Politics Plus

I always considered the dollar gender neutral.  I know there are honest dollars and dishonest dollars, but the idea of male and female dollars never occurred to me.  However, Republicans now consider female dollars to be those with no value, and are using Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, an adjunct to the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, to spread the word.  Paul Krugman brought us this:

Can a woman effectively run the Federal Reserve? That shouldn’t even be a question. And Janet Yellen, the vice chairwoman of the Fed’s Board of Governors, isn’t just up to the job; by any objective standard, she’s the best-qualified person in America to take over when Ben Bernanke steps down as chairman.

Yet there are not one but two sexist campaigns under way against Ms. Yellen. One is a whisper campaign whose sexism is implicit, while the other involves raw misogyny. And both campaigns manage to combine sexism with very bad economic analysis.

Let’s start with the more extreme, open campaign. Last week, The New York Sun published an editorial [Murdoch propaganda delinked] attacking Ms. Yellen titled “The Female Dollar.” The editorial took it for granted that the Fed has been following disastrously inflationary monetary policies for years, even though actual inflation is at a 50-year low. And it warned that things would get even worse if the dollar were to become merely “gender-backed.” I am not making this up.

True, The Sun is a marginal publication, with strong gold-bug tendencies, and nobody would pay much attention if the rest of the right had ignored or distanced itself from that editorial. In fact, however, The Wall Street Journal immediately followed up with its own editorial [Murdoch propaganda delinked] along the same lines, in the course of which it approvingly quoted The Sun piece, female dollar and all. [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

I urge you to click through for the rest of this excellent editorial.

Instead of male and female dollars, they should be considered Democratic and Republican dollars, the former going to meet the legitimate needs of the American people, and the latter, to squander on the greed of the 1%.

I keep hearing people express worry that Obama is going to cut a dysfunctional deal with Republicans, and blaming him for things over which he had no control, because he has to follow the law.  I could just ignore the law, like Bush did, but that’s the Republican way, not the American way.  Based on his meetings yesterday with the House and Senate, he appears to be on target with respect to his economic plans.

President Obama put Republicans on notice Wednesday that he will reject any fiscal deal that only spares the Pentagon from budget cuts.

Seeking party unity, Obama met with congressional Democrats in both chambers to prepare them for the budget battle that will greet them in the fall.

His message was unequivocal: no negotiating with Republicans on a debt-ceiling increase and no reductions in the sequester cuts to defense unless domestic programs are spared as well.

“He’s not going to accept sequestration restoration for the military any greater than in domestic. He’s not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling,” Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Democratic leadership, told reporters after Senate Democrats met with Obama in a room off the Senate floor… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <The Hill>

Photo credit: The News Journal

No arguments here.  Now, I can’t pretend to say that I actually know what he’s going to do, but I’ve called it right more often than wing-nuts, who claim that they do.

I have opposed Clarence “Teabag” Thomas for a long long time, beginning with watching Anita Hill testify at his confirmation hearing.  Later, when he attended Koch Brothers strategy sessions with Herr Scalia, I thought there was justifiable grounds to impeach him, but sadly, grounds are not enough, no matter how right it would be to do so.

In 2011, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave a speech to the Federalist Society where he defended Ginni Thomas’ activism, saying he and Ginni "believe in the same things." Toward the end, he said they were "equally yoked" because they both were defenders of liberty.

That’s a lovely sentiment, but when placed in a larger context, particularly with regard to her current activism with the likes of True the Vote, the Daily Caller, and the entire Groundswell team, it’s an extreme conflict of interest.

Clarence Thomas is only one example of the conflicts in which our government is awash, but his is an egregious one…

…Let’s just get this out of the way right now. When a sitting Supreme Court justice is married to a woman who received nearly a million dollars from a wealthy Texas billionaire to oppose the Affordable Care Act in a high-profile fashion, the answer shouldn’t be that spouses are entitled to do whatever they want.

There are circumstances where they can’t do what they want, and one clear one is a situation where their spouse is going to rule on a related case. No other federal judge would be permitted to hear or issue opinions about cases where his or her spouse is publicly acting as advocate for one side or the other.

It’s unethical.

Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>

Here’s the audio.

I’ve seen video of Ginny in action, and she reminds me of Batshit B, but not quite as bright.  You can be certain that Ginny would not have the high profile jobs or bring home the big bucks, that are a significant portion of Teabag’s family income, if Teabag were not part of the package that the Koch Brothers, et al, are buying.  That’s bribery.

To impeach a supreme Court Injustice, you need articles of impeachment passed by a majority of the House and conviction in the Senate by a two thirds majority, 67 votes.

The Stanley Cup finals will be played in hell before either the current House or Senate goes along with those requirements.  So, it we want to impeach Teabag, it’s up to us to change the makeup of the House and Senate.  Teaching others why every Republican in office is one Republican too many is our job.  Lets get to work!