The Problem With Republican Talking Points

I am going to repeat myself again today out of frustration and maybe someone new will hear me, finally. This is the problem I see with the Republican talking points. They think they are so superior that they make themselves obvious as to how misguided stupid that they really are. Saying that they are misguided or misinformed is too kind now. I know better. I am not going to be kind. This sucks. Dick Cheney is trying to attack the president as if he has any credibility, after sending us to war in Iraq because of his old grievances with Saddam Hussein, based on the lies that A) Saddam was responsible for the 9/11 attack at the WTC and B) that Saddam was in possession of materials needed to build atomic bombs. We all know now, if we have been paying attention, that this was a definite LIE and that they had the intention of going to war and invading seven countries in 5 years before the attack ever happened. Anyone who doesn't believe this needs to watch this video:

This is the situation. They lie and repeat the lie. That is called "propagating" an idea. That is the heart of the word "propaganda". To all Republicans, I have some definitions that you need to know.


1) fact [fakt]
noun
1. something that actually exists; reality; truth:Your fears have no basis in fact.
2. something known to exist or to have happened:Space travel is now a fact.
3. a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true:Scientists gather facts about plant growth.

2) fab·ri·ca·tion [fab-ri-key-shuhn]
noun
1. the act or process of fabricating; manufacture.
2. something fabricated, especially an untruthful statement: His account of the robbery is a complete fabrication.
Synonyms
2. See fiction.

Okay, Republicans, do you see the difference?  WE DO!  I have tried to excuse your petty arguments by telling myself you were misinformed but given facts that refute your arguments and prove them to be what is synonymous with "fabrication" the word "fiction", then, it's simply a matter of either you are lying or stupid, you decide which it is. 

We are all tired of your "manufactured" crises that you try to say is a "scandal worse than Watergate", which have all been proved to be wrong and another fabrication. 

Repeating a lie doesn't make it true. Calling it a "talking point" doesn't make it true, it's still not the truth. And on the off chance that you are just stupid and haven't actually self deluded yourself into believing your own fabrications, then, you need to sit down and shut the fuck up because no one wants to hear you lie, again, and act confident about what you are saying. Lying while acting confident doesn't make your lie any more valid.

Now, one more time, if you actually are this stupid, then, I have a quote from you which I will repeat again. Please read it and understand what it signifies.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way though our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Isaac Asimov

That includes rich white people, including the ones with manners and wearing expensive clothing that attend a religious organization's meetings. 

Those of you who are so afraid that the world we live in isn't going to become "Leave it to Beaver" land, where everyone is white and lives in a two story house with a mom who is perfect and a dad who is wealthy and principles that are just common sense with no violence or anger that ever becomes obvious, and the biggest problems their kids face is how to treat other kids who might not be as smart as they are and there are no gangs, drug problems, suicide, or crime, then you are delusional. 

Some people confuse that with the words "in denial". I will explain the difference. 

Being in denial is when you see a problem and say to yourself, "I don't want to face that", and turn away, refusing to see anything that makes you uncomfortable. 

Being delusional is when you look at a problem and don't see it as a problem. You believe that you can make it work for you without having to suffer the consequences that everyone else faces. Never going to happen! Give it up!

Fellowship and Spiritual Connection

I am touched by something today that I don't want to describe in finite terms. The fact that people have gotten together in groups to feel a thing that we can only describe as "FELLOWSHIP" for as long as man has existed, shows that power and energy that connects us all. I dare you to walk into a Pentecostal Church during a high point in their fellowship, a room full of monks chanting (no matter what faith), to stand in an 12 step meeting at the end while there is a couple thousand people together in prayer to their higher power, or just two people who love each other, you can TRY not to feel something but I think anything outside of being like a deer in the forest, you are going to feel that connection between all of us. If you ever go to a place in nature that is awesome and can't help but feel a force that makes you wonder how we could possibly want to destroy nature and our environment, then you have felt the force in that part of the equation.

If you don't feel anything and don't understand any of what I am talking about then, in my opinion, there has to be something dead inside you. I feel actual sympathy and pity for people like that. My story is of the awakening of the heart and mind of someone who tried to kill those feelings for half their life and is spending the other half trying to get them back. All of us want something, no matter what our life might lead us to, called "happiness" which sounds all too simple but comes in time with something we didn't expect called "peace".

