Dakota Today

** Winner, SD power off...gives a taste of the Wingnut right plans for America

Earlier this evening, the municipal electric power went off in Winner, SD for half an hour to over an hour depending on what part of town.  That should give residents a feeling of the kind of failures of government likely to occur if the TEA party blather ends up in the Debt-Limit fiasco legislation.

Unanswered questions include whether or not meat inspections will continue?  How much of social security payments will disappear as seniors need money for airconditioning? We already know the GOP foolishness has prevented collection of hundreds of millions of dollars of airline tax even though the airlines have not reduced passenger fees proportionately.  Minnesota shut down gave a hint of the dark world the TEA party ignorant mythology will generate nationally.

Already thousands of jobs are not putting money into the economy because of lack of confidence in government to behave rationally..  The wingnut right GOP lunacy echoes through the economy and into lower levels of government.

Meanwhile mainstream media attempts to provide balanced coverage spanning the gap between lunacy on the right and rationality in the middle and on the left.  That is impossible and misleads the American public. See link below for more on the problems.  A foolish balance is the hobgoblin of small journalistic minds.

OEN LINK to comment on Krugman and "balanced" coverage

** Stay tuned and don't let the lights go out --- Doug Wiken

 

** Presidents, Congress, and debt limit increases

I found the following quoted in a forum.  I haven't checked the accuracy, but I assume it is in the neighborhood of correct.

I found this in one of the comments on the Huff Post: Senator Jeanne Shah­­een (D-NH) displayed a chart on the Senate Floor that shows each president, starting with John F. Kenne­­dy, and their respective raises of the debt ceiling. The informatio­­n is quite telling.

• Kennedy rai­­sed the debt ceiling 4 times for a total increase of 5%. Johnson rai­­sed the debt ceiling 7 times for a total increase of 18%.

• Nixon raise­­d the debt ceiling 9 times for a total increase of 36%.

• Ford raised the debt ceiling 5 times for a total increase of 41%.

• Carter rais­­ed the debt ceiling 9 times for total increase of 59%.

• Reagan rais­­ed the debt ceiling 18 times for a total increase of 199%.

• George H. W.B­­ush raised the debt ceiling 9 times for a total increase of 48%.

• Clinton rai­­sed the debt ceiling 4 times for a total increase of 44%.

• George W. Bush raised the debt ceiling 7 times for a total increase of 90%.

• Obama has raised the debt ceiling 3 times for a total increase of 26%.

Adding the percentage­­s of the Democratic presidents­­’ total debt ceiling increases together reveals that President Ronald Reagan,arguably the most popular Republican president on this list, actually raised the debt ceiling by a higher percentage than all of the Democrats combined. The Democrats’ total percentage increase is 152%. President Reagan increased the debt ceiling by 199% in his two terms in office. The Republican presidents­­, when added together, have raised the debt ceiling by a total of 414%.

progressiv­­etoo.com 

This ought to discourage churchgoing responsible citizens.  Five GOP congress critters went into the chapel for God's advice.  They came out convinced their TEA Party lunacy was God's will.  The problems with dragging religion into politics should be immediately obvious to the alert student.

** Stay tuned for a special offer: Southern Gospel Sung by the TEA Party recorded in a cave filled with flying bats. Only available in 45rpm --- Doug Wiken

** Hypocrisy of those debt-limit Republicans

You have heard of Michelle Bachman.  She wants all the poor people to live more frugally and get of those evil welfare rolls and it would be a mortal sin if the very, very rich had to pay even the same rate of taxes as the very poor.  Well, she has some different standards for herself.

