WHICH CAME FIRST—STUPIDPARTY PEOPLE OR BAD GOVERNMENT?

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday August 05, 2015 · 2:45 PM PDT

2015/08/05 · 14:45

By Patrick Andendall:

Government helping Capitalism flourish.

Without Government – Just how would the economy have been salvaged from economic Armageddon, a catastrophe created by unfettered capitalism, the Asset strippers mooching off everything and every one else? Lets simply look at the Auto “bailout” (which was hardly a bailout – but stupid loves inflammatory misleading language) that so infuriated the stupidparty. Would we even now have an auto Industry? Would America now have a new Auto Company that is on the cusp of turning the world wide Auto Industry on it’s head, with the USA hosting the technological brains? But first let us fact check some statements Bill Clinton made at the 2012 Democratic convention regarding the Auto Industry.

Clinton stated: (The Bailout) It saved more than a million jobs, and not just at GM, Chrysler, and their dealerships, but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country.

TRUE

The Center for Automotive Research estimates the auto bailout saved 1.5 million jobs.

Clinton stated: So what’s happened? There are now 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than on the day the companies were restructured.

TRUE

The companies were formally restructured in July 2009, with GM, for example, being reorganized on July 10. Since then, auto industry employment is up by 233,800 workers, according to BLS.

Clinton stated: Now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor, and environmental groups to double car mileage, that was a good deal, too. It will cut your gas prices in half, your gas bill . . . according to several analyses, over the next 20 years, it will bring us another 500,000 good, new jobs into the American economy.

TRUE

The new mileage standards will double fuel efficiency which, in principle, should halve fuel costs. A study by the Blue Green Alliance, a joint Labor–Environmental group, estimates the standards will create 570,000 new jobs. That’s hardly an independent source, but it shows Clinton’s not pulling the number out of thin air.

As The Washington Reports Every so often, we ought to celebrate our victories. The auto bailout is a case in point. Six years ago, it was wildly controversial, with the fate of General Motors and Chrysler hanging in the balance. Now, it’s clear that the bailout was a solid success.

The revitalized auto industry has been a pocket of strength in a lackluster economic recovery. Motor vehicles and parts have provided 25 percent of the recovery’s gain in manufacturing, despite representing only 6 percent of manufacturing’s value added. Since mid-2009, the number of manufacturing jobs increased by 256,000, up 41 percent from the low of 623,300. Dealerships and parts stores added another 225,000. (All gains are as of mid-2014.)

The Auto Bailout – is all but a small fraction of what the Government achieved

Tax payers have made $350,000,000,000 (Yes 350 Billion) from the bail out –and this number is increasing all the time. How come?

1) TARP 15.6b. The Troubled Asset Relief Program is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector

2) Fannie and Freddie 37.5b*

*Once they have made the latest payments in December, the two companies will have returned $225.5 billion to taxpayers, in exchange for about $188 billion in taxpayer aid they received after being placed under the government’s wing at the height of the financial crisis

3) Interest income out of thin air caused by quantitative easing. This interest is pure profit to the Fed — and the Fed, by law, turns over its surplus profit to Treasury. Hence the following graphic:

Stupidparty Disciples (voters) actually love big governments.

They love having a bloated military.

They are happy with Social Security.

They are happy with Medicaid.

I have also established that Stupidparty states benefit disproportionately from federal spending.

Stupidparty disciples do not understand that only 30% og the Budget is discretionary – i.e only the following programs can be cut

Who is really against the Military’s 57% of 30% (we will get back to this), Public Education’s 6% of 30%, and the Veterans’ 6% of 30%. Now we are left with about 30% of 30% = i.e., about 10%.

But what do we get from the government for this?

1. Clean air, clean water, safe food.
2. Housing to keep people off the streets.
3. Public transportation, easing congestion, mobilizing workers, & job seekers.
4. Business regulations that prevent insurance companies from reckless investments and profiteering—so that your claims can be paid. Or bank regulations to prevent people from walking away with all your assets, or job-retraining programs, etc.
5. Investments in scientific research.

Putting investments in science aside for the moment, that leaves the favorite Stupidparty targets:

Foreign aid 3%.

Okay, let’s cut that. Let China bribe themselves into the hearts and minds, furthering their trade and security interests. Or let’s start by cutting security of overseas representatives; you can always blame someone else for Benghazi.

The post office.

It should be noted that the finances of the post office are misrepresented and generally misunderstood: 1) reforms are hampered by Congress, 2) losses are in fact being reduced, and before even thinking about closing down the service, 3) retirees should be shifted to Medicare and 4) other healthcare economies made.

The post office now has to prefund its retiree health costs, maybe up to 75 years. Darrell Issa is investigating, but we have already established Issa’s credentials. His opinion is not worth the dust sitting under the paper it is written on. According to Josh Barro in a Bloomberg article, 75% of private firms do not prefund their retiree healthcare obligations. Until 2006 the post office did not prefund its retiree healthcare benefits. In 2006 Congress forced the post office to prefund (some lawmen suggested up to 75 years, including liabilities for people not even born yet) these benefits to the tune of $8 billion a year—when their actual annual costs are less than $3 billion. Consequently, they are taking an accounting hit of $5 billion a year—a remarkably similar amount to what the post office is actually unable to pay; thus, the calls for closing it down.

But regardless, those debts have to be paid and the taxpayer is on the hook. Therefore, when analyzing the viability of the post office today and going forward, one should assign that additional $5 billion to paying off past debts; it should be put to one side.

The post office recently reported (November 2013) that they had reduced losses by about 67%, down to around that magic $5 billion number, and had actually increased revenue.

The post office is an easy target, whose demise can only help its competitors increase their monopoly and margins. Closing down post offices—who gets hurt? Think about rural communities that lack easy access to alternatives. The post office provides local jobs; it is a fabric of the community, a staple of a diminishing High Street. The postman, a person we might see on a day-to-day basis, can act as a friendly local watchdog over a barely visited neighbor.

Who lives in rural communities? Yes, these communities are disproportionately represented within the Stupidparty power base, another clear example of Stupidparty Disciples acting against their best interests. Virtually all rural districts are Red.

Keynesian Economics

How could capitalism ever need government assistance in creating economic growth? First, one should bear in mind that up through the Second World War, the capitalist system had had pretty mixed results. In the sixty-year period 1880 to 1940, the economy grew by 100%, or about 1.15% a year. In the next sixty-year period, the economy grew by about 400%, or almost 2.5% a year.

Bear in mind the 1880–1940 period included the so-called Gilded Era: a time when the few, the Robber Barons, pillaged society—gaining staggering wealth—while evidently the rest of society progressed very slowly. A period that Stupidparty now harkens back to. There are perhaps two huge factors for this improvement of the capitalistic economic report card, both of which Stupidparty and Disciples cannot fathom.

In the 1930s, Keynes spearheaded a revolution in economic thinking, overturning the older ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would, in the short to medium term, automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands. Keynes instead argued that aggregate demand determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment. According to Keynesian economics, state intervention was necessary to moderate “boom and bust” cycles of economic activity. (Wiki)

In short, this means that when the free market leads us into a swamp, it is at these junctures that governments can pull us out of that swamp. They can invest in those big ideas (such as a space program, medical research, or national defense), which are too expensive, too indirect, or too risky for the private sector. The private sector needs to be confident of a high likelihood of a profitable return within a fairly short window. Venture capital is similarly averse. Also, it is clear (to everyone but Stupidparty) that profit should not be the motivating factor behind war, crime prevention, incarceration, deadly disease, education, basic safety, etc. This may appear to be a damning statement, but any confusion, which clearly exists, is subliminally exacerbated by the Benefactors—playing into the lack of clarity as to what caused the debt and how serious the issue is, and the methodology and timing for debt reduction.

Who Does Bad Government?

Who Does Bad Government?

Who Does Bad Government?

Who Does Bad Government?

Who Does Bad Government?

What Unknown Stuff Does Government Do?

I am sure the very notion of the government creating anything, is beyond the scope of Stupidparty Disciples.

Hardly anyone, of any party, appears to understand one of the key aspects of what lies behind economic growth. When one asks a person, “Who is responsible for the technological advances that have fueled improved productivity leading to economic growth?” everyone will come up with Bill Gates or Stephen Jobs or Google, and so on.

Steve Jobs was obviously a remarkable innovator—especially in designing very appealing consumer products. Look at the technologies in the iPhone. These smart phones tap into a number of things: a) the Internet, b) the GPS, c) touch screen technology, d) the HTML common language, and e) many other ideas coming out of Silicon Valley. Before taking a closer at why Steve Jobs could be so successful, I just need to insert some brief historical context.

