The World is Falling Apart

Well, it's been awhile since I've been on here, was trying to cruise through April without getting too caught up in things since April usually turns out to be a crazy ass month, plus I had a lot of things to take care of in my real life. April came and went without too much incident apart from the usual crap, but no major school shooting or domestic terrorism at least. Last night I watched 'The Day After Tomorrow' and '2012' (fun!) and thought about all the natural disasters and crazy ass political/social turmoil going on around the world right now. We've had SEVERAL major earthquakes around the world, serious flooding, blizzards last winter (it's still snowing in some US states!), tornadoes, the HUGE environmental disaster still unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico that is the BP spill, the Iceland volcano which subsequently shut down Europe's airspace for a while and it hasn't fully recovered, our country going nuts over the new immigration laws passed in Arizona, the collapse of Greece's economy and riots and now deadly rioting in Thailand. In the movie '2012' as they lead up to that year starting in 2009, there's crap like this going on and it's a really strange coincidence. Do I think anything will actually happen on 12/21/12? No I do not. But, shit, something may happen before then and it will have nothing to do with the Mayans!

WTF America?

Man, I don't add anything in a week and this country turns upside down. Last weeekend the House met to pass the sweeping Health Bill endorsed by the President. Outside, teabaggers gathered and began to FINALLY show their true face - RACIST SCUMBAGS! It's about time they fessed up. They called a congressman that marched with MLK a n*%$#er and Barney Frank a 'faggot'! The bill passed anyways but that didn't stop anything, it only got worse. Bricks started being hurled at Democratic congresspeople's windows of their offices. A tea party add in N. Virginia gave what they thought was the congressman's address and said 'drop by' but it was his brother's home and some lunatic cut the gas line to the house! Several got threats over the phone and email and did the Republicans try and talk to these groups and see about calming things down? Of course not! In some cases, like 'Boner' they actual used words like 'He's a dead man back in his home town' and that fucking cunt Bauchmann said 'We're armed and ready in Minnesota, a revolution is good every now and then'. The worst thing I saw today was some sort of call to arms on April 19. They're using that day they 'claim' because it's the day the American Revolution began in 1775 with the battles of Concord and Lexington, but more recently it's the anniversary of the Waco compound attack in '93 and the Oklahoma City bombing in '95!!! They actually were calling for people to try and get as close to Washington with loaded guns as they could. THIS IS FUCKING CRAZY!!! As a historian I know how volatile that week in April can be...Columbine, Apr 19, Virginia Tech, Apr 16...hell even Hitler's birthday is April 20th! I abhore violence. I'm a pacifist. It's been 150 years since this country split in two and began a horrible 5 year Civil War that left the most casualties in any war American's have fought, the most destruction on our own soil, and an amazing President shot dead at the end of it. In some ways we've never recovered from that event and now these fuckers are actually yelling as if they'd like another Civil War! I mean what person that really loves this country would want that? Are they THAT sore of losers? Or is it that we've become so divided and only talk to or listen to people that are like our ideology? This sort of behavior has always begot violence. If you only listen to those that agree with you then it's a self fulfilling prophecy of destruction...and to have the idea that 30% of the population AT MOST can dictate what the other 70% do is just plain stupid. White people are scared because they see more and more Hispanics every day and hear stories of how they will be a minority in a few decades. They are like cats backed into a corner and they are lashing out in complete desperation now. Why don't they try and actually get along with those that don't look or think exactly like them? That's what made this country WORK in the past. Instead they'd rather tear it down to rubble than do that. And rubble is what they will get because even a pacifist, gun hating liberal like me will do everything in my power to defend myself and those I love against these creeps and if they think they're little revolution will help them out they're gonna really hate the one after that because then the 70% will hunt each and every one of them down and run them into the fucking ocean. And I guarantee this if these fuckers keep on going this direction and Obama gets assassinated. Guarantee it. You want a revolution? You'll get one and you'll just wish your end times came right then and there before we get to you. You may be the loudmouth on the block now, but the sleeping giant will awaken.

