Liars, filthy, nasty, UnAmerican liars

In expression of my masochistic tendencies I’ve been listening to Sean Hannity for the past week and this guy is some piece of work. If he ever tells the truth, it’s by accident. (Disclaimer: I actually heard him do something I actually respected. I put it here, because if I put it at the bottom, no one will likely see it.) But the biggest lie he tells is that Obama has expanded the federal deficit by $6 trillion and then claims he’s raised the budget more than all the other presidents combined.

Hannity’s lies resulted in Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison trying to take him to task on FoxNews Tuesday night, calling Hannity a lying immoral yellow journalist. But when Hannity asked him how he had lied, Ellison, a Democrat, couldn’t answer the question even though he was right.

Here’s the answer.

When Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009 the federal deficit was $10.6 trillion. When Bush took over, the deficit was $5.7 trillion. In other words Bush doubled the federal deficit and that doesn’t account for the fact that his policies affected the deficit well into 2009. Bush policies were still in effect through the fiscal year which was October 2008 until September 2009. The Congressional Budget Office had predicted that the 2009 fiscal year, which was still a result of Bush policies, increased the deficit another $1.3 trillion in 2009. So Bush was actually responsible for $11.9 trillion in debt when he left.

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/41753

But shrub’s responsibility goes even further. Republicans are always eager to compare the average family budget with the federal budget. But somehow these dimwits forget to understand that the average family has to pay interest on their debt. The point: a conservative estimate for the interest on the debt Bush left puts us at about $350 billion a year in interest alone. Or for the four plus years of Obama’s presidency, we’ve paid another $1.2 trillion plus in interest bringing Bush’s responsibility to a conservative $13.2 trillion.

At the worst, Obama has increased the deficit by no more than $3 trillion. And even that is stretching it because we were still paying for the wars Bush started.

As to Hannity, no fact supports the statement that Obama has increased the deficit more than any other president. That distinction belongs to George W. Bush. And given that Bush’s policies destroyed the entire world economy and put the entire human society in jeopardy of failure, $3 trillion seems a paltry sum to avert complete system failure.

Ellison doesn’t get off the hook though. He’s a congressman for God’s sake. If you’re going to go on TV and challenge a guy on his own show on his own network, you damn well better be able to defend your position. All Ellison did was look like an ass and make the rest of the world think Democrats don’t know anything.

Now that I’ve called Hannity a dirty rotten liar, I will say this. I heard his show last week when a poverty stricken woman called in to whine about how broke she was and Hannity offered to give her $1,000 for supplies to start her own business and she wouldn’t accept it. He offered this woman a hand up and she turned it away. I will admit some grudging respect for Hannity’s offer.

As wrong as Republicans are on almost everything, they do have one idea that has merit. Work has merit and work building up your own business has the greatest merit of all. Unfortunately, most of America can’t be bothered to take responsibility for their own lives and this woman demonstrated that. None of us can hide from our responsibility and if we would all work a little harder and laze a little less, our deficits would be a thing of the past.

Sequester Away

Sequester away
The new year brought us the fiscal cliff which passed with barely a speed bump. Today the boogie man is sequestration. Obama is out preaching all manner of evils will befall us and Speaker John Boehner is calling the president every name but the one he reserves for private talks.  The media is doing its part to spread the word of the Emperor’s new clothes.

Unfortunately, I can’t muster much strength to care. We’re talking about two percent in across the board  cuts. Frankly if we can’t manage such a pitiful cut in our national budget, our problems are much bigger than anything that’s being discussed. And as much as I respect the president and empathize with him for all the absolute mistreatment and disrespect he has to deal with every day, I’m not accepting the idea that the sequestration is all that bad.

First of all, most Americans don’t have to wait until Friday to feel the effects of the economic crisis. The worst off Americans have already lost their homes while banks pocketed a profit. They lost their jobs. They have tightened their belts. They have done their part.

What’s going to be affected? The Transportation Security Administration.  This is an agency that didn’t even exist until Republican George W. Bush created it, adding 47,000 federal jobs. And as much as I appreciate providing jobs for small people with a large degree of self importance, it was never necessary. The World Trade Center didn’t get bombed because we didn’t have morons with undue power to subvert American rights. The Trade Center was bombed because Bush and the Republicans ignored warnings that Al Queda was planning an attack on the United States.

And if TSA cuts cause longer lines at the airport, I don’t give a crap. I’m poor. I don’t fly enough for it to make any difference in my life whatsoever. I suspect most of America’s poor and former middle class are in the same situation. So should I care that rich people will experience longer lines at the airport? NO, NO, NO.

