Okay. Before I get to anything
(however unimportant it may be) that I have to say, I wanted to bring this to
you first.
Holy molasses, that had me cracking
up.
Now back to other things.
I don’t know if you keep with
American (American as in the United States of) politics, particularly the run
up to the November Presidential Election. If you do, then I have a question for
you:
The GOP: Trolling America, Failing Intentionally, or Setting the
Battleground?
I ask because, if you keep up
with these things, then you know that GOP folk have, for the last couple of
weeks, been saying tremendously stu. . . interesting things. First one that grabs my notice isn’t terribly
offensive, just amuses me:
“We aren’t talking about jobs. It’s the media that is obsessed with
mother nature.” - John Sununu. Yeah, I mean, why the hell should anyone care
about a stupid little hurricane when they could be listening to Mitt Romney
lie, and screw up his lies at that. And speaking of hurricanes, does anyone
know if Pat Robertson called this God’s Punishment for anything? Or was he silent on this particular event? I
mean, I understand the drought is because we’re ignoring God’s laws (though I
am unclear on which ones).
“The other day, you know, I thought about a kid that works hard to get
the honor roll. And she works real hard. I know that to get the honor roll she
had to go on a school bus to get to school. But
when she makes the honor roll, I credit the kid, not the bus driver!" –
Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts). In this kind of situation, yes, the kid on
the honor roll should get the lion’s share of the credit. But hey, other people
did help, including the bus driver, the parents, the lunch lady, the people
paying taxes for the school, the people paying taxes for the roads the bus drives on to get the kid to school, etc. I don’t know if it takes a village to raise a
child, but I know it takes an awful lot of people to keep a civilization
functioning. Of course, in a past life, Romney
had this to say:
“You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters
or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in
order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those
who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the
parents, coaches, and communities.” –
Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts)
(2002). Well, heck, people do change their minds and views
sometimes.
“I know that you recognize a lot of people help you in a business.
Perhaps the bank, the investors. There is no question your mom and dad, your
school teachers. The people who provide roads, the fire, the police. A lot of
people help.” – Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts) (2012). Or they don’t. Or they do, but they do it every couple of
days. . . I’m so confused. Didn’t Mitt
and the GOP just get finished attempting to rip Obama apart for saying this
same thing?
“[Obama] is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United
States to the UN. Okay, what’s going to happen when that happens? I’m thinking
worst case scenario here. Civil unrest, civil
disobedience, civil war maybe. We’re not just talking a few riots here and
demonstrations. We’re talking Lexington-Concord take up arms and get rid of the
guy.” –Tom Head (Judge, Lubbock, Texas). Now this guy is essentially a nobody, a judge
in Texas, whose position, as I understand it, is more like a city councilman
that an actual, bench-sitting Judge. And
that fact that I know he said is symptomatic of a problem I’ll address later.
But still, what a stupid thing to say. He sounds pretty brave. As someone on a forum which
I frequent noted, “The President has many brave opponents. We
know because they all talk a lot about how brave they are. An awful lot.” I’m still curious to know why the U.N. would
be interested in Lubbock, Texas. Who the hell is interested in Lubbock?
“So we got a hurricane coming. The National Hurricane Center, which is a
government agency, is very hopeful that the hurricane gets near Tampa. The
National Hurricane Center is Obama. It’s the National Weather Service, part of
the commerce department. It’s Obama. The media, it’s all about the hurricane
hitting next week, and they’re not talking about Biden, they’re talking about
this Hurricane Isaac thing.” – Rush Limbaugh. Yeah, I know, Limbaugh is
gimme. But still, I am curious to know where the secret weather control device
is located, and why it’s being used to make Oklahoma hotter than it should be?
“I can see Obama sending FEMA in in advance of the hurricane hitting
Tampa so that the Republican convention is nothing but a bunch of tents in
Tampa, a bunch of RVs and stuff.” – Rush Limbaugh. So, Rush is giving Obama credit for being
more efficient and on the ball than Bush was I guess? That’s a shocking change
in narrative. . .
“Point number two,” he added, “is these reckless defense cuts that the
president has promised in his budget and his lack of leadership to deal with
these devastating defense cuts that are coming at the end of this year means we
will have a Navy that is so small we
haven’t seen it since the likes of the era of the 1917 time. That deals
with the issue of the South China Sea in the Pacific. If we do not have a
strong Navy, we cannot protect our interests globally.” – Paul Ryan
(Representative, Wisconsin). It’s my
understanding that we had fewer active ships when George W. Bush was President,
but what the hell. He can always issue a retraction later, right? That’s the
typical strategy, since it’s well known that people tend to not notice, or
actively ignore retractions and corrections.