Cable battles

Cable companies have been monopolizing viewership for close to 30 years now, though initially there were several companies that would compete in an area, by about 15 years ago it had come down to one main company per major city or network area. Like AT&T's monopoly before 1982, these companies don't just cover one city, but have statewide networks and almost national coverage, or they cover a powerful network area like New York City. Time Warner, Cablevision, Comcast - these are huge corporations that pretty much do just enough to not be considered a monopoly but might as well be one since any other competition in their areas are pretty much nill. I've noticed a trend recently where just before some major TV event, a cable company will 'suddenly' get into a battle over fees from the major networks and the next thing you know there's the threat of the channel disappearing from that cable company and a lot of pissed off viewers. I first saw this in September of 2007 as the World Series was getting ready to start and NBC and Time Warner went toe to toe. NBC went off the air here in Austin for a few weeks and the one show I was keeping tabs on at the time, 'Heroes', was missed and I never went back to it. This happened again recently with the Big 12 Championship and this weekend it's ABC and Cablevision in NYC while the Oscars are on tonight. I don't believe in coincidence anymore so just like strikes that happen at the worst possible time this seems like a ploy to me and not just some random 'Oh, the contract's up now and someone won't budge'. The big three networks, barely hanging on for dear life up against cable channels and putting out crappy reality shows and zero good sitcoms anymore are charging higher and higher fees to the cable companies to run their networks. But these cable companies have money falling out of their ass, yet they put on the 'poor me' mask when this happens as if they couldn't afford the fees. The cable company is really just a middle man created after network television wasn't 'free' anymore and this just got worse with the digital tranfer from a couple of years ago where NO channels are free and you HAVE to view them via some sort of cable company...sounds like more strong arming to me by you guessed it, the monopoly cable companies. These companies don't really care about the viewers, but if the networks go bankrupt and all the shows that are still watched by America, and this includes the Super Bowl, the Oscars and still a few damn good shows like 'Lost' then who really loses here?

Obama and Republicans

I had been getting pretty distraught at how things were going for Dems during January and the country in general then Obama decided to finally get some balls again and take charge as his first State of the Union Address came up. In the address he got onto Repubs for apparently not wanting to get anything done in government, but he also got onto Dems for running to the hills whenever anyone said they had problems. He also hit the Supreme Court for their shitty decision from the week before regarding Corporations donations to elections and influence. As he spoke about it, Justice Alito actually shook his head and mouthed 'That's not true'! WTF?! The SC is supposed to sit there and not give any impression one way or the other no matter what, but now that that asshole called Obama a liar last year during a speech to Congress I guess this is the way we're going. The day after the speech he went to a conference with nothing but Repubs and made sure on air that everyone saw him take questions and answer very honestly and blunt. He really showed some guts doing that and got me feeling the best I have in a while about the process. Then he and the military leadership called for a final ending of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and started to try and fulfill one of his campaign promises. The debate got into Congress and of course the Senators speaking immediately against it were from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. This weekend was some sort of Tea Party Convention, in Tennessee of course, with Sarah Palin as the keynote speaker and she was calling for a new American Revolution. Here's what I don't get. If ANYthing like this had happened when Bush was President, they would have been labeled as traitors to America, anti-patriots trying to destroy this country. But NOW it's okay to do what they are doing. Hell, these very same people would be leading the charge of anti-patriotism. It's all fucking bullshit.

Return of the Gilded Age

As if the loss in Massachusetts wasn't bad enough this week, yesterday the Supreme Court overturned a decades old law that kept corporations and unions from using money from their treasury to support a candidate for office and kept them from using thinly veiled support advertisement right up to the actual election. This was of course led by Mitch 'Moonshine' McConnell, Republican from Kentucky. This means that now corporations, which already have a stranglehold on government and elections will have even more of one. They didn't overturn the 1907 law (though they'd like to I'm sure) that keeps corps from outright giving money directly to candidates, but the path we're following may be leading there. I really hope that Obama gets the chance to replace some more SC judges in his term because the SC has kept this country more conservative even in less conservative times like the 90's because Republicans appointed judges for all but 4 years from 1968 to 1992. Think about that! The 1907 law was one of many passed during the Progressive period that put an end to the Gilded Age where big business ran the country for 40 years after Reconstruction. Are we headed for a New Gilded Age? Are we already there? With all that has happened with banks and Wall Street over the past few years it's like they've set up shop in the White House so what's the fucking difference? And is it coincidence that this happens after Republicans get their asses kicked in 2006 and 2008 and now sentiments are changing and we have an election this year? I think not.

