The Scorpion . . . and The Frog

Justice Scalia today said:

“The Voting Rights Act is Perpetuation of Racial Entitlement”

Wow.

Although we’re shocked . . . we shouldn't be surprised: Their party openly coddles racists and have taken racial politicking to new highs or lows, depending on which end you are.

The thing is Registered Democrats and Liberals OUTNUMBER the racists and xenophobes on the Right . . . but still we have Republicans ‘winning’ and then installing justices like this miscreant on the bench. 

Republicans have been winning despite our superior numbers and have been destroying the lives of constituents at the state level too . . .

Now I could wax all nice and intellectual-sounding about this, with a ‘tempered, controlled rage’ at how yet again “These damned Conservatives . . .!” are ‘up to their old tricks!’

BORING and INCONSEQUENTIAL!

I've got to light-into my fellow Liberals for a second because . . . 

We’re full of SHIT!

Seriously we need a kick in the ASS!!!

Listen we need to put the myriad of liberal fulminations 'on a leash' for the good of the country at large :

Fuck the Public Option

Fuck the Drone shit

Fuck chafing at Rahm Emanuel for calling you ‘retarded’

Fuck chafing at Barrack Obama 'not using clear strong language in defense of a certain trio of sacred cows'.

And FUCK wanting all this ‘pious’, pure, ‘transparent to all (including our adversaries)’ angle of attack when it comes to the political battling we MUST do!

WE HAVE BEEN STEADILY LOSING THE 'IDEA’ OF THIS COUNTRY RIGHT ON OUR WATCH!

The Conservatives have dealt yet another blow TODAY against the very essence of what this country is about: The voting rights act may be seriously weakened.

For fucks sakes if we don't protect the gains we've got over the 20th century we won't have a viable country to even fight about!!

FUCK the ‘Right to Politically Abstain’!!!

Fuck staying home because you're mad at the President or your Congressman/Senator!!

As Liberals WE CANNOT AFFORD THAT SHIT ANYMORE for the long term foreseeable future!

Who the fuck does that!? Are we that stupid?

We are the only ideological group in the world that STAY HOME to supposedly 'show our displeasure'.

That's bullshit and that needs to stop like yesterday.

We keep staying home in midterms and then bitch and complain when the fucking Elephants act like the ‘societal scorpions’ they are and ‘sting’ the shit out of the country!?

But we can't see that: We have folks that did NOT vote last couple of elections due to NDAA or the drone issue or the public option or Obama's ‘less-than strident liberal rhetoric’ . . .

We have folks trying to take out a sitting Senator or Congressman over ONE issue . . . weakening them enough for the GOP to take the seat.

We need to UNIFY for the Big Picture and NEVER let our ‘subsidiary actions’ imperil that, but if it might or does quash it!

"We have our principles!"

Fuck your principles.

What will you eat, oh esteemed Vegetarian, when you’ve been shipwrecked, the greenery is questionable or scarce and all that’s there is steamed fish or wild boar?

Will you starve yourself to death!?

THAT IS WHERE WE ARE NOW, DAMNIT!!!

Wake UP!!

We want to act like we're this giant net that is actually keeping the country afloat by our principled stances and our own brand of activism(no matter how unappealing and benign our methodology is when it comes to moving the public), we fall in love with the ‘struggle’ and almost forget about the long term more viable picture.

We think we’re kicking shit big time when what we really have is this 'proud' strainer that has no clue what it really is and think that the few shells and little pebbles that are still in our 'maw' are the important stuff . . .

Wrong: Idea of this country is all that 'sand' that has almost totally drained out onto the floor!

Wake UP!!!

Ok I've gotten the nascent angst out of my system. It is time for some hard truths.

First up: I’m SICK and TIRED of the Liberal mouthpieces, opining with rapid, pragmatism-challenged, cubby-holed vapidity about Obama not living up to his ‘liberal fanfare’. The man NEVER was a, quote, ‘Liberal’, a la a Dennis Kucinich. He has always sold himself as a centrist, a pragmatist who wants to take the ‘best ideas of both parties and strike a happy medium. You will NOT get a Bernie Sanders for a Presidential candidate that has an actual chance at winning that prize.

