they shouldn't.  While time will tell if the President will stick to his guns, it certainly is a welcome change to past negotiation tactics.  We don't have to cave on the social safety net programs and we shouldn't.  If the republicans want to hold the middle class tax cuts hostage, let them.  It certainly won't hurt our chances in 2014.

But the best part is watching republicans choke on it as they realize their piss poor agenda just isn't selling to a majority of the American public who fully understand that the wealthy don't create jobs, CEOs are as fallible as every other joker on the planet, and that the business community and its patrons just don't have our best interests at heart.  Republicans are not the solution, they're the problem.

Schadenfreude, indeed.

Peace,
emaycee