Marketing Failure As Success

Fareed Zakaria's GPS program this morning said it best.
Link here: https://www.arcamax.com/politics/fromtheleft/fareedzakaria/s-2084130
"Trump's true talent is marketing failure as success"

I really cannot add anything more than Fareed's succinct summary here.

Why Umerikuns fall for this immoral, misogynistic, sophomoric, bombastic, uncurious, ignorant, narcissistic, illiterate, con man's rhetoric, is beyond my comprehension.

Perfect for Today

I saw this on the book face earlier today, and I've been thinking about how appropriate it is all day.

Sad that in my life time, this 'democracy' has empowered the worst among us.

Maybe something good will come out of this misappropriation of hopeful-but-misinformed-quasi-populist protest vote... like #MeToo, or equal pay for women, or awareness of how Oprah is actually a billionaire while Drumpf is a charlatan thrice bankrupt, thrice divorced, who preys upon his rivals' wives and the worst fears of easily manipulated Umerikuns.

Zobaczymy

Go FCC Yourself!

gofccyourself.com

Last Sunday night, John Oliver on Last Week Tonight reminded all internet users - left wing, right wing, trolls, white hats, black hats, everyone - how important Net Neutrality is, and how the newly appointed FCC commissioner Ajit Pay wants to reverse the Net Neutrality rules put into place during the Obama administration.  You see, Pai (pronounced 3.141592654), a former Verizon lawyer,  is an ideologue who believes that  "the more you regulate something, the less of it you get".  What he doesn't understand is that Title I and Title II of the FCC Net Neutrality rules, are not trying to regulate free and unfettered access to the internet, No, Not At All.  What they are trying to regulate is that internet service providers (ISPs) cannot scale back, throttle down your speed, in favor of their own content that may be competing with what you wanted to watch / see / download on the expensive and slow internet connection you have in America, land of the gouging ISPs [Asia's and Europe's ISPs are far better, faster, less expensive, and have multiple choices for hard wired as well as WiFi, while in America we're stuck with basically 5 monopolies who put their customers last].

"Why does this affect me?" you might ask?  Well, if you use an internet connection, it can and will affect you.

The most basic, simple example is as follows:  Say you want to download a show, and binge watch the whole season of it some Friday or Saturday, from Netflix or Amazon.  BUT, you have Comcast as your ISP... and Comcast has a series that is Similar to what you wanted to download and watch, so Comcast could then Easily reduce your download speed (loading.... loading....) for your Netflix or Amazon show while opening up extra fast-pass lanes for their own Comcast series that they want everyone to watch instead.  Your download becomes so frustratingly slow, that you search for something else... and your ISP (who knows that you were Just trying to download one of their competitor's products) SUGGESTS you watch their own 'original content series" instead.

Evil.  Despicable.  Enraging.  Yes.

And it is not just movies.  The same can be said for songs, youtube videos, live streaming, anything that requires data transfer, into and out of your home, your office, your mobile telephone, your iPad.  You THINK you're paying for 30 Gig a minute, or 100 Gig a minute, but every time you test it on a bench mark site, you find that it is 1/10th that speed for downloads... because you're not downloading the "recommended content" that your ISP wants you to see, is pushing at you, promoting to you, and making money from providing to you.

So John Oliver recounted how the first time Last Week Tonight did this 3 years ago, that they crashed the FCC website in minutes once the show aired.  And Oliver went on to state how TODAY, for this new period of public comment, the FCC has made it Much Harder to make comments on their website, requiring a multi-step search and entry process, one which Last Week Tonight streamlined by buying the URL gofccyourself.com - witty, hilarious, and most importantly, Easy to Remember.

So before I started this post this afternoon, I tried out the link.  You have to enter in your name, address, and phone number (perhaps for the re-education camps that 45 will implement in the future?) ... and you have to click on the     "+ Express" blue button on the top right of the page once it loads.  --------------------------------------------->>>>>>>

gofccyourself.com

But then you can write in, how you feel about having your internet speed reduced just because of your ISP monopoly's desire to push preferred content at you, instead of what you want to watch, see, hear, read about, download, upload, or enjoy.