The U.S. government—yes, that same consistently denigrated entity—has additional if somewhat indirect tools at its disposal to stimulate private-sector growth. There are massive side benefits (ripple effects) to simply keeping the nation safe. When the Second World War began in earnest, on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, the U.S. Army ranked seventeenth in size and combat power. This ranking placed the U.S. just behind Romania.
http://www.fpri.org/...

It was not the private sector or capitalism that stepped in. With extraordinary speed the government turned that situation around. Having secured military preeminence, it then also realized that to ensure the U.S. remained strong and secure, it had to keep investing in ideas. To win, the government had to take risks. It had to run risks in ways the private sector is not capable of. A rule of thumb is that the greater the risk, the greater the potential reward. The government had to invest in what with hindsight may have been some pretty crazy ideas. Most failed, but that was not the point. The point was not about making profits for investors but about ensuring that the United States could not be beaten by Russia or China—or today by radicalized Islamists. Since the stakes are higher, there must be a greater tolerance for risk. Armed Forces personnel and CIA operatives routinely put their lives at stake.

So within this context, let’s now go back to Steve Jobs. Before Apple even went public, it received a $500,000 loan from an obscure government agency. Let’s take another look at that ever-so-smart iPhone:

1. The Internet.

The Internet was created by a slew of government agencies and a wide range of academic research organizations, freely collaborating and sharing the fruits. The Internet was perhaps born in 1962:

“In October 1962, [J. C. R.] Licklider was hired by Jack Ruina as Director of the newly established IPTO within DARPA, with a mandate to interconnect the United States Department of Defense’s main computers at Cheyenne Mountain, the Pentagon, and SAC HQ. There he formed an informal group within DARPA to further computer research.”

http://schools-wikipedia.org/...

The U.S. Congress during the Cold War—fearing for the very existence of the United States as a consequence of nuclear proliferation—authorized the funding of GPS:

“GPS was created and realized by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and was originally run with 24 satellites. It became fully operational in 1995. Bradford Parkinson, Roger L. Easton, and Ivan A. Getting are credited with inventing it.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/...

2. Touch screen technology.

Academic scientists in publicly funded universities and labs developed the touch screen and the HTML language.

http://www.emergingmarketsoutlook.com/...

3. The HTML common language.

See a) and d) above.

4. Voice-activated “virtual assistants.”

This technology was created by government funds for the armed forces:

“Speech recognition technology made major strides in the 1970s, thanks to interest and funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. The DOD’s DARPA Speech Understanding Research (SUR) program, from 1971 to 1976, was one of the largest of its kind in the history of speech recognition.”

http://www.techhive.com/...

5. Many other ideas coming out of Silicon Valley.

The government provided much of the early funding for Silicon Valley:

“The entity that built the Valley and gave birth to its culture of collaboration and experimentation was none other than Uncle Sam. In other words, the creation of the hub of American entrepreneurship and innovation was a federal project.”

http://www.inc.com/...

So Steve Jobs came into a world of government-created inventions, of government-supported business. So why do the founders and the shareholders of Apple get all the profits—and do everything they can to mitigate their taxes?

Likewise, the research that produced Google’s search algorithm, the fount of its wealth, was financed by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

http://www.economist.com/...

As for pharmaceutical companies, they are even bigger beneficiaries of state research than Internet and electronics firms. America’s National Institutes of Health, with an annual budget of more than $30 billion, finances studies that lead to many of the most revolutionary new drugs.

http://www.economist.com/...

Economists have long recognized that the state has a role in promoting innovation. It can correct market failures by investing directly in public goods, such as research, or by using the tax system to nudge businesses towards doing so.

http://www.economist.com/...

The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (Mariana Mazzucato) argues:

The entrepreneurial state does far more than just make up for the private sector’s shortcomings: through the big bets it makes on new technologies, such as aircraft or the Internet, it creates and shapes the markets of the future. At its best the state is nothing less than the ultimate Schumpeterian innovator—generating the gales of creative destruction that provide strong tailwinds for private firms like Apple.

http://www.economist.com/...

Stuff That Came from the Space Program | NASA.

Better, smaller digital cameras; flexible, insulating aerogels; environmentally friendly lubricants; medical-exam LED lights.

http://www.consumerreports.org/...

Or what about scratch-resistant glasses, comfy sneaker insoles, enriched baby foods, ear thermometers, smoke detectors, protective paint, better cardiac pacemakers?

http://www.cnn.com/...

The Large Hadron Collider | CERN.

One realizes that Stupidparty Disciples are happy to think that Jesus rode around on dinosaurs—but the rest of us have a thirst for knowledge, a thirst for answers, for solutions. It is not just us: Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, et al., created better education, literacy, medicines, irrigation, etc.

These cultures also created or promoted Philosophy, History, Theater, the Olympics, and of course Democracy. They were asking, “Where do we come from? What is our place in the universe?” It turns out that even though many questions have been answered, many tough questions remain. Not even the Asset Strippers can afford the time and money to help humanity understand its existential place—and once again, the government steps into the abyss. And as they explore, they discover. A side benefit of all this additional knowledge will be new potential products that consumers will demand, presenting opportunities for the private sector.

So next time Stupidparty moans about non scandals such as Solyndra (a government investment that did not lead to profit), you might just want to ask why they do not appreciate the many ways the taxpayers have profited from government investments or actions, including not having been invaded by Germany or Japan in 1940—a time when the USA was extremely vulnerable—or Russia since 1940. Or on the other hand, ask them about Tesla—a car company built on the back of government assistance—because the government can be a lot smarter than Stupidparty Disciples, in that it clearly has a better understanding of the importance of the technologies behind Tesla (zero gas) or Solyndra, for that matter (solar panels). As we speak Tesla now has a sports car sedan that can do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds – an SUV like vehicle that will be able to do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds. The cars look beautiful, and the Model S was voted best car of the year for two yeas in a row by Consumer Reports and Time and Best Car of the Year by Motor Trend.

The days of the Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche and the rest – they are over. As these high end drivers make the switch to Tesla -they are realizing that they are fast losing interest in their older, noisier, dirtier, hard to maintain out of date toys that required them to mingle at gas stations with the rest of us. Tesla grows more affordable and practicable by the day – with less expensive models not so far from being launched.

Next Big idea?

It could be anything. It might be extremely cheap energy from nuclear fusion, a decades-old project, with a recent breakthrough that many governments are working on (see link below). http://www.bbc.co.uk/...

It is also clear that the U.S. infrastructure is somewhat suspect when it comes to international comparisons. One way to leapfrog over everyone else might be the proposed Hyperloop. If venture capital finds the logistics too complicated, perhaps this is a potential job for the government. I do not know how feasible it is. I am certainly no engineer. But if anyone says that this is daft, you only need to evaluate one thing: how does that person (the cynic)’s résumé compare to the résumé of the person proposing the idea, a man by the name of Elon Musk? Ignorance of such matters is ever more inexcusable because of that government invention—the Internet.

The Hyperloop. San Francisco to LA in 30 minutes.

The best way of cutting the size of the government- i.e. discretionary spending would be to ask: Does the USA need an army larger than the rest of the World’s combined? Do we really have to start another illegal war? Or attack Iran, bomb some indefinable group in Assad’s Syria . . .do we want his stay or want him out -all quite complex stuff ?

Perhaps we could cut discretionary spending if we lowered the crime rate by changing gun culture, or reduced the absurd incarceration rates, closed tax loopholes; reduced subsidies to factory farms, subsidies to Oil Companies; had cheaper access to birth control (which leads to reduced poverty); and, yes, went after those 4% of moochers in a bipartisan fashion.

But suggest any of this to Stupidparty Disciples—they would then revert to one of their favorite slogans: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A

The only way for people to back control of their Government is to start thinking critically and then demanding the following reform package:

For more content, please visit www.stupidpartymathvmyth.com

Iran, the Constitution, Stupidparty, and Treason

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday July 24, 2015 · 7:47 PM PDT

2015/07/24 · 19:47

Written for Patrick Andendall, by Bryan E. Frydenborg

Republicans: Wrong on Iran Deal & Constitution, Wrong for USA & Israel

It’s hard to be so wrong and silly on such substantive issues as war and peace, nuclear proliferation, improving our relationship with Iran, and our Constitution, but the Republican Party (better known as the Stupidparty) is trying very hard and is succeeding spectacularly. We should all give Republicans due credit by making it clear how dead-wrong they really are.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures and declares

Reuters

“Republicans, in fact, often find themselves empowering America’s enemies through their actions).”

Treason is not a word that should ever be used lightly. Expressing a dissenting opinion during wartime, for example, should not be thought of as treasonous, even though some still seem to think that using that word is appropriate. Challenging your government, its officers, and your fellow citizens when you believe they are incorrect is also something that a sane definition of treason should not include. In the words of the great journalist Edward R. Murrow, “We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”

And yet, how you express these opinions, and who you are and in what capacity you are speaking, can matter in certain circumstances.

