Category Archives: Tea Party

Maybe Democrats Should Let Teapublicans Drive Our Economy Off A Cliff.

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Don’t say it.  I already know what you’re thinking.  Republicans already did that in 2008.  But they’re not satisfied yet.  They want to cut taxes on corporations and the very wealthy.  At the same time, they want to increase our military budget.

To accomplish that without creating an even larger pool of red ink, they have proposed draconian cuts.

Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the United States Postal Service, the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Commerce, and the Food and Drug Administration are all on their list of targets.

And, with the national debt approaching the spending ceiling, they want to let the US default on our obligations…a decision that many economists say will cause our credit rating to plummet and likely result in the end of the dollar as the world standard of currency.

Teapublicans continue to ignore the warnings of such actions, and they refuse to listen to reason.  If they take control of the White House and Congress, they threaten to follow through with their ideological (more appropriately, idiotic) plans.

I, for one, am tired of trying to reason with unreasonable people.

Maybe we should let them drive our economy and our nation off the cliff.  It will be painful.  But only when there is massive unemployment and long soup lines will the vast majority of voters finally realize what the GOP (Guardians Of Privilege) actually stand for.

When Did It Become Patriotic To Avoid Paying Income Taxes?

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Mitt Romney has been smart and very lucky.  The son of a famous father, he has used his privileged childhood and education to make millions – often by bankrupting companies and offshoring American jobs.  To make himself even wealthier, he also offshored his money in Switzerland, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg.

That allowed Romney to pay income taxes at a rate of less than 15 percent in 2010. Now insiders from Bain Capital claim that Romney didn’t pay any income taxes at all for at least 10 years before that!

No wonder he doesn’t want to release those tax forms.

But Teapublicans don’t see anything wrong with such behavior.  Many even claim that it’s patriotic to avoid paying taxes.  Seriously?  That’s your definition of patriotism?

You can ignore the sacrifice of soldiers who have served 5, 6 or more tours of duty in a war zone?  You can ignore those who take less than they deserve to serve soldiers in Veteran’s hospitals?  You can diminish those who work long hours for little money to teach children?  You can ignore those who risk their lives to save others as first responders?

None of that is patriotic according to Romney’s supporters.

According to them, true patriotism is squeezing every possible dime from your tax form.  It’s cutting food stamps for the poor.  It’s turning your back on homeless veterans and homeless children.  It’s allowing thousands to die each year for lack of access to healthcare so you can buy another vacation home or a bigger yacht.

If this is the Republican definition of American patriotism, it’s time for the party to crawl into the deepest recesses of history.

Juveniles, Liars and Bullies.

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Do bullies become Republicans? Or vice versa? It’s like the question of the chicken and egg.  There’s no obvious answer.  Bullies and Republicans are synonymous…especially here in Arizona.

Each election season, Republicans seem to have another treat in store for Democrats.  The airwaves and newspapers are filled with even more lies than usual.  (Not just exaggerations or little white lies, but unbelievable whoppers.)  Yard signs for Democratic candidates disappear with regularity, and if Democrats complain, Republicans remove their own signs and blame Democrats.  Last, but not least, Democratic bumper stickers are removed or defaced and sometimes the cars carrying them are vandalized.

It’s the sort of behavior that would make any junior high bully proud…as well as the ghosts of Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon and Spiro “The Felon” Agnew.

The question is why do they do it?  Why do they feel it necessary?  Do they brag about their lies and juvenile accomplishments among themselves?  Do they turn it into a competition?

If elections are a battle of ideas, why do Republicans feel it necessary to resort to tricks, divisiveness and fear?  More important, are these the kind of people you want to represent you?

Don’t answer that.  If you’re a Republican, I already know the answer.

Poll: At Least 17% Of Americans Are Nitwits.

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A new poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Life has found that 17 percent of Americans believe President Obama is Muslim.  Of course, that’s not true.  The President is Christian.  Indeed, many of the same people who want to believe he’s Muslim were originally outraged at statements made by his Chicago Christian pastor.

But that’s not the extent of the lunacy on the right. 

According to a Public Policy Polling survey in March of this year, 37 percent of Americans believe the President was not born in the U.S.  Yet another 21 percent are unsure. (They must have forgotten Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959.)

