Just Check-off Your Preference

Just this week "Queen For a Day", Kim Davis, has shown the American people that political preferences are merely a check box on a bureaucratic form. The once-Republican, then Democrat, now Republican has moved between the extremes of ideology with the ease of declaration.


It used to be that a person held a series of ideals and voted for candidate who held similar ideals. When that candidate was a Republican, the voter also self-identified as a Republican. The same applied to Democratic candidates and voters. Then something happened.

That which happened was a switch to a strategic to idea that candidates must run against the proper opponent. There is no purpose in running as a Republican in a 90% or greater Democratic district. One may contend for the office as a second or third same party candidate by checking the party box on the candidate registration form. Hence forward the candidate is what he checked.

When the Republican Presidential candidates came out in support of County clerk Kim Davis, it was just expected that she was a Republican too. But surprise, surprise she was a registered Democrat. The RWNJ reveled in their glee that everyone believed her to be an R. It WAS only natural to believe so. Similarly, it is also natural to understand her switching party at this opportune moment.

Remember now, all one has to do is say the words: I'm a Republican. Then you get a document that has you party affiliation on it for when you go to vote or register as a candidate for a job that is filled by election. It works the same way for being a Christian.
Now there are Republicans and there are republicans. Most of them are true to their dogmas and there is no mistaking their position in that their affiliation is backed up by their words and deeds. It works the same way for BEING a Christian.

American politics and religion has zero provisions for banishing a person from the flock. You are who you say you are and it is up to the journalists, bloggers and media to argue about your true colors.

Never before in American Mass Media has a person been heaped upon with praise and accolades for switching political parties. Ms. Davis is the Poster Clerk in a battle of wits for which she is unarmed. The Far-right Christian Conservatives are holding up her arms in a gesture of victory to the unauthorized tune of "Eye of the Tiger" to add gravitas to their anti-civil rights attitudes that would deny two adults the permission to be married in a secular fashion, in one podunk county of Kentucky. 

Now is the time of catharses, the venting of pent up hostilities. Now is the time for little people (and I don't mean people of short stature) to get their 2¢ in to the national dialog. The other person who is getting Americans to vent their spleens is Donald Trump. He may be a DINO too, but who really knows at this date. What matters is only the persons' staying power. Kim Davis is likely to do a second stint in Federal custody for serial acts of contempt of court. Donald must be able to hold on to his angry bigoted persona and Republicans must be willing to continue to listen to him and vent their anger. But when it comes time to cast votes,  Americans' true colors will be on display.

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Passive Aggressive Bureaucrats

Some people get a thrill out of being passive aggressive in their own little world. Today it is county clerk Kim Davis who is standing in the way of people getting married in Rowan County, Kentucky. Her little corner of the world has had the magnifying glass of media coverage far and away more than it ever deserved.

Ms. Davis' futile efforts have reached all the way to the US Supreme Court in her efforts to continue to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples in violation of both Federal Law and Federal court rulings. On September 3, she must report to the Federal court to answer for why she should not be held in contempt of the court. Her spurious claims are a "matter of deep Christian faith." Her interpretation of Biblical writings is that she would be complicit in a mortal sin if she signs the documents facilitating a same-sex union between two adults.

What the judge on Thursday ought to say is this: "Ms. Davis are you going to comply with the orders of this court?"

"No, your Honor."

"Ms. Davis, I hold you in contempt of this court and remand you to jail until you choose to comply or are able to meet this further condition. Ms. Davis, take this Bible and these sticky notes and mark all of the passages that make reference to marriage, and marriage. Once you have completed that task contact the jailer and he will contact me. When you have identified a passage, any passage that states that an officiant of a marriage of any Biblical type or any person who provides written documentation has committed a sin of any magnitude, you may return to this court to present your findings. Until then the Bailiff shall escort you to your cell."

"But, your Honor, God told me it was a mortal in and I would go to Hell if I sign the papers."

"Show me the Biblical source of your contentions and I will listen. Ms. Davis, what you say that God talked to you about is hearsay and is inadmissible in this court. Bailiff."

