Showing posts with label Karl Rove. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karl Rove. Show all posts

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Donald Trump: Thousands of lies and still going strong

PROGRESSIVE STREET/Where Liberals Walk:


July 11, 2019: Since lying seems to be what Donald Trump does, and he is certainly known for it around the world, how many lies will it take to win the 2020 election? And can the Democrats summon the strategy to beat this megalomaniac? As an aside, would you agree that Trump makes Karl Rove look like a Sunday school teacher when it comes to lying? He is already lying that "he has better support among key demographics — women, Hispanics, young voters — than he actually does."

When I Google "Trump's latest lies," I get 55,400.000 hits. I also get a treasure trove of deception, dishonesty and disinformation, most all associated with the Oval Office lunatic, Donald Trump. On one site I found a report from the Washington Post that said Trump had made 10,000 “false or misleading claims” since entering the White House. 'You were indicted for one,' Nicolle Wallace told Trump who had just said, “I don’t do cover-ups,” re. Nancy Pelosi's charge.

Jimmy Kimmel on Donald Trump 2,000 lies...

And the most interesting was a site by a former card magician exclaiming, "How Trump Gets Away with Lying, as Explained by a Magician." Ben Chapman continues, asking these questions, “How does he just keep lying?” “He can’t possibly get away with this again.” “Why do people still trust him?” Chapman has his own opinion of Donald Trump...

"Our current Administration has shown an unprecedented disregard for the truth, and many Americans are flabbergasted at how few people are disturbed by this disregard. As a former card magician — and therefore someone with a bit of experience deceiving audiences — I have developed some strategies to catch other people in their lies."
His strategies are very interesting, starting with, "1. Dress for the Occasion."
With five in all, you will gradually begin to visualize the subject of his piece, then see the actual picture of Donald Trump. I wouldn't bestow T-rump with the credibility of a magician, but he has certainly developed some of these tactics, turning them into the implements of his warped mind. Ben Chapman's site is well worth your time, providing unique insight into the Donald Trump psyche.

But, back to the original question, "Can Democrats beat Trump lies in 2020?" Here's where it stands right now...
"The Trump campaign has been spending about $1 million weekly on Facebook and Google ads. In comparison, the Biden campaign spent about $75,000 last week. The Trump team knows that the online world is where their campaign thrives and they also know that they can expect little to no regulation from Facebook even when their ads are a direct violation of Facebook policy."
Distortion and deceit without regulation, a strategy that hearkens back to Karl Rove's handling of the George W. Bush campaign. And yes, the Democrats employ their own version of deception but nowhere near as blatant as Republicans, especially Donald Trump, the world's most egregious liar. The best example recently is a fake Joe Biden website run secretly by an operative working for the Trump campaign. Not even sure Karl Rove would do that.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Karl Rove says Bernie can beat Trump in 2020


Bernie Sanders
Coming down the stretch for the first U.S. primary in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders has a commanding double-digit lead at 30 percent, followed by Biden at 18 percent and Buttigieg at 15 percent. Biden hasn't officially declared and N.H. is right next door to Sanders home state of Vermont. But the real surprise is the fact that newbie Pete Buttigieg is surging in the Democratic race, trailing former V.P. Joe Biden by only 3 points. Could the primary end up with a Bernie Sanders/Pete Buttigieg ticket, and, if so, could they beat Donald Trump?

Karl Rove says so. He "thinks Democratic contender Bernie Sanders could beat Donald Trump in 2020 to become the next president." Rove even added...
"After watching the Vermont senator’s Monday Fox News town hall, Rove complimented Sanders on Fox and Friends Friday, saying participating in the event was a 'smart move on his part.' He was also impressed with the response Sanders got, saying, 'Bernie comes on to Fox, and gets the largest viewership of any campaign event thus far.'”
Now that's very interesting considering Fox plays to a conservative, Republican base.

The word is out some Trump supporters who are disenchanted with the Oval Office lunatic's bizarre antics are looking at Bernie Sanders for 2020. But Bernie still must contend with the fact he is a Democratic Socialist, a trait becoming more acceptable but not quite there yet. I have had two people recently question my Bernie 2016 bumper sticker, still affixed. One "patriot" actually walked up to my wife on the passenger side window and said, "Just wanted to see what a Socialist looks like." I pulled out of the parking place quickly hoping to run over his toes. Unfortunately not.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Wisconsin Gov Scott Walker a model of Karl Rove scare tactics