Michele Bachmann's $4,700 Hair and Makeup Bill: Considering Rep. Michele Bachmann's crusade against government spending and her demand that America live within its means, you wouldn't figure her for a conspicuous spender. But after launching her bid for the White House, Bachmann has broken with her usual frugality and shelled out some serious cash on a stylist in what could be seen as her own John-Edwards'-$400-haircut moment. According to Bachmann's latest campaign finance filings, her campaign spent nearly $4,700 on hair and makeup in the weeks after she entered the presidential race on June 13. Records show her campaign made three payments of $1,715, $250, and $2,704 to a Maryland-based stylist named Tamara Robertson. Robertson's LinkedIn profile says she works as a makeup artist at Fox News in the DC area. She's also listed in the "Make-up" section of the credits for the Citizens United-produced film A City Upon a Hill, hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich—a pair who've raised eyebrows with their own spending.

More at the link at start of quote.

But wait, there is more.  The deficit hawks inspired by Grover Norquist and the TEA party mythology know how to talk out of both sides of their mouths.

Progressive Populist on the deficit hawks and the their pork chasing  . 

I'm sure there is more somewhere, but of course everything is OK if you are a Republican in Congress--just you never mind if I have "clean hands" or not.

*** Stay tuned anyway--- Doug Wiken

 

** Compliments of the letters "A, B, C" and "M,N,O" and "GOP"

For the terminally curious, ABC is acronym for " A Boehner Crash" and  MNO is for "McConnell's NO".

The GOP has made itself irrelevant by giving credence to the TEA party nonsense astroturf fomented by Koch and cohorts and also by allowing themselves to fall prey to Grover Norquist's no marginal taxes pledge.  See a previous post here on that nonsense.

Boehner might as well gather up the few Republicans who are not wingnuts and work with Democrats to do something rational that will not crash the economy, destroy essential government services, destroy jobs, and probably also fail to reduce government spending.

Boehner can't apparently get support for his rightwing proposal which is apparently not radical enough for the far fringes of his party.

Boehner can't get Tea Party Support, etc.

I did not hear Obama's speech tonight.  I will see what is said about it on Charlie Rose tonight if weather does not knock out the TV signal.  I am willing to bet however that Obama did not sit down in front of a fireplace and say something short and pointed like, "We are on the edge of catastrophe or greatness tonight.  Congressional Republicans controlling 1/2 of congress or 1/3 of government think they control it all.  They do not.  The fringe right driving the Republicans now will destroy America as we know it.  We do not want the United States to become a feudal nation where a pitiful small percentage of the very richest keep the rest of the country in a state of peonage deprived of retirement and medical care."

We must not let economic mythology and sheer unrepetent greed destroy jobs, shut down essental government programs, mutilate essential regulation of huge corporations, and set the USA back 500 years.

The 70% or more of the US voters who realize tax increases and budget cuts are essential to more jobs and economic recovery without a devastating crash must speak up and let my friends in the GOP know you are unto their greed and nonsense."  Time is running out for you and them."

** Stay tuned even if ABC is just too much for you these interesting times-- Doug Wiken

 

** Greed explains the GOP

Shades of Occam's razor:

Forget economics, forget mythology, forget ideology, forget party platforms and think instead unrepentant naked greed. The Republican greed for power, even if like a dog chasing a car they are clueless about using it to make the USA a better place, and the obscene greed of their supporters, who already own something over 90% of all US assets, override all their other blather.

It is also hard not to conclude that the apparent incompetence of the Democrats in meeting this and framing it suggests that they are part and parcel of the same greed problem.

We deserve better from both parties. This debt problem is one that the Congress should have been able to solve in 15 minutes. It is a potential catastrophe driven by greed and not necessity. The Republican power greed has turned a nearly routine legislative matter into an economic, representational, constitutional, and ethical morass. The current mess is a consequence of Boehner and McConnell failing to control the lunatics and power greed pigs in their own party of lunatics and falling into the same greed themselves. The rejoinder to these fools is almost Biblical in nature.. Thou shalt not covet power.

In order to gain power and steal away power from Obama they are willing to skate on economic and political thin ice with potential for major economic and social calamity and catastrophe.

The next election is coming. We must get responsible adults into Congress who are more interested in those of us who are not filthy rich and will demonstrate courage instead of cowardice in the face of unrepentant greed of the powerful for more power and the already too rich for more riches at the expense of all of us..