When I say peace, I don't just mean an end to war, I mean inner peace that most of us find scarcely often because we commit to trying to find it in other means other than looking inside ourselves and that is the end of the journey. I myself can only find it in bits and pieces at this point as I am rarely as spiritually based as I would like to be. To be honest with myself and other, I have to admit that I have "concerns" that I seem to find more important at times. I have come to understand that some Americans strive for and are compelled to desire a path that takes them away from any form of inner peace, because they are greedy, selfish, indoctrinated in covetous behavior, or believe that they have to have "things" to be happy.

I also believe that some people mistake the feeling of fellowship and a kind of mob rule or hysteria as being touched by God. I have done that before and self deluded myself into all sorts of fixed beliefs that I had to let go of. I can't talk about them openly in public because they are common and saying they are what they are disturbs people who are still self deluded. Yours is not my journey so I can only say you have to look inside yourself to see if that is what you are doing. I can only speak of my own life and feelings. It is easy to get caught up in that feeling/connection with a group of people and mistake it's origin and actual content. Some things like that I am grateful for because at times in my life being deluded might have been the only reason I survived and tried to continue and persevered. Losing one's attachments is a frightening thing for most people. I might not have survived without them at one time but as has been pointed out to me along the way, they were survival skills that I no longer need.

There are some people in the United States that I believe are self deluded into believing that reality can be a matter of perception. Selfish desire can be relieved by non-selfish perception. But facts are facts and they aren't open to interpretation or likes or dislikes, opinions, or fantasies of "how we would like things to be" based on fear and tribal indoctrination. Some scholars and clergy will tell us that we must let go of these things but we find ourselves too full of other options, at least in our minds, that we ignore the forest because we are fixated on the
good fortune of one of it's trees. The world is too vast and plentiful to allow any persons or groups of people to claim ownership to all of it. That would be like one bird or flock of waterfowl trying to claim territorial rights to the lake that they are all swimming on. They simply enjoy what is before them and learn to peacefully coexist.

There are claims of territories in nature but once they are decided, their territories don't grow to claim all of the land they exist in. Some people just will never understand that and to them, I feel a lack of understanding because they completely lack the compassion it takes to see that someone else has needs just like they do that are unalienable human rights. That means they are denying their own intelligence the credit it deserves in being able to learn to feel good about giving to another human being.

Our country guides our thoughts and dreams today as it goes through a large upheaval in trust. Some is manufactured and some is real. Whenever anyone starts a sentence out with the words, "What if..." then, I know the rest of it is conjecture and most likely not a researched fact. Let me be clear on that one word. As per the dictionary, a fact is defined as
"...

noun
1. something that actually exists; reality; truth:
2. something known to exist or to have happened:
3. a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true: ..."

As I said, NOT left up to YOUR or MY interpretation or wishes, comfort zone, or beliefs. They just are. Anything else is plain wrong. And anything you think you know and are not sure of and when examining it, we realize that we don't remember when or where we started believing that, we realize that THAT is a view to which we are attached and probably really never needed.

My Reply From Senator Jeff Flake

Hey, readers. I have one thing to say to preface this notification. I am completely surprised. I have written to all of the Republican Senators through their website contact pages whenever they did something that made me confused or I thought they were wrong about something. Everytime I get a form letter almost automatically sent back that doesn't address the problem at all.
Recently I wrote a letter to Jeff Flake, the new U.S. Congressman from Arizona, who took over after Jon Kyl resigned. I received a thoughtfully written elaborate reply explaining his reasoning that I really appreciated. This is what he said, "...Dear Mr. Walker:

      Thank you for contacting me about gun control legislation.  

      In the wake of the tragic December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced S. 649 on March 21, 2013. I voted in favor of debating this legislation because I believe we are well served by having the debate. However, I did not support the amendment by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) expanding background checks, largely because the definition of commercial sales was too broad and included private transactions that it purported to exclude. Further, the amendment did not address the serious issue of guns getting into the hands of the mentally ill. I also did not support amendments banning assault weapons or restricting magazines.

      I support the Second Amendment, and I do not believe our society needs more laws restricting legal gun ownership. What we really need is to do a better job of keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have them, while ensuring that those who break existing laws are fully prosecuted. Thus, I support strengthening the existing background check system in order to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.