GOP portrayal of Democrats
You can trace Karl Rove's back-hand connivances to the George W. Bush administration with every known use of lies and dirty tricks known to the political world. He was still doing it in the 2016 New Hampshire race threatening Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte's opposition. She lost. Wisconsin's Republican Gov, Scott Walker is basically mirroring Rove in his current campaign saying things like...
“Those other things — health care, education — none of that matters unless you’re safe.” then he adds, if Democrats win, you and your family are in danger. Democrats want to let violent criminals back onto the street.
One reporter commented...
"If you were to distill the prevailing Republican campaign message for the 2018 midterm elections to one image, it would be this: a hooded figure in the shadows, machete (or knife or bladed fingers) in hand, waiting to pounce if the wrong candidate wins.
Life is a horror movie and it’s Democrats behind the hockey mask. Vote Republican."
The mostly white and uneducated supporters of Donald Trump eat this shit up with words like “Kill, Rape, Control” and absorb it like the gospel. The Republican no holds barred campaign has even added...


"Kathy Griffin holding the decapitated head of a mock Donald Trump doll, limousines burning in the street. Snoop Dogg literally shoots a Trump impersonator at the end."
Sure looks like to me the GOP is running scared. 

Monday, March 6, 2017

Have we been conditioned to accept T-rump's stupidity?


Without even having read Radley Balko's opinion in the Washington Post, I have hinted at the fact in my blog posts that the American public has become accustomed to the rantings of a psychopathic liar that has somehow taken over the White House. Here's what Balko had to say...
"...Tuesday night’s fit of demagoguery masquerading as a presidential address is a frightening demonstration of how his first month in office has left those of who are supposed to hold him accountable timid and shell-shocked."
Demagoguery, let's examine it historically along with the prevailing example. Salon was profiling Donald Trump as a modern-day demagogue back in June of 2016, five months before the election that made history and put America on a track to a sure eventual collapse. In an elaborate use of adjectives and adverbs, the website talked of the "virus infecting our politics," which had its contemporary kickoff during the George W. Bush/Karl Rove era. There are other bad actors and the whole conglomeration worked tediously together to give us what's known today as President Donald Trump.

Here's how Salon describes it...
"There have been stretches of history when this virus lay dormant. Sometimes it would flare up here and there, then fade away after a brief but fierce burst of fever. At other moments, it has spread with the speed of a firestorm, a pandemic consuming everything in its path, sucking away the oxygen of democracy and freedom."
 There were others early-on who developed a formula and format for those to use in later years. Men like ...
“'Pitchfork Ben' Tillman, the South Carolina governor and senator who led vigilante terror attacks with a gang called the Red Shirts and praised the efficiency of lynch mobs."
"Mississippi’s Theodore Bilbo, a member of the Ku Klux Klan who vilified ethnic minorities and deplored the 'mongrelization' of the white race."
"Louisiana’s corrupt and dictatorial Huey Long, who promised to make 'Every Man a King.'"
"George Wallace, the governor of Alabama and four-time presidential candidate who vowed, 'Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.'"
The demagogue that stands out in U.S. history is Joseph McCarthy, US senator from Wisconsin, that Salon describes, "...until now perhaps our most destructive demagogue." Until now. McCarthyism was another psychopathic lunatic's way of drawing attention to himself by terrorizing the country into believing there was a Communist under every rock. There weren't, and several lives were ruined in the process. I had a close friend in Los Angeles who was a movie screenwriter who knew a few fellow writers whose lives were affected. And tailgunner Joe didn't even have a bully pulpit.

Remember Roy Cohn, he was chief counsel to McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee and wouldn't you know it, the bad seed is back. As Salon put it, "Cohn was McCarthy’s henchman, a master of dark deeds and dirty tricks. "Cohn didn't go down with McCarthy when Edward R. Murrow exposed him on his CBS show, "See it Now." But not Cohn, who continued his operations in New York where he ended up working for mob bosses and, yes, Donald Trump's father, Fred, until later years when he made his McCarthy-like methods of strong-arm manipulation available to Donald.

Bernie Sanders on what Donald Trump did not say in his speech to Congress:



Cohn also introduced Trump to the man who was his campaign chair, Paul Manafort, someone who made a fortune representing dictators. Salon has an interesting analogy between Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump...
"So the ghost of Joseph McCarthy lives on in Donald Trump as he accuses President Obama of treason, slanders women, mocks people with disabilities and impugns every politician or journalist who dares call him out for the liar and bamboozler he is. The ghosts of all the past American demagogues live on in him as well, although none of them have ever been so dangerous."
Returning to the present and Balko's charge that Donald John has conditioned us to just accept him the way he is and go on with our business, letting him run the country in the ground. Balko says, "We need to be better than that." And we should. The writer comments...
"We’ve been conditioned to accept behavior from the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth that we’d never have accepted from his predecessors (and I have pretty low expectations of presidents) — that we’d never accept from a friend, relative, pastor or community leader — as long as he spares us and our group from his attacks."
Trump's speech to Congress included the same lies that we have heard over and over, except that this time he delivered them in a toned-down rhetoric that is as much like the normal Trump as Scotch is like bourbon. Where it came from I do not know, but I suspect it is another of his underhanded tactics to appease a few concerned Republicans along the way who get their skivvies in a dither when he's too much the bad boy. Balko is really up in arms over the bi-partisan praise when this wasn't the man talking who has been ranting and raving such absurdities for his first month in office.