** Stay tuned for the rest of the week. Sunday School is already out for the day already-- Doug Wiken

** Isn't this special. Reagan requested 18 increases in Debt Limit

While the TEA "party" Republicans are ranting and raving about ignoring the debt balance potential catastrophe, their saint Ronny requested 18 increases in the Debt Limit.

Daily KOS report of Democrats reporting Reagan requesting 18 Debt Limit increases.

I am just guessing, but I suspect that the right wing lunacy of trying to inject social issues and their wingnut economic mythology into the Debt limit discussions has done more to destroy business confidence and consumer confidence and consequently cost more jobs than would any significant increase on the taxes of the obscenely rich or the inordinately powerful corporations paying zero US income tax.

** Stay tuned for more drama from the TEA party  Mythology Division -- Doug Wiken

** Can wingnut right nonsense be traced to debilitating headaches?

Now a report on Michelle Bachmann's debilitating headaches.  Not sure if this is dead-on correct, but a poster in a forum says her step-daughter is or did work for Bachmann and said she was terrible to work for because of her rages.

Michel Bachmann's Headaches at Mother Jones

If you remember the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, you may remember the flack and controversy produced by knowledge of his illness and medication.  Whatever the case about that, I don't think he had any headaches which debilitated him for 3 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But, maybe the mystery of Michelle Bachmann's political madness has been explained.  What might be the excuse for the other wingnut loons of the right?

Oh, and then there is this that indicates Bachmann does not take daily medication.  Michelle Bachmann has no problem according to the Government Doctor for the House.  I wonder if she will attack the socialistic medicine that protects her but not you and me.

Salon War Room attacks the Mother Jones Story on Bachmann's headaches

But in the comments with above post we find some of Bachmann's interesting statements.  One of which is in continuation below.

** How case is "solved" depends on how government is sued for damages

If from South Dakota, you probably remember when letters poisoned with powdered anthrax spores were sent  to Sen. Daschle and Sen. Leahy and others.  A half dozen or so people died and the Senate mail room was useless for some time.  Now, documents filed in two suits against the government result in new problems and a simultaneous "solution" and "not solution" to the same case.

Get more details on the solution and non-solution to the same case.

July 20 addition:   Government attornies realize error and try to put genie back in bottle

** Stay tuned, but realize that unless you represent the US Government you will not be able to have your cake and eat it too. --- Doug Wiken

 

 

** The US Post Office package handlers don't like coffee cups.

Too many weeks ago before Salon Media shut down their Table Talk forum, I had ordered some coffee cups with their logo on them.  They finally got here today.  The had been mailed priority mail with $12.95 postage on them.

 
Two of them had 1/4 inch chips on the rim, one had the handle broken off, and the fourth was smashed.

The package was not insured, so post office would not do anything about it.  At least when they trash a package, they should at least refund the mail cost to the sender even if they don't pay for the damage they cause.

Looks like a good case for always insuring for the value of the items plus the cost of the mailing.   The cups were all wrapped in bubble wrap and more bubble wrap was in the box..

Anyway, that was how the day started off when it was still "cool".  Before long the temp at the Bank West thermometer was at 107F and my farm digital was at 104F.

Republicans in Congress are still spouting nonsense GOP mythology.  What we need with irresponsible corporate shills like that in Congress is a Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.  Or maybe not.  What we need is a Congress without those loons intent on tossing a monkey wrench into the economy and blame President Obama for it.

*** Stay tuned, it will cool off..and anyway temp is good for harvesting wheat --- Doug Wiken

**Another twist in the twisted Murdoch phone-hacking saga

Murdoch is getting hit in multiple directions as revelations fall out of the cracks in the right wing corporate news machine.

Former Murdock employee discloses secured intelligence room for spying on Americans

Likely more to come on all this.

And, Whistle-Blower found Dead

** Stay tuned -- Doug Wiken