Report from AZ

Snowbirds find snow in North western Arizona. Right now it’s warmer where we were a month ago (WA state) than the Southwest. Major storm, cold wind & what happened to the sun?

Then that shoot out in Las Vegas. So sad. So far the Nevada drivers are the worst. So my guess was the big black SUV was out to give the owner of the foreign sports car a lesson? Or was this an assassination?

Back to the horrible – dangerous NV drivers. This is the state where the biggest, loudest car horn would be useful. Cars pull out of side streets – as if they are the only car on the road. The fools must have a death wish. Cars weave in and out of traffic lanes with inches to spare. What is Las Vegas metro traffic like during rush hour?

If I had to choose being caught in a major snow storm — far away from the gaudy Las Vegas strip — I’ll take the snow storm.

It looks like I can make on the road reports from my Android tablet.

Arizona is getting a reputation as one of the crazy states — front line on the war on
women, where ICE agents are more abundant than fleas (or cockroaches). This border war costs US taxpayers billions. I don’t even want to go anywhere near the Constitution free zone of Southern Arizona.

The good news is that there has been rain (and snow) and the Joshua trees have lots of new green growth. The Yucca also looks healthy. This may be an excellent wildflower spring in the making. We drove tbrough an area hard hit by wildfires in southeastern Oregon – the area was black for miles. But we could see shades of green – ever so slight – but the green was evident in the dead of winter.

Drones and state of the dis-Union

Drones are being used to kill. Seems like even former toys are being used for warfare.

What I find disturbing is that the gamers who are playing with the Drones and “following orders” to kill and harass people in foreign countries might get medals for killing people. Does that mean that medals for the highest “kills” will be awarded to creeps who sit on their asses and are far removed from the battle field and any personal danger.

Before I witnessed Drones flying over the National Forest in New Mexico — I assumed that these death machines were quiet. No way — they are loud but only after they pass. Which means that unless these killing machines are circling a target they can make a silent approach and drop bombs and missiles and the survivors will hear the loud engines as the drones fly away.

0bama can get away with murder — International war crimes. What if Bush had sent out drones to kill as often as 0bama? We can guess what the Democrats would be saying. But for 0bama — only a few seem to even care that children are being murdered by the President of the USA.

But then 0bama isn’t really a liberal — he is and will always be a Reagan Republican. The GOP offers no alternative — since wing nuts and radicals have taken over the former Grand Old Party. The GOP war on women continues – male Senators vote no on the Violence Against Women Act and 8 males tried to block this Bill. It almost seems like the GOP is enabling rapist and wife beaters. It is really discouraging to see the GOP sink to this level of misogynistic behavior. Hard to believe that at one time this party supported the ERA. Betty Ford would be very disappointed in today’s GOP.

Oh and then 0bama care — still not cost control. 0bama care is welfare for the “Health” Insurance Companies. From my reading of the whole bill plus other review of this mess — many people will buy “insurance” that they can’t afford and will end up being sicker. The co-pays for the Silver and Bronze plans are so expensive that there might not be any money left to both visit the doctor and pay for the visit.

What is so hard to understand about “single payer” and cost control. Why do we need to insure the lavish lifestyle of the insurance company CEOs. Seems like that is the only thing that these insurance plans really insure.

Constitution free zone

Last year I wrote about the US Coast Guard and their true job description — agents for Homeland Security. The response to this post was mixed — and the outrage that someone would tell the truth about the mythology of the Coast Guard being the good guys keep coming.

There is an old story about never allowing a camel to get it’s nose inside of your tent — because in no time the whole camel will be in the tent. Same idea about allowing the Constitution to be violated — each step towards the complete trashing of the US Constitution is easier to ignore until it is far too late to shove the camel out of the tent.

The facts of what is happening along ALL the US boarders is far worse then even I imagined — WITH the full support of the US Supreme Court — the US boarders are now also known as the Constitution Free Zone. There is a desire to extend the the Constitution Free Zone 100 miles. Imagine a strip of land (and water) extending into US territory. Anyone living in this Constitution Free Zone can now assume that they are expected to carry citizenship papers and perhaps — who knows if the current paranoia of the Government continues — we may all be micro-chipped?

