It’s been a long time, but after another long hiatus I am back!
It’s hard talking
politics all day and debating over the net and in person. It can really get to
a person after a while and really burn them out. So I took a break, focused on
work, and silently watched as America
(and the rest of the world) put on this lovely little absurd play. I laughed, I
cried, I shouted, then I drank a beer and passed out. So let’s get down to it.
What happened since my last post?
Government Shut Down:
Oh joy! Republicans
have outdone themselves this time. They actually shut down the government
because of their grievances with the Affordable Care Act.
When the Affordable
Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”, was due to be enacted the Republicans went
on an all out assault and tried to stop it by shutting down the government.
Many Republicans were on the TV at this time talking about how this was all
about stopping “Obamacare”, yet others were saying that this was less about “Obamacare”
and more about the debt ceiling or both. Debt ceiling debates aside, we all
know why they wanted the shut down. It was simply an effort put forth to
attempt a halting of funds to, or the down right dismantling of the Affordable
Care Act.
Why would Republicans
do this? Were the majority of Republicans all for this? Well, no they really
weren’t at first, I think. Sure, many Republicans were against the ACA, even
after a SCOTUS ruling which deemed the ACA constitutional. But a minority of House
Republicans (Tea Party Republicans) were able coaxed the rest of their
colleagues to take it one more step off the crazy edge. And thus the government
shut down was born.
What is really funny
about the whole Republican manufactured shut down is how after the shut down took
place the Republicans were quick to respond to critics by saying that they
never wanted to shut down the government and that it was the Democrats fault
the government was shut down.
But the Republicans
spent weeks and months talking about how they will shut down the government
unless a law they didn’t like was repealed immediately. How in the world can
they turn around and say they never wanted to shut down the government?
It’s like being in a
dysfunctional, abusive relationship with someone. You demand that your partner
do something that they can’t or otherwise don’t want to. So to get them to
comply you threaten them with the ultimatum that they either comply or get
injured. When they still don’t comply you start to beat them, all the while saying,
“This hurts me more than it hurts you. I never wanted this, nor am I doing it.
You’re doing it to yourself and you’re the one who wanted this. If only you
just did what I told you to do, you wouldn’t have brought this on.”
What is even more
absurd is the Republican attitude toward the shutting down of war memorials and
national monuments and parks. They seemed to be more upset that veterans could
not go to war memorials than the fact that their shut down was going to cost
billions of dollars for the country. I thought this was somewhat interesting
though. Republicans tout themselves as being extremely patriotic, and their
attitude towards the fighting men and women of our military seems very loving
and highly supportive. Republicans constantly talk about supporting the troops
and how we wouldn’t have freedom without them.
 | |
| Memorials Closed Due to Government Shut Down |
Yet, when they aren’t
fighting wars Republicans don’t seem to care about them. They come home after
fighting questionable wars, and all they get is a pat on the back and sent on
their way. Many of the troops who come home suffer from mental disorders they
received due to the traumas of war. Many of them cannot find jobs, cannot get
the healthcare they not only need but deserve due to VA hospital tie ups
(another debacle created by Republicans), and many even end up homeless. But
Republicans don’t seem to care about the health and status of our veterans at
all. They only care about buildings made of stone and mortar that were erected
to honor them, not the actual fighting soldiers. If they truly cared, then why would
they try to cut funding for VA hospitals?
To drive the idea
that this shut down was not their fault the GOP had photos taken of Republican
law makers sitting down at one side of a long conference table, the other side
was vacant essentially saying, “We’re here to fix this, but Democrats don’t
want to.”
 |
| GOP "Ready to Compromise" |
In the end a
compromise was made though, one that would raise the debt ceiling and allow “Obamacare”
to continue unhindered as planned. The Republicans lost their silly battle
against healthcare, and the cost of the shut down to the country was $24
billion. All because they wanted to cry about something they couldn’t dictate.
Now that they lost
that battle a new battle rages on to discredit the Affordable Care Act; the failure
of the ACA website. Yes, the ACA website is one hell of a cluster fuck. With
all of the problems it is having it really is hard to tell if the site is just
being inundated with traffic from Americans who want to sign up for healthcare,
or if the site just plain sucks.
Republican attacks against
the site are filled with silly talking points that make them look pettier then
you could imagine. They are attacking it by criticizing the President for the
cost of fixing the ACA website www.healthcare.gov,
which is being reported as $634 million.
This is silly,
because compared to the shut the ACA website has only cost 2.64% of the
government shut down cost (if the numbers are being reported are accurate). Hmm,
and they call themselves fiscally responsible when they can’t even tell that 24
billion is more than 634 million? Interesting.
