The unprecedented fuck up

If only Time had this kind of guts

 Keith DB posted a comprehensive list of Donald Trump's failures while he was in the White House, and for posterity I'm posting it here.

It might not make one damn bit of difference to the future of this country, but I felt it my duty to remind as many people as possible just how awful of a, not only President, but human being, Donald Trump was.

Without one iota of hyperbole, historians have reminded us again and again what a psychopath Adolph Hitler was, and as such, only people on the utter fringes of society admire him.

We need to do the same with Donald Trump.

Taxing the Wealthy Is Good Politics for the Democratic Party

Peace,

emaycee

Never forget

 

Donald Trump's America

Back in late January, one of my favorite writers for The Daily Kos, Dartagnan, published a post highlighting the PBS series Frontline's episode entitled "Trump's American Carnage."  It took me a while to sit down and watch it as, like at least 81 million other Americans, I was pretty much burnt out on Donald Trump in any incarnation (watching the show was a massive reminder of how little I miss Trump and how much happier I am now that he is awaiting death in Moron-A-Lago).  The show lays out in no uncertain terms exactly how much of a disaster Donald Trump was for America, and shows just how far the Trump cult has fallen down the rabbit hole.

Most important, it is a reminder to those of us who are not riding the fascism train to nowhere to never forget the wreckage that Trump left behind, how quickly it happened, and how close we came to being just another failed experiment in the annals of the governments of nations.  And how hard we have to fight to hold onto the House and the Senate in 2022--over 150 republicans refused to validate Joe Biden's election and as the republican party lurches farther and farther toward fascism it is not hard to see a republican controlled Congress overturning the will of American voters in 2024.

And with so much hate as its guiding light, it's not hard to imagine the twenty-first century version of Adolph Hitler being our next President.

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Their terrible roars

Back to the future?

Egberto Willies had an interesting piece in The Daily Kos this past weekend in which he posited that republicans are doing the necessary groundwork to set up for minority rule.  While I believe republicans are a little further along than Mr. Willies estimates, I've actually thought about this for a while (since there are more red states by number than blue states and each state gets two senators, the Senate has for quite some time now done the bidding of a minority of Americans), my question is "For how long?"

Instances where a minority rules a majority don't usually end well for the minority--and I have a hard time imagining America will be any different.

From gun control to healthcare, from climate change to minimum wage laws, republicans have consistently supported the few--and it's only a matter of time before the shit hits the fan.

If they're lucky, it will just be an electoral  landslide.  If not...

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

In which I play devil's advocate

His picture is next to "inspirational" in the dictionary

Quinnipiac released a poll yesterday showing virtually every Democrat beating Donald Trump in 2020, which, after watching polls for well over forty years now I take with a grain of salt.  Yes, I'd rather be in our position than theirs, but trust me, unless the economy collapses (in which case Trump is dead meat) it will tighten considerably in the next 17 months.

So I found it interesting that Markos Moulitas from The Daily Kos noted that since all of our candidates can beat Trump, we should feel free to vote for who we think would be the best candidate and not who is most likely to defeat Trump.  Yesterday, Digby posted that while voting for a candidate who can beat Trump is fine, it would be a great "insurance policy" in having a candidate that fires up the base.

While I don't disagree with either of them, I do think it's more than just choosing a candidate we like or an insurance policy--frankly, I believe it's utterly vital that we elect a candidate who will inspire the base because truthfully, Donald Trump or no, while people may very well vote for the Democratic nominee, we also need people to donate to, knock on doors for, volunteer for campaigns, and talk to their undecided friends and colleagues about our candidate and "He/She can beat Donald Trump" isn't nearly as inspiring as a candidate who shares the Democratic vision for America that so many of us aspire to.

And this is why I'll keep beating the drum against Joe Biden.  Because we all knew full well--even if it was a longshot--that Donald Trump could beat Hillary Clinton in 2020 (it's an election for Christ's sake) but still there were plenty of Democrats who stayed home and plenty who voted third party.  I've seen far too many uninspiring Democrats (Jimmy Carter in 1980, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry) lead us to defeat and we cannot allow that to happen in 2020.  Donald Trump must be stopped.

Give us a candidate to believe in and we'll show up.  If not, it's going to be a roll of the dice.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Is this it?

