October 24, 2014

Right Wing Christians Build Ties To Vladimir Putin's Inner Circle

http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/brucewilson/right-wing-christians-build-ties-vladimir-putins-inner-circle

But of course, when Russia gets a free pass to abuse gays from the Glenn Greenwalds and other RT paycheck cashers, it does not affect America, right? (sarcasm flag flown way high)

October 21, 2014

Column: Rich slackers do as well as poor strivers in U.S.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/column-rich-slackers-do-as-well-as-poor-strivers-in-us/2203094

Specifically, rich high school dropouts remain in the top about as much as poor college grads stay stuck in the bottom — 14 versus 16 percent, respectively. Not only that, but these low-income strivers are just as likely to end up in the bottom as these wealthy ne'er-do-wells. Some meritocracy.

What's going on? Well, it's all about glass floors and glass ceilings. Rich kids who can go work for the family business or inherit the family estate don't need a high school diploma to get ahead. It's an extreme example of what economists call "opportunity hoarding." That includes everything from legacy college admissions to unpaid internships that let affluent parents rig the game a little more in their children's favor.

But even if they didn't, low-income kids would still have a hard time getting ahead. That's, in part, because they're targets for diploma mills that load them up with debt, but not a lot of prospects.

October 21, 2014

about the "independents"

Ok, let me do the disclaimers:

Yes, I understand there are some "independents" who have a genuine distrist of, if not loathing for, both Democrats and Republicans. Either some issue that was importantjust kept getting back burnered, or they simply do not like what left and right have become. If you are one of these, I am not aiming this at you. However, let us face facts. There are many who call themselves "independents", or "centrists" who, simply put, are the rats who left the GOP ship when they realized that yes, the GOP was willing to let the inmates run the asylum provided they got paid. Many of these folks became Democrats, and when i say that, let me be very clear: they started flying the flag, but they carried on their buisness very much as they did before. Worse yet, they made themselves the focus of the Democrats. After all, people were still blaming all those dirty hippies for reagan, and right from the first time Bill Clinton mocked Jerry Brown and said "You're from California, chill out" it became very clear that they expected liberals to sit in the back of the bus, lest they get run over by it.

And today, we are stuck having to make a choice between those that hate liberals and those that would glady behead people Isis style if they thought they could get away with it, and yes, they are working on getting away with it. I will have to choke down Charlie Crist, because I know as is, it will take years to undo all the harm Rick Scott did to my state. However, I am not blind to the way that Florida democrats leaned rightward, to the point where even this very board allowed people to encourage people to abandon kendrick meek, for fear Rubio would become Senator. Of course, our head, Debbie Wasserman Schulz, has had a long hisotry of throwing liberals to the dogs.

However, since many of the self-appointed "centrists" frankly do not care about anything that does not affect them, let me offer some tidbits. Obama has bent over backwards to be bipartisan, and all it got him was hatred, as well as backstabbing by the Clintons. Eventually, two things will happen: One, the Right wing will simply get enopugh power to where they do nto even have to pretend to care about being bipartisan. If Billy Bob Tea party guy decides to shoot you, there will be a time when juries simply rubber stamp the idea. It already happened to Trayvon Martin, but it will get to the point where pale skin and a fat wallet offers no protection. The you will look for help from the same people you ignored, the very same people you yelled at for sayign "white priviledge:" exists, and they will offer you the solace that is exists no more. Second, if you think the rest of the world does not see what is happeneing, you are blind. Isis knows Hillary will giver them the war they wanted. China knows what side of the party gave them all the breaks they needed, and the Russians know that they can get away with murder because American centrism will, in the end, bow out to whoever throws around the cash.

And for those ones that still say "But really, I am not a Right wing type, I am an INDEPENDENT" I offer you somethign fitting, a misquote.

JFK thought Dante said 'The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis preserve their neutrality.'" It was a misquote, but still fitting. It refers to a part in the inferno where, contrary to what you might think, the "neutral" types are actually considered worst than the worst sinners, because they would not serve Heaven or Hell.

"And he to me: "This miserable way
is taken by the sorry souls of those
who lived without disgrace and without praise.

They now commingle with the coward angels,
the company of those who were not rebels
nor faithful to their God, but stood apart.

The heavens, that their beauty not be lessened,
have cast them out, nor will deep Hell receive them -
even the wicked cannot glory in them."

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Fast-Facts/Dante.aspx
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-07/news/mn-3575_1_hillary-clinton

October 10, 2014

Begging Beijing to host 2022 Winter Olympics bad sign for IOC: Arthur

http://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2014/10/01/begging_beijing_to_host_2022_winter_olympics_bad_sign_for_ioc_arthur.html

So now the IOC has to drag their big beautiful TV show somewhere regrettable. Beijing’s air pollution has actually worsened since 2008, and the human rights aren’t any better. But Kazakhstan would mean humping this show into the wilderness, to the borders of civilized possibility, and the IOC would have to bet that the president-for-life wouldn’t get toppled between now and then.

So unless they can roust a ringer — Vancouver! Calgary! St. Moritz! — it’ll be back to Beijing, and a special sort of humiliation. It won’t just be that the IOC was reduced to peddling the Olympics to autocratic, anti-democratic regimes, where the Games ballooned into a colossal, theatrical grotesquerie. It will be that they had to go slinking back to one of them twice.

