Tulips-are-US
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the great island of Nantucket! As I sit up in my loft here in the tiny seaside village of Osterville, I can hear the rain pouring down with authority, having turned my computer off this morning as a flash of LIGHT was followed by an equally impressive BOOM! Being 11 a.m., EDT, I thought it was finally safe to come on up and add some FACTS to an otherwise fact-less media world, where pundits and politicians alike, save a few, spin their ‘view’ as to what is really happening in this here U.S. of A. God help us! As we all know, the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, in the 38 billion dollar deal with the devil, that was recently passed, avoiding a government shutdown, was slashed by 1.6 billion dollars, as well as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, who saw their misley budget cut by 142 million, which, in reality, takes out the ‘climate services’ portion of the equation, thus, leaving US all in the dark as to when the next tornado, earthquake, tsunami, flood, wildfire, or hurricane may threaten our PEOPLE…Kudos Republicorp, you are both gentlemen and scholars of the highest order! Howard Dean, along with the great Bill Maher, host of the venerable and most excellent show on HBO, “Real Time, with Bill Maher”, airing most Friday nights, were guests recently on the equally excellent show, “The Rachel Maddow Show”, airing every weeknight at 9 p.m., EDT, only on MSNBC–and I say that with trepidation, not really, as I know that Rachel’s name is on the hit list of the republican “think” tank, “the Mackinac Group”, out of the great state of Michigan, where I once lived, actually was married there in Birmingham, and, if it makes Rachel feel any better, I too pronounced the word “Mackinac”, (mackinaw), just as it is spelled, “Mackinac”, prompting laughter from my former mother and father in law–as well as the town of Petoskey, which I called “Petowski”, as opposed to the proper pronunciation, “petoeski”–if you catch my drift. The hit list goes much deeper and much more sinister than that however, as professors in that great state that I love so much, Michigan, now have their emails probed whenever the word, Walker or Maddow appear in any of their email correspondences–prestigious schools like Michigan State University, the University of Michigan or Wayne State in Detroit–can someone say big brother? or George Orwell, or 1984 all over again? (Sure, I knew that you could…credit the late, great Fred Rogers of PBS). Putting all of that aside for the moment, one of my personal heroes, Howard Dean, a physician and former Governor of the great state of Vermont, where I attended college, said this on TRMS regarding Paul Ryan’s budget JOKE, a bad one at that, when it came to his fuzzy, horse$hit math, proposing cutting 5 to 6 trillion dollars from the federal debt–all on the backs of the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised--”I hope it’s a nice coffee shop Jack” (credit Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro from the classic film, “Midnight Run”). Said Mr. Dean, “Republicans are bought and paid for by corporations in this country, like the Koch brothers, who gave all of this money to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Ryan plan takes money from seniors and gives it to insurance companies. That’s essentially what it does.” They lied to the middle class, the “American people”, some of whom, voted these thieves into office, all in the name of “getting a handle on that runaway Washington spending”, (Republicorp talking point # 5509), when an actual real, non-partisan economic study proves that the “Ryan Plan” does not only NOT save money, but will actually not really take effect until the year 2040. I suppose it is no coincidence that yesterday was the 150th anniversary of this nation’s worst and bloodiest wars, the CIVIL WAR, that began on April 12, 1861, taking over 600,000 lives. It all began in South Carolina and it begs the question, “has anything changed?”, when we see constant ‘reinactments’ of that horrible war, seeming to not champion the fact that we rid ourselves of slavery, but, rather, romanticizing the concept of white supremacy in this very confused country. As the cry for succession from the ‘union’ continues to ramp up in volume, you now hear, “your Yankee dollars are no good here.” Again, it is a banner day when one of my favorite comedian/political commentators/film makers and all round good guy Bill Maher appears on TRMS, as they discussed the busting of public sector unions and the ever growing strength of the folly of the 2009 “Citizens United case” where the Supreme Court in this great nation ‘decided’ to allow