The travails of the working poor

I read a short piece a short while back by Hunter from The Daily Kos that has really stuck with me in which he reports that according to a financial advice website, Bankrate, 61% of Americans do not have $1000 in the bank to cover an unexpected medical expense, and that in 2016, 10.5 million Americans fell into poverty because of medical bills.

Hunter asks if this is the best we can do and the best we can hope for (a resounding "Hell no!" is implied, I believe), and it got me to thinking that if ever there was a call to Democrats for resounding campaign issues, this is it.  Because the republican plan is more or less "tough shit, you'll get over it," and this gives Democrats the chance to champion Medicare for All, the $15.00 minimum wage, and creating an economy where living month to month is the exception and not the rule.

And if we can actually pass them, and it causes the Koch Brothers heads to explode, all the better....

Fuck Donald Trump
emaycee

Winning

Laura Clawson wrote a great piece today for Daily Kos  in which she argues that it's important to realize that Donald Trump didn't just lose the debates--Hillary Clinton won them.  She showed herself to be more knowledgeable, more experienced, have a better temperament, to be smarter, and frankly, by far and away the best candidate to lead the people of the United States.

We as a party would be wise to realize much the same about her victory on November 8th--Clinton's margin of victory will be greater than it might have been because Trump is such a piss poor candidate, but a majority of Americans were still voting for our candidate before his candidacy imploded because we have better ideas, grow the economy better, look out for average Americans, are more inclusive, aren't racist, homophobic, or misogynistic, and frankly, have shown over the course of the last eight years that we are much better at running the country than republicans are.

No matter how the national median spins it, this will be a victory for progressive policies and a sound rebuke once again of the failed conservative agenda.

Peace,
emaycee

Sometimes I get it right

Nearly two years ago, on December 14, 2011, I wrote a post called "The Big Payback" in which I advocated attacking Citizen's United by turning it around on corporations through lawsuits by forcing them to not only have free speech rights individual citizens have but every right we as citizens have.

Ahem.

In today's Daily Kos, Meteor Blades makes virtually the same argument.

What the fuck--as the old saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.

Peace,
emaycee

A deal with the devil is no deal at all

August 5th was the thirty-second anniversary of Ronald Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers for striking.  As such, strikes virtually never occur in America today, and working people have lost the only leverage they ever really had.  Since that time union memebership in America has plummeted, the gap between rich and poor has reached historic proportions, and the working men and women of America have been fighting a losing battle to keep their heads above water financially. 

Unbeknownst to many (as pointed out in this excellent piece by Steven D for The Daily Kos), was that Mr. Reagan had promised PATCO (the air traffic controllers union) that he would work with them to satisfy their demands (President Carter, in what may have been the worst of many bad decision, would not negotiate with PATCO)--a promise which won him the backing of PATCO in the 1980 Presidential election against Carter.  On August 5, 1981, Mr. Reagan fired 11,000 air traffic controllers, which, also unbeknownst to many set the airline industry back years and cost billions--that's right, billions--more to repair the damage done to the industry than it would have cost to have met all of the demands of the union.  Mr. Reagan, of course, had no desire to work with the union--as we see still from republicans, this was another case of republicans putting their ideology above what was best not only for America, but for the American people.  That we let them anywhere near anything that has to do with monetary policy is a testament to the power of corporate lobbyists (not to mention the ability to be suckered which afflicts far too many Americans).

What Reagan's action also underscores is that all the talk of the need for bipartisanship in the halls of Congress is just so much hogwash--we should be ever vigilant.  A deal with the devil is very often no deal at all.

Sort of like all those jobs republicans have created (repeal Obamacare anyone?) since they ran on jobs, jobs, jobs in 2010.

Peace,
emaycee

Sloganeering

An astuste blogger notes that our slogan for the 2014 elections should be "They did nothing."

It's short, it's sweet, it's truthful, and it's the kind of phrase that will appeal to our uniquely American sense of achievement.  It describes the republicans perfectly.

It's a good one.  Besides, I don't think mine--"They're fucking assholes"--would be allowed on network TV.

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

Oh, pretty please?

Seems one Charlotte Allen (never heard of her and may never again) suggested in the Los Angeles Times this week--seriously--that the ideal republican candidate in 2016 would be one Sarah Palin.  Leaving aside the fact that it's highly doubtful Palin would be willing to take a massive cut in pay for something as silly as serving her country, the main gist of Allen's contention (short version) is that since Palin is a woman, it will be much easier for women to vote for her (it wasn't the anti-woman message, it was the male messengers...riiiight).  There's some comparisons to Reagan, something about her being blue collar (again, riiiiight), having a single Mom daughter, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Nothing mind you, about her actually being qualified to be President.  Nonetheless...

