Baby Steps

Elise has decided to meet with a few constituents. Very nice. I'll just put my comments up here. Want to make sure they don't get lost in moderation. Ye Olde Patented Repsac What'd I Say?

Meetings will be closed to the press “to allow for candid and constructive conversations,” Flanagin said. 

Really? Is that it or does Rep. Stefanik agree with Donald Trump (and a lot of commenters at the PS)?

President Trump further escalated his attacks on the news media Friday afternoon when he tweeted that outlets such as the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN are not his enemy but “the enemy of the American People.” 

That has a familiar ring to it. A couple of weeks ago Trump was preemptively blaming judges and journalists for any terror attack that may happen. As an aside I'm blaming Trump and Stefanik for the next Newtown after the bill giving 75,000 people who shouldn't have access to guns the right to have them. It must be very difficult for our congresswoman now. Do you cling to Trump as his WH goes circling down the drain while 83% of Republicans still think he's wonderful? Sad.

And:

Since we're talking Rep. Stefanik here just wanted to bring up this story. Awhile back I saw where she had given President Obama a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. Regular readers will guess that I disagree. Guess what. Historians do, too. 

According to C-SPAN’s Presidential History Survey 2017, former President Barack Obama is the 12th best presidential leader in United States' history. 

For the record, the guy she worked for came in 33rd. Her judgment on Obama combined with her judgment supporting Trump's campaign might suggest that it's not so good. Maybe her reasoning is not what we want in a representative.



And along this same topic I'd like to point out a letter in the Wash Po that shows I'm not the only one with this problem: That of having my sarcastic comments easily recognized.

The Feb. 1 front-page article “Among federal workers, plans for pushing back” quoted me saying: “There’s nothing unusual about the entire national security bureaucracy of the United States feeling like their commander in chief is a threat to U.S. national security. That happens all the time. It’s totally usual. Nothing to worry about.” But the article added that I was speaking sarcastically. While this qualifier was accurate, in real life, one does not usually precede a sarcastic comment by alerting the listener that one is speaking sarcastically. It ruins the effect!

On behalf of all Sarcastic Americans, a broad, bipartisan coalition heavily represented among The Post’s subscribers, I demand that The Post allow readers to decide for themselves whether such comments are to be taken literally.

I feel your pain Tom. Sadly it has become necessary to point it out, though. I blame the media. Why not?

The Obama Doctrine

Just want to link to this interview/article in The Atlantic dealing with Obama's foreign policy. It's too long for my critiquing skills. The link is just here for my own easy access.

Also, I hadn't used the Obamessiah label in ages. It was really dusty.

Odds and Ends

Starting with the Supreme Court situation in which President Obama once again proves supremely capable of trolling Republicans. I was a little concerned when I heard that Sandoval was a Republican because I wasn't aware that there were any sane ones left.

Sandoval is a well-regarded governor, Hispanic, and he's a Republican, although if he accepts this nomination, he's likely to be read out of the party forever. Opposing him would be blind and stupid. Sandoval has a reputation among many people as a devoted member of that ever-dwindling faction of the Republican Party that fairly can be called Not Insane. He is moderately pro-choice, considers marriage equality to be a done deal, signed the largest tax increase in Nevada's history, largely supports the president's position on immigration reform, and even has fought against his state legislature's attempts to enact tort reform. He also has sought to pry Nevada's economy loose from its dependence on the gaming industry. 

And here's a piece on why Jesus may no longer love us quite so much. 

In Matthew’s gospel (chapter 25) readers are taken to the time when God judges all the nations of the world. It is a rather terrifying scene because many of the people present are convinced that they are the legitimate inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

But God is not fooled. God simply asks: Did you feed the hungry, offer drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit those in prison?

How will America fare in this time of judgment, especially when we admit as evidence the  millions of Americans (many of them children and the elderly) who do not have enough good food to eat, or the millions of Americans who have to drink water polluted with lead and industrial/agricultural pollutants?

What about the refugees and immigrants who are being refused at our borders and made to feel unwelcome in our land, or the homeless (many of them ill) who do not have a home and proper protection from the elements, or the prison inmates (many of them African American) who are treated like the garbage of society?

God is asking the nations about their public policy, not their verbal piety, because the true test of Christianity has only ever been the test of love.

I'm surprised He hasn't already come back to boot our asses off the city on the hill. 

And here's something that's absolutely no surprise. Students are not flocking to Texas schools with mad abandon knowing that they are now beacons of second amendment freedom. As well, educators at schools in the state are sending out their resumes to universities in areas where they might not be threatened at gun point for an "A." Go figure!