Meanwhile, Kim Davis continues to stand behind her alleged faith and the counter in her public office and refuse to recognize the rights of the men and women who come to that office for a routine piece of paper with an official signature.

Another woman many years ago was a passive aggressive bureaucrat in the character of Nurse Ratched who was portrayed to chilling perfection by Louise Fletcher in "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest." She made up her rules and forced everyone to comply. Resistance was futile and most of the patients in the ward just complied rather than try to make a stand. Murphy tried and he paid the price. The difference is that in the hospital ward there was no media, no Federal judges, no public outcry against Nurse Ratched. Kim Davis will have to contend with that trinity.

Irony Update:

The Guardian reports on September 2, that:

"A transgender man and his wife were issued a marriage license in February by the Kentucky county clerk who, in defiance of a US supreme court order, cited “God’s authority” this week as reason to deny paperwork to same-sex couples." 

It appears that Kim Davis is going to Hell after all. Either her god neglected to inform her of this sin or she willfully neglected to abide by her own espoused faith. She might as well call it quits and get it over with.

Judicial Update Sept 3:

U.S. District Judge David Bunning jailed Kim Davis for contempt for her continued refusal to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. At this point it is not relevant what the issue is, she has made it a matter of the court's authority versus her personal opinion. As a peripheral issue her staff claimed they would be willing to issue marriage licenses to everyone who applies except that they worked in fear of Ms. Davis' authority. I suppose we will now see how compliant her staff is in this matter.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

American Conservatism is Passive Aggressive

American conservatism is largely passive aggressive. The approach goes something like this: You are oppressing me when trying to force me to honor your civil rights. I have faith-based freedoms that YOU are denying because of your presence in MY world. Or I have a right to say what I want to about you because I have Constitutional Rights that says I do.

The entire conflict arises when a person or group of people decide that they can ignore the laws and statutes of America, the States and local jurisdictions. They decide to exercise that freedom, right or alleged right in an in-your-face fashion. Such is the strategy of the Open-carry Movement.

The men and a few women dress up in their Saturday best outfits and don the fashion accessories that are capable of killing many people in a matter of seconds. They sling their AK-47s and AR-15s over their backs and strap on a 9mm handgun just for good balance. Why? Because they can.

There has never in the USA been a situation where a highly armed individual saved his own life or others with such weaponry as the ready. On the other hand, there have been numerous incidents where such people are the perpetrators of such carnage. The are passive aggressively rubbing everyone's noses in their "2nd Amendment Right" to bear arms. They stand in checking lines at the big-box stores, Krogers, Eat'n'Park using their body language to silently shout, 'Here I am exercising MY rights while NOT threatening you in any way." This behavior is very similar to a child pointing his finger in his younger sibling's face and saying, "Here is me NOT touching you," after mother says, "stop touching your brother." Passive aggressiveness to the MAX.

In Kentucky, elected County Clerk, Kim Davis, has decided that she can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples who walk up to HER counter and expect to be served like any other couple seeking to be married. She has taken it upon herself to maintain that refusal even in light of a Federal Judge's order.

"Rowan County Chief Clerk Kim Davis' lawyers filed an emergency appeal late Friday asking the Court to grant "asylum for her conscience" and allow her to continue to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples," according to The Associated Press.

Kim continues to claim a superior position to the applicants who seek to use their tax-paid services that Rowan County provides. Kim is in the power position to unilaterally deny the licenses because she is the only person in that county that can sign the license. And she knows it.

In defense of her alleged rights, "Davis has suggested that same-sex couples can either go to a neighboring county or seek the signature of a different Rowan County official. She has also suggested that the state could change the law about marriage license signatures, removing the requirement that she sign her name to couples she finds sinful. The lower-court judge has rejected all three arguments."

In particular alleged Christian Conservatives have employed the passive aggressive approach in many instances. Christian prayer in public schools has been litigated over and over while the proponents say that their children are being denied their religious freedom to pray publicly in the schools. they imply that their god treats everyone poorly because of his exclusion. This is textbook example of the way religions prey. Be good or else the supreme being will punish you. Not me or my brethren.

