And The Clowns Now Have a Ringleader!

I don't know. The GOP has never failed to leave me open jawed with a shaking head from the gaggle of goons they offer us every 4 years for the presidency. I consider myself a reasonable person. But I am also naive. Every time my naivete tells me that there is no way in hell [fill in the blank] will even make it through the primaries. Then every time I feel a little more detached from the country I love because it is, quite obviously, peopled with dupes and morons. This year is different, though. Somehow the GOP has managed to outdo themselves. This time the hopefuls have been repeatedly called a clown car. There is no better way to explain it.

We have Huckabee and his sincere hate for women. We have Ted Cruz who has promised to take us all back to the 12th century with both his fire and his brimstone. We are getting an opportunity to be reminded just how awful the Bush legacy is and, after six months, Jeb has finally decided that he would like to carry on those proud accomplishments. They are trying to give us Carly Fiorina because she has ovaries, I believe. And there's Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who is the black man they will offer us this time because the GOP sincerely believes the rest of America is as stupid as their base. For the same reason, apparently, we are also getting a chance to consider Marco Rubio. He is of Cuban heritage and his parents came here to escape Fidel Castro. Except they didn't. Its all just so ridiculous. And, even though most have been running their campaigns for months now, so far we know about little more about them than a universal hatred for President Obama and Secretary Clinton, who have apparently ruined the country. Fabulous.

Today Donald Trump decided he would run, as well. He has fooled us before and tried to convince us that he was going to do it and then changed his mind. But he managed to get attention and I'm sure that is all he wanted. He has his own reality TV show for Christ's sake. He is a ridiculous human being who sincerely promoted the idea of President Obama having fooled us all with a fake birth certificate. He has managed to perpetuate the hateful narrative coming from the far right from a celebrity of his own egotistical creation having nothing to do with politics.

The only people who would actually consider him a viable candidate are the people he pays to support him and the teabaggers who will follow anyone who offers them a platform based solely on hate. Are we supposed to take seriously a man who wants to run our country and demands he can handle this economy he mocks after having filed bankruptcy four times? Or maybe we want our Commander In Chief to have nothing but pained aggression toward women who join the military and all but condone their being raped for having joined in the first place? Are we supposed to hope that the person who holds the veto pen to decide on the laws meant to protect our citizens to have spent many tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to advertise in the New York newspapers to have children be given the death penalty for a crime, it just so turns out, they had nothing to do with? This, the same man who had a public temper tantrum when those grown children finally won a settlement from the city who had abused their rights, with the help of his provocation.

I admit. I am one of those people who sits and whines every 4 years just thinking about what a tragic place we would all be in if whomever I hate most that time gets the job and I will have to end up leaving the country. I don't know how much I have ever really planned on doing it, though. This time my daughter is grown and on her own and my house is paid off. I honestly think that would be it for me. There are plenty of reasons to love my country, but if enough people come together to vote for him (while factoring in all of the bullshit that would have to happen at the polls) and he ends up leading this country, Im gone. I will take Mitt Romney's brilliant advice and self-deport. I'm thinking England. If I'm not mistaken, I'm destined to end up with Jason Statham. So I am going to go get started on making that happen. I'm sure he's been wondering where I am.


Kiss Kiss ... Mean Progressive

The Power of Fear

I have agoraphobia. It is irrational. I can say that it is irrational. My ability to acknowledge that, however, doesn't change it in any way. Because I know it is irrational it pisses me off. That anger doesn't alleviate it, either. I have researched in trying to understand it and found that most phobias are irrational. Per Scientific American, "In humans, an unwarranted, persistent fear of a certain situation or object, known as specific phobia, can cause overwhelming distress and interfere with daily life." That is certainly the case with me, and it seems to be the case of those who sincerely deal with xenophobia.

Xenophobia is an intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. We seem to have an overwhelming number of Americans who are suffering from this phobia these days. It can be caused by witnessing or hearing about an event. 9/11 with its constant news coverage and uncertainty could have certainly been a precipitating motivator. Once the perpetrators of the attacks were identified as having been from the Middle East and their religion to have been Islam, those with sincere xenophobia would have a place to direct their fear. They would have a way to identify the thing that their minds wanted to protect them from. That is irrational. And for people with genuine xenophobia, that is not their fault. It didn't stem from a place that needed to hate. It stemmed from actual fear. Their need to disassociate from others is about trying to create a world that is safe for them because of the direct physical and emotional effects they experienced by witnessing the attacks of 9/11. Their subconscious is trying to create a bubble where they will not have to face anything like it again.