Balko disparages Trump's speech grammar, saying it was "terribly written," and "full of his typical doom-and-gloom pronouncements about America," quoting one of his most egregious passages...
"Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms."
Just hours before the speech Donald John had indicated that some of the attacks, above, had been perpetrated by Jews themselves. More extreme exaggeration almost to the point of lying...
"We’ve defended the borders of other nations, while leaving our own borders wide open, for anyone to cross — and for drugs to pour in at a now unprecedented rate."
At best, this statement is borderline bogus. More on drugs...
"I have further ordered the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the criminal cartels that have spread across our nation."
Balko documents that when George W. Bush attempted the same thing, by coercing the Mexican

Mexican drug casualties
government into militarizing its drug war, the country’s homicide rate jumped by nearly 250 percent. Regarding Trump's "banned" list...
"It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values. We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America — we cannot allow our nation to become a sanctuary for extremists."
Now here's a refuting fact, "The odds of your average American being killed by a terrorist attack committed by a refugee are astronomical, about one in 3.6 billion."

There is more and Radley Balko's opinion is chock full of solid facts and a good reasoning where the United States stands after only a month of the reign of Donald Trump you can read here. It's up to us where we go from there.

Friday, April 3, 2015

LIBERALS NEED TO WAKE UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING-CONTINUED



In his book, The Liberal Imagination, Lionel Trilling carped that there were “no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation.” Then along came right-wing intellectuals like Milton Friedman, James Q. Wilson, Alan Bloom and Gertrude Himmelfarb that liberals had to contend with for a while. But not for long. Anything representing intellectualism by the GOP went down the tubes with the advent of Karl Rove and the George W. Bush administration. It was basically replaced with "HATE." Something that has served Republicans well with the inauguration of Barack Obama for President. In The Nation, Trilling points out that today no intellectual equals exist with George Will saying, "that rape victims enjoy their 'privileges,' that Ebola can be spread through the air, and that global warming is a hoax." Trilling adds that, "Conservative 'wise man' Bill Kristol has achieved this status by proving himself, time and again, to be the worst predictor in the history of the punditocracy."

With this ammunition, Progressives can be passionate over keeping the White House in 2016 as well as retaking Congress.

More later.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

GLENN BECK AND KARL ROVE BUMP DUMBHEADS



Karl Rove told The O'Reilly Factor that Glenn beck was leaving the Republican Party. He went on to say that the GOP is united on its philosophy. Yeah, sure! That makes you wonder just what planet this fruitcake has been living on.




According to the Tea Party newsletter, Glenn Beck retorted, "“You guys [apparently KR conservatives] have the spine of a worm, the ethics of whores, and the integrity of pirates. My apologies,” he added, “to worms, whores and pirates.” I don't think any Progressive could have said it better.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Death threats against NRA Pres. David Keene no way to solve gun control issue


I don’t know who is perpetrating these death threats against David Keene, the Pres. Of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), but I wouldn’t doubt at all that it includes some typical NRA gun nuts trying to make the gun control advocates look bad.  I say this because wacky Wayne LaPierre and his gang of gun huggers are bigger liars than Karl Rove was in the George W. Bush administration.  With the NRA, as was regularly with Karl Rove, they would lie when the truth is better.  For years LaPierre has led the American public down a path of deceit over gun rights. 

Daffy David Keene




 
And daffy David Keene is no different.  Maybe the threats against his children will make him think about the completely irresponsible ads the NRA is running using Pres. Obama’s children.  This fruitcake went so far as to even deny the ad was about Obama’s children when it is clear that is the focus of the message.  I would provide a link but take my word, it is complete garbage.  Is it any wonder that bottom-feeders like Keene and LaPierre are taking flak for being responsible for mass killings like Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Aurora Theatre and others because of their support of loose gun laws?

And they are completely oblivious to a gun culture that places protecting their precious guns over human life.  Like 20 innocent children in Newtown, CT.  Or, are they both out-dumbing all of us.  LaPierre is obviously in it for the money and power; his (salary $970,300) and gun manufacturer’s increased profits, plus he is idolized by the gun worshippers.  Keene is just another conservative political hack trying to add more fire power to his resume.  Their obvious attention to weapons manufacturer’s bottom lines by promoting guns in everyone’s hands to carry anywhere is disgusting and obscene. 

