Bits & Pieces #54

Ted Cruz was at the Iowa mess and he was pushing hard for something. He wasn’t sure what, but he did say that we have 110 thousand employees at the IRS and we should close that organization down and put all of those 110 thousand IRS employees on the border, Great idea Ted. Don’t collect taxes but ignore who pays all those extra border guards. Folks, you are looking at typical GOP presidential material. Rick Perry was also mouthing off about the border. Protect our borders, sure, but unless they are at JFK or O’Hare where most of the illegal aliens arrive, you’re wasting your time.

 

Republican pundits can’t stop talking about how excited their people are about all the new candidates that they have in the race. Rally?   Who are they? I looked at the group that was making empty speeches in Iowa and it sure looked like the same bunch of turkeys they had last time. You take out Ben Carson, Scot Walker and Rand Paul two of which tried trial runs last time and everybody else is old news. Bush, you say? Bush was running last time but it was for this time, when he hopes that people will have the stench of two previous Bush’s out of their noses.

 

Sara Palin was there too, saying she might run for President. Of course if she wins (Har har) she would only be able to stay in focus long enough to keep the job for six months.

 

Christie, you say that I missed Christie when I spoke of new candidates. Yeah, he didn’t actually run last time but he actually has been running since the day he was elected governor of Jersey

 

Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, two of those who didn’t show in Iowa, were in Palm Springs this weekend for the Koch Summit, a gathering of rich guys, organized by the Koch’s and essential for anyone who is looking for money, which means all politicians. They will be joined by Ted Cruz, a guy who will make a speech to three winos on a street corner, all in an attempt to collect a big paycheck from the rich guys.

 

Although I am dead set against all this corporate money being dumped into our elections, I find the Koch’s choice of speakers very democratic. You have the independent mad poet, Paul, the confused former middle of the roader who will suck on any available financial tit, Rubio and the fanatic Tea Party nut, who has never seen a lie he wouldn’t embrace, Cruz. It’s a bizarre bunch but still, it has a certain eclectic quality if you’re looking for a long shot that will do or say anything for a vote or a buck.

 

 

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Watched a discussion of the Keystone Pipeline on McLaughlin and was astounded by how little those who are commenting on it, actually know about it. These are people who are speaking to millions of Americans and yet they had only a minimal idea of what, where, why or how. Mort Zuckerman a billionaire who is invested in oil either was lying or unbelievably ignorant when he talked about the pipeline being part of our energy policy when anyone with even a miniscule knowledge of the situation knows that it has nothing to do with our energy policy, even if we had one.

 

It is all about Canada’s need to sell oil and China’s need to buy oil and we are involved only as a roadway to connect both and watch our mid west watershed be destroyed. Contrary to Republican points of view, this country has nothing to gain from the pipeline and a great deal to lose. There are, practically speaking, no permanent jobs to be gained, no sales to be taxed and a huge watershed to be endangered by an industry that currently has three spills just in the Dakota’s and Montana to account for.

 

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I heard someone ask the other day, how come it is taking so long to defeat ISIS and I thought, wait a minute, we just started with ISIS and that made me realize that we have been at it with this bunch for six months. The fact that six month’s fighting against such a militarily insignificant group is considered too short a time to create a result, made me stop and think. We ended the biggest war in the history of man in four years. It encapsulated almost the whole world and tens of millions of casualties, but it lasted only four years. That was because we understood the concept of total destruction.

 

The wars with Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Vietnam were a different kind a cat, but this is a war that’s made for us. We have decided, possibly correctly, that the fight in the Middle East is the business of the people of the Middle East so we will not put boots on the ground. We expect the so-called friendly governments of the Middle East; Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt to actually want to solve this problem and since the only way to do it is with their own boots on the ground we are puzzled by their lack of response.

 

ISIS has so many supporters in the region, many motivated by the atrocities they perpetrate, that it makes one wonder if maybe the Arab population of these countries is too barbaric to ever be considered allies to anyone.

 

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The Netanyahu trip to the states to address congress is being attacked in Israel where there is outrage that he would undercut the American President’s plans to arrive at a peaceful solution to the problem of nuclear weapons in Iran. The smart Israeli’s don’t want the U.S. pissed off at them. We are, after all just abut the only nation in the world that has given Israel unconditional support since their inception.

 

Netanyahu’s strategy seems to be to force the U.S. to go to war with Iran rather than make peace with them to halt their nuclear ambitions. If Bibi wants a war so much why doesn’t he invade Iran himself? We are already involved in war all over the Middle East mostly because we are the defender of Israel. If Israel had never existed we would probably have friendly relations all over the Middle East instead of having our installations being the constant targets of Muslim attacks.

