As I have written before, as a manager of people, my philosophy was if you worked for me and you lied to me, that was a fireable offense because I could no longer trust you. How can you trust someone who lies to you?
Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd nailed today just how morally bankrupt the entire leadership of the GOP is because they lie. And the fact that they lie is why Donald Trump, who lies, is doing so well.
I give you links to their columns.
Ross Douthat column
Maureen Dowd
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Saturday, March 5, 2016
The Fault Line That Donald Trump Reveals
The point of political parties is to win elections by satisfying the policy desires of a sufficient number of people. But within that there is also a need to lead. After all the original governments back when we were all tribes were the religious leaders who told us how to live a community oriented life in a healthy righteous manner. And they organized society.
So when the GOP followed Grover Norquist into the abyss of all we stand for is cutting taxes and letting people live their lives however they want to, they drove the moderate voters, who used to be Rockefeller Republicans or even Reagan/George Bush I Republicans into the Democratic party. These people were called RINO's because they believed that women deserve the right to control their bodies, that all people are deserving of respect and legal protection, that the government plays a role in keeping society safe from financial misdeeds and that government should play a role in helping people have access to health care and a funded retirement. It goes without saying that people of all persuasions want a strong national defense used intelligently to protect us.
Without the RINO's, what is left in the GOP had a big fault line covered over by the GOP Congressional pandering to the Tea Party, Religious Right, and the racist tinged Obama is a Kenyan Muslim movement. Donald Trump was a vocal member of that latter group for reasons that I cannot figure out. And when Mitt Romney accepted Donald Trump's endorsement in 2012, he was implicitly offering his approval of that type of untrue slander in the mainstream political process. So too when the GOP Congressional leaders did not punish the S.C. Congressman who yelled out "You Lie" at the President during a State of the Union speech. So too when Congressman and Senators run around the country spouting untruth statement's about the President's policies and don't disavow the slander on GOP talk radio and Fox News. They accepted all that to gain the votes of the people who listen to it.
Well a lot of those people are unhinged racists who don't like anybody who isn't white and Protestant. And they are anti-government except when it comes to their social benefits: the V.A., Medicare and Social Security. So they are going to support someone who says he is there guy. These people don't make a lot of money. They need their government benefits. I think the reason Donald Trump knew to tap into these people is that they are his customers in his casinos.
And that is the fault line in the GOP today. This Presidential Primary has brought out the fact that a substantial percentage of the GOP bases likes government benefits and wants a strong government program to validate their racist beliefs. And they are fearful of the foreign and want the government to protect them from the foreign.
The establishment wing of the GOP drove out the RINO's, who would be supporting John Kasich or Jeb Bush today, only to find out that they need those RINO's to beat back the people who wanted to keep Jim Crow in place 60 years ago. Remember, Obama Care was a GOP think tank design to keep the market involved in health insurance and avoid a Single Payer Plan. That is why RINO's support Obamacare.
And one should remember that both Kansas and Louisiana, which implemented Grover Norquist's preferred policies now have state budgets that are in crisis with services being cut and GOP people upset by those cuts in services. These services must be paid for, but in Kansas at least, people who own business don't pay any state income tax on their earnings now in the belief that these people will reinvest their money in their business and hire people who will pay taxes, but instead many save the taxes for retirement and have not hired anybody additional.
Link to Tom Egan column, "The Beast is Us"
So when the GOP followed Grover Norquist into the abyss of all we stand for is cutting taxes and letting people live their lives however they want to, they drove the moderate voters, who used to be Rockefeller Republicans or even Reagan/George Bush I Republicans into the Democratic party. These people were called RINO's because they believed that women deserve the right to control their bodies, that all people are deserving of respect and legal protection, that the government plays a role in keeping society safe from financial misdeeds and that government should play a role in helping people have access to health care and a funded retirement. It goes without saying that people of all persuasions want a strong national defense used intelligently to protect us.