Part of the game, and the populace should be ashamed of themselves for falling
for it.
"No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know this
is the place where we were born and raised." – Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts).
Really, Birtherism? You’re supposed to leave that drek for your underlings and
minions. Where’s your birth certificate, you emotionless replicant?
"It's a light-hearted moment. He was stating a fact. He's proud of
the fact that we was born in Michigan." – Sean Spicer (Republican
National Committee) (in reference to the line above). That’s an interesting
interpretation of what Romney said. Since we’re reinterpreting things, I’ll
give it a go. “Look, racist jokes are funny! You know you laughed, white
people! Quit fakin’ like you are offended! I mean, shit, all the white folk
that were there laughed!”
“The state is going to hell. Col. Weh would not have dishonored Col.
Custer in this manner.” – Pat Rogers (Republican National Committee
leader). What is it the kids say these days? “Oh, for fuck’s sake”. Yeah, that
about sums it up.
“Recognize this is the decision that will be made by the Supreme
Court,” Romney told CBS. “The Democrats try and make this a political issue
every four years, but this is a matter in the courts. It’s been settled for
some time in the courts.” – Mitt Romney (Governor, Massachusetts). First
thing, I’m pretty sure it is not, in fact, the Democrats, who make this a political issue every four
years. Second, for an issue that’s been
settled in the courts, and which, apparently the President can do nothing
about, a lot of GOP folk sure keep creating laws to deal with it, and introducing
bills designed to make it harder, if not outright illegal (including his
running mate who is responsible for like 8 of them). Truth really is a stranger to Mitt. There is
one pretty clear thing the President can do about it however. Pick the
replacement Supreme Court judge. You know one of them has to be getting ready
to quit sooner rather than later.
“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from
rape] is really rare,” Akin told KTVI-TV in an interview posted Sunday. “If
it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole
thing down.” – Todd Akin (Representative, Missouri). Yeah, everyone knows
about this one. He later tried to back
off the statement. Another case of “apologizing” once you’ve said what you want
to say (and it wasn’t’ really an apology at that). This jackass was also a co-sponsor on a bill
to limit Federal help to pay for an abortion to victims of “forcible rape”. And
he wants to kill school lunch programs (because, you know, once they’re born,
fuck ‘em). So not only is he apparently
quite ignorant (both in sciences and language), he seems to be a bit of a vile
person if you look into what he supports. The folks who support him should be
ashamed of themselves. I mean, fuck, “legitimate rape, “forcible rape”? Fuck
you, you over-privileged, under-educated (remember, just because you went to
school doesn’t mean you were educated) waste of the human reproductive process.
Fuck you. Shudder to realize that this guy is on the House Committee on
Science, Space and Technology. Biology –
it’s a thing.
“I think it’s immoral for us to compel conscientious objecting
taxpayers to fund abortion through the federal government, or any other
government for that matter. So that’s my stand. And if there are exceptions
there, then bring me those exceptions let’s talk about it. In the meantime it’s
wrong for us to compel pro-life people to pay taxes to fund abortion.” – Steve King
(Representative, Iowa). Sweet! So I don’t
have to pay taxes on things like the War in Iraq, the War on Drugs, the TSA, or
Representative salaries, right? Gimme
some time and I bet I can come up with a whole bunch of things that I
conscientiously object to being paid for with my taxes.
"... so virtually nobody other than the Family Research Council
and yours truly—even Rush apparently
now is out saying he's gotta step aside, so everybody is gang tackling Todd
Akin. Now you talk about a forcible situation, you talk about somebody being a
victim of kind of forcible assault, that would be Todd Akin." – Bryan Fischer
(American Family Association). Wow. That’s not even the dumbest thing this guy has
ever said.
“I would hope that when a woman goes into a physician with a rape
issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy
caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a
rape." – Chuck Winder (Senator, Iowa). . . Yes, I know you claim to have been raped, and that can
be really traumatic and all, but were you really
raped? I mean, really, really raped?
"Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible
rape," Huckabee said of the late American gospel singer. One-time
presidential candidate Huckabee added: "I used to work for James Robison
back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was
the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from
those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible,
life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do
extraordinary things." – Mike Huckabee (Governor, Arkansas). Hey, you know who wasn’t’ the product of rape?
Most of the bad people in the world. Hey! Maybe we should outlaw babies except for rape babies!
“I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea
that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition
of life.” – Paul Ryan (Representative, Wisconsin). This was a response to the question “Specifically
where you stand when it comes to rape, and when it comes to the issue of should
it be legal for a woman to be able to get an abortion if she’s raped?” Well, I
guess he’s right. Rape or not doesn’t change the definition of life. So I guess
it’s good that your rape baby will grow up to be Jesus or Superman or
something.