Massachusetts

I'm feeling pretty sick to my stomach right now. When Edward Kennedy died last year, his Senate seat, held by him for over 40 years, was up for grabs. Massachusetts has leaned liberal for decades and the Democrats figured it was a shoe in for Coakley to take Kennedy's place especially since she was backed by the Kennedy family. Then something happened, the same fucking assholes that have been scheming for the Republicans for the past 10 years got the machine going again and started spreading bullshit lies, and got probably every single Republican in the fucking state to go out and vote today and guess what? Coakley fucking lost! The ironic and really sad part of this is that the health bill, fought for for decades by Kennedy, hasn't been passed yet and this will tip the scale away from the filibuster break number needed by the Dems, SO the seat Kennedy once filled will now have this fucking asshole in it that will probably keep the very thing Kennedy fought for from happening. Even Obama himself went to the state over the weekend to campaign for Coakley! I like Boston mainly because it seems to be an intelligent city in an intelligent state but could the voters not see what would happen here? WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?! I'm really getting sick of the whole thing. If the bill doesn't pass now and Obama looks more and more like Carter (one term only) I quite possibly will be through with politics. Someone on Facebook said something about 'the pendulum has swung' to which I responded, 'Sure, there are cycles but what the fuck happened to our time at bat? We've only had the President AND Congress for a fucking year, they had it for 8!'. I just don't understand how this could happen. I thought with Obama's election that things were finally starting to balance out, but now it's seeming like it was just a fleeting temporary moment and now things will go even further to the right...just what we fucking need! I'm sorry, but this makes me angry. Angry at the stupidity of people to believe everything they hear. Angry at their ability to let themselves be duped by the same retards that have been working it for the Republican machine. These are the same assholes that made sure we didn't have a serious green bill before we went to Copenhagen. And now without the fillibuster power, NOTHING will get done. NOTHING. Apparently this is what Republicans and a lot of fucking sheep want.

War on Christmas

I'm so sick and tired of hearing about this so called 'War on Christmas'. I live in Austin, the most liberal part of Texas and I still hear people saying 'Merry Christmas' everywhere and no one has a problem with it. Most of my friends and some family aren't even Christians and they don't care if someone else says it or whatever. This is part of the bigger 'us vs. them' bullshit that the media likes to put out there. What's funny is the people that hate the media when it says something against 'their side' but they'll listen to the SAME FUCKING MEDIA about this kind of crap! That's the part I really don't get...that no one's figured out that the media WANTS to create sides so they can have something to report. Maybe, just maybe, one day we'll figure out who the real villain is and ignore them once and for all. Instead of listening to reports on stuff you never actually see or about people you've never met, go with what you do see day in and day out and the peolple you do meet and know. Form and opinion from that for yourself for a change. And now I'm off to go and open presents with my friends in what we call Yule but that is chock full of the Christmas spirit!!!

Washington White Out

It looks like amidst blizzard like conditions in DC today, the Senate is finally ready to pass sweeping health coverage/insurance changes. Part of the white out besides two feet of swirling snow in some places is what's finally going to get passed. The House passed their version in November that had the public option still attached, but Lieberman (Droopy Dog) and surprisingly several Democrats kept putting up roadblocks to the public option, extending Medicare and abortion crapola from Nebraska. Now we have this watered down thing that's going to pass by Christmas Eve (maybe - anyone else wanna throw in a last minute monkey wrench?) that will hold insurance companies more accountable (hopefully) and extend coverage to 30 million, but it could have been so much more. Also, yesterday the Copenhagen Climate Summit finished with last minute negotions for a treaty including us and China BUT it was really a compromise with no deadlines or real emmissions cuts...so what's going on here? I voted for Obama and change a year ago and a majority of people wanted these things yet we're not seeing them go through. I partly blame the right of course and assholes like Beck, Limbaugh and Palin for making sure that their less then higher numbers are still heard more because of their loud open breathing mouths, but I also blame Obama and a bunch of Dems that can't even get shit straight among themselves. I read Ron Paul's 'End the Fed' a few months back and I must say, taking the even more independent path is starting to really look like the way to go. I read Obama's book, I bought into the belief of hope and a turnaround from the fucking nightmare that this decade has been, and I know that you can't get everything you want, but is it too hard to ask for health care for everyone? Is it too hard to listen to 99% of scientists and try to start cleaning up the mess our world has become? Is it too hard to NOT listen to a bunch of corporate bitches that are NOT scientists, or that have always had health coverage? Apparently so.

Health Bill Strategy

Well, the Republicans don't have enough to filibuster the health plan in the Senate, but they've got a new strategy, go to every single Democrat that should be a Republican and get them to get something else dropped when it seems everyone is appeased. This way they can either just keep going on and on 'like' a filibuster OR the piece of legislation that's eventually passed is completely worthless. Of course, if the Democrats would actually all stand together for once like the Republicans do just about every time then the original bill might have been passed the way it was in the House. Oh, and don't get me started on 'Droopy Dog' Lieberman. What a publicity 'hound'. I can't believe this douche was almost Vice President. My friend said the other day maybe he got on the ticket to ensure that Gore ended up losing in the end. This wouldn't surprise me now seeing the way he is. I think it was more something akin to realizing for the next four to eight years the Republicans would be in charge so he shapeshifted on key. I used to pride myself on how the Dems didn't all automatically agree with each other like the Starship Trooper robots on the other side, but now I'm beginning to wonder because the current strategy should hardly be called one. I'm starting to feel itchy like during the Carter years all over again, and I like Carter.