The "intelligent" wing of our party

"It's an innovative concept.  An intelligent conversation with the American people.  Imagine that."

This is how Digby today exhorted her readers to tune into Geek Out Live with Rush Holt, who is one of the candidates running against Cory Booker to be the Democratic nominee for the Senate from New Jersey (and in all likelihood, the next Senator from New Jersey).  Digby also said the race wasn't over and asked her readers to donate to Mr. Holt's campaign.

To put it succinctly, Digby is full of shit.

I'm no fan of Cory Booker, and would really rather see Mr. Holt in the Senate.  But the plain truth of the matter is that this election is a few weeks away, Cory Booker has a ton of money in the bank, and he leads Holt, as of July 14th, 52.5% to 8.8%.  This race is not fucking winnable.  If one wishes to listen to a good progressive have an intelligent conversation about the state of America, by all means do so.  Anything further than that is about as foolish as Tea Party dolts who nominate deep red candidates to run in deep blue states' Senate races.

I don't mean to be an ass, but my guess would be that there are a lot of Liberals who a) have family obligations, b) have full-time jobs, and c) don't have a lot of disposable income.  Anyone asking them to waste their valuable time and resources on a quixotic quest for another in a long line of demoralizing losses might as well be asking them to spend their time watching "The Price Is Right" and flushing ten dollar bills down the toilet.  It would do equally as much good.

How much better to invite them to particpate in races where their efforts and money can actually make a diffrerence, rather than propping up one's intellectual bona fides (the opening quote says it all) at the expense of the betterment of the American people.

Peace,
emaycee

Horseshit town, USA

Any notion that the bankruptcy filing for the city of Detroit was anything more than an assault on unions and another in a long line of republican attempts to make the poor suffer even more at the expense of the rich was put to rest this week when it was announced that the city of Detroit, the completely broke, can't turn on the street lights city of Detroit, has plans to build a new half-billion dollar stadium for the Detroit Red Wings.

I know Detroit is Hockeytown, USA, but to use an example idiot republicans are wont to use, if my family was filing for bankruptcy, season tickets for the upcoming Red Wings season wouldn't and shouldn't be a priority, and getting emergency manager Kevyn Orr to approve this utter boondoggle isn't either.

The bankruptcy of Detroit is just another attempt by republicans further Michigan's descent into the state of shitholes like Alabama or Mississippi.  Democrats need to fight them every step of the way or begin prepping our citizens to say, "Y'all want moldy fries with that?"

Peace,
emaycee

Off with his head!

One of the oft unspoken memes about the series of one day strikes conducted recently by starving fast food workers (and continuing tomorrow) is that those participating have nothing left to lose.  They're already dirt poor, and exactly how hard is it for a good workers to find another fucking minmum wage job?

After reading the words of one Douglas Oberhelman, chief executive of Caterpillar, one has to wonder if the wealthy elite of America will believe they were blindsided when the shit eventually hits the fan.  Mr. Oberhelman (80% increase in his wages over the past two years) had the gall to ask the workers of his company to take a six year pay-freeze to remain competitive despite earning record profits of $5.7 billion last year.  Mr. Oberhelman said, presumably with a straight face, "We can never make enough profit."  This statement may break records on bullshit meters as, one supposes, Mr. Oberhelman certainly had no problem significantly cutting into Caterpillar's profits with his 80% increase in wages (to put this in perspective, if you made $30,000 dollars in 2011, you'd make $2.4 million this year--and good luck getting that kind of raise in the real fucking world).

In the end, the peasants who revolted in France reached a point where they, too, had nothing left to lose, and people with nothing left to lose will eventually opt for death over continued submission.  It might behoove people like the callous Mr. Oberhelman to know that the death those peasants chose wasn't always their own.