There are those who wanted to take advantage of the fear that some Americans were facing. As much as they are just evil sons-of-bitches anyway, it is worse to think what they must be doing to those Americans who have been sincerely suffering since 9/11. To hear that their fears are not only warranted but will certainly prove to come true soon must be completely debilitating. It breaks my heart. With my phobia I have a safe zone. If I am in my house, my subconscious can relax and feel safe. For one with xenophobia, their home should be safe, as well. But because those on the right want to take advantage of and exploit those fears, they don't have a safe place. It will be in all means of their media at all times. Their "unwarranted, persistent fear" is being pounded into their psyche 24/7 by these swine.

The right offered that fear to more people, too. These new people were looking for hate. They accepted the irrational fear without the paralyzing effects those who sincerely suffer with xenophobia have to deal with. The media on the right; in print, internet, radio and television, have all borrowed the symbol of the Jihadist we came to understand shortly after the attacks and attributed those characteristics to all who live in the Middle East or who follow Islam. These outlets have had myriad means of delivering their message through fear of these "others." By starting at the top, they tell them that the President is a Muslim. The audience is shown video clips daily of terrorists who are planning to attack America. They rallied together against a mosque being built at the site of the Twin Towers and are repeatedly told that America is about to be subjected to sharia law. Daily they are inundated by stories about Muslim extremists or that their President is a Muslim who means to do them harm. Their only objective is a constant reminder to be afraid.

Because of their soulless attempts to garner their own viewership and a constituency for their politicians, the right-wing media have created, perpetuated and fed fears to people who have no idea that they are being preyed upon. It is a deliberate attempt to direct loyalties by means of promising to keep them informed and unified against those who mean to do them harm. The right-wing media have used all means of propaganda available to them to convey their mangled truths and conspiracies. They have also compared the Liberals to the Nazis for their audience to repeat. Irony will be certainly be lost on them, as the Tea Party leaders are using the Nazi propaganda techniques to perfection in manipulating the teabaggers. And where the initial messages of the Nazi's rallied against the Austrians and Jews, today's right-wing crazies point their contempt toward Middle Easterners and Muslims.

Whatever our next phase of history will be, and wherever we are as a nation, I sincerely hope those who have been struggling with real xenophobia since 9/11 are able to find a healthy means of assimilating back into society without having become completely enveloped by the hate they have been buried under for so long.

What It's Like

Originally Published Dated April 9, 2015

Sometimes when I'm driving in the car my mind will wander off to think about something. When I finally snap back to reality and hear whatever is playing on the radio, I think, "What the hell am I listening to?" It makes me wonder just how long I'd been driving and paying no attention to what was going on.

The very first thing I noticed tonight when they released the dashboard video of the police officer who shot Walter Scott was the fact that he was listening to Everlast's song "What Its Like." (listen to song here). I actually thought it was meant for affect in the news story. It would have been poignant, right? A really great choice?

I was taken aback when I realized that is what the officer was listening to when this all was going down. For anyone who has never heard it, the song is absolutely beautiful. It tributes people who, for one reason or another, have fallen on hard times. He asks his audience to consider what it might be like to find themselves in that persons shoes. He asks his audience to be empathetic. For at least the last couple of decades the popular music we have been offered has been very formulaic. Once a sound or theme becomes popular, music executives will go after that until it is run into the ground. I can honestly say this Everlast song is one of the greatest songs in at least the last couple of decades because it is not like any other songs and its so thought provoking.

I don't know the officer. I hate it when I make a snap judgment about a person because of a single act. It is beneath me, I believe. I try to allow people to have bad moments and make bad choices. I am not there yet with this officer Slager. I have seen him, within a minutes time, shoot a fleeing man in the back, handcuff him when he is either mortally wounded or already dead, and race back to get the item he would use to create the lie where he would place the blame on the victim.

Irony is supposed to have a piece of it that makes you chuckle, if only in the back of your mind. This isn't funny in any way. It is ironic, though. He was listening to one of the most compassionate and loving songs we've had in a long time. This song is asking us to find our humanity and offer it to others. And this was our soundtrack as this police officer took off after a man to kill him for a broken tail light. 

t is what the officer was listening to when this all was going down. For anyone who ht is what the officer was listening to when this all was going down. For anyone who hor anyone who has

Koch Blockers

It was always fun to make a Boner out of Boehner, but since I've come to understand the Koch brothers, that joy is now lost. Boehner can call himself whatever he wants to. The Kochs, however, have earned the short "o" I attribute to their name. As childish as I surely am, it's so perfectly definitive that I'm sure I'll never call them anything else. Therefore, dear reader, as a solid to me, please hear it properly in your head as you read on. (wink)

I am forever puzzled by these two brothers who have earned my wrath. David and Charles Koch are in their 70s. They don't need to work any more. They have built many successful businesses. They could certainly have filled every mattress in every bed in every bedroom in each of their homes with hundred dollar bills. I can only imagine that every generation of their families for the next millennia will be taken care of. Why do they need to manipulate my country to bend to their will? It is as if their egos combined to create a monster that cannot be stopped.