They say we won’t be able to defend ourselves. Bullcrap. The United States spent $711 Billion last year in defense. China came in second with $143 Billion. The U.S. spent more than the next 10 other countries combined among the top military spenders. In other words, we can afford the cuts to the military. Given that China is the largest potential military threat in the world and only spends $143 Billion, it appears we can afford to cut a bunch from the military.

And besides, quite frankly I’m tired of my tax dollars being spent to kill the world’s poor people in order to enrich capitalists, many of which aren’t even American capitalists. We spend too much on military. We spend too much on military. We spend way too freaking much on the military. We are supposed to be a Christian nation. So why for the love of God do we spend $711 billion every year to kill people. The only possible answer is that we are a Christian nation that has no concept of what Christianity is. And finally, I bet if we spent $711 billion a year on diplomacy or bringing Democracy to the nations of earth, there would be no need for any military. EVOLVE. All human life is equal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

And one more point. So far, the richest Americans have done just fine since 2008. The only people who have suffered were already poor when the Republicans started this mess. I think it’s high time to spread the equality of austerity far and wide. So for my part, I say sequester away. The budget needs to be cut and frankly I don’t care from where the cuts come. Times are tough but it seems to me they’ve been tougher for the majority. It’s time the feudal lords felt some belt tightening.

Follow me on Twitter at pSSdOffPatriot. Please leave comments. Given that I'm not a Republican, have an open mind, and desire a free exchange of ideas I always seek intelligent debate.

Knowledge, knowledge everywhere and not a drop to think

Information surrounds us. It bombards us from boxes and boxes everywhere. It blares, it assaults, slaps,  rings, beeps, it leaks in and sneaks up,,,everywhere. So much information, yet we may be the most ignorant generation of humans to ever inhabit the planet.

It was not the Democrats, nor Obama that set the world on its present course. Despite protestations from the right, every problem America currently faces is a direct result of corporate greed and the Bush administrations loyal service to it.

Banks killed the economy. Banks put ten percent of the population out of work. Banks forced businesses to close. Banks destroyed the housing market. Banks bankrupted millions and put 100s of millions more in a tighter financial situation than what is comfortable. And the Republicans helped them do it by creating an environment that allowed it. By looking the other way. By making it legal to do things that should have been illegal.

Banks perpetrated the greatest crime in American history and got away with it. Because the average human has no clue what a mortgage backed security is; much less how it’s the source of all the world’s financial ills; these crooks have no fear of ever facing their responsibility.

Be clear America. Bush, the GOP and American corporate greed put us where we are today. And somehow the same failed policies that put us here are still being preached as the savior.

Just last week, New Mexico Republican Congressman Steve Pearce tweeted that the folks at Washington Federal wanted fewer regulations.

Great tell them, America’s tax payers want their money back.

And before you tell me the banks paid back the $3 trillion they got in the bailouts, first let me say, “Bullshit!”

We’ll never really know because the way they got the money was so wonky, no one will ever really know. But that’s beside the point. The money stolen from the American taxpayer to prop up banks was for Toxic Asset Relief Program. In other words the money was for the houses for which they had loaned too much money.

What they got to keep was $3 trillion in real property. They still foreclosed on the houses occupied by the very tax payers who got robbed to protect the banks from their crimes. And they still collected mortgage payments from the ones lucky enough to hold onto their homes. And while all this was going on, Republicans were screaming bloody murder and crying that Obama was going to socialize the banks.

He should have. That’s right. I said Obama should have socialized the banks.

They were criminals who committed a crime so large that the only way to avoid total system failure was to steal $3 trillion from hard working people and give it to the very people who caused the problem. Once the problem was averted, they should have been punished. The banks should have been socialized and all their directors stood before a firing squad and executed on CNN.

I’ll make no apologies for the statement. Kill one person in the process of stealing his wallet and you will get the chair in many U.S. states. Banks destroyed  millions of lives. And have no doubts that many actual hard working patriotic American lives ended because of the economic crisis. Banks and their directors deserve the harshest punishment our society allows.
.
Nothing I’ve said is new or news yet no one talks about this. Not the politicians, not the media right or left, no one.

So a couple of ideas. Since the banks caused our problems, make them fix it. If the deficit is a problem, tax the banks. If they don’t like it, they can trade jail time until it’s paid. I didn’t like it when they made me pay for their mistakes. So I don’t really care what they like. Banks are state sanctioned criminals and I want that status ended.

And as for you, America, for God’s sake learn. They robbed us because our economy can no longer function without these mega banks. You can fix that. Stop patronizing them. Put your money in gold or in your mattress.

Spend cash. Stop rewarding your oppressors for oppressing you.

Businesses, offer discounts for spending cash. You should do this anyway because the banks charge you 3% for processing a credit card.

And all of you should call your congressman today and demand these criminals be held responsible.