Peace,
emaycee

No man an island

David Atkins wrote a nice piece today taking President Obama to task for his many errors on economic policy (Digby threw her inimitable two cents in as well) and outlines a framework for changing the narrative.  While I couldn't agree more--and I'd be the last to defend the President, who has been a monumental disaster from the Liberal standpoint on help for the working men and women of America--President Obama hasn't exactly had a lot of support from the spineless Democrats in the Senate:

• There's no way a $4 billion dollar cut in SNAP benefits can pass the Senate without Democratic votes (we provided 28).  Michigan's own Debbie Stabenow had the gall to say it was about cutting waste and fraud.  Au contraire, Senator Agriculture Industry, it's about taking food out of the mouths of children and giving the money saved to millionaires.
• Don't know about you, but I signed, oh, about a thousand petitions in the last couple of months to keep student loan rates low.  That worked out well--the Senate, with fifty-five fucking Democrats, managed to pass a bill that significantly raised the rates.  So much for competing in the global economy....
• Republican use of the filibuster has been unprecedented, but even with their minor victory in getting the President's nominees through recently, there still is great doubt Sen. Reid has the votes if he needs to go nuclear in the future.  I did, however, get a letter from my gutless Senator, Carl Levin, this week, outlining why he is against it.  Seems Sen. Levin can cite about three instances where Democrats successfully used the filibuster to prevent bad bills from becoming law.  What exactly Sen. Levin plans to do about the hordes of President Obama's judicial nominees that are languising while republican appointees run roughshod over American workers and support every bad bill/law/decision made by corporations and the chamber of commerce, Sen. Levin didn't say.  One supposes it's the usual gutless Democratic Senator answer:  we can suck on it.

Look, I get that the U.S. House is out of our hands--there's nothing that can be done.  And I really appreciate Senators like Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, and a few others.  But where's the love from the rest of the rotten bastards? 

For fuck's sake, without our votes they'd be back home doing what the rest of us are doing--actually working for a living.

Peace,
emaycee

The ghost of poorhouse future

See this map?  It's a map of upward mobility in the United States.  See that sea of red in the southeast?  That's where your chances of upward mobility are almost non-existent (try 4%).  Know what's notable about this area?  It's probably the most republican controlled area in the country (the Kansas-Nebraska-Montana-Utah-Wyoming areas would probably give it a go, but let's face it, that's only because it's fucking freezing in the winter in these states and most Americans don't want to live in them).

Want to know what happens if we elect a republican Senate and President in addition to the House in 2016?  The whole fucking map turns red in just a few short years!

By the way, look at what those fucking Liberals have done in the Northeast and the West Coast.  Not a splotch of red at all.

Downfall of America, those Liberals.

Peace,
emaycee

Kfart

In 2003, Eddie Lampert bought Kmart (note:  I worked for Kmart from 2000-2012).  Two years later he bought Sears and merged the two companies into one, under the name Sears Holding Corp.  Since that time, neither Kmart, nor the Sears Holding Corp. has had a yearly sales increase.  Not one.  Zero.

Many have speculated that Lampert's acquisitions were merely real estate deals for his hedge fund, and the two companies would be sold off piece by piece until the final blue light special faded out.  Unfortunately for Mr. Lampert, the bottom fell out of the real estate market (irony of ironies, caused by Wall Street tycoons such as Mr. Lampert) and the deal isn't worth nearly as much as anticipated.  Meanwhile, to keep himself entertained in the interim, Lampert has initiated his own in house reality TV show, which for all intents and purposes could be called Survivor:  Chicago. 

The future for Sears Holding Corp. doesn't look bright.  But what's truly sad about it is the people who have been with the company for twenty-five to thirty years who have no idea what's going on within the hollowed walls of Hoffman Estates, and are in for a tragic awakening when the bottom drops out a few years hence and they're nowhere near retirement and jobs that pay what they're making now are nowhere to be found.

It might be a fucking game to a hedge fund manager like Edward S. Lampert, but for the other 280,000 people who work for Sears Holding Corp, it's going to be their very own nightmare come true.

Peace,
emaycee

Hallelujah, I love her so

The bankruptcy of the city of Detroit took another turn today as Justice Rosemarie Aquilina ruled the bankruptcy unconstitutional under Michigan law.  It leaves everything up in the air, as some are not sure Justice Aquilina has the standing to rule on the case, and also because Gov. Gutless, Rick Snyder, may refuse to comply with the ruling. 

After my rant from yesterday, I should note that there are those on the progressive side who believe a bankruptcy filing may be better than an unfettered and undemocratic emergency manager calling the shots, as the judge does not have the power to removed elected officials or tear up union contracts.

