Friday, January 29, 2016

 

Cruz for President

Robert Reich on Facebook:   January 20
 
5 reasons Ted Cruz is even more dangerous than Donald Trump.
 
1. He’s more fanatical. Trump is a bully and bigot but doesn’t hew to any sharp ideological line. Cruz is a fierce ideologue: He denies the existence of man-made climate change, rejects same-sex marriage, wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, believes the 2nd amendment guarantees everyone a right to guns, doesn’t believe in a constitutional divide between church and state, favors the death penalty, opposes international agreements, embraces a confrontational foreign policy, rejects immigration reform, demands the repeal of “every blessed word of Obamacare,” and takes a strict “originalist” view of the meaning of the Constitution.
 
2. Cruz is a true believer. Trump has no firm principles except making money, getting attention, and gaining power. But Cruz really does detest the federal government, and has spent much of his life embracing radical right economic and political views. When Cruz said “we are facing what I consider to be the epic battle of our generation,” he wasn’t referring to jihadist terrorism but to Obamacare.
 
3. He’s Smarter. Trump is no slouch but he hasn’t given any indication of a sharp mind. Cruz is razer-sharp: It’s not just his degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law, along with an impressive record at Harvard, or even his winning arguments before the Supreme Court. For his entire adult life he’s been a fierce debater with a intensely-logical debater’s mind.
 
4. He’s more disciplined and strategic. Trump is all over the place, often winging it, saying whatever pops into his mind. Cruz hews to a clear script and a carefully crafted strategy. He plays the long game (as he’s shown in Iowa). Cruz’s legal career entailed a sustained use of the courts to achieve conservative ends, and he plots his moves carefully.
 
5. Cruz is a loner who’s willing to destroy institutions. Trump has spent his career using the federal government and making friends with big shots. Not Cruz. Most of his Republican colleagues in the Senate detest him. And Cruz is eager to destroy: He has repeatedly crossed to the other side of the Capitol and led House Republicans toward fiscal cliffs. In the Fall of 2013, Cruz’s strident opposition to Obamacare – including a 21-hour talking marathon — led in a significant way to the shutdown of the federal government.
 
Both men would be disasters for America, but Cruz would be the larger disaster.
 
What do you think?
I think:
 
The GOPe win if Trump succeeds in the primary but loses the general and they keep their space at the trough.
The GOPe win if Cruz or Paul win the primary but lose the general as long as they keep their places at the trough.
The GOPe win if somehow one of their pets wins the primary and loses the general and they keep their space at the trough.
The GOPe win if Trump or one of the GOPe pets somehow manages to win the general.
The Demonrats don't lose if any of the above happen and get an outright win if the Dem nominee wins the general.
The only possibility - note that I said possibility - that the GOPe and the Dems lose is if either Cruz or Paul win the general. Between those two, Cruz is the better candidate.
 
Robert Reich, Demonrat extraordinaire, agrees with this assessment.
 
Cruz 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

 

The Clown Show Continues...

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MSNBC 1/26/2016 - Donald Trump, a warmed over NYC libtard with a big mouth, spews:
"I think I’m going to be able to get along with Pelosi. I've always had a good relationship with Nancy Pelosi. I've never had a problem."
"Frankly, if I weren't running for office I'd be able to deal with [Pelosi], I'd be able to deal with Reid, I'd be able to deal with anybody...
Hey look, I think I'll be able to get along well with Chuck Schumer. I was also very good with Schumer. I was close to Schumer in many ways."


"Where are the clowns? There ought to be Clowns. Well, The Donald is here...'




Complete with dancing Trumpsters!

 

Let's Make A Deal! NOT...

****
I've been saying all along that this election is about breaking the GOPe. I thought all along that Cruz would be the best candidate. I've been saying for some time that if it's got to be Trump, the goal is still to break the GOPe. Cruz, then Trump - because the GOPe has to be broken to build a true opposition party.

I've sometimes wondered aloud if Trump might just be TPTB answer to voter unrest. And now, it turns out that that is likely the case.
I've watched over the past couple of weeks as the GOPe has come out in support of Trump and, suddenly, I'm in the same position I have been for the last 7 elections. The GOPe can make a deal with Trump? Well, sorry. Not interested.
Donald Trump has been on the wrong side of every issue I care about, and all of a sudden he's done a 180 and I DON'T TRUST HIM. If - and it's a big if - he follows through on what he says he'll do on immigration, I'll be amazed. I suspect he'll find a way to make a deal on that issue too.
I'm sick of cronyism. I'm sick of watching our freedom being whittled away day after day, administration after administration. I'm sick of seeing our joke of a legislative body allowing presidents to rule by executive fiat and unaccountable bureaucracies.
And I'm tired. If it's not Cruz, then I'm done. I've already stopped giving even token money to the GOP, even on the state level. If it turns out it's Trump, my vote - as if my one vote ever really mattered - will go elsewhere.

In 8 years, assuming the actuaries are wrong, I'll hopefully be retired and sucking up some of the gravy I've been giving everyone else to suck up in the form of my taxes ever since I was 14 years old. And I simply won't give a damn any more. It will no longer be my headache.
Good luck, Millennials. You're going to need it.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

 

57 Years

*****


Well, whoopdedoo.