We have already witnessed how easily they managed to buy a political party and garner a base. They are the masterminds behind the tragedy that is the Tea Party. These two realized the best way to build a party was to promote hateful rhetoric to draw in all of the most vile and ignorant people in the country. Not only will these people never miss an opportunity to vote, but they are also the ones who spend all of their time (ALL of it, apparently) listening to and repeating whatever they are told. Their only agenda is to have justifications for their hate and a group of people to unite with in that hate. Back before the days of the Internet, these were the outcasts of society. These were the ones who had to keep their nasty opinions to themselves because no one would tolerate them.

I consider the Kochs the most evil of men because it was actually their intention to create a party out of these people. The goal was to build these people up, give them a voice and use that voice to fuck up my country. They wanted to make sure that this ignorant base would be counted on to believe everything they were told and not question it. In order to do this they told them everything they wanted to hear: They are patriots. They are intelligent. They are moral. They are hard-working. They are maligned. They are victims of bigotry. The messages only had to convey the superiority of those who had always been outcast and be wrapped in disdain for any who would naturally oppose these new 'truths' they had been offered. And they lined up to join in and finally be a part of something that would accept them for the hateful, ignorant people they had always been and not ask them to be anything more. It was brilliant, really. Goebbels is probably looking up from hell thinking, "Damn. They're good!"

This political movement is deliberately creating and perpetuating much of the discord in America at present. By merely paying attention to the basest needs of their followers, they knew these 'patriots' would then gladly follow wherever they were told. It really is like the rats of the Pied Piper. But instead of moving them away from the people to avoid a plague, they are purposefully incorporating them into our population and plaguing our entire country. Our rats actually believe that they are patriots. They need to do little to define their patriotism beyond vote. Their lazy ignorance can't be expected to do much else. But their party doesn't want more. Because they lack curiosity and maintain only a steadfast belief in absolutely anything they are told by their 'leaders' in politics and 'media,' no amount of reason or fact based exchange will sway them. Our country is literally being driven into the gutter by the leaders of our rats.

Once the Kochs (are you saying it correctly in your head?) built their party, it was easy to get politicians on board. Politicians traditionally lack morality. And these were given an opportunity to have a guaranteed election. That is what the Kochs offered them. In 2012 and 2014 they spent hundreds of millions to build a Congress that would be indebted to them. So they found some political nobodies and offered them a place in our government. We have their brilliant generosity to thank for both Joni Ernst (and her stupid bread bags) and Tom Cotton (the initial of the 47 traitors).

Earlier this year the brothers, through their PAC, Americans for Prosperity, sent a message to all of Congress: They will do what they are told, or else. Of course, they all know what that means. If they were not already in lock-step with the Kochs before now, they have seen what their wealth can do. And they know that they can and will be replaced in the next primary by someone who will do their bidding. And what is it that they would like to make sure Congress accomplishes this session? Per the message from the PAC: Repeal the estate tax, build the XL Pipeline, and get rid of Obamacare. So, basically, they already own the Congress, don't they? They have just commanded them to work only toward the goals that would best represent their interests and send a hefty "fuck you" to the hundreds of millions of Americans who can't afford to buy the assembly. Fabulous.

Our democracy was built on an ideal of creating freedoms which the powerless lacked. These politicians are only indebted to the Koch brothers and those like them, though. The agendas promoted by the Kochs are directly meant to take freedoms from the powerless. They are allowing them to happily rape our environment and seek to divert funds out of programs that were built to care for those who struggle while creating laws and a government that ensures even fewer jobs, thus creating a greater need for those programs.

I do not find it acceptable that business leaders try to be underhanded in attempts to get votes to go their way, but I do expect it these days. The Kochs, however, take that to an unbelievably low level. They are taking advantage of the basest of our population and attempting to create a malignancy of hate and ignorance throughout my country. For profit. And power. Their wealth is immeasurable. It is reported to be $100 Billion or more. They are promising to donate less than 1% of that ($889 Million) to politicians on the right in 2016. What do they need? More money? More power? They will be dead soon. I know that's awful to say, but its true. Why cant they just retire and leave my country the fuck alone?!

It all seems hopeless. After 2012, the Kochs PAC learned a lesson and created a group whose sole responsibility was to find dirt on all Democratic hopefuls for 2014 in all races across the country. I am 100% positive that information exists which could be used as a wake up call to the rest of America about what is going on. There has to be documentation like emails or wire transfers or some really damaging evidence of the deals that have been made between the Koch brothers or their PACs and their favorite 'representatives'. Maybe we will get lucky and an anonymous group will dig up that information and make it public before the general election next year. I realize that the left have always tried to take the high road, but its getting pretty ugly these days. Its time that we fight a little dirtier and find the information necessary to compel America to sit up and think. If they manage to buy the rest of the Congress and the White House, there will be no turning back. Of this I am sure.