Making America Great Again - ACA version

For the past 8 years, the GnOPe has had no coherent goals beyond oppose Obama, and figuring they would be opposing Clinton, didn't work at formulating any platform other than those that have failed so miserably at the state level (Thanks Kansas for being a fiscal crash test dummy.).  So no surprise that other than creating a horrible mess of things (check the analysis at that link), they got no plans. You know in many other countries, if you get sick, you can just go to a clinic and get treated so bad their socialized medicine is. Getting rid of ACA, itself based on a GnOPe governor's plan, will waste millions of dollars and leave millions of people without health insurance.  Great isn't it? Sad.  
Advice - start yelling at your representatives.  

German news paper headline on USA election day

Hmm, wonder if the Germans have had some experience with this type of candidate?  Clearly there is enough concern in Germany that the USA election is headline news, (and this was always a very cool movie poster).  When TPP saw it this AM, the sound of helicopter blades could be heard (really! A medical heli-pad is on the next block) and it seemed like there was a whiff of napalm in the fall air (or some leaves burning).  The Phactors voted last week and it was rather heartening to learn that early voting in the USA accounted for more votes than the entire election in 2012, so a lot more people are voting (except in places like North Carolina that still brags about actively suppressing minority voting). Hopefully there is enough concern in the USA too that a bigoted demagogue will not become president.  Unfortunately this compaign was such that the many good reason for supporting HRC were seldom mentioned (so who investigates the FBI?).  It still puzzles TPP  how so many southerners can convince themselves they would be well served by voting for a rich, NY yankee?

Longing for the good ole days & a president to take up back there

The other day a self-professed supporter of T-rump said something to the effect that "those of us who are old enough remember the 50s and 60s and just how good the world was, and all we want is to go back to such good times". And somehow T-rump is the man to do this? TPP doubts this, but being old enough to clearly remember the 50s and 60s, TPP wants to know what this woman was doing, and where was she doing it?  Doesn't she remember the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis? TPP was helping friends build fall out shelters in their basements. Doesn't she remember civil rights, and the marches to Selma and the assassination of MLK?  And she doesn't remember cops beating black people for wanting equal rights. Or JFK? Doesn't she remember Vietnam? How about the anti-war movement?  Guess those Ozzie and Harriet and leave it to beaver reruns were distracting her and she missed all the news. Does that speak to skewed and selective memories filtered by white privilege or what?  This is the wonderful life T-rump supporters want to return to.  TPP says, "Wake up!" And this was a woman supporting the most unequal rights candidate maybe ever, wishing for a past that never was. So easy for a rich grifter to manipulate.

GnOPe is bumming me out

Every where you look the bloody GnOPe is doing something that is bumming me out. Let's see there's the T-rump/Screws race for most incompetent candidate, voter suppression, more dumping on Planned Parenthood and women's rights in general, bigotry in the guise of religious freedom abounds, and the obstructionism of anything and everything Obama might do.  If there is a lesson here it is that the GnOPe is focused on the negative, thus my use of GnOPe where the G is silent. It is clear that they cannot be trusted to run things. Look at Kansas and Wisconsin where the experiment has been done, the GnOPe could do as they pleased, and their policies have failed spectacularly, but still they double down, a special form of stupidity. The GnOPe must be relegated to minority party status which limits the damage that they can do.  In particular the attempts to legalize discrimination demonstrates how far the South has come, and it's not very far. In all it is very depressing, and April weather doesn't need any help. 

Nope! Nope! Nope!

The GnOPe (the G is silent as in Gneo-con) continues to demonstrate that it has no platform, no ideas, no agenda, except obstruct Obama.  TPP has long known this because of the growing influence of Gneocons. Now they have changed the definition of lame-duck, the period from the election of a successor to the end of the term, to oppose any action the president might make in the 4th year of a 4 year term. Never thought anyone could make Rubitinio look good, but T-rump is doing a good job. 
The dismaying thing is to see how effective the rhetoric of fear has been in influencing a not very sophisticated public. Now Lincolnland's GnOPe senator is running a campaign ad that suggests his opponent, a disabled veteran has no regard for the security of our state or our country because he's scared of refugees. It's not just sad, it's disrespectful of a veteran who put it on the line to protect this country. It's a sorry state of affairs, promoted by the easily scared. 