For an example of what you could say, I have partially excerpted my entry here, to help spur creative ideas and other responses:

"Title 1 and Title 2 were created TO REDUCE or make it harder for ISPs to throttle, slow down, and give preferential treatment to content.  Ajit Pai is right when he says "if you regulate something, you don't get more of it, you get less of it". Exactly, Regulate ISPs who throttle content and slow down their competitors.  Get rid of Title 2, and throttling will become rampant, common place, ubiquitous.  Pai is right, but in the opposite way his idealogical mind thinks.  "

You can cut and paste mine, if you like, or create your own version.  But I encourage you, regardless of what part of the political spectrum you believe you are most closely aligned, to make your voice heard.  ISPs want to throttle EVERYONE down, to reduce our already slow American internet speeds even further, and promote their own ISP content preferentially.  This affects EVERYONE who uses the internet in America, except perhaps for ISP executives who have fiber optic nodes installed in their homes and who self-exempt from the throttling.

Take 5 or 10 minutes out of your day today or tomorrow, and let your voice be heard.

gofccyourself.com

Tanks And Missel Launchers? No

This is my first post of 2017, and the first one of my 51st year on this planet.  The more I read and hear, I am seriously starting to doubt that we'll make it to my 55th year as a sane, relatively radioactive fall-out free, global community, since nationalism, isolationism, hawkish saber rattling, and ignorance are on a steep rise not just in the United States, but around the world.

I was driving from Greenville SC to Atlanta today, down I-85, listening to NPR (on Album 88) when Wait Wait Don't Tell me came on.  I always enjoy Wait Wait, and I was shocked as I drove through pouring rain to hear on the radio show, that the Drumpf inaugural planners requested that the US Army send armored vehicles, tanks, and missile launchers, for a Red Square, Kremlin style parade in Washington DC.  WTF?  Yes, Drumpf, show us your cards early please.  We know you admire dictators who hold such parades, and you so much wanna be one too... but thankfully, the US Army said 'No, our armored vehicles are too heavy, and they will damage Washington DC streets'.  I hope the US Military continues to put a check on Drumpf's desires.

Link to San Diego Union-Tribune article on the same:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/the-intel/sd-me-trump-parade-20170120-story.html

Link to The Hill Article on the same:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/315184-trump-team-wanted-tanks-missile-launchers-in-parade-report

Link to the Washington Post's report on the same:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/01/18/trump-proposes-military-parades-in-dc/

Wow.  What an idiot the vast majority of White Umerika elected, out of fear of being governed by a woman; out of a misplaced hatred of crony capitalism (yes, Drumpf has surrounded himself with millionaires and billionaires... common folk, like you and I); out of a misplaced hatred and fear of immigrants who have built this country, and minorities who they've successfully oppressed for centuries; out of a backlash against one of the coolest, most compassionate, best presidents we've ever had who just happened to be 1/2 black.  I spent Thursday and Friday in Greenville SC listening to my co-workers' stretched justifications of why they voted for Drumpf.  Total fabricated BS. "Who would look better in photos on the beach, Ivanka, or Hillary?"  Well, Drumpf's incestuous lover and advisor, of course... but that's no reason to vote for her father.

Soon, Frank Underwood (er.. I mean Mike Pence) will work with Ryan and McConnell to impeach Drumpf for his connections with Putin under the Alien & Sedition act of 1798, and then President Pence can do to the US what he did to Indiana - make it unfriendly to LGBTQ citizens, forced ultrasounds for abortions, gut medicaid, privatize as many state functions as possible (like prisons, toll roads for example), punish blue voting districts (like Lake County, where I grew up), and drive the economy into the ground, Kansas Brownback style.  I doubt I'll be posting much of anything once that happens... since it'll probably wind me up in a privatized federal prison if I do speak out against the state.

On a strange note... my "page visits" to JustJoeP have gone up 10X since the November 2016 election.  I used to get 50 or 60 hits on any single entry.  I now have over 500 hits each on the mere 3 postings I did in November...  Five Hundred and Fifty, for some of them.  That's noteworthy.

