Shut Down Webgrabs

David Martin Micky... Try to understand this. Your guy slashed taxes on the wealthiest Americans driving the deficit up to $779 billion, which must be borrowed at interest, raising the deficit even more. Now he wants $5 billion more to pay for a wall he promised us Mexico would pay for. And now you’re praising him for “saving billions”? Think again. Government shutdowns do not save anything. Workers who are now showing up to work without pay will have to be paid eventually. Projects that are put on hold will have to be completed. The delays will likely cost more in the long run. The good news is you don’t have to support him to be a conservative. There is nothing “conservative” about this man. He is rash, foolhardy, impulsive, and wasteful - the exact opposite of conservative. He tells you one thing then does or says something else - because he thinks you’re stupid. Please prove him wrong.

First Reaction: False Equivalency Edition

I can see the headline now: 

"25 HIGH SCHOOL KIDS KILLED BY MAN WITH CELL PHONE"

From The Comments, Welfare Edition

Robert Reich posted on Facebook a New York Times article about the impending stock market crash, of which he said, "A recession is on its way. But don't join Trump in blaming the Fed. The real problem is Trump himself: His tax cut for corporations and the wealthy -- almost exactly a year old -- were frittered away as corporations used their tax savings to buy back their own shares of stock, and the wealthy used theirs to gamble in the stock market. These steroids wore off as soon as the spending stopped. The rest of us are left holding the bag of a giant deficit. 
And Trump's trade war with China is causing the entire global economy to quake. No surprise there, either. When the largest and second-largest economies in the world collide, the losses are huge.

No, the Fed isn't doing this. Trump is. He took the credit for the stock market boom. But the odds he’ll accept responsibility for the bust are zero."

. From the comments: 

I have read many of the comments here, not all. Let me tell you how it works for the poor people who are not in the stock market. 15 years ago I was working making $50,000 a year. I had already worked for 20 years and I was doing well. 14 years ago I was in an accident that broke my body so bad that I was unable to work anymore. I had to apply for disability. During the time I had to wait and appeal (because they always turn you down the first time), I was forced to use my savings to live and pay bills, including doctor, hospital, and prescription bills. By the time my disability was approved, I had lost my house, all of my life savings, my wife, and had sold almost everything of value that I spent a lifetime acquiring. I kept my son who is the most valuable thing in my life so that was the only good thing that happened. So after the government made sure I was poor they started their ongoing effort to keep me poor. Just as they do with the elderly, disabled, and the rest of the poor in our country. My son and I found ourselves living on $1,000 a month. Of course, we had assistance with Medicare, Medicaid, and other social service programs. These were services that I had paid into my entire working life to ensure that I would have income in case something happened and I couldn't work. I paid my share of disability insurance premiums out of every paycheck, then had to fight my own government to get what I was promised. When Obama was in office things got a little better for us and it looked like we might be able to live with some dignity. When Trump was elected it seems like the first thing he and the Republicans tried to do was take the things away from us that we needed to survive. We rely on food stamps to eat, and I'm not ashamed of that. But people don't understand how that works. My son and I get less than $200.00 a month for food, they don't pay for any prepared food, or toiletries, household goods, or many of the other things needed to live. Even with food stamps and assistance, you are never allowed to get a dollar ahead. A good example is my $10.00 raise in my disability payment. The day after I got my 2019 statement showing my increase I received a letter saying my food stamp amount was reduced by $11.00 due to my raise. Now the Republicans want to cut my disability, they want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, reduce or end the food stamp program. They want to eliminate the prescription medications that control my pain and allow me to do things most people take for granted, like basic hygiene, and simple household duties. Since Trump was elected it appears that the Grand Old Party is engaged in an all-out war to kill me and people like me. When Obama was president I could go to sleep at night thinking that things were getting better for us. Now I go to bed and I can't sleep because my government is trying to kill me, and everyone else who isn't rich, white, and male. So how well the stock market is doing is a worthless measure for people like us. I know the economy directly affects all of us but those of us at the bottom don't celebrate when the rich get richer. I get tired of hearing that people in my situation are the problem in this country. I get tired of being called a taker for using the programs that are in place to assist people like me. I'm tired of my own government giving trillions to the rich, paying for more than a dozen wars, and conflicts around the world that we have no business being involved in, and giving money away to foreign countries while taking it away from American citizens. All in all, I'm just tired of our country being run by a bunch of old, white millionaires who are so power mad that they don't care if the country goes to hell, as long as they are in charge when it does. - Jim Schoeff

The Non-Citizen Welfare Recipiants of Foxworld

In Foxworld, non-citizens are able to get welfare and free medical care, 

and that's why "illegals" (yes, there are Fascists living in Foxworld) like

living in America so much.

First Reaction: Gun Control Edition

Soo... if the Government tells me they're going to tear down my house to build a highway,

who do I shoot? 

Snagged from Facebook: Always Been A Liberal

A friend forwarded this on Facebook:

“I've always been a liberal, but that doesn't mean what a lot of you apparently think it does.

Let's break it down, shall we? Because quite frankly, I'm getting a little tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler alert: Not every liberal is the same, though the majority of liberals I know think along roughly these same lines:

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. Period.

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" or "if you can't afford insurance and you get sick you have to declare bankruptcy" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion-dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

7. I am not anti-Christian. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize everyone’s right to live according to their own individual beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that someone is trying to force people to live by their own religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on others. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on others.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is sensible policies, including background checks, that just MIGHT save one person’s, perhaps a toddler’s, life by the hand of someone who should not have a gun.