Since the water Nazis can board any private boat and trash boat decks and the interior of boats — simply because they don’t have anything else to do — what else is next? As history is a witness when the Government decides that we the people are the enemy — we are treated like the enemy.

Right now there is a debate about Drones being used to murder US Citizens. The devoted 0bots tell us that 0bama is wise and to trust him. What if we agree and let the killing continue, after all, 0bama is a Democrat and aren’t Democrats the good guys? What if the GOP plan to rig the vote wins the 2016 election for one winner of the GOP primary. What if this new GOP president guy hates progressives and he has a long hit list — feminists, liberals, Democrats, progressives, Scientists, etc. etc. (yes — some extreme right groups do keep a kill list).

Right now the ultimate evil seems to be el Quaeda — so it is deemed “legal” to take out anyone who is or might be supporting this named terrorist organization. Maybe it is just me but I can never see the justification for murdering a 16 year old boy for the sins of his father. Al Quida is any easy target to hate — these guys have perfected their war on women. But the war on women isn’t why the extremist Islamic are being targets for Drone Strikes. Apparently anyone in a real or imagined leadership position is targeted.

It will be interesting to watch how long the politicians can keep their focus on death by Drones. Meanwhile back on the home front — our Constitution is under attack by State and Federal agencies using tax payer dollars.

More links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/05/obama-kill-list-doj-memo

Glenn Greenwald

Chilling legal memo from Obama DOJ justifies assassination of US citizens

The president’s partisan lawyers purport to vest him with the most extreme power a political leader can seize

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mhastings/the-drone-awakening

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/02/06/how-is-obamas-targeted-killing-program-permissible-under-international-law/

edited with corrected spelling of al Qaeda

Another opinion of the current USA President

Yesterday I offered my opinion that Prez 0bama is a Narcissistic, Authoritarian Despot. That’s the short version.

Glenn Greenwald writing in the Guardian UK has written the long version:

The polices adopted by the Obama administration just over the last couple of years leave no doubt that they are accelerating, not winding down, the war apparatus that has been relentlessly strengthened over the last decade. In the name of the War on Terror, the current president has diluted decades-old Miranda warnings; codified a new scheme of indefinite detention on US soil; plotted to relocate Guantanamo to Illinois; increased secrecy, repression and release-restrictions at the camp; minted a new theory of presidential assassination powers even for US citizens; renewed the Bush/Cheney warrantless eavesdropping framework for another five years, as well as the Patriot Act, without a single reform; and just signed into law all new restrictions on the release of indefinitely held detainees.

Most “Progressives” and Liberals aren’t going to say a word — this is their guy continuing the Bush/Cheney agenda. 0bama really doesn’t have an original bone in his body. 0bama can literally get away with murder and the Liberals don’t dare complain.

Look what happened to the peaceful Occupy Wall Street Protesters? People protesting inequality and the wrongs of their Government/Corporations is an American tradition — yet vast amount of tax payer dollars are being used to suppress all forms of dissent by the people.

The democrat party is dead. When the democrat party head quarters was moved to Chicago many of us predicted that the dirty Chicago political machine was the tombstone on the dem party.

The republican party is also dead — taken over by an especially sick band of religious fundamentalists who want to rewrite the Constitution to reflect the wishes of their particular god. For a detailed view of just how the wacky religious nutjobs took over the Republican party you need to read Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party, by Max Blumenthal.

I’ll be reviewing Blumenthal’s book as soon as I can wade through the sad history of the late great Republican Party. Former Presidential Candidate Bob Dole has risen in my estimation because he walked out on a meeting of the religious right leadership. These leaders of the religious right demanded that Dole play their puppet. There is a core meanness to the extreme religious right. We are seeing this meanness in the GOP leadership, including the GOP-light Prez 0bama.

The news really is depressing to all of us who care about America — but thankfully there are still the voices crying in the Wilderness.