Go Falcons.  Thank you for beating Green Bay.  Cheaters from New England should never be victorious as long as they retain their despicable unpatriotic coach. (it's my blog - if you don't like it... don't visit it; and yes, comments are regulated.  Inarticulately attack me or rant against me, and your comments will be published and mocked accordingly).  If you are from New England, I understand why you would root for your local team, tribalism... we are all subject to it.  Same with Green Bay.  If you're not from those places, and you've chosen to root for them... keep in mind that the Patriots have cheated long before deflate-gate was a thing.  The Packers...  well... they keep picking really talented QBs, while the rest of the NFC central/north founders year after year.   I still blame GB defensive player Charles Martin for ending Jim McMahon's career early with a totally unnecessary and egregious late hit in 1986... but he died in 2005 at the early age of 45 from kidney failure, so perhaps karma does work.  That's brutal, yes, but McMahon could have led the Bears to multiple titles just as Favre and Rodgers have done, if his throwing arm was not ruined by Martin.

Waking Up to a Non Fact Based World

On Tuesday night, November 8th, I was very disappointed by the preliminary national election results coming in that I went to bed hopeful.  Hopeful that I'd wake up to a new brighter November 9th, along with my other fact-based fellow US citizens.

Instead, I woke up to the realization that the White Walkers (aka the Walking Ignorant) have chosen not only the most unqualified candidate for POTUS in the history of our democracy, but also a majority (54 of 100) Republican senators who
- will approve SCOTUS nominations be more like Thomas and Scalia
- deny climate change exists
- believe that women should make 76 cents on the dollar that a man makes
- like pre-existing conditions and denied health care, when they'll finally repeal the Affordable Care Act
- want the United States to look more like the failed state of Kansas than the flourishing Republic of California
- want their wives and daughters to be 9s or 10s and that it's fine to "grab them by the pussy" when they have celebrity status
and...
- who do not care about actual facts. Facts, verified and authenticated, not Brietbarted, not trumped up, not delusional and paranoid fabrications.

The Down Jones has plummeted 750 points in less than a day as I write this last posting.  There's no sense or use in worrying or hand wringing.  All I, my family, and my friends who live in a fact based world can do now is endure the next 2 years, and then the next 2 after that.

I'll be advocating that the Republic of California build a wall on our Eastern Border, to stop the influx of non-fact based immigrants who embraced Breitbart and Infowars over Politifact and Snopes (and The Guardian, and The Economist, and every reputable media outlet and fact checking source on the planet).

And since history has proven that fascist regimens and the masses who support them are unkind to journalists, intellectuals, and others who live in a fact based world, this will be my last JustJoeP posting of the year.  Perhaps the last one ever, as there's really no sense to shouting into a hurricane's wind anymore.  The vast majority reject the facts I present, and it just makes my voice hoarse over time.  Mike Judge's prescient film Idiocracy and Scott Adams' predictions almost a year ago were more accurate than any logical, fact-based citizen of the world were willing to believe.  Heck, even Michael Moore - who is often incredible hyperbolic - was accurate in his Trumpland predictions.

The White Walkers have won for a generation.  Winter's not coming... Winter is here, already.  It arrived November 9th, 2016.  America, you had a pretty good run... 240 years.  Now, it's the Chinese's turn I guess.  Commenting further here will only damage my and my family's best interests, so with a heavy heart, I say good bye to blogging and social media.  My real friends, those who live in a fact based world, still know how to reach me.

Adieu.

Same As It Ever Was, Same As It Ever Was

I turned on MSNBC yesterday afternoon for a moment, before I headed out to go do yoga at the beach, and saw Steve Kornacki present the two graphics below:

These two survey poll results make it extremely clear, how American progressives are optimistic, improving, and growing, while 1950s focused American conservatives long to go back in time (member berries),
- before civil rights legislation passed and became enforceable in all 50 states
- before the EPA existed,
- before Germany and Japan rose up from the rubble of WWII to become economic rivals,
- back to the cold war & fear of Armageddon,
- back when LGBT citizens were treated as outcasts by 99% of Umerikuns,
- back when cigarette smoking in public was ubiquitous,
- back when drunk driving was a sport instead of a felony
- back to when you could fire a woman for becoming pregnant if she was not married
- back to when housing & finance discrimination against minorities was standard practice
- back to when Ike deported a million Latin Americans in "Operation Wet Back"
- back to when there were poll taxes and literacy tests to be able to vote

... yeah, a "simpler era" ... for simple minded people, who abhor change, and who are fiercely clinging to their guns & religion & 'majority white paradigm'.  Those who want all the benefits of living in a free Democracy, while having smooth roads to drive on, fast internet to access, reliable electric power, clean water to drink, a clean ocean to swim in, a bucolic landscape in which to hunt, free land on which to graze their cattle, and a strong army to defend them, without paying any taxes or having any convenience to their own personal preferences and desires.