      For this reason, I cosponsored S. 480 with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Bill Pryor (D-AR), which would assist states and federal agencies in providing mental health records to the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) by clarifying which records should be included. Our bill was included in an amendment proposed by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), S.AMDT. 724, which I cosponsored. S.AMDT. 724 is a more effective response to gun violence. In addition to broadening background checks to include all those adjudicated to be dangerously mentally ill, our proposal also creates penalties for gun trafficking, straw purchasing, and increases penalties for criminals attempting to circumvent the background check system. It also provides new tools and resources for prosecutions of firearm crimes. Senator Manchin's proposal did not include all of these provisions to combat gun violence. Fifty-two senators supported S.AMDT. 724, including nine Democrats. Unfortunately, it needed sixty votes to pass.  

      Thank you again for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to do so again in the future. I also encourage you to visit my website, which may be found at flake.senate.gov/

Sincerely,

JEFF FLAKE
United States Senator 

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. ..."

Wow, I actually understand what he is saying and agree somewhat. He didn't just say, "Screw Gun Control and Background Checks," he actually has a plan of his own, which addresses the problem as well. Anyone reading this, please contact me at arizonamildman@live.com if you have a response and see something I missed that you would like to add as a comment.

Warning About Having Sympathy for the Devil

My warning to liberal thinking people who possess critical thinking is that you can't have sympathy for the devil without getting yourself f**ked over on a regular basis by said devil. Evil has no place in your life and it isn't out there somewhere, waiting to invade your body or mind. It is in the people who do evil things.

Some of them can sound really sane and reasonable, almost like normal people. Any humane, compassionate, caring human being with an ounce of morality can see there isn't much difference between greedy selfish self centered egomaniacs who don't care what you think and conservative politicians who think backwards and try to lie to us about it. They can't help themselves because they think that is the only way. They are the same ones who think they need to change their messaging (lie to your face more convincingly) instead of changing their policies to fit the very public they have been elected to serve.

My message to Democratic Party Members / Liberals is that you can't have sympathy for the devil. You have been raised to believe some things that Republicans / Conservatives want you to think because they realize they have become irrelevant. They also know that liberals have been taught to believe that being "fair and democratic" are positive qualities that they see as a weakness.

REMEMBER THIS WARNING: Some Democrats or liberal types think that being progressive and liberal thinking means that they have to allow right and wrong to somehow BOTH be correct. This is ignorant. They want people who are wrong to have an equal voice. I think the quote by Isaac Assimov applies best here. He said, "...There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way though our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' "

I don't want to see people who want to act without compassion for others and living on greed and a hunger for the power that corrupts in office. They need to change, not revitalize their party. They have allied themselves with the worst of the United States' racists, homophobics, crackpots, and the nation's stupidest non-thinking people who lack critical thinking and are delusional enough to believe despite being told repeatedly that they are wrong that nothing they do is incorrect,
displaying stupidity as a banner like it is something to be proud of. BEING WRONG started losing them elections ever since Eisenhower and the only way they could win was to cheat and lie about their real intentions. Unlimited greed and a hunger for power that corrupts is the watchword of the modern GOP, devoid of any compassion or intelligence.

Conservatives go on and on about how they have a right to their opinion. They are using the word "opinion" as if it means the same thing as "fact". Here is the difference: An opinion is defined as "...a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty." A fact is "...a truth known by actual experience or observation; something known to be true."  They are NOT the same thing but people who try to confuse the public, like political pundits and disinformationalists (propagandists, and there are plenty of those out there, like Fox News) want you to believe that reality is a matter of opinion, and that anything that isn't what they label as conservative (which is merely incorrect or wrong) is a valid "opinion" while talking about facts, and that facts which are known to the entire universe as being correct, are merely a "liberal opinion".

Here is the one thing you have to remember. REALITY DOES NOT HAVE A LIBERAL BIAS.