NRA "reprehensible" ad using Obama's children:

And neither of these radicals represents the 4.2 million membership of the NRA.  I did a post in July of 2012 with the following facts:
 
  • 74 percent believe permits should only be granted to applicants who have completed gun safety training. 
  • 68 percent believe permits should only be granted to applicants who do not have prior arrests for domestic violence. 
  • 63 percent believe permits should only be granted to applicants 21 years of age or older.
  • 74 percent support requiring criminal background checks of anyone purchasing a gun.
  • 79 percent support requiring gun retailers to perform background checks on all employees – a measure recently endorsed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry.
  • NRA members strongly support allowing states to set basic eligibility requirements for people who want to carry concealed, loaded guns in public places. By contrast, the NRA leadership’s top federal legislative priority – national reciprocity for concealed carry permits – would effectively eliminate these requirements by forcing every state to allow non-residents to carry concealed guns even if they would not qualify for a local permit.

Both LaPierre and Keene continue to push for absolute 2nd Amendment rights in a situation that has been screaming for negotiations on the gun control issue for years.  They know that once the damn is broken—and that is now beginning to happen—they will have lost their clout with the gun manufacturers meaning millions in donations every year.  (Since 2005, according to the Violence Policy Center, gun manufacturers contributed around $39 million to the NRA)  LaPierre loses his cushy job and Keene loses his position of political play-maker.  And 4.2 million NRA members are left out in the cold.
 
Finally, as usual, Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie put the radical conservatives of his party in their place.  He called the NRA ad using Obama’s children “reprehensible” and claims that the group has now lost even more credibility in the eyes of the American public.  Christie continued saying that “such a move demeans them,” commenting, "It makes them less of a valid, trusted source of information on the real issues that confront this debate.”  In other word, you can no longer believe what the NRA’s wacky Wayne LaPierre spews out of his propaganda mill.  Frankly, I never did.






         


               
               

               
               


              Monday, October 29, 2012

              2.3 million early voters have already cast their ballots in 2012, a 10 point increase over 2008

              According to the United States Election Project at George Mason University, 2,214,807 people had voted in the 2012 election as of October 18.  Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Center estimates that 40% will vote early this election, compared to 30% in 2008.  Also in 2008, 91% of the domestic ballots mailed were returned in huge amounts for Barack Obama, according to a recent report from CNN.

              
               Although the early vote was trending Republican in early October, a later report by Reuters says the polls show that Obama has a “comfortable” lead over Romney with early voters.  Battleground Watch reported on four states: North Carolina, Florida, Iowa and Ohio, two critical to the candidates, one leaning Obama and one leaning Romney.  The very important two are Ohio and Florida, Iowa likes Obama and No. Carolina favors Romney.

              The latest poll shows Obama holding a four-point lead in must-win state Ohio, and Romney with a two-point lead in Florida.

              There are some160.3 million registered voters in the U.S., a mere 68% of the voting age population, which is, in itself, pathetic.  But when you look at other countries around the world, it is dismal compared to 100 percent of Argentinians, 97 percent of Brits, 93 percent of Canadians and 77 percent of South Africans.  Many Americans just don’t give a shit, and this is reflected in the low-life kind of congressional, state and local government we are stuck with in some cases.

              How early vote turned North carolina Blue"

              Republicans have strived in this election cycle to make it even harder for some to vote, primarily those who vote Democratic.  They have indiscriminately purged voter files and championed Voter ID when voting fraud is virtually non-existent.  And the GOP has even tried to stop early voting because it doesn’t favor their candidate.  Not necessarily the hate tactics of Karl Rove under George W. Bush, but certainly an extension of Rovian politics.

              
              Barack Obama
              John King of CNN asks the question of who benefits from early voting.  To find out he went to the state of Iowa where Presidents have traveled to for years to try and get the pulse of the nation.  In Johnson County, which is home to the University of Iowa, early voting accounted for 55% of the total compared to statewide of 36%.  Demand for early ballots are up significantly from 2008 and Democrats have a big edge; 12 to 1 over Republicans in Johnson County.

              Does that mean that Democrats are smarter than Republicans?  Time did a study in 2010 that found this saying on college campuses: “The College Democrats are said to be ugly, smug and intellectual; the College Republicans, pretty, belligerent and dumb.”  On a more serious note, the study attempted to determine that if conservatives are dumber, why?  A non-partisan researcher found:

              “…that more-intelligent people are more likely to say they are liberal. They are also less likely to say they go to religious services.”  Further, “…that smarter people are more willing to espouse "evolutionarily novel" values.”

