Remembrance

Poor old uncle Boner.  He's really past it, sitting in his rocker mumbling about how Obama is defying the "will of the American people" even though immigration and health care reform is the reason he was elected twice by a greater than usual majority. As though the minority party and it's massively discredited dogmas were "the American People." 

He's forgotten some of his own party's attempts at reform under Reagan, and both Bush's. He has no recollection of the Supreme Court having said, no, it's not unconstitutional. (and hopes you don't either.)  Perhaps he can't remember who is a Republican and who is "the American people."  Perhaps he can't remember what the Constitution allows a President to do or what presidents have always done. 

I do of course, still remember how his party tried tying up Clinton with lawsuits and laughing at his attempts to go after Al Qaeda.  Remember how not one of the torrent of dire predictions ever came true?  I do, every time I listen to the same recycled grunts and snorts from the same old swine.

But Aunt Sarah?   Maybe we can't  write it off to age related dementia.  Did she ever know where Mexico is? 

Executive Orders

In some respects, the current state of our body politic is akin to a troubled marriage.  Borrowing a metaphor and methodology from marriage counseling, there are rules of engagement, i.e. how to have a fair fight:

• Avoid character assassination (never hit below the belt);
• Argue only the current impasse (never dredge up ancient history);
• Never let arguments fester (keep them timely and relevant);
• Anger should be proportional to the issue;
• A constructive argument means leaving your partner’s dignity intact;
• If your goal is to destroy your partner, you will destroy the relationship.

If you compare the commenting styles of various blogging communities, you can discern (metaphorically speaking) which marriages are troubled versus which ones are broken beyond repair.  Among the Cringe Fringe, posted topics are rarely discussed.  All too often, comment threads default into character assassination, invective, off-topic rants, and demonizing.  Conversing with the Fringe is akin to a bad marriage with a verbally abusive spouse.  This is why I refuse to converse with these Cringe Fringe.  Pointless!

In contrast, we have friends of various persuasions who visit our respective forums and engage us in conversation.  What makes them different from the Fringe?  We share this motive in common: We want to fix this troubled marriage of government - not break it.

Compare discussion threads:  Although sometimes heated, ours are far more constructive than destructive and rarely degenerate into the kinds of antagonisms and hostilities that characterize the Fringe. 

The topic of immigration reform is a paradigm example of a troubled marriage between partisans.  A Republican bill (the Marco Rubio plan) is acceptable to both parties.  Yet, Speaker Boehner and the Tea Party Fringe refuse to consider it.  Threats of litigation and/or impeachment are examples of disproportionate anger that poison the well.  Uncompromising attitudes that seek to “destroy” the president undermine this marriage of government.  Instead of compromise and consensus, we have brinksmanship.  We deserve better. 

So which will it be:  Marriage counseling or divorce?

Sweet Land of

Hypocrisy.

'Tis because of thee I want to puke.  There I said it. I think I can ask whether it's the most ill-informed, intransigently opinionated, superstitious, assholier than thou country on Earth and yes I'm talking about every part of the political spectrum -- I think I can damned well ask that rhetorical question, and if you don't know the answer, maybe you prove my point. 

Rant Warning.  

One of the reasons that I watch The Walking Dead, and I suspect it's true of many others, is that the fantasy of  being alone, or almost alone in a world full of vicious, mindless Zombies destroying everything is so close to a true picture of life in a country like ours, except that it's easier to dispose of a rotting Zombie than of a political party or parties hell bent on destruction -- easier to cut off the head of the undead than to change the minds of  all those nice people who think Democrats like to tax and spend, that Taxes are higher than ever, that the economy is tanking, that Obama is a tyrant but afraid to act while he's arrogantly and "megalomaniacally"   taking over the government from its rightful owners while giving your money to the willfully indigent "takers."  Perhaps easier than to change the minds of those who insist there has never been any progress in their pet Crusade or Jihad and so they can set your car on fire, wave guns at you or hang you without trial.

Yes, he went over there and apologized to them -- sure he did -- even if he didn't, and he's a  Muslim who hates white people even if he's not,  and he's not a real American and all the other horseshit we've been fed by the Evil Empire (you're damned right I'm talking about the GOP) and he certainly did lie to trick us into the Affordable Care Act which is Communism even if it's administered by private insurance companies who profit from it, developed by the Republicans and keeping millions from being a burden on the state and a danger to public health -- just like those notorious Communists, the Swiss have.