Without the RINO's, what is left in the GOP had a big fault line covered over by the GOP Congressional pandering to the Tea Party, Religious Right, and the racist tinged Obama is a Kenyan Muslim movement. Donald Trump was a vocal member of that latter group for reasons that I cannot figure out. And when Mitt Romney accepted Donald Trump's endorsement in 2012, he was implicitly offering his approval of that type of untrue slander in the mainstream political process. So too when the GOP Congressional leaders did not punish the S.C. Congressman who yelled out "You Lie" at the President during a State of the Union speech. So too when Congressman and Senators run around the country spouting untruth statement's about the President's policies and don't disavow the slander on GOP talk radio and Fox News. They accepted all that to gain the votes of the people who listen to it.
Well a lot of those people are unhinged racists who don't like anybody who isn't white and Protestant. And they are anti-government except when it comes to their social benefits: the V.A., Medicare and Social Security. So they are going to support someone who says he is there guy. These people don't make a lot of money. They need their government benefits. I think the reason Donald Trump knew to tap into these people is that they are his customers in his casinos.
And that is the fault line in the GOP today. This Presidential Primary has brought out the fact that a substantial percentage of the GOP bases likes government benefits and wants a strong government program to validate their racist beliefs. And they are fearful of the foreign and want the government to protect them from the foreign.
The establishment wing of the GOP drove out the RINO's, who would be supporting John Kasich or Jeb Bush today, only to find out that they need those RINO's to beat back the people who wanted to keep Jim Crow in place 60 years ago. Remember, Obama Care was a GOP think tank design to keep the market involved in health insurance and avoid a Single Payer Plan. That is why RINO's support Obamacare.
And one should remember that both Kansas and Louisiana, which implemented Grover Norquist's preferred policies now have state budgets that are in crisis with services being cut and GOP people upset by those cuts in services. These services must be paid for, but in Kansas at least, people who own business don't pay any state income tax on their earnings now in the belief that these people will reinvest their money in their business and hire people who will pay taxes, but instead many save the taxes for retirement and have not hired anybody additional.
Link to Tom Egan column, "The Beast is Us"
Friday, March 4, 2016
Paul Krugman is Priceless Today
"The answer, I’d suggest, is that the establishment’s problem with Mr. Trump isn’t the con he brings; it’s the cons he disrupts."
"First, there’s the con Republicans usually manage to pull off in national elections — the one where they pose as a serious, grown-up party honestly trying to grapple with America’s problems. The truth is that that party died a long time ago, that these days it’s voodoo economics and neocon fantasies all the way down. But the establishment wants to preserve the facade, which will be hard if the nominee is someone who refuses to play his part."
"By the way, I predict that even if Mr. Trump is the nominee, pundits and others who claim to be thoughtful conservatives will stroke their chins and declare, after a great show of careful deliberation, that he’s the better choice given Hillary’s character flaws, or something. And self-proclaimed centrists will still find a way to claim that the sides are equally bad. But both acts will look especially strained."
Thursday, March 3, 2016
You Reap What You Sow
or once a seed is planted, the plant grows to whatever height it was genetically programmed for.
This analogy applies to the GOP. They trafficked in racist undertones ever since President Obama was elected with leadership that did not refute Birthism, Socialism, statements of being a Muslim which ties into birthism, and of course calling the President a liar during the State of the Union.
And now they have Donald Trump leading that hatred right out into the open and the leaders wonder why they can't contain it.
We can only hope the voters do a better job of refuting this bad behavior by the now dominate wing of the GOP.
Link to EJ Dionne column that inspired this rant
This analogy applies to the GOP. They trafficked in racist undertones ever since President Obama was elected with leadership that did not refute Birthism, Socialism, statements of being a Muslim which ties into birthism, and of course calling the President a liar during the State of the Union.
And now they have Donald Trump leading that hatred right out into the open and the leaders wonder why they can't contain it.
We can only hope the voters do a better job of refuting this bad behavior by the now dominate wing of the GOP.
Link to EJ Dionne column that inspired this rant
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Observe, Orient, Decide, Act or Do Not and Die: Today's GOP is doing the latter as they do not Observe or Orient
Thomas Friedman as usual has some coherent observations.
The link is below and you should read the entire column, but I cannot help but emphasize his observation that the GOP "deep" Presidential bench "resembled nothing more than the "Star Wars" bar scene at the planet of Tatooine - that assortment of alien species, each more bizarre than the last, from a "galaxy far, far away."