One thing that you will find to be consistently true for almost every conservative, is that they believe their authority figures (religious and political leaders) are always right and when you are raised from birth believing that as long as you listen to certain people that you already have all the answers you will ever need and that you are always right - then, you don't learn how to think and lead others in progressive endeavors, you only know how to memorize and follow. No matter what you think you know about them, you will find that conservatives that "SAY" that they agree with you about being compassionate and caring about their fellow man is correct - while voting for people who live on greed and power. That is saying one thing and doing another. Their leaders are the same type of politicians who wrote the declaration of independence saying that all men are created equal while owning slaves. All of their main policies are consistently proven to be wrong and instead of admitting their flaws, they think being wrong harder and more often will make a difference and somehow make their incorrect principles and policies work and "somehow" become right, maybe, someday (WTF?). The people who tell you that they are "moderate" conservatives, are telling you that they are only "partially" backwards, which isn't correct or proper way to get
things done, so who cares? That is like saying that they are only a "little bit" insane. Delusional is delusional, not in denial. Let me explain the difference. Denial is when you see a problem and don't want to face it. Delusion is when you look at a problem and don't see it as a problem, you see it as a solution, something you can work with and make work "for you" if you just manage it well. NOT!
Those who try to tell you that they are "moderate" are either lying or delusional to believe that they are correct while going backwards only half the time. That is why they wrote the song lyrics "Sympathy for the devil...". There is no one that thinks being evil, at all, EVER is a good idea and people who say they are wrong only some of the time aren't progressive and intelligent rational people, they are delusional enough to believe they are only partly stupid or evil. If that makes sense to you then you are delusional, also.

Mitch McConnell Got Caught Conspiring And Whines About It

I am writing this today in response to the Huffington Post article stating that Mitch McConnell was supposedly "...Hit With Ethics Complaint Over Leaked Ashley Judd Tape", as if anyone expects anything from McConnell to be "ethical". The subheadline states that, "...McConnell Camp Blasts Gestapo Tactics". (Does anyone actually believe anything some right wing corporate stooge says when they use the word Gestapo, as if being accused of doing something the public already knows about is "Nazi-ism". They started the whole article wrong, in my opinion, because they used an oxymoron. They mentioned Mitch McConnell and then used the "E" word.
Ethics? Someone is expecting Mitch McConnell to do something ethical? Not only is bugging someone else's phone calls (that Republicans seem to ignore the fact that it's illegal and that is what caused the recent Rupert Murdoch's whole world to be under inspection and the word "Scandal" painted over the whole situation in the news) and taking part of what is called "a conspiracy" in secret with his staff (the probable source of him being bugged and recorded, his own staff) launch a smear campaign unethical but McConnell's whole existence is unethical.
He is a U.S. Congressman who blocks legislation that would return American jobs to our own country that his party helped make possible, decimating the factory worker jobs we used to excel at, but he is doing so while making millions of dollars of Chinese corporate money (his bank account increased from 3 million to over 27 million in four years) through his wife, Elaine Chao (G.W. Bush's secretary of labor, the only one who remained in his cabinet for both full terms) and her father's corporate cronies in China. He has single-handedly led all the main obstruction in congress, slowing down progress for the whole nation's recovery, while lining his own pockets through aiding to the problems. Then, after actually being such a detriment to society, he tries to blame everything he does on the president as if he thinks the public can't read what he votes on and his statements in the news. His only statement when asked why his party lost the election in 2008, about a Democratic president beating an old decrepit John McCain angry old eyesore of the human being, was that his party's number one goal was to "make Obama a one term president. His plan was that while the country was desperately trying to find solutions to what problems our citizens were experiencing through criminal level stealing of our money by banks to gamble at the casino on Wall Street, and then after losing the money, getting two bailouts and pocketing them both by giving them selves bonuses for stealing from us was to stop progress and try to blame his actions on the president. His party repealed the ethics regulations that create the economic downturns and then whines about how he is being treated unfairly after he gets caught doing the same thing Richard Nixon was impeached for. He is a blight on America, especially Kentucky, and is only in office because uninformed people in Kentucky (the majority of people there, it seems) keep voting for any a**hole that mentions the word "Big Coal" in his campaign rhetoric to the self deluded people in the notorious black lung capital, as if he gives a damn about them - while watching them kill themselves, making his corporate cronies rich, instead of seeing that the conditions for miners get improved through health and ethics restrictions. He should be trying to incorporate green energy and getting his whole state set on developing solar and wind technology but instead would rather they talk about the words "clean coal" as if there is such a thing. That's as stupid as saying "dry water".