              
              Mitt Romney
              If you are wondering just how important early voting is to the candidates, back to that bellwether state of Iowa.  Although the state has only six electoral votes, President Obama made repeated visits there because Iowa has more than a month of early voting.  In contrast, says Ben Jacobs of the Daily Beast, he has paid less attention to another battleground state, Virginia.  Even so, Obama is up 4 points in Virginia over Romney. 

              Now get out there and vote early but be sure and vote!

              Thursday, June 7, 2012

              You will vote in November how your TV tells you to

              Well, that’s not all of us.  There are still some thinking individuals out there that will examine the issues and closely evaluate the candidates, then cast their votes in an intelligent way.  Sure, they also watch the television ads but most of them just laugh off the sheer stupidity of two sides trying to make each other look like idiots, socialists, lovers of money, suckers for the needy, the list goes on and on.  That’s the reason most of us have to go to the trenches for our information. 

              The GOP is best at the attack and hate ads, created and nurtured to this day by GWB’s top henchman, Karl Rove.  In his latest, “President Barack Obama wears shades, sings Al Green, dances with Ellen DeGeneres, quaffs a Guinness, calls hip-hop megastar Kanye West a ‘jackass,’ and "slow jams the news with Jimmy Fallon.” He is being portrayed as a “rock star,” according to Oliver Knox of Yahoo News.  A dangerous point being made is that popularity is bad.

              My headline is based on an article on CNN by Julian Zelizer, “How political ads can elect a president,” that illustrates the issue by documenting some current and past political advertising.  He starts with Rove’s American Crossroads group in an ad claiming that President Obama has “failed to help American families.”  Although the fact that the President hasn’t been able to help these folks is true, the blame lies entirely with Republicans that block everything he does.

              You might remember Roger Ailes, Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign consultant who said, “Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it."  Nixon didn’t and he lost the election to John F. Kennedy by 84 electoral votes.  It was Dwight Eisenhower, who Nixon served with as VP, who took the advice of Rosser Reeves who thought it the best way to reach the voters.  He was right.

              
              President Obama
              
              On the other hand, Democrat Adlai Stevenson, a statesman, not a politician, said, "The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process." Eisenhower won that election and the process of “merchandising” a candidate was here to stay.  What is so pathetic is the fact that treating candidates like a commodity has taken away the public’s ability to know just what they stand for…only against.

              If you want to see what the old political ads on television looked like, Zelizer suggests a site called Living Room Candidate, which lists them from 1952 to 2008.  The latter an election of both parties offering change instead of more of the same.  An African-American President was elected for the first time over an old warhorse that should have quit long ago, Arizona Senator John McCain.  Well what we did get was change but in the form of a divisive GOP against Obama.

              Media doesn't believe in transparency of political ads video:

              Zelizer illustrates what types of spots will dictate how your decision will be made in voting for President in November.  First there is the “character assassination spot,” designed to show “perceived weakness of their opponent.”  Lyndon Johnson used this in his “Daisy ad” which was supposed to portray Barry Goldwater with his finger on the nuclear button.  It did and Johnson won.  Eisenhower utilized ads like “High Prices” affecting voters at the time.

              GOP, the party of NO
              In 1972, Richard Nixon used how Democrats would cut the defense budget, thus, weakening the security of the U.S. to beat George McGovern.  Then in 1988 there was George H. W. Bush’s “Willie Horton” ad to show Michael Dukakis was weak on law and order.  Bush won.  As an example of the ludicrousness of these ads, the prison furlough program, involving Willie Horton, wasn’t even signed into law by Dukakis.  But the oblivious bunch didn’t bother to find that out.

              Zelizer leaves us with the “I am good and you should elect me” spot.  {My terminology}  He says the candidates boast of either what they have accomplished or what they will accomplish.  Jimmy Carter used this in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Barack Obama with his “Change” slogan in 2008.  All three were elected, although some negativity crept in on both sides.  But it was clearly refreshing while it lasted.

              The author warns that Obama and Romney must be careful of the spots they run, as well as those run by Super Pacs that seem to have created a life of their own.  The Pacs are almost completely uncontrolled in the money they can raise and the people they get it from, particularly when it comes to identifying amounts and the donors.  And this is where most of the dirt and hate originates from.  It’ll be interesting to see just how many “positive” messages we get leading up to Nov.

              Friday, June 1, 2012

              Washington’s problem is the GOP

              It’s official.  Two top political scientists commented in a recent op-ed, "Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem."  Further, "We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional.  In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”

              This is heavy stuff reported by David Frum on CNN, but once again illustrates what President Barack Obama has been up against during his first term in office.  Frum is quoting from Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, “two of Washington's most veteran watchers of Congress. Both men have hard-earned reputations for nonideological independence of mind despite their institutional affiliations.”  Mann is liberal, Ornstein is conservative. 

