Yes sir, thank you sir, may I have another

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his Primary Posterior Appendage, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).  (Where exactly is Cornyn's right hand?)

As an amateur political scientist I'm just giddy every morning when I get up and turn on the news and find out what dumb thing one politician or another said/did overnight.  It's just so knee-slapping funny!  How any politician can look us in the eye and say with a straight face "I'm here looking out for your best interest" shows the absurdity of our political system.

My topic here is, quite simply, that we need TERM LIMITS.  I've known some fairly big-time politicians in my time, and politics from the county level on up is simply a finishing school for liars and thieves.  It's all about building up credits with party elites, and this applies equally to BOTH parties.

Precinct chairmen are urged to hold neighborhood meetings to drum up support and raise money for their parties' candidates.  If they consistently do well they are "invited" to run for a county position, or are appointed to a springboard bureaucratic position. More ass kissing, and they're told they'll have party support (access to money) to run for a seat in the state legislature.  Still more ass kissing and a decade later, they might rise up the ranks to a leadership position.

Here's where the men are separated from the boys:  The most cunning and ruthless are pushed towards running for Congress.  When the party anoints a candidate, he's on the fast track to lifetime employment and "the good life".

When he arrives in Washington he's pulled to the side and essentially told that party loyalty and fund raising are paramount (which he already knows).  Do what you're told, vote how you're told to vote, and you'll have access to the most lucrative special interests, the most prestigious committee assignments, the best office space, the most exotic/high profile travel junkets, etc.  Buck the leadership, and you'll be working from a coat closet in the basement, and you'll be the junior member of the Pencil Sharpening Committee.  Oh, and next election cycle, good luck!

If they don't "go along to get along" as Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders have consistently chosen not to do, they'll get no endorsements or party support.  Only because those two have some strong, pissed off, anti-establishment popular support back home can they get away with their waywardness.  Such rebels are few and far between.

Perks come from power, and power comes from longevity.  The longer they're there, the more favors they can toss out.  Whenever I see McConnell and his posterior appendages or Harry Reid and his butt kissers, I know that I'm seeing the crookedest of the crooks.  When faced with a choice between doing what's right for US or doing what's right FOR THE PARTY, we'll lose.  Of course they'll spin it to look like they're our champions, and this is where their "liars finishing school" comes in.

Bottom line:  To be able to sit at the cool kids table, they first have to get elected, and then consistently get re-elected.  If we could ever get term limits in place, then we'll have a chance to break that corrupt lifetime employment contract.  It will be an up hill battle, for sure.  The possibility is what gives special interests and established politicians sleepless nights. 

If politicians know they can't get re-elected due to term limits, they'll have no need to spend half their time fund raising and ass kissing.  If they know there is no reason to betray their constituents and kiss up to the party hierarchy, we just might have a chance to get some competent leaders.  Sure, we'll be throwing out a few babies with the bath water, but we'll be getting rid of an ocean of nasty pollution, too.  I think it's a fair trade.

S

Where have all the Good Guys gone?

Does anyone remember these two guys?  That's President Ronald Reagan on the right (naturally) and House Speaker Tip O'Neal on the left (both literally and figuratively).  

Mr. Conservative and Mr. Liberal they were.  They had sharply different political philosophies, visions for the future, and constituencies, yet they also had respect for each other.  When one had the opportunity to completely crush the other, to politically destroy the other, he didn't do it.  They realized they needed each other.  

Sometimes Tip had to swallow hard and give in to something Reagan wanted, and sometimes their roles were reversed.  They both knew they couldn't just dump on a large part of the American population in order to get their way.  That would be what is called "winning the battle, but losing the war"....a long-term bad thing for the country, and they knew it.

Contrast them to the "leaders" (more like "hired guns") that we have today.  Reid, Pelosi, McConnell, Ryan, Clinton, and lets not forget the Tea Party faction led by Ted Cruz....they would rather eat s__t than give an inch to the other.  The Republicans, for example, recently agreed to a budget deal only because elections are upcoming and they knew polls showed the public held them responsible for past government shutdowns that harmed millions of people.  It was self-preservation, pure and simple.

