A Survey of Summer Schmucks -- Deen's Critics and Snowden's Supporters, an overview

I can hardly decide who has pissed me off the most in recent weeks.  I hope to sort it out here. And because it is hot as hell I am thinking of starting with the easily the loudest, just for organizational reasons. Okay, I am just putting it right out there. I feel sorry for Paula Deen. Here is a woman, a "celebrity chef," who has made a fortune cashing in on the very culture for which she is now a pariah.  How in the world is she now to shrug off the very thing she has hung her hat on? Really. C'mon folks.  Do we really believe we can sanitize for our own protection our own history?  Get real. Anyone and I mean ANYONE who is of Deen's generation, and probably one or two after, who has been shaped and formed by the American South, has at one time or another, used racial epithets. Black folks. White folks. Brown folks. Mixed race. Whatever. And yet there are people with the nerve ---and an enormous amount of fake sanctimony  ---who have judged and found her wanting in the social relations department.  Gee.  Good work there all you Sherlock Holmeses.   Personally, I dislike her for a completely different reason -- her recipies kill people. With all that fat and sugar calories you would think a diabetic like Deen, with  her supposed talent, would dedicate her life to making healthy food taste better, instead of promoting food that takes the distinctive flavors of the South and drowns them in yuck. Am I saying that racial epithets are okay? Don't be stupid.  I am just saying they are there and they remain a reminder of the fact that racism is not dead, no, not even feeling poorly, in America.

Okay, one down. And one which brings me to the second group of summer schmucks who have gotten the attention of the AWM, namely, the US Supreme Court. These idiots remind me of the father who declares his child is potty trained because he hasn't changed a diaper in a while.  Their recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act is simply unbelievable, if you believe for one instant that these rich fat white men (all the Justices in the majority ruling are men) care at all for the majority of Americans.  Their argument that racism is largely anecdotal, that certain places, predominantly in the South, are no longer racist, is either willfully ignorant or childishly naive. Casual racism is endemic in the South. Remember Governor Rick Perry's Niggerhead Ranch? Just because the name is now changed, do you think anyone has stopped referring to the location by that name? Really?  In the South, Southerners sooth their consciences in just exactly the way Lynyrd Skynyrd reminds us--  "we all did what we could do." And what southerners have done isn't  much, and certainly it hasn't been enough.  Slavery -- not just racism -- but slavery, the legal institutionalized kind, was completely the norm for more than 400 years in this country. You want to declare the end of racism, I suggest you call me after a couple more centuries of legal, institutionalized equality.

And now, for the fans of that little snot Edward Snowden.  Now as a mom, I did not always rely on
corporal punishment, because I found out relatively early that you can really make a child realize,without ever laying a hand on them, that they are not the center of the universe.   I also found out early that two and three year olds are incredibly flexible nd can twist their bodies in remarkable ways, so that it often takes a few whacks just to land a good solid smack,an exhausting and altogether unsatisfying result that leaves you open to charges of abuse by people who most likely do not have children anyway. However, the occasional butt-smack was in fact a weapon in the armory, as it were, and if I ever saw someone in dire need of a spanking, it is Edward Snowden. This narcissistic jerk lied about his qualifications and misrepresented his intentions in going to work for a security contractor in the first place, earned a six-figure salary, lived in Hawaii, and now calls himself a whistleblower. Certainly, he blows.  Just not a whistle.  What he has blown up, and  way out of proportion, are programs that were the entirely legal results of the Bush Administration's panic attack on civil liberties known as thetrio Patriot Act. His hystrionic supporters consider him to have outed the "Obama administration spying on its citizens," but most of us who have been paying attention for more than the past five minutes, already know that. Most of us also know that our internet postings -- of any type -- are not private any more than our cell phone conversations are private.  Most of us accept, like mature adults, that in this day in time we have sacrificed some liberties for security.  Most of us are far more accepting of the Government's attempts using our private information for security reasons, than we ever will be of the purely mercenary reasons used by private industry to increase their profits. And you know, I have a really hard time supporting any idiot who claims to want privacy when they shout out  personal conversations over cell phones in every public setting you can imagine except maybe church.If you believe in telecommunications privacy of any sort, then you must also believe in unicorns.  And another thing. True "whistleblowers" do so out of a sense of righteousness, of loyalty to their country even though it may be doing something awful which should be stopped.  And they stick it out  -- my country, right or wrong.  They don't take support from foreign governments. They don't flee their country.  They come out with a Truth and confront the Consequences.  Karen Silkwood  -- whistleblower.  Bradley Manning -- whistleblower.  Snowden -- self-aggrandizing, self-important, and self-deporting.  The boy needs to be turned over a knee and spanked.

Because the Truth hurts.  Now go put a bandage on it.

As the Stomach Turns....