Darth Cheney & Iran

The surfacing of Darth Cheney to 'splain the problems with negotiating with Iran was so very predictable. First, all of the knee-jerk GnOPers who exclaimed that they were against the anti-nuclear agreement before they even read it tells you everything you need to know. Obama = bad, oppose at all costs. Our local representative is part of that crowd, and not the brightest bulb at that. And their alternatives?  Nothing other than belligerent saber rattling, the limits of their idea of diplomacy. And just see how well Cheney's approach worked in Iraq. Already Europe's corporations are rushing to do business with Iran, and maybe with the exception of Halliburton, an accord with Iran would benefit many investors, and a curious thing happens when fiscal interests get involved, the political rhetoric gets toned down because both parties have butter on the same side of the bread. In this case it would seem that the GnOPe is so eager to thwart Obama that they would throw their corporate babies out with the bathwater. At this point in time anyone who trusts Darth Cheney to tell the truth about anything is so gullible that they have no business in government or foreign policy. Trying to stablize the middle east region appears to be an anathma to Darth. Oo, Iran isn't a real democracy like our friends and allies the Saudis. Sure. So what does the USA have to lose by trying diplomacy rather than belligerence? Nothing. Except Halliburton gets to sell less because their butter is on the conflict side of the bread, and Cheney is their mouth-piece. Go back to your death star, far, far away!

SCOTUS to decide case: Partisan Hackery vs. Obvious Intent

Once again Tom Tomorrow depicts the USA's real exceptionalism, which isn't partisan politics above the best interests of citizens, but is actually the cartoon itself. The only thing that keeps TPP from despair is that cartoons like this are still allowed. Of course, stupidly, some of us thought the GnOPe can stoop no lower in its irrational partisan behavior toward the Obama administration. But nooo! The Iran letter from GnOPe senators intended to undercut nuclear negotiations lowers the bar so bloody far that it is only too obvious this political party cannot lead, cannot rule, cannot be trusted to have the best interests of the USA in mind. And our junior senator from Lincolnland is one of those fools.  So take notice Senator Kirk before you continue on where no one has gone before; you don't represent this citizen in any way, shape, or form. You put partisan politics ahead of the best interests of the USA. 

Academic bureaucracy

One of the first things to get the Rauner-round^TM here in Lincolnland are its universities.  Our new GnOPe governor says he'd like to give universities more money, but first they have to "cut their bureaucratic waste".  Now TPP is not a big fan of the administration, but he does know a few things after so many years as an academic. And TPP knows a few things about his university after having been around so many years. The state has been slowly but surely cutting its support for higher education which means the cost is shifted to the student in the form of tuition and fees. Here in Lincolnland the state support has shifted from around 68% of the cost and now some 30 odd years later state support is around 16-18%. Yet if you figure in inflation, and the actual real cost of doing business, our university is spending less of its budget to run itself than ever before. In other words to minimize the burden on students, our university has gotten more efficient. Another thing that is known by this academic is that our salaries are below the median of our peers at comparable institutions. Sigh. One wonders how us over-paid faculty escaped our governor's criticism? The majority of the administration operates to do things for students many of which the state mandates the university to do, and a lot of unfunded mandates have come our way; the state still wants things, but doesn't want to pay for them. Now the university could probably do with a few less deanlets, but seriously where is all this bureaucratic waste our governor wants cut? Well, he doesn't know, but it's his business acumen  and GnOPe belief that higher education is wasteful. Do not hold your breath for him to show you data, nor will he look at yours especially if it doesn't support his beliefs. What all of this means is that higher education is going to get its budget cut in name of curtailing wasteful spending whether there is any or not. It didn't take long did it? That's how it is. You do a great job, you do it more efficiently, and then you get budget cuts because of your non-existent wastefulness. Could have been worse. The governor of another Midwestern state wanted to know why university faculty couldn't teach 5 courses a term like high school teachers?  No need to try and explain that our job is to teach students to learn for themselves, and that means doing history, art, and science, and to be a scholar, someone who can apprentice young scholars, takes time outside the classroom. But then again one of our missions is to "train people for the work force of Lincolnland".  Yes, train, not educate.  Sit, speak, roll-over, heel, beg, that's training. And our politicians of all flavors don't seem to appreciate the difference between education and training. This is a good time to be retired. 

