Stupid People

Stupid people annoy me. All the "stupid people" quotes you can think of -- they all apply.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Note to self: It is illegal to stab people for being stupid.

When you're surrounded by idiots, just remember that murder is illegal and sarcasm is much more satisfying.

It's not that I'm not a people person. I'm just not a stupid people person.

People are idiots and I hate them.

Sarcasm. It's easier than actually having to deal with stupid people.

Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Everyone has a right to be stupid; some people just abuse the privilege.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Oh, I sure have my moments of being stupid. We all do. But some people, as some anonymous soul pointed out, abuse the privilege. Those are the ones who annoy the crap out of me. I mean, I just don't have the time in my life to drum up the kind of energy it takes to deal with stupid people.

Like Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and Haley Barbour -- stupid governors who get their noses all up in the air because they don't want to let unemployed people have more unemployment benefits. There was a another stupid people quote -- something about when people do stupid things they declare it their duty. Just like these stupid governors. It's their little protest against the recovery bill. They, of course, want to continue the failed policies of the last 30 years, believing they'll get us out of the mess that those very policies put us in.

Stupid. People.

Like Eric Cantor, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives. He thinks Obama's decision to overturn GW's ban on federal funding for embryionic stem cell research is a "distraction" from the economy. Well, Eric, sweetie, it's only a distraction if you make it one. So shut up about it and keep your nose on the economy.

News flash: The president is a Democrat. A Democrat -- a liberal. And yes, he damn sure is a liberal.

He is not a socialist, and that brings me to the entire Republican party and all of its followers, each and every one of whom apparently do not know what socialism is. They seem to think that Obama the socialist, which he is not, is planning to strip billions of dollars from rich people and give it to the poor. Kind of an elected Robin Hood, which personally I don't think is such a bad idea, given the atrocious behavior of most rich people of late.

But that's not going to happen, and I'm not stupid enough to push for it.

But that's not socialism anyway. Socialism does call for a more equitable compensation plan, wherein John Thain does not make billions of dollars while Lily Ledbetter loses her job and can't file suit for the gender discrimination she suffered. But that's all highly theoretical. And, like capitalism, there are varying degrees of socialism.

And the argument for or against socialism and for or against capitalism isn't what I'd like to carry on here. I don't consider myself much of a socialist, but then, I don't consider myself much of a capitalist either since I let go of my business several years ago and dove wholeheartedly into journalism. Personally, I think some new type of economy is what we're going to end up with -- the best of both worlds, and probably a few others too. Provided we survive.

Oh, and socialism and communism aren't the same thing either.

Just so you know, socialism calls for state or worker ownership of the means of production and distribution. Since the rich jackasses have exported all the production the United States once had, there's not much around here to create a true socialist system with. So, you stupid people, shut the fuck up. You don't know what you're talking about.

You have all your panties in a wad because Obama's tax plan calls for people who make more than $250,000 a year to pay a little more tax than they've been paying. Here's what you don't know -- the rest of that sentence, since you start screaming the moment you year "more tax." The plan calls for people who make more than $250,000 a year to pay a little more tax than they've been paying on the part of their income that exceeds $250,000. So all your stupid friends who are trying to figure out how not to make more than $250,000, they're not doing themselves any favors at all. They're just stupid.

Listen to what distributorcap NY says about it:

Finally, you also have to laugh when people like Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham talk about 'redistributing the wealth' and that 'people who have higher salaries are more productive and more valuable.' (Tell that to a nurse, teacher or fire fighter). Not that people shouldn’t reap the benefits (if that means having lots of money) of their hard work and great ideas, but tell me how different would Richard Fuld’s or Stan O’Neal’s or some other robber-banker’s life be if they paid a 39% marginal tax rate on the $500 million they stole earned, rather than 35%. Would it mean one less $12,000 garbage can? And if that extra 4% in marginal tax went to attaining cleaner water (which they have to drink) or retiring debt to fight the useless Iraq War or to helping kids get an decent education (who I would think they want buying products to keep corporate America busy) or by making the bridge they drive over safer – wouldn’t that be better for the Fuld family?