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. They should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t they be?

17. Just because I am Pro-Choice doesn’t make me “Pro-Abortion”. It’s a woman’s body and it is her choice. I also believe that since abortion is so frowned upon, that birth control should be available to anyone who needs it.. it should be covered. Just as in many instances ED meds are.

I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal, because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

Shawn Patterson

The Pencilsword #10: On A Plate

From the RNZ (Radio New Zealand) website, three and a half years ago.

Fascist Things My Friends Post On Facebook: Native Americans

Bill Mahar Lists All The Ways Trump Is Like a Dictator

Midterms

The midterm election is tomorrow.  I don't recall ever seeing so much attention paid to a midterm.  That's a good thing.  In the past the importance of midterms was often ignored, like in 2010, when few people went to the polls and Congress wound up being filled with freshman Congressmen who used their new offices to codify their personal prejudices.



State elections this year are getting a lot of attention, particularly because one party is trying so hard to cheat through historically effective methods - gerrymandering and voter suppression - while accusing the other party of cheating through voter fraud, a rare and certainly less effective tactic. As Brian Klaas says,

Democrats fear voter suppression. Republicans fear voter fraud. The data show suppression is widespread; voter fraud is not. George W. Bush's DoJ studied voter fraud and found it occurs on 0.00000013% of ballots. A recent study found 31 cases out of a billion ballots from 2000-2014.

The voter fraud/voter suppression debate is one of those frustrating "partisan" issues that we can answer with data. It is not partisan to show that, empirically, voter suppression often influences the outcome of US elections; voter fraud does not. Facts shouldn't be partisan.

Here in Oklahoma, we're electing a new Governor.  Our current Governor and most of our State Legislature believe that tax cuts create growth, and many Oklahomans believe that taxes are an unnecessary burden.  We have a Constitutional Amendment that states that taxes cannot be raised without a 3/4 vote in the Legislature or a vote of the people, which has happened only once since 1992. The predictable result, of course is that hospitals are closing, schools are losing teachers and going to shortened weeks, and the State Government has trouble providing basic services.  Efforts on the part of the majority party in the Legislature to raise revenue has met with opposition from the minority because the proposals generally raise taxers on the poor.

Both primary elections required run offs, and on the Republican side, the two candidates were Mick Cornett, whose economic policies during his time as mayor of Oklahoma City helped turn the city from a ghost town into a thriving community, and Kevin Stitt, whose ads complained that Cornett wasn't Fascist enough. This being Oklahoma, Stitt naturally won. Now in his race against Drew Edmondson, his claim is that he's the better candidate because, unlike his opponent, he has no experience in government. If you want to know what his actual policy ideas are, you have to hunt for them online. Basically, however, they are familiar Republican policies. His ads, however, speak of the "career politicians that got us in this mess," while not mentioning that the career politicians that got us in this mess were all Republicans who legislated familiar Republican policies.

Again, he is heavily favored to win.

I read a book a while back with the rather misleading title of "The Republican Brain," which was actually about studies done on the comparison between the ways conservatives and liberals think. It did not, as I think the title suggests, advocate for one ideology over the other. On the contrary, it says that we need both parties, as one is the mind and the other is the heart of the country. I agree: one party rule is bad regardless of which party it is. The book says that if you want to convince a  liberal of something, you should get out the spreadsheets and show him the data. If you want to convince a conservative of something, you appeal to his values. But I've been on Facebook for the last nine years, and what I've seen is that if you want to convince a conservative of something, you stoke his prejudices by filling him up with bogus information and scare the crap out of him. This is not a good way to govern the nation. This does not make for a good society. It does, however, make an effective way to justify Fascist policies.

Nate Silver's statistics webpage FiveThirtyEight estimates that the Republicans have a five in six chance of keeping the Senate - partially due to voter suppression efforts in North Dakota and elsewhere - and the Democrats have a seven in eight chance of taking the House. However, Democrats have a traditional problem: regardless of what the polls say, voters who lean Democratic often fail to vote. But social injustices inflicted by the current administration and currently serving Republicans have energized voters. Will that translate into actual votes?  We'll find out tomorrow.

Untitled (the teapot)

the skies are filled with the half truths and sideways snides
of the coming

quickening

it is there in the sign
of the overturned
teapot,

a pile of ruins
where the floor is wet

if you look
you will see

take a gander where the
side bulged brown,
that piece that is a little 
bigger, and slants to the left

that is the sign of the 
Oft, the King to the West
of understanding

it means that the
Auroras have spoke

and there, you see the
handle, lost without its
burden and rendered
a sad annoyance

that is Shoden, the brilliant 
sea

it means The Cerelium have
begun the chorus

and it is there where the tea
has met the mat

that is the sigil 
of Raspoon
The Rapier

it means
Harpagia has turned 
the key

I see and I know

the skies are filled with
the wasted ideas and the
midnight sufferings
of fools

the quickening is
coming

grab your babes and run

~~~ Ted Vanderveldt ~~~
September 18, 2015

8 years of suffering under Barack Obama

8 years of suffering under Barack Obama

Teri Carter

The sentence I hear most from well-meaning, conservative friends since President Trump’s election is this: “We suffered 8 years under Barack Obama.”

Fair enough. Let’s take a look.

The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.

General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $8o billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.

While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.

Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans.

He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.

Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.

He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.

His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.

He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.

For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.

Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.

All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.

While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.

He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting groundbreaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.

Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.

Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.

Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.

Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”

Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns.

He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.

He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered? If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish: may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more.