With the Obama Administration’s twenty months of negotiations with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s negotiators on a nuclear deal (full text here) to prevent or slow Iran’s ability to acquire nuclear weapons production and deployment capabilities endingin(despite some delays) a momentous,historic success, we reached those certain circumstances during the negotiations with a letter signed by forty-seven out of fifty-four Republican senators, nearly half of the one-hundred-strong United States Senate, our senior legislative body. This extraordinary action can also be viewed as one-sixth the power and authority of our government, being roughly one-half of one-third of one of our three co-equal branches of national government (the other two being the presidency’s Executive Branch and the federal courts of the Judicial Branch). The short letter of the senators, authored by Sen. Tom Cotton and titled “An Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” basically claimed that the president and his officials alone could not conclude a meaningful agreement without their approval and could only reach “a mere executive agreement,” that most of them would likely still be senators when Obama leaves office in January 2017, and then concluded that the “next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and the future Congress could modify the terms of the agreement at any time” (with “any time” not actually being true because any president could veto any changes and that veto would be insurmountable without a two-thirds vote against the president in both the House and Senate). The letter was directly addressed to Iran’s leaders and was clearly designed to sabotage and underminethe Obama Administration’s efforts towards reaching an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program (meaning that both Republican hardliners and Iran’s Islamic hardlinersfound common cause in opposingthe agreement; Republicans, in fact, often find themselves empowering America’s enemies through their actions). The letter was produced and released on official United States Senate stationary with the official Senate letterhead and was signed by forty-seven sitting senators. They were not merely conveying their opinions as individuals, but were conveying them as senators and in their official capacity.

The relevant historians find this to be unprecedented, including the official Senate Historian himself who said that “We haven’t found a precedent…That doesn’t mean there isn’t a precedent. After 200 years, it’s hard to find anything that unprecedented.” In the end, he says, “We really didn’t find anything.” Secretary of State John Kerry, the Obama Administration’s point man on negotiations with Iran complained of the letter’s unprecedented nature. The complaints did not stop there…

Now, there are some basic lessons from American history and some principles behind our Constitution that these forty-seven Republican senators, and those who support them, seem to miss. Actually, we can say this about a whole lot of things when it comes to Republicans and conservatives, who often seem to prefer the disasterthat was the Articles of Confederation (see the thoughts on its “Deficiencies” of Founding father, author of the Constitution, and [fourth] President James Madison) over our Constitution and constantly read the latter as if it was the former (they should read Federalist No. 63, in which Madison discusses the need for both government power and the people’s liberty to be checked). That could be a whole other article, but the point about the Republican senators’ letter goes back to issues from the very period of the Articles of Confederation that led to its being scrapped in favor of the Constitution (see The Federalist Papers Nos. 15-22). The period of 1781–1789, during which the Articles of Confederation governed the United States, saw tremendous chaos in the realm of the new nation’s foreign affairs. Though in theory foreign policy was supposed to more-or-less be conducted by the national Congress of the Confederation, in practice the weak and ineffectual national government proved unable to prevent individual states and individual people from meddling in foreign policy, confusing other parties as to who really speaking for the United States and with real authority. To say this led to misunderstandings and crises would be an understatement. After the Constitution went into effect in 1789, over time“Americans began to see alternative negotiating as treason.”

Still, with a new government in place and officials navigating in unchartered waters, it would take some time for clear limits to be established and understood. While the primacy of the Executive Branch in foreign affairs was clear in the Constitution as originally worded, what crossed the line and how this line would be enforced was not as clear. This gray area was left for Congress, Executive practice, and the Federal Judiciary to decide. And that is what began happening. When hostilities on the open seas emerged with Revolutionary France during the undeclared “Quasi-War” (1798-1800), a private citizen named George Logan took it upon himself, without approval from the government, to travel to France in 1798 to negotiate on behalf of the United States. In response, Congress passed a law known as the Logan Act in 1799 that basically criminalized unauthorized diplomacy. TThis law still remains on the books todayand has been modified slightly in the modern era, yet there has never been a full prosecution of anyone over this law; over the entire history of the Act, only one Kentucky farmer was charged with violating it in 1803, but his case was never even brought to trial.

In terms of the Senate Republicans’ Iran letter, there seems to be a consensus among serious non-partisans and policy analysts that the letter itself is almost farcically silly and “embarrassing”; it presumes to lecture on U.S. Constitutional mechanisms, then proceeds to mischaracterize one of the key mechanisms in question, claiming that Congress “ratifies” treaties when actually it simply give its advice and /or necessary (but not sufficient) consent to the president, who makes the ultimate decision on ratification if and after the Senate votes to consent (in Iran’s snarky responses to the letter, the fact that the Senators mischaracterized their own Constitution was, embarrassingly,not lost on the Iranians).

However, there is some debateamong scholars and analystsas to whether or not the letter is a clear violation of the Logan Act. Some say it is a clear violation, othersfeel it is more gray, some say it is pointless to even determine this because prosecution under the act is both impractical and unlikely. If you’re thinking that Logan was outside the government and that that means senators can’t be in violation of the act, before we go any further, it is time to open up the U.S. Constitution that both restricts and empowers the Federal Government. For forty-seven Republican senators, and anyone who agree with their action of sending a certain letter to Iran’s Supreme leader at this moment in time on the subjects it covered, they may need to blow the dust off of their copy.

Article I is the section of the Constitution that lays out the powers and responsibilities of the U.S. Congress, and it very clearly does not authorize Senators or any other member of Congress to engage in foreign relations or negotiations of their own accord. However, in Article II, which deals with the powers of the President, the U.S. Senate is given “Advice and Consent” roles in Section 2 in relation to the President’s and the executive branch’s express powers to be the executors of foreign policy: “[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur.”

Congress legislates, but the president executes the actions of government. The Constitution was clearly designed to have one principal agent, the president (and any people to whom he chose to delegate authority), act in the arena of foreign relations with the Senate’s “Advice and Consent.” Having multiple centers of gravity in the same type of power with respect to foreign relations would have been to invite chaos and disaster and inconsistency (as during the Articles of Confederation era), and this the Constitution clearly avoids having. The president’s Constitutional powers empower the presidency to make “presidential or sole executive agreements” without a Congressional role, agreements that fall short of the stature of “Treaties” that can be subjected to future change or rejection but are hardly insignificant. That is not to say the Senate has no role, as clearly the President is supposed to act with senators’ “Advice and Consent,” and best practice and the best results come from when the president and the Senate work together in the process of treaty-making, with the president often delegating senators to negotiate or involving them in negotiations. However, with the treaty Power falling under Article II, and the president having “Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,” and not the other way around, it is clear that the president leads and that senators cannot act independently of the Executive Branch in this realm, save to offer their “Advice” or to withhold their “Consent.” Advising and Consenting in no way even implies unilateral insertion into an official process or unilaterally officially communicating to active parties in an official negotiation; there is no Constitutional room for senators undermining the Executive Branch’s negotiating positions and negotiations through official non-legislative action directed specifically at negotiations or the parties involved in them; such actions would be clear violations of both the language and spirit of Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution.

So even if there was not a violation of the Logan Act, or any law with a specific penalty,there is perhaps an even stronger case to be made that the senators violated the Constitution and encroached on the prerogatives of the Executive Branch and the presidency. In American jurisprudence, there is a concept known as the “sole organ” doctrine that is confusing and misunderstood and often taken out of context. But, as constitutional scholar Louis Fisher shows in his lengthy and comprehensive discussion of the Executive Branch’s prerogatives regarding foreign policy, where there is little confusion among the framers of the Constitution and the Judicial Branch’s interpretation is in the consensus that the Executive Branch is the sole executor of foreign policy, and that this includes all communications to and through foreign powers.

And yet, what we have happening here today is exactly what the Constitution was designed to prevent: members of the Senate inserting themselves publicly and without presidential authorization into ongoing negotiations between the Executive Branch of government, acting within its Constitutional authority in its capacity for action, and the government of Iran. To insert themselves directly into the negotiations with messages that expressly contradict both the intent and the spirit of the elected president’s administration is a clear violation of both the separation and the division of powers as laid out in the constitution. And the fact that it was done to deliberately undermine the goals of a presidential administration engaged in active negotiations with a foreign power makes it treasonous any way you slice it or dice it. That it does not fit the prosecutable Constitutional definition of treason as laid out in Article III Section 3does not mean it does not fit the dictionary definition and spirit of the general concept of treason (it clearly does). Senators may no more publicly use their office to undermine the president’s authority to engage in negotiations as an executive head of state than the president may issue an executive order that empowers himself or those acting on his authority to violate laws that Congress passes. The Senate does not consist of one-hundred individual ambassadors-at-large-to-the-world able to act on their own impulses any more than the presidency consists of one legislator-at-large able to legislate at will. To use Alexander Hamilton’s words in Federalist No. 75, “the Executive…[is] the most fit agent” for “the management of foreign negotiations,” a sentiment echoes by John Jay notes in Federalist No. 64. That is partly why executive power and legislative power, unlike in Britain and other parliamentary systems, are divided and separated by our Constitution. For a president to legislate or a senator to execute, is, if you’ll pardon the expression, un-American.