              Ornstein and Mann continue, "The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country's challenges."

              In their new book, "It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism," Frum states that it is clear that the GOP has acted in a “uniquely irresponsible way.”  He cites a number of examples like Republicans almost forcing a default on U.S. obligations in the debt slowdown; a delay on many actions in the senate; and holding up executive-branch nominations.  Just because of Barack Obama.

              Karl Rove looking for guidance
              It can all be traced back to the master of deceit, lies and fear mongering.  Karl Rove.  His Crossroads group is spending $25 million from donors he will not identify to back Republicans in Congress to denigrate and demonize President Obama.  A media analysis group has indicated that Crossroads GPS is the biggest spender on advertising for the general election up to this point.  So far they have spent $12.6 million in placing 17,000 spots in 47 television markets.

              I did a post back in January of this year, “Can Republican HATE politics bring this country down?”  For the piece I Googled “GOP hate” and “Republican hate” and was able to formulate a list of what some pretty influential sites and organizations think Republicans hate.  The results were as follows:

              Taxes, the poor and hungry, gays, Hispanics, liberals, gun control, animal rights, the truth, women, even those pregnant, the Occupy Movement, Barack Obama, science (as in stem cell research), public education, environmentalism, veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, teachers, unions, and, yes, even other Republicans (as in Newt Gingrich)

              Example of Karl Rove HATE:

              Norman Lear, who abhorred bigotry, and was the creator of the Archie Bunker character on TV, was attacked for his liberal views by ministers Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.  Robertson responded with a threat of God’s wrath against him.  Jerry Falwell told his followers, “I am about to name the man that some people believe to be the greatest threat to the American family in our generation: Norman Lear!"  Lear founded the organization People for the
              American Way
              .

              I also used George Orwell’s novel, 1984, to draw a comparison in my post to the connection between hate and the GOP.  In 1984, Emmanuel Goldstein is the face of the “Two Minutes Hate” which the citizens of Oceania were subjected to on a regular basis.  They were whipped up into a tremendous frenzy to hate Goldstein and anything else that didn’t agree with the Party.  One might characterize Barack Obama as the modern day Emmanuel Goldstein. 

              What Goldstein said made perfect sense in defying this extremely hellish atmosphere and no matter how much hatred was directed against him and his leftist beliefs, his influence never seemed to grow less.  The “hellish atmosphere” cited would be how Republicans hold the White House and the country hostage in attempting to carry out their deranged ideologies.  And we are guaranteed that will not subside until Pres. Obama is re-elected in Nov.  Maybe not even then.

              But closing with another Mann and Ornstein point; the solution to all this must be found outside politics.  They feel the problem “will not be solved until America's rich and America's elderly become either less fearful or more generous.”  These are two terms that are at different ends of the spectrum but explain exactly what this country is up against today.

              Friday, May 25, 2012

              Obama must go to the trenches to win in November

              During the middle of April, a CNN poll of registered voters showed the President leading Mitt Romney by nine points if the vote was held then.  Today, a Washington Post-ABC News poll reports that they are tied at 47 percent.  The latter does show that overall, 49 percent are actually in Obama’s corner with 46 percent for Romney.  The CNN poll was conducted just 2 days after Hilary Rosen said that Ann Romney hadn’t worked a day in her life.

              Other polls found that the decision by President Obama to approve gay marriage could hurt him but nowhere is this proving to be a major barrier in voting for him.  Christians say he can have the gay vote and 2010 exit polls say he received 70 percent of it.  The GOP garnered 31 percent.  With 3.5 percent of Americans identifying themselves as gay/lesbian, that is just under 11 million potential voters that must be convinced that they can expect more from a progressive.

              John Boehner
              President Obama political strategy:
              The CNN poll says that 55 percent of women are in Obama’s corner compared to 39 percent for Romney.  With an all-out assault against the ladies by the GOP, it’s hard for me to understand how any woman could vote Republican, except maybe Ann Romney.  House Speaker John Boehner continued the rage recently by pushing a House bill that “…seriously weakens the Violence Against Women Act.”  And there’s a lot more where that came from.

              Abortion, the constant push to repeal Roe v. Wade.  Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a law recently moving the ban on abortions from 20 weeks to 18.  Many of these laws “…omit reasonable exceptions for a woman’s health or cases of rape, incest or grievous fetal impairment.”  All include criminal penalties and fines that make doctors reluctant to do an abortion.  Republican lawmakers, with the religious right on their backs, think only of re-election, not the pregnant woman.

