Blacklidge

Suzi's New Cat

To An Infinite Sorrow

Waking one morning last week to some very bad news from a close friend, I find my capacity for tragic events has narrowed. If I now wake every day thinking of this news, I can imagine the impact it has had on my friend. I have known for some time that this was a possibility, however, being a person with my own problems, I chose to ignore the signs of distress. Slowly drawing into myself over the last couple of years, I now find myself in no position to offer comfort or much else now to someone who has been one of my best friends. I don't say that lightly, because I have had many, many friends over the decades but like most people, the ones that truly came close and made a difference are few and far between. Almost none of them are from the latter decades but from the way back.

Addressing the sorrow. The sorrow wells up inside for someone who is now probably living in a fog of pain. There is a list that I saw years ago, it has the events in ones life that affect a person the worst. It isn't a short list but some things on it are Being Laid Off, Bankruptcy, Losing a Child.and other things like that. When one of these things happens to a person, most estimates give a two year window of recovery from it. Most items dip you deep into dispair,let you wallow in that for awhile and then, slowly, ever so slowly,you begin to inch back to feeling okay again. One day you wake up and you actually feel happy again. Time marches on, so they say. What happens to a person who has two things from the list happen in a short period of time, what about three things? Is the mourning period longer or is it just that much more intense? Hard to say. I have had some of the list occur, some deeply affected me, some not so much but never did I have more than one to deal with at once.

 

Republicans Circle the Drain-Ruin Their Legacies On The Way Out

Well, anyone who reads this blog knows exactly how I feel about Republicans anyway. I'm just writing about the most recent outrages they have pushed on us. You, of course, know about the "War on Women" they have been waging. I can't imagine how they think they came into the world without the help of a woman and I also can't figure out how there are any female Republicans. What would make a woman vote directly against their own best interests? I guess brainwashing maybe? I talk to them all the time, in real life and on Facebook and they don't seem to see the irony of voting for people who have absolutely no regard for them or their welfare. Most of them lead with their racism first, then push on to outright lies about the economy, social issues and other less savory items. They must learn this effluvient from some outlet....hmm, let me guess. Faux News, the scourge of the last decade. Not an ounce of shame do they have. One thing they do have though, is ratings that are dropping like stones, for all of their major headliners. All this while the big dogs at MSNBC have ratings that going up and up.

Another thing that appears to be cropping up in our news cycles, Republicans go on air and lie. They lie about the economy, they lie about Obama's motivations and activities, they lie about their donors. They are quite despicable. What is even more strange is the fact that our news outlets, almost all of them, let them get away with it. They don't get called on any lie they tell, with few exceptions. MSNBC is one and Soledad O'Brien is a notable exception,sometimes Anderson Cooper steps up. She tears into liars and fools, it's fun to watch.

The Violence Against Women Act was kicked to the curb this week, the aid to Sandy victims, dropped. The Republicans now say they are going to fight tooth and nail to block the increase of the nation's deficit. Can they do that? Yes. Will it cost them? Yes. Will it ruin the economy? Yes. Being driven by the rich folk of this country, they just don't seem to realize what the rest of the country is beginning to see. Even the hard core republicans will be eying their activities this year. Throughly corrupt, bought and purchased by the 2%, their legacies are failing and their credibility is slipping down.

I don't believe the Democrats are saints, they, too, are bought and paid for. They also know that without a strong middle class our country cannot go on, will not go on in the same way as before. Having almost crushed the life out of the middle class before anyone caught on, we are now faced with the fight of our lives to throw the crooks out of Congress and the Senate. Spoiled and pampered, they are all facing a wake up call. Why would the people, newly aware, continue to fund these criminals in the style to which they should never have become accustomed? Why should they get so much in benefits and wages for so little work? Why do they go into the house and senate with maybe a small personal fortune and come out multi-millionaires? I mean, we haven't really been paying too much attention until lately, but these people are leeches. They and their handlers spend millions to get them elected, for a job that pays 200k a year. Power. Power is what they are buying with that investment.

I guess it would be good to wrap this up somehow. The obstuction in our government is being fed with a pathological disrespect for a man who, in time, is going to prove to be one of the finest presidents ever. That is their excuse for being so mean and small. It's not good enough for me, I'm tired of the news of their next adventures. Remember, when 2014 rolls around that we tried reasoning with them, we tried being tough and there is nothing they respond to. Nothing except getting the boot, and some of them try to fight that!

Grover's Gotta Go!

 

This is Professor Robert Thurman from Columbia University.He and I agree and I have been saying this all along. The people that have signed Grover Norquist's "pledge" need to be ousted for treason and sedition. Seems like the idea is gaining some traction.

 

 

 

Occupy-Alive and Well

In September 2011, Occupy Wall Street staged their first demonstration in Zucatti Park, New York City. It spread all across the U.S. and around the world. Since then, it has taken on many issues facing our economy and our society, shining a light on the inequities we have been suffering. Many cities, like Denver and Tucson sent in the police to break up the demonstrations.  A photograph of UC Davis police officer Lt. John Pike pepper spraying demonstrators spread and became an internet meme as people around the world inserted the pepper spray photo into famous works of art and popular culture. So many incidents occurred from the first demonstration through the first half of the next year that I lost track of them. The police in many cities tried to stomp the camps out, made it so hard to continue that fewer and fewer people came out.

The difference between the primarily right wing Tea Party and the Occupy Movement is mostly that early on the 1% noticed the Tea Party and decided to co-op the whole group and finance them to fall in line with the doctrines they believed in. Slight herding toward the whole idea of "Big, bad government" caused most of the people in the Tea Party to follow the ideas of the very rich men who financed them and who used them to further the agenda of the 1%. The Occupy Movement, for whatever reason, couldn't be rounded up and turned in one direction. Too scattered, too loosely organized, they just kept pointing out the way our world was heading and no one was able to organize them to do the bidding of some smaller group. They never were really organized enough to harness the people power of everyone who wanted to participate. The housewives, retirees and just general people wanted to turn out but there was never any way to figure out where to go or when. once the Once the rich guys started taking an interest in the Tea Party, they paid huge amounts of money to get everyone out and participating. After the elections of 2010, when the Tea Party was very successful, their peculiar ideas of running a country began to get a lot more attention. While it benefited the very rich in America by keeping their taxes low and attempting to open up more and more freedom for equity traders, banks and other professions that the rich were major players in, their fiscal policies and obstructionist ways did nothing for the middle and lower classes. Funny how most of the Tea Party members are retirees and decidedly middle class people. Many of them still do not see how they were manipulated. If real historians are allowed to write history books in later years, it will be interesting how the Tea Party is treated.

The Occupy Movement is still alive and well. Recently, I saw a question posed on Facebook that wondered if Occupy had actually done anything or if it were relevant at all. I wasn't able to get that question out of my mind. I participated in some of the Tucson rallies but they have long since died away. They are still in our culture though. Without them, would any focus have been placed on the inequities of the direction our country has been pointed toward for so long? Since Reagan was in office, we have slowly headed away from the American dream and we have lost so much ground. Never paying attention to slight social changes, slowly our emphasis veered away from getting ahead and moved onto just making a living and getting by. No advancements were made by the middle class, after decades of building and re enforcing our lives after the second world war, the middle class of this country  began to barely tread water and we never noticed the evil intentions of the "entitled" to turn us into a third world economy. If Occupy did nothing else from now on, they proved their value by waking us all up to the plans and plots already under way for decades.

The last election rousted people all over the country and we turned enmasse against the arrogance and lies thrown out by just one more elitist. The "Trickle Down" economic theory shoved dowm our throats for 