You are going to get only more Barack Obama's, more President Clintons - Centrists willing to compromise and assuage the anxieties of the Reagan Democrats that have actually decided presidential elections for decades now.

They ‘pacify’ them sufficiently so they may actually help them ‘DESPITE themselves’!

Accept it!

And you want to mention Hillary?

Dream on!

She'll 'moderate herself big time' if she decides to run and actually wants to win.

You will be stuck, for the most part with a mix of bad (corporate-friendly) and good (lukewarm defender of labor).

Get used to it.

Why should you ‘settle’? Because our Democratic forebears capitulated to the corporatocracy so that they’d stop being outspent in campaigns.

That allowed Reagan and the Republicans in the 80’s to do a damned good job, virtually unopposed, thus tacitly blessed by Democrats, of hegemonizing this precious fount of voters in the middle of the country.

This ‘programming’ has worked so well, many have made voting Republican an inextricable part of their culture(s)!

Like I said, blame our democratic forebears who decided to go corporate instead of sticking with labor and others 'who brung 'em'.

Chuck Schumer, Rendell, Cory Booker, Christopher Dodd are functioning like, or are corporate Democrats.

Search your feelings 'Paduans'

Why have Democrats, time and time again, on some emotionally-vituperative issue, always seem to ride at a full gallop 'hollering and whooping' it up, bringing us along with them to the trough, but when the time comes to make it ‘real’ . . . that ‘horse never drinks deeply' enough?

We've neutered our party by the choices of our forebears AND by our disgusting, short-sighted, and myopic political practices. We have a very heavy lift.

Democratic disunity and political abstinence (stay home protests) allow conservative evil all across this country.

Search your feelings 'Paduans' . . . and consider the following facts and questions:

We outnumber them on the voter rolls but yet they dominate most of the governorships and state legislatures all across this country even in NY!

Why are they winning?

Why are they able to do such damage to the country?

We're the Opposition and we're supposed to stop them: Why haven't or can't we?

Why are we always 'reacting' to their bullshit? Why aren't they 'reacting' to us?

We have all the ideas that most of the public agrees with . . . WHY ARE WE ALWAYS ON DEFENSE!?

That is what I'm saying!

Republicans used to say for DECADES:

“Young People, minorities, young women, naturalized immigrants, poor people . . . or ANY ONE of our so-called Base Groups can't be counted on the show up.” 

“They can't be relied on.”

“They're skittish and easily 'frustrated'/distracted from exorcising their political rights with efficacy, useful timing and in sufficient numbers to overwhelm any 'systemic attrition' they may encounter.”

And guess what?

They've been RIGHT!

We moved that needle the closest in decades to a 50% eligible voter participation (which is still an appalling statistic when compared to other developed nations) in 2008 and 2012 . . . but I fear it won't last in 2016 or even 2014.

It may not happen for a combination of the reasons Republicans have correctly deduced about our maddeningly-persistent, uniquely-liberal quality of a political Cat Herd, but it may falter due to the fact that we may not have a charismatic candidate like Barack Obama as our standard bearer to whip our emotions into frothy batter, and stir us to grassroots action.

We'll STILL have to organize like we did in 2008 and 2012 . . . but not because of passion . . . or emotional 'high'.

It will be, must be, because of necessity, worry about ‘things we hold dear’, an intellectual dovetailing around a common philosophical dream for the country, and a working, easily regurgitated list of specific measures and laws we need to protect, or strengthen.

It’s not 'Sexy' . . . and neither will any of the potential candidates at this juncture be.

It doesn't lend itself to the easily-lobbed sound bite.

We need to embrace some good, old-fashioned civic duty, and participate at unheard-of historical levels . . . if we want to undo the damage the conservative has done to the country's economy, our collective intellectual/educational exportable product, and the philosophy/psychology of how we understand ‘What our Obligations are To Each Other’ - 'Socialism' should be elevated and exorcised as a word/concept to be feared, into to One that is desired and strived towards, where and when it matters - Social Safety Net, Economic Inequality, the Reclamation of the Commons, the punishment of the magnates(Robber Barons’ 2.0) who flout ethical standards and our laws.