Link to Friedman column
The link is below and you should read the entire column, but I cannot help but emphasize his observation that the GOP "deep" Presidential bench "resembled nothing more than the "Star Wars" bar scene at the planet of Tatooine - that assortment of alien species, each more bizarre than the last, from a "galaxy far, far away."
Link to Friedman column
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
The Danger's of Incivility or You Get What You Don't Anticipate
Two worthy reads on the NYT opinion page today.
1st, Peter Wehner, who has served in 3 Republican administrations, and is an evangelical individual writes about how Donald Trump lives a life that should be anathema to evangelical voters and expresses dismay that such a large percentage of evangelical voters support Trump. Well, consistency is not something I have found in every evangelical individual I know and some certainly used religion as a cover for sinning, saying no one is perfect, but you can earn forgiveness.
I might offer a different view for Mr. Wehner. A certain substantial percentage of evangelicals use religion as a cover for bigotry and ignorance and can be lead by lambs to slaughter. That after all is what GOP leaders have been doing with them by promulgating untruths since President Obama was elected and advocating policies that are completely unacceptable to Democrats, who have the power to stop them in our Democracy.
Link to Peter Wehne column
And Roger Cohen recounts Congressional GOP responsibility for the rise of Trump Fascism by their undemocratic and rude behaviors of the last 7 years. This column is actually about Europe's alarm at the rise of Trump, but it contains the following:
Link to Roger Cohen Column
1st, Peter Wehner, who has served in 3 Republican administrations, and is an evangelical individual writes about how Donald Trump lives a life that should be anathema to evangelical voters and expresses dismay that such a large percentage of evangelical voters support Trump. Well, consistency is not something I have found in every evangelical individual I know and some certainly used religion as a cover for sinning, saying no one is perfect, but you can earn forgiveness.
I might offer a different view for Mr. Wehner. A certain substantial percentage of evangelicals use religion as a cover for bigotry and ignorance and can be lead by lambs to slaughter. That after all is what GOP leaders have been doing with them by promulgating untruths since President Obama was elected and advocating policies that are completely unacceptable to Democrats, who have the power to stop them in our Democracy.
Link to Peter Wehne column
And Roger Cohen recounts Congressional GOP responsibility for the rise of Trump Fascism by their undemocratic and rude behaviors of the last 7 years. This column is actually about Europe's alarm at the rise of Trump, but it contains the following:
"Trump is telling people something is rotten in the state of America. The message resonates because the rot is there."
"He has emerged from a political system corrupted by money, locked in an echo chamber of insults, reduced to the show business of an endless campaign, blocked by a kind of partisanship run amok that leads Republican members of Congress to declare they will not meet with President Obama’s eventual nominee for the Supreme Court, let alone listen to him or her. This is an outrage! The public interest has become less than an afterthought."
"Enter the smart, savvy, scowling showman. He is self-financed and promises restored greatness. He has a bully’s instinct for the jugular and a sense of how sick an angry America is of politics as usual and political correctness. He hijacks a Republican Party that has paved the way for him with years of ranting, bigotry, bellicosity and what Robert Kagan, in The Washington Post, has rightly called “racially tinged derangement syndrome” with respect to President Obama."
Link to Roger Cohen Column
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Sunday Musing 2/28/2016
Ah, Leap Year. We get one more day of February and an extra day of this mindless endless campaign to be the next President, which of course happens every Presidential election. You think the founding fathers intentionally wanted an extra day of campaigning for the Presidency or it just happened that way with the timing of the founding of the nation?
Did you know Donald Duke endorsed Donald Trump? So the KKK supports Trump. What does that make Trump supporters and endorsers like Chris Christie and Sarah Palin?
There is a movie named "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" coming out in March based upon a book written by a journalist who was in Afghanistan and Pakistan for several years in the late 2000's. The one pertinent comment she made about the whole Western approach to the issues with the Taliban and ISIS is her hope for her movie. "Maybe more people will start talking about a holistic approach to the region rather than the Whack-a-terrorist game we seem to be playing." But we won't expect any of the GOP candidates to understand the need to explore that.