I'm warning you, this is a rant.

America makes me sick.

We're so damned stupid we don't remember that this is round two, it's the sequel to "Revenge of the Nixonians"  the real life drama of  getting back at law and order for the crimes of the law and order president who took money from the mafia and said he wasn't a crook.  It's plan A in the rulebook for handling any Democratic presidency, Accuse, sabotage, impeach, repeat.

They did all this to Clinton, tried to impeach him on trumped up charges.  Rush insulted his wife, told us his daughter was ugly. They told us he made up Al Qaeda to distract from his "crimes." Did any of the horrifying predictions the damned GOP blowhards gave us come true?  Did the economy collapse from the "biggest tax increase in history" or did we have unprecedented prosperity?  Did Al Qaeda actually exist?  Do Americans shit on the truth?

Remember the posters of the First Lady and her little girls with Gorilla heads?  I do.  Remember who thought it was funny?  Remember who called him a tyrant for appointing advisers as all presidents do?  Remember who blocked virtually every appointment and then told us he was negligent (but tyrannical) for not doing it?  

They've been talking about impeaching him since before he walked in the front door of the White house  and having found no cause, ridiculous or otherwise, they're going to do it anyway.  Boehner keeps talking about a lawsuit he hasn't filed for lack of anything to sue about and the best excuse they've found to date is that he just might, but hasn't do what virtually any other chief executive has done.  He's suggested that he might use the power invested in him by the voters to shield some immigrants from less than completely white  nations from deportation.  You know, he just might do what St. Ronald the Reagan did and St. Bush the Elder did.  What even W supported. And that's why they need to impeach him, tie him up in the courts like they did to Clinton for the high crime of not being Republican, crooked and incompetent. Yes, that's a tautology and yes, America you can't remember what you ate for breakfast or your congressman's name but you know all about those football scores.

Damn right it's a rant

And it ain't over yet.  And I'm not letting you off the hook, you self-declared Liberals preaching authoritarianism while your enemies laugh.  You're not liberals because they couldn't get away with this if you didn't hand the arguments to the Tea Traitors, didn't hand the elections to the Tea Traitors, didn't make fools and enemies of people who used to support you -- if you weren't willing to let it all go to hell because the president didn't solve your problems, because he's only the president, not a Czar --  and because your problems aren't quite as important as the real crises that threaten us. Can't accept criticism, you see science as heresy and put doctrine above evidence? You won't vote because Obama didn't make your problem go away?  Why then, you made yourself a second class citizen.  First Class citizens vote and they can tell up from down, increase from decrease and they don't follow leaders who lie.  You're happy to play Sons of Anarchy when you don't get you way and Sons of Apathy when it requires more than signs and chants and rhyming slogans and corybantic street dancing

OK so that's enough

But not because I couldn't go on for days Captain America, or that you don't deserve it, but because I'm sick of and disgusted with you and your smug self-righteousness, your Beliefs and Values and Principles and Loyalties and straw men you use to evade responsibility and dignify self importance and you'll never change.

Rapture of the Road

"Well, Harleys aren't really up to international standards you know.  My BMW has active handling and antilock . . ."

"Cup holders, GPS and cruise control. . ."  I interjected.

He's a typical "aspirational" vehicle owner, the kind of person that will wait outside of Best Buy all night to be the first person with the latest iThis or iThat and will be quick to let you know he owns the latest and greatest mysterious black box technology.

Frankly when I bought my Harley last year, moving up from a 1957 vintage machine, I felt embarrassed by the superfluous accessories like turn signals and electric start.  My concept of  "ultimate driving machine" is just that:  wheels, an engine, the road and me.  It doesn't have WiFi or Bluetooth or stereo or even a windshield, it doesn't read my text messages to me and will kill me in a moment if I don't pay attention. My heart sings every time I look at it, resplendent and gleaming in machine age glory, a pearl blue and chrome angel, slouching on it's side stand in a fish-camp or tavern parking lot out by Okeechobee or by a secluded Atlantic beach on the barrier island, it's like the flag of  a lost America that still had and perhaps deserved it's self respect; exuberant, confident, looking both forward and back at endless roads, saying YES as though some voice had called it forth, saying  "This road is yours, go now and ride"

To each his own.  So many bikers today build their own, Bobbers, stripped of everything but what is needed, saying "hang on for dear life," choppers looking back at the 60's with longing for long roads.  Rat bikes look like they're put together in the junkyard, saying "death, where is thy sting?" Vintage bikes carry huge price tags but all of them say something about the love of  classic mechanical engineering and rider skill. 