But that takes a sustained, smart and eager movement to reverse the effects.

Do we have that within us Liberals? 

Can we GET PAST the ‘minutia’ of ‘strict rhetorical content’, take off the blinders when it comes to real ideas for national insurance programs solvency, quit being whiny, ADHD, ‘Johhny-Come-Too-Lately’s when it comes to politics and policies . . . and focus on saving the country for the long haul?

Can you do it?

I hope you can . . . because I have. 

This is bigger than me, and we need to stay the course consistently for the next Eight to Ten Presidential elections if we’re to enact the substantive change we say we want.

Listen: I’m hard on my fellow liberals because I sincerely believe we are the best suited in ideas and intellectual curiosity to usher-in this country’s best days ever . . . but we aren’t being smart about it, we’re being played and lead around by Republicans if you think about it.

Our dysfunction, myopia, piety, naïveté, and disunity allow the POISON of the GOP to thrive!

We NEED to address this in a pragmatic, politically offensive, practical way!!

Unfortunately the emotional need for ‘clear-throated bellowing’ of our values does NOT lend itself to political fortune, which you NEED to make change.

We allowed the public to get too hegemonized so now we have to slowly 'reprogram' it.

Sorry for the unfortunate, robotic choice of words but hegemony IS 'programming'.

We have a proud legacy of impressive world-renowned laws we’ve passed and we’ve shepherded this country into the modern era . . .

We have a heavy lift to turn those past successes into that of the 21st century.

So if you're as upset over the Scalia comments, like I was, start paying attention and VOTE ALWAYS . . . among other things.

They can’t seem to help themselves with ‘What They Do’ . . . even if they go down with the calamity they cause . . . and we’re the Frog that has been carrying Them and the country over the River, ‘undersung’ for decades . . . but we keep getting ‘stung’.

I think it’s time we stop being envenomed and our unity ‘dissolved’, our superior vision ‘blurred’ by these folks . . .

We’re supposed to be better than that.

(C) BantuProgressiveRant 2/27/13

For the Birds . . .?!

With all this talk about the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ . . . I find myself becoming exceedingly ANGRY with Republicans AND our Media Apparatus in this place. So I've got to let loose some steam here. Bear with me . . . and cover your ears if you are too pious for cursing.

Part I – To Republicans and Their Ideological Sympathizers

Fuck ALL Y'all Republicans!!

Republicans in this country look like FOOLS to the world!!

And fuck off with that 'we don't care about the world! We only care about right

here!' bullshit I KNOW is coming . . . BECAUSE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WORLD MARKETS

AFFECTS YOU RIGHT HERE, YOU MORONS!

These ignorant, Republican, sons of bitches in congress need to FUCKING RESIGN!!

A bit of history here:

The democrats held the house from 2007 throughout the last two years of Bush’s second

term . . . WITH Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the White House; flip of what it is now . . . but guess what?

NO FISCAL CLIFF!!!

NO DEBT CEILING DEBACLE!!!!

NO INTRANSIGENCE THAT LOST THE USA HER TRIPLE A CREDIT RATING!!

Now why the fuck was that, huh??

You think the Democrats with Pelosi and Rahm weren't partisan as hell!?!??? You think they weren’t always scheming to regain power and retain power??

OF COURSE they were . . . but they knew how far to take it! They would NEVER let their Politics roil the markets and induce REAL PAIN on the Public the way this clusterfuck is about to!

BUT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS DON'T CARE, DON'T KNOW OR BOTH!!!

Part II – To the Main Stream Corporate Media

And to David Gregory and the rest of the chicken shit media apparatus: FUCK YOU!!

David Gregory was in a tizzy about criticism from an Obama advisor, which called ‘what he and others like at CNN do’ worthless and part of the reason the Republicans have been getting away with all this obstructionism. Gregory countered that the advisor was wrong because Americans only look at results and Washington has not produced any . . . 

