New Poem: TEXAS LET DOWN RAMBLE

 hear the cartoon voice from what Molly Ivins used to call the Texas Lege and that voice says if we let them vote they’ll vote wrong so my former home state which used to acknowledge the existence of Democrats now dyes the state some hue of salamander red and applies the branding iron hoping for air conditioned passivity unquestioning faith state sponsored narrow version of Jesus Christ in the school system 

and here’s Beto O’Rourke fund raising and that’s not much of a bulwark against chicken fried fascism

Shawn McCreesh heralds THE NEW YORK TIMES alignment with Trump 2.0

 Get a load of this fawning:

But there is no doubt about one thing: Mr. Trump was a ferociously effective campaigner.

To watch him up close on this third run for president was to see him blend comedy, fury, optimism, darkness and cynicism like never before.

DONALD TRUMP’S NEW GREATEST RALLY HITS

 1.  Who Was The Best Hannibal Lecter?

 2.   Bow Unto Me, J.D.

 3.   I Demonize Migrants (Extended Version)

 4.   Should I Take My Bandage Off?

 5.   With God On Our Side (Bob Dylan cover)

 6.   My Latest Definition of Unity

 7.   I’m Scared of Debating Kamala 

 8.   Your Favorite Felon 

Regarding Sen. Katie Britt’s SOTU Response

What I saw of the Katie Britt SOTU rebuttal (couldn’t bring myself to endure the whole thing) reminded me of fundraising appeals that either come from televangelists or hucksters preying on seniors who watch MeTV, Buzzr, etc.

Obviously, it was intended as a soft-sell version of Trump’s standard apocalyptic Hulk Smash bigotry and Bidenphobia.  But it seemed like an audition video for a local TV news anchor position—heavy on smiling while reading copy off the teleprompter.  With the occasional look this is serious face.

New Poem: SPEAKER McCARTHY HAIKU

 he thinks he’s Rocky

 fifteen rounds and still standing

 hollow victory 

New Poem: HELLO KENOSHA

 hello Kenosha Wisconsin 

 stop assuming everyone Black is an armed criminal 

 tell the teen and adult vigilantes to go home or be arrested

 remove the handcuffs and the leg irons from the severely wounded

and, above all, tell Donald Trump the following:

yes, you’re the President, but you don’t denounce the violence

of your followers and your presence here is unnecessary 

and potentially inflammatory 

thank you for reading this and giving it some thought

a concerned American who votes

 

Hamilton Nolan on Joe Biden’s latest political life.

Excerpted from THE GUARDIAN:

I am not mad at Joe Biden. He is a type. His type is “The Old Way of Doing Things.” Now that he is in the race, his type is represented. He rounds out the field. Now, Democratic voters truly have the entire buffet of choices, from “True Leftist Insurgent” to “Bland, Winning Young Résumé-Polisher” to “Indistinguishable Ambitious Congresspersons” to “The Same Old Kind of White Guy As Always”.

This is nothing to fear. This is healthy. This is a perfect referendum on where our country is now. Joe Biden, the avatar of the past, believes that he’s well positioned because after the shock of the Trump years, people want to go back to where we were. Wrong. People want to go somewhere new. I fully expect Joe Biden to step out of his campaign headquarters and fall directly into the huge pit that has opened up as America moved tectonically to the left. There is nothing scary about the candidate that represents the political philosophy that produced in the public the deadly cynicism that gave us Donald Trump. This plain fact will never be accepted by the sort of people who believe that Joe Biden is the answer, because accepting it is an indictment of an entire generation of leaders who consider themselves quite successful.

The Republican party has long been a corrupt tool for serving the interests of the rich by lying to the poor; dwelling on their role in bringing us here is like scolding an alligator for biting off your hand after you stuck it in his mouth. The Democrats are the ones who were supposed to save us. It was their failure in this duty that allowed the catastrophes to pile up. They failed to stop the post-Reagan explosion of economic inequality; they failed to stop the militarism that has embroiled us in endless war; they failed to argue for things like healthcare and education as rights rather than purchases; they fed our most vulnerable citizens to an evil machine labeled “criminal justice” in exchange for votes from racists. They earned their turn in power by agreeing not to use that power for the common good. And here we are: incredibly divided, hopelessly unequal, justifiably sick of our broken institutions, and very, very angry.

Good luck on the campaign trail, Joe. You’re about to meet an America that has already left you behind. I’m sorry you’ll have to find out the hard way.

London GUARDIAN article assesses Obama one year into Presidency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/16/gary-younge-obama-first-year

Although the article linked above has an unnecessarily dumb-edgy "Even Charles Manson could beat him" tagline, it has some sobering assessments of Year One of the Obama presidential term as the White House and the Democratic Party plan to metaphorically go over Niagra Falls in a barrel to ensure that the Massachusetts senate seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy doesn't go to a Republican. As the media is drumbeating, this could be the (gasp!) end of the health-industry-friendly health care plan--and possibly the beginning of Obama being forced to do Clinton-esque soccer-mom pandering (plus more capitulation to Republicans) for his remaining three years in office.

Take a look at this passage in particular (highlighting by me):
"Many on America's left are also ­disgruntled with Obama. They believe the healthcare reform, without a public option, will be inadequate, that the war in Afghanistan will unravel, the stimulus bill was insufficient to kick-start the economy and that his economic team is being run by Wall Street. But unlike the right they have so far failed to turn their disillusionment into a potent political force."

If the Tuesday Senate replacement election doesn't go Obama and the Democratic Party's way, it's safe to say that the sort-of-left in this country will opt more for depressive rationalization of the "oh, he had too much to contend with from the Bush years" instead of organizing for meaningful Change that benefits people who won't cash corporate paychecks during their lifetimes.

My generation wants to set me straight re Tea Parties and government.

Here's a lengthy response that someone who went to high school in my hometown sent to me publicly on Facebook (related to yesterday's post):
Liberal groups are almost always coordinated and funded by centralized groups whereas the tea-parties where almost all spontaneous local uprisings by pissed off citizens. Sand? We don't need no stinking sand! Propaganda? Dude . . . I think you may be subsisting on it.A. Governments are necessary entities, not persons.B. Governments produce nothing. They are always a sum-zero to sum-negative net creators. The only true wealth is created by producing something worth more than it's inherent cost.C. The more control you give any government the more control it will demand and ultimately take. Our founding fathers understood this impeccably.D. If you have a $1.00 problem it will always take a governmental entity at least a $1.50 to TRY and fix it, which it seldom ever does. At least not without creating numerous collateral new problems.... E. EVERY re-distribution experiment to date has failed to even begin to compete with the over-whelming success of free enterprise. Anyone want to live in North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, or Venezuela? How many East Germans died trying to get to West Germany before the wall came down?F. Ever gotten a job from a poor person?G. I have more bullet points but it's way past my bed-time!

Republican pushback re Obama continues: once again the Birth Certificate controversy.

One would think that the Republican Party ought to be concerning itself with the economy and foreign policy (i.e. real and pressing issues) rather than pretending the 2008 elections are still yet to happen.

But, again, the "is Barack Obama truly a citizen" birth certificate nonsense is being brought up. Here's a column that pokes a few needed holes in this propaganda offensive (or, rather, offensive propaganda): http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2009/02/24/the-birth-certificate-that-wouldnt-die/