But that's too much thinking for stupid people. They just hear "taxes" and go all nutzoid. because for them, thinking is just regurgitating what you've been told by others, who probably heard it from some other stupid person too. Reminds me of another stupid people quote.

Lord, what fools these mortals be.

Whatever, though. What's pretty darn clear is that the stupid people and their Eville lords (not sure who they are, but stupid people can't make up all this shit by themselves) are scared. There's new ideas out there. They've been out there for a while, but they're moving now, percolating up from the dismal depths of the mess the conservatives have made of things. And Mahatma Gandhi knows what happens when new ideas get started.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.

I think we're at the fighting part now.

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Sense Of Entitlement

Conservatives are whining about "entitlement programs" now. You know, entitlement programs, like Medicare, Social Security, Head Start, food stamps, unemployment benefits -- anything that could actually help the citizens of the United States of America.

Keep an eye out for Democrats -- and not just those stinking Blue Dogs -- who may follow suit and adopt that hideous language as if people in dire straits are sticking their hands out and demanding help because they feel entitled to it and not because it's the right thing for government to do when its people are desperate.

But it's not true that conservatives oppose entitlement programs. Why, they're some of the biggest supporters, in fact.

You may not be aware of it, because when a conservative supports an entitlement program, they don't call it that. They call it a "bailout" or a "rescue plan" or "tax cuts." And it's meant explicitly for bankers and investors and CEOs and other campaign contributors.

Some people get it though. I found this blog, Stunatra's Place, earlier today.

You know, I am tired of hearing about this fucking stimulus/bail out/bullshit package. Look at these whiny motherfuckers. Let's see if I got this straight....you fucks are okay with bailing out the rich cocksuckers on Wall Street who robbed the people on Main Street but when it comes to helping those on Main Street you say "Fuck them?" What a bunch of bullshit.

If we're gonna alienate Main Street....why don't we just save us all a lot of money and not bother bailing anyone out. Tough shit for everyone. Auto industry, banks, crooks on Wall Street, struggling homeowners and anyone else who wants a hand out....fuck you.....you're all on your own. Good fucking luck!

Now, I won't go that far. I think that government does have a place -- an obligation even -- to help its citizens. And yes, that is a bit different from how it was set up in the 18th Century, when the entire U.S. population could have lived in Brooklyn. Times -- and the country -- have changed. Then, an economic downturn would have made barely a blip on the population since most of it was agrarian.

Not true anymore. Now, the population is too dependent on all kinds of artificial constructs -- many of them, if not most, set up by the government. An economic downturn -- especially a severe one like we're seeing now -- has the potential to be devastating to the people of the country.

But still, the conservatives would rather continue with their own entitlement programs for companies and rich bankers. Why, they're so horribly upset that taxpayer money might be used to help taxpayers that one of their rich buddies in the media, Rick Santelli, is calling for "tea parties," presumably some take off on the Boston Tea Party way back when. All the conservative sycophants are drooling over the possibility.

Billmon, however, says the rich guy version of a tea party doesn't look like anything like the old American variety of tea party. He thinks it probably look more like this, and I'm inclined to agree. It's clear they don't really know what the first one was about -- the favored tax status of the British East India Tea Company. Not the same thing as an attempt to help the people, and more akin to the Republican entitlement program of helping out corporations.

You heard them all going on and on about how the stimulus bill, for example, was just awful, was going to add to our already skyrocketing debt, shackle Americans for generations to come. John McCain, I think, called it "generational theft."

Only one problem, and for that I go back to Billmon. Government debt, it seems currently amounts to only about 50 percent of Gross Domestic Product, which is not that far from where it's been for the past 30 years. In fact, government debt as compared to GDP has risen only about 38 percent in those 30 years.