              Jan Brewer
              Access to health care is also threatened as evidenced by another stupid move by Jan Brewer to eliminate funding in Arizona for Planned Parenthood.  These funds were already blocked from being used for abortions, now this dingbat has cut off care to women for care like cancer screening and family planning.  This is the only place these folks had to go.  Last year the House GOP tried to limit PP funding for birth control, cancer screening and other preventive care.

              Equal Pay.  President Obama has been attempting for three years to improve on the “…1963 Equal Pay Act to enhance remedies for victims of gender-based wage discrimination…”  He wants to “…mandate that employers show that wage differences are job-related, not sex-based, and driven by business necessity.”  It is beyond me what possible difference it could make to a man that his female counterpart is making the same as him.  Unless it’s a masculinity thing.

              Domestic violence.  The Senate tried to renew the Violence Against Women Act, designed to protect victims of domestic and sexual abuse.  But the House version omitted protections for gay, Indian, student and immigrant abuse victims.  In some cases this will make the abused stay with the abuser, ultimately resulting in more violence.  Of course this isn’t a Republican voting block so why should they care.

              Romney is still seen as one who will likely change his position on issues to fit the situation with more feeling that Obama will stand up for what he believes than Romney.  Now if I was looking for someone to depend on doing what they said they would do after the election, it would be hands-down-Obama.  The president will hopefully have a more favorably stacked Congress after November so he won’t have constant GOP opposition to everything he presents.

              The economy is the thing.  80 percent of Americans still think it’s bad but 54 percent feel positive about the future and 58 percent think their financial prospects will improve.  Obama has promoted tax breaks for small business, wants to end oil and gas subsidies and wants to allow the millionaire tax breaks to expire.  Romney is against the latter two, has recently touted the 100,000 jobs Bain Capital, his former company, created.  And of course, cut, cut, cut taxes.

              The President has an edge on Independent voters with a differential somewhat favorable in age/income, but these numbers are hard to confirm and maintain.  My guess is still that the Hispanics will get their act together and it will be this vote that helps re-elect Barack Obama, and give the Dems. additional seats in the House and Senate in states where they have the numbers.  The question is what kind of campaign will Romney run.  On the issues or Karl Rovish??? 

              Wednesday, May 23, 2012

              GAY MARRIAGE: do you want it or not? The Bible doesn’t oppose it

              Caitlin Stark of CNN has “done the numbers” on gay marriage and has come up with the following results:

              • 11 countries worldwide have legal same-sex marriage
              • There are 646,000 same-sex couple households in the U.S., as of 2010
              • 3.5% of Americans identify themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual
              • Same-sex couple households have grown by 80.4% from 2000 to 2010
              • Only 48% of Americans oppose gay marriage in 2012, compared to 68% in 1996
              • 115,064 same-sex couple households in the U.S. have children
              • The District of Columbia has the highest percentage of same-sex households in the U.S. at 1.8%

              These numbers all come from qualified sources like the Gallup poll.  And the most significant findings in relation to the November elections are the facts that there has been a surge of same-sex couples since 2000, and the opposition to gay marriage has dropped by 20 points.  That’s almost 30 percent.  That would seem to indicate that either the religious right has lost much of its influence over the issue, or just a lot of Americans have finally opened their minds.

              In another Gallup survey taken the first of May, 50 percent of respondents want same-sex marriage compared to 48 percent who don’t.  And although the Dems. were solidly for and the GOP was mostly against, Independents approved at the rate of 53 percent with 44 percent against.  Interestingly, 40 percent of Americans said that President Obama’s decision to back same-sex marriage will have an effect on their vote in November. 

              The President will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination in North Carolina in September.  That state just approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.  The much needed Independent vote indicated 23 percent less likely to vote for Obama, 11 percent more likely.  However, overall 60 percent of Americans were unfazed.  Yet on the other side of the aisle, the Republican Party chairman claims most Americans agree with Mitt Romney’s stand against.

              Barack Obama is the first U.S. President to come out in favor of the ultimate right for gays.  It will no doubt garner the gay vote, and he didn’t have the conservative religious right anyway.  So what’s the take down?  The question is just where does that 66 percent of Independent voters stand on the matter that haven’t indicated being for or against?  Also, there have been rumbles in the Hispanic community of dissent but probably won’t cost him their votes.

              “According to a report released in May 2011 by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, same-sex relations are still criminalized in 76 countries, and in five of those countries the death penalty can be applied (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania and Sudan).”  From the GlobalPublicSquare blog, the Netherlands was the first to make it legal followed by countries like Canada, Norway, Sweden and Spain.
              President Obama on gay marriage:

              But in many issues such as this, whether you are a devout Christian or a confirmed atheist, in the U.S. it ultimately comes down to what is in the Bible.  Say what you want but we do put a lot of faith in the “good book,” regardless of our interpretations.  The Bible is well documented and if you ignore the reworking from generation to generation, the original substance usually survives.  So many will be surprised that, “Nowhere does the Bible actually oppose homosexuality.”