Time will tell, but as more details are released (Snyder has actually been preparing for the bankruptcy for some time, Snyder is doing is usual whining about unions, Snyder is promising his actions will be better for creating jobs, Kevyn Orr's former law firm is handling the bankruptcy for the city, Andy Dillon, the State Treasurer, who is a LieberDem is leading the charge) the doubts I voiced yesterday about Snyder's character (he's a fucking liar, typical dishonest businessman who'd cut his mother's heart out to make another nickel) and actions have only grown stronger.

One of my favorite Michigan politicians, Gretchen Whitmer(State Senate Minority Leader), today sent out an e-mail that said that all Michiganders should stick together and that we were all Detroiters, now.  No, Sen. Whitmer, all Michiganders are not Detroiters, now--only we Liberals are, because we're the only ones who give a damn about the people who actually live there.

Ally with the whining Governor Gutless and his cronies at your own risk.

Peace,
emaycee

Cojones

President Obama stood before America today not only as the President, not only as the Commander-in-
Chief, but also as a black man in America and spoke about the death of Trayvon Martin.  He was, as he often is, both eloquent and thoughtful.  It was a bold gesture, and the President deserves all the accolades he has been receiving throughout the day.

The republican response was typical, calling the President the racist in chief, and it was brutally obvious his thoughts and emotions were far above their meager I.Q.s

The President is supposed to stand above the fray, but as an ordinary citizen, I am not.  My response to the republican whiners can be summed up in three words:

Fuck you, haters.

For all his faults, President Obama on his worst day is ten times the human being any of his racist detractors will ever be.

Peace,
emaycee

Chapter 666

The city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy today, which was the plan of Michigan's gutless governor, Rick Snyder,and his republican cronies from the start.   All the black haters who are blaming Democrats because they've been in charge of the city can save your breath.  This is republican racism at its finest--hire an Uncle Tom (Kevyn Orr) to make it look like they were letting one of their own look after the city (talk about black on black crime--fortunately, I believe there is a certain circle of hell for people like Mr. Orr),make plans that will all but guarantee the city will go into bankruptcy, and then lie (Mr. Snyder did an end around on the pension fund lawyers) to complete the republican playbook of screwing the working man at the expense of the big banks.

Make no mistake--Detroit has a huge black population, strongly favors Democrats, and this is republicans way of destroying Detroit's influence on state elections.  This is not about saving the city of Detroit--it's about destroying it.  And if they can fuck over black Americans and Labor Unions in the process, all the better.

It's moral bankruptcy from a party that will soon cease to have any relevance, and the sooner the better.

On the bright side, it's made our rallying cry for the 2014 Governor's election one that will resonate with voters of all stripes (other than idiot republicans):  "Anybody--and we do mean anybody--but Snyder!"

Peace,
emaycee

Motor City moron

In their pathetic and sad quest to have a celebrity, any celebrity, that agrees with their outdated and hateful views, the conservative movement continues to turn to the Motor City moron, Ted Nugent.  This time, Mr. Nugent weighs in on the Trayvon Martin tragedy by claiming that Martin Luther King is rolling over in his grave at having wasted his life after what has become of black America.

Mr. Nugent did get one thing right (one more than he probably ever has before)--Martin Luther King is indeed rolling over in his grave (not the least because racists like Nugent distort his words to justify their hatred of black Americans) because 45 years after his death we are still not judging people based on the content of their character.

If we were, then a racist asshole like George Zimmerman would be rotting in jail where he belongs.

Peace,
emaycee

Republican heroes come pretty cheap

So...for killing an unarmed black young man, George Zimmerman is going to be a hero, hoisted high in republican circles as an All-American exemplar of (white) justice, and make more money than those of us who have played by the rules and busted our butts for years at our jobs (not to mention not killing an unarmed human being in the process) can only dream of.

I'd like to say that there once 'twas a time when a man such as this would have been rightfully sent to prison, or at the very least, sent home to live a life of shame, but it isn't so.  But I think it sounds legions about the current republican party, where murder deserves the death penalty, unless of course, the skin of the victim is black and the skin of the murderer is white.

In which case it is reason to celebrate and pay homage to the murderer.

How fucked up is that?

Peace,
emaycee

Zimmerman unwound

The prosecution and the defense have made their final arguments in the George Zimmerman trial, and quite frankly I have no idea how it will be decided.  Regardless, based on this transcript, it is irrefutable that had George Zimmerman, after making the 911 call, gone home and let the police do their job, Trayvon Martin would still be alive, no one outside of family and friends would have the slightest idea who Trayvon Martin or George Zimmerman are, and the taxpayers of Florida would have been saved millions of dollars in legal fees and court costs.