And, that's far below most other industrialized nations, like Japan (180 percent), Italy (170 percent), France (70 percent) and Germany (60 percent).

But other kinds of debt, not included when politicians say "national debt" but possibly more important in the grand scheme of things, have jumped far more.

And the biggest offender is the indebtedness of our finely tuned, well-oiled and strongly running financial institutions, now at about 350 percent of GDP -- more than six times what it was in 1975. And that's precisely where conservatism went wrong. Billmon...

The trend towards ever greater debt ratios has been particularly steep since then mid-1990s, which was roughly when the global creditor class decided that the "Great Moderation" (the globalization-induced taming of both inflation and recession) was here to stay, and began shoving loans in the face of any borrower who could fog up a mirror -- and some who couldn't.

There is an on-going economic debate -- too wonkish and tedious to explore here -- about whether this wall of money was a result of a coincident collapse in personal saving in the US, the UK and some of the other wealthy countries, or whether it actually caused middle-class and upper-middle class consumers to go an a spending spree the likes of which the hasn't been seen since the invention of the credit card.

Suffice it to say both sides of the trade thought they were getting a great deal at the time. And many of the same right-wing financial pundits now bitching about all this debt were perfectly happy to invent sunny stories that explained why it could go on forever.

But equally problematic is that private debt -- the kind that you and I hold -- has also risen, to just under 300 percent of GDP, one and half times what it was in 1975. That's also the fault of the conservatives, who convinced us over the years that we'd be just fine, no matter how much debt we took in. Billmon again.

Of course, conservative gospel tells us private debt is never a problem -- even when it's used to turn houses into ATM machines. But government borrowing (the only type of IOU dignified with the label 'national debt') is always a problem, even when it's used to build roads and bridges for all the cars bought with all that equity extracted from all those overpriced suburban mini-mansions. Then it's 'porkulus.'

It's been all that financial indebtedness that has us in the pickle we're in now. Nobody was very concerned about it, especially conservatives, because according to their smoke and mirrors fiscal understanding, everything worked out fine in the end.

Except it didn't. It created "toxic assets," all those crap loans that they gave to people who couldn't afford 'em, pushing private debt up. And now, all the chickens have come home to roost. The banks are stuck because the people they loaned money to can't pay. Then there's a bunch of financial mumbo jumbo about what makes things work or not work that come into play, and the result is that people who could pay their mortgages and car loans start to lose their jobs. Then they can't pay either, and everything slides further downhill.

Now, according to the conservatives, all we have to do is make sure the shareholders and executives of the bank receive their entitlement funds, and everything will be OK. But it won't. People will still be out of work. The bad loans will still be bad loans.

That's apparently not the concern of conservatives, who care only for their own bank and stock accounts. Except, again, it's not going to work. The same shortsightedness and half-assed efforts that doomed the Republicans before the last Great Depression are dooming them now. And us, if we don't act quickly and forcefully.

I go back to Billmon, who knows whereof he speaks, having covered financial matters for a long, long time.

The hard truth is that there is now only one, and only one entity on the planet that can keep the private credit excesses of the past decade, which most conservatives wildly applauded, from ending in a classic debt-deflation meltdown. And that is the US federal government.

Sometimes, deficit spending is the right thing to do. And the "entitlement" programs the conservatives hate so much are the very ones that need to be carefully preserved during this very difficult times, Republican governors refusing the bucks to bolster their conservative street cred be damned.

It's clear that Republicans have no answers but the ones that got us into this mess. Listen to them. What do they say that's different from what they've said for the past 8 years?

Oh, that's right. Because they've run us into the ground with their deficit spending, we must stop it now that we've sunk so low that the middle class is feeling the pinch. Oh, and cut taxes for our rich friends.

Don't buy it. Don't even think it. They're wrong, as they have always been. The Blue Dogs are wrong too. The liberals? At this point, they may not be right either, but they've sure got a better shot at it than Republicans who only want to keep doing what they have been doing.