Count me in the 70% of "it's getting better".  I'm still not a huge fan of any of the 4 candidates running for PUSA, but I will be voting for the woman most likely to defeat and contain the threat of a megalomaniacal narcissist who constantly lies & fabricates his own reality from taking over the Executive branch of our government.  The fossils of the 72% will eventually go extinct.

Complete Meltdown & Sedition

Last night, as I was grilling, and then eating my grass fed, hormone free rib eye with wild chanterelles (found at COSTCO for a reasonable price) I tried to watch the 3rd, and final US Presidential "debate".   I found myself growing increasingly upset by the lies and denials that the orange reality TV show host kept spewing, so I turned to baseball and enjoyed watching my favorite, the under-dog Cubs trounce the LA Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Then the DVR reminded me that South Park was about to record, and the channel needed to automatically change (I have a 2-at-a-time DVR, not one of the new fancy 8-at-a-time recorders).  Matt & Trey once again beautifully captured the essence of current events in America with their portrayal of Candidate Garrison doing his darnedest to lose and get out of the US Presidential race.  The "meltdown" that Garrison had, complete with orange toner running off him in the rain, was much funnier than the meltdown Drumpf (his real name... own it, don't try to hide it Donald) had on national television last night.

When Fox "News" anchor Chris Wallace tried to get Drumpf to back down on his statement that he would not accept a loss on November 8th and that he would continue to stoke the seditious flames of violent insurrection, with Chris's "But sir..." soft ball question reiterated in the most basic way possible that everyone in America could understand, Drumpf, Putin's puppet, doubled down on his "we'll see, I'll keep you in suspense."

While Drumpf kept talking about how he believes Hillary Clinton should go to federal prison "for 5 years", what he doesn't realize is that inciting Sedition is a violation of federal law, punishable by 20 years in prison; link here: 18 US Code Chapter 115, sections 2381 -  2385  (Thanks Cornell Law School!)   And the more he keeps encouraging the worst of Umerika to intimidate polling places in inner cities (also a federal crime), and reject the free and fair election results in all 50 states, the more he's paving a straight path towards federal prison for himself and his surrogates who repeat his dangerous and violent call to arms.

The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail is often very funny.  Drumpf's meltdown is really sad and pathetic.  The United States needs a viable 2 party (or three...  someday...?) system to function correctly.  Drumpf's nilhilistic attempt at destroying everything shows just what a sad little boy he really is.

If you don't think last night's "debate" was a meltdown, read the 'extremely liberal' links here:
National Catholic Reporter:  https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/trumps-meltdown-third-debate
WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/articles/presidential-debate-after-a-sedate-start-donald-trump-takes-the-bait-1476932103
National Review:  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/441240/trump-owns-his-trumpiness

Last Weekend's Epiphany on The South

Last weekend, Dr Desert Flower and I went down the hill on Alga Road to go see Free State of Jones at the Cinépolis in Carlsbad.  It exceeded expectations, despite what the critics on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes say, it was a great film that shined a light on the racist, bigoted, arcane & persecutory laws & culture engrained in The South - in this case Mississippi.  McConaughey was great in it, but so were Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and a host of other excellent actors.  Having lived 16 years of my life in South Carolina, I can talk about how it felt, what I heard, and what I saw when I lived there... I'm not an outsider who never lived nor experienced the hatred and bigotry in the work place, in public places, and in conversations about it with my friends and co-workers who were trying to rise above the ugly, despicable, evil past that ensconced The South before, during, and after the Civil War, and still lives and breathes today (sorry SCOTUS, racism and bigotry are NOT dead even after we elected a black President; they're still alive and well in many parts of The South.

Then, when we got home after the movie, we watched Bryan Cranston in the HBO movie All the Way, where he portrayed LBJ accurately.  The movie portrayed the hatred and bigotry of The South (again, Mississippi leading the way... but other Southern States agreed with them) very accurately as well.  Not only was it well acted, but well written, nuanced, well researched, and well directed.