And the world (especially the world of Trayvon Martin's parents) would be much better off.

Peace,
emaycee

Channeling their inner psychopaths

According to Andy Kessler, the numbnuts founder of a billion dollar hedge fund (and why anyone would want to listen to any of the investor class when it comes to economics after they caused the epic collapse of our economy is beyond a mere mortal like me), I, emaycee, am personally responsible for poverty in America.

Well fuck me.

See, if I wasn't helping the non-profit I work for make money to give a few pennies to help the poor with their rent, or to get food for their kids, or decent clothing for their job interview, or a dental clinic to help with their tooth ache, and instead was out making a billion dollars, that money (all evidence to the contrary) would trickle down, and good jobs would magically appear and help America's poor.

I used to believe that it was possible to be a stupid millionaire (how much intelligence does it take to buy a lottery ticket?), but that there were no stupid billionaires.  Mr. Kessler has single-handedly changed my mind.  Setting aside the fact that poverty has existed pretty much since civilization began and much longer than the shell game that is investing on Wall Street, and wealth hasn't seemed to do much in all that time to end it, Mr. Kessler seems not to realize that if all of us could make billions investing, we fucking would be.  Kessler also seems to be ignorant about America's recent economic history (surprise!):  frankly, if you aren't born into money, your odds of being rich in America are just slightly less (and I do mean slightly) than your chances of winning tonight's Powerball drawing.

As if all of the above wasn't bad enough, Kessler also rips his own kid (no Father of the Year Awards are forthcoming, I suspect) in his piece in The Wall Street Journal for volunteering at a homeless shelter.  You have to be some kind of serious psychopath to humiliate your own child in the pages of a national newspaper.

I know that when it comes to integrity The Wall Street Journal is pretty much on par with say, AOL News, but even at that I'm pretty sure they wouldn't run an op-ed by Charles Manson, and they shouldn't be running one by a man who is as equally heartless when it comes to his fellow human beings.

Peace,
emaycee

And the children shall lead us

In a trend that should surprise no one, Labor Unions are making a comeback in terms of their favorability among Americans, almost returning to prior Great Recession levels.  Interestingly, Unions enjoy their highest support among those aged 18-29, 61%, even those only about four percent of those young people actually belong to Unions.

Don't think it has anything to do with watching their parents spend a lifetime getting fucked over by corporations, being underpaid by corporations after following the conventional wisdom and spending four years of their lives in college and taking on massive debt to do so (if they find a job at all), or the fact that young people hold a disproportionate amount of McJobs, which quite frankly, cannot possibly be worth the grief, do you?

If republican election analysts had a brain, these numbers would keep them up at night.  It may take a while, but what goes around, almost always comes around.

Peace,
emaycee

Go away, go away, go away, Dixieland

I came across this piece by Allen Barra in which he asks if the South is dragging down the rest of the nation (short answer--and I could have told this without reading the piece--yes, yes it is).  Mr. Barra (and this companion piece by Sara Robinson which shows how we in the blue states subsidize the South with our taxes) rightly points out how nine of the ten poorest states in America are in the South, how the South receives much more in our taxes than they pay in, that illiteracy rates, poverty rates, and divorce rates are higher in the South, how their right to work laws have undermined Labor Unions and have brought wages and benefits down for the rest of America.

Mr. Barra notes a book by Chuck Thompson, Better Off Without 'Em:  A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession, that he had read skeptically the first time and with some more enthusiasm the second.  Thanks to the numbnuts Governor of Texas, the idea of Southern Secession is being floated--but kind of interestingly, it's being floated by both the right and the Left.  For the Left, there are those who believe in the e pluribus unum promise of America and aren't really interested, and on the other end, there are those like Mr. Thompson who wholeheartedly support the idea of Southern Secession, and those are are warming to the idea from the sheer frustration of watching our country being dragged down by people who wouldn't pour shit out of their shoes merely because a Democrat suggested it.

I can make it easy on everyone:  Southern Secession will never happen.

Because there is no way that America corporations based in the South are going to give up sucking on the teat that is the U.S. Government, most of it supported with taxes from those socialist blue states.