Ahhm . . . I did I say FUCK YOU, right?

We are NOT that myopic and STUPID out here, ‘David-Republican-Shill’ Gregory. We want Results . . . but in the absence of them, we would also like to know WHY and WHO is fucking up the flow! So do your fucking job and tell us just WHO is causing all the ‘Problems’ . . .!

YOU ARE A BIG PART OF WHY THESE ASSHOLES CAN FUCK UP THE WORLD ECONOMY LIKE THIS!!

Your insistence on 'appearing even-keeled' despite the fact that one side is fucking crazy . . . and the other is way more reasonable, although far from perfect . . . is providing COVER for these know nothing IDIOTS, exclusively on the political Right, to hide behind the veneer of ‘legitimacy’ and ‘responsible governing by principle’ . . . when it is anything BUT!

PRESENT THAT TRUTH DAMNIT!!

But I know we won't see that. Oh No . . . we can’t have that!

The Entertainment Division insists that the News Divisions turn a profit through ratings.

Republicans, with their colorful, bombastic ignorance seem to bring ratings – the Reality TV Phenomenon.

You call them the mental patients they are, they sulk and slink back to Fox . . . and that fount of the Conservative Entertainment Complex will continue to trounce you on your time slot, which you so desperately want to top. And that’s all you folks seem to care about these days.

Its times like these I really miss Tim Russert

He did not CARE about competing with Fox News . . . it was about the PRODUCT and his duty to the Public.

But lately Gregory and others attitude is ‘Fuck the constitutionally-mandated Fourth Estate duty, of objectively-informing the Public about who is fucking up in Washington, and who’s trying to get something done’!!

Part III – Back to You Republicans

The Republican party drives me to curse up a storm!!

Their people are fucking crazy, and they don't have any idea or curiosity about how a country runs!!

Incredible!!!

Never have I read about and seen such ignorance and 'masturbatory celebration' of the same, mixed with the piss of economic kamikaze-ism to force their world-view on the country and the world, that has SOUNDLY REJECTED THEM!!!

You motherfuckers don't give a FUCK about the fact that there was JUST AN ELECTION!??

You know the Monarchic mindset of the public - They CHOSE OBAMA's AGENDA!!

Compromise is one thing, BUT IT IS GOING TO HAVE TO BE IN OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRAT's DIRECTION!

They WON!

Democrats keep sleeping on these guys . . . but they are like fucking Mordor:

"There is Evil there . . . that doesn't Sleep!!"

Republicans LOST the last election and the ones before that too . . . and lost soundly. So what do they do? The Cheat and Steal . . . or Change the Rules! They DO NOT Ever ‘Sleep’

They are thinking about making all the states they now control ‘proportional elector’ states like Nebraska and NH, which would be determined by their now famously gerrymandered districts, instead of winner take all like it is in most states.

It was ‘fine’ for them this whole time until Now.

Then no matter how many votes a Future Democratic candidate would get statewide – it would negate the population centers’ impact and give the clout to the rural, poorer, whiter and less educated folks, which are THEIR Base.

Republicans win coming and going!

Rachel Maddow did a segment on this recently . . . unbelievable!

Democrats have a real fight on their hands to stop this and frankly they have ‘slept’ on how craven these Republicans are for power and how desperate they have always been to keep it and acquire it. They think that it is owed to them like some sort of birthright. Losing is an unacceptable ‘phenomenon’ for these clowns . . .! They act like . . .

“There MUST have BEEN A MISTAKE! Why would you even think about voting for anybody else? If you’re so inclined, you MUST be unfit to vote ‘somehow’ . . . and we’ll find that ‘smoking gun’ that proves you are!(Or we’ll ‘invent it’ . . . if we must!). We must always be in power . . . anything else is unconscionable and is grave miscarriage of justice and threat to us all . . .!”

Therefore, the shenanigans in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, etc in November, are par for the course with these folks.

