"Unparalleled Resistance Looms for Trump After Inauguration" Reports the Wall Street Journal

Although the article "Unparalleled Resistance Looms for Trump After Inauguration" (Janet Hook, January 10, 2017) is from the Wall Street Journal, pay attention to the language used:

Remember, back in the day, when newly elected presidents enjoyed a honeymoon?

Donald Trump wasn't elected.  He never gave President Obama - who was elected -twice! - a honeymoon, calling him illegitimate and Not One of Us until a few months ago. 

Donald Trump isn’t getting one. His adversaries are in combat mode, as if the campaign never ended. Demonstrations are planned. Money is pouring into the coffers of liberal groups. Activists are calling for an ongoing 'resistance' movement.

Although empirically true, framing opposition to Trump as a "liberal" issue would be like framing opposition to Hitler as a "Jewish" issue.   Resistance to Trump (no air quotes needed) rests on a bedrock of universal principles such as law, transparency, ethics, mutual respect, access to healthcare, and national sovereignty (do foreign leaders such as Putin have a right to choose for us who our president should be or do we just act like nothing happened?). 

Mr. Trump is getting a taste of his own medicine because he, too, is behaving as if the campaign never ended. For weeks, he has continued to lob provocative tweets about his critics and the media, derided people who supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, reveled in his election victory and took a victory lap of 'thank you' rallies across the country in December.

No, he impugned a civil rights icon, calling getting beaten unconscious on a bridge in Selma and organizing a successful campaign of peaceful resistance throughout the country "all talk, no action." 

He attacked Meryl Streep not on the content of what she said (that he was a bully mocking a disabled reporter and giving others permission to do the same) but based on an unsolicited rating of her acting ability (he called her an "overrated actress" …  and that is relevant… how?).

Now, when he takes office Jan. 20, Mr. Trump will be facing some of the most virulent opposition ever to confront a new president. His approval ratings, while on the rise, are still the lowest of any president-elect in recent polling history.

Virulent?  Really?  That's the word you had to go for?  How about determined, committed, principled, fierce.  Would you call John Lewis's civil rights marchers "virulent"?  Wait, this is the Wall Street Journal - perhaps you would. 

Mark Meckler, a conservative activist involved in the founding of the tea-party movement, believes that Mr. Trump’s detractors are trying to delegitimize his presidency, not just oppose his policies.  'It’s disgusting, and is only serving to solidify the support that Trump and Republicans have garnered,' he said.

Oh, PUH-LEEEZE!  A movement that showed up with poorly-spelled posters of Obama with Hitler moustaches demanding "their" country back, whose supporters ran that birther racist lie as far down the field as they could get, who shouted "YOU LIE!" during a State of the Union address by our first African-American president now finds delegitimizing a (white) president "disgusting"? 

Do you know what I find disgusting?  Lying, cheating, and stealing and tolerating those who do.  Or working your ass off to try to steal healthcare from hardworking Americans.  Or stripping women of their access to legal reproductive health services.   Or calling President Obama a "racist with a deep-seated hatred of white people." 
And spare me the "support that Trump and Republicans have garnered" crap.   If you define "support" as having 27% of registered voters choose your man who lost by 3 million votes to our woman, losing seats in the House and Senate to Democrats, and having a president-elect with the lowest approval rating since we've been measuring these things, then you need a new dictionary. 

But I do love these numbers (although I reject the idea that women's health is a "liberal" cause - if it is this not an admission that Republicans want women to die of undiagnosed breast and cervical cancer?): 

Other critics of Mr. Trump are registering their anger and disappointment with a flood of donations to liberal causes. Planned Parenthood received 315,000 donations from across the country in the month after the election, 70% of which were new donors. The American Civil Liberties Union received $35.3 million in post-election donations as of Jan. 4 — up from $3.6 million over the same period a year ago."

And we have only just begun. 

#NotMyPresident

The text of the article: 

"President Barack Obama in 2009 faced resistance from the fledgling tea-party movement, but polls suggested that many opponents were cutting him slack as he was inaugurated: 67% viewed Mr. Obama positively in December 2008, compared to 41% who viewed Mr. Trump favorably in December 2016, according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News polls.

"Even former President George W. Bush was viewed favorably by more voters — 49% — in December 2000, amid the bitter, unprecedented legal battle over that year’s presidential election.

"Neither Mr. Obama nor Mr. Bush saw their first days shadowed by the sorts of organized protests that are expected to assemble against Mr. Trump. The day after his inauguration, the 'Women’s March on Washington' is expected to draw more than 100,000 protesters to the nation’s capital and other cities will be hosting related events.

"Celebrities like John Oliver, in his late-night comedy show, and Meryl Streep, in her recent Golden Globe awards speech, have been urging people to keep up the fight against the new president. Mr. Trump dismissed Ms. Streep as an “overrated actress” and has derided other “so-called A-list celebrities” who supported Mrs. Clinton.