The faculty senate at the University of Houston prepared a slideshow for recent faculty forums warning that academics may want to “be careful discussing sensitive topics; drop certain topics from your curriculum; not ‘go there’ if you sense anger; limit student access off hours; go to appointment-only office hours; only meet ‘that student’ in controlled circumstances.”

A slide provides potential arguments against the policy, such as “most parents don’t want their underage children to attend a gun-enabled campus” and “The MILITARY doesn’t allow guns in barracks and classrooms (outside of weapons training), why should there be guns in dorms and classrooms?”

Hat tips to Shaw and Infidel753 for this:

The Economy Under Obama

This article is courtesy of Rational Nation at Shaw's place.

Clearly, the economy has improved since the horrors of economic crisis first hit America. Unemployment is now at 5.5% from its peak of 10% in late 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and NASDAQ continue to reach record high numbers. The federal deficit has shrunk from 12.1% of GDPin FY 2009 to just 2.4% in FY 2014. And finally, the US economy grew at 2.4% last year, (including 5% in Q3 of 2014) the highest growth rate since the beginning of The Great Recession. 

And there is much more that I'm too lazy to cut up into little pieces and paste here. Will say the piece was fawning enough for me to break out the Obamessiah label.  

Stop Whining and Sue Him

Really wish the Republicans would. It would be a repeat of Fox News' lawsuit against Al Franken.

More than 100 immigration professors and scholars declared Tuesday that President Barack Obama's decision to make several million immigrants illegally in the United States eligible to be spared from deportation is constitutional and within his administrative powers.

And I wanted to bookmark this, as well. Love holiday miracles.

Uncle Mike started telling me about his rooftop solar panels. Solar panels! That clean energy-producing, climate change-reducing technology that Obama put on the roof of the White House, that I’ve written about repeatedly and enthusiastically; not only does Uncle Mike have a system of his own, he was willing to talk my ear off about all the benefits he’s getting out of it.

See, it's just like Matt Funiello sez, Obama and Uncle Mike are the same, both loving the solar panels. Fuckin' hippies!

I'll have them myself in 2015 or 16.

Paul Krugman Judges Obama

Paul Krugman writes about the president here in Rolling Stone.

Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn't deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it's working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it's much more effective than you'd think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.

I'm really just putting this up here to bookmark it, a primary use of my blog. But, here is a bit for Matt Funiello.

It's worth pointing out that some criticisms of Obamacare from the left are also looking foolish. Obamacare is a system partly run through private insurance companies (although expansion of Medicaid is also a very important piece). And some on the left were outraged, arguing that the program would do more to raise profits in the medical-industrial complex than it would to protect American families.

You can still argue that single-payer would have covered more people at lower cost – in fact, I would. But that option wasn't on the table; only a system that appeased insurers and reassured the public that not too much would change was politically feasible. And it's working reasonably well: Competition among insurers who can no longer deny insurance to those who need it most is turning out to be pretty effective. This isn't the health care system you would have designed from scratch, or if you could ignore special-interest politics, but it's doing the job.

Yes, the politics of reality.

Marion Barry Memorium Monday Edition

RIP Mayor Barry. It's a shame he'll be remembered only for being set up in a crack bust and not for the good he did.

Former Harvard professor and civil rights leader Cornell West said on CNN on Sunday that Barry "had his flaws" but was a "great freedom fighter" for the poor and disenfranchised.

The Washington Post noted that he "plowed hundreds of millions of tax dollars into job training and employment programs, senior centers and social-welfare endeavors. Rank-and-file workers were hired by the thousands to serve under Mr. Barry's newly-appointed supervisory corps of African American middle and top level managers."

He ardently promoted African-American-owned enterprises.

In happier news, Americans are good with Emperor O and the flooding of the country with illegals.

By a 39-point margin--67 percent compared with 28 percent--likely 2016 voters view favorably the plan Obama announced last week, according to a Hart Executive Research Associates survey conducted for Americans United for Change, a pro-Democratic group.  

And some news on a guy looking to be our next emperor, Rand Paul, on dealing with ISIS.

The Kentucky senator, seeking to define himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of 2016, will introduce a measure in the Senate next month declaring war on the terror group. 

That doesn't sound very Libertarian-like. Like this did:

In an interview with The Daily Beast in September, Paul said he was against the idea of U.S. forces on Middle East soil. “I don’t think there needs to be any American soldiers over there on the ground,” he said.

It's not a flip-flop, it's apparently just Libertarian-lite. Don't know how that's gonna play with his dad's followers, though.

Doug Stafford, a senior aide to Paul, said the senator has not flip-flopped: “He doesn’t believe we should send a bunch of troops in to start a ground war. But he has always said we have an obligation to defend people in the region. The declaration is tailored to allow for this.”