I heartily endorse this proposal.  Fucking heartily.  I mean, winning back to back Presidential elections has been a real treat--and with Palin at the top of the republican ticket, it would just about guarantee a third straight Democratic victory.

I'm guessing the thinking is that after back-to-back assholes (McCain, Romney) got slaughtered by Barack Obama, it's time to give an idiot a chance.

And good fucking luck with that one.

Peace,
emaycee

The day's biggest surprise

...had to be the way the Liberal blogs have rallied around the President today.  I mean the folks on MSNBC, with the exception of the Reverend Al Sharpton, absolutely crucified him last night, and I was pretty much expecting the same from everyone today (especially with President Obama's comments on Social Security) except for Markos Moulitsas (Obama could go streaking buck ass naked down Pennsylvania Avenue and Markos would find a reason why it shows the President's brilliance--and I love him for it).  Even fucking Digby, who usually treats Obama like an ugly stepchild, was pretty darn tame and fought back against Romney's lies.  And the Detroit Free Press' Stephen Henderson only acknowledged Romney's victory as one heavy on style but light on substance.

Good to see that we just might be seeing the utter catastrophe of a Romney victory on November 6th.

Peace,
emaycee

Blue fish

At twenty-six American corporations last year, their CEOs were paid more than their companies paid in federal income taxes.

Leaving aside the fact that American CEOs, who are truly a dime a dozen and could be replaced by literally thousands of other bozos, or the fact that their psychopathic tendencies, overblown egos, and sheer ineptitude drove our economy into an inexorable abyss which we're still climbing out of...isn't there something inherently wrong about republicans screaming about how high our corporate tax rate is?  Or how we should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy?  Doesn't this have all the condescension of a "Let them eat cake" moment?

I swear, I hope there's a circle of hell reserved for these assholes where they can spend the rest of eternity spooning actual bullshit into their mouths.

Peace,
emaycee

Smackdown extrordinaire

Looking for a nice little piece to brighten your day, put a little smile on your face?  Guaranteed that this smackdown, written in response to the typically ignorant ass ranting of some Antoinette about how he's going to sell his business and go on welfare if President Obama wins, will do just the trick.

If only we had Democratic politicans who were so presicient and honest.

Peace,
emaycee

That's right, that's right

The main reason I enjoy reading The Daily Kos, well, daily, is that every once in a while its founder Markos Moulitsas gives us a glimpse of his acerbic views on the state of all things Liberal/Democratic.  Yesterday was another in a line of his posts maligning our side for just being too goddamned nice--that taking the high road has led to too many defeats.

It we don't win, we can't change the rules to suit our ideals.  Period.

On a side note, if you want to read something really depressing, read the comments on Moulitsas' post.  For Christ's sake, talk about arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin....

Peace,
emaycee

Who?

Meteor Blades hits the nail on the head with this piece--we should be hammering Tom Harkin's Rebuild America Act at every opportunity.  Unfortunately, he neglects to tell us exactly who should be using the bullhorn to spread this information far and wide.

Because it seems to me if we don't have it out before the elections this fall, it's not going to help much.  Not to mention, this isn't exactly the kind of plan that has the time to ferment for a few years before taking off--we need jobs now.  Mind you, I'm not talking about getting it to pass--just getting the information out as what we Democrats are offering, what distinguishes us from Romney and his circus clowns.

So...as we've seen over the past few years, President Obama the Centrist Wonder is pretty much out.  And the major media outlets, too--fewer and fewer are reading newspapers and Rachel Maddow and the MSNBC gang don't have that many followers.  I think Harry Reid is a possibility, though the Senate Dems that would support it (like our Senators, Levin and Stabenow) are not likely to be able to make enough noise.  Nancy Pelosi is likely the best choice, but even at that, she doesn't have that strong of a caucus.

I truly believe Sen. Harkin's Rebuild America Act is the best economic vision I have seen from the Democrats in years.  But as all too often in the past, it will turn out to be mere wishful thinking because we can't get the information to the mass of Americans it needs to be successful.