However, given the other wrong-headed beliefs of the right, none of this should come as any real surprise. After all, these are people who reject education and science.  Many think the Earth is just 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs are a myth invented to test the faith of Christians.

These are people who fail to see a connection between the easy availability of military-style assault weapons and mass killings.  The same people who think that giving ever-increasing tax breaks to the filthy rich will somehow help their own financial circumstances.  People who think defaulting on US debts will benefit our economy.

Obviously, they cannot be educated and informed.  They refuse to listen to anyone but their own equally deluded brethern.  Yet their vote counts the same as yours and mine.

Do you still believe in America exceptionalism?

Let’s Help Texas Secede.

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On several occasions, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested that the Republic of Texas might secede from the United States.  He meant it as a threat, but after first ridiculing the idea, I’ve come to embrace it.

Let’s consider the benefits.

If Texas, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee (Yes, I know this isn’t all of the original Confederacy, but the others have better embraced their statehood.) were allowed to secede, the level of education in the US would improve overnight.  At the same time, the number of impoverished would plummet.  We would also improve the United States’ international rankings with regard to incarceration and capital punishment.

Moreover, the US would dramatically reduce the number of assault rifles and handguns within its borders.  We would rid ourselves of the evangelical crackpots on the Texas school board responsible for rewriting textbooks to whitewash history.  We would improve the percentage of our population with health insurance. And since most of the Tea Party crackpots in Congress come from the former Confederacy, the level of political discourse would likely improve.

I know this plan seems radical, but I think it best.  Many of the former Confederate states have long been openly hostile to the federal government, even threatening to “exercise their 2nd Amendment rights.”  In Arizona, there are legislative bills calling for state sovereignty of national parks and all federal lands.  And many of these states have refused to accept the legitimacy of the Affordable Care Act despite a Supreme Court ruling.

For the states that do secede, they finally could have the theocratic government they seem to so desire.  They could completely ignore science.  They would no longer have to accept the billions in federal money that have been thrust upon them to provide food and medicine for their poor.  And unless they continue their hostility to foreign visitors, they could replace Mexico and Jamaica as warm weather destinations for US tourists.

Of course, the plan is not without downsides.  We would have to move many of our military bases to Union states.  Football could suffer without Texas and Florida athletes, but since we already embrace foreign nationals for basketball and baseball, we could make accommodation for football players.  We would lose much of the domestic oil production and refineries, but all of that oil and gas is sold on world markets, anyway.  And since I live in Arizona, I’d have to sell my home at a loss in order to move back to the US.

Nevertheless, I encourage you to give my plan serious thought.  If you do, I’m confident you’ll see that the many benefits outweigh the negatives.

Batsh*t Crazy Brotherhood.

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Contrary to Senator McCain’s statements (Welcome back to the high road, Senator), the highest levels of our Government have been infiltrated by a sinister organization.  But it’s not the Muslim Brotherhood or any other outside group.

It’s by the Batsh*t Crazy Brotherhood, otherwise known as the Tea Party.

Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Thomas Rooney, Lynn Westmoreland, Joe Walsh, Rand Paul, Ben Quayle, Paul Gosar and a host of other crackpots have infiltrated our Congress!  They’ve blocked legislation necessary for the operation of our government.  They even tried, and failed, to force the US into defaulting on its debt.  Nothing could be more damaging to the security of our nation.

Now they are creating fear of the Muslim Brotherhood in order to conceal their own actions.

It’s time to declare war on these deceitful infiltrators.  We must root out this menace to our nation.  By voting for their opponents in the November elections we can not only send a message in favor of patriotism.  We can promote sanity and civility by sending all of these out-patients back to the sanatoriums from whence they came.

Of Bullies And Cowards.

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For more than 30 years, the bullies at the National Rifle Association have pushed their gun laws on the American public.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” they say.  Well, a whole lot of people have been killing other people with guns lately.  And, unless we do something to keep assault weapons and handguns out of the hands of crazy people, we’ll see a lot more deaths.

“But guns are needed for self-defense,” they say.  Well, the fact is that guns are offensive weapons.  In most cases they’re useless for self-defense.  What good would a gun have done in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater last night?  If some movie-goers had opened fire, likely even more people would be dead or wounded in the crossfire.