"Michael Moore, a filmmaking rabble-rouser, and Robert Reich, former Labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, are calling for “100 Days of Resistance” to Mr. Trump.

"A group of former congressional aides in mid-December posted the manifesto “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” which went viral in progressive circles. The authors argued that Democrats should take a page from the tea-party’s playbook and focus on grassroots, local organizing to fight the Trump agenda.

“Their tactics weren’t fancy: They just showed up on their own home turf, and they just said no,” they said in a column last week in the New York Times. “Here’s the crazy thing: It worked.”

"Mark Meckler, a conservative activist involved in the founding of the tea-party movement, believes that Mr. Trump’s detractors are trying to delegitimize his presidency, not just oppose his policies.

“It’s disgusting, and is only serving to solidify the support that Trump and Republicans have garnered,” he said.

"Other critics of Mr. Trump are registering their anger and disappointment with a flood of donations to liberal causes. Planned Parenthood received 315,000 donations from across the country in the month after the election, 70% of which were new donors. The American Civil Liberties Union received $35.3 million in post-election donations as of Jan. 4 — up from $3.6 million over the same period a year ago.

Some people have been moved to jump into the fray of elective politics. Amanda Crabb, a college professor in Quincy, Mass., responded to the 2016 election by participating in a candidate-training webinar with VoteRunLead, a nonpartisan group that encourages women to run for office.

Ms. Crabb had toyed with the idea of running for a post on the local school committee in 2015, but backed down in part because she lacked confidence in her qualifications, she said in an interview. Now that a political novice has been elected president, she is feeling emboldened to step out.

“It’s hard for me to see him in office,” Ms. Crabb said. “He stands for so many things I don’t stand for.”

Erin Vilardi, head of VoteRunLead, said that the group has seen a surge of interest in their webinar candidate training sessions: 1,100 women signed up for the December training; another 1,200 participated in another last Saturday.

“Looking at Trump, women are saying, ‘What am I waiting for? If that guy can do it, I can,’” Ms. Vilardi said.

Was GOP Senator Ted Cruz Heckled by Jesus?

Republican Party

Was GOP Senator Ted Cruz Heckled by Jesus?

By Mike Victor Oct. 11, 2013   33 Comments    

Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas pauses while heckled by a man identified only as JC while speaking at the Values Voter Summit, held by the Family Research Council Action, Friday, Oct. 11, 2013.

A Friday morning summit of religious conservatives in Washington took a bizarre twist when a tall, bearded, Palestinian man dressed in a white robe and a yamaka, later identified only by his initials "JC" with which he used to sign into the event, repeatedly stood and heckled Sen.Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as the Senator tried to deliver red-meat lines to the right wing faithful about the horribleness of the Affordable Care Act (which he repeatedly referred to as "Oblamacare").   When Cruz called Obamacare a “disaster” and a “trainwreck” that violates the Constitution, JC stood and said in what others described as a clear, calm, commanding voice:

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Some of those in attendance immediately recognized the line as Matthew 5:25 and felt the heckler was part of the presentation, advocating the delivery of their "adversary" (President Obama) to the "judge" so actually applauded.  

Not sure how to respond himself, Cruz laughed, nervously, muttered "that's right - I think" then continued his diatribe against the president and healthcare reform.  He said he agreed with radio talk show host Mark Levin who called the law a “direct assault on religious liberties” as well as a massive expenditure which would threaten the wealth of those in the room, to which JC rose and said,

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

His last words were drowned out by chants of "USA! USA! USA!" and when security approached the heckler he was able to still them by simply raising a finger.

Cruz engaged the heckler, as he had dozens of others.  "Buddy, I appreciate your memorization of some random biblical passages.  That's especially impressive if you work for President Obama who we all know owns only a Quran."

The stranger said over raucous laughter:  

   

Bear not false witness even against thine enemy.

To which the audience booed loudly and the security again tried to lay hands on him.  

”Is anybody left at the Organizing for America headquarters?” Cruz jokingly asked.  "You do a very good Jesus impersonation, but you came to the wrong convention.  We are here to talk about Christian values:  shrinking government by cutting off unnecessary, wasteful nutrition assistance to poor mothers and children, sealing our borders so illegals can't use our schools and hospitals, and making sure tough sentencing mandates keep our prisons full and our streets safe."

To which the stranger replied:

Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.  I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink.  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.  Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

At this point security managed to grab the man's garments and pull him from the room, more for his protection than to stop his heckling.  The crowd was turning ugly, especially the Southern Baptists who had been acting strangely disinhibited after the sparkling water they had ordered for the event had earlier been turned into some sort of alcoholic beverage, a sweet wine that no vendors were able to identify.

Civil rights and LGBT rights groups who had bashed the conference for being “anti-gay” witnessed JC offering no resistance as he was pulled from the room.  When one of the group started to shout "FASCISTS!  FASCISTS!  FASCISTS!" JC silenced them by raising his hand and saying:

           Forgive them for they know not what they do.

