Clarence Thomas' corruption continues to be staggering

Pay. To. Play. https://t.co/6n9z1AHsHM

— Dahlia Lithwick (@Dahlialithwick) September 22, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Blood money for the Kochs yet again

The Koch family fortune started by building refineries for Stalin and Hitler, now reportedly Koch Industries continues doing business in Russia https://t.co/NqLOKu5wk0

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) March 14, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

This is what they'll sacrifice

Take a good look at the young woman in the picture above these words.  Her name is Skylar Herbert, and she was the first child to die in Michigan from the coronavirus.  She was five years old.  Her parents are first responders.

A conservative guess would be that she lost seventy years of life.  Her parents lost countless years of the unbridled joy she would have brought them.  Her mother and father's lives have been irreparably worsened.  Their world will never be the same because of the incompetence of Donald Trump and his administration.

Slylar Herbert is what Donald Trump, the republican party, Fox News, and all the "freedom" protesters are willing to sacrifice to re-elect Donald Trump and keep Corporate America, Wall Street, the DeVos family, and the Koch family happy.

Never forget.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Sacrifice? We don't need no stinkin' sacrifice

Probably also funded by the DeVos Family and the Kochs

Keeping in mind that the protests against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Stay At Home Directive here in Michigan earlier this week A) Feature a vast minority of Michiganders, numbering in at least the hundreds, B) Were bankrolled by the DeVos Family and the Koch Brothers (oops, forgot one of them died) Brother, C) For some odd ass reason thought that the flag of traitors from the Confederacy was good window dressing, and that D) Governor Whitmer's approval rating right now is in the mid-60's, which is twenty points higher than the orange shit gibbon in the oval office, can we just thank the stars that these morons weren't around when America was fighting World War II?

I mean if you can't handle six weeks of not being able to get a haircut or buy a juniper bush, how the hell would have have fought off four years of the greatest threat to America's freedom in our history?

If it were up to their clown show, Hitler would be calling the shots here in America.

Oh, wait....

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

May he rot and burn in hell

Another disciple is on the way!

David Koch, who with his brother Charles was responsible for making the economic well-being as well as the health from food safety to climate change, from affordable healthcare to pollution controls, considerably worse for 95% of the people on the entire planet, and was a poster boy for all the evil that unfettered greed foments, died today.

Good-fucking-bye and good fucking riddance.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

For you will surely get it

Hell or a republican convention--you decide...

The Koch Brothers have spent nearly forty years building up the republican party to do their bidding, stoking racism, misogyny, and homophobia--whether they agreed with it or not--and handing out lots of checks with lots of zeroes to have their agenda enacted.  Alas, stoking hatred and buying influence have a way of coming back to bite one in the ass, and the Kochs currently have a lion latched on to their fannies--in the form of one Donald Trump.

Seems the Kochs aren't too fond of anti-immigrant policies and certainly aren't too fond of anything that trumps (in a word) free trade--which Trump's tariffs are gouging into.  But after voicing their concerns at a recent confab and vowing to fight back, Trump took to Twitter to rile up the base and suddenly the Kochs are not only personas non grata for Democrats, but for the republican rank and file, as well.

The Kochs should have seen this coming--in the immortal words of one Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does" and Trump as well as his supporters are neck deep in stupidity.

Still, it's nice to know that Schadenfreude feels as sweet as ever.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The revolution will not go better with Kochs

Call out the instigators...

Three notes on why economic inequality in America is going to end ugly:

• Republicans have introduced over 50 bills in this Congress (a record) to limit ordinary Americans ability to sue corporations.
• Republicans have done everything they possibly can to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--which Democrats created to protect, again, ordinary Americans from the greed and incompetence of both Wall Street and Big Banks which crushed our economy and lead to the Great Recession in 2008.
• Over 80% of the benefits in the republican tax cut passed this year go to the wealthiest 1% of Americans.

You cannot take away a people's right to redress, their right to be protected from the sickening excesses of Corporate America, and give even more money to the filthy rich without the anger of the masses eventually becoming overwhelming.

And when republicans want to know who to blame, they can look in the fucking mirror.

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee

Fuck the rich

Take your country back...from the rich

I had two takeaways from this video of Harvard students silently protesting a speech by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos:

First, it's how strong the resistance remains--from the marches on Trump's inauguration day to the travel ban protests to NFL players taking a knee to these students silently protesting a woman who got her job the rich people's way (she bought it) and the administration she represents, you have to feel that our hopes for taking back what will remain of America are strong.

The second one occurs at the end, when a student asks a perfectly reasonable question in a polite manner:  exactly how much money does billionaire DeVos, Wall Street, and other rich folks like the Koch Brothers stand to gain from turning our public education over to for profit organizations?  And at that point someone (presumably a member of Harvard faculty or one of its administrators) tells DeVos that she doesn't have to answer that question.  Why the fuck not?  It's a legitimate question and she's a public official getting paid by our tax dollars and answerable to we, the American people.