After watching both of these films so close together, whose settings were 100 years apart, but which accurately and poignantly portrayed the racism and hatred in The South that is still alive today, I am resolved that I never want to move back there and live there again.  Perhaps in another 100 years, after I am ashes, the progress seen since the Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 1960s MIGHT continue and the old entrenched racists die off, with their progeny becoming slightly more progressive and color-blind - similar to how Gay Rights & Equality was unthinkable 20 years ago by main stream America, and now it is an accepted fact for 95% of the country.  But I won't see it in my lifetime.

I am not a hater, and I still firmly believe that there are many very nice, very accepting, very civil & loving people in The South, both in the states that voted for George Wallace, and in the states that didn't.  I've met and worked with many of them, or they were my neighbors & friends.  But the fact remains, that there's a solid double digit percentage block of Southerners who still think lynching is a good idea if they can get away with it, who believe Klan meetings are an acceptable form of social gathering, and who have a false-superiority complex in regards to anyone who is not Caucasian - black, brown, Asian, Jewish, Catholics, Sikh, Muslims, included in their fearful hatred & loathing.  Trump's tapping into their base with his rhetoric and his re-tweets of white supremacists, and "the worst" is manifesting itself amoung us in America.  I do hope that in November 2016 we can close the Trump chapter and not open up a "Wallace 2.0" era of the American political landscape.

No, I'll take the multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual melting pot that is California,
any day over any of the nicest places in The South.  Yes, it is expensive to live in California, but the weather is great, the people are nicer, the hatred is (I've seen) less wide-spread, the wildlife is more diverse, the waves are at least 10X better than the East Coast, the population is more heterogeneous & diverse & growing (+300,000 residents last year! We're gonna add another congressman or two at least in the next census, making the most populace state even more populace!), the businesses RUN BETTER and are safer (and growing), the wine is better, Science is accepted and not argued against or 'disbelieved', the State budget is balanced (after getting a Democratic governor, finally!), the humidity is lower (in Northern San Diego County, at least), religion is less invasive & pervasive, and the people are more accepting of everyone, not just those who look like themselves.

Republican Hyperbolic Allergies to Islam

The Washington Post has a nice article today about how Republicans presidential candidates and primary voters are all in a tizzy about President Obama visiting a Mosque yesterday... yet 15 years ago, George W Bush did the same thing and there WAS NO OUTCRY.  (Link here)


The hypocrisy is so thick, it's ridiculous.  W can visit a mosque and no one denounces him, or says he's being divisive.  President Obama visits a Mosque and he's obviously a secret Muslim, or trying to divide Umerika, or stirring up religious divides??? No Rubio... you're incorrect, again.  Short-sighted, fear mongering, myopic fools.

Bush visits a Mosque in 2001... no Republican Outcry resulted.

Driving While Black & Not Using Your Turn Signal, Deadly in Texas

The death of Sandy Bland in Waller Texas is senseless, despicable, and never should have happened.  Being taken into custody for "failure to use her turn signal"?  Seriously?

She "had been was combative on the side of the road" Sheriff Glen Smith told a reporter.
Salon link here: http://www.salon.com/2015/07/16/video_shows_that_african_american_woman_who_died_in_custody_did_not_assault_an_officer_as_police_claimed/

If you pulled me over for failure to use my turn signal, and asked me to step out of the car, I would have been verbally and physically very unreceptive.  Really, a turn signal violation?  If Sandy Bland had been a rich white woman, she'd be alive today.  She either would never have been pulled over, or an expensive lawyer would have been secured on July 10th when she taken to the county jail; she would have posted bond, and she would have posted on The FaceBook about how inappropriate the sheriff's deputies had been in pulling her over in the first place for something that everyone has done at least one forgetfully, or frequently done willfully.  Forgetting to use a turn signal is not a reason to get a ticket (a warning, maybe, sure), or to be taken out of your car, or to be thrown to the ground and knelt upon by an obese sheriff's deputy, or to be put in jail, or to remain in lock-up for 3 days.