They gave in not for the good of the country, but for their own political gain.  And under similar circumstances the Democrats would do the same.  They care about themselves, and no one else.  You and I are just pawns to them.

Bernie Sanders is saying a political revolution is coming, and he may be right.  I'm wondering if it will be limited to just being "political"?  Think about that.

S

A train wreck in not-so-slow-motion

For the life of me I don't understand why so many in the world look to the United States for leadership.  We wouldn't know "leadership" if it bit us on the butt!  There may be a very few potential "leaders" lurking in our political landscape, but they either have no chance of getting the nod to lead, or THEY DON'T WANT IT!

It wasn't long ago I was pooh-pooing the "Young Guns" in the House of Representatives, those being Republicans Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy, their best-of-the-best.  Yes, the same Kevin McCarthy who just dropped out of the race to become the next Speaker of the House.  Back then I thought they were too rigid, too my-way-or-the-highway, too cold to effectively lead.  

Turns out McCarthy is now deemed not cold enough to please the 40 or so members of the Tea Party (now calling themselves the Freedom Party) who are bullying the rest of the Republican's.  They're like the Nazi Brown Shirts of the 1930's, sans the actual physical beating of opponents.  Current Speaker John Boner is looking like an absolute moderate.  Don't get cocky Democrats, you're no better.  Nancy Pelosi?  Really?  She's the best you have?

And the Senate....Oh dear God, we've hit bottom!  Mitch McConnell (R)?  Harry Reid (D)?  The Mafia should study them to learn the fine art of real organized crime.

Which leaves President Barack Obama.   Sir, please explain it to me again, slowly....what exactly is our foreign policy?  If it's to get run over, then I give you a perfect 10.  You say we're involved in Syria in order to help send Assad packing.  So who's going to take his place?  One of those flea-bag rebel warlords we're supporting now?  You know they're just suckering you, right?  They don't give a rats ass about working with us.  In fact they hate us.  They'll still take our money, but they hate us.  Why can't they hate us on their dime?

And who do we have in the wings?  Donald Trump, entertainer extraordinaire.  Dr Ben Carson, has no chance.  Carly Fiorina, ditto.  Ted Cruz, pond scum.  And a bunch of others who have less than no chance.  Hillary, too many skeletons in the closet.  Bernie Sanders, even his supporters say he could never be elected.  

*crickets*

What the hell has happened to us?  Our potential is limitless, our people incredibly dynamic.  Our compassion (excluding the Freedom Party) comforting, our power to do good beyond the reach of anyone else in the world.  And we're squandering it.  DOH!

You know that revolution we haven't had in 239 years?  Don't look now, but....

S

What's the old saying? "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

DOH!  Where's a good lightning bolt when you need one?

Is anybody besides me sick of the politicians going all nuclear over Brick O'bama's immigration "reform" executive order?  The Republicans won't address immigration, so Obama issues his order, right or wrong, and the Republicans run straight to court, whining what a dictator he's being.

You know the old political ploy of inventing a crisis/war/catastrophe to take attention off yourself when you're caught asleep at the wheel?  "No, don't look here.  Look over there."  That's what this amounts to.  If the Republicans don't like what Obama is doing regarding immigration, put a legitimate, DETAILED plan of their own on the table for discussion and schedule a vote.  

Hello?  Boner....Mitch?  Anyone?  Still waiting....

Here's my beef:  The Republicans have said for several years that they wouldn't tackle immigration reform until after the election.  Going unsaid was the fact that they wanted to pander for votes in all quarters.  They didn't want to take a stand on anything that might cost them any votes.  

In other words, they were more concerned about THEIR jobs than they were about the good of the country.  Shouldn't that itself disqualify them from holding public office?  

Don't get me wrong....the Dems are as self-centered as the Republicans.  They are all too willing to throw us under the bus, too, if they can keep their jobs (and all the graft that goes with it) for a couple more years.