While the religious leaders employ the passive approach, it is their followers who take action and commit violence. The preacher says, abortion is murder and is an abomination and his god will punish America and somebody should do something about it before was all are punished. "Somebody" will commit violence as an active aggression as a response to that call. Can I get a witness?

Passive aggression in the media comes with a Question Mark? Gay Marriage Causes Floods? It looks like a statement of fact but is just a motivator for the reader to get riles up and fearful. It is a question that will ultimately be answered with NO or WHO KNOWS. Lesbians Cause California Drought?

America has become a nation of Passive Aggression in more respects than is easily identified. We're putting GMOs on the shelves and refusing to label them FOR YOUR OWN GOOD. Food shoppers might make the mistake of choosing to not buy the produce when it is really okay to eat. You really need that Natural Gas to heat your home even though your drinking water becomes contaminated by fracking for it. And never mind those earthquakes, they don't mean a thing.

In order to sidestep her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses, Kim Davis decided to suspend ALL marriage license processing at her office.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

50 Twits and Counting

The US Senate in 50-49 vote says that climate change is not caused by humans. Go figure. Whew! What a relief that Global Climate Change is not my fault. I will sleep easier tonight.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) leads the way with just one more silly bugger vote of the Republican controlled Senate. And he is the chairman of the committee on the environment. He should know better. Well he does probably know better but he is paid to vote in favor of dangerous enterprises such as the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Now that the highly indoctrinated Senate has laid down the law that humans are not the cause of Global Climate Change, they can move on to voting on what does. Some would say that it is caused by marriage equality legislation, or women's reproductive rights supporters such as Rick Santorum and Pat Robertson. Others would like to have a vote on whether women wearing skinny jeans and yoga pants in public is the true cause like the bozo in Idaho. Personally, I have thought that it was caused by Bankers constantly rubbing their palms together saying ,"Nyna ahh aah" in Snidely Whiplash fashion whilst twisting their mustaches into a curl on the ends. Yes, Bankers actually do have three hands. One for giving you a loan, one for taking your payments and the other for stroking their pens.

With this consensus-driven fact development firmly established, the Senate is ready to rule on whether the moon emits its own light, if the Earth is hollow, whether SNAFU is an acronym for "Situation Normal All Fouled Up" or "Senate Nimnodes Are Freakin' Useless."

Taking time out from doing essentially nothing constructive for the American people is a specialty of the Senate in recent sessions. They can vote on such things as: if there are three frogs sitting on a log and one decides to jump off, how many frogs are left? Or they can debate how many thumbs a man has if you call the index finger a thumb?

Since Man has thusly been absolved of causing climate change, sea level rise, the melting of glaciers, there is room to work on what to do about the impending environment change that we all can see. The chimneys are a smoking gun for where the CO2 originates. The Methane cloud hanging over the Southwestern states betrays the mining and drilling interests. The 250 million plus automobiles in the US all dumping massive amounts of petroleum fuel residue into the air adds to the mix.

While individual humans each contribute an incremental amount of CO2 and other pollutants into the environment, it is the fossil fuel industry that stands against developing and implementing better energy sources. Now that they have given humans absolution for the sins of damaging the health and safety of their brothers and sisters, the Senate needs to vote on whether corporations are causing all the trouble.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

Twit of the Week, Ben Carson

This week, the Twit of the Week Award goes to Ben Carson. The TOW Award comes with a 30-day supply of mouthwash to get the residue of those insipidly stupid remarks out of his head. Ben doesn't get this distinction for the usual ignorant ranting about women's health issues unless we include women's rights to an environment what won't kill them or deform their babies. Nor is he deserving of this Award for his take on Marriage Equality because people who need clean water can be married or single, it just doesn't matter. Also he doesn't get this Award for his desire to nuke Iran for their alleged enmity against America.

What Ben gets the Award for is his completely detached from reality position he has taken on the EPA and how it operates. What we need to establish is that IF businesses were responsible citizens of the Earth they would not engage in activities that will severely injure and kill living people and we would not need the EPA in the first place. Businesses failing to act responsibly makes that need imperative.