Just a couple of stomach turning moments this week seriously racheted up my bitch levels.  First one is rather personal, so bear with me for a few paragraphs while I get this one off my chest and then I will
bite into the more public ones.
My oldest son, home on spring break from West Point, and with a fellow cadet guesting with us for a few days, his brother, dad and I were enjoying a great down-home diner-type meal at a fine culinary establishment in town. Being a small burg, a number of folks who know him, who taught him, who went to school with him -- in true classic small-town fashion, hollered greetings or waved to him as we walked in,
some motioning for him to join them at their tables for a few minutes for a brief chat. 
When he finally rejoined us, one of the town's wealthiest ranchers, vocally anti-Obama, always loudly and publicly proclaiming his partisanship, always touting his own supposed military service, always dropping names of supposedly important other rich people he knows, stopped by on his way out to announce to us all that Americans have gone and elected again A SOCIALIST.
Now I really do not care what his opinions are, nor do I give his opinions much credibility.  Having watched him over the years interact with our local officials and other parents  it is pretty evident to me that except for his having money, no one would give him the time of day.  His loud mouth, his self-insertion into other people's lives, reminds me a lot of having to deal with the babbling homeless man of the urban environrment. Or more like a political thug, lurking in the dim world of his political bubble, waiting to jump
the unwary as they go about their day.
Aside from the comedy relief aspects of his intrusion,, in a larger sense, because I realize that he is not by any means alone, I am troubled by his rudeness.  Can someone puh-leeze tell me why he feels he can intrude this way?  What on earth have I ever said to this man that gives him an invitation to choke out his putrid thoughts in my arena? It seems a peculiarity among conservatives, primarily, because I have never had anyone sit down publicly with me and loudly denouce any Republican. Ever. Even during the last years of the Bush bungle.

Fortunately, this stomach-turning insensitivity absolutely pales in comparison to the utterly revolting gutting  by Sen. Harry Reid of the Assault Weapons control aspects of any Senate gun legislation.  Good God, man!  You have the backing of nearly ninety percent of Americans, and some sixty-five percent of gun owners.  Get a frigging spine, will ya?  You cannot tell me, a gun owner in Texas, that Americans' Right to Bear Arms will keel over and die when these whiners cannot have, what is it, like SEVEN guns?
I would like to prescribe two ccs of ManTheFuckUp to our honorable Democratic Senators and
Representatives.  I  beg them all to do the right thing.

Other stomach-turning events included nearly the entire parade of clowns at CPAC. Oh man. All of them hurling up the same old vomit, all the while saying, "Look, it is kinder, gentler, more inclusive vomit."
I just have one question and would welcome just about any of the CPAC speakers to answer it:
When the Democratic Party has given us our social safetly net, access to education, access to health care, protected voter rights, WHAT EXACTLY HAVE THE REPUBLICANS GIVEN US?  Let me think,
and I am sure there are a number of things I will miss.  Hmmm.  The Iraq War. The Afghanistan War.
The Worst Economic Crises Since the Great Depression.  De-Regulation of those who authored The
WECStGD (see above).  Cutbacks in local education, local law enforcement, local health care. 

Let's look at some of the answers offered by the Republican leaders speaking at CPAC.  Sen. Rubio says our problems can be solved by "America." I have expected him to break out with West Side Story.  Rand Paul claims that its the fault of the dusty old goobers in his party.Instead of tired old racism, they need to try updated twenty first century racism. Half-Governor Palin blames Mayor Bloomberg. Trump is incomprehensible, so we'll let that go. Overall, I found myself missing Mr. Eastwood's empty chair.

I think I would rather have the flu than have this Congress. I would probably be less sick.

The truth hurts. Now go put a bandage on it.

Well, It's This Gun Thing...

Jeez, it seems like just yesterday I was pissed off at conservative rich guys, corporations and right-wing muscle.   Honestly, I really haven't had much to add to the regular ol' liberal batch of pundits's opinions, and have found it is easy to slack off when so many other folks -- much much smarter than I -- are speaking my mind just fine. In fact, it has been kind of nice to get up everyday and tune in to those few but brilliant voices, and not bother to open up my blog page and spew.  One of the side benefits is that I am less angry as well, which they tell me is good for blood pressure, overbitching, overeating and other over-ing not benificial to health or pocketbook.
But the Angry White Mom finds herself simmering lately  over the snipey stereotyping of gun owners that is currently being painted by otherwise fair and fundamentally sane people. These folks are generally of moderate and progressive perspectives, with whom I often agree. For instance, I agree that no one's right to a particular weapon supercedes another one's right to life.  Nor do I  believe anyone should have a gun unless they are licensed and registered. I certainly don't believe high-capacity magazines are covered by the Constitution. And I believe we need to close the "gun-show loophole" now, and that every prospective gun owner must pass a thorough background check.  And I strongly believe, and have contacted my elected officials on this very issue --- that the darn Congress needs to adequately fund the ATF so it can do its job, and stop neutralizing this agency with budget cuts. Recently I applauded Sen Feinstein's rebuttal to that moron Ted Cruz over his sophomoric lecture to her on the Second Amendment. And I cannot support any politician who ignores the will of the people.
Having said all that, and knowing that I do speak for many  gun owners, this morning I was listening to one of my favorite talk radio hosts who took a call from a man who was obviously passionate about more restrictive gun laws.  And, this may surprise some,  it wasn't the gun law issue that bothered me, it was the general agreement about this guy's idea that "most gun owners" (and I am paraphrasing here) want to be "George Zimmerman, to be heroes, to be the one who steps up and saves the day in their fantasy gun battle, and that is why they have to have their "toys." Someone else chimed in that guns are merely entertainment for the gun owner, a rather simplistic and condescending point of view, for sure.
Wow.   I have to speak up here. These folks are just downright wrong, in so many many ways. There are some of you who may be nodding to each other, saying "ah hah, she is from Texas, after all.  here it comes -- her true colors."
And yep, all that is absolutely true. However, bear me out.  What I think I may have to offer here is a perspective that no one is getting -- except maybe (that is maybe) Sen. Cornyn, although he stated
it in such a partisan and inept manner probably no one bothered to listen.  So here I go and I hope to hear from others who share this view.
My family are gun owners. We are no longer NRA members. But we are licensed hunters in the State of Texas. My husband has a concealed handgun carry permit and  helps teach gun safety classes regularly. I would wager quite a sum that I know far more gun owners than this caller and the studio staff combined, and I can almost guarantee that no gun owner I know regards their firearms as "toys." I know many who are active shooters, meaning they practice modern firearms regularly, and  I know many who only participate in costumed historic shoots with their antique or reproduction pieces.  I know many gun collectors who maintain  historic treasures that are part of American history, which would be lost to rust and decay if not for these firearms aficiondados.   I seriously doubt that many regard going to the range as "entertainment," although stress relief admittedly may be a motivating  factor in a gun owners' experience, much like the practice of any sport or hobby.  Nearly all the gun owners I know, and some of them are close friends, go to the gun range  for one reason -- to get better.  To be safer. To gain confidence. To learn when not to shoot. I don't know anybody who gets any kind of prurient gratification or pleasure from practicing with their firearms, but in fairness, I never would have pegged  Fox News' pundit pathetique Dick Morris as a toe-sucker, either.
But I digress down a dark road of ick, which, while fun, doesn't address the point. I would compare gun owners' satisfaction, and remember, I know quite a few,  to be similar to that of golfers' or basketball players' when they "fire" off a good "shot." Funny how those words are acceptable in certain contexts and not others.  Usually I find this  kind of hypocrisy predominant among my more conservative aquaintances.