corporations to act as real people, committing all of the capital they wish to the puppets, I’m sorry, candidates of their choice–turning national elections in this country into a laughing stock, that is noticed by every other intelligent and progressive nation on this planet earth. Thankfully, some of the real American People have woken up to this fact, and “men” like Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio, have put themselves in a proverbial box, painted in, via their hypocritical lies and corrupt dealings with the “man behind the curtain”, a.k.a. David Koch, the ‘grand master’ himself. Ryan keeps speaking of the ‘fact’ that we don’t have a revenue problem, but a spending problem in this nation right now, which is, simply put, complete and utter horse$hit. We have a BIG revenue problem in this country where corporations pay little, as in the case of GE, who payed nothing in 2009 or 2010 in the way of federal corporate taxes, while the poor and the elderly are slated to ‘pick up the slack’ as in the upcoming battle with medicare and medicaid. This is all due, in large part, to a very corrupt tax code that favors that richest top one tenth of the top one percent, via rules that were written by the lobbyists who work for the same men who own the corporations we are speaking of here. The budget slashes have taken away the teeth of the IRS, responsible for collecting taxes from tax cheats who have ripped off the people of this country to the tune of 350 billion dollars! That is called REVENUE Mr. Ryan, and in case you haven’t heard, your boyish good looks and stellar work out routine will not get you out of this one. “Revenue” that could help fund the fledgling EPA, NOAA and the National Weather Service–VITAL to our national safety as the weather patterns continue to worsen via the ‘hoax’ of GLOBAL WARMING that will be worse than anything these morons can possibly fathom. Bill Maher said this just last night, “The republican trick is to state a position so far to the right, that when you come back to the middle, it’s not really the middle any more (the phenomenon of moving the goal posts). And that is what they did with this Paul Ryan’s budget plan, that is all over the IDIOT media, talking about “how brave he is”, you know, I hear commentators say, “you know he was the first one to put anything on the table,” no, he didn’t put everything on the table, he didn’t put DEFENSE on the table–where is the real coverage of this ‘plan’ of his? This is where the discussion starts, this fantasy budget, that funnels more money to the rich people, taking money from the elderly and the poor, and everyone else for that matter, and so when we have an Obama response, you know that it is going to be way center right. There is nothing for TRULY progressive, (and I might add human) people to latch onto. I want to present a budget on my show, Friday night, (HBO), that includes cutting the defense budget in half, as it has almost doubled since 2001, go back to the tax rates of Clinton for the rich and everybody else. We would save 7.5 trillion dollar, over the next ten years, without taking food out of the mouths of starving children, many of which are homeless on the streets of Orange County this morning. How about that “Captain Courageous?” (or Bronco, as he likes to be called by his buddies, “the young guns” of Republicorp’s puppet show). The thought of privatizing medicare and medicaid is akin to a real death panel, and that, my friends, is a FACT. Bill, then went on to say, “It’s not hard for democrats to win these battles, it’s a very popular program, it’s not hard to stand up for some these things, I mean, they can win harder ones than this, this is an easy one, as people who are in their elder years do not like change, and this insane ‘idea’ that Paul Ryan has (“I told you to call me Bronco”, credit Bill Murray of the classic film, “Groundhog Day”) that you know, says, in essence, we, the members of the puppet show owned and operated by REPUBLICORP, will give seniors 15,000 dollars, money the government used to give to the seniors, yes, we are going to give you that whopping 15 grand and give it directly to the insurance companies-for they will have no CHOICE. You can see how that’s “freedom” instead of socialism. Oh, and by the way, if that huge dollar amount is not enough to pay for your grandmother’s hip replacement, TOUGH! That will be the republican response to that very real reality to come.” (I told you to call me Bronco!). As Bill explains the very real fact that assisted living facilities cost much more than 15,000 dollars a year, and also points out that older people are not going to spend their time shopping for a better insurance plan, not when Madison