Security released the stranger after he promised not to re-enter the hall.  However, several minutes after Cruz continued, his talk was interrupted again by sounds from the lobby:  shouts and the sound of glass shattering and something heavy hitting the ground.   Witnesses later said that the stranger had at first kept his promise to remain calm, talking quietly among the protesters, but then grew furious when he saw a table full of books by Pat Robertson entitled Pray and Grow Rich with an image of a Nordic-looking Jesus on the cover.   He overturned the table and many others, saying they were defiling this place.

When the owner of a stand selling pamphlets on how to survive the End Times pulled a concealed handgun, JC calmed visibly, put his hand on the man and - with the gun pressed against his chest - said,

Put up again thy gun into its place: for all they that take the gun shall perish with the gun.  

"He was so calm," the vendor said.  "It almost hypnotic.  I mean, he touched me and all my rage just sort of disappeared.   I put the gun away and started cleaning up my stuff.  Then I felt silly and just threw it all away.  I don't know if I will come to these things again.  It's just getting too weird for me."  

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was crossing the lobby in time to see the stranger turning over the tables, shouted out at him to stop.   When the stranger disappeared - literally according to several witnesses - Paul swept his hands over the scattered DVDs and books comparing Obama's Dreams of My Father to Hitler's Mein Kampf and said this just showed you how far the left would go on its “war on Christianity.  Some people just really want to get attention, I guess," he said, stepping past a dozen posters of President Obama with a Hitler moustache now sprawled over the lobby floor.  "It's getting harder and harder to be a true Christian these days."  

Although most of the attendees were convinced that JC was some liberal imposter, a few were not so sure.  "I think it might have been Jesus," said a conference attendee who asked not to be identified.  "Stranger things have happened.  Bleeding paintings.  Clouds.  Grilled cheese sandwiches.  It's not how I imagined the guy, but who knows?"

Cruz was not available for an interview, leaving immediately after his speech to make sure the government stayed shut down. 

Read more

Congressman Mike Pompeo is Predicting (and Shilling) an Obamacare "Train Wreck" But If Past Predictions Are a Guide, You're Better Off Consulting Your Magic 8 Ball

Congressman Mike Pompeo, one of those junior far right Republicans who helped shut our government down, is predicting on his website (with a bit of relish) the "train wreck" that "Obamacare" will be. 

Before taking a prediction seriously, it's a good idea to see how past predictions fared.  Mike Pompeo's have been pretty bad.
In 2009, Pompeo was propelled into national office convinced that President Obama was ruining America and it was his job to turn things around.  He spoke frequently about the dire consequences that would follow specifically from Obamacare (which of course was years away from being launched, but why let facts get in the way of a strongly held opinion?) and more generally from that dastardly, indecisive, apologetic new president we had just elected.
Pompeo made some specific predictions about what a continued Obama regime would do for Kansas and the world. 
On 9/10/09, Pompeo said America needs to improve its health care system, but he lashed out at the government's involvement, saying "I've never seen something government gets involved in that reduced cost or made something more efficient."  This is ironic, coming from someone who received a $250,000 federal education (for free) followed by 5 years as a federal employee (in the military), and who wanted at the time to continue serving this government he felt was so terrible.
He was particularly mad about an energy bill that had just passed that will return "like a bad movie," and be the largest tax hike in history "in the guise of environmental protection."  By capping CO2 emissions, the bill would make domestic oil drilling nearly impossible.  "What you'll see is jobs go away and food be imported from around the globe," he said.
So one speech, three predictions (he repeated these in other appearances, so it wasn't that he misspoke in a burst of enthusiasm - he really meant what he said):

   1. Domestic oil drilling would drop (and presumable domestic fossil fuel production in general).
   2. The United States would be become a net food importer.
   3. Unemployment would rise as jobs would "go away".

Not a single prediction came true.

   1. Under President Obama, domestic oil production quietly but consistently rose.  At some point, the United States did something it had not for decades:  it produced more oil and other fossil fuels than it consumed, becoming a net importer of energy.
   2. The United States continues to be an agricultural powerhouse and strongly positive net exporter of food.  We produce so much food we must pay our farmers not to or they will flood the market.   American agriculture was a whopping $173 billion in 2012 (and that is only 1% of our enormous and growing economy).
   3.  Although job growth has been slower than in past recoveries, it has been positive.  Pompeo got the direction and magnitude of job growth wrong.  Unemployment, both nationally and in his state of Kansas, has fallen about 25% since he predicted the end of the economic world under an Obama administration.   At 10% when he spoke, unemployment is now nationally about 7.5%.  In Kansas, unemployment fell from 7.2% in 2009 to 5.5% recently (it bumped up a bit to 5.9% in August, 2013, perhaps because of Pompeo's party's sequester).   In October, 2009, initial claims for unemployment in Kansas were as high as 22,815.  By the most recent report (July, 2013), they had plunged 37% to 14,264. 