I'd apologize, but it wasn't my fault.

Labels:


Saturday, January 09, 2016

 

Audit the FED

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ACTION ITEM
Senator Rand Paul has introduced and "fast-tracked" S.2232, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015. But...
  1. We must act fast -- BEFORE JAN. 12, 2016! -- to demand of Congress: Audit the Fed! I sent a letter to my "representatives" in Congress using Downsize DC's "Audit the Fed" campaign. I'm going to share my letter with you, so you can copy and paste it.
  2. But you shouldn't act alone. We need others to join us in sending a letter to Congress. Numbers matter. So, reach out to five people who will passionately agree and ask them to join you.
This is doubly important, because…
There's a long-term STRATEGY at work…
Downsize DC is focused on its original intent -- building an army so large that it can exert overwhelming pressure on Congress to make them submit.
Our goal for this year -- recruit 100,000 people to pressure Congress. This issue is a chance to further that goal. Find people who agree that the Fed should be audited, and ask them to send a message to Congress.
The hardwired letter to Congress at the Audit the Fed campaign starts this way…
It's time to "Audit the Fed." You must PASS S. 2232 the Federal Reserve Transparency Act.
To which, I added…
The Fed regulates banks, influences interest rates, and determines the size of our money supply. The Fed's policies determine the value of our money, the health of the economy, and the rates we pay to borrow.
But for too long, the Federal Reserve Board has acted under a cloak of secrecy.
But the economic consequences of Fed policies can be just as devastating to our lives as are taxes, regulations, and even war...
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s2232 It expands congressional oversight of the Fed and gives the Government Accountability Office the authority to review its monetary policy decisions. Now, the bill is "fast tracked" and scheduled for a vote on January 12.
I insist that you vote to Audit the Fed. Support the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. I'll be watching what you do.
---END LETTER---
After you send your letter to Congress forward this message to five friends that you think probably support the idea of Auditing the Fed. Ask them to join you in sending a letter. Good luck.
Jim Babka
President
Downsize DC
****
No matter how you feel about Rand Paul as a candidate for president, he understands the need to rein in the FED.

Now is the time.


 

Barock Project

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I like me some prog!

If Keith Emerson was dead - geez, he's 71?! I feel old - Luca Zabbini would be his reincarnation:



These guys are from Italy. I recently purchased their album "Coffee in Neukolln" which has a marvelous Baroque/Rock piece entitled "Fools Epilogue" which has to be heard to be believed.

I'd say they don't make them like this any more, but, obviously, they do!

Check 'em out and support 'em.

Thursday, January 07, 2016

 

It's a cycle, dangit!


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     Once upon a time, there was a land – low and forested, with many rivers and lakes and teeming with life. This fair land was a hunting ground for humans and mighty predators of the forest, and the climate was perfect.

Far to the North – well, West – a diabolical plot was hatched among the people inhabiting an otherwise perfect continent, it’s northern tier a glaciated land, frozen and dire. For they looked at these lands and coveted them, knowing that beneath that mighty Ice was a fair land, pregnant with possibility.

Practitioners of a fell Sorcery unknown to the happy inhabitants of that fair land in the East, the grim folk of the West over many thousands of years did contrive to melt the mighty ice and push back the boundaries of their lands.

By various Arts, they manipulated the Sun and the Earth until the Ice began to loose its grip on the land, torrents of water filled lakes and rivers to overflowing and remade the face of the Land.

Conveniently, the released waters found their way into the seas, and, as is the nature of such things, the sea began to rise, drowning the fair, low-lying lands of five continents, and possibly one other, but we don’t count Mu nowadays, never mind what the mythical inhabitants say, assuming such are around, of course. But then they wouldn’t be mythical. Despite what Mr. Cayce says, they don’t exist, so - mythical.  I wouldn't be so sure about Atlantis, either.

And still the foul Sorcerers of the West were unsatisfied, pursuing the retreating Ice nearly to extinction, and several species of game with it, until finally the ice was penned up in remote mountain ranges and the culmination of all their efforts lay fair beneath the Sun.

Indiana was born.

Soon immigrants from around the world began making their ways to the fair land in the heart of the mightiest Continent of all until finally, after many millennia, from the Eastern landmass arrived the builder of the finest home in the fairest of Lands, where once had been only Ice.

Hoosiertoo had arrived in Heaven on Earth. Rolling prairies, mighty rivers, a couple of swamps - hey no place is perfect! - and rolling hills.

But wither Doggerland, and fair Lyonesse? Whither the fabled civilizations – Atlantis, and (I’m pretty sure it’s mythical) Mu - now lying beneath the waves?

Far to the East, in coastal cites adjacent to drowned lands, the ruined peoples of the East conspire reclaim their drowned lands and to rebuild their once-mighty Civilizations. After 11,000 years, and despite the best efforts of the Sorcerers of the West, the Eastern Warlocks have found out their secrets.

Far beneath the seas, the rumbling of great, smoking furnaces. In the Heavens the Sun begins another great cycle. The Eastern Warlocks know that the best efforts of the Western Sorcerers, futilely dumping tons of foul carbon into the air in a vain attempt to fight off the inevitable, will fail.

The great Ice will return…

Doggerland will rise again.





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