Being profitable because of handouts from the U.S. Government is one whole hell of a lot easier than actually running a profitable business on its own merits.

Peace,
emaycee

A pocket full of mumbles

It's been a while since I wrote one of those depressing posts with the really shitty economic data for working folks...so I figured, it's a gloomy Sunday night, what the fuck, why not tonight?

• Three in four--that's 75% for you republican geniuses--are now living paycheck to paycheck.  If republicans have their way, they'll pass the Ryan budget and make it nine out of ten (90%, same audience).
• From the same link, CEOs now make 273 dollars for every dollar we peons make.  Anybody ever known (anyone with a brain, that is) a CEO whose worth to the company you work for was 273 times your worth?  Didn't think so...
• The first quarter of this year saw the largest wage drop--3.8%--since the government began keeping track of wage increases/decreases 65 years ago.  It won't be long before my (still non-existent) grandkids will be asking me, "Hey, Grandpa, tell us about the days when people used to get raises...."
• A recent CBO report shows that 50% of our tax expenditures go to the top 20% of earners in the U.S., while the bottom 20% (you know, welfare cheats and lazy, no-good-for-nothings) get a mere 8%.  While I'm at it, I can teach my grandchildren how to light torches and carry pitchforks.
• It could be worse for you--you could be a temp worker (unless, of course, you already are).  Back in the day, I believe they called it indentured servitude.  Today, we call it Kelly Services.
• As if it isn't bad enough at one in six Americans in the richest nation in the history of humankind living in poverty, the Census Bureau believes its numbers actually underrepresent the number of poor Americans, and some believe it could be as high as 50%.  I'm not sure there are any words....

Such are the promises of what we used to call the American dream.

Thanks for playing, here's your cheesy parting gift, and have a nice evening.

Peace,
emaycee

Getting better all the time

For a while there, between the chained CPI bullshit that President Obama has bought into, Democrats voting to cut food stamps,  not being able to get enough Democrats to sign on to filibuster reform, and the general failure of our party to do much of anything that supports working families, I was beginning to think 2014 was shaping up to be as disastrous electorally as was 2010.

But lo and behold, up to the plate stepped the republican party--the gift that keeps on giving.

Following their disaster in Texas with its misinformed choice haters, special sessions to pass what cannot pass in the regular session, and flat out cheating to pass historically harsh restrictions to abortion, the geniuses next used an end around in Ohio by passing more historically harsh restrictions to abortion by using budget gimmicks, and then had the good sense to have Gov. John Kasich sign the bill surrounded by nothing but old white men (Kasich is also giving our own Gov. Gutless, Rick Snyder, a run for his money for the most gutless governor in the nation by signing the bill and then running and tucking tail rather than answer any questions regarding it).  For good measure, republicans in North Carolina also tried an end around by inserting historically harsh abortion restrictions into a bill on Sharia law, since the two have so much in common, and Wisconsin's Scott Walker this week became the umpteenth republican leader to think that the U.S. Government has no right to keep guns out of the hands of psychopaths but every right to stick medical instruments into womens' vaginas.

Apparently the sole guideline for being a republican consultant is to have no brain whatsoever.  Because nothing helps win elections by pissing off even more voters who historically vote in the biggest numbers and against your party.  Thanks, guys!

Not to worry, though, as they also have a brilliant plan for the Presidency in 2016.  It's to paint Hillary Clinton as old.

Man, mocking the only voting bloc--seniors--that votes for you is some kind of strategy.

Peace,
emaycee

Turnabout is fair play

Well, well, well--seems the gay haters have realized they're fighting a losing battle, and are changing their tactics to focus on the gays being a threat to their religious liberty, and therefore, they should still be able to discriminate against the LGBT community.

Believe it or not, I actually have no problem with this tactic...as long as it's a two-way street.  There are many religious demoninations that support gay rights--shouldn't those who practice these faiths be able to discriminate against the gay haters in support of their religious liberty?

I work in retail--it'd be all kinds of fun to have a litmus test for those whose views run contrary to mine.  Excuse me, sir, but how do you feel about abortion?  The death penalty?  Raising the minimum wage?

It would never happen, but you have to admit there would be some real enjoyment in watching some old white idiot go apoplectic when he doesn't get his Quarter Pounder with Cheese because he's hating on the gays.

Peace,
emaycee