Science itself has many laws, but it doesn’t give a damn about ours.

This postings title is a quote from Phil Plait's column over at Slate. This in response to yet another GnOPe (the G is silent in case you didn't know) controlled state, Wyoming, trying to legislate the content of science. With the "we'd rather be ignorant than right" party in control in so many places, science is taking a drubbing once again, and again at the level of grade school and high school students. In a classic LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU move the state legislature passed a measure to prevent the state board of education from even reviewing anything that might lead to curricular changes, and specifically aimed at keeping troublesome ideas out of the classroom (evolution, climate change, inconvenient historical facts, etc.). You know the GnOPe is beginning to act more like the Ministry of Truth in 1984 all the time. Is this a road the USA wants to travel?  People are going to have to make up their minds, are we going to be mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed horse manure) or not? 

Newt called

Wow, is TPP popular!  Newt called.  Who knew he was still around?  At any rate, Newt is angry and outraged, and just plain pissed, and every loyal 'Mercan should be too, because the gumint just isn't telling us the "truth" Newt wants to hear about Bengazi.  Bengazi?  Really, Newt?  This is the hot button item that got you so upset that you decided to call everyone in the USA personally?  Let's see, the FBI thing fizzled.  So what else we got to beat on Obama about?  Anything substantial?  Any issue of real importance?  No.  So let's go back to Bengazi and see if by repeating things enough they change or people forget.  No wonder they picked Newt to carry this ball.  He's yesterday's news too.  But it didn't even take this long to figure out that like Rick, Newt's monologue could continue on without me. Wonder how many of these calls it will take to use up all the money the Koch brothers have given the GnOPe?  That many?  Groan. 

Rick called

Rick Sanctimonious called.  He wanted to tell me how outraged he was.  Lots of things outrage Rick, and mostly it would seem it's people's freedom to do things that Rick doesn't like, and there are lots of things Rick doesn't like.  Rick was hoping that the people he was calling were outraged enough at what he was telling us that some money might be "invested"  in his cause.  It was nice of Rick to call, so best be polite.  When he's done TPP will pick up the telephone from the kitchen counter, disinfect it, and then hang it up.  Sounds like Rick may be going on for awhile, and you want him to get his money's worth, but since it's a pretty one-sided call, he didn't actually need me to keep listening. Hello?  Hello?  Wonder if Rick got my message? 

Lack of good political choices

Bronco Bama has been a rather disappointing president, but TPP must consider the alternative.  Would the use of drones or the status of unofficial wars (only congress can declare war) improve by switching presidents.  No.  Would that Obama had done more about the environment and global warming, but will this get better if we switch presidents?  You must be kidding!  The GnOPe is the party that has forsaken science and reason for an alternate ideological reality of their own construct.  The economy has been slow to improve, and would tried and failed GnOPe strategies make things better?  Not for 99% of us.  And while mulling this entire thing over, there was a new Mittens ad where he advocated himself as a supporter of bipartisanship, and that was it.  It reminded TPP that the GnOPe was obsessed with obstructing Bronco Bama at every turn, opposing every action, finding fault with every single thing the man did, indeed, demonizing the very man at every step with a venom that usually is associated with out and out hatred, a President who made the mistakes of trying to find compromise and consensus, of conceding way too much to people who were bound and determined to stop his every action, and now Mittens claims the fault was Obama’s!  After opposing Bronco Bama at every turn, then claim BB wasn’t able to accomplish very much, while knowing full well why, and then saying, so vote for us.  Do people actually fall for this?  Well, that was just too much for TPP, the last straw in a not very nice campaign all the way around.  According to PolitiFact, 41% of Mittens’ rated statements were mostly false, false, or pants on fire (9%).  Now of course all politicians mess with the facts, so to be fair, Bronco had 28% of his rated statements ranked mostly false, false, or pants on fire (2%).  It’s a pretty big difference especially in the out and out falsehood category.  You get some idea of the GnOPe mentality when NJ Gov. Crusty was chastised by his own party when he and Bronco were actually just doing their jobs following Sandy’s arrival rather than playing politics.  This epitomizes the neocon attitude that it’s all politics, all the time, no matter what, and that, my friends, means the GnOPe really doesn’t care about you or me, or what’s really good for the country,  or the world.  And to some extent that goes for the Hemicrats too.  So while not really happy, my mind is made up.  Green Party!  Yea! 