I Do Not Know if Sandy Bland committed suicide or if someone came into her cell and strangled her with the plastic bag.  I think the former is unlikely and the latter is pure evil.  Hopefully a ligitimate coroner's inquest will get to the facts clearly, and quickly.  I Do Know that there was no reason to pull her out of her car, to incarcerate her, or to leave her in a jail cell for 3 days.  Write her a warning or a full fledged ticket Sheriff Glen Smith (which she could have fought in court), Even If she is being resentful or verbally combative or physically resisting the sheriff's deputy's draconian behavior.

Despicable.

Yeah, we live in a "post racial era".  Right.

How Many People Did Jade Helm Round Up?

The answer is simple: ZERO.
The right wing conspiracy machine was in full "crazy mode" to claim that the US military, Walmart, and President Obama were planning on declaring marshal law and taking over Texas & Utah.  Ridiculous and insane, but given full credit & weight by MANY Republican presidential candidates who want to play to the extreme right primary base who come out to vote like fire ants whose nest has been stepped on by a black booted Federal government thug.

If you don't know what "Jade Helm" is, the CS Monitor back in May laid it out nicely. (link here)
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2015/0505/What-is-Jade-Helm-15-and-should-Chuck-Norris-be-worried-video

If you don't remember how Cruz and Paul and most of the Republican field reacted back in May, the internet does.  (link here).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/the-pentagons-response-to_b_7251254.html

"J.E.Dyer" foretold of terrible things to come at "Liberty Unyielding".  Fool.

If you'd like to see a Map of "Operation Jade Helm" I've included one below.

To see how many people have been rounded up, and how many Counties and States have had marshal law imposed on them (staring today, July 15th, of course) read here (link).
http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/national/wire/civilians-begin-shadowing-jade-helm-war-exercise-in-texas/article_f3e54fa9-4b0d-5dbc-94e4-2ac1de1a6b0e.html

Yeah, "I've got some concerns" and "questions remain" ...  yes, like "how did you ever get elected, Ted?"

I am so glad I don't live in a backwards, regressive, insane Red State Dumbphukistan anymore.

Converting Guano Into Something Useful

I voted last Monday via absentee ballot, as I will not be in town next Tuesday to cast my vote locally.  Even though our democracy is extremely flawed, and special interests have bought and sold most politicians and the leadership of both the Democrats and the Republicans, I still feel that if a citizen doesn't vote, then they also need to 'sit down and shut up' if they disagree with anything that their government does, locally, in their state, or in their country.  If they've voted, then they have a voice - even if it is a very quiet one, muffled by millions of dollars of Super-PAC funds and billionaire robber barons who are manipulating the media and the electoral system for their own personal gain or promoting their brand of ideology.

Here in California, there's all sorts of online resources for sample ballots (like this one, here), and how to find out where to vote in your precinct.  Since it's a well funded Blue State (for the most part everywhere except Orange County, apparently) that gives more to the Federal government than it takes from the Feds, and it has a remarkably educated citizenry who are also motivated to try and show that government can do work that promotes the greater good, things tend to "work better here" than they did in Arizona, South Carolina, or Indiana, where Dr Desert Flower and I lived previously over the last 30 years.

But when it comes to the lesser known, "non partisan" races, for school boards, commissions, and judgeships, it is somewhat harder to discern what a candidate stands for, how they might vote, and to whom they owe their allegiances, their moral and political alignment.  Sure, one can individually Google every candidate and thoroughly research each race, but that takes time.

Luckily, one group of very angry, mostly white, mostly very old (retired), highly motivated and very vocal Tea Party affiliated Orange County California residents set up a website that helped guide me as to who I Do Not want to vote for: everyone they've recommended.  (link here) or the long link form, here: http://octeapartyblog.com/oc-tea-party-blog/

It was very handy to see broad generalizations and Made-for-Fox-News hyperbole right there, in black and white, published for all of those devotees who consider guano as one of the 4 basic food groups.  Here are some actual text excerpts from the idealogical (and illogical) page:

"STATE GOVERNOR
*Neel Kashkari (R) vs. Jerry Brown (D)
RECOMMENDATION: Skip this portion of the ballot! I vehemently recommend that folks skip this portion of their ballots! Leaving the Governor’s portion on your ballots blank this year, will send a very loud and clear message to the CA GOP that you’ve had enough of them pushing RINO candidates on us, especially for such crucial offices! Had the GOP and their progressive donor allies not steamrolled over the authentic conservative in the primary Tim Donnelly, this race to challenge Jerry Brown would have likely been much more competitive and Brown would’ve been forced to defend his atrocious record!"