So before you consider heeding someone's breathless predictions of failure, consider not just their motivation but their track record.  Our economy and the Affordable Care Act may very well experience some rough patches ahead but it won't be because Pompeo predicted them and many things will continue to improve for Americans (which won't be because of a second term Kansas representative or any of other handful of far right Republicans whose idea of governing is shutting down the government they campaigned to be part of). 

Notes

Unemployment in Kansas when Pompeo spoke was

                        7.2% in 2009; it fell to

                        5.5% in 2013 before recently climbing a bit to 5.9% (August, 2013)

                                    Civilian labor force = 1,485,042 as of 10/3/2013

            Then:

There were 22,815 initial claims for unemployment benefits in October 2009, up from 17,501 initial claims for September and up from 17,296 in October 2008.

The October 2009 unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September and up from 4.3 percent in October 2008.

            Now:

                        14,264 initial claims for unemployment benefits in July, 2013.

37% lower than when Pompeo predicted that Kansas under an Obama regime would suffer economically

 

Why is the "Party of Responsibility" So Adamantly in Favor of Free-Riding?

People have a hard time understanding insurance and Republicans are more than happy to play into their ignorance. It is difficult to understand because the benefit is intangible (you cannot touch, feel, or taste the protection your insurance policy gives you) but the cost (the premium paid) is very immediate, measurable, and palpable.
One does not buy insurance as a prediction that one is going to get sick anymore than one buys auto insurance in the anticipation one is going to get into a car accident. But one also doesn't feel ripped off (or shouldn't) if you go the entire year and don't get into a car accident. Homeowners don't celebrate when their homes burn down so that they can finally "get something back" from their homeowner's insurance. The whole idea of insurance is that everyone tosses a few bucks into the pot so that one or two people out of a very large pool will - if they need it - be able to withdraw that money. And if this year, you don't need it, the probabilistic coverage was still beneficial, and next year you might be the one in need. You just don't know.
What the Republicans want is for the many who won't have to collect from the pot (even if they don't know who they are) not to be forced to donate their fair share - even though they anticipate (often incorrectly) that if they have an accident or get sick, they can always take advantage of the system anyway (an emergency room visit here, an unpaid doctor's visit there). It's called free-riding and it's wrong and it's mind-boggling how the party of personal responsibility would push such a massive act of civil disobedience, as they are doing in their attempts to sabotage the exchanges and healthcare reform more generally. They should be ashamed.

Fact Check : 91% of the Debt Since 2001 Comes from President Bush Policies or Failures

20 Tea Party radicals claim that they have a right to shut down our entire government because of an out of control president who does not listen to "The People" (meaning the couple thousand white folks they represent in their little gerrymandered district of Texas or Kansas).  The president, they allege, has contributed to runaway spending, deficits, and debts.  He must be stopped and since the Constitutional, legal approach has not worked, they must act outside the law.  After all, as at least one of these tea people said repeatedly, "We are right."  Actually, they are as wrong as rain.

9%.  Remember that number - it's the percentage of the increase in debt since 2001 that can be attributed to President Obama's single round of 2010 stimulus spending (if you blinked and missed it, you can be forgiven; the GOP seems under the impression the clock stopped (and started) in 2010).

91%.  Remember that number also - it's the percentage of the increase in debt that has nothing to do with President Obama and everything to do with policies or events that were launched by President Bush.

Breaking it down by president and percentage:
  34% simply results from the Bush Recession and economic collapse (leading to a collapse in tax collection - bankrupt households and businesses don't pay tax);
  16% stems from the Bush tax cuts (which led to 14% higher interest on the debt). 
  War and defense spending added another 29%. 

Legacy costs of the war, including increased VA and Medicare (veterans have and use Medicare and injured ones more) spending from the Bush wars (all those brain injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder cases have to be treated, no matter how much the Tea Party would love to figure out a way not to spend taxpayer money doing so) are not even included in these figures, which would make the relative Obama contribution smaller still than 9%.  



2001-2011 Debt Increase:
 % inc $T* Item
34%   3.5   Bush recession -> lower tax revenues
16%   1.6   Bush tax cuts
15%   1.5   Bush defense spending increases
14%   1.4   Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
14%   1.4   interest from higher debt (marginal)
  9%   0.9  Obama stimulus spending

          10.3  Total    *trillions of dollars
 
By the way, these numbers are not from some left wing think tank but from the CBO, THE final referee and authority on budget squabbles.  In the interest of full disclosure, I also used a calculator and a sharpened pencil.

So the GOP 91% of the debt we are now facing and for which the Republicans are trying to make President Obama grovel before authorizing more borrowing.  Only 9% of the debt comes directly from his stimulus plan which, when you think about it, was only necessary because of the Bush Recession!