Now if there were not such an outcry by businesses that the EPA was being a bully and trying to make them spend shareholder value on making sure their operations are safe and that they ultimately clean up after themselves, the EPA would not have to go out on-site and clean up for them. Mothers routinely wipe up the spilt milk of their toddlers because the toddlers are not capable of doing it themselves. However when the child is older he needs to clean up after himself. He also has to be more careful of what he does in the first place.

The Animas River suffered a massive contamination event from a decades old brew of acid mine drainage that did not drain by the gallon.  This water backed up in the Gold King Mine in Colorado only to be let loose be an EPA contractor while they were trying to clean up the site for the defunct mining corporation. In short, the EPA is responsible for a 3 million gallon surge of orange slush into the Animas River.

Now here is where Ben Carson earns his title of TOW for the third week of August 2015.

“One wonders, if this accident had occurred at the hands of a private business, or even an individual property owner, would the EPA be as forgiving as they have been of themselves? I think not,” Carson said, as reported by John Frank of the Denver Post. Mr. Carson, let's just say the EPA was as hard on themselves as they would be on a private contractor. They would issue a paltry fine and move on to the next client. Then Congress would have to put the fine amount in the next EPA budget.

Again from the Post article, the candidate called on the EPA to perform a transparent investigation of the spill and provide “full compensation and reparations” to those affected. The response from the EPA should be "yeah, we caused the damage and will pay $650 million dollars for reparations, just as soon as Congress approves it.

Ben went on to assert that the reparations should be paid out of the fines that private companies incur for their violations and not use tax dollars. {takes a deep breath}

The focus is part of his (Ben's) effort to overhaul the EPA, for which he plans a new mission statement that downplays fines and penalties, allows for laws that protect business from “unnecessary liability” and incorporates a cost-benefit analysis in its regulatory decisions. (Emphasis added.)

So now Ben wants to protect violating corporations from unnecessary liability that would pay to clean up their disasters. Furthermore, he wants a cost-benefits analysis for EPA regulatory decisions. How about a Cost-Liability Analysis for any debacle that the company ultimately will create.

“We all want a better environment,” he said in the statement. “We all want to protect the environment for generations to come. We all want more common sense in the administration of our environmental laws and policies.” But we don't want to pay for them or reduce shareholder value. What we see is a process of privatizing profits and socializing losses, like we always have, but codified into law so the next Administration can't go changing it willy-nilly. What you must understand is the GOP-Equal-Sign has nothing to  its right side. [something = nada]

"Commonsense regulations" is dog-whistle for lax regulations and non-existent oversight. They want a better environment without a cost. You know, like the one God will give to us after this one is trashed.

So Dr. Carson, you get the TOW Award this week for trying to assert that TINSTAAFL is a hoax and even if it is not free, it is free to the businesses who destroy the only planet we have.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

Cognitive Dissonance for Twits

Two year old Caroline Sparks in southern Kentucky was killed by her 5 year old brother when he got his hands on the Cricket .22 caliber rifle he had gotten from his parents for his birthday. Just like his parents, he undoubted thought that he knew what he was doing. August just won't be the same at the Sparks house after 2015.

It is sad how people blame God for their shortcomings when they cannot face the realities of what they do. They hand a toddler a lethal weapon then are surprised when that child kills someone with it. After the reality sets in, they have to say that someone else was at fault. God is a common victim in this blame-game because he cannot defend himself. A man rapes a 10-year old girl, pregnancy results and "it's a Gift From God." she can't abort that fetus and the news cycle makes a hullabaloo about the abortion while never mentioning the crime that was perpetrated against the child.

"It was God's will. It was her time to go, I guess," grandmother Linda Riddle told WLEX. "I just know she's in heaven right now and I know she's in good hands with the Lord." Little Caroline would have been in a better place before she died if the parents did not subscribe to the gun-culture they apparently did. She would not have needed the Lord's hands if there was no gun in the house.