Yes, Jerry Brown has an atrocious record.  He's brought the state out of the massively deep fiscal hole Schwarzenegger and the Republicans dug (just like Obama had to with Bush), and successfully launched an expanded California Cares medical website without hiccups (better than the Affordable Care Act did).  He's being a moderate & successful governor....   how atrocious!   Earlier this week, the OC Tea Party website actually called Kashkari a "Liberal Republican candidate" but they've since taken that wording down.  Now they are just urging voters to NOT vote.  Fools.

For Lt Governor, Treasurer, and State Attorney General, same thing:  "No Recommendation" - they hate both the candidates because they are not bat sh*t crazy enough to warrant a Tea Party endorsement.

Then...  for State Controller, they list this gem:

"STATE CONTROLLER
*Ashley Swearengin (R) vs. Betty Yee (D) (OPEN SEAT)
NO RECOMMENDATION Ashley Swearengin is said to be the new rising star of the state GOP, but she’s certainly not the rising star of conservatives! As the Mayor of Fresno, this woman is an ardent supporter of Jerry Brown’s bullet train and she refuses to rule out the possibility that she might even vote for Brown this November!"
WHAT!?!?!?!  She might compromise, seeking a middle ground, and work across the aisle to get the business of governing done, instead of pouting in her own sand box if she doesn't get her way 100%?  Unimaginable!!!!!

And then, on judges, this bat sh*t site was very useful.  One such example is here:

"JUDGES
*STATE SUPREME COURT: Goodwin Liu RECOMMENDATION: Vote NO
You may be surprised to know this, but Goodwin Liu was nominated by Obama in early 2010 and again in 2011 to serve on the ninth circuit court of appeals! He is a former UC Berkley Law Professor, who was so incredibly liberal, that even some Senate Democrats joined Republicans in blocking attempts to end their filibuster of him! Obama had to withdrawal his nomination, not once but twice! Even the liberal former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had reservations about nominating him because of his extreme views! Liu is a radical pro-abortion supporter, who also believes in an “evolving” Constitution! After a 16 month battle to keep Liu from the ninth circuit, Obama finally dropped his nomination. Shortly after that, Jerry Brown appointed him to our state’s highest court! I’ve pasted tons of info about Liu below! I strongly encourage you to vote NO on him!! This guy has no business serving on the bench! Vote NO on Goodwin Liu for re-election to the Supreme Court!"

Don't pay any attention to his legal record, his rulings, jurist prudence, or judgement... none of those things obviously matter if he has all that Obama all over him!!!  Focus only on ideology, and ideology only.  We get our way, or we don't vote!  Or maybe...  we take up those "2nd amendment remedies".  Guano.  Absolutely bat sh*t crazy.

But you know...   I should not be so hard on the OC Tea Party.  I can relate.  When I lived in South Carolina and Arizona, I knew I was always throwing my vote away when I checked the boxes for reasonable candidates who were opposed to Methuselah (McCain) or running against total Flakes, Brewers of terrible beverages, or total anachronisms who soon will be extinct as their telomeres continually shorten.  It's just a matter of time before the OC dinosaurs die out as well.

Obama Derangement Syndrome, Still an Epidemic

From The Moderate Voice, I found this sad but strongly correlating article by Dana Millbank on ignorance, poverty, and manipulation by the media entitled "10 Obama Myths" that still promulgate in the reddest states.  (link here)

• Obama conspiracy theories have flourished in the Deep South, where wealth and educational levels are both low. This makes sense: Where voters are least informed, they are most susceptible to misinformation peddled by talk-radio hosts and the like. For this reason, voters in reliably Republican states, which tend to be poorer, with lower test scores, are more vulnerable to misinformation. To use one measure, the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress test of eighth-grade reading, all but one of the top 10 states were in Obama’s column in 2012. Of the 19 doing worse than average, 14 were red states.
• “Obama derangement syndrome is running pretty high right now among a certain segment of the Republican base,” Tom Jensen, director of Public Policy Polling, told me. “There’s a certain segment of people who say, ‘If you’re going to give me the opportunity to stick it to Obama, I’m going to take it.’?” In other words, a large number of that 29 percent who said Obama was responsible for the Katrina response knew that he wasn’t but saw it as a chance to register their displeasure with the president. Obama has driven a large number of Republican voters — Jensen puts it at 15 to 20 percent of the overall electorate — right off their rockers.
• 
  