MARK SCOLFORO, ASSOCIATED PRESS: How would
you tell a daughter or a granddaughter who, God forbid, would be the victim of
a rape, to keep the child against her own will? Do you have a way to explain
that?
SMITH: I lived something similar to that
with my own family. She chose life, and I commend her for that. She knew my
views. But, fortunately for me, I didn’t have to.. she chose the way I thought. No don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t rape.
SCOLFORO: Similar how?
SMITH: Uh,
having a baby out of wedlock.
SCOLFORO: That’s similar to rape?
SMITH: No, no, no, but… put yourself in a father’s situation, yes.
It is similar. But, back to the original, I’m pro-life, period.
-
Tom Smith
(Senate Candidate, Pennsylvania).
Yep, having a baby out of
wedlock, possibly in a loving couple, possibly people in lust but lacking
caution, that’s just the same as having the baby of someone who decided that
your opinion on whether or not you should have sexual intercourse didn’t fucking matter. And really, what
does the opinion of the person who was violated really matter in the face of his or her Father? We all know he’s the one who’s really impacted here.
I will not be surprised if this guy
wins.
All of this is just a small
sampling of the things that have been coming from GOP and right wing talking
points, for a very long time now. I asked a question at the beginning for you
readers.
The GOP: Trolling America, Failing Intentionally, or Setting the
Battleground?
My answer?
All of the above.
The Republican Party didn’t want
Mitt Romney as their candidate. That was pretty clear during the race to see
who it would be. But he’s what they’re stuck with for now. I think it was a
case of “Jesus, okay Mitt. We’ll let you run if you’ll leave us alone about it,
okay?” But they don’t think he’s actually going to win. So they’re using this
opportunity to do a few things.
Trolling America: This is a prime opportunity for them to get their
people out there saying the dumbest things, knowing it will send the Democrats
into apoplectic fits. Not only that, but it will score them major screen time
with the media, so yeah, it’s for attention. Saying things just to get a rise
out of people? Yeah, that’s textbook trolling, and the GOP are masters at using
the Say Something Now and Apologize Later technique, knowing that the apology
is never remembered in the face of the initial statement.
Failing Intentionally: If you follow the Romney campaign, you have
to see that there is no way it’s being run as a campaign designed to win an
election. The outright lying, the flip-flopping, the hyperbole. . . Nope, they don’t
want Romney to win. They know, at the end of the day, that Romeny will be a
crap President, and a terrible Republican President will damage their chances
in 2016. They’d rather wait, and have a shot at two terms. Personally, I think
they’re looking at Ryan for 2016. So they’re working on him failing, but not
too obviously, and then, when he does, and whines to be allowed to run again in
2016, they’ll point to this disaster and tell him “Sorry, you had your chance”.
Setting the Battleground: Right now, with all of the outlandish and
super hyperbolic things they are saying, they are conditioning the public to a
certain, new level of discourse and rhetoric. They’re testing the waters to see
how far they can push before they fall off the cliff. At the same time, the
outlandish things being said are going to jade the population even more,
increasing apathy about politics, politicians, and the process, so that when
they do run a serious contender in 2016, the public will care even less about
the outright lies. They’re opening new vistas of spewing vile nonsense to pave
the way for 2016. Then they can reiterate all of the stupid things being said
now, but it won’t make the news like it’s doing right now. The only ones who
will notice the whistles then are the dogs.
And sadly, I bet it will work.
Pat Robertson likes to claim that
God is punishing us for our sins when we suffer disasters. Sometimes, I think
he’s right, he’s just wrong about what
we’re being punished for. It’s not about letting gay people marry, or allowing abortions,
or any of the other things he claims (and hey, I’ve got just as much right to determine
what God’s thinking as he does – I’m a man of God too). If we’re being
punished, it’s for failing to be better. Every time we make gains, there is a
host of ignorant, and evil people trying to drag us back down. And we’re
letting it happen. And these people should understand this. After all, they
think America is specially blessed by the Creator. If so, I would think it’s a blessing to be a leader, a
guide, a shining beacon to the rest of the world, an example of This Is How You
Do It Right, This Is How You Make a Better World.
And we’ve failed so damned hard
at that.
I think, back when, we were doing
a good job. Unfortunately, evil men seek power, not the good ones. So those
that end up in power tend to err more on the side of the Devils than on the
Angels. And as a result, everyone suffers.
Because what affects this nation disproportionately affects the rest of
the world.
Someday, maybe we’ll get our shit
together. But it’s not going to be today. But then again, maybe we’ll just
fall. And LifeCall wont’ be around to
help us.
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