As for that hero nonsense, I must say that this idea is really off the mark (one of those expressions, again).
Most gun owners, and this includes law enforcement, security professionals, game wardens, hunters,
and those whose jobs put them at some risk, absolutely dread having to fire a weapon at a human being. Ask them, dammit.  Ask them if they have fantasy moments of firing at another person, and chances are, they will look at you like you have grown horns. Ask someone who has had to face that
reality, and you will find little to no claim to some kind of warped or twisted "heroism."
Shame on those who accept-- and who perpetuate -- this portrait of responsible, law-abiding gun owners.
For so many of us who make our living in rural areas of our country, a gun is a necessary tool.  It is not a toy, and it is often not a choice.  Raising two boys on a prairie has presented innumerable human-wildlife
encounters, not always of the cute, fluffy kind. I have defended my children -- and as they grew older, they defended me -- from rabid skunks, vicious raccoons, nosey coyotes, and poisonous snakes, although I prefer a sharpshooter shovel for dispatching the snakes.
I would like to invite these oh-so-vocal and oh-so-knowledgeable opiners to visit me for a couple of weeks here in the wilds of North Texas -- let them step out of my front door on any given morning into a pile  of coyote shit, or have the wonderful experience of being hissed and stamped at by a skunk in your backyard at ten in the morning (in case you're wondering, skunks are nocturnal and are not seen in the day unless they are ill.) Let them be tailed by a crew of coyotes while walking to the mail box. Let them watch a pack of feral dogs cross the prairie -- we don't have dog catchers here in the hinterlands, folks.  Seriously.  Still an issue in rural twenty-first century America.

The truth hurts. Now go put a bandaid on it.

Finally: The Truth Behind Rich Guys' Hatred for Obama

First let me say categorically that I am not making this up.  The Angry White Mom is merely repeating here the actual comments made recently by a few very rich guys -- specifically Sam Zell, Leon Cooperton and Jack Welch, who no doubt speak for dozens of rich guys who just don't have the opportunity to publicly express identical perspectives.
Jack Welch gained headlines among his racist/rightest sycophants  for his Twitter comment after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the recent unemployment figures that the stats were manipulated by the Obama campaign. What idiocy. But like clockwork, first Sean Insanity Hannity picked it up, the Oxycontin Express Limbaugh ran with it,  and the next morning that bobblehead Gretchen Carlson spewed it out as if it were factual on Fox "News."
But it was Chris Matthews' attack badger interview with Welch that revealed the truth underlying
the ridiculous speculation and subsequent accusations that obsess him and his peers. It seens that what really upsets Mr. Welch about our President is that Mr. Obama doesn't suck up to the rich guys like they think he should.  Is this a racist idea?  Well, maybe, but I doubt it, since I have seen it and experienced all my life the very same thing from rich white men -- they think they are really something because they have money and they think you should think so too. They don't understand -- in fact, they are astonished --that you simply do not fall at their feet, groveling and tugging the forelock. They believe everyone should offer up some kind of obeisance, I guess while facing their bank and bowing to their fiduciary powers.
That Obama doesn't appreciate the wealthy enough was actually expressed by some rich guy named Sam Zell -- he actually stated that. Paraphrasing here, but it was something to the effect that what billionaires and millionairs need is encouragement, not criticism, from the President. Oh.  Poor thing.  His feelings are hurt because the President is conservative in his "attaboys." He also  really resents that Beyonce and JayZ have more access to the White House than his little millionaire/billionaire club.  Hey! Sam! Maybe Beyonce and JayZ are just more fun than you are? I bet they aren't whining about their share of  Obama's attention. I mean really. Grow up. You sound like a snotty sophomore not invited to a senior party.
Another robber-baron type hedgefund manager and former Obama donor Leon Cooperton offered up his really really insightful and original comparison of Obama to Hitler (really. again with the Hitler.) because he hasn't allowed Wall Street to continue to run rampant over the rest of us.
Really? You guys don' t really seem to have the facts to back you up on this one.
Like: The Stock Market doubling from 6500 when Obama took office to over 13,000 today.
Like: some 5 million private sector jobs.
Like :the extension, despite his better judgement and the massive addition to the deficit, of the Bush Tax Cuts
Like: oh forget it.
Perhaps Mr. Cooperton had some expectations in exchange for his previous support, and just didn't get the bang from his buck he feels entitled to.
But wait I remember now! these guys prefer the fact-free  Right Wing World and too often find their
views confirmed by equally off-the-wall mental giants --  their conversation becomes a poison stew without any facts to dilute the broth of foolishness.
I'm  sure they are quite comfotable there. The rest of us know however that the Truth often hurts; and sometimes needs a bandage on it.