And good news on the Benghazi front. It's apparently gone on hiatus until Hillary Clinton announces her candidacy. We can be pretty sure how she feels about troops to fight ISIS. 

A two-year investigation by the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has found that the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.

Debunking a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies, the investigation of the politically charged incident determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

That is the version you will see them present, with helpful highlighting by Tbogg. 

Defeat the Elites

I refuse to ask middle class families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their kids just to pay for another millionaire’s tax cut. I refuse to ask students to pay more for college; or kick children out of Head Start programs, or eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans who are poor, elderly, or disabled – all so those with the most can pay less.

And I will never turn Medicare into a voucher. No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire with the care and dignity they have earned. Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the long haul, but we’ll do it by reducing the cost of health care – not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more.

Four more years!

Obama Says, “Piss Off, Xenophobes!”

Close enough, anyway.

"As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country," Obama said, weighing in for the first time on a controversy that has riven New York City and the nation.

"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."

Good for him. And in a spirit of bi-partisanship, I actually think either of the Bushes or Reagan would have said essentially the same thing.

Happy Birthday Lord Obama

Hat tip to our nihilist friend at American Power. I had not realized it was the Obamessiah’s birthday today. I will spend the afternoon scourging myself as punishment. Thanks Donihilist!

Don’t click on the link, Truth.

One More Conspiracy Theory

I would like to suggest the possibility that the Tea Party loons are really being backed by the White House. Upon reading Ambinder’s piece, which seems to be required posting, this occurred to me.

Can anyone deny that the most trenchant and effective criticism of President Obama today comes not from the right but from the left? Rachel Maddow's grilling of administration economic officials. Keith Olbermann's hectoring of Democratic leaders on the public option. Glenn Greenwald's criticisms of Elena Kagan. Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn's keepin'-them-honest perspectives on health care. The civil libertarian left on detainees and Gitmo. The Huffington Post on derivatives.

Can anyone deny that having crazies running around babbling about birth certificates, shouting Socialist at the drop of a hat and repeating whatever Glenn, Rush and Sean tell them isn’t distracting the left from holding Obama’s feet to the fire?

Maybe some of the proposed actions by the president are insane. I don’t know. But when the opposition is led by Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Victoria Jackson, who the hell would notice?

Rahm are you running the Tea Party program?

Happy Days Are Here Again…

Well we can hope anyway. And it’s hard to write that as I sit looking at the rain come down. Recessions make us pessimistic and always doubtful that the end will come. And of course are particularly hard on those who are out of work. But, they do end.

The American economy appears to be in a cyclical recovery that is gaining strength. Firms have begun to hire and consumer spending seems to be accelerating.

That is what usually happens after particularly sharp recessions, so it is surprising that many commentators, whether economists or politicians, seem to doubt that such a thing could possibly be happening.

If I had the time to waste I’d go over to AmPow and see how the polymath from Long Beach College is applying his great knowledge of economics to this to determine that it is bad news for Obama.

it is normal for recessions to make people pessimistic. “Go back and read what people were saying in 1982 or 1975,” said Robert Barbera, the chief economist of ITG. “Nobody was saying, ‘Deep recession, big recovery.’ It is quite normal to expect an abnormally weak recovery. It is also normal for that expectation to be wrong.”

I’m perfectly happy to hear the wingers keep saying we’re on the road to ruin. They can keep saying it right through the next few elections and look even more foolish.

In 1982, Democrats scoffed at a surging stock market and thought a severe recession would last for a very long time. They were confident that the economy would doom Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. All they had to do was make clear they offered a stark alternative to the failing policies of the incumbent

Change a few words (Reagan to Obama, Democrats to Republicans, 1984 to 2012) and you have an accurate description of the current political climate. Could the Republicans be as wrong now as the Democrats were then?

That’s the secret, get the recession out of the way early in your presidency. Dubya fucked up. He had one early and one at the end.

Mel Brooks, Prophet?

What did you expect? "Welcome sonny," "Make yourself at home," "Marry my daughter." You've got to remember, that these are just simple farmers, these are people of the land, the common clay of the new west. You know . . . morons.

The only way Obama is going to win over these people is if Mongo comes to town. And I hope that doesn’t metaphorically happen.

President Barack Obama says he believes the Tea Party is built around a "core group" of people who question whether he is a U.S. citizen and believe he is a socialist.

 

Apparently he feels there are some in the Tea Party who are sane. We can only hope.

But beyond that, Obama tells NBC he recognizes the movement involves "folks who have legitimate concerns" about the national debt and whether the government is taking on too many difficult issues simultaneously.