Making President Obama beg before granting him the right to operate a government deeply in debt from failed Republican policies is sort of like making your neighbor mow your lawn before you will "let" him mail your mortgage payment for you.


Sources:  "National Debt of the United States", CBO changes in 2001 Projections

If We All Behaved Like Congress : Government Partially Defunded in One Man Tax Revolt

Government Partially Defunded in One Man Tax Revolt

Joe Smith/The New York Times

Obama's Statement on Unpaid Taxes: President Obama urged Mike Victor to pay his taxes, saying it would be the “height of irresponsibility” not to.

By JOE BLOW

Published: September 30, 2013 2036 Comments

GENEVA— A flurry of last-minute calculations by Mike Victor failed to break a bitter budget standoff with the IRS over President Obama’s health care law, setting in motion the first non-payment of taxes by Mike Victor in nearly four decades.

The impasse meant that no individual federal tax return would be filed since no agreement between Mike Victor and the IRS could be reached.  

After a series of back and forth letters and faxes, the IRS affirmed that despite individual opposition to a particular law, Mike Victor could not unilaterally attempt to block that law, not paying the taxes owed to finance its implementation.    The amount in question worked out to less than $1.00 and in back years would be positive (meaning Mike Victor would have to pay taxes for savings realized by healthcare reform) but it was enough to bring the entire tax return filing process to a screeching halt.  

"We simply cannot allow the selective funding of laws that citizens like or don't," a representative from the IRS said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the one-man tax revolt.  "That is not how a country of laws works.  Mr. Victor had his opportunity to express his opposition to the law years ago when he voted for his Congressional representative.  He also could have called his representative or showed up - armed or unarmed - to a town hall meeting set up to discuss healthcare reform."

The IRS dismissed as game-playing Mike Victor's proposal to begin "conference committee negotiations."  "What conference?  What negotiations?  It's a law, get over it, pay your damn taxes."

Mike Victor expressed frustration that the IRS said they felt they had a "gun to their heads." He admits coming close to failing to pay his taxes in the past but had always reached a last-minute agreement to head off penalties and fines the IRS promised to levy.  

In the hours leading up to the deadline, Mike Victor and his wife, in a vote of 1 to 1 along gender lines, approved a new plan in which all of his taxes would be paid except for the $.12 they estimated the new law would cost, tied to a one-year delay in a requirement that individuals buy health insurance.

But with almost no debate, the IRS dismissed this proposal in a curt letter.  An IRS official admitted there had been no debate or serious consideration of the proposal and expressed consternation that there would be.  

“He's lost his mind," the official said, before disposing of the House bill. “He keeps trying to pull the same stunt year after year.  You don’t get to extract a ransom from your government.  You're a citizen?  Pay your damn taxes."

Mr. Victor called the IRS hotline shortly before midnight, but he spoke with a representative for less than 10 minutes, without any sign of progress.

“I talked to the IRS tonight,” Mr. Victor said.  He summed up the IRS's remarks as: “I’m not going to negotiate. I’m not going to negotiate.  In fact, the representative I spoke with was quite rude, pretending not to know what I was talking about.”

Mike Victor's most ardent conservative friends were resigned to seeing through his private war on the health care law to its inevitable conclusion, a failure to file that could test the IRS's patience with his brinkmanship.

Cracks in his marriage were opening into fissures of frustration.  “My husband is obsessed with this issue," his wife said.  "He keeps saying somehow if I'm not with him, I'm for Obamacare.  He even says this to the children.  Our 8-year-old started crying last night, asking what Oblamacare is.  He ruined dinner by explaining it to her, even the individual mandate.   She had nightmares about a government takeover of one-sixth of the economy.  It’s just getting a little old.  It’s moronic not to pay any taxes over this."

Asked if she would remain married indefinitely under these circumstances, she looked away.  “I don’t know. I don’t know.  But what can I do?" she asked.  "He has the Turbotax software.  He has taken over this entire process, locked our W2 and mortgage interest forms in his office.  They're my taxes too, but he keeps saying 'I'm the decider.'" She put the blame for the failure to file any return at all solely on his shoulders.  

In one of his final moves, Mike Victor offered to attach language to his return that would promise payment in full of the amount owed if the government would delay the mandate that individuals obtain health insurance.    "The IRS representative just hung up on me, saying she had to help people with real questions.  Is that not a real question?"

Mike Victor's tax revolt — if followed by any other Americans -  could threaten to close federal offices and facilities, idling thousands of workers around the country.  It stemmed from an unusual push by local Republicans to undo a law that has been on the books for three years, through a presidential election, and that the Supreme Court largely upheld in 2012. A major part of the law is set to take effect Tuesday: the opening of insurance exchanges, where people without insurance will be able to obtain coverage.