The plain fact is the NRA is full of bullies who demand that everyone else accept their beliefs.  Our gun laws are not designed for hunters.  Who hunts with an assault rifle, a silencer, a night vision scope or a semi-automatic handgun?  Our laws are designed for bullies who want to have the threat of violence easily at their disposal so they can force their will on others.

Sensible gun laws would place limits on the number of weapons any individual can purchase and own.  They would limit the size of ammo clips.  They would ban assault rifles and large caliber sniper rifles.  They would force anyone who wants to carry a handgun to be trained and licensed.  (If Teapublicans think voters should have drivers’ licences as ID, why shouldn’t gun-toting wingnuts have a gun license?)

What does it say about our society that guns are so readily available to the crazy and deranged? What does it say about us that our citizens are so afraid of each other that they feel the need to be armed? What does it say about our politics and media that people are now convinced that they must arm themselves against our government? What does it say about us that we accept one mass killing after another with scarcely a whimper of protest.

It’s not only the GOP, the NRA, Fox News and the radio hate-mongers who are at fault.  The cowards in the Democratic Party who refuse to fight for common sense laws must also accept some blame.

Willing Ourselves To A Better Economy.

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As several economists have told me, we get the economy we want.  If we think the economy is good, we will buy what we want or need.  Our purchases will increase sales for retailers.  That will increase manufacturing, and the economy will thrive.  As a result, tax revenue grows and our deficits decrease.

On the other hand, if we think the economy is going to be bad, we will restrict spending and increase saving.  If enough people do this, our economy will be pushed into recession, jobs will be cut, tax revenues drop and our deficits and national debt will grow.

Most people know this, especially large corporations, the wealthy and politicians.  And they often manipulate these principles in order to cash in on easy money.  The losers of this sort of manipulation are almost always ordinary working people.

Everyone knows about the principle of buy low, sell high.  So if you’re among the wealthy and powerful, it doesn’t benefit you if the economy grows at a steady, sustainable rate.  In order to really cash in, you need to create periods of high growth, followed by recessions.  In the midst of a recession, you buy low.  Then at the peak of growth, you sell high.  That’s why a chart of our economic history looks like a ride through the Rocky Mountains.

The interest of the wealthy and powerful is obviously money.  But why would politicians be interested in such a strategy of manipulation?

In a word, Power.

If the opposition is in power, the GOP (Guardians Of Privilege) starts screaming about inflation, deficits, debt and other issues in order to frighten ordinary people.  If they scream loud enough and long enough, a large percentage of our population will hold onto their cash in preparation for the coming calamity and delay purchases.  As a result, the economy struggles.

That’s what’s been happening for the past 3+ years.

In order to make President Obama fail, Teapublicans have howled about “outrageous” deficits.  They talk about “saddling our grandchildren with oppressive, overwhelming debt.”  They’ve scared voters about illegal immigrants taking their jobs.  They’ve talked about an “out-of-control government” and “the end of freedom.” 

Unfortunately, the Tea Party, the religious right and others have scooped up this load of dung as if it were gold in the streets.

The only way to avoid being buried by the dung is to call it what it really is.  And to let everyone know that the people spreading the dung are the southern-most end of a north bound elephant.

The Real Freeloaders.

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For the past year Teapublicans, cheered on by Fox News Channel, have complained that the poor pay no federal income taxes.  They have insulted those who are down on their luck by calling them the “Freeloader Class.”  Yet, at the same time, they decry tax increases for the wealthy as “Class Warfare.”

Well, Teapublicans, you now have another group of freeloaders worthy of your disdain and venomous attacks:  According to a report by the Internal Revenue Service, more than 35,000 people with incomes of $200,000 or more paid no federal income taxes in 2009.

These are people who, by any standard, must be considered wealthy, but through a variety of tax credits and deductions were able to zero out their federal income tax bill.

Tell me, Teapublicans, which is worse?  The working poor and the elderly who make so little they are not required to pay federal income taxes?  Or those fortunate enough to earn substantial incomes and use a combination of write-offs and accounting tricks to avoid their responsibilities?

The answer is clear, even if you are unlikely to admit it.