Supreme Toxicity

In the midst of an unresolved and (in the case of Obama and most of the rest on Capitol Hill, unrecognized) economic depression, one more bit of bad news has come to light: neoconservatism has not only destroyed the economy, but also poisoned the Supreme Court.  That is to say that they’re corrupt as hell — at least some of them are.

More specifically, I present the names Alito, Scalia and Thomas for your consideration.  Just do about 5 minutes on Google and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

You’ll also undoubtedly see a bit about the Koch brothers (the billionaire leaders of the Teabaggers) and Citizens United.  But if you want it all boiled down into one video, watch this.

Not that corruption on the Supreme Court is anything new, but folks, this is serious stuff and you need to know about it.  It’ll tell you how we got in this mess, if nothing else, and clarify that indeed the teabaggers are being taken for a ride at the very front of the bus that’s careening out of control with all of us on board.  It’s almost enough to make one feel sorry for the poor saps…which I would, if they’d just shut up and listen, and if the rest of us could only get off this damn bus before it goes over a cliff.

What happens when a teabagger gets elected

Let’s just say I told you so:  Teabagger Stupidity Blows Large Black Hole in Local Government’s Budget

*ahem*

Now, what did I say?  Oh yeah…it was something like, “The worst thing that could happen to a teabagger is to get elected.  Think about it.”

On the Matter of Palingates

As many of the readers of this (non)blog are aware, there has been a controversy over at the blog Palingates.  The owner of the blog has dismissed two co-writers/researchers over editorial differences.

I give Regina my full support and wish the best for Patrick and Kathleen in their future endeavors.  And no, I know nothing more about this story than anyone else on the outside does.

The reason I am addressing this issue is that this (non)blog only got on the map due to the fact that Regina discovered, and found amusing, a post I wrote in Sarah Palin’s voice (or as best I could write in that whine before I got a headache).  She reprinted the post on Palingates, which resulted in the single biggest week of hits this (non)blog has ever had.  Very soon after, she posted a link to Civilization Rant on Palingates.  Ever since then, even though this little (non)blog has been visited from other sources, the vast majority of my hits still come from Palingates.  And for that I am forever grateful.

This is why I feel the need to post about this matter.  There were numerous comments about the event on Palingates, and many of them were saying things like “champagne corks must be popping at the Palin compound,” and “Sarah wins!”

To which I say respectfully (for a change — I am not normally this nice), “poppycock.”

Sarah Palin has won nothing.  In fact, although she may merely be going through an unusually rough time at the moment, she finally appears to be sliding slowly on the down-slope of fame.  Her disastrous pre-rebuttal to Obama’s speech about the Arizona shootings unexpectedly boomeranged on her.  It was partially due to the fact that President Obama did such a wonderful job on his own speech, but it was mostly because she came off looking like the self-centered whiner that those of us who were never in her fan club always knew she was.  The effect was so devastating that even some of her supporters had their eyelids pried wide open.  They must have felt like they were seeing her for the first time, in a harsh light.  And she did it to herself. There was no one else to blame.  That had never happened before.

Meantime Michele Bachmann started making noises about running for the Presidency, which told me that Sarah’s proverbial 15 minutes must indeed be ticking to a close.  A year ago, I wager Bachmann would never have dared hint at such a thing for fear of offending Sarah.  It became especially clear as she was mumbling and jumbling her nonsensical teabagger SOTU rebuttal that she no longer cares.  And the Tea Party no longer cares.  Except for Fox News, it seems, Sarah is on her own for once.  Which is to say that in the end, Sarah will be the one to put herself out of business.  No one else.  And she is, for once, doing a grand job of just that.

Of course, this is Sarah.  Time will tell if she really is finished, and I have no doubt she’ll put up a hell of a fight to stay in the limelight — even if it’s only by forcing us to witness her have a nervous breakdown.

And so the controversy at Palingates will come and go; no doubt there will be a new blog born in the meantime while Palingates goes on as it was originally.

Palingates always was and remains a treasure trove of Palin information and I will continue to go there for the latest news, and when I need to learn or confirm something.  And I will always be grateful to them for exposing my little (non)blog to the world.

Again, I wish the best to everyone involved.

P.S. — if you’re wondering why I keep saying (non)blog, just look at this place.  I never research very much.  I don’t report.  I just comment on whatever catches my interest.  I generally don’t accept reader comments or ratings.  Which is to say, this ain’t a blog.  It’s just me enjoying myself, or at least spouting off when I can’t.

I am rarely civil in this (non)blog, but I draw some lines that I do not cross: threats or wishes of physical harm are out of bounds for me, and I publish no charges of pure evil that I can’t back up with facts.  Lastly, I usually (not always) leave family matters alone.   For example,  I’m aware that wronged wives generally (not always) come out looking like heroines when their husbands have been caught straying, and so when a story like this surfaced about Sarah Palin and her husband, I was not interested.  But the prospect of finally having all their official Alaska-governor’s-office emails published?  Now, that may be interesting.

What.An.Idiot.

What’s wrong, dear, not enough carbon dioxide?