President's Debate Performance Not as Disappointing as His Supporters'

Okay, I admit watching the first presidential debate Oct. 3 was a bit painful  but what really pisses off The Angry White Mom about the so-called "debate analysis" of the last week is the way our President's supporters have demonstrated the exact kind of spineless whining that has been the Democratic Party's
undoing so often in the past. It certainly did not deserve the kind of freak-out reaction it spawned among our most hightly paid pundits.
Actress/activist Kerry somebody (Robinson, maybe?) actually stood out among the woebegone with Bill Mahrer when she complained that media and pundits on both sides castigated Obama in 2008 for being all style, no substance, but in Wednesday's debate -- despite being unexpectedly hit full on by Romney's Etch-A-Sketch -- he was determined to keep the debate focused on substantive matters, and for this he is sand-bagged by his fellow Democrats .  Good for her for pointing this out -- that the media, -the so-called "liberal" media included, fall into the most obvious and hyperdramatic holes when they stray from
reporting to supposing.
Any good Mom knows from attending any kind of extracurricular event that while you have a stake in the game, you find yourself taking a lot of deep breaths, biting  back your sarcasm and SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM for all it's worth -- and make sure that your child, and the children of your neighbors, and most importantly, your opposition, knows that you are "right behind ya rootin' for ya" come what may.
While I may neither understand nor like the strategy, I know that their is one and the pros are sticking
with the plan. It's a lot like watching your kid play high school football. Parents may believe -- or even in some cases, know -- that the coach is an idiot. Regardless, you are best served by supporting the team itself, and keeping your doubts to yourself, especially if you want your child to be in the next game's line-up.  My sons would both tell you that this is a virtue I never was able to achieve.
But hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 -- and really all any of us have to offer is hindsight  -- so I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the strategy deployed by the Obama campaign is not indeed some
kind of "rope-a-dope" plan, as expressed by the good Rev. Al  -- primitive but easy, considering the amount of fodder Romney keeps shoveling our way.
So BUCK UP, Team Obama -- get your Game Face on. Trust me -- the President has his Game Face on and his courage "screwed to the sticking place (Henry V).   Go Hard and Go Hard until the final buzzer. Even if it hurts,  because it's the truth.  And it's okay to put a bandage on it.

I AM one of Mitt's "Those People"

You godda admit, it takes a lot these days to shock or disappoint The Angry White Mom, but i have had an epiphany that may save me hundreds of dollars in therapy co-pays, and i feel a strong obligation to pass it on in case others are feeling the same feelings I am  but somehow cannot express them. I mean, I have let go some pretty irritating stuff -- the War on Women and Children, the Welfare to Work bull shit,
the entire RNC convention, the high-pitched whine, like that of an obnoxious male mosquito, that is Reince Preibus.
 If some of you have noticed my absence from these pages, well bless you for noticing, and let me first say that part of my absence has been due to an obnoxious back injury that has been a nagging deterrent to sitting anywhere, anytime, for very long. Sorry,   But a few needles in the spine and some massive pain medications have got me upright and although my vertebrae remain painfully fragile, and my nerves are
rubbed raw,  believe me, my spine (although injured in a different way) lately also has seen a comeback and appears to be growing strong again. 
 My back I hurt by falling.  My "spine", however, that indefinable core of convictions that centers you and binds you to reality, was almost irretrievably injured last summer by a once-respected relative, who, like
presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently, characterized me as one of "those people". It shocked me.  I mean, I knew his political views were to the right of mine, but you know, he's still related... But it rocked  me to the core, because I know of absolutely nothing in my history or my life that would seem to justify his perception of me. And that perception itself was so shocking, it nearly paralyzed me psychologically  for quite some time, demanding a deeper look perhaps into my own place in this America.
But wait, I wanted to tell him. Wait a sec -- what "those people?" I have never been on welfare. Never applied for food stamps, or even a SBA loan. No grants or loans  for college --\mom and i footed the whole bill. Never applied for school lunches for the boys. Never cheated on a tax return.  My husband and I pay our property taxes on time every year.  I make sure our medical bills are paid. I have never overcharged a client.  I haven't worked full time since 2008, and did not qualify for unemployment. And so. Looking it all over, I find our family situation, and our attitudes, our values, to be failrly typical as opposed to special.  Most folks I know are just like us.  Us people.

