Quiverfulls, Corporatists, and Sundry on the American Landscape

Does everyone know that a batshit crazy Reconstructionist Christian movement goes by the name of Quiverfull? I just like that some batshit crazy/nutter/nutbar Christians go by that name. It invokes Robin Hood! Michelle Bachman, the bonkers Congresswoman from Minnesota, goes by that name I think. Her husband is one of these “counselors” in so-called reparative therapy. Undoubtedly, this duo need heavy reparation, and that either of them would be counseling others is truly a hard fact to believe! Dr. Freud must be rolling over in heaven that he couldn’t get either of these two on to his treasured couch. In fact, today’s American Reich-wing in toto, I’m sure that the good Dr. would have liked to have his best crack at!

They are really losing it that a black man — while a corporatist, Wall Street puppet — is president. They cannot grin and bear it. They cannot swallow the bitter pill; instead, they strain at gnats and swallow camels. They are clinging to their guns as if the SS will be imminently coming, and knocking at their door. The times we live in today are strange, perhaps this is why one would look for answers in Quiverfull? I don’t know. Shooting bows and arrows at the crises in America, I don’t think does much good, however. Unequivocally, we need Rooseveltian solutions/scenarios, but we’ve got the aforementioned hard Reich-wing, and a “left party” that’s wholly owned/run/occupied by high finance (plus a president who’s learned his “leadership” capabilities from one of those books on Chicken Soup). Aaarrrgggh America, the landscape that we are faced with today indeed.

Obama Was Really Handed a Pile of Crap by George W. Bush

I take that meme the other direction btw. The American public was so thirsty for another way, when the candidate Barack Obama was elected. Even in the corporatist MSM, they were talking about the possibility of the center-right America idea going to the grave. Obama moved on the most tepid, middle of the road, corporatist stuff, when he had the opportunity to be a transformational president!

We know now that he has no vision, however. It all comes from spin doctors, and DLC/Third Wayer Democrats (Rahm, Daley, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner etc.). He’s not a rock the boat type of guy. He’s a go with the flow sort of politician — who flirts with rhetoric at times, as if he is going to pursue great possibility/change. He’s following nothing but an ordinary playbook, and pursuing nothing, but the commonplace/everyday politics (and not to mention foreign policy) of the worst kind.

More Change: A Bill Written by the Health Insurance Industry

Thank God for Republican policy advisers, one of which has noticed that in roughly ten years, single payer will be the only option — they won’t be able to 86 the ‘public option’ then. But until that blessed moment, our dearest Congress and their enabler president will have delivered the booty on to the health insurance companies. And not only that, but now 50+ million Americans — many of who cannot afford to, will be railroaded into paying for ‘health care’ (this must be more of that Wall Street math that we’ve all heard of, that you apparently need a PhD. to decipher)! And should they be so lucky as to even be able to somehow scrape the duckets together to buy ‘health insurance coverage’, they will fear using it because they don’t want to be buried in the additional cost burden of co-pays for the services that they do appraise themselves of. This ‘system’ makes the ‘Soviet gulag’ one almost look sane!

I thought the government was going to take over American health care (if we listen to the Michele Bachmanns of the world, which we should never, of course, do)? Because I think that we need to have a do-over and vote on that happening as soon as is possible! What can be worse than going broke just to get coverage, that’s about as good as a placebo is for a head cold? And that’s what Obama and the Democrats specialize in anyway, sleight of hand, false senses of hope, and the hocking of fraudulent products. And snake oil will undoubtedly make a comeback, also, because it’s at least more cost effective than just about anything the Democrats or the health insurance near monopolies are advancing.

But there are wars to be fought, and drones that need to be refueled, and a nuclear weapons arsenal that needs to be upgraded — plus we just have to have the mother of the MOAB; so to heck with the United States of America and all of its citizens. War is our business, and empire building our pastime, and social and health concerns, come secondary to the true business of this nation; and we all know — more than all too well what that is — and it’s not putting first and foremost the well being of the vast majority of America.

Thoughtherding and the ‘Alternative Media’

Most the so-called ‘alternative media’ are just outlets for ‘acceptable’ opinion, and ‘acceptable’ discourse of the state and corporate sponsored left (I believe the same occurs on the right as well). Anything outside the lines is nothing other than sheer blasphemy. Blasphemy against the church, state, and party (of ‘progressivism’, or at least what has co-opted its name). On many of the faux progressive or ‘alternative media’ websites, the blasphemers are locked away (with lock and key), while at others they are just relegated to the sidelines (or if we want to be metaphorical about it, the proverbial dungeon). Thus, the herd is kept in line, and the homogeneity of the ostensible left, prevails! Yay! The good guys won another battle! But, of course, the outcome was determined before the clock had even started to tick.

If ‘the left’ or ‘the progressives’ or whoever opposes the agenda of the corporatists, wants to have even the slightest bit of hope (or a chance) to win, we need to be honest and open and front and center about this! Some in the ‘alternative’ media or the online left or whatever you’d call it are working for peace and justice, and others are working to advance the corporatist agenda (I’m sorry but anyone supporting the Democratic Party at this point is engaging in this practice, even if one has the right intentions at heart). I don’t know if the solution is boycotts or strong arm tactics, against the cyber-appendages of the vulgar Democrats, but for anyone who wasn’t aware of this, I’m here to tell you that’s precisely how it is. The strong arm tactics are all coming from ‘official’ progressivism currently, and the ones playing defense (and/or catch-up) are those who are to their left.