To each his own and to me, in boots and goggles, letting in the clutch on all that torque, time stops, and while there is no e-mail and Skype and social media, no play list; and while there is neither cup nor holder, still those lost days and lost dreams are with me in the beat of the pistons, the rumble of the road.  Be quiet and listen.

ELECTION 2014: PROFILES IN COWARDICE

“What we now have is tyranny by apathy, tyranny by chicanery and corruption of our election process, a tyranny of dark money, and a tyranny of incompetence by the opposition party” (Octopus).

My purpose here is to embellish upon an earlier comment that originally appeared under this post. How can you expect voters to support a candidate who acts ashamed of his or her own party! This year, all too many Democrats distanced themselves from President Obama. If I were an undecided voter, I would have a hard time finding good reasons to vote for any person who claimed to be running as a Democrat - yet failed to support the policies of party and president. These milquetoast toadies even went out of their way to avoid campaign appearances with the POTUS.

The most hypocritical and cowardly of all was Alison Grimes who embarrassed herself by tap dancing around this question: “Did you vote for the president in 2012?” Her evasive and lame reply failed the test of courage and leadership.

By all accounts, KYNECT, the Kentucky Healthcare Exchange, has been one of the most successful rollouts of ObamaCare in the nation and popular among Kentuckians; yet Grimes missed a golden opportunity to remind voters that KYNECT is a state healthcare insurance exchange made possible under ObamaCare. Even her opponent, Mitch “Blobfish” McConnell, extolled the virtues of KYNECT while vowing to repeal ObamaCare; yet Grimes missed this opportunity to make her opponent appear petty and foolish.

Speaking of political malpractice, no Democratic candidate took any Republican to task for budget cutbacks at the NIH or CDC that delayed development of an Ebola vaccine. Nor did any Democratic candidate cite new economic data that showed record improvements in GDP and employment.  According to press accounts, at least two Democratic Senate candidates petitioned the president to delay executive action on immigration reform until after the election - a misstep that kept Hispanic voters away from the polls and cost the Democrats crucial votes in key states.

Not just political malpractice, but criminal cowardice! When you run and hide from the very same principles and policies you are supposed to espouse, then you deserve to lose.

EBOLA! "Hysteria is impossible without an audience."

Cartoon via Jobsanger

The Stupids on the fringes of the GOP, their pols, pundits, and bloggers (and in some cases, mainstream GOPers) were in a bleeding-eyed frenzy a few weeks ago, declaring that WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE OF EBOLA!

That didn't happen of course.  One unfortunate visitor to the U.S. from Liberia did die, and two nurses in the Texas hospital where he was treated, did contract the disease, and, thankfully, were later declared ebola free.  

At this point, there are no ebola cases in the U.S.  So far, so good.

But, the unending coverage by conservative media and internet outlets that served only to make all unthinking people terrified, plus FAUX NOOZ's Cacaphony of Doom increased exponentially as the midterm elections approached.  

One of FAUX NOOZ's resident idiots, Keith Ablow, a disgraced psychiatrist, claimed that President Obama deliberately brought the ebola virus to the U.S. to kill us all because "his affinities are with Africa."  Yes. That perfidious goblin actually said that on the most watched cable news station in America!  

Ebola won't kill us, but the sort of psychotic flapdoodle from Ablow that mentally challenged people listen to and believe will.


“ 'The U.S. is now free of known Ebola cases.'

That’s not to say the threat is over or that the number of domestic cases will remain at zero indefinitely, but Americans can nevertheless feel good about where things stand. 

 A grand total of two people were infected on U.S. soil and they’re now both healthy and out of the hospital. Dr. Spencer was the only remaining patient – he contracted the virus while treating patients in West Africa – and he’s reportedly being discharged from the hospital today (11/11/2014). 