And as for some of you conservatives being offended by my language??

I WANT YOU TO BE OFFENDED UNTIL YOU WAKE THE FUCK UP AND START TO SEE THE

DOWNRIGHT TREASONOUS, SOULLESS SHILL OF CORPORATIST HUSK PUPPET, PARADING VAMPIRE-LIKE, FEEDING ON THE SOULS, BLOOD AND DREAMS OF THE CITIZENRY!!!!

YOU NEED TO APOLOGIZE TO THE FUCKING WORLD REPUBLICANS, FOR DARING TO ASSOCIATE YOURSELF WITH THIS FILTH THAT CALLS ITSELF A POLITICAL PARTY, THAT SNORTS THE GROUND BONES OF LINCOLN AND IKE LIKE COCAINE AND USES IT AS THE MAKE-UP FOUNDATION FOR THEIR BARELY-FEMININE, HOLLOWED OUT HARPIES!!!

YES I WANT YOU TO BE OFFENDED BECAUSE THE PRESS, WHO'S JOB IT IS TO OFFEND YOU AND SHAME YOUR PARTY BACK TO SANITY, WON'T DO IT!!

I REALLY CANNOT BELIEVE THIS SHIT!

Its way past partisan here: YOU MOTHERFUCKERS ARE PHYSICALLY DESTROYING THE

COUNTRY AND WHAT IS WORSE:

THE IDEA OF THIS COUNTRY IS STARTING TO LOOK, IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD, LIKE A HUGE JOKE . . . ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!

THANK YOU, TRAITOROUS PIECES OF EXCREMENTITIOUS REFUSE!

For the good of the country, the Republican Party needs to become extinct starting in 2014 . . . or else we’re through as a country.

I want to say this whole, epic, tidal wave of shit-laced swill is, as the saying goes – “For the Birds . . .!”

But I can’t . . .

Seriously, you could not even feed this to the proverbial ‘Birds’ . . . you’d KILL them.

Mixed Up Priorities

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Stuck In My Craw . . .!

There has been something which has been sort of ‘stuck in my teeth’ so to speak about this political season and I need to get it out . . . I’ve tried the regular ‘toothpicks’ provided by our cable and network so-called News Media . . . and they don’t quite get the offending strands of ‘meat’ out. They dance around the truth, being nice for the personal gain of their various corporations – the Entertainment Model ‘Rules!’  As a result folks like me just sit there . . . slowly getting annoyed as fuck with what is going on!

So I’m going to make my own 'utensil' to get this out, to make clear the obvious fact(s) about both men vying for and to keep the job of POTUS:

Obama and Romney are both rich . . .

Let’s just get this out in the open; they are both members of the 1% now. I don’t begrudge them their success, however they arrived there. I’m not ‘hating-on’ the ‘Winners.’ So please kill that nonsense.

There are, however, very real differences between both men that inform what they’ve done with their lives to this point and map out how they would govern or are governing . . . and the differences are clear as day and extremely obvious.

One (Obama) of these men is open and honest about the advantages he enjoys and is truly empathetic towards the 99 %(He was a member up to only a few years ago when he paid off HIS college loans, was fed by food stamps in his youth, etc) . . .

The Other was born with the MOTHER of all silver spoons in his mouth(He subsisted on dividends from and the sale of stock while in college, which obviously came from Daddy George, an Auto and Manufacturing Tycoon!), acts like the advantages aren't there, taking folks for fools as if they can't SEE IT for themselves . . . while being 'proudly apathetic' with respect to the 99%'s POV, and makes a platitudinous farce/mockery of 'farting' empathetic-sounding phrases and talking points out of his Ass . . . I mean Mouth.

The above situation has not been addressed properly . . . even by reporters who DO get face time with him. The following is what I’d LOVE to be able to say to Romney, were I ever to get a chance to:

“You aren't even trying to be sincere or sound like it . . . or worse: You don't know where to start!

It's BLATANTLY obvious that you want the Presidency really bad . . . but it's from a shallow, far-less-than, patriotic, altruistic place . . .