She most certainly has to fucking answer it and the fact that she didn't is entirely telling that her agenda isn't about helping America's children but is instead about making her greedy family even richer.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Just say no to rich people

Paul Ryan, toadie extraordinaire for the rich 

News that the Koch Brothers have threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions if republicans don't repeal Obamacare and pass tax cuts for the Koch Brothers, and the republicans response of "Yes, sir, may I have another?"  isn't surprising in the least.  But it does open an opportunity for Democrats to ask Americans just what it is they are getting for republicans fealty to the rich--because from where I'm sitting it sure seems like it's just one big shit sandwich, i.e., the more bread you've got, the less shit you've got to eat.

I'm pretty sure that government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich isn't a government that most of our three hundred thirty million citizens are much interested in supporting.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

It could be raining

Dark and gloomy--republicans vision of America...

While I wouldn't place a wager on its ending, the Trump presidency is in serious trouble after the revelations of these past couple of weeks.  But as bad as Trump has been as President (it may be the worst four months in the history of the American presidency), should Trump get impeached and Pence assume the presidency it is a guarantee that Pence will be worse.

You read that right:  Pence will be worse.

Because as disastrous as it is, Trump's utter incompetence and abysmal approval ratings are keeping republicans from enacting much of their agenda.  They are simply too busy trying to deal with his rank lunacy, and the cries from the Liberal wilderness are more likely to fall on deaf ears with a President who isn't hated by everyone but republicans.

With Pence in the White House, every christian wet dream that the DeVos family has ever had will be enacted.  With Pence in the White House, every union smashing, wage busting, poor people crushing, and America destroying tax cut fantasy the Koch brothers have had since time immemorial will come to pass.

Donald Trump's buffoonery has helped keep them in check.  With a (seeming) return to normalcy under Pence, their psychopathic selves will doom all of us.

Therefore, in order to survive, it is vital that we make sure people equate everything Donald Trump does...with Mike Pence.

Trump=Pence.

Fuck Donald Trump and Mike Pence,
emaycee

Devil's advocate, if you please

The Great Democratic Hope

Once again, I don't want to take anything away from yesterday's results in GA-06--Jon Ossoff took a commanding percentage of the vote, he's running a spirited campaign, and Democrats seem genuinely enamored of both the man and his politics.  And considering that republicans have held this seat since 1980, the percentage of the vote he had looks even better in retrospect.

But any way you slice it, Democrats once again did not win a House seat in a special election.  And while we will have a runoff in June, the final tally shows that Democrats, even with Ossoff winning 48% (give or take) of the vote, did not rule the day in the election (while it was close, the final tally was R's 50, D's 49).  Republicans will also have two months to collect and use tons of Koch Brothers money to crucify Ossoff while trying to win this seat yet again.

On the bright side, it's also two months for Donald Trump to keep fucking up.  And Ossoff's opponent, Karen Handel, is notorious for a) losing elections, and b) being a sworn enemy of Planned Parenthood who would love nothing more than to energize lots and lots of women to keep Handel in Georgia.

But in the end, it's the South, and republicans will play their usual hand and make this race about God, gays, and guns.

And if I were a betting man, I'd wager that it's going to be enough in a state like Georgia to chalk up another loss for the Dems.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The man who would be the Ayatollah of America

Jesus was such a wimp...

Any folks who think the choice of  Mike Pence as Donald Trump's Vice President wasn't orchestrated by the powers that be in the republican party (most notably the Koch Brothers, the DeVos family, and Sheldon Adelson, among others) are seriously deluding themselves.  Should Donald Trump be unable to finish his term (not a prediction, it's just a possibility), or decide against a second term, or even eight years from now, Mike Pence would be their perfect wet dream, a capitalistic Theocrat.

The rest of us would not be so lucky.

Pence and his cult (aka, the religious right) seriously believe that God loves unfettered capitalism and that feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, and being tolerant of others has nothing to do with Jesus' call to love your neighbor as yourself.  Separation of chuch and state to them is for sissies--they believe this country should be run by white Christians for white Christians.  The rest of us are going to hell anyway, so our cares and concerns don't really matter.

And with the country overwhelmingly run by republicans, Pence and his minions would be free to discriminate against the LGBT community, disenfranchise minorities, and to fight to keep women in the kitchen just like he did in Indiana.

And the United States would eventually grow up to be just like...Iran.

Peace,
emaycee

A lesson before sighing

Donald Trump said this week that "You have to be wealthy to be great."

Here is just a short list off the top of my head of leaders and influential people who were (or are) not wealthy who were (or still are) most assuredly great:  Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Rosa Parks, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Lech Walesa, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Jesus Christ....

While there are a few wealthy folks who have made quite the difference (the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Winston Churchill), you'd be hard pressed to name any wealthy folks who in this day and age are little more than greedy pricks trying to stuff their agenda down our throats--Bill Gates, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, et al.  Not a lot of "greatness" in that bunch, especially when one considers their contribution to the greater good.

In sum, once again Donald Trump has been proven decidedly wrong.

Thus endeth the lesson.