But the term "those people" -- as sneered at us by Romney as well as my relative (and others who have been more fortunate or smarter or better connected and ultimately better off financially) it carries with it an almost sinister connotation.  You  know exactly what they mean, but its not really said out loud but instead with winks and nose-led nods of agreement, like the not-so-subtle hand gestures law enforcement uses even today to indicate a black person.  But ever ready  to help out, Romney has even listed the attributes of us "those people"  for us --- in short, we "those people" are dependent, lazy, entitled.
These days, though, "those people" who depend on the government and its entitlements, include a couple I know who have an autistic teenage son.  They are not an anecdote, or  a public relations -enhanced story but are real, hardworking Americans who pay taxes and are imminently deserving of the paltry amount of assistance the Federal Government gives the public school that their son attends to help with the cost of providing him with the best possible education despite his disability.  This, folks, is an example of one of the "Entitlements" that enrage the right. Yes. One of those freedom-gutting entitlements that "those people" get.  Really?  I seriously suggest that anyone unhappy with "entitlements" should take a look at what they are and what they are designed to accomplish before brainlessly bashing them.


I suspect Mr. Romney is disappointed because "those people" are not as accepting of his policies as he would prefer. Do I object when someone wants to devalue my Social Security and my Medicare investments (oh God, did she really just say "Investments?") --- Why I most certainly do.  Because what they want to do is not what I signed up for.  I object to their wanting to break the contract with the American people, and I find myself wondering, when they scream to "take back our country" whether they mean taking it back to the 1950s as I first suspected, or taking it back to the 1870s when successive  Congresses made it a common practice to break anyand all contracts previously made by the government with Native tribes that would give them any sort of ability to sustain themselves. I guess the Indians were the "those people" of the day.

I guess I should not complain.  After all, as one of "those people"  I find that I prefer the company.
Whether coming from the guy who claims to want my vote,  or from a relative, the words themselves are not Truth, but only symbols of the deeply contemptuous opinion revealed in their uttering. Yes, the words really do sting,  leave ugly bruises and a deep ache in the gut. Not really the kind of injuries that can easily be fixed by neurological procedures or even a bandage.  Go figure.

Through the Eyes of an Iraq War Vet...

This story is a wonderful story of patriotism, family love, kindness and the real values that The Angry White Mom believes are the values that have made this country great -- values that have paled before the Almighty Dollar. If the story has a moral to it as well, that is totally up to you to decide.
My dear friends Joel and Steph, proud parents of an Iraqi War veteran, went to visit their son and his young family in Georgia a few weeks ago, and when they returned, Stephanie blessed me with this account of their visit to the Atlantic Ocean.  Pardon the paraphrasing, because the details don't matter.  The important thing is how her son Nathan, still in his twenties after two tours of duty and injury in Iraq, sees how his actions, both military and civilian, fit into this crazy world.
Stephanie related to me how the family  -- Nathan, his wife and two young children, treated the old folks to a day at the beach, and because the surf was up, life jackets were in use among many of the beachgoers that day.  As is often the case, not everyone wanting a life jacket came prepared with one, and so there seemed to be quite a bit of sharing going on, even among strangers, so that the maximum number of folks who wanted a little security along with their frolic in the ocean surf could have it, and not have their day completely ruined by not being able to get wet.   In a quiet moment, watching this, Nathan shared with his mom that to him, that's what America is, or at least should be, and how we should think of our taxes and our entitlements.
This young Army veteran, father, husband, student and son, expressed his belief that some Americans need a life jacket now and then. And when they no longer need it, they throw it back to the next floundering American. The problem seems to be with some Americans who either want to keep their life jackets for themselves long after they finish swimming, and with those who don't bother to pass along a life jacket to a waiting swimmer and simply throw it away. And then there are those who just tear the thing up so no one can claim any benefit.
I am not going to go on and on about how this analogy speaks to so much of what is happening in our country today.  Remember studying analogies in high school?  You  either get it or you don't.
Our politicians either get it or they don't.  Clearly, some of our more conservative party leaders just do not get it.  They are still convinced that Wall Street and the top 2% income earners need their lifejackets. And the bankers and brokers are hanging on to those lifejackets with all their might, so focused on keeping them that they totally miss the fact they are only ankle deep in water. Meanwhile, the rest of us are barely keeping our heads above the waves.
We have an entire generation wanting to tear down the nation's institutions that have strengthened our country.  They want to sell off our infrastructure  (check out Right Wing Darling Rick Perry's slick and so far successful assault on Texas's rural population transportation facilities.  And a side note here:  Ever driven in Oklahoma?  They don't take federal highway dollars for the state's portion of the Interstate Highway system -- you know, the interstates established by that ol' liberal/socialist President Dwight D. Eisenhower -- so Oklahoma collects tolls from the travelers along the way to cover maintenance and other expenses. Simply put, the roads suck. They really need a lifejacket, but Oklahomans have torn the damn thing up!) privatize our military (although conservatives would never admit it, take a look at all the money American tax payers spent in Iraq on Halliburton and Blackwater.  If someone put a pencil to it, the falsely substantiated Iraq War under the Bush Administration probably demonstrates the largest transfer of public dollars into private hands ever in the history of the world.), and socially engineer our population (this country's  health care system already ensures that the poor and complected are the first to die for lack of access to regular and preventive healthcare. Any attempt to correct this inexcusable vacuum is invariably met with a raucous chorus from the right shouting socialism and other nonsense.  I always wondered if these brilliant "business owners" ever figured out that healthy workers work harder when they aren't sick and sore? Ya think?)