Mike Victor argues that the administration has itself delayed elements of the law.  "The administration delay is clear evidence that even the president does not think the bill is perfect.   What kind of a country is this when we allow imperfect bills to be executed?"  When Mr. Victor was reminded that the bill was actually a law and had been for years, he shook his head defiantly.  "Next you're going to tell me that President Obama is not a Kenyan-born socialist muslim," he said.  "I'm not buying it for a second."

Mr. Victor claims that "millions" of Americans agree with him but is unable to name any.  He is unaware if anyone else decided to face the massive penalties that will come with willful failure to file any tax return at all.  "I had a couple friends who sounded interested, but they all said they had kids to put through college and could not afford a battle with the IRS right now."  He looked disgusted.  "Did the Minute Men say that at Concord?  Did the Greatest Generation say that on D-Day?"

An IRS spokesman said that to her knowledge no other taxpayers have joined Mr. Victor who seems to be driven by the most extreme elements of Fox News who first suggested using the federal tax filing system to extract concessions on health care that Republicans could not win through the traditional legislative process.

Sean Hannity himself could not be reached for comment, but a transcript from several shows indicates that he clearly suggested a tax revolt.  A Fox News representative said that Mr. Hannity never really intended anyone not to file at all and that doing so would be "stupid.  Mr. Hannity says a lot of things that are stupid and provocative for entertainment value."  At any rate, "the tax code does not deal with pennies.  Round off $.12 per tax payer and you still get the same net bill in dollars."  

When confronted with this information, Mike Victor seemed a bit shaken but still firm in his resolve.   "I refuse to admit that I can't get my way," he said.  "And I refuse to pay any taxes if some of the taxes go to things I do not like.  Isn't that what America is all about?"

   

What is most disturbing about Pete Santilli and Right Rant Radio

 

“I want to shoot [Clinton] right in the vagina and I don’t want her to die right away; I want her to feel the pain.”

               - on the air comments of right wing radio host Pete Santilli

 What's more upsetting than whether this man would actually do it (although the Secret Service cannot stand by and hope that he won't) is that he would even think about it in such sadistic detail. We must be the only species that thinks up ways of hurting other members of our species in such graphic detail and every now and then actually carries out those fantasies. 

And why? It is not as thought Secretary Clinton or President Obama personally harmed Mr. Santilli. They didn't take his money or his guns or his bible. They didn't even force him to get a background check before he buys his next vagina-shooting firearm (vagina? why the vagina? this sounds like the sort of horror dreamed up in some central American right wing dictatorship, the kind that drops nuns working for social justice out of a helicopter far out at sea). They simply are public officials trying to do their jobs the best way they see fit in an admittedly imperfect world of incomplete information and differences of opinion among intelligent people about the best way to prioritize scarce national resources. 

Can the far right not understand that there is a difference between losing an election and losing your country, or that the differences that separate a moderate centrist like President Obama from the more reasonable members of the Republican party are still (unfortunately) fairly small? I just don't understand the outrage and I am not saying that there are not appropriate times for outrage, but can't we all agree that the most appropriate targets of outrage are those who start elective wars, engage in widespread torture in secret camps scattered through Eastern Europe and in Cuba, and deregulate a financial industry just in time for it to blow up the world's economy? If an umbrella or a failed attempt at background checks can throw these people into such a violent temper tantrum, I shudder to think what would happen if we really did have to take some assertive, government-led action, such as against a seceding Alabama county or to restore order in an area devastated by a natural disaster.

My Favorite Palinisms

Now that Fox News fired her, before she exits stage right - far right - Sarah Palin deserves a review of her Greatest Hits - my favorite Palinisms:

On Death Panels:  "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." 8/7/09

On free-riding a socialist healthcare system:  "We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn't that ironic?"  You betcha! - 3/6/10

On President Obama the Troop Hater:  “Our opponent voted to cut off funding for our troops.  He did this even after saying that he wouldn’t do such a thing. And he said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are just, quote, ‘air-raiding villages and killing civilians.’ I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women are doing in Afghanistan.” - 10/7/08
  ... and Terrorist Buddy:  "[President Obama was] paling around with terrorists." - multiple campaign appearances 2008.
  ... and Communist:  The "Left" and President Obama believe that "if we all just magically had the same number of material possessions, we'd all be happy.   And their preferred way of bringing about this magical situation is by redistributing income.  During the campaign, Obama called it 'spreading the wealth.'  Whatever the term, it means government taking from some and giving to others." (America by Heart)
  ... and America-basher: His trip abroad was a "global apology tour."
  ... and Fetus-Hater-Child-Exploiter:  "Using kids as the backdrop for his gun control speech, the President claimed his commitment to young ones'.  She added that 'the hypocrisy of it all, however, is that while the President publicly acknowledged the value of "even one life", he has failed to acknowledge as much when it comes to 'protecting the lives of children soon to be born.'" 1/23/12
  ... who did not deserve being named Time's Man of the Year:  "What has he done?  For the life of me, I don't know."