Peace,
emaycee

Happy new fear

Billionaires 'r' us:

• Apparently the Koch Brothers don't need the republican party--they're building their own.  With over 1200 employees and 107 offices nationally, the Kochs are trying to emulate the NRA, one of the most successful political organizations in our lifetime.  They're also emulating terrorist groups by preying on the poor with giveaways and proselytizing--here's a free turkey, ignore the man behind the curtain trying to kill the minimum wage and destroy unions.
• Sheldon Adelson, on the other hand, is buying newspapers (Las Vegas Review-Journal) and using his employees to write puff pieces that support his agenda and passing them off as "Investigative Journalism."  Because what the republican base needs is one more faux media outlet pandering to its fears.

Keep in mind that between them, the Kochs and Adelson intend to spend over a billion dollars in the 2016 elections not to improve America or the lives of its citizens, but merely to further line their already massively deep pockets.

How much better do you suppose they can eat?

Peace,
emaycee

Koch fiends

Politico reports today that the Koch brothers have their own mini CIA, which they're using to spy on and short-circuit Democratic and Liberal groups and their programs.  The article notes that there are Liberal organizations that keep track of the Koch brothers--though it fails to point out that such groups do this to look out for the best interests of the American people and the Koch brothers are looking out for the best interests of Charles and David Koch and precious few others.

What I found interesting, though, was, at the end of the article, a Koch operative speaking at a Koch sponsored event saying of Liberals/Democrats, "You know, they're afraid of us.  They really are."

Fucking seriously?  Disgusted by the Kochs?  You bet.  Repulsed by the Kochs? Most certainly.  Determined to defeat them and their minions?  Beyond a shadow of a doubt.  But afraid of them?

Never.

Peace,
emaycee

Same old, same old

Ol' Jeb! really went out on a limb this week with his proposal to cut taxes to three rates (10%, 20%, and 28%) and to cut the corporate tax rate to 20%.

Can you say "idiot" boys and girls?

Cutting taxes in this way won't do a shit's worth of good for America's poor or her middle class (didn't work under Reagan or Bush the Lesser), but it sure will help Corporate America and the wealthy.  If that's what Jeb! truly believes--that putting more money in the hands of America's rich elite at the expense of the rest of us is sound economic policy--then he's even dumber than his moronic brother.

Somebody might want to inform Jeb! that he's running to be the President of the United States of America, not the President of the United States of Koch Brothers or the President of the United States of Corporate America.

Though a nagging intuition tells me that his rich ass would prefer the latter.

Peace,
emaycee

What goes around comes around

Well lookee here:  a recent Gallup poll shows that Americans' support for Labor Unions is growing with an approval rate reaching almost 60%.

Can't imagine why--other than record breaking income inequality, and being on the losing end of the class war since the Reagan administration, and a shrinking standard of living, and wage stagnation, and Wall Street, and the Koch Brothers, and jobs being shipped overseas, and workplace powerlessness, and corporate welfare, and Citizen's United, and...

Peace,
emaycee

A Rand dumb thought

In an appearance on Fox News yesterday, Kentucky Senator and Presidential aspirant Rand Paul blew the Koch Brothers a kiss when he said, "The thing is, income inequality is due to some people working harder and selling more things, so if people voluntarily buy more of your stuff, you'll have more money."

Nicely, my response to Paul's "working harder" supposition can be neatly summed up in three words:  "Fuck you, Rand."

Peace,
emaycee

It sucks to be a republican (not that I care)

Well, well, well--seems the Koch Brothers had a big Please Kiss Our Asses For Money event this weekend featuring the usual republican minions (Jeb!, Rubio, Walker, Cruz, Fiorina) and Donald Trump sent out a tweet that asked, mockingly, if the republican candidates were "Puppets?"

Yes, yes they are.  And what's even worse for the republican party is that they can't even fight back against Trump's comment--they've become so beholden to billionaires that even the traditional media would laugh them off the stage if they even thought about refuting it.

Dangling from those troublesome strings couldn't happen to a nicer group of people.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb!'s bush league week that was

I continue to believe that, in the end, Jeb! Bush will be the republican nominee for President in 2016.  But he is doing his best to turn me into a non-believer (and probably has Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton salivating at the chance to run against him):

• In a week when good news about Medicare was released, Jeb! decided to push Paul Ryan's bullshit voucher program, at a Koch Brothers sponsored event, no less.  Fortunately for the rest of us who aren't Koch Brother toadies, there was a nice elderly woman at a townhall that told Jeb! to blow it out his ass.
• Jeb! also penned an op-ed this week highlighting his "new" plan to save the country--which it turns out, is pretty much a rehashing of old republican ideas which worked so well for his big brother.  Other than that whole Great Recession, two disastrous wars, Hurricane Katrina response, asleep at the wheel on 9/11, couple of thingies.
• And just to close it out, Jeb! proclaimed that the whole police killing scores of African-Americans, as is being pointed out by the folks at Black Lives Matter, is actually an attack on white people.  Heaven help us all....

And with each passing day, Jeb! continues to make Mitt Romney look like an astute and media savvy candidate.

Peace,

emaycee