I think they are afraid. Afraid of the ocean, afraid of the sand, afraid of giving up their life jackets. They are getting old, and other than some of the world's best Rock and Roll,  they really did not accomplish much as a generation.  The battles they waged, against Hitler, against the Soviet Union,   they actually fought from the sidelines cheering on as  the generation before them dived headlong into the fray.  My parents' generation -- this sell-off, do-nothing, name-calling generation was handed everything they needed to focus on making money, and making our lives better, and now they cannot bring themselves to hand it off to the next guy, because they are afraid. They are afraid of everything, from Communism to Climate Change. Insecurity and the inability to see beyond their bankbook, incompetence and indifference plague my parents' generation, yet these are the very life jackets that they cling to, terrified of the current that can carry them to a greater good.  Sad really
And like the old saying goes "Misery Loves Company"  -- this generation is determined to spread their fear
among an otherwise hopeful and optimistic populace. Scott Walker, Rand Paul, Eric "America Can't" Cantor -- this group is infected with almost the same fear -- the fear that lifejackets don't work.  In the face of historical fact, scientific proof and demonstrable evidence, these guys seriously want to tear up all the lifejackets for everybody just because they deny their effectiveness. Well, they seem to be saying, "They don't save everybody from drowning, so let's just pitch the whole batch."   In sharp contrast to that narrow and rather gloomy perspective , most people in my generation and younger -- like Nathan --  still believe that Americans can do better than we have before -- on the environment, in medicine, on education, with the poor.  We may not have the answers, and we know we still have to swim to get there. But the goals are still there and the achievements are still possible.  Maybe someone will throw a life jacket our way, to make it a little easier.
Just so you know, the Angry White Mom is still treading water.

The Truth hurts.  Now go put a bandage on it. Waterproof this time.

FOX NEWS EVEN GETS THE SMART ONES

One of my more respectable, ahem, associates called The Angry White Mom a "socialist" the other day. Well, what he actually said was that I was "pretty much a socialist."  Same thing. I admit that it caught me a bit off balance momentarily because the person calling me a socialist knows better. Or should know better. And he knows I know better. And he knows I know he should know better. He should know that I know that Socialism is an economic system in which the government owns or directly controls the means and materials for major manufacture or industry.  I would say that the US, where the truth is that some eighty percent of the country's wealth is in the hands of fewer that 180,000 people, is a long, long, long way from being very socialist.
 He must have forgotten that I am well informed in economic history, and I have a degree in business, too, and that I know what no conservative in America wants Americans to know, and that is simply that Trickle Down Economics, sometimes called Reagan Economics (and Voodoo economics by his one-time competitor George HW Bush until GHWB was selected as Reagan's VP. What price truth...) which is what Republicans in Congress and all over the country support -- the idea that low taxes on the wealthy stimulates the economy because the money they do not have to pay the government is invested in the economy. This is the first BIG LIE.  It does not work. It has never worked.  In fact, history demonstrates over and over again how that system creates unsustainable growth that eventually plummets.  Like in 1929.  And in 1987.  And in 1991.  And gee, again in 2000. And, after nearly a decade of  decreased taxes on the most wealthy, again in 2008. Go ahead. check these dates out.  You will find that when taxes get cut below a certain level we get a recession of varying degrees.  Go ahead.  Look it up. And you will know better, too.

My name-calling friend also knows, and I know, and I hope he now knows that I know the country is not broke.  There is lots and lots of money in the banks across the country, and he knows that.  What folks don't know is that the banks are squeezing this money like a man with bad case of diarrhea clamping his asshole, and because the interest rates they could charge folks for borrowing it would be so low that the money made from lending just isn't worth their tight-assed time.

Now the really sad part is that I also know, and he knows that I know, that he gets his news primarily from Fox News. And this is sooooo disappointing, because I thought he was smarter than that.  How do I now know? Because Jon Stewart and The Daily Show did us a big favor by compiling twenty or so BIG LIES spread by Fox News --not solely, but primarily -- determined to be BIG LIES by the independent research source Politifact.com.  And nestled there among the BIG LIES was one or two arguments he had tried with me. You can go back and see previous blogs if you're that interested, but briefly the BIG LIES he repeated as facts to me first concerned the complete and total fabrication that fewer than 10% of Obama's appointeesever worked in the private sector.  BIG LIE.
Another complete pile of doodoo concerned the idea that the Democrats had concocted "the largest tax hike
in American history."  Well you can go back to my previous blog to see my reaction to that as well. BIG LIE.