Year and Years ago in the late 1960s San Francisco was very very Conservative. SF was so conservative that they refused to allow a monument to the UN to be placed in SF. Oakland’s Jack London Square, across the Bay from SF accepted the monument and there was a huge ceremony with the US Ambassador to the UN in attendance.  Today SF is considered one of the most Liberal cities in the US.

Who knows — perhaps one day the GOP will be the party of the real Liberals and the Dems will continue their decline and turn into the circus clowns?

 

Is Obama a Socialist

Short answer NO!

The lesser EVIL of the last election isn’t a Socialist. 

Evidence — in the fiasco now called “0bama care” — The Single Payer Option was never on the table for discussion nor was cost control of health care. The “health” insurance companies were given a free ride. Health care in the USA will be at third world levels for the foreseeable future. 

0bama true constituency are the International Corporations that put him in the white house. 

0bama ordered the murder by Drones of two USA citizens, father and son (16 years old). There was no trial — merely a summary execution. 

Many uninformed elders believe that communism = socialism. So when the FOX news talking heads repeated the meme “0bama is a Socialist” those who grew up during the Cold War era translated Socialist to Communist. 

What are the 3 characteristics  of Socialism?

1. Social ownership of the means of production 
2. Economic planning to coordinate production and investment 
3. Workers’ self-management or collective-decision making in firms

Note that the Corporations and very rich backers of 0bama are not Socialists. 0bama’s backers would not be dumping millions of dollars into an 0bama campaign that would turn around and harm the National and International Corporations in any way. 

The truth about 0bama is bad enough — he is a narcissistic individual as well as a pathological liar. Major environmental disasters have happened during 0bama’s watch — the environment was never even debated between the two Presidential candidates — which means that the greater Evil and lesser EVIL agreed essentially that the environment would be a write off during the next four years. 

During 0bama’s reign the banks, FBI and Homeland Insecurity banded together to torture and subdue the movement called Occupy Wall Street. These are not the actions of a Socialist but rather an Authoritarian Despot.

The truth about 0bama is bad enough — there is no need to make up lies by calling him a Socialist.  

Women in the World

Right now most of the world isn’t a safe place for women. 

In a recent ranking the United States ranked 6th on a list of the best and worst places to be a woman. The ERA is still a distant dream in the USA. The Violence against women act was rejected by the GOP. So does that mean that the GOP are now enablers of rapists and domestic violence against women? 

India is ranked as the worst place in the world to be a woman. 

The link above goes to Trust.org

Trustlaw is a one-stop shop for news and information on anti-corruption and women’s rights from our expert editorial team and content partners. 

 

GOP Light and the Lesser Evil

GOP Light a.k.a 0bama also the Lesser Evil of Election 2012

Back in 2008 0bama made threatening remarks about “fixing” Social Security. It seems that now 0bama’s true face as a GOP is slowly emerging.

From Talking Points Memo:

Amid news reports that President Obama is considering a proposal from House Speaker John Boehner to slow the growth of Social Security payments over time as part of a broader budget deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, senior Democratic congressional aides are portraying the idea as a more palatable alternative to other benefit cuts Republicans have sought. (Bolding added)

As part of a deal that would include higher taxes on top earners and an increase in the debt limit, Republicans are pushing a plan to index Social Security benefits and perhaps tax brackets to a slower-growing measure of inflation called chained CPI.

Meanwhile the thieves of Wall Street get a free never go to jail for massive fraud and theft pass. The Military Industrial Complex will also continue to feed off of the middle class tax payers — since the 1% are mostly dodging their fair share taxes. Mittens Romney refused to show us his tax records and of the two years he did release he was taxed at about 15% which is half or more of what the middle class tax rate.

So the Lesser Evil got out the vote — meanwhile 0bama’s true constituency are the folks who bank rolled his last election — the 1%.

0bama will screw the middle class — as he said he would in 2008.

Those of us who had the wisdom to vote for Jill Stein are now in a position to say — “We told you so.”

But then 0bama is the Lesser Evil along with his “pick on the fat kids” wife. Imagine Ann Romney who claims that being a Mormon missionary is as difficult and as dangerous as serving in a war zone  for the US military. Go Mormons — not. Google it — she made the comparison.

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update — fixed typos.