Avenue wizards confuse them to the point where they don’t even know how to spell health care anymore, makes it all the more sad and SICK. I for one, based on my extensive experience in the high world of being an insurance executive for the largest insurance consulting companies and insurance carriers in the world, KNOW the real deal, and I can tell you this, as I have no ax to grind, save getting the TRUTH out there, Paul Ryan is a snake, not just a “snake oil salesman”, as he, Ryan, is simply a puppet for the likes of the brother’s KOCH, or the like, who pull his tiny, tiny strings that move his mouth, his hands, his arms, his legs, and sadly, his heart, as he speaks about his “all star” workout routine that he is so proud of. It is a disgrace to our grandmother’s, grandfather’s, great Aunts, great Uncles, and the whole concept that is, last time I checked, one of THE commandments from the GOD they all claim to know and LOVE, “Honor thy Mother and Father”–the very people who took care of us when we were all ‘growing up’, and this, tragically, is the way “they” plan to repay them. Republicorp’s plan is just to let them die, not in an honorable way, but with no LOVE, no compassion and no human decency. All so that we can continue funding the richest Americans in this so called democracy. It is the most shameful, abhorrent, and dare I say, Machiavellian move these clowns have pulled thus far. The wizards of Madison Avenue, funded by the likes of David and Charles KOCH, have hoodwinked ignorant American citizens who have voted against their own best interests, making them feel sorry for those snakes of Wall Street, via a sick Stockholm Syndrome, that is about to take down the greatest country planet earth has ever seen. Give us all a break from your criminal, corrupt, cruel and unusual crooked hypocrisy. When Rachel asked Bill about the Planned Parenthood fuzzy math that our ‘friend’ from the great state of Arizona, John Kyle, a republican of course, offered the world, when he stated that 90 percent of the monies from said program goes towards abortions, when the real number is less than 3 percent, proves just how cruel and dishonest these scumbag monsters really are. They force, according to Bill and me, poor people to have children, for they cannot get abortion services, abortions they may need for they don’t have the money to care for a new born baby. They not only force them to carry the child to term, but then, adding that salt to an already gaping open wound, cut funding for things like pre-natel care, proper nutrition and head start to give those poor souls a fighting chance in this ever crumbling country–forcing those children into a cold and heartless world with virtually no chance of success. Controlling not only reproductive rights, but contraception, for in doing so, can control the amount of slaves they will have to work for their companies at pennies a day. Our pals over at FOX and FRIENDS, a horrible show if I have ever seen one, gave us some good news for those poor souls recently–”Walgreen’s is now a one-stop shopping place for the downtrodden, where poor women can get their pap smears, breast exams, and STD screenings, with Glenn Beck adding this about Planned Parenthood, “the only people that need Planned Parenthood are hookers.” WOW. What an A$$hole! Finally, Bill said this of FOX NEWS, “How can you get information into people’s heads?, so many people live in that FOX NEWS bubble, this is why a guy like John Kyle can take a little poetic license with the FACTS, you know, 3% or 90%, I mean if he were off by 5 percent, I might be able to understand that, but when his ’spokespeople’ go on the national airwaves and say, “that number, the 90 percent he claimed as to what Planned Parenthood does, that number was not MEANT as a FACTUAL number.” Well, at least they are consistent. The republican party does not deal in FACTS, it deals in LIES and deceit. Again, to quote Bill, “WOW, this guy takes the crown, he has hit an 8 run home run, with that one, and I don’t know what to say about these people, I hate them as much as you do.” God Bless you Bill, and be safe out there amongst the English. I don’t hate anyone, but I do hate their values, and, moreover, their egos, that run the show of greed, corruption and a complete lack of common human compassion, decency and decorum. GOD’S SPEED be with the good people of Japan, we, at least here at seacapecod.net have not forgotten you or your loss. May that rising sun become a reality of LOVE, JOY and PEACE once again. Have a wonderful Wednesday folks and may you never take any of those wooden nickles that Benjamin Franklin warned us of so many moons ago… PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