It's gonna be a hard road ahead, my friends.

The years of anti-government and anti-deficit propaganda have definitely left their mark -- not least on the village idiots of the Beltway media, who may not rant and rave on camera, but who can't even comprehend, much less accept, the idea that there are times when expanding government debt is not only not a bad thing, but is a positive good thing, even an essential thing. The Keynesian idea of fighting a recession brought on by excessive debt with more debt is a hopelessly counter intuitive strategy. And intuition, for better or worse, is what democracy runs on most of the time -- that is, when it isn't being powered by base emotions like greed, fear and hatred.

Maybe there is no way out of this mess, either practically or politically. Limitless growth, Edward Abbey once wrote, is the ideology of a cancer cell, and the doctrine of endless debt-fueled expansion may have created an economy so riddled with it that any therapy powerful enough to kill the cancer will also kill the patient. In other words, globalized capitalism (or rather, this strange brew of corporate oligopoly and lemon socialism) may have finally dug itself a hole too deep for the traditional neo-Keynesian policy tools (fiscal and monetary policy) to lift it out of.

But, if that's true, then our children and our grandchildren may indeed spit on our graves, but it's going to be because we have bequeathed them much bigger nightmares than an increase in the federal debt.

And if that happens, remember where it came from. It didn't come from helping America's citizens. It didn't even come from unnecessary wars and bailouts. It came from unfettered financial irresponsibility brought on by greed and megalomania -- outside the government sector, but enabled by greedy and megalomaniacal elected officials who duped an entire country into thinking it could survive on somebody else's money.

They were wrong. And these modern day robber barons are wrong now to give a pass to their own entitlement programs while denying help to people who really need it.


Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Sticker Shock

I could almost give 'em this one, except for the "Obama bin" part. That's pretty telling. There were, after all, plenty of "Impeach Bush" stickers around for the past 8 years, although there is that little thing of actual impeachable offenses.

But the Patriot Depot, based in Atlanta, is making quite a name for itself among the dittohead followers of the Ayatollah Limbaugh with its array of items that "unapologetically reflect a politically conservative and/or Judeo-Christian ethic." There are Ann Coulter books, Bernard Goldberg books, Mike Huckabee books, anti-global warming books, something called "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women and Feminism" that I'd be scared to open and bumper stickers galore.

Take this one, for example, riffing on the "Obama is a socialist" meme. Y'know, if these assholes knew what socialism actually is, they might have made up Comrade Bush stickers last year. But that would not have been right, since, clearly, Republicans would never, ever, ever do anything that might bring socialism to America. Whatever it is.

Speaking of change we can't afford, there's also this little gem. At risk of bringing the wrath of a certain segment of feminists upon my head, let me say once again: Sarah Palin would make a horrible president. She lacks the breadth of understanding of the issues facing the United States that is necessary for a president, and has yet to show any desire to obtain that understanding. Stirring up racists and playing to the worst of human nature is not a qualification. At least it shouldn't be. So, thanks, I will keep the "change."

Here's another change I'll keep. Isn't this what it's all about for these guys? Guns, freedom and money. I can understand the guns and money part, but as best as I can tell, when they say "freedom," what they actually mean is "I get to decide who is a real American and who isn't, and if you aren't, you are screwed, and I've got the guns and money to make sure that's true."

Here's another cute one. Notice the little Democrat donkey representing the word "ass." There's the usual uncreative suspects too, like "Don't blame me, I voted for Palin" -- not McCain, mind you -- and "January 20, 2009 -- the beginning of an error." There's an unbelievable number of anti-Hillary Clinton books, not surprisingly since she clearly scares the bejesus out of these folks. And there's a bunch more Politically Incorrect Guides to things like English and American Literature (I'm scared to look at that one, too), Global Warming, Darwinism (what the hell is that anyway?) and Intelligent Design, Hunting, of all things, Science (oh spare me), the Civil War (eegads), the Bible, the Constitution, the MIddle East, Islam (oh my god. this one sounds scary too), Western Civilization and the South (and Why It Will Rise Again), festooned, of course, with a Confederate battle flag. But I'm sure there's not a racist bone in any of their bodies.