• The ten myths about the President:
• Obama was responsible for the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
• Obama hates white people.
• Obama is a socialist.
• Obamacare will raise insurance costs for consumers.
• Death panels are a part of Obamacare.
• Obama is a bigger spender than Bush.
• Obama is welfare obsessed.
• Obama is Muslim.
• Obama was not born in the United States.
• Obama is coming for your guns.
• 
  
• Read more at http://themoderatevoice.com/191449/10-obama-myths/#tjWMkyIveJ7wzlYq.99

Thirsty Marco

Regardless of content, "rising star" Marco Rubio's (Marco Blonde, in translation) State of the Union Republican rebuttal speech last Tuesday night will be immortalized by his unquenchable thirst.   The Daily Show on Wednesday spoofed him.   Colbert lampooned Rubio's 'stare into the camera regardless of circumstances' And SNL did a great bit as well, with Marco REEEACHHHHING far out of frame to quench his thirst.

Bill Maher pointed out succinctly that Rubio's speech was full of old ideas from 5 years ago, as if President Obama's first term had never happened.  It sounded like the party of whiners, claiming how the Democrats are destroying their great nation, instead of a speech from a up-and-coming-new-party-star who is supposed to be visionary and forward thinking.   Rather sad, but not at all surprising.  

Certified Arizona Birthers

Last year my governor surprisingly vetoed a bill passed by the massively Republican dominated house and senate to REQUIRE Presidential Candidates who want to be on the ballot in Arizona to release their birth certificates.   In honor of that veto, I present the TRUE Obama birth certificate, to show here, why it is obviously a complete fake (just like the moon landings!!).

WND's First National Convention Of Extremists

The World Net Daily held their first "Taking America Back 2010" national convention this week.  What a collection of birthers, conspiracy theorists, homophobes, xenophobes, Islama-phobes, gathering together to try and incite violence among their members.  Media Matters describes it beautifully: link here.  (Obsessively referenced at the M.M. cite - awesome work!)

One of the best comments:

"O.K. Now the question is how far they intend to take America back?
1950? 1850? 1750? 1650? Maybe 1550 and get it right this time?"

So much Koolaid, so many children, so little time!

Dr. Zauis has a comprehensive compilation of "Hitler = Obama" hysterical fear mongering and blatant ignorance posted yesterday. Linked here. Awesome work!

Some of the video links Dr.Z has posted are quite delusional, making Glenn Beck look factual and reasonable.

Wow, so many clueless Americans are gullible, easily manipulated, frightened little lemmings!

Hitler... too!

Dr Zaius has some excellent graphics, here today. I saw the "Hitler did it too" on MSNBC last night (funny, Fox isn't covering it) and was disgusted.

Baraknophobia - Obey

The Daily Show was gorgeously accurate once again last night. The summary Stewart articulates, contrasting the 8 years of Bush dictatorial practices to the Obama Democracy is beautiful! Quotes include:

"Only now, with 'potato day', has tyranny come to our shores"

"Chief among those speaking crazy to power, Minnesota Republican and free range cougar, Michele Bachmann" : "There is a strong chance that young people will be put into mandatory service, and the real concern is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where the young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward."

"See now, you're in the minority. It's supposed to taste like a sh*t taco."

"Why do you hate America? Watch what you say. Love it or leave it. Suck on my truck nuts."

"A tyrant stifles dissent. In a tyranny, all are required to worship at the feet of the flawless dear leader."

"You've got a mid-term election coming in 20 months. Pace your rage. The stress is not good for you. Because we don't want the suppleness of your organs damaged, because Obama's mandatory organ donat...." (oops!) LMAO!

Treasonous Glen Beck

Treasonous Glen Beck today, on his radio show, encouraged his devout radio fan base (since he was booted off CNN) to secede from the Union. This is the "America, Love it, or Leave it!" Glen Beck. If he hates America so much, he should leave it, as Alec Baldwin vowed to do with a Kerry election loss.