NSA Spying:
Well, the cat’s out
of the bag now, Mr. President! Thanks to 30 year old Edward Snowden, an EX
analyst for the NSA, the entire world now knows that the United States of
America has been spying not only on it’s own people, but the people and
governments of other countries. How did this information get leaked? It got
leaked because Edward Snowden was privy to this information and had access to
sensitive documents, and he released them to The Guardian, exposing the NSA’s
domestic and foreign spying efforts.
Currently, Snowden is
living in Moscow, Russia after being given amnesty by
Russian president, Vladimir Putin. This action by Putin was taken simply to
stick a large bug up Obama’s ass, and it worked. Because of these actions
Snowden is safe from American reprisal for the time being. And now the entire
world knows of America’s
spying, and they are not very happy about it to say the least.
German chancellor
Angela Merkel is one of many world leaders that are particularly concerned
about this spying revelation, especially now since we are discovering that the USA was spying
on her cell phone conversations and what’s more sources say Obama knew about
it.
Merkel has been in
the news a lot recently because she is asking the President if these
allegations are true. The White House of course has taken a firm stance on these
accusations, and the NSA itself is denying that they ever briefed President
Obama on Angela Merkel phone surveillance.
 | |
| Angela Merkel and Barack Obama |
First off come on,
man. Obama had to have known about it, I’m sure he did allow it, and now I’m
sure he is lying about it. I mean, the man renewed NDAA which expanded on
indefinite detention and indiscriminate wire tapping. Then he went behind
everyone’s back and signed into law the Monsanto Protection Act, knowing damn
well that his constituency did not want him to do that. Yet, I’m not seeing
very much anger on the Democrat side.
I have to share a
story here. A friend of mine once bashed Bush, saying that he was wire tapping
the American people and spying on us and detaining people indefinitely and that
Bush was a real asshole for all of that.
So, just this summer
I asked “What do you think of the NDAA being renewed and all the NSA
revelations under this administration?” To which he replied, “Well PEOPLE in
the GOVERNMENT have been spying on us for decades now, so it’s no big deal
really. And I don’t mind it at all because I’m not doing anything that I
shouldn’t be.”
WOW! What a change of
heart! A Republican is in office and a Democrat assaults him verbally for
establishing laws which make it easier for the government to spy on its own people.
Then a Democrat gets into office, does the same exact thing, and it’s totally
acceptable.
Remember folks, I’m
no Obama-Yes-Man. I did vote for him, yes. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to
defend his every action or inaction. This is just how it is.
Quite frankly, I
believe that Obama is way more right-winged than anybody is willing to believe,
and that this type of behavior is going to continue and many of us, Democrats
and Republicans alike, are going to allow it.
Syria!!:
So Syria was a big
deal for me. When I heard about it I was pissed. “Here is our famous “anti-war
president” dragging us into another unnecessary conflict”, I thought. I mean
seriously folks, this is the guy who campaigned on Iraq being an unnecessary conflict
that we should never repeat again, yet he wants to lob missiles into other
countries?
Obama said that “no
boots would touch the ground”, and he even had John Kerry try and explain to us
that war is only war when troops are not on the ground fighting other soldiers.
Since no boots are touching the ground, Kerry tried to explain to us, there is
no real war. It’s just some missiles being fired, aimed at strategic points to
cripple the other country’s regime and force them to surrender. That’s all,
folks. No war here.
 | |
| Kerry at Senate Hearing Discussing Syrian Intervention |
It hurts my brain to
think about it, but Mr. Kerry truly is one real son of a bitch for trying to
get us to believe this nonsense. He clearly wants us to believe that there are
no sailors who are going to be controlling these missiles. Are they not troops or
part of our fighting forces during war time? Do they not feel the morality of
what they do weighing on their shoulders? I guess not. How about pilots whose
missions are to drop bombs or control drones? Are they not troops?
This reminds me of
something, an anime called Gundam Wing. In the story there is a type of mobile
suit created which does not require a pilot to control it manually from the
inside of its cockpit or from a remote location. They are all controlled by
computer and are for the most part autonomic. While these machines are out
fighting wars in space against real people the citizens of the alliance which
built the machines barely feel the true effects of the war and have essentially
become separated from it in nearly every way.
That is how I feel
when our politicians try to tell us that no boots on the ground means war
cannot exist. I feel it is a dirty, underhanded trick that politicians find
necessary to use when they want to start another conflict without their
followers realizing what it really is.
Luckily though, we
have had some seemingly good progress come out of this almost-conflict with Syria. The
Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad has actually
pledged to get rid of their chemical weapon stock piles and has said that he
would like Syria to become apart of the Geneva Convention. I have to admit, I
did laugh when I heard this. Only because I wasn’t sure if Assad would go
through with it, however it seems that he is.
No news has been
making it to the major media networks about that region for a while
though…interesting.
So that’s about it
for this blog, now that I’m back from hiatus stayed tuned for some more to
come.
If you want you can
follow me on Twitter @Turk_Reno
Or you can find me on
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/reno.erde
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