Thus, the Republican senators’ letter is clearly a violation of the Constitution, even if it may be less clear as to whether their letter is a prosecutable offense under the Logan Act. Yet even worse than the their specific treasonous-in-spirit-act is the fact that their position is so wrong and dangerous for everyone involved: Americans, Iranians, all the peoples of the Middle East (including Israelis), and even the whole world.

I have discussed the deal’s details before. But even as Iran’s ability to produce a weapon would increase towards the end of the fifteen-year-agreement, the length of time required to make a weapon in the event of a breakdown in the agreement—termed “breakout time”—even at that juncture would still take longerthan it would currently take Iran, before the implantation of this new agreement. Now, Iran’s breakout time is two-three-months; once the agreement is in place, it would take Iran a year to produce a bomb. That’s a big difference in my book.

As I have written, and as President Obama himself has noted, those opposing this deal do not have logic on their side at all. When negotiating a deal, both sides must make concessions; neither side will be totally happy with the results, and the fact that this deal is not a perfect deal from the perspective of the interests of America is simply the reality of negotiating a deal, and does not mean that the deal is a bad one, is not good, or should be rejected. The idea that Iran would have likely given up more ground—whether, as Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump claims, Iran would have cowed before the supposedly-awesome might of Trump’s negotiating skills, or whether, as reporter Major Garret obscenely suggested, that Obama should have jeopardized an entire nuclear deal affecting millions by tying it to the fate a few American citizens being detained by Iranian authorities (and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are released in the near future, much like Kennedy quietly and subsequently removed Jupiter nuclear missiles from Turkey as part of a secret caveat helping to end the Cuban Missile Crisis)—is just not grounded in reality, considering especially that Iran already gave a lot of ground. So don’t let anyone tell you that a significantly better deal for the U.S. at this time could have been reached. If sanctions were ratcheted up and a significant amount of time went by before resuming negotiations, perhaps Iran would be feeling more pressure, but it would also be much closer to a bomb or might already have one by the time negotiations resumed. So, that would have been a bad risk to take. No deal now, and no deal in the future, would have allowed Iran’s already strong nuclear program to continue unhindered, then, and nuclear weapons capability would have been certain in the near future. No deal, with a nuclear Iran and Middle East with a deteriorating and expanding Sunni-Shiite regional conflict, is not in anyone’s interests, except ISIS and other terrorist groups. And as Obama himself correctly made clear, “Put simply, no deal means a greater chance of more war in the Middle East.” The only other realistic alternative to this risky status quo and this agreement, then, is a risky military path, from a single strike up to and including all-out war. These military options seem to be the ones favored by Saudi Arabia’s new king and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu (one of the largest critics of the deal), who would love to have America fight a war against Iran on their behalf. Yet even just a limited strike could risk a radicalization of the Iranian regime and to galvanize the people behind Iran’s ayatollahs, who aren’t exactly currently loved by many Iranians for leading their country to diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. A lot of people would die in those strikes and their responses, likely including many Israelis. And an all-out war, with Iran’s mountainous terrain and large population, would make the Iraq war, by comparison, look like child’s play. And I frankly don’t think Americans are willing to wage a war that could take much longer than our recent war in Iraq and result in far more casualties for Americans, especially when this deal presents a viable alternative to war. Even with a war, it is very difficult to know that we would be able to eradicate Iran’s nuclear capability, and if Iran was in possession of any nuclear weapons during a war it was fighting on its own territory, if its situation were desperate, that would only increase the chances, not lessen, of the use of nuclear weapons in combat for the first time since Nagasaki in 1945. If America stopped its efforts short of a full regime change and the eradication of Iran’s nuclear program—very tall tasks, indeed—then the result would a humiliating disaster for America that would leave every party in a worse off situation than before fighting began. So, no, when this deal is stacked up against realistic alternatives—not Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice fantasy negotiations, but negotiations that would have taken place in the real world—there really is not a better alternativeor one with less risk. And this is the only one of the realistic options that does not involve massive bloodshed that severely limits Iran’s nuclear program and keeps it from developing a bomb for at least a decade and then some.

Perhaps most importantly, we have a chance to begin anew our relationship with Iran. Recognizing this potential, over 100 former American ambassadors praised the deal. The United Nations Security Council has already unanimously endorsed the deal, and has also voted to lift sanctions on Iran (the latter provoking complains from the U.S. Congress). This deal enjoys broad globalsupport for good reasons. I’m not going to mince words at all here: this is, clearly, Obama’s greatest achievement in foreign policy (including the killing of bin-Laden, who relevance had decreased significantly in the years before his death) and possibly even of his entire presidency. TARP and the stimulus packages were either a joint-effort with the departing Bush Administration and/or with Congress; this, on the other hand, was all Obama and his team. This may very well be the biggest foreign policy development in over forty years, since Nixon went to China in 1972 and began a path that led to engagement between the two countries that has benefitted both nations in many ways and helped to prevent war between us. No singe act of a U.S. presidential administration has happened from that 1972 trip until this Iran deal that has so much potential to be a game changer and to change the course of world history so greatly. This is truly a monumental achievement of great substance that makes many millions of people safer than any of the realistic alternatives; Obama, Kerry, and Rouhani and their negotiating teams should be hailed as heroes.

But all the Republicans do is bash this deal, with incredibly myopic points that do no address any of the points I raised about realistic alternatives being far worse. The Republican clown-car of potential candidates vying to be their party’s choice to be the leader of the world would, if their words are to be taken seriously, dramatically escalate the likelihood of all-out war and would see current levels of bloodshed all over the Middle East very likely rise should any of them occupied the White House. From supporting treasonous and un-Constitutional acts to endangering Americans, Israelis, and the world with awful policies and deeds that illogically undermine the very sound policies of the Obama Administration, the Republican Party is not to be trusted, respected, or voted into power because they are just so wrong.

See related article by same author: There Is No Logical Argument Against the Iran Nuclear Deal

For more content, please visit http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/

Race to the Bottom Part 3 of 3: Mississippi, The Mouse that Roared

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 22, 2015 · 9:42 PM PDT

2015/07/22 · 21:42

By Patrick Andendall:

Mississippi the Mouse that Roared – creating a stampede
See also Part 1 Texas and Part 2 Kansas.

So we have had a lot of fun with Texas and Kansas. So much fun that it became all too easy to forget that the one thing the Big Texas Elephant feared most would be a rabid little mouse. Kansas is trying really hard having selected the very worst type of governor one could imagine – but until now we have just been horsing about. Our hearts might want to go out to Texas and Kansas – but both these states have an Achilles heel or two. Firstly Texas is on a trajectory to turn blue – and this would gut the Stupidparty (so expect ever more desperate cheating, voter suppression and revisionist lying Texas, and Kansas has only become an impending disaster since around 2010 when Stupidparty came into full bloom). But the other weakness of these two states is the pure math – because the math will become unequivocal. This sadly means that when discussing Mississippi, humor just seems out of place. This is because the story of Mississippi is so irretrievably sad.

In discussing Texas and Kansas – I am sort of speechless, have run out of words — so hardly any more words, each graph will launch a thousand words.

Mississippi does have slightly less regressive state taxes than either Texas of Kansas.

And yes, Texas does have the highest number of uninsured and Mississippi is the 34th worst state. But this is perhaps the highlight of Mississippi’s achievements. Its only going to get a lot worse for poor little Mississippi.

Religion – before focusing on Mississippi digest the following table correlating religion with education from an international perspective.

Religion: Mississippi Rank #50

Education Mississippi Rank #49

Poverty : Mississippi Rank #50

Life Expectancy : Mississippi Rank #50

Least Physical Exercise : Mississippi Rank #50

Most Porn Mississippi Rank #50

Most Mooching: Mississippi Rank #49

Most Racist: Mississippi Rank #49

Women Equal pay Mississippi Rank #47

Here we can see a typical example of the collateral damage the red states do to the United States in general -where their Stupidity often threatens to turn the US in to a third world country.

So it looks like we have a very clear pattern. But to summarize, plus adding more factors, twenty different metrics in all— let us look at the ultimate chart.