 

Please excuse all the verboten cut and paste.

Tea Party Know Nothings

DFH Bruce Bartlett has an article up in Forbes suggesting that the Tea Partiers might not be the sharpest tools when it comes to actually being aware of any facts about how much Americans pay in taxes. They likely don’t even have a good idea about how much they themselves pay. For the record, mine were actually pretty low this year. Hail Obama!

Tuesday's Tea Party crowd, however, thought that federal taxes were almost three times as high as they actually are. The average response was 42% of GDP and the median 40%. The highest figure recorded in all of American history was half those figures: 20.9% at the peak of World War II in 1944.

Automatons that they are the Tea Party folks seem to think that because Obama is a socialist Democrat liberal tax lover then taxes must have gone up since he was inaugurated.

Tea Partyers also seem to have a very distorted view of the direction of federal taxes. They were asked whether they are higher, lower or the same as when Barack Obama was inaugurated last year. More than two-thirds thought that taxes are higher today, and only 4% thought they were lower; the rest said they are the same.

And:

According to the JCT, last year's $787 billion stimulus bill, enacted with no Republican support, reduced federal taxes by almost $100 billion in 2009 and another $222 billion this year. The Tax Policy Center, a private research group, estimates that close to 90% of all taxpayers got a tax cut last year and almost 100% of those in the $50,000 income range. For those making between $40,000 and $50,000, the average tax cut was $472; for those making between $50,000 and $75,000, the tax cut averaged $522. No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama's policies.

Bartlett refrains from saying it, so I will, “Get a clue, morans!”

Whatever the future of the Tea Party movement in American politics, it's a bad idea for so many participants to operate on the basis of false notions about the burden of federal taxation. It only takes a little bit of time to look at one's tax return to see what one is actually paying the Treasury, calculate the percentage of one's income that goes to taxes, and compare it with what was paid last year and the year before.

Et tu, Wall Street Journal?

When Will We Ever Learn?

It’s inevitable that come the 2070’s or 2080’s this will be happening here.

VIENNA – At least two mass graves containing dozens of people killed by the Nazis have been found on property used by the Austrian army, government officials said Friday. 

You say it can’t happen here? Well, Sinclair Lewis already told us it could. But did we listen? No, we elected the commie Nazi Muslim no birth certificate guy.

BTW, I can’t foresee having a lot of use for that “Mass Graves for Wingnuts” label. But, who knows?

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the misspelling of welcome on the cover because in addition to being a regular Nazi Obama supporter, I am also a spelling Nazi.

Obama’s Death Panel

Here we see several members of the president’s death panel reporting for duty:

On a side note: I think I’ve found my Halloween costume.

Adding Brewer to the Résumé

Preparing to transfer a batch of wheat beer to the secondary fermenter where the apples await. I’m fairly new to the brewing, so I hope my Apple Wheat will turn out better than the strawberry and raspberry did. I used extracts for those. Extracts are the pits. Real fruit now. Was going to use blueberries, but the cost was prohibitive. I chopped up 2 and a half pounds of apples and threw in a can of Old Orchard Apple Raspberry concentrate for good measure.

BTW, if the prez is in the Glens Falls area, he can stop in for a homebrew and home baked bread anytime.

They Like Us, They Really Like Us

Well, more than they did anyway. Sorry if it pisses off the neocons, but most of the sane people in the US actually care if we’re respected and looked up to by the rest of the world.

Improved attitudes toward the United States were most marked in Western Europe, but also evident in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as some predominantly Muslim countries.

In Indonesia, where Mr. Obama spent part of his youth, no fewer than 73 percent of those polled said that his election had directly improved their opinion of the United States.

But the survey, taken among more than 26,000 people in 24 countries, plus the Palestinian territories, found that anti-American animosity remained high in places like Pakistan, Turkey and among Palestinians.

Europeans, in particular, seemed to be responding positively to Mr. Obama. The number of Britons saying that they trusted the American president to do the “right thing” in world affairs soared to 86 percent this year, under Mr. Obama, compared with just 16 percent last year, under President George W. Bush. The increase was slightly larger in both Germany and France. 

The right thing numbers also jumped in all Middle Eastern countries surveyed — except Israel, which saw no statistical change.

If Obama can follow through on Iraq and solve the Afghan quagmire, he’ll be up 100% internationally. Obviously, we have a solid 15% in this country that are not happy if we are not involved in a clash of civilizations somewhere.

The One

It’s funny, I like hearing Julian Bond use the term more than I do hearing wingnuts use it. 

Hopefully, we are moving toward a more “color blind” society spurred by education and demographics.

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.