A handful of people who have the requisite name recognition are allowed to publish on all of the party’s organs, but any budding future versions of them are given the back of the hand. It seems that the sickness of celebrity in this country extends far beyond the realm of show business; and since most of our communities in this country no longer have any center of meeting or public square, where the ideas of the day can be hashed out (or agreed or disagreed upon freely), then it seems that the ‘information superhighway’, is supposed to substitute for our absence of a political or social (central) space. However, of course, the first amendment does not seem to apply to our present medium; therefore the guts are stripped out of the discussion, if ‘incendiary’ or ‘provocative’ topics are expelled from the debate!

In the ‘alternative’ media there is no longer any serious application of the statement, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Rather the ‘doctrine’ of the vast swath of the aforementioned media (summed up in as few words as possible) seems to be, “Disapprove of what I say, and you will be put to death!” The Obamabots win every time when this ‘doctrine’ proves to be the standard; and free and open discussion in a democratic society, loses every time as well. Moreover, the Soviet-esque U.S. political system marches on, and the special interests and the corporatocracy rule time and time again!

Anyone Ever Watch Faux News?

The McCarthyism on there is CRAZY! I was watching O’Nutjob talking to a former marine (he had been a marine for something like 20 years, now retired), about what inside knowledge he could offer America about the Muslim community (this man was also Caucasian but either had been or was still currently a Muslim American)… I’ve never seen anything like this, but tragically; I assume that someone like Glenn Beck is fully on board with this sort of thing! I’m strongly for freedom of speech and expression but this is beginning to border on the kind of thing that shouldn’t even be given a platform on Network and/or Cable television (not that Rupert Murdoch, or for that matter anyone in the ‘Faux family’, has any sort of moral scruples)!

The kind of things that the Fox nutbars have said all along about liberals, it seems that, they are starting to target towards Muslim Americans (with liberals it’s acceptable, or at least so it seems to be, because they can get off saying they find repellent what liberals believe in, but why are they allowed to say that American Muslims are essentially not Americans because of their faith/system of beliefs [and/or values?])? What’s next are they going to say the Hopi Indians faith is not (and/or anti) American? Who, of course, were here before nearly all of us, unless anyone reading this is of Native American ancestry… Of course, I suppose there aren’t Hopi radical extremists running around the globe; but, at the same time, that’s my point exactly, Bin Laden and his ilk are radical extremists (who only happen to be of the Muslim faith tradition, they could theoretically be nearly anything, girl scouts, sanitation workers, pagans, Wiccans, horse traders, witch doctors you name it!).

Obama: The Democratic-Republican Party Wins Again!

With Barack Obama’s rise and election to the presidency, it’s the same old corporatist story once again! In the two plus months since Obama has been president, it would appear that the Democratic-Republican party has retained firm control over all three branches of ‘our’ government! Since Obama’s election he’s shown that he’s no friend of progressives, those who are for social justice and human rights, ending the stranglehold of the military industrial complex on U.S. foreign policy, and wide-ranging substantive change in national politics and policy. In just a small sampling of Obama’s more disreputable acts (since taking over the office of the president), he tried to eliminate the advocates for single payer from the health care policy debate (a policy Obama once championed as an Illinois state legislator), he appointed the anti-Iran Israel lackey Dennis Ross (and certainly no man of peace) as a special envoy to the Middle East, and he’s embarking upon an escalation of the war in Afghanistan (proving he’s not an anti-war candidate and indeed never was, as he’s really always been against one front of the failed war on terror while supporting another front of that disastrous conflict).

Not only has Obama committed these dishonorable transgressions, but it’s also been reported that he’s admitted, to some like-minded conservative Democratic colleagues, that like them he is a New Democrat (a term associated with corporatism, a militaristic foreign policy, and support for big insurance, big pharma, the energy companies, Monsanto, Wall Street, and many other ill-intentioned groups and individuals). I’ve written before of the hollow, vapid meaning of the Obamian change slogan, but as more and more evidence mounts of this (with each passing day), the point cannot be reinforced enough! Obama had no intention of implementing a profound and socially just, substantive change agenda; he was simply referring to the same ideation of ‘change’ that other corporate ‘New’ Democrats (like Hillary Clinton, who he has of course brought into his administration), advocated during their presidential campaigns.

Progressives, having overwhelming supported Obama, and his enablers (congressional Democrats), seemingly have very few places left to turn (save perhaps the streets or permanent expatriation) now that Obama has been installed into the presidency (with their blessing). Had progressives forced Obama to bargain with them for their support, then perhaps we could be looking forward to the implementation of such progressive policies as single payer health insurance, the Employee Free Choice Act (which it looks as if Obama has left to wither), meaningful campaign finance and lobbying reform, a draw down (rather than an escalation) of the conflict in Afghanistan; you name any number of things that progressives could have bargained for with the wriggly Obama. If progressives had simply had the foresight to support a third party progressive (such as McKinney or Nader), and forced Obama to bring substantive proposals to them in order for him to gain their backing; then perhaps meaningful change could have occurred. Instead progressives seemed to have been wooed, by stump speeches, two books of memoirs, and flowery campaign rhetoric in coming around to support Obama’s decidedly unprogressive agenda. An agenda brought to us by a man who is more of a wordsmith, and an autobiographer than seemingly much else of any substance (at least anything positive), that’s at all worth mentioning.