*Red Font Numbers are guesstimates. I chose 30 for Kansas because they seem to have a pattern of coming in around 30. The interesting point about Kansas is to consider not where they have been, but where they are going. On the racism question – which can be hard to get data on – I was probably overly cautious (harsh) in giving Vermont 30 – but I did this because they have had some recent bad press in regards to some police actions against minorities and likewise I was probably being kind to Kansas—but since I could find no data I gave them a 15.

But I am not quite done. Just in case the pattern is still difficult to see, lets add them all up and then compare these three Stupidparty States with two of the smarter blue states. I guess in the eyes of a Stupidparty disciple, this would be like comparing freedom-loving American patriots with European-loving socialists—who should just leave the country.

But if the blue state socialists did leave the country – then who would be picking up the tab: the deadly costs of Stupidity.

So now you have all the data your hearts could desire – please feel free to go ahead and vote for your choice – who do you believe is the most Stupidparty state of all?

For more content, please visit http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/
Also links to all this data can be found at the original posting here:
http://stupidpartymathvmyth.com/...

Poll

18 votes Show Results

Which is the most Stupidparty state in the whole wide world?

18 votes Vote Now!

Which is the most Stupidparty state in the whole wide world?

Texas

3 votes

Kansas

6 votes

Mississippi

9 votes

None of the above

0 votes

Race to the Bottom Part 2 of 3: Kansas, Taking Liberties from God

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday July 17, 2015 · 6:28 PM PDT

2015/07/17 · 18:28

By Patrick Andendall:

Part 2 of 3: God must surely want a chat with Kansas:

(See part 1 Texas)

God speaks: I think we need to send a message to Kansas. How about killing all the firstborns? That helped Moses. No, I promised my beloved son that there would be no more genocide, no more lightning bolts. However insulted I feel – I must just turn the other cheek. But this cretin keeps acting in my name; surely I can subtly give him a deadly disease – plausible deniability and all that. No, my son can always tell when I am not totally truthful. This is driving me nuts. Perhaps I can write him a letter. No there are rules about that, I cannot provide any evidence that I actually exist – especially since the moment I was persuaded to cease and desist my temper tantrums. Thank God, if I may say so myself, for Valium. But I am the Almighty, the infallible –Jesus cannot stop me from thinking and somehow projecting.

Dear Sam,

Please look to the heavens, I am signalling you that you must die, that I am a bit disappointed with your performance. First I must confirm that hell will freeze over before I ever talk to you I never talk to anyone, certainly not total morons to my creations that are not able to grasp the lessons of my son. He did die for you, I believe. If I were to talk to you it would be to tell you that you are destined to go to hell a less desirable afterlife. So why I am so anxious to see you fry for all eternity change your ways, even though I infallibly know that your DNA will not allow this to happen?

You seem to have forgotten that I sent my beloved son down to help the poor and the sick and to test the wealthy and the privileged. Yet you blasphemously use my name to promote easily provable nonsense. That makes me mad sad because it makes me look like a total idiot I do not care.

Let me try and explain in the simplest possible terms, because even though I endowed you with a brain, you refuse to exercise it and it has thus atrophied to the point of being brain dead a sad burden for you. Have you yet to find an economist that supports your infantile belief in trickle down economics? Here’s the thing, trickle up works approximately 700% better than trickle down. You don’t believe me. You question my infallibility—well at least consider the math provided.

Now here is what happens when you cut taxes.

Kansas is constitutionally bound to run a balanced budget. So less revenue means various services have to be cut. I am not saying that tax cuts per se are bad, but it is the format of such tax cuts that will dictate how effective they will be:

In its 2015edition of “Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy counts Kansas among the 10 states with the “most regressive state and local tax systems.” Taxes eat up 11.1 percent of income for the poorest 20 percent of Kansas residents. Meanwhile, Kansas’ top one percent of earners forfeit a comparatively paltry 3.6 percent of their income.

By giving to the rich rather than the poor, the economic multiplier effect is likely reduced from x 8 down to x 1.2. Strange how economics works – no one knew that my little Jesus was such an infallible economist. Oh here I go on again, prattling on about my Son, regressive taxes, multiplier effects and the marginal propensity to consume – when all you want to do is pray and expect me to create an economic miracle out of idiotic thinking. Now what would that achieve in the best of circumstances? But the quid pro quo of me not being allowed to turn you into a pillar of salt, is that I cannot do the whole miracle thing either.

So back to the textbook we must go. Now see how much less revenue you have to pay for various services.

As Bloomberg reports:

“Income-tax cuts in Kansas championed by Governor Sam Brownback have led to credit downgrades, political turmoil and deepening budget deficits. This week, they’ll start forcing schools to close early.

As lawmakers work to erase a projected $800 million budget gap for the fiscal year starting July 1, at least eight school districts that saw their funding cut this year because of a greater-than-projected slide in state tax collections will begin shutting down before the scheduled end of classes. Dozens of others have eliminated or cut programs.

“We felt we didn’t have a choice,” said Janet Neufeld, superintendent of Twin Valley schools, which will end the academic year on Friday, 12 days early.

“It’s not good for kids, it’s not good for families,” said Neufeld, whose district serves 590 students in eastern Kansas. “But we’re trying to keep the ship from sinking.”

I hate to point out that all this is taking place in an environment where the economy of the country is rapidly bouncing back. But back to our backward Brownback Kansas.

“Early school closings and program reductions are signs of a budget sinkhole in Kansas, where Brownback and the Republican-controlled legislature approved large income tax reductions in 2012 and 2013. They said reduced levies would spur economic activity that would compensate for lost state revenue. The governor called his move to gradually end the income tax “an experiment.”

Something else that will surely damn you for all eternity complicate your afterlife plans—why would you, a self-proclaimed Christian, so easily sell your soul? Do you really think that I am blind? You think that I am some type oxymoronic infallible amateur, that I cannot see how you changed your views on clean energy, wind energy – all because your largest single donoris trying to create an Ayn Randian Kansas Koch Kingdom in a land that will soon resemble a Mad Max post apoplectic landscape? l always loved a good blow, yet you are too stupid to harness my free stuff.

But there are rules that states must abide by. Kansas cannot run a budget deficit. The massive regressive tax cuts to the wealthy are having the opposite effect (note my comments about the multiplier effect) – Sam you have somehow orchestrated the most inefficient type of stimulation known to mortals.

Thus, following the logic of your truly sick mind misguided philosophy, the poor must suffer even more to ensure no budgetary deficits.

One truly brain dead unfortunate idea follows another. You want to stop people on welfare withdrawing more than $25? It’s not like they have to pay rent or anything. A part from the truly repulsive morality – it is just so Stupidparty – costing far more to administer the plan, than any of the zero benefits that can be expected.

(I must now leave you Sam— so sorry, must dash, I must rush off to oversee a crisis on a different planet – something about technological singularity being imminent on a planet, not so unlike Earth, yet far far away enough to be in a different galaxy. Do I plump for mass extermination or the total destruction of mythical thinking? Can I be made redundant? Tough call. What would my beloved Son do? Fortunately the rest of this Kansas narrative can pretty much write itself.)

“LimitingTemporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefit withdrawals to $25 per day. Many pointed out that not only was this burdensome in terms of time and effort, many ATMs only distribute money in $20 increments and add fees to outside withdrawals. The law also enacted some other limits on welfare benefits, including a lifetime cap of 36 months, drug testing, and restrictions on spending benefits on a variety of expenses deemed to be frivolous, including movie theaters and cruise ships. (This is on top of Kansas also kicking more than 20,000 people off food stamps.) The vote rolling back the daily limit kept those other restrictions in place.”

If he carried on with these nutty ideas, Kansas would stand to lose $100m of federal funding.

But it gets worse. Schools are facing a $197 million shortfall. Some have even brought lawsuits against the state, saying that Brownback’s cuts to school funding, which caused dramatic disparities between rich and poor districts, are unconstitutional. The Kansas Supreme Stupidparty Court agrees.

So the courts are threatening to undermine his efforts to bludgeon education – the lack of which has already caused people like Sam Brownback to get elected in the first place, indicating that ignorance was Brownback’s road to power and the only way to protect his future.

So the law is getting in his way. No problem. And now we actually get a glimpse of how a post democratic oligarchy would live on forever. Fascism, Kansas style. Brownback simply states that if the judiciary rules against him, he will defund the judiciary.

I guess it could be argued that Kansas schools are hardly worth saving. They already teach creation – a subject that does not belong in any school, not even in kindergarten.

“On November 8, 2005 the Kansas Board of Education approved the following changes to its science standards:

1. Add to the mission statement a goal that science education should seek to help students make “informed” decisions.
2. Provide a definition of science that is not strictly limited to natural explanations.
3. Allow intelligent design to be presented as an alternative explanation to evolution as presented in mainstream biology textbooks, without endorsing it.
4. State that evolution is a theory and not a fact.
5. Require informing students of purported scientific controversies regarding evolution.