Because if preaching "Isn't this cool?" to the already converted were a successful strategy, a whole hell of a lot more of your high school classmates would have been in the Chess Club.

Peace,
emaycee

Ground control to Major Tom

Anybody who actually believes the bullshit in the headline in this piece by Laurence Lewis ("The GOP war on science should be the Democrat's greatest political weapon"), shouldn't be let near any Democratic campaign other than before the most uber-liberal of voting blocs.

Forty-six percent of Americans don't believe in evolution.  Half of all Americans in the most Christian nation on earth can't name the writers of the four gospels.  Twenty-five percent of all teachers in America believe that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.

This entire theme of somehow convincing the American voting public through reasoning and intelligence has been a loser for as long as I can remember.  And this doofus thinks, in a nation absolutely getting its clock cleaned in science by other industrialized nations, in a nation where we practically are begging children to go into scientific fields, that this is going to somehow, miraculously, garner the Democrats votes. 

Good fucking luck with that one.

Peace,
emaycee

We could be heroes...

There's been a lot of hullaballo (so to speak) over some words spoken by Chris Hayes on his show "Up with Chris Hayes" concerning the use of the word "hero" with regard to those serving in our military.  Near as I can tell, Hayes was trying to make the point that we use the word hero perhaps too frequently in terms of the military, and this feeds our too frequent marches to war.  He also admits he might be mistaken.

It seems to me much of the charade of anger on the right is because of the god-awful treatment of Vietnam vets upon their return home--there's a lot of retrograde guilt on all sides for what happened, and the right, being good at exploiting, is well, exploiting this to keep the military-industrial complex humming along.  This does not mean that Hayes is wrong.  Nor does it mean that our service men should be vilified.  But in truth, one could make the case that the guy (or gal) going to work each day and paying the taxes that helps support our defense is, in his own way, a hero as well.  It also begs the question why we as a nation refuse to give equal praise to those who seek peace.

But in the end, the biggest problem is that it makes it that much harder for another type of hero, a truth teller if you will, to convince the American people that spending more on defense than the rest of the world combined is a travesty, and the good that could be accomplished with the excess of money spent on defense.  And that maybe, just maybe, we all might be a lot better off if we concentrated on peace first and more weapons second.

Peace,
emaycee

Hazarding a guess

kos noted this week that it seems awfully odd that President Obama and Willard Romney are running neck and neck nationally, but when lining up electoral votes, Obama has a fairly comfortable lead.

I'm certainly not an expert, but if I had a guess, it would be that the states Obama is going to lose, he's going to lose a lot worse this time around and that may be why Willard's numbers are looking better on a national level.  I think a fair amount of people voted for Obama out of fear of the economic catrastrophe caused by the Bush the Lesser administration that probably hadn't ever voted for a Democrat before and probably won't again. 

Not sure that it matters (except from perhaps it causing a change in perception, but I think a close race will bring out voters from both parties)--if Obama loses West Virginia 65-35 instead of 60-40 it makes it look like Romney did better than McCain nationally, but adds absolutely zero electoral votes over what McCain won in 2008.

Peace,
emaycee

Subverting Democracy in Michigan

Why it took a piece by Rachel Maddow--not a Michigan native, not a show based in the state--to bring the republicans in Michigan's legislature subverting of democracy (and the state's constitution) with their failure to follow the state's immediate effect law  to the forefront of Michigan news (lame, page 7, he said/she said journalism) is beyond me.  It's not often the Free Press, usually as lily-livered as far too many of the Dems in the nation's capital, is to be commended for their editorial stands, but they hit the nail on the head with this one.

Still, outside of the Progressive blogs (Daily Kos here, Digby here--and Digby wonders why there hasn't been more of an outcry from Michigan Dems, the simple answer is that's what happens when your party is lead by a DINO, State Party Chairman Mark Brewer, whose claim to fame is leading Michigan Democrats to their greatest defeat ever in 2010) there hasn't been nearly enough outrage and eventually it's going to come down to how the Michigan State Supreme Court decides it.  Since it's in the republican advantage (4 justices to 3), I'm really looking forward to their ruling explaining to us Michiganders who own a calculator how two-thirds of 110 equals 63 (note to those who suck at math:  it doesn't, two-thirds of 110 is 73).

Ought to do wonders to help those state test scores in arithmetic soar, though--remember kids, percentages equal whatever you want them to!

Peace,
emaycee