 

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It’s always sad when someone who once engendered some respect, as did former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, goes off the deep end and says something so ridiculous that he becomes equated with Miclele Bachman, Donald Trump or Sarah Palin. But what’s even worse is when the GOP or the media refuse to ignore such a statement for what it is, the senile ramblings of a failing mind.

 

Giuliani’s babbling can’t be refuted because it isn’t serious, it’s just the idle ramblings of a disintegrating mentality but that hasn’t stopped the GOP or the media from jumping on it. One would think that the Republicans would just want it to go away quietly. Sure it says something negative about the President, which they always like, but it is so absurd that it places them in the position of either having to ostracize Giuliani or accept his warped concept of what loving America means.

 

It’s the media that can only be condemned in this instance. They had the opportunity to marginalize the failing Giuliani’s comments but instead they have trumpeted them to the skies, using them shamelessly to sell soap and oil. They are a disgrace to their profession and they don’t deserve the protections afforded them under the free press laws. They aren’t press at all, they are just another form of entertainment, and a very trivial one at that.

 

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CPAC is on. That’s where all the ultra-conservative Republicans get together with their Klan hoods tucked under their pink blazers and carry on about who will win the straw poll for the next president. It’s one of the most enjoyable pieces of entertainment available to political junkies like me. Here in one place you can watch, in this case, 17, last year there were 25, men, women and assorted, genetically modified attempts at humanity, who think that they actually have a chance of enchanting their base and getting enough notice to conduct a presidential campaign.

 

How do they do this? Easy, they make the most outrageous statements they can possibly come up with, truth, justice and the American way, be damned. All that counts is what energizes the base. This, of course, results in 17 fools all saying the same thing. That thing has nothing to do with truth, factual observation or in most cases reality, but it sure makes for some rabble-rousing speeches and they are always a hell of a lot of fun, as long as you don’t take them seriously.

 

Interestingly enough, the big winner here, not in the polls, of course, appeared to be Jeb Bush who stuck to his principles on immigration, went against the popular right wing base’s thoughts and showed that he will not grovel before the ultra right crazies. Regardless of whether or not you want another Bush in the White House, and most probably don’t, there are only so many wars we can sustain, this is a lesson on how to maintain your principles in hostile politics. While he was doing this Rubio, Christie and the rest of the moderates swallowed their principles and groveled before the shit kicker crazies that fill the barns where this kind of cowardly politics exists.

 

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I don’t like Scott Walker, I agree with very little he stands for and I think he’d make a terrible president, just like he’s been a terrible and divisive governor of Wisconsin but when he’s attacked for making a casual, off hand comment at CPAC, on how he’s dealt with the unions and he doesn’t see how he wouldn’t be able to deal with ISIS, I think the media is way out of line for making such a big deal about nothing. Everybody makes cracks like that in their lives and when we attack them we make that kind of spontaneity impossible in our politicians. We are turning them into automatons who will never come up with an authentic comment and will never give us, the voter, any insight into their real personalities.

 

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For years I have been a fan of David Petraeus. He was a fine general and served his country well. Unfortunately for the good general Eve stuck an apple in his mouth and now he’s thoroughly screwed. Look, a lot of guys have done stupid things because the wrong ass wiggled in their face but this guy really blew it.

 

The big problem, however, is not Petraeus but the way his case is being handled. Yes, he fessed up, but two years probation and $40,000 fine for a lot worse than Chelsea Manning or Ed Snowden did and for much worse reasons, is just plain wrong. Hey, it’s one thing to be a whistleblower because you think your country is covering up heinous crimes the way Manning did or because you know that NSA is spying on innocent Americans the way Snowden did, and to do what they did because they thought it was the right thing to do, but Petraeus revealed classified national secrets for a piece of ass. And he is getting off because he is a member of the in club. Where the hell is Obama and his useless DA now?

 

Eric Holder should be all over Petraeus. If Manning is in jail and Snowden is in exile, then Petraeus should he hung. They had good reasons for what they did; he betrayed his trust for a little nookie.

 

 

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It’s fascinating to view the various interpretations of Hillary’s statement that, in light of what has happened she should probably have had two e-mail sources. Most of the interpreters view this as an admission that she did something wrong but as anyone who has been a long time Hillary observer can tell you, that’s just right wing wrong. What Hillary is saying is that in view of the noise that was made over it, it just wasn’t worth the convenience factor.