Warning: Liberal within!

The GnOPe of Lincolnland wants my vote; not for anyone in particular, not for any particular issue or agenda, just in general, more or less for everything.  In fact the missive sent to me only features one word in bold, red letters: LIBERAL.  Yes, vote against anything liberal; vote against the liberal agenda; vote against Washington liberals (if only we really had some!); meaning vote for the GnOPe.  Personally TPP is insulted.  The GnOPe seems to think that the word LIBERAL will affect me the way SQUIRREL affects dogs in the movie UP.  Well, TPP has stopped associating with the GnOPe since they became the party of stupid.  Since TPP is not alone, quite likely this message resonates quite well with their party's present main base, but liberal doesn't mean what they think it means.  TPP has long embraced a liberal philosophy of equality and justice supporting free and fair elections, freedom of speech, religion, and press, a right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. If the GnOPe is serious about opposing a liberal agenda, then they should be more specific about which of these rights and freedoms they wish to limit or take away.  Oh, yes, in a manner of speaking all of them, for one group or another.  The GnOPe doesn't want minorities or people who vote against the "conservative" agenda to vote.  The GnOPe doesn't want women to have any rights at all.  And freedom of religion is OK as long as it's the right one, and now even this is pretty confusing for the them trying to convince the religious right that Obama is the wrong kind of Christian while at the same time sort of side stepping the issue that Mittens isn't any kind of Christian at all by their own standards.  Ironic isn't it?  The original tea party was protesting the lack of representative government, and now the Tea Party embodies the biggest threat to our constitutional rights in the history of our republic.  Before receiving this missive, TPP was considering voting for at least one GnOPe candidate for state office, by all accounts a reasonable fellow, but how can he be reasonable and still be part of a stupid party?  Recalculating, recalculating.

Dipping a toe into the polluted waters of politics

TPP generally stays away from politics because this topic is just too depressing for an intellectual, science-minded, educator who supports social justice and real equality.  Still a few thoughts occur to me.  First, nothing said during a campaign should be given any credence at all.  Truth is always a casualty.  Right now so many pants are on fire that the heat will contribute to global warming.  Second, so how do you know what a politician will do if you can't believe anything they say?  You see how they behave, how they treat others, and their own.  With that in mind, we have the GnOPe party leadership, which knows Mittens has the nomination all sewn up, screwing over Ron Paul delegates so that no dissent would be heard whatsoever.  Now think about it.  If this is how they treat their own party members, delegates chosen by their own people, at their own convention, imaging what they could do, what they will do, to you if they gain control of Congress and the administration?  The GnOPe will not govern, they will rule as if they had divine right.  All hail Mittens the monarch and his empress of white, wealthy America. 
Oh, TPP feels much better now.  Still depressed, but not so stressed about it. 

Happy Birthday, Charles!

Today is the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday 203 years ago.  It's easy for an evolutionary biologist to get depressed these days what with the prospects of getting a GnOPe candidate that has even the slightest regard for science essentially nil.  And even worse when because your understanding of science suggests policies that run afoul of conservative ideology, they label you unAmerican conspirators in undermining the USA.  There was a time in this country when policy was debated, but then politicians found out it was easier to deny the science rather than debate policy, and now the people who do the science are being demonized.  If these ideologues have their way the USA will fall even further under the sway of fundamentalist theocrats, and thus our society will begin to converge on that of Islamic countries charging forward into the past, the distant past, the Dark Ages, at a time when fewer and fewer realize that embracing science is one of the few avenues to maintaining any type of competitive advantage internationally.  This is so depressing the Phactor seldom blogs about it, but he wonders what is going to happen when people who make up their own facts and their own history actually try to use their fantasies to interact with the world at large and run smack dab into a serious dose of reality.  More denial?  More demonization?  So it would seem.  And the worst part is that so many people so readily fall for it.  Depressing indeed.