You want it for the typical 'Rich-Bored-With-My-Insanely-Excessively-Fortunate-Life-So-What-More-Do I-Do-For-A-Social-One-Up-On-My-Other-Wealthy-Peers' sort of endemic, class 'peculiarity':

"I Know! I'll run for President! After All: I deserve This Prize. Because . . . well . . . That is what Us Rich Folks Do When we have so much time on our hands and life is good!"

That seems to be what you're all about Willard.

If you really cared and were filled with this burning desire to help ALL Americans . . . and not sowing your 'self-perceived' 'Royal Oats' in that esteemed Office . . .

. . . Then you wouldn't LIE as INCESSANTLY and without even the attempt at 'credible' ambiguity of your predecessors that you do! (I've fact checked you within less than a minute from an I-phone after too many of your 'claims' about the President! - Joe Wilson can 'sing' to you!) . . .

. . . Your positions on so many crucial issues change as rapidly as the direction gusts of an eddy, as the wind wraps around a house or structure, while the pancakes inside the kitchen flip to cheer you on, back and forth from brown side to crusty black side and back . . . and a fat, overfed child shakes an Etch-A-Sketch while throwing a tantrum in the living room of the same dwelling. . .

. . . And your brazen national assault on the common sense and sometimes the sheer, stark literacy of the public (Who were you really talking to when you went in front of the NAACP?? You must think folks are stupid huh?) would have been a non-starter for your campaign team, under pain of your anger and subsequent unemployment!

You wouldn't do these things . . .!

You would instead proudly discuss YOUR VISION without disguise or guile . . . you wouldn't have been afraid to put the FACTS behind your Vision out there for ALL to examine!

"I don't want to give the Obama Opposition Research Team more ammo to attack me . . ."

What!??

What the fuck IS that shit!?

And again the Press lets you get away with it . . . but that's another 'rant' for another time.

But seriously, what are you man? A Kindergarten Kid who doesn't want to be 'teased'??

Do you know what this Job you're vying for entails? Have you NOT seen the incessant screed of vituperative, obscenities lobbed at the man you wish to replace, from since BEFORE he became POTUS, from your party . . . or were you 'sleeping'!??

Oh I think I get it: You Mittens are so 'special' that no one should 'dare' 'go after you like that' . . . because . . . You're some, extremely wealthy, privileged, White Guy, who looks the part . . . and everybody wants to be like you, they envy you.

"Obama attacks me due to pure envy. Listen: I made a lot of money and I'm not going to apologize for it"

Right. 

Got it.

Wink-wink!

Like I said before Romney . . . we don't give a flying fuck about your wealth - you made it? Good for you! - but you best recognize and stop pretending to be one of us . . . because you never were and will NEVER be.

OWN IT!

Your wealth doesn't make you ineligible(JFK and your old nemesis Ted Kennedy were quite successful running for office, as is Michael Bloomberg, etc, etc). . . !

It's about your Human Quotient . . . and you severely lack it Sir!

And I'd really appreciate it if you would STOP pissing on my sensibilities, and then in a millisecond demand I 'lick my face' because it's only really Ginger Ale.

For the religious crazies you are busy pandering to, here is Prayer I offer to you and your cronies and imps:

‘May Obama kick your entitlement-drunk ass all over this country this Fall and drive You and your Party, along with your, frankly, rancid, treasonous, ideology off the Cliffs of Obscurity and Irrelevance, . . . and may you all stay there for eternity and for the good of this country's future!’

Seriously Sir . . . you need to LOSE and lose BADLY for the sake of this country . . .

Within you walks the ultimate in a moral apocalypse: Folks like you and the people in your political party should NEVER ever succeed, when you do things for the selfish reasons you are and when you behave like you have!”

Yes. I know this coward of a man will never come to my state as part of campaign stop . . . but there are those of us who feel like I do . . . there are those of us that are growing increasingly furious, chewing on the disingenuous, opportunistic monstrosity of Mitt’s candidacy. . .

. . . and it is just stuck in my craw!