Meanwhile, with Hillary's big win and her obvious qualifications to understand the issues of the Presidency, I am still troubled by her baggage and will fill in the dot for her name because the alternatives are so awful. Bernie Sanders cannot achieve his dreams and he will be as ineffective as Barack Obama has been. How can President Obama win so decisively and not have longer coat tails? And there is no need for me to go on at any length about how the GOP candidates refuse to propose policies that will actually help people. If they would discuss how they would replace Obamacare while not allowing insurance companies to charge more for pre-existing conditions, balance the budget and keep the government operating to protect the public safety, I would consider voting for a GOP candidates.
On that last point, the Zika Virus certainly shows the need for a public health system and the CDC.
At least Hillary is qualified to be President. But I understand the American desire to have someone new in the Presidency. Newness brings hope and a possibility of change. When someone has been part of the national political scene for 24 years and counting, while that brings qualifications, it also means many voters just simply want to move on.
And Ross Douthat went on a rant today about how Obama is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump. While Douthat does acknowledge some Republican responsibility for the support of Donald Trump by Reagan Democrats (I would point out that I was Reagan Democrat, but I became a RINO and then returned to the Democrats), he then goes on to lay the blame on the Imperial Obama Presidency. I am virtually speechless in my political rage at this. Does Mitch McConnell and the let's ruin this Presidency deserve no blame for the "Imperial Presidency". What about the absolute need for the government to operate and protect the people? What about GOP punditry that did not rail against the GOP for failing to negotiate and compromise? As I wrote yesterday, Democracy requires compromise.
And Obama asked the Congress to authorize the activities in Syria against ISIS and the Congress refused. So when Douthat says "The current President has expanded executive authority along almost every dimension: Launching wars without Congressional Authorization, claiming the power to assassinate American citizens", he is going against the grain of actual GOP support for all this and a GOP desire to actually do more of the same.
So my only takeaway on Dothan's column is that he has gone off the rail in his angst about Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dominating the GOP.
link to Douthat column
Did you know Donald Duke endorsed Donald Trump? So the KKK supports Trump. What does that make Trump supporters and endorsers like Chris Christie and Sarah Palin?
There is a movie named "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" coming out in March based upon a book written by a journalist who was in Afghanistan and Pakistan for several years in the late 2000's. The one pertinent comment she made about the whole Western approach to the issues with the Taliban and ISIS is her hope for her movie. "Maybe more people will start talking about a holistic approach to the region rather than the Whack-a-terrorist game we seem to be playing." But we won't expect any of the GOP candidates to understand the need to explore that.
Meanwhile, with Hillary's big win and her obvious qualifications to understand the issues of the Presidency, I am still troubled by her baggage and will fill in the dot for her name because the alternatives are so awful. Bernie Sanders cannot achieve his dreams and he will be as ineffective as Barack Obama has been. How can President Obama win so decisively and not have longer coat tails? And there is no need for me to go on at any length about how the GOP candidates refuse to propose policies that will actually help people. If they would discuss how they would replace Obamacare while not allowing insurance companies to charge more for pre-existing conditions, balance the budget and keep the government operating to protect the public safety, I would consider voting for a GOP candidates.
On that last point, the Zika Virus certainly shows the need for a public health system and the CDC.
At least Hillary is qualified to be President. But I understand the American desire to have someone new in the Presidency. Newness brings hope and a possibility of change. When someone has been part of the national political scene for 24 years and counting, while that brings qualifications, it also means many voters just simply want to move on.
And Ross Douthat went on a rant today about how Obama is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump. While Douthat does acknowledge some Republican responsibility for the support of Donald Trump by Reagan Democrats (I would point out that I was Reagan Democrat, but I became a RINO and then returned to the Democrats), he then goes on to lay the blame on the Imperial Obama Presidency. I am virtually speechless in my political rage at this. Does Mitch McConnell and the let's ruin this Presidency deserve no blame for the "Imperial Presidency". What about the absolute need for the government to operate and protect the people? What about GOP punditry that did not rail against the GOP for failing to negotiate and compromise? As I wrote yesterday, Democracy requires compromise.
And Obama asked the Congress to authorize the activities in Syria against ISIS and the Congress refused. So when Douthat says "The current President has expanded executive authority along almost every dimension: Launching wars without Congressional Authorization, claiming the power to assassinate American citizens", he is going against the grain of actual GOP support for all this and a GOP desire to actually do more of the same.
So my only takeaway on Dothan's column is that he has gone off the rail in his angst about Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio dominating the GOP.
link to Douthat column
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