IMO, unless we're willing to give the boot to Mitch and Boner and Nancy and Harry and all their respective "yes men" (and based on recent election results, we aren't) nothing in Washington will ever get any better.  America is as successful as it is IN SPITE of Washington, not because of it.  

I still have this crazy, nostalgic idea that leaders are paid to LEAD.  Silly me.

S

And it's Dung Slung Shit by a....nose (sorry)

 

Did you hear about the young people in NY (?) who recently bought a used couch at a Salvation Army thrift store?  It wasn't long before they realized how uncomfortably lumpy it was, so they opened some of the cushions and found over $40,000 in small bills, along with a deposit slip identifying the previous owner.  (Since when do couch cushions give deposit slips?)

They tracked down the lady, a 90-year oldster, and returned her money to her. 

Meanwhile mid-term election campaigning is in full swing and the best I can tell that DemoPublican candidate of Chinese heritage, Dung Slung Shit, is comfortably in the lead.  

Why can't we put some of those kids in office....someone who still knows how to do the right thing?  All we have are crooks vying to give the special interests more tax breaks, and rake off a hefty cut for themselves, too.

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Speaking of....did you see the clip on TV of Senate Majority Leader Harry "Doogie" Reid (D-NV) lambasting the billionaire Koch Bros for setting up their payola kitty....er....political action fund....with $400,000,000 to be spread around Congress. 

Doogie was just seething, he was so incensed.

But then when asked about one of his Nevada constituents, Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has a pretty hefty slush fund himself, Doogie said he was a virtual saint.  "He doesn't care about the money.  He just wants to help people."  (Yeah, so long as they're wearing a Member of Congress lapel pin.)

*sigh*  Such is politics.  I only hope I'm still around to see the revolution.  :)

S

The mafia is watching and learning from the Tea Party

The mafia could learn much from the Tea Party extortionists in the House of Representatives.  

First the Tea Party campaigned explicitly on the promise they would shut down the government.  For two weeks they f__ked around making demands they KNEW would NEVER be acceptable to the opposition. 

Then they say it isn't them "....no siree, it's those damn Democrats....they won't negotiate in good faith".  Yuck yuck.  

They finally throw up their hands and say they're out, it's up to the Senate to put together some sort of compromise.  OK, fine.  Harry "Life of the Party" Reid and Mitch "Pull My Finger" McConnell, with the help of some bipartisan MODERATES, are on the verge of putting something together, and the Tea Party "Gang of Ninety" pull their heads out of their asses....

John "Boner" Boehner's "Glamour Shot"

....and announce that, no, they would put together a plan after all, scuttling everything the Senate was working on.  BASTARDS!

On second thought, the mafia is smarter than that.  (And their approval rating is higher, too.)

You want to know how to absolutely destroy a perfectly good political party?  Elect a small bunch of Tea Party bully's and let them goose-step their way into power.  In 6 months your party will be a flaming wreck.  Keep it up Tea Party, and you'll learn the meaning of "unintended consequences".

S

How come they get to have all the fun?

How come all the good stuff happens overseas?  This ^ was a fight that broke out in the Ukrainian Parliament yesterday over...who knows.  Probably one guy said his goat was better looking than the other guy's goat, I dunno.  Anyway, they picked up some fat guy and threw him in the middle and the fight was on.

We need some of that here.  All they do in Washington is talk.  Talk, talk, talk.  Why don't they throw Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell together and let 'em duke it out?  I don't know if it would really accomplish anything, but it would spawn a whole new genre of reality TV.

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It was just announced that apparel maker Lululemon is recalling a popular line of yoga pants because it turns out they're so light weight they're "see thru".  They say yoga practitioners tie themselves in knots, spread, bent, etc, baring all in the process.  

Now I'm about the most un-limber person in the world.  K does yoga every day and has urged me to give it a try.  Had men known the pants all the women were wearing were see-thru they just might have swamped all the yoga studios with new members.  It would have made a pretty convincing sales pitch for sure!

Ummm....just thinking this through....these pants were for women only, right?  I really wouldn't want to see a bunch of other guy's junk first thing every morning.  Noooo.

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And finally....

Spring time in Dallas.   Yea.

S