On Gun Control:  “The bad guys, the criminals, don’t follow laws and restricting more of America’s freedoms when it comes to self-defense isn’t the answer.” -7/26/12 following the Aurora shooting.

On Animal Rights:  "Some of these animal activists are just...crazy," she said. "They think we're killing Bambi's mother. I love animals, but in Alaska, Bambi's mother is dinner." - 2010 NRA Convention
   "If a caribou needs to be sacrificed for the sake of energy independence," she adds, "I say, 'Mr. Caribou, maybe you need to take one for the team.'" 1/30/11

On the Evils of Medicare:  "Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction" a quotation of Ronald Reagan when the B Actor had been hired to campaign against Medicare which if passed would extinguish freedom in America and leave "children and our children's children" sitting around lamenting "what is once like in the United States when men were free"

On Social Justice:  It's not really necessary since the "Left" and the "mainstream media" are "dwelling on scars" and wrong when they "think America ... is a fundamentally unjust and unequal country" (America by Heart).

On the Newspapers She Reads Regularly: "All of 'em, any of 'em that have been in front of me over all these years." She was unable to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

On her favorite Supreme Court Ruling:  "Well, let's see. There's -- of course -- in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings." She was unable to name a Supreme Court decision other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

On naming children:  Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig.   These are the actual names she gave her five children.  Her explanation:   "Piper was named after Todd's airplane, the Piper Cub, which gets us to the hunting grounds," she explains. "Bristol, Bristol Bay fishing grounds. Willow, a local sport-fishing stream. Trig, I pull the TRIG-ger. Track ... I remember when we told my dad that his grandson was named Track, he said, 'Like TRACKing an elephant?'" -1/30/11

On dead Civil War generals commenting on American foreign policy today:  "First, McClellan did not say definitively that the surge principles would not work in Afghanistan. Certain accounting for different conditions in that country and conditions are certainly different."  (The commanding general in Afghanistan at the time was General McKiernan, not General McClellan, who had commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.)

On energy independence:  "Drill, baby drill!"

On global warming:  "[I am not] an Al Gore doom-and-gloom environmentalist blaming the changes in our climate on human activity."  9/13/08

On Europeans' Laziness:  Europeans "have an easier time stirring up class envy to justify redistributing wealth through higher taxes."   Here in America, "we are not obsessed with class differences... that's the reason we work so hard."  (America by Heart)

On Theocracy:   "God is the source of our rights, not government."  (America by Heart).

On Egypt (I think):  “And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and no, not, not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And, in these areas that are so volatile right now, because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And, we do not have all that information yet.” 2/5/11

Twelve Things the Republican Party might learn from this election.

Twelve Things the Republican Party might learn from this election



To my Republican friends:  I know what you are feeling right now.  We went through it in 2004.  We survived and you will too.
But here's the thing.   Buried in that campaign are some nuggets of true wisdom.  As Ben Franklin once said, That which hurts instructs.  Perhaps this isn't the best teaching moment and I really do not write this in a spirit of gloating (it was a close, painfully expensive election after all). I simply hope that we can stop the food fight, grow up, roll up our sleeves and work together as adults.
In that spirit, I offer you twelve things Republicans might learn from this election.

Don't lie.  It worked with Iraq, it worked (to a certain extent) with the intelligence failures leading to 9-11, but I really do think the American people have a learning curve.   Don't talk about Jeep moving jobs to China when the CEOs of those companies have internet connections and are bound to hear those whoppers sooner or later.   Don't say the economy is going in the wrong direction when you know damn well that a.) it was in freefall when President Obama took office and b.) it may not be moving as FAST as you like, but the DIRECTION has been UP since it bottomed in 2009.  Don't talk about a War on Religion (see below) that does not exist.

Don't tell the truth.  I know this sounds contradictory, but if you are going to run on a platform by the 1% for the 1% don't ever actually say that out loud, especially if someone might be recording you.  If you do lie, lie consistently, otherwise the times you do tell the truth, we will discover not just the fact that you were lying all along but the complete disdain you have for most Americans, including soldiers, veterans, retirees, the poor and disabled.  In an age of tiny cameras and YouTube there are no closed doors anymore.  To solve this problem, how about writing a platform and running a candidate that honestly represents all Americans?  It would end up being a lot easier since you don't have to keep track of what version of Romney you are supposed to be today.

Don't make up goofy stuff about the president.  If you don't like his policies, his values, or even the color of his skin (I'm looking at you, Glenn), just say so.  People might even forgive you for saying that you are harboring a little racism even in 2012, but it just sounds weird to have Donald Trump out there fronting your latest conspiracy about his birth certificate or college transcripts or a black power transformative agenda rooted in Kenyan anticolonialism (Newt).  Just say it:  he does not look like your image of a president which is closer to George W. Bush on a circling aircraft carrier in a custom made flight suit in front of a Mission Accomplished banner.  That sort of thing.