Now Politifact.com rated Mr. Stewart's statement to one-time journalist and current Fox News anchor Mike Wallace that (and I am paraphrasing here) Fox News viewers consistently ranked last in grasping the facts
of current news stories.  Mr. Stewart apparently was wrong. Instead, according to Politifact, Fox News viewers consistently rank only "near the bottom."  Oh I see the distinction. "Last" as opposed to merely "near the bottom." Now we know. 

Now I don't know about you, but I always thought that The Daily Show was a COMEDY show, not a news broadcast.  I did not realize that comedians are held to the same high standards of factual discrimination that supposed news reporters and journalists.  I mean come on. The Daily Show is on the Comedy Channel, fugoshsakes, and Fox News is Fox NEWS. Bob Hope would never have been so popular with the troops if he had just repeated what Walter Cronkite said. And you know, The Angry White Mom actually minored in journalism in college, and although it was a millenium ago I can still remember getting bad marks if we made statements not based in fact. For statements we could not attribute.  For statements that were not verifiable.  For statements... but I digress. Clearly Fox "News" sets its own standards.

Now seriously I would like to address the "socialist charge." I will admit to really, really liking some of the socialism -based things we do have in this wonderful country of ours.  Like public schools and public hospitals.  Like roads, bridges, dams and water-treatment plants.  Like fire stations and trash collection. Like parks, and wildlife sanctuaries, and forests that belong to all of us; like free trade between individual states, like regulations that make sure my water, my air, my soil, my food, my medicine and stuff I buy is reasonably free of stuff that will hurt me.  If that is socialism, sign my ass up. Now you know.

To me it is sooo very interesting that the very generation that suffered the very worst economic depression in our history was the very generation that BUILT America.  They BUILT the Hoover Dam. The Grand Cooley
Dam.  The Tennessee Valley Authority.  The Interstate Highway system.  Our public schools.  Many of our public hospitals. Plus they fought a world war.  Beat polio and smallpox. Went to the Moon.
The next generation, this name-calling generation, they directly benefitted from all the public schools, hospital care, vaccinations, flouride. They have directly benefitted the very most from the educational and financial opportunties created in those following years. The vast majority of the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of this particular demographic.   And yet at the same time they are the ones calling these  systems "Broke" and "Dysfunctional," and this really really funny one "job-destroying," and they want to tear them down, get rid of the public schools, banking regulations, the EPA, ad nauseum-- with little or no plans for anything to replace them.

 It reminds me so much of these grand old houses we see out here on the prairie. Where one generation, my grandparents' generation built up the barn and the house, now their children have given up on the old homestead, allowing it to fall apart by not re-investing in its upkeep or simply by tearing it down.  They grew up in it, lived in it, had the advantage of their own kids growing up there, and now because is it old and perhaps needs an upgrade or two to bring it into the modern era, now it has no more value to them. Sad.

Well now you know.

The Truth Hurts. So go put a bandage on it.

Real Americans Pay Their Taxes

Instead  of publishing the last post when I wrote it, i mistakenly sent a picture of it's private parts to someone i barely know.   Go figure.Sorry about that.

So I am really angry about this tax nonsense.  When i started my first business, years and years ago, I had to pay quarterly tax estimates on my projected income.  It was just one of those things I did when I decided to be a grown up and try to make my own way in this world. To tell the truth, it gave me a great feeling inside when i wrote that check -- because I felt paying taxes was a mark of success in America.  I felt my efforts were paying off, for me and for the country that gave me the freedom to be in business in the first place.

My husband and I just paid our 2010  taxes.  Despite deep cuts in our personal revenue, we paid a lot more this year than usual, a fact that is completely unrelated to the current Administration, but has more to do with losing our oldest son as a dependent (the Army has him now) and our own bad decisions.  As i looked over the tax return prepared for us by the absolute best accountant in the world I realized that what we pay in taxes annually is significantly lower than what I used to pay quarterly.  Curious about that, I started to look some things up, and what i found out is absolutely infuriating. 

What I found out is that Americans in all tax brackets pay fewer income taxes now than at any time since 1950.  I found out that we pay fewer taxes than any other industrialized country. I found out that some $2.8 BILLION dollars of our national debt is due to the ten years of Bush Tax Cuts that were SUPPOSED TO stimulate the US economy after 9-11.  These tax cuts DID NOT achieve this goal, and we have a decade of historic evidence that demonstrates clearly that deep cuts in revenue lead to an economic downturn. Remember the recession of 2008?  Remember the automobile industry nearly cratering in 2008?  That was the reason for the TARP legislation, the first economic stimulus package put out by the Bush Administration just before they all scurrried over to Fox News and began blaming the Obama Administration for the country's economic woes.

I also found out that folks who make a million dollars a year or MORE  (they MAKE a million a year, not just are WORTH a million dollars, please get that distinction) pay only 35% -- that is less than the average small business owner pays on the income from his business--- what the hell is that about? And you know, because they too, have wonderful accountants, that what they actually pay is much much less.  I mean, gee,
GE paid NO TAXES in 2010.  The biggest corporation in the country. No taxes.  Hmmmm.