Now, far be it for me to deny someone their god-given right to make a buck in this capitalist system anyway they can. I bring this to your attention just so you'll know what we're up against here.

Y'know, I was horrified when the Supreme Court declared George W. Bush our president in 2000. I feared for the worst. But I had feared for the worst before, and things had come out more or less all right then (little did I know that the worst I had feared wasn't actually coming to fruition until the latter years of GW's rule). So I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt. Never even considering hoping he failed. And for a few minutes there on 9/11, I thought maybe he'll turn out all right.

It was soon afterward that it became painfully obvious that GW's call to bring us together in our darkest hour was just so much bullshit, the high point of a presidency that would slowly drag the country into the mud of its own creation.

The past eight years were a bit like living in Alice's looking glass, where the economy's in great shape early in the morning and in the crapper by the afternoon, where "nobody could have predicted" was the watchword for things everybody but the administration did predict.

It's a a world where freedom is having your civil liberties stripped away, where a crusade is launched to "install democracy," where reasons for war change as often as the hour.

In that same world, Michael Brown did a "great job" in the Katrina disaster -- which, incidentally, caused no oil spills (!) -- FDA inspections and enforcements were down and reports of tainted food and other products skyrocketed, and dozens of "signing statements" assured that the administration didn't have to enforce or obey laws passed by Congress.

There are still tens of thousands of weapons missing in Iraq, our treatment of many veterans is beyond shameful, Osama bin Laden -- the guy we were gonna smoke out of the caves he was hiding in -- is still hiding, whether in caves or some more comfortable abode we don't know, and we had a Justice Department that wouldn't define torture.

That same Justice Department admitted hiring based on political ideologies, scientific reports were routinely changed or suppressed if they didn't agree with the party line and environmental rules and regulations were routinely eased.

And then there were the constant "Bushisms," "nucular," trying to rub the German chancellor's shoulders. And what was that bit about not reading?

But yeah, turnabout is fair play right? That's all Patriot Depot is doing. Returning the favor of all the anti-Bushies.

I just can't get over this one little difference. We may not have liked the Supreme Court's choice in presidents. We may have been angry about it. We may have even feared for the worse. But our fears and anger weren't about not being in charge. They were about what we wanted for this country.

I know, plenty of conservatives say that's what they want too -- McCain's "Country First" comes to mind. And I'm sure that some of them really believe it, but I'm afraid they're in the minority now. Modern Republicans, who now represent the conservative movement, are only concerned with getting back in power.

There's that lil bumper sticker up there -- "I'll keep my guns, freedom, and money ... " That's what they want to protect. Not the people. Not the citizens of this country. Not even its reputation in the world. Just the guns, "freedom" and money of a ruling class that does not have our best interests at heart.


Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Cry Me A River

So now the Republicans, led by Sen. John "I Lost" McCain and his bud, Sen. Lindsey "Aren't I Sweet" Graham, are crying that the stimulus bill isn't the bipartisan bill the president promised.

It was a bad beginning because it wasn't what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people, that we would sit down together,

McCain said.

"We"? What "we" promised the American people? John, honey, you promised the American people more of the same. And your whining act on the floor of the Senate last week proved that you're still after more of the same. What, do you think you're gonna run for president again at 78?

No, John, let me remind you again. You lost. You do not get to demand that Obama do things the way they have been done for 30 years -- the way you would have continued to do them had you NOT LOST. But you did lose, John. You did lose.

This is not 'change we can believe in',

Graham said.

Maybe it's not change you can believe in, sweetheart, but Obama promised real change, and that means -- are you ready for this? -- your "tax cuts will solve all our problems" approach -- the same approach Republicans have taken for the past 30 years and look where it's gotten us -- isn't change. Not only that, but it's also not going to get us out of the hole you dug. I don't know about South Carolina, but where I come from "change" doesn't mean "doing the same thing we've always done."