It says a lot about the Olympics that they have to be held somewhere where a friendly regime can make people disappear. It is sad, because whatever you may say about Western democracy, the Chinese and Russian do not offer much in the way of hope for humanity, despite the fact, in deed, in spite of the fact they have learned to use capitalism to give their elites new toys. Kudos to Oslo for not capitulating to the IOC, but the idea of seeing another Olympics in Beijing, with it's hyper coordinated fascist pageantry right out of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, will ensure I keep my TV off that year.

October 10, 2014

In other words

Immediately after the Shelby County decision, North Carolina enacted omnibus House Bill 589, which imposed voter identification early voting by a week, prohibited local election boards from keeping the polls open on the final Saturday afternoon before elections, eliminated same-day voter registration, terminated preregistration of 16- and 17-year olds in high schools, authorized any registered voter to challenge ballots cast early or on Election Day, and barred votes cast in the wrong precinct from being counted at all. These measures likely would not have survived federal preclearance.

In other words, the second the muzzle was removed from the GOP dogs, they started sinking their teeth into the voting rights of anyone NOT White or Old, aka, those whose votes they did not control. They allowed the "vote challenges" which in practice are older white voters doping their best to harass the votes of whoever they do not like. In short, they showed exactly why we needed the Voting Rights act IN PLACE.

History will remember Tony Scalia as someone that did as much damage to this country as Osama Ben Ladin ever did. He destroyed any HINT that the Judicial branch is focused on justice, and turned them into the enforcement arm of the GOP. He put W. in office, and it all went downhill from there, and he would gladly put another Bush in office if it suits him, the law be damned! I do not like to wish negative fates on people, but if there is a Hell, may Tony go there, hopefully ASAP before he gets his tentacles into the 2016 election!

October 9, 2014

a question about Obama

Now, to lay my cards on the table, I have no problem with criticizing Obama, especially as he has been too nice to the GOP. However, I want to ask an honest question.

If Obama "dug in his heels" let's say on the Public Option, do you think he would have passed it. Do you really think this bought and paid for GOP congress would have given him an inch.. We are talkign about paid mercenaries.

If he had firm, prosecuting bankers, public option, out of Iraq NOW, let me ask this one question.

Would you have supported him, or joined in the chorus saying incompetent? Would you have had "well Hillary would dunn better!"

October 7, 2014

What can replace police?

What I am trying to do is start a discussion on what alternatives there are to Police. On the one hand, from Gerguson to Waldo Florida, it is apparent many cops are abusing authority. The situation is not accetpable, period. On the other hand, it is not like there are still not people that would gladly steal your stuff or beat you up if they can get away with it. How do we decrase the police state, while still keeping people safe from thieves and violent types?

October 2, 2014

Ebola and Texas

OK, disclaimers. I am in Florida, so I can sympathize with texas Liberals as we are surrounded by a bunch of idiots who take pride in voting for the rich bastards that screw us over. I am also aware that Texas has produced Liberals like Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins, people proudly to the left of the Clinton/Obama Democrats.

However, there are two things that should be mentioned. With the Ebola, we should be able to highlight why screwing the poor out of decent medical care is a bad thing for everyone. Is it any accident that, for all the people pouring into NYC and LA, this happens in Texas, a place like the rest of the Red States, cuts any and all public medical care to the bone? I am not throwing stones, I am in Florida, aka Texas Jr., and I half expect Miami to be a major bloom of the disease, because conditions are similar, both in over stressed medical care and exploited immigrants.

The fact is, we should not normally panic, but in America, especially in Dixie, we have allowed the Third world standard to be considered "pretty good."

October 1, 2014

and how would you avoid

having to build a nasty, outright racist mechanism to do that?

Take for example, Muslims. Many of them will notice initiatives in Germany to have more "native" babies, with phrases that are outright disgusting like "kinder Nicht Inder." They will also be able to read stuff like Orianna Falacci that compared them to vermin, and also note the hysterica in Europe because they are growing.

If you want to take religion out of it, well, I am a Latino, and am used to being talked about as if we all gathered in the back and decided to steal jobs and ruin Anglo-Saxon culture by putting up a few Billboards en Espanol.

But of course, serious population control comes in at the time when the White Majority is realzing it will no longer BE the Majority.

Now, I am not denying your facts, but I am saying that before you have a hope in hell of getting any population scheme to work, you will have to get past the fact that

A) many such schemes were, in the past, a way to weaken nonwhites. Nonwhites KNOW this.

B) the fact that the people who can have the policy enforced on them are, not accidentally, the people who have the least power. When people talk aboput Sterilizing welfare moms, they are not thinking of some blonde, blue eyed lady, even if statistics show that most people on welfare are white.

And yes, quote your science, because it is true that there are too many people, eapecially since many of us latinos, and the Asians, and the Indians, are slowly imprving economies, only to have a bunch of well fed anglos say "Ya gotta slow down for Mudder Erf!" Funny, your grandpa sure had no problem with paving over Mudder Erf when it was our land. If you want to do anything global, which,let's face it, you will, you will need to engage the people that do not look like you, and offer them something real, especially since what you will tell them is "yeah, we know we ruined things for all of you, and yeah, we know are asking this when youn are finally getting the medical care and water supplies like we used to, but we gotaa cut back." And then you will hope that they do not say "well, since you started this thing, why don't you make yourselves extinct first.."