All of this was accomplished without a congressionally imposed travel ban, new border security measures with Mexico, or a series of tents in New Jersey. Indeed, it’s amazing to pause for a moment to contrast the partisan hyperventilating we heard very recently about Ebola becoming “Obama’s Katrina” and an example of governmental “incompetence.” 

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), true to form, started pushing conspiracy theories. 

Rep Peter King (R-N.Y.) suggested the public should no longer trust public-health officials. 

 It was just over a week ago that Sen.-elect Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) went so far as to argue that President Obama “hasn’t demonstrated” that he even cares whether or not Americans get Ebola." 

I don’t seriously expect Republicans to collectively say, “Sorry we tried to scare the bejusus[sic] out of Americans without cause,” but some acknowledgement of the Obama administration’s effective handling of the crisis and the right’s misguided hysteria would be nice. --Steve Benen





Since September 11, 2001, the default reaction to anything that happens in this country is PANIC! Certain elements on the right, with a huge assist from FAUX NOOZ, react to everything with mind-thrashing stupidity.


“Hysteria is impossible without an audience."  ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

Obama Predicted to Cave to Iranian Demands on Nuclear Program

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth

From GOPUSA, with the help of an Israeli Middle East expert the following report.

A Middle East expert is confident the Obama administration will cave to Iranian demands and allow the rogue state to keep its nuclear program.

Last week The Associated Press confirmed the existence of a "dear Ayatollah" letter written by President Obama to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, urging cooperation in the fight against ISIS and tying cooperation on that front to a deal over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S., Iran, and other negotiators are facing a November 24 deadline for such a deal – a deal about which some Capitol Hill lawmakers have expressed doubts. 

David Rubin, a former mayor of the Israeli city of Shiloh, spoke with OneNewsNow about the confirmed behind-the-scenes negotiations. Rubin says the Iranians appear confident that Obama is a weak president and will do whatever it takes to make a deal with Tehran. 

"They're very clear that they think that there's going to be a deal with the United States because the Obama administration is very, very eager for a deal because they have to show some sort of accomplishment in place of all the weakness," he offers. 

In Rubin's eyes, the Iranians are issuing dictates to the United States making it clear that they want their nuclear program to go forward. 

"That is what the Iranians are saying – and I predict that that is going to be the result of these negotiations," he says. "There will be an agreement; there will be some token limitations. But the Iranians will be able to go forward with their nuclear programs."

As we anxiously await to observe how this obviously biased and somewhat questionable prediction stacks up against reality.

Read more BELOW THE FOLD.

Back in the USA

Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller are back in the USA, and perhaps a bit of surprise is in order.  James Clapper, Director of  National Intelligence flew in secret to Pyongyang to bring them home, but of course you'll have a hard time finding mention of that fact on Fox News, who gives sole credit to Dennis Rodman, who claims he begged Kim to release the American Prisoners.  I'm sure he did,  but I'm sure there was a bit more involved in getting them home.  Bae made a public statement thanking all who helped and worked so hard to get him out of  the north Korean prison farm including 

" President Obama and all the people at the State Departments; they working tirelessly hard to get me released as well. "

Fox Sports  mentions only that Clapper, who "reportedly" traveled with the president's "approval" as though he might have done so on his own or at the direction of Dennis Rodman.  That's about as likely as the possibility that any arm of Newscorp would acknowledge anything productive having come out of the executive branch. Better to imply that it was all about Rodman and a presidential adviser acting on his own initiative.

That's the way we like it

I used to bridle at the title Flori-duh. Now I don't think it's adequate to describe the stupidity, delusion, ignorance, bigotry, tribalism and dishonesty that permeates the atmosphere and saturates the ground of Florida.  Yes, we have, amongst other acts of  self-destructive idiocy, re-elected one of the biggest crooks in American history, albeit by a small margin.  Rick Scott's "debate" with his opponent Charley Christ was the most resounding defeat since Lincoln and Douglas but of course few watched it and many heard only the edited snippets that had former Governor Christ to blame not only for the credit crunch that torpedoed the real estate market that is the backbone of Florida's economy, but indeed he caused the global recession that followed the 8 years of no job growth and soaring debt the Republicans gave us.  Did one Floridian pick up on Scott's declaration that government cannot create jobs which came immediately before his declaration that he had created 600 thousand of them? 