I was always brought up to believe that those of us who are blessed and have been given a lot -- we have a  responsibility equal to our blessings to contribute to the greater good.  I don't think this is a particularly Christian idea, since my Dad is the one who drilled this expectation into me, and he was not at all religious. He was, however, extremely conservative. In fact as my mom says, his views were often "to the right of Attila the Hun." I don't think it is a Christian tenet because I don't know any of the loudmouth so-called Christian leaders such as that snotty little Ralph Reed, that hypocrite Rev. Huckabee or that stupid starstruck Sarah Palin promote any such idea.I  have never heard any Christian leader, except black ones, in fact, call for us to contribute anything more than prayers for the poor.   In fact, i am pretty sure, since they don't really understand what socialism is, that they would label it such anathema. And let me tell you from experience, bubba, when I was broke and a paycheck from being on the street, I certainly did not need or welcome your goddam prayers. A crisp benjamin, however, would have been appreciated.

Let me spell it out for those of you who still do not get it.
In our family, we have experienced a revenue drop.  This means that since i have not had a full time job since 2009, we cannot buy the things we want and in some cases need (my microwave has been on the fritz for a year), go on vacation, spend cash on little things like restaurants, movies, clothing, doctor visits, dental appointments, and other minor matters.  So we are putting less cash into the economy. Our grocery store makes less. The movie theater makes less.  Our dentist makes less. And they pay fewer taxes because their revenue is less.  And the economy slows down.

Now when the government cuts its own revenue by giving tax cuts to those who do not need that money to
spend in the economy (facts show that this money IS NOT INVESTED, but cached -- forgive the pun)
then it follows that the things that are needed -- healthcare, roads, schools -- those things will not get
the money they need to flourish. Keep in mind, too, that it is people -- small business people mostly -- who are providing the healthcare, building the roads and schools and teaching and caring for our children and our elderly.

We know (at least those of us who have been paying attention in addition to our taxes) that the Republican plan for cutting revenue does not stimulate the economy.  Just look at the result of the Bush years. And stop blaming the black guy. 

The truth is that Republicans since Reagan have tried to strangle government with this crazy nonsense about taxes. And they are succeeding.  Just look at the unfounded attacks on government workers' rights. 
Hey, Wisconsin' Walker and Ohio's Kasich  and any other stupid governor who is paying attention-- Texas is a so-called "right to work" state (meaning state employees have no bargaining rights) and we still  are in deep kimchee right now-- looking at cutting some 330,000 state workers -- my husband's park staff among them.
Reagan called it "trickle down" and his primary opponent George Bush called it, more accurately, "voodoo
economics."  Clearly in 1980  Bush had not yet been inculcated into the Republican Plan.  His son, however, did more to accomplish the destruction of our government than he will ever acknowledge.

Real Americans pay taxes. Because we want health care, elder care, childcare, roads, schools, fire stations, libraries, parks, museums, and a strong military. We need those things.  We do not need whiny self-righteous
millionaires and billionaires complaining about their tax bills.  It is time for them to step up and pay their fair share.

Patriots, pay your taxes!

The Truth Hurts.  Now go put a bandage on it.

Well, well. April Fools.

Okay, now this little item that has been in the news lately (except NBC, a subsidiary of the gross offender)  has got me really really really furious. Its this GE thing -- about them being one of the richest
corporations in our country and they pay no taxes.  Right.  No taxes.  None. Zero. Let that sink in.
Now i am certainly not accusing GE of anything illegal.  I'm certainly not qualified to advise or dispute tax law or even higher accountancy.  But there is something sick and disturbing about GE's ability  -- and no doubt hundreds of so-called "American" companies as well -- to to manipulate and massage an already unfair tax code to the end result of feeding  such blatant greed -- profits well above anything reasonable for reinvestment (not happening, by the way) and a bit on top for investors' risk and continued good faith.
But no.  It's a winner take all attitude in the business world, me bucko, and only those with money to begin with can play.
Does'nt it strike anyone else as ironic that large corporations had the biggest profit in years this past quarter? At a time when corporations are laying off folks nd stupid politicians are blaming public employees for our nation's overall decline in everything from math and reading to the crumbling state of our bridges, dams and roads,  and huge budget deficits because they have demanded a decent wage for doing the nation's dirty work. Curious. But not criminal. Curious because these pols' attitudes do not even meet a moral challenge
by their so-called Christian Values Constituency.  To them all, it seems perfectly acceptable to ignore the "camel through a needle's eye" admonition,  and place far more importance on an imaginary ledger than on people's lives and livelihoods.
Clearly the pockets of these politicians such as Walker and Kasich, Christie and Pence and Cornyn and --
I don't have time to name them all, but you get the drift -- clearly their pockets are filled with corporate cash.
They no more have the best interests of the average American at heart than al Qaeda.
But here, for me, is the ultimate kicker.  The head of GE, the biggest offender in this corporate greed-fest, has now been named by President Obama as one of his closest business advisors. What a shocker for us
who thought that fairness and integrity would be among the criteria for a presidential advisor.  My hope is that this situation is more of a "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer" type of relationship. C'mon, Mr. President, do you really think you can work with people of no conscience?  Recently I heard a Libyan
refugee say that even the Libyan community has a saying about Republicans -- "they have the intellect of Bush, the moral integrity of Berlesconi, and the heart of Putin."  After I finished laughing, I wrote that one down.

The Truth Hurst. Now go put a bandage on it.