              Shocked?  Southern Baptists are probably clicking off my blog right now, if I didn’t already lose them with the headline.  The above is a quote from Daniel Helminiak, who was ordained a priest in Rome, is a theologian, psychotherapist and author of “What the Bible Really Says about homosexuality.”  He is currently a professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia.  He says the Bible is “ho-hum on homosexuality” unless you talk of abuse and injustice.

              In the above article link, Helminiak talks about biblical passages re. male-male sex, resulting in their women exchanging “natural intercourse for unnatural.”  Although the apostle Paul called this dishonorable and unseemly, he added that even he was held in dishonor for preaching about Christ.  Also describing homosexuality as an abomination, Paul did not condemn male-male sex, and he never used ethical terms in its description.

              Just how the GOP will use Obama’s decision against him in November will say a lot about how low they will stoop to win an election.  I wonder what Karl Rove, whose father was gay, would do with the President’s decision to back same-sex marriage?  Rove recently accused him of politicizing it.  But there is one thing for sure, we know that the Tea Party will do everything in their power to turn this into a nasty attack on Obama.  Like all the rest of their unscrupulous tactics.

              Tuesday, January 31, 2012

              Can Republican HATE politics bring this country down?

              GOP Hate and Fear
              Daily Kos posted a piece recently, “Why Does The GOP Hate (everything sane)?” that is the best I’ve seen for putting Republican hate-mongering in perspective with its biggest supporter, the Tea Party.  It said, “The GOP has such an easy task when it comes to adapting people's minds to vote for them; Spread hate and they will be yours…”  Sounds like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the master, Karl Rove.  Also reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 but more on that later.

              I Googled “GOP hate” and “Republican hate” and was able to formulate a list of what some pretty influential sites and organizations think Republicans hate, as follows:

              Taxes, the poor and hungry, gays, Hispanics, liberals, gun control, animal rights, the truth, women, even those pregnant, the Occupy Movement, Barack Obama, science (as in stem cell research), public education, environmentalism, veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, teachers, unions, and, yes, even other Republicans (as in Newt Gingrich)

              There are probably more that I have missed but this will get the ball rolling and I encourage you to add to the list with your comments. 

              
              Norman Lear
              
              Many of us—all but the very young—remember Norman Lear’s TV sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers as the rest of the family.  Archie was a “nice” bigot and was constantly chastised by his son-in-law “Meathead” played by Rob Reiner.  Many thought this character was patterned after Lear who abhorred bigotry.  Because of its insightful humor the show lasted for nine years on CBS.

              Lear was concerned over how the religious right could repeatedly disgorge sermons that reeked of politics so he, through his organization People for the American Way, complained to a Los Angeles television station about one of Pat Robertson’s TV program.  Robertson responded with a threat of God’s wrath against him.  Jerry Falwell told his followers, “I am about to name the man that some people believe to be the greatest threat to the American family in our generation: Norman Lear!"

              Falwell’s “threat” comment garnered Lear hate mail and death threats, one so threatening that the TV producer had to get protection.  Since most of this religious pack are Republican, it is astonishing that their religion—if that’s what it really is—would allow them to do such a thing, although it is commonplace they would as a right-wing extremist, particularly Tea Partiers.  Lear’s position is that “Our founders clearly intended that there be a level of separation between church and state.”

              

              And as promised, the Orwellian connection between hate and the Republican Party.  In 1984, Emmanuel Goldstein is the face of the “Two Minutes Hate” which the citizens of Oceania were subjected to on a regular basis.  They were whipped up into a tremendous frenzy to hate Goldstein and anything else that didn’t agree with the Party.  What Goldstein said made perfect sense in defying this extremely hellish atmosphere and no matter how much hatred was directed against him and his leftist beliefs, his influence never seemed to grow less.

              Sound familiar?  George Orwell was a novelist and political writer who was well acquainted with social injustice in the world.  The proles of Oceania represent the poor and out of work people in the U.S. today who are completely ignored by the GOP in favor of supporting the wealthy and large corporations.  (See the poor and hungry and those on Medicaid in the list above.) 

              The difference is, where Goldstein’s followers, above, could only look on in the “Two Minute Hate” but could not take action, the progressive movement has begun to rebut the Republican hate messages with responses of hope.  There is no hope in hate, and the American public is beginning to see through the GOP façade.  And to answer the original question, the answer is NO, the Republican HATE politics will not bring this country down.

              If you haven’t already, please check out Norman Lear’s People for the
              American Way
              .

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