Opposition to new standards

In addition to the over 70 scientific societies, institutions and other scientific professional groups that have issued statements supporting evolution education and opposing intelligent design, the Kansas Board of Education was presented a letter from 38 Nobel laureates, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Nobel Laureates Initiative, calling upon the Board of Education to reject intelligent design and support the teaching of evolution. It stated:

“Logically derived from confirm-able evidence, evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection. As the foundation of modern biology, its indispensable role has been further strengthened by the capacity to study DNA. In contrast, intelligent design is fundamentally unscientific; it cannot be tested as scientific theory because its central conclusion is based on belief in the intervention of a supernatural agent.”

It seems that many schools have extremely backward notions about reality, freedom of expression. They are interested in one thing –producing brainwashed stupid people.

A billin the Kansas Legislature could lead to teachers facing criminal charges for showing students materials that parents would consider harmful and offensive. Now bear in mind that facts are offensive to Stupidparty disciples – in fact they glory in their bigotry and ignorance. Now a teacher even mentioning same sex marriage – well you don’t even want to go there. Repent thee and you shalt have your liberty to be free or free will handed back to you by the divine Brownback, oh glory be his merciful name.

Living in a self-creationist mythical universe has multiple side effects. It allows such a dearth of critical thinking capabilities as to make places like Kansas one of the most backward places on the planet.

Taking the above chart, plus data about religion along with stats on Mississippi and Alabama, one can now start connecting the dots to figure out that probably less than 20% of Kansas Stupidparty disciples believe in evolution—one quarter of what one would expect, all things being equal.

It is within this environment that virtually any myth can take hold. I would hazard to guess that more than 80% of Kansan Stupidparty disciples believe that the more guns one has the safer you are. This claptrap is promoted by such charlatan mathematicians as John Lott – now of his own personal institute, because no one else would employ him. It’s easy to debunk all of his claptrap.

When your heart is in the wrong place where does that leave you?

He saidin a speech in 2013 that his economic acumen is not based on “mental principles, but things that connect through the heart.”

“That was one of the main headings on Brownback’s campaign website and obviously he assumes people suffering under his typically Republican economic agenda are unaware that Kansas’ economy is not leading the nation. Part and parcel of Brownback’s storied “red state model” economic agenda was following trickle-down champion Arthur Laffer’s instructions to Republican legislators that if they slashed taxes for the rich and reduced the state’s revenue, the state would be awash in new revenue. Now that the state has suffered several credit downgrades due to a lack of revenue, over a hundred current and former Republican leaders have endorsed Brownback’s Democratic opponent and warned Kansas residents that Brownback’s tax cuts will bankrupt the state within two years if not sooner. It is what Brownback’s campaign calls growing the Kansas economy.”

But in an ocean teaming with such ignorance, Kansas has little chance of producing any intelligent design for themselves. Why bother if you can simply surrender your brain to your delusion. So back to that post-apocalyptic Kansan Mad Max world. God is evidently no longer allowed to bring plagues upon peoples that he despises—you know you are a good parent when your child turns out better than you. But God has figured out that he longer needs to manufacture plagues, when they will happen without the need for a divine catalyst.

The Ten self-inflicted plagues of Kansas:

1) Kansas sits on the high plains aquifer, which provides 30% of the nations irrigated ground water. Because of its asset stripping cattle industry (among others), Kansas is drawing down water from the High Plains Aquifer at more than six times the natural rate of recharge. This blood money will lead to no water, leading to a ravaged wasteland.

2) The frogs will stand by in awe and watch a plague of grasshoppers ravage crops. Favorable factors include warm, dry summers to facilitate egg production followed by warm, moist springs to promote hatching and nymphal emergence, according to Kansas State. Several consecutive favorable seasons will result in large populations.

3) Lice or mites or something else killing off honey bees in addition to the lack of water will complicate the ability of Kansas farmers to make a living. This living is only feasible now due to federal farm subsidies and the myopic enthusiastic thirst for the asset stripping of dwindling water resources.

4) Due to lack of water and feed, livestock to be abandoned to die in the wastelands. Flies will come and feast on these decaying carcasses – creating clouds of their brethren.

5) There will be no boils – instead the increasing heat shall allow Kansans to boil their eggs on the tarmac of their driveways.

6) Gun-crazed high plain drifter wannabees will get increasingly mad with everyone and start behaving like wild animals, creating checkpoints, fearing immigrants, gays, teachers, blacks, Yankees, the United Nations and the invasion of federal forces demanding back all the nations wasted subsidies on Kansas.

7) The hoax of climate change will lead to more massive storms and tornadoes and ripping all singing girls and their dogs out of Kansas, out over the eternal rainbow.

8) Those swarming grasshoppers having already evolved from frogs will now evolve into more mobile locusts, rapidly eating the last of the rapidly diminishing crops. The Governor will send urgent notes to Chris Nolan asking how they can build a spacecraft that can fly them to a parallel universe where myth can rule over math.

9) A combination of unfettered pollution, global warming, swarms of flies and massive dust storms will cloud the sky – the sun not be to seen again for at least 40 days, or was it 40 years?

10) No firstborns shall ever be born in Kansas again. The lack of hospitals, schools and other government services, will mean that parents will seek to give birth in other states.

But here is the bottom line for the rest of us – who have to watch this train wreck. This is mortal man’s message to Kansas as explained by Jon Stewart:

“Kansas is a welfare state on the federal dole. At $30 billion in debt, the state takes in $1.29 for every tax dollar it sends to Washington DC. According to Stewart, that means Kansas can’t be trusted and needs to be punished the same way Kansas Republicans are punishing welfare recipients.

“If you need to take tax money from New York and Illinois, it’s OK,” Stewart said. “Just remember, the fact that you’re accepting government assistance shows you can’t be trusted to make your own decisions.”

Kansas, you will never be as big as Texas, so stop trying to out stupid them – stop mooching off our brains. A plague be upon you for wasting our money, all because you are just so so Stupidparty.

“Texas, we are bigger than Kansas, We Live Free Like Mad Max or Die Stupid”

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 15, 2015 · 4:10 PM PDT

2015/07/15 · 16:10

By Patrick Andendall:

The History of Texas

Texas’ State Board of Education has approved new history textbooks, capping months of outcry over lessons that some academics say exaggerate the influence of Moses in American democracy and negatively portray Muslims.Picture

The Texas board of Education was concerned that Kansas was in danger of becoming the Stupidest State in the nation, whilst also being scouted as the next location for future Mad Max movies—so the Texas BOE was determined to eradicate these existential threats. Therefore it also decided to update the history of Texas as well as the history of the world.

Texas has always been the top State in the Union because of its extraordinary history. This state is built upon a foundation of God, Oil and God’s love of Oil.

The new State slogan shall be: “Texas, we are bigger than Kansas, We Live Free Like Mad Max or Die Stupid.”

In Texas, God’s chosen state, one must acknowledge a supreme being before being able to hold public office.

The recorded History of Texas begins with the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in the region now known as Texas in 1519, who found the region populated by numerous Native American tribes. Their ancestors had been there for thousands of years. During the period from 1519 to 1848, all or parts of Texas were claimed by five countries: France,Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America—as well as the Confederate States of America in 1861–65.

The Texian forces, mainly volunteers from the North fought and won the Texas Revolution in 1835–36. In 1845, Texas joined the United States, becoming the 28th state. Texas declared its secession from the United States in 1861 to join the Confederate States of America, so that blacks should have freedoms as defined by God and Texans.

Even though slavery only had very tenuous connections to the Civil War, Texas felt compelled to fight against the North to prevent Texas from the dire threat of, of, of, eh …..ackamarackus. After the Civil War Texans joyfully released their slaves, knowing that they would no longer be subject the vile working conditions that Northerners where thirsting to impose on all, as a result of their attachment to the Industrial Revolution. The slaves had of course always enjoyed free board, lodging and clothing in return for working in the great outdoors, traipsing through fields picking cotton and pressing wild flowers in their free time.

After the war ended, Texas was subject to Reconstruction, a process that the patriots of Texas welcomed with their Texas-sized hospitality. There is no record of the purported late 19th century laws creating second-class status for blacks in a Jim Crow system of segregation and disenfranchising them in 1901 through passage of a poll tax. Texas is unaware of any such injustice and that there was never any need for the so-called federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s, that Northerners got so excited about. But one should bear in mind that voting is a chore, securing first status citizenship would be an expense that if incurred would simply guarantee the continued poverty of the black population.