President Obama held unprecedented meetings with Republicans during the run-up to the stimulus bill. And what did it get him? A big fat "fuck you."

Look, I appreciate the fact that the president came over and talked to Republicans. That's not how you negotiate a result. You sit down together in a room with competing proposals. Almost all of our proposals went down on a party-line vote.

Loser McCain said.


Well, duh. What did you expect when your side takes its marching orders from Rush "I hope Obama fails" Limbaugh? Every single Republican congressman and woman stamped their little feet and crossed their arms over their chests and said "NO," just like a toddler that's only now learned the word. Where were you, John, when GW was running up all those bills and crashing the economy like he did? You wanna hear John's answer to that? Here it is:

Republicans were guilty of this kind of behavior. I'm not saying that we did things different. But Americans want us to do things differently, and they want us to work together.

So it was OK when you and your ilk never met with Democrats, held up votes while you twisted arms to get what you want, held secret meetings to decide how best to screw the American people. But you got the first part right, John. Americans do want you to do things differently. And that means not doing what you want. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

This president has always worked in a bipartisan fashion. He will continue to reach out to Republicans. We hope that Republicans will decide they want to reach back.

And, Gibbs noted, not only did Obama invite the obstructionists to the White House, he went "to Capitol Hill to meet with Republicans where they work."

But still they don't heed the message, the one that the American people started in 2006 and continued in 2008. The one that they'll still be delivering in 2010 if the obstructionists don't get with the program.

So, if you want to know who did the bipartisan fail, look no further than the Republican side of the aisle. It was you, John, and you, Lindsey, and John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl and John Cornyn and everybody else with an "R" after their name with three exceptions.

Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter. Now, I don't like what they and Ben Nelson, who has a "D" after his name, did to the bill. And I sincerely doubt the bill's gonna make enough change happen to prevent the Republicans from getting a big tizzy on screaming "I told you so" as they try to make the case that Obama was wrong and they were right.

Don't be fooled. John McCain is wrong. Lindsey Graham is wrong. All the rest of them are wrong too, all the way back to Ronald Reagan, who set the wheels that have now come off the wagon in motion in the 1980s.

"Bipartisan" doesn't mean you write a bill that has a little bit of what one side wants and little bit of what the other side wants. And it sure doesn't mean bringing to the table the same failed policies that the American people so soundly rejected in November.

And, Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor, "bipartisan" doesn't mean you stand in front of the television cameras and lie. The New Deal failed, my ass. As if the New Deal was some big conglomerate program instead of multiple smaller programs -- some of which worked, and were continued, and some of which didn't, and were scuttled. Where do you get your history, guys? Does Supreme Leader Limbaugh give you that too? Or do you use the same writers who do the science textbooks that pretend evolution is an untested theory?

This economic crisis is far deeper than the Republicans want you to think it is. A couple of tax cuts that will primarily benefit rich people isn't going to help. Neither is Tim Geithner's bailing out the banks, but that's another post.

Republicans, conservatives -- they failed. Miserably. They do not now get to step up to the plate and take another swing at it.

It may well be true that some of the Democratic plans don't work. But we already know about the GOP's tried and false ideas. "Change" doesn't mean doing the same old thing.

This Republican party isn't the loyal opposition. This Republican party isn't trying to help the country and its citizens succeed. This Republican party only cares about making sure Obama and the Democratic Congress fail so they can make a comeback in 2010.

At least that's what they're thinking. As if the American people don't remember what they voted against, Sen. McCain, on November 4.

Maybe now would be a good time for the Republicans to remember that too, because I can guarantee you we're gonna remember what you did in the early days of 2009. And if you continue with this same obstructionist attitude right on through until the next election, well, then, boys, whatever happens to you is on you.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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