Well now it will be God's Will that the parents suffer recrimination for the rest of their lives unless they adequately deploy Cognitive Dissonance and decide that their daughter is better off dead. This maneuver is appallingly simple. Blame God and you are all set. That allows you to keep up appearances, but there will be spousal fights, depressions and a high probability of divorce with their 5-year old going to live with Grandma. Once you decide that children being killed in this manner is okay and alright with God, you can absolve yourself of any further concern. I name all parents who give firearms to their children "Twit Of The Day."

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

16 Warm Wet Noses and a Horse That Sweats

Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

With all due regards to Jim Stafford for writing the song of that title...

There conservatively are between 16 and 24 Republican Presidential candidates who will be vying for the GOP nomination next spring. Each of them will be trying to "out conservative" the others for the support of the Fox-manufactured electorate. That electorate will be demanding that their pet candidate be as far to the right as they themselves are, but no further.

The candidates are so numerous that the "debate" sponsor, Fox News Network, had to split the population into two portions. There will be the Big-10 who will bracket Donald Trump on the main stage while the remainder will be afforded the consolation stage and a TV slot ahead of Prime Time hours.

Irrespective of which stage a candidate is on the opportunity to engage in meaningful "debate" will be next to non-existent. These 2 dozen individuals will have just about enough time to utter 2 or 3 half statements that shows the one-half of the electorate of "likely voters" just how conservative he or she is.

The half statement will consist of the part they want to the viewing public to hear while the other unspoken half is the truth about what they really support.

Here is a list of the possible statements with the (…) to indicate the dividing line in the whole statement.

I am anti-abortion and will stop them entirely by defunding any organization that provides abortions…  regardless of all the other provided health services that benefit Americans.

I am Pro-life and will stop the murder of unborn babies… but once they are breathing air, they are on their own. My responsibility stops there.

I will stop illegal immigration and send all the illegal ones back to Mexico… without regard to the fact that many of them are Honduran, Guatemalan, Nicaragua, Columbian, El Salvadoran, Ecuadoran.

I will deport the 11 million illegal immigrants… even though many of them have children who are Americans and it would take 272,727 motor coach loads to move them to the US border.

I am against taxes… even though taxation built this nation and the national infrastructure is crumbling.

I am for individual freedoms and religious liberty… unless you are black, gay, unmarried woman, poor, old, sick or disabled.

I am for repealing Social Security and Medicare… because Wall Street doesn't have a big enough hand in managing the funds and taking profits.

I am pro-Israel and support continued funding… so that they may continue their genocide of Palestinians and take the land for radical Jewish settlers.

I am for a strong US Military at home and around the world… even though its line item is the largest portion of the Federal budget.

I am for attacking Iran for their desires to build an atomic bomb… even though the new proposed treaty will curtail those ambitions.

I support fossil fuel mining and drilling because America needs energy… regardless of the environmental degradation they cause, the fact that alternative sources are fast overtaking coal, gas and oil everywhere else in the world.

I support banning GMO product labeling because it is unnecessary… due to the fact that people may not want to eat such foods.

I believe that climate change is a hoax… even though we are seeing significant changes already and it is inconvenient to the fossil fuels corporate profits.

I am against same-sex marriage because I believe it is a sin … and I find it icky even though there is no biblical prohibitions and the Constitution claims that all people will be treated equally.

I support "right to work" laws… even though that is fascist code for the ability of employers to pay less in wages and benefits.

I am against raising the Minimum Wage because it is anti-business and a job-killer… even though taxpayers subsidize all employers who pay below the poverty line to their workers. (Subsidizing businesses is okay, subsidizing people is not.)

I support the rights of everyone to possess a gun for self and family protection… even though most gun deaths are committed on one's self, a friend or family member, spouse or significant other. The fact is gun manufacturers need more sales and more customers.

... and Just Added:

I am for drug testing of Food Stamp recipients to not give taxpayer money to drug users... so that we can punish the children of low-income workers and reward the drug testing companies who need our support.

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This list could go on and on but like the debate time slot, space is limited. There will be no GOP candidate that deviates from the core in such a manner that he or she stands out from the rest. Nobody will have the chutzpah to venture outside the confines of the right-wing. Well maybe except for The Donald. He will say anything he wants to say because he is in the race for the race not for the finish or the ribbon. He will be the only highlight to the evening.

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