In 1901 a petroleum discovery at Spindletop Hill, near Beaumont, was developed as the most productive oil well the world had ever seen. The wave of oil speculation and discovery that followed came to be known as the “Oil Boom“, permanently transforming and enriching the economy of Texas. Texans understandably worshiped their oil and created exclusive health spars where all could luxuriate in ‘four hand’ oil massages, wallow in oil baths, drinking oil infused cocktails that together promoted suppler healthier skin. But this practice had to be banned as too many participants were getting accidentally arrested for trespass. However remnants of this lost gilded age of skin care can still be found at the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico where sun tan lotion is redundant. Texan Oil Barons worked diligently with the automobile magnet and Hitler fan Henry Ford to dismantle alternative forms of transport. Trams lanes were removed in Cities, Train lines underfunded because every American deserved a Model T, powered by Texan energy. Trains were dangerous and and – er…so dangerous that Texas crafted this brilliant law:

"When two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed until the other has gone."

Fortunately this law turned out to be the kiss of death for public transportation in Texas, which prides itself on the self-reliance of its people.

Dallas 1963, all Texans were appalled at JFK’s assassination. Lyndon Johnson and his Dallas oil baron allies were horrified and insisted on wearing black for five years. Moments after hearing about the shooting, the wife of the Methodist bishop told Tom J. Simmons, an editor at The Dallas Morning News, “You might have known it would be Dallas.” Even though the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and super rich oil baron Clint Murchison had everything to gain with his chum Lyndon Johnson from JFK’s death they could barely keep their tears from flooding all the way to the bank.

These pillars of Dallas society may have known Lee Oswald, minding him on behalf of the CIA, but he was no Texan, and only a lone wolf non Texan loser could have possibly planned the whole affair.

Texas is founded upon the notion that all Texans must be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Therefore:

"It is illegal to milk another person’s cow."

Texas has contributed so much to the nation—without funding from its citizens the CIA could never have pulled off the 1953 Coup in Iran and given America her beautiful God driven devotion to and dependence on oil. Since Texas alone could not keep up with the insatiable demand for oil, these same players where happy to help build an inspired Middle Eastern policy that allows the US army to stay in perpetual training, thus turning the modest Texian army in to the world’s dominant military force.

During the Second World War Texas, for patriotic reasons, was able to reintroduce slavery in the form of almost 80,000 German prisoners of War. In spite of good faith efforts, Texas failed to stamp out the imported influence of the Nazi fascist philosophy, a philosophy so ineffective that it can never be recognized anywhere in Texas. All in all, the Second World War was great for the Texas economy. Army, Air force, Oil bases proliferated and Houston boomed. God fearing and always humble Texans have always wanted to be the biggest patriotic freedom fighters that there ever was. Thus they cannot control their excitement at bellowing out their national anthem:

"Texas, our Texas! All hail the mighty State!
Texas, our Texas! So wonderful so great!
Boldest and grandest, Withstanding ev’ry test;
O Empire wide and glorious, You stand supremely blest.

Texas, O Texas! Your freeborn single star,
Sends out its radiance to nations near and far.
Emblem of freedom! It sets our hearts aglow,
Knowing that with Oil and Oil we can defeat our greatest foe."

As part of the new proud history, new laws are being implemented to make Texas even more Texan –this anthem must be sung five times a day and after each college Football game – whilst praying one must be facing Texas, having purified hands, feet and other appendages in Oil. Those in Texas should orientate themselves so that they know what State they are in.

Texas is so tough on crime than that they recently came up with a law to eradicate crime:

Criminals are required to give their victims 24 hours’ notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed.

Knowledge in the wrong hands (Texan hands) can be very destabilizing and so Texas has come up with a law to alleviate such fears.

The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home.

Texas is proud to be pro life:

Texas prides itself on being business friendly and therefore the health of workers need not be a burden as healthy non slave workers can be a bit of a pain.

Texas is proud of its Texas-sized wealth resulting from its massive natural resources—that can be stripped away by anyone with a large enough political donation and thus with minimal regulations. To facilitate this Texas can offer the fifth most desperate potential work force in the nation, who will be less likely to gripe about anything.

Plus this workforce could use the exercise:

Texas devotion to business and freedoms is second to none.

In Texas we are pleased that no state has a more regressive tax policy. We love wealthy people and they will have to pay less than one quarter of the taxes compared to the poorest 20%. We provide limited regulation and a desperately undemanding work force.

Texas bans fracking bans.

Texas banned Tesla Motors (They do not use oil, you see).

Texas bans signs banning guns, so gun owners are not intimidated. Texas is determined to make gun owners feel safe, and will do all that we can do to protect our men folk from being abused by hostile grocery bag wielding vegetarian cowardly pacifists. Gun owners are free to stand their ground when confronted with such dire threats.

Texas bans books, from Harry Potter to Dante’s Inferno and most novels by Stephen King.

Texas college bans gay athletes from dating or supporting same-sex marriage.

Texas governor bans Planned Parenthood from cancer screening program for poor women.

Texas has always believed in fiscal discipline:

Texan Senator Ted Cruz voted against Sandy relief, but torrential rains are different because they come the sky, directly from God and that is why God-fearing Texans deserve federal aid after the Texas floods.

Texas has always been proud of its educational system:

Texas is proud in being the leader of bringing a new curriculum to its Education system, a curriculum that reflects the special relationship that the US has with God, second only to the special relationship that Texas has with God. Texas will be replacing disrespectful texts with texts that God willing will help us all find God’s enchantment, and eternal peace. There can be no victory without him, no progress, no peace. This curriculum will help all Texans build their relationship with God in the easy times, and thus Texans will find God beside them in the hard times.

Texas is proud to note that 40% of its stupidparty voters are quite satisfied that Obama will not be invading the State in order to get it back in the Union, or is it to make Texas join the European Union—or whatever his nefarious plan might be. We love our country so much that we realize that we Texans are really too good for it.

Texas is proud of its schools for teaching that the planet is 6,000 years old and that Jesus’s favorite show was Meet the Flintstones.

Texas is proud to deny the fact that more guns make you less safe.

Texas is proud that the new educational standards will teach that there is evidence that suggests Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of Democracy can be found in the Old Testament. The US has been chosen to carry out God’s will.

Texas can also boast about having the biggest politicians in the whole wide world. With much thanks to ATexican for his insight:

-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst recently met with representatives of the Texas Nationalist Movement, a “grassroots” organization dedicated to the secession of Texas from the USA.
-Congressional Representative Louis Gohmert indicated that “certain” members of Congress had ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
-Texas Congressman Steve Stockman wants to impeach President Obama if he implements any gun violence measures through executive order.
-The Texas Game and Wildlife Commission voted to allow hunters to use “sound suppressors” on their hunting rifles.
-Texas Congressman Steve Stockman claims the Branch Davidian Tragedy was an ATF conspiracy aimed at building support for banning assault weapons.
-Governor Perry recently indicated that accepting Medicaid expansion would be like “putting six million people on board the Titanic.”
-Congressional Representative Louis Gohmert recently informed those on a conference call that limiting the size of gun magazines to 10 rounds was somehow analogous to allowing same sex marriage, polygamy, and bestiality.
-Kyle Kacal, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, reportedly gave us this timeless piece of wisdom when commenting on the Connecticut tragedy. “I’ve heard of people being killed playing ping-pong—ping-pongs are more dangerous than guns.” [ I can see his next campaign slogan now — Ping-Pongs don’t kill people, etc.]
-Congressional Representative Louis Gohmert also warned us about “terror babies”—a plot to send pregnant women to the US to have their babies as US citizen, then take them away and train them as terrorist, and then have them return to their “native country” to commit acts of terror.

And it is not just Politicians that stand tall in this sad day and age, when some people suggest we should waste our time with the draining and rather expensive exercise of “critical thinking.”

-Texas mega-church pastor says Obama’s re-election paves the way for the antichrist.
-Lubbock County Judge Tom Head (an elected official) warned that Obama’s re-election would lead to civil unrest that would be used to bring UN forces into the United States. He asked for an increase in local property taxes to help prepare for these dire circumstances.
-The Texas Nationalist Movement members believe that the American Civil War did not answer the question of the legality of secession. As their website indicates, that would be like saying a robbery was legal just because it was successful.
-In 2012, estimates indicate that 23 percent of Texans believed Barack Obama was a Muslim.
-Over 100,000 Texans signed the White House petition calling for secession from the United States.

Governor of Texas Greg Abbott, a lawyer, has shown true leadership and a greater understanding of the constitution than anyone else— as he welcomed the historic Supreme Court decision on Gay marriage:

“The Supreme Court has abandoned its role as an impartial judicial arbiter and has become an unelected nine-member legislature. Five Justices on the Supreme Court have imposed on the entire country their personal views on an issue that the Constitution and the Court’s previous decisions reserve to the people of the States.”

