Tag Archives: GOP

Political Rants

Left screech-less.

Well, it was quite a week for the right. First the dramatic jailing of the county clerk in Kentucky and her equally dramatic release into the arms of Mike Huckabee and Tony Perkins (not the actor). Then there was the non-satirical version of the Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, headlined by Ted Cruz, who was shut out at the Kentucky celebration of bigotry. Lots of posturing, quite a bit of screeching (particularly on the part of the estimable Sara Palin), and some very bizarre opinions being aired – tirades that speak of a truly distorted view of reality; noises from that airless box the reactionary right spends all of its time in.

Meeting of the minds in Washington, D.C.I think the part that’s most flabbergasting is the level of hysteria over the Iran deal. You expect to hear overheated rhetoric at an event that features Michelle Bachman and some dude from “Duck Dynasty,” but this was way the fuck over the top. Ted Cruz suggested that the Iranians, once they have acquired the nuclear weapon they so LUST after, will blow it up off the coast of the U.S. to create an electromagnetic pulse, shutting down our electrical grid and killing MILLIONS! What. the. fuck. What a fantasy! And this from a sitting Senator.

Sure, I know what you’re thinking. (Or at least I think I do.) These are the crackheads, the crazy people, the tea party faithful, waving their freak flag high. Except that these opinions are broadly held among Republicans, great and small. Just as Trump channels the inner wingnut of every member of the party faithful, the bizarre rhetoric of Palin, Cruz, Bachman and others emanate from the mouths of the GOP’s supposedly more temperate and measured spokespeople. On Thursday morning MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough launched into a rant about the Iran deal that diverged from Palin’s argument only in the style of delivery. Less screechy, but just as nuts. We’re shuddering in the shadow of Iran. Scarborough could have been channeling Cheney, except that the wreck of an ex vice president appeared on his show only days before.

Fact is, they’re all nuts. Be advised.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

Each second day.

This will be another quickie. I am neck-deep in web development and video production this week, none of it Big Green related, so bear with me.

We are in the midst of another election season, as you know. I could have made that statement at any point in the last eight years, essentially. Our elections are now permanent affairs; the moment one election passes, the next one begins to dominate the national conversation. Sure, elections are important, but the constant focus on horse-race politics, who’s ahead, who’s behind, who’s in/out … distorts our political culture and in many ways makes the country completely ungovernable and, worse, unresponsive to public will. It used to be that, between the elections, policy would be developed, legislated, signed into law, etc. Now there’s no space for any of that. How is that working?

Always election dayThe danger in this is that we have developed a political economy around this practice of perpetual elections. One leg of this stool is the pay-to-play culture of political fundraising. Office holders are spending increasing amounts of their time with potential donors, dialing for dollars and addressing $10,000 a plate dinner crowds. Another leg is the media feeding frenzy that attends every twist and turn of the competition. Plenty of news to be served up, with lots of red meat. And then there’s the ad revenue, in the billions of dollars, ultimately.

This kind of reminds me of Matt’s Christmas song for Romney a couple of years back; he was singing about the planet that Rick Santorum “Christma-formed” so that every day is either Christmas or Christmas Eve. “Each second day is Christmas, preceded by its Eve,” goes the song, as it describes the financial advantages of such an arrangement. I think the way our elections are set up now provides a windfall for power centers in our economy, in ways I discussed and other ways as well. That’s a problem for all of us.

We need to get hold of this process, because honestly … it has a hold on us.

luv u,

jp

Political Rants

What talks.

I’m going to light on a couple of issues this week. One is a certain loudmouth real estate developer / reality television start that has been in the news a lot lately. The other is a bunch of poorly acted television ads that had me scratching my head over the last week.

Channeling the G.O.P.'s inner Milosevic.First, Trump. As someone who was once a contract employee of this individual (yes, he can say that I too took money from him at some point), I know this guy is more than just a cartoon show for our amusement. What he says and does can have real consequences for people who don’t ride in limos and private jets. So when he talks about forcing 11 million people to leave the country, understand that he is articulating a point of view that is held by a very vocal, substantial minority of Americans. There’s nothing ‘silent’ about this ‘majority’. They want ethnic cleansing.

Consider it for a moment. What would removing 11 million undocumented immigrants look like? It would involve massive police action, broad sweeps of poor neighborhoods, and mass incarceration. Trump would also have them bring along their American-born children, whose citizenship he also questions (claiming that some legal experts he plays golf with say the the 14th Amendment does not apply to American-born children of undocumented immigrant parents.) This effort would put Avigdor Lieberman to shame.

The man talks a blue streak, jumps from topic to topic, but always gets his pander-points out – and believe me, folks … he’s pandering hard. And the further he goes out on that political limb, the further his fellow presidential contenders will follow.

Fix this … fix. Have you seen those terribly acted ads about the nasty government trying to get between you and your retirement adviser? I got curious and stumbled upon a posting that linked to a Wall Street Journal article about the industry coalition behind them. Big surprise: financial advisers are not crazy about being forced by the administration to take fiduciary responsibility for the advice they give their clients. I’d heard about the regulation a few weeks ago, but didn’t connect it to these ads until now. Slimy mothers.

luv u,

jp