A feeble presentation, stumbled through without answering one single direct question, yet today's paper insists the negativity was on the Democratic side.  One frequently aired ad had a voice simply sneering Charlie Christ. The most negative, dirties, sleaziest and most scurrilous campaign I remember in my long  lifetime.  Did I mention that Scott claimed he'd do everything all over again when asked how he'd got away with stealing a billion dollars from Medicare without going to jail?  It wasn't his fault - he didn't know - which, if true, says much about his "leadership" and executive ability.

Florida's medical Marijuana bill failed as well, largely on the offensively fallacious argument that it would offer protection to drug dealers (by making it legal to be one) and would increase crime although the evidence is otherwise, but we're talking about Florida -- we're talking about Republicans, we're talking about stupid, delusional, self-destructive, ignorant, superstitious, neurotic, insular, dishonest and prejudiced: the idiot state, the dumbass state, the backward state where the vultures of big sugar and Disney drool over the festering corpse of our former beauty. 

And we like it that way.

The Unsung Heroes Who Give Up Everything To Care For A Sick Partner

The Huffington Post featured my brother-in-law, Charles Gray, as the caregiver to my sister, Grace.


I wrote about her a few years ago here at The Swash Zone and the dementia that changed her life, as well as the lives of those who love her.  I'd link to it if I knew how to find the post.

To recap my story, Grace was more like a mother than a sister to me, since our family lost our mother to an illness when I was 15 months old, and Grace was a teenager. She became the mother of the family, taking care of her baby sister, her pre-teen sister, and her father.  She met and married Charlie at 17, and they've been together ever since.  Grace was a voice student at The Berklee School of Music in Boston studying opera.  She had a natural coloratura soprano voice and could have had a decent career singing in local opera productions, but she married what the family called a "starving young artist," and the two of them went off to New York City to make a life for themselves (they struggled, but didn't starve).  

After living in NYC for a couple of years, they returned to the Boston area where Charlie started his career in advertising and graphic design, but he continued to paint and sell his work. Eventually they started a family and raised their children in the suburbs of Boston. Grace and Charlie were founding members of a local musical theater group, where Grace starred in many productions, and Charlie did set decorations and the art work for the publicity posters. Their oldest child, a son, is the mayor of a town on the North Shore.  Their youngest child, my niece, died tragically 9 years ago.  They live west of Boston in the same town where their middle child, a daughter, a director at Heifer International, and her husband live, as well as Grace and Charlie's three grandaughters and four great grandchildren.

Charles Gray, 88, is a caregiver for his wife Grace, who has dementia. 

 "On a daily basis, I do everything. I’m a 100 percent caregiver. She’s a very needy person. I don’t mean that as a negative, but she needs me all of the time. Every minute and every second of every day I have to be with her. That’s a strain on me. My whole life I’ve been an artist and I’ve given up my art work, of course. I can’t do that at all. I feel bad about that, of course. It’s just that I can’t get away; I can’t concentrate on it now. Art requires 1000 percent concentration, so I just can’t do it anymore. 

I really don’t take care of myself. I read magazines. We get The New Yorker and Time magazine, and I find those short articles quite nice, because while I’m sitting with her and she’s watching television, I can drift off into a story. That helps me get away from it, but that’s as far as I can get. I don’t resent being a caregiver. I do it out of love, because we’ve been married for 67 years. It’s what I want to do. 

 She comes first in the house, and the whole family knows that. We discourage anyone from telling her that she has dementia, because that’s only cruelty. She said today, ‘Where is my husband?’ so I sat down and put my arm around her and tried to explain that he’s right here and he’s been here for years. As the days go by, she gets worse and worse. 

That's all I can say; that’s all I know. I can see it happening everyday. I haven’t looked for any [support groups]. I don’t think I can find anyone in the exact same situation that I’m in and so what if I did? It’s not going to help me. And when would I talk to them? My life turned out to be a caregiver, but I’m not a remarkable person. 

I’m just a person who does it, that’s all. There’s nothing remarkable about me."


 I strongly disagree with Charlie's last statement. He is a truly remarkable man.