Texas is bigger than Kansas; Texas has more people than Kansas, more oil than Kansas, more beaches than Kansas a far bigger carbon footprint than Kansas. Texas has the best Stupidparty City in the whole wide world.

Dallas at #62, the cradle of US energy policy, proof that a man with a gun in Dallas can do more to change the world than some silly foreign Serb shooting the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria back in 1914. We are Texas, and anything Kansas can do – we can do more of it.

Texas “Texas, we are bigger than Kansas, We Live Free Like Mad Max or Die Stupid”

To be continued…Kansas fires back – it’s not how big you are, it’s how you use it and here we shall investigate whether Sam Brownback and God are indeed working in perfect harmony.

For more content, please visit www.stupidpartymathvmyth.com

Who is Alec and Why Should We Care

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 08, 2015 · 4:19 PM PDT

2015/07/08 · 16:19

By Patrick Andendall

In 2012 Coca-Cola announced it was ending its relationship with ALEC, and more than 60 major corporations followed suit. What suddenly created the exodus? Well, the catalyst was the legal murder of Trayvon Martin. The issue was the fact that it is evidently now legal for a white armed person to murder an unarmed black child. The law(s) in question are the Stand Your Ground laws raging across the nation, so beloved by Stupidparty disciples. Let’s face it. Zimmerman is quite a guy.

The Trayvon Martin consequence is just the tip of the iceberg when it come to the insidious activities of ALEC. The American Legislative Exchange Council is a 501(c)(3) organization of around 2000 conservative legislators nationwide. Tax exempt, nonprofit – yet, very secretive. They refuse to disclose a membership list or how model bills originate, and their legislative members avoid admitting being influenced by the council, or even being affiliated. When an ALEC Accountability Act was proposed to force legislators to disclose their ALEC ties, the bill did not even receive a committee hearing. Legislative members suggest ALEC model bills in their states without disclosing authorship. Model bills are produced, and about 200 become law every year. It would be hard to overstate ALEC’s reach into important policy.

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday July 02, 2015 · 6:14 PM PDT

2015/07/02 · 18:14

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

― Isaac Asimov

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday June 30, 2015 · 9:19 PM PDT

2015/06/30 · 21:19

In previous blogs we have discussed the virtual mathematical impossibility of every Stupidparty member of the House Energy committee (31 of them) being so stupid that they actually believe the climate is not warming. A far more plausible explanation is that they have been corrupted by financial contributions to their campaigns. Yes, there might be a few genuine skeptics...we deal with Senator James Pinhole here. In this second piece on climate denial we shall take a closer look at the actual science. This article also points out some of the religious confusions that Stupidparty disciples resort to. But such confusions would rapidly be cleared up if they had a) a better understanding the real Jesus and learnt that the New Testament God, the Christian God, is very different from the old Testament God and b) if they could simply handle some basic guidance from the Pope:

“When we exploit Creation, we destroy the sign of God’s love for us. In destroying Creation, we are saying to God, `I don’t like it! This is not good!’ `So what do you like?’ `I like myself!’ Here, this is sin. Do you see?”

Pope Francis is saying that humanity’s destruction of the planet is a sinful act, likening it to self-idolatry. Let me repeat – to destroy the planet is a sinful act. No, the Pope is not ripping America – he is ripping the sandy foundations of the Stupidparty house, that is made of straw – and the big bad Pope has just huffed and puffed and blown that house down. Do you see?

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday June 26, 2015 · 9:25 AM PDT

2015/06/26 · 09:25

By Patrick Andendall

Back to back victories against bigotry. Why do I stress that word, surely these are just Judges interpreting the Constitution? If that was the case - how come in both instances the result was pretty much a foregone conclusion. You need virtually no understanding of the Constitution to have known with a 95% accuracy rate which judges would vote which way. Admittedly I thought that Justice Roberts might go along with the majority on the gay marriage ruling, in order to mitigate divisiveness—but then I did not pay enough attention to a key observation made by my own guest blogger Brian Frydenborg several months ago:

"One must truly wonder, if, in Roberts, we are seeing a textbook example of the myopia, lack of self-awareness, and narrow-mindedness that can result from attending the non-racially-diverse Roman Catholic grade and boarding schools in 1960s and 1970s small-town, rural, overwhelmingly-white Indiana when we see what he will write here, in effect proving Seattle’s and Jefferson County’s points…"

This observation was made in the context of Justice Roberts very immature notions on race that became evident when he ruled that voter suppression is just fine by him. OK - he did not quite go that far, but he booted the problem back into the Stupidparty Congress, knowing full well that Congress is dysfunctional and that racist based voter suppression strategies would return with a vengeance. Since I prove that voter fraud by the voter is Mathematically irrelevant, there is no excuse for facilitating voter suppression.

Since these Judges clearly have a choice about how to rule on these issues, that choice being driven their own personal DNA - we can now see the DNA of Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito and it is not a pretty sight. Because results are driven by the DNA of each Supreme Court justice, we can really analyze what is really going on. As proof of this contention I will now discuss what I posted back in February explaining precisely what would happen regarding the effort to derail Obamacare. It will not take long for the penny to drop - this lawsuit was rooted in bigotry, and we already know which Justices are either so closeted, bitter or paid off, that hatred and bigotry does not bother them in the slightest. But they will argue -"its the Constitution". Well that is bullshit.

Back In February, this news site explained exactly what would happen and why. It is also no great surprise that three of the justices are so bitter and out of touch that they could not recognize hate and incompetence—even when it smacks them in the face with a two-by-four. You would think that if you were looking to destroy Obamacare that the highly paid legal team of the American Enterprise Institute could find just four plaintiffs that were actually harmed in some way by the law. But no, that was a task beyond those fat cats. As the country hurls towards an oligarchy, with the full backing of the Supreme Court - the only thing that might cause this march towards oblivion, is the sheer overwhelming stupidity of the vehicle being used to crash down the gates of democracy - The Stupidparty. We just hope the voters can figure this out in time, before it is too late.

Welcome to a new way to promote facts to the American people in order to inoculate us all from all the deadly myths that threaten us all.

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 25, 2015 · 9:58 PM PDT

2015/06/25 · 21:58

Welcome to a new way to promote facts to the American people in order to inoculate us all from all the deadly myths that threaten us all.

Now please read on...for the full story.

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday June 24, 2015 · 4:34 PM PDT

2015/06/24 · 16:34

In this piece, Jason Newell digs deeper into a theme that I find fascinating—Stupidparty’s infantile notions about freedom. “I want my freedom’s” they chant. I devote a whole chapter to this subject: “Freedoms Is Slavery” and I list thirty-four phony freedoms, of which I analyze in detail ten different types of so called freedoms. I did not specifically tackle the freedom to discriminate – as in the recent Indiana pizza discrimination saga. In Indiana, various business owners believe that they should have the right to discriminate based on their religious prejudices. Jason will take these people to task in a very thorough manner. I would like to add that people who state that their Christian views deem it necessary to discriminate – are not Christians at all. They have forgotten or never learned true Christian principles, which are surely derived solely from the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a bigot -his values being diametrically opposed to the majority of Stupidparty faux Christians and the 80% of evangelicals who voted for Mitt Romney—an asset stripping sexist Mormon serial liar. Read More

The Seven Pillars of Stupidparty Hate. Do we have a Party of Hate?

dbeall

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday June 22, 2015 · 2:37 PM PDT

2015/06/22 · 14:37

Has the GOP become a hate GrOuP?

Am I being Hyperbolic? Am I being opinionated? I plan to steer clear of that.

I feel it in my fingers
I feel it in my toes
Bigotry is all around me
And so the feeling grows Read More

Poll

33 votes Show Results

Has the GOP become a hate GrOuP

33 votes Vote Now!

Has the GOP become a hate GrOuP

3 votes

Yes

23 votes

Getting close

7 votes

Newer
Older

RSS

WHICH CAME FIRST—STUPIDPARTY PEOPLE OR BAD GOVERNMENT?

Iran, the Constitution, Stupidparty, and Treason

Race to the Bottom Part 3 of 3: Mississippi, The Mouse that Roared

Race to the Bottom Part 2 of 3: Kansas, Taking Liberties from God

“Texas, we are bigger than Kansas, We Live Free Like Mad Max or Die Stupid”

Who is Alec and Why Should We Care

The Conservative Craving for Anti-Intellectual Stew

“We are not Scientists…” —but we are paid off Deniers of Science

Gay Marriage/Obamacare Back to Back, Belly to Belly Home Runs against Bigotry

The Stupefying Stupidity of the People Attempting to Gut Obamacare--King v. Burwell

"It’s My Business and I’ll Deny if I Want to"

The Seven Pillars of Stupidparty Hate. Do we have a Party of Hate?