For those of us in California, now a solid "Blue State", our votes affect only the national total. It's all about the Electoral College as usual. So this diatribe is probably of little relevance to you. In fact it now seems like it's all about Ohio. I haven't posted in a long time. There are already too many opinions and too much BS out there already. My inbox is packed with it daily. But, nevertheless, I just felt compelled to make one final statement before the election.
These presidential elections now boil down to criminally expensive TV-driven propaganda
wars with each side trying to outdo the other in emotive nastiness as
they a chase a sliver of poorly informed easily manipulated 'swing
voters' who happen to live in crucial 'swing States.' It's a sorry
spectacle and it's hella expensive. Thanks to a corporatist Supreme
Court, unlimited money from wherever can now flood in, and
has. So the Democrats are stuck with a 24/7 around the clock plea for
bucks to counter the gushers going to the Republicans. Is a dangerous situation. The Senate could go Repub, the House
will probably stay Repub. But will the tag team of Romney and Ryan weasel
their way into the Oval Office? Remember that thousands of voting
precincts are controlled by Repubs. This includes deciding how many voting
machines are available in each precinct as well as managing the computers that
tabulates the votes. Much monkey business has happened in each election from 2000 on.
But they can only pull off 'fast ones' in close races. Unfortunately
many keys races are close including the Presidential race.
Much has been written about Obama's performance in his first term. But even if you think
Obama did not perform as he could or should have, please don't
fucking vote for Romney/Ryan. If can't stand Obama, just don't vote at all. Stay home.
The Republicans are very bad news.
Here are some well
documented blunders by past Republican administrations:
- 1968: Richard Nixon (Republican) in his campaign against Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) lied about having a “secret” plan to end the Viet Nam War (sound familiar). Once in Nixon expanded the war into all of Indochina, and it didn't end until 1975.
- Then in 1974 Nixon was forced to resign, the only President in US history who has suffered that infamy. He was caught up in a swirling scandal that involving a failed attempt into break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Ultimately 43 staff members resigned or were incarcerated. His VP Spiro Agnew was also forced to resign on corruption charges independent of the Watergate scandal
- In the 1980s Ronald Reagan's introduced something called 'supply side' economic, which says in theory tax cuts will more than pay for themselves due to the increased economic activity they will generate. It didn't work. The massive tax cuts along side a large military buildup led to the largest peace time deficit in American history (yet perversely Reagan remains a saint to the now devoutly deficit-adverse Repubs. Go figure!)
- 1986: Under Ronald Reagan the Iran Contra scandal broke. High level operatives in the Reagan Administration were caught selling embargoed arms to Iran (yes Iran was our arch enemy back then, too) and using the money to break Federal law and fund the anti-Sandinista Contras. Also, during that time other wars in Guatemala and El Salvador funded by the US (as “foreign aid”) led to wholesale carnage throughout Central America.
- In 2000-2008 (Republican) George W. Bush's policies not only erased the (Democrat) Bill Clinton's balanced budget but drove the deficit through the roof, again employing discredited “supply side' economic theory. The deficit under Bush was pushed well beyond Reagan's monumental figure with two unfunded wars, massive tax cuts especially for the wealthy and the irresponsible Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.
- Then in 2008 just as GW Bush's term was about to expire, the worse recession in 80 years began to unfold. It was left for the incoming (Democratic) Obama Administration to confront.
- Then from 2008-2012 Repubs in Congress preceded to make sure any conventional counter cyclical policy proposed by the Obama and the Democrats was either blocked (using a record number of filibusters) or watered down. Goal: to assure the economy would still be sour come reelection time.
These are indisputable
facts. What is so amazing is that the Republicans Party is even
still in business at all and has not gone the way of the Whigs. They
should have been laughed out of town years ago. Everything they touch
turns to shit. Their main ace in the hole has been pro gun ownership (read: pro
automatic weapon ownership) where the US leads the world in gun
related deaths. And even more importantly their demagogic, opportunistic and irrational
anti-tax stance no matter what. Of course everyone hates
taxes, duh! It's like being opposed to mortality. And even their moralistic stance on being opposed to abortion has now been
exposed as being also opposed to birth control which
essentially means they are against non procreational sex in or out of
marriage. Their nutzo! And yet they have a good chance
of taking over all three branches of the Federal government –
legislative, executive and judicial.
Either hold your nose and
vote for Obama or don't vote at all. BUT PLEASE DON'T BE
STUPID. DON'T VOTE IN THESE DANGEROUS CLOWNS.