54 Weeks A Year

54 Weeks in a Year? It's Time To Say "BULLS**T"!
We have been lied to constantly since I can remember and the more I pay attention, the more I get mad about it. Even the business calendar is made to cheat us. According to businesses and accounting principles, there are 54 weeks in a year. And then they go on to explain that some weeks are only one day long. WTF does that mean??? If it's not SEVEN DAYS, then it's not a week, is it???
No, 365 days a year divided by seven days a week is 635/7= approximately 52.143 weeks. But your pay and our holidays are divided up and our time subtracted in order to only pay us over 54 weeks. When a business WANTS MONEY YOU OWE THEM, they are accurate and even cut you off on short months. They don't add on 2 or 3 days into the following months to make sure there are a whole 30 or 31 days in a month before payments are due but YOUR PAY comes when they want it, spread out over two non existent weeks. I don't know about you but I still have to pay my bills, eat, pay rent, pay insurance, and take care of my children and other expenses during those 2 weeks of "nonexistent" time of the year. Those extra days in those 54 weeks that my pay is spread out over keep me paying.
Then they (accounting professionals and business leaders) argue about a "fiscal year" which means from June to June the next year, which screws up everyone but the guys in finance who collect every penny and every second of your time/pay that they owe you, and put in in their bonuses. It reminds me of the Superman movie with Richard Pryor where he figured out how to funnel everyone else's half pennies of interest into his account. That is the principle that used to keep finance people alive but that wasn't good enough.
I was told as a child about an unfair principle that still is in play. The Federal Reserve is a bunch of private bankers who control "our economy" and their job is to make themselves and other rich people richer while making everyone else poorer and so if they knew that in the beginning, why haven't we changed that??? Ron Paul decries the Federal Reserve and the unfairness but have you ever seen him enact legislation to get rid of it instead of just bitching about it while contributing to it's existence with his fancy Libertarian attitude of "I Got Mine, Screw You!"
Nothing is really equal and fair in America until opportunity becomes equal so ask yourself why the banks won't loan money to people who really need it instead of practically giving money away to people who don't really need it. I have noticed the recent Chase Bank commercial where they show a guy with lobster traps as if he is the "salt of the earth" REGULAR GUY and common worker class dude and "small" start-up business man, like the Republicans held up Joe The Plumber that we didn't buy back then, either. There is a disclaimer message at the end of that commercial that says in very fine almost unreadable print that this "program" is for businesses that make a deposit (that doesn't explain daily or weekly but that isn't what most of consider a "small" business) of over $100,000. Do you make deposits of that much? Think about it. When was the last time you deposited $100,000 in your bank account. And now during the banking hearings, the CEO of Chase, Jamie Dimon, actually got up in front of the committee and said that he had NO EXCUSE for ripping everyone's money off and losing it at the casino on Wall Street. That is what, despite the moronic B.S. of the right and rich greedy, Elizabeth Warren was talking about when she said they should all be in jail and it doesn't make sense why they steal from people and don't get punished appropriately.
That principle in itself has created the inequity that we call the One Percent, which has actually become Two Percent and a handful of those rich people in the extra One Percent/Half that make up the Two Percent which are wealthy, have elected themselves to congress to make sure that they gerrimander the law so that they get richer and stay that way, and f**k everyone else. We are talking about the Libertarians who are in congress and don't believe anything else they tell you because they have taken over the Republican Party. The Republican Party hasn't been the same since Eisenhower and Goldwater. When did it change to go South? When Ronald Reagan screwed up  our society and economy to promote rich people like himself and the unlimited greed has continued and gotten worse since then.

Healthcare Whiners

There was a time in history, during the industrial revolution, that employers actually gave a damn about their employees. Employers and employees had a quality beneficial for each other known loyalty. But, modern greed did away with that. If you look at the Christmas Carol that story showed something. Scrooge would have been the old version of Gordon Gecko in the movie, Wall Street, who believed that "...greed is good...", but ask yourself, what did Scrooge learn at the end of the story. 
His comment was that Bob Cratchit needed to start letting Scrooge, his employer, help take care of Bob's family. People used to actually feel like that. That story was about the centermost important problem in American politics right now. Accusing poor people who are sick or disabled of being moochers is twisted and ridiculous and shows no kind of human compassion or sense of responsibility as a human being. This is the very antipathy of the supposed "holy spirit" that Conservative Christians go on and on about. It's not that I believe in the bible but that I have read it and I turned from the Christian religion because it's followers aren't aware of what it says and that is the fault of the Christian religions, not the bible.