Stop attacking women.  They make up half the electorate and they vote.  Perhaps your staff didn't tell you that, but most women, even those who might agree that abortion rights should be restricted a bit here and there, do not like the idea of having men in government coming up with all sorts of nutty ideas about how they are going to force rape victims to get a vaginal ultrasound probe that doctors say they don't need and women say they don't want.  And for god's sake drop the whole contraception thing.  It's weird.  That was settled law a century ago and the science hasn't changed all that much.

Don't misrepresent science.  If you don't think oil companies and coal companies who contribute mightily to your campaigns would be as profitable if they were regulated a bit more or had to compete with a thriving solar or wind power industry, just say so.   Some Americans might forgive you.  But don't make jokes about not intending to do anything about rising sea levels because those rising sea levels might rise in a major, election-changing way days before the election.  American education might not be as strong as it should be in this area, but most Americans trust NASA, the National Institute of Health, the CDC, and scientists in general far more than they trust lawyers in suits writing laws saying that climate change doesn't exist (or that abortion causes breast cancer or never is needed to save the life of the mother).

Don't talk about rape except to say how you would prevent it.  Rape is not funny and there is no way to put it in a cute little evangelical package and use it as a vehicle to sell your anti-abortion stance to the American people.  Most (but not all) rape victims are women and you are not going to get any mileage with them parading men in front of the cameras telling them how their bodies have way to "shut that whole thing down" (if it's "legitimate" of course) or how it's a gift from god (yes, you were referring to the baby, not the rape, but no rape, no baby).  It's your weakest argument against abortion and take my advice - just don't go there.  Ever.

Vet your candidate.  If you demand to see all of his tax returns before he runs, guess what - the American people are going to want to also.  Maybe his tax returns are as boring as his anecdotes about his wife falling on her rump on a stage once (true story), but the more they are withheld and the more Mrs. Romney said she had told "you people" all we needed to know, the more our imaginations went to work.  It's like an obscenity.  Just say the word.  Bleeping it out only makes our mind fill in the blanks with all sorts of dastardly things that might not even be there.  And if they are... well, perhaps the GOP should run another candidate with less dirt.

Stop talking about a war on religion.   Wars involve killing people.  Wars on religion often involve rounding people up, putting them in ghettos or camps, then killing them.   Asking religiously-affiliated universities and hospitals (that receive massive amount of federal funds) to play by the same level, federally-mandated playing field as everyone else is not the same as the Holocaust or the Crusades.  No one is forcing bishops to use contraception, but if they offer their employees healthcare, that plan has to include copayment-free access to them.

If you are running on a platform that is essentially that of President Bush, at least have the decency to invite him to campaign and to the Convention.   It's hard to sell another package of tax cuts and a more muscular foreign policy (does this mean another war?) to the American people without explaining why this would be less disastrous than the first time we tried that.  And who better to explain the nuances of how a Romney first term would really be a Bush third term, than W himself?  Admittedly he is not the most articulate of spokesmen, and probably has an awful lot of brush to clear on his ranch, but he, like Romney before the first debate, can be coached.  Not having him even attend, much less speak at a Convention that highlights and amplifies all of his policies is just plain weird.  His silence on the campaign trail was palpable.

Don't try to buy an election - it's a waste of money.  You guys spent billions (and so did the Democrats admittedly) raising limitless corporate donations, but even Karl Rove and the Koch brothers were slapped down this cycle.  It doesn't mean you can't dust yourself off and figure out a way to come roaring back in 2 or 4 years, but you need more than money.  You also need honesty, a commitment to reality as the rest of us know it (facts and stuff), and a plan that is different than the one that got us in the mess you criticize President Obama for not having fixed fast enough.  It still comes down to one citizen, one vote, and more of us are voting than ever before.  And most of us don't watch Fox.

Don't exploit a terrorist attack for political gain.  All right, admittedly it worked for you in 2004 when you almost literally ran on the legacy of 9-11 (a masterful twist since this happened on your watch).  But don't try to create a conspiracy over the tragic deaths of 4 Americans abroad when you guys ran an election on your failure to prevent the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans.   You can't have it both ways, as much as you would like to.  And when Americans die abroad, please have the decency to keep your "unraveling" theories to yourself.  It's mean-spirited and at least one of the victim's relatives asked you to stop.

Finally:  Leave Big Bird out of this.  He may have a funny voice but he is like ten feet tall and is a hell of a lot more popular than your candidate.



And before you get out your tea bags and assault rifles and orthographically-challenged signs demanding your country back (again), please consider how that turned out the first time.  We got healthcare done anyway, the Supreme Court upheld it, and - what do you know? - President Obama is still your Commander-in-Chief.  The American people chose him not once but twice.

Be adults.  Let's work together on real problems.  God knows we have enough to solve.