At the very least, it seems that Michele Bachmann is dumber than I thought:

Rebuttal to rebuttal to the SOTU speech

(An even more humorous version of this speech is offered here.  Additional humor offered here.)

The only thing I have to say is this: Madam, you would have trouble finding the intellectual depth to graduate from preschool.

This speech probably means that you are dumb enough to redouble your efforts to run for President.  Good.  May you reap the humiliation you are asking for.

In the meantime, here’s a Stupid of the Day Award.  I have no doubt you’ll reach your Lifetime Achievement quota in no time at all.

P.S. — this ties in: The Palin Problem

Palin Fatigue

Stephen Colbert discusses Palin Fatigue.

I guess I’m there, too.  I’ve noted in the past that the majority (not all) of this blog’s most-read posts are on the subject of Sarah Palin, and often I’ve fed the fire just to keep the ratings up.  But I recognized long ago that I don’t cover any new ground on that subject (actually I don’t on any subject; I’m merely a commentator rather than a reporter), and that this sort of thing is best left to an investigative blog such as Palingates (link on the right side of this page).

Once in a while I get so fed up with the ongoing travesty called Sarah Palin that I wonder just when everyone is going to get sick of her.  “Everyone” includes me.

Well, I’m finally there.  I’ve gotten there before and retreated, and no doubt that will happen again.  But right now, I can’t stand another minute of even thinking about her.

It could just be something in the air; her ratings are way down at the moment, and even her staunchest media allies — those people who have been trying so hard to turn her into something resembling a real quasi-political Barbie doll just for the thrill (and great story!) of creating a D-list President — must have noticed that she had a reality show that lasted but one season, and that her second coloring book/political manifesto, which probably concerned roguish ex-fiances-in-law and dastardly neighbors more than anything else, didn’t cause even a fraction of the stir the first one did.  Even in their measure of reality, that must have been too devastatingly real not to notice.

Whether that will be the kiss of no tomorrow for her career remains to be seen.  Somehow I doubt it.  But one can hope.

In the meantime, I am temporarily too tired to care.

Tiger Mom vs. Mama Grizzly

There’s been a lot of controversy over a new book about parenting written by some ivy-league law professor.  Apparently this mother runs her home like a sadistic Scrooge would run a law office (big surprise) and calls it good parenting.  Too much work if you can get it.

On the other hand, there is Sarah Palin and her “Mama Grizzlies,” who seem to hold the rest of the world accountable for the way it raises their children, while they themselves are eternally busy spinning their offsprings’ misadventures into somebody else’s fault.  Nice work-shirk if you can get it.  You don’t even have to make sense.

I see no value in either scheme.  I have observed too many Mama Grizzlies with cubs to be comfortable with the thought that these kids are going to grow up into anything useful. These mothers are doing nothing more than raising wild animals; the only thing they are expert at, as I said, is blaming someone else when their kids get in trouble — which the kids always do.  And sometimes it’s severe.

And as for the Tiger Mothers…great, they’re another generation of anal-retentives who worship winning prizes for playing the piano, and long lists of meaningless A+ grades in school over actual human interaction.  In fact, the value placed on the piano and violin seems strange to me.  I see no difference between being a violin/piano mom and being an upper-crust soccer mom, or a skating mom.  Back in my skating days I saw plenty of skating moms whose kids were excellent skaters who somehow skated several hours a day, 6 to 7 days a week, excelled academically to the point that nearly all of them were aiming to become physicians, and even played musical instruments (violin or piano, almost always) at concert-quality levels.  All these kids went on to be neurotic failures.  All of them.  Why?  Because they were nervous wrecks who were unable to function without Mom cracking the whip.

The common problem with both styles is that they leave children unable to deal with other people, and ultimately they create unhappy adults.

Most of the parents I see are somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, and that’s just fine.  It means that most kids will grow up okay.  But at the extremes we have these terrible parents making money by giving terrible parenting advice, and that, my friends, has got to stop.

The Buck Stops Elsewhere

Palingates today posted this video on YouTube.

My comment: although I don’t hold Sarah Palin solely responsible for the shootings in Arizona, I do think she’s culpable for one reason: she is, by her own ambition and effort, a public figure who uses incendiary language.  She may be a joke to many, even most of us, but there are those who take her seriously.  And she has used whatever position she has to abuse other people’s children (by feeding approximately one mountainful of sugar to a classroom full of kids), abuse other politicians, and abuse the American public.  And this is all because of some notion that she has answers.

Those of us who are less than enamored of her have long recognized that she is no leader, and her statement on this event just proved it.  In Palin’s world, the buck stops elsewhere.  She’s merely a malicious house cat who bites her kindly owner.

As I said, part of her abuse of fame has been the use of incendiary language.  Much of this has centered around her fondness for guns.

Working with the public, I realize that there are a fair number of people out there who are mentally fragile, and all they need is a face on a screen telling them, in any subtle way, that violence is okay.  Sensing that it may be okay, they’ll turn around and do something terrible.

Again, this particular incident is not traceable directly to Sarah Palin.  But that does not mean she’s innocent.  Instead of staying above the ugliness, she has wallowed in it.

If she keeps it up, one day there will be an incident that will be linked specifically to her.  And if this incident has damaged her reputation slightly, anything like that would be the end of her public career.  There is, after all, still such a thing as disgrace, even though a lot of right-wing pundits have to insult civility many, many times before they get there.  (Look at the Fat Man…although I must also observe that the public has less patience for women than for men.)

Since she only understands self-preservation, perhaps she should keep that in mind.

Tragedy

I haven’t any more information than anyone else about the attempt on AZ Representative Giffords’ life (there is currently more than the usual amount of confusion about what has transpired), so I’ll leave that alone except to offer my deepest sympathy to everyone who was harmed in this situation, and to the families of those who were killed.

The only thing I’ll add at this point is this: Maddow Blog.  I think it’s very necessary reading for anyone trying to make sense of this situation, which should include just about everyone right now.  Yes, it’s about Sarah Palin.  Yes, she has found yet another way to get publicity — by apparently hinting at violence as a consequence of not listening to her fucking nonsense, or at least using symbols of potential violence; in this case cross-hairs.  It’s too early to tell if this particular scheme resulted in this horrific act (see update below), but it’s also too early to rule it out.  (Even more information is available at Palingates.)

I also found it interesting that the murderer was apparently captured on the scene, but his identity has yet to be revealed.  Why is he being protected?  Later update: he has now been identified…or at least someone has been identified who has one very disquieting “favorite” video on YouTube, and three of his own very, very strange videos there as well, all of which were uploaded recently.  From whatever little bit of sense I can make of his gibberish, he is not a classic teabagger, nor is he liberal.  Seems more like he’s off in his own little world — just the sort of person who might be receptive to any slight hint that violence is okay.

Judging from a pro-Palin’s webmaster’s action (instantly taking down the “Take Back the 20” “crosshairs” page when the news broke about the shooting), on some level even s/he knows that Palin is a bad influence…and doesn’t want to be held responsible.  (Latest update is that the graphic is still available on other Palin haunts such as Facebook, which is totally Palin — gotta have that freedom of speech, yuh know, and it’s not her fault just like nothing else is!)

That said, I have only this to add: whatever eventually comes to light about this situation, Sarah Palin, you are beneath contempt.

Dear Ted Nugent,

What the hell are you smoking?

Quote from Nugent about Sarah Palin:

“She’s on her way to being a good leader,” Nugent says. “She’s coming from the street, she’s coming from the we-the-people rank and file, she makes sense when she talks, she says all the right things, she’s sincere, she’s knowledgeable, she’s articulate, plus she’s damned good-looking.”

And, Nugent added, “she kills moose.”

Stupid of the Day Award goes to Ted Nugent.

(Nugent quote taken from http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110107/pl_yblog_theticket/ted-nugent-isnt-on-board-with-a-sarah-palin-presidency)

Bachmann for President???

News is that Bachmann’s “not ruling it out.”  Sound familiar?  Well, yes…Sarah Palin has hinted at sorta you-know saying maybe the same thing you betcha.  I’ll get back to you on that.  *wink*

Bachmann vs. Palin.  Oh, the mind boggles.  Or rather, it goes on vacation.

Actually I predicted this a while ago, didn’t I? — that eventually, Palin would run for President.  What I never thought was that Bachmann would consider running against her.  I just thought that Palin would pick Bachmann as her running mate, perhaps later naming Christine O’Donnell as her Secretary of State.  Ah, bliss.  A triumvirate of crazy.

Before we forget…we forgot Sharron Angle?  Naw…never.  I’m sure she could find work as Secretary of the Interior.  Gotta be on the lookout for Asian Hispanics, you know.

But not so fast.  Seriously, I believe this is what will happen:

(1) Palin will not run for President.  I see Bachmann suddenly piping up about being a Presidential candidate as proof of this; I am not saying this because Palin is currently undergoing yet another brief period of being unfashionable.  She will recover from that; she always does.  But she is also allergic to actual work, and somewhere along the line she will realize that even the process of running for President is a wearying job (imagine actually BEING President!) — especially when you can’t think straight enough to answer a simple question on a policy issue.

(2) Bachmann will run for President, but will never gain the nomination.  Not even close.  She’ll be forced to drop out of the primaries less than halfway through.  She may not be too crazy for her own district (which is frightening), but she is definitely too crazy for many of the rest of us.

(3) O’Donnell will spend most of the her middle-age years in court, trying to explain her finances.  There will be little time to run for office again, let alone assume a massive job (Secretary of State), that she is massively unqualified for.  As for running for President?  She wouldn’t last one primary.  In a Teabagger field of feather-brains, she’s such fluffy down that she merely floats away.

So there’s my prediction; we’ll see what transpires.  In the meantime, I leave you with a few questions that I will be repeating often in the coming months: Have the teabaggers fixed the economy yet?

No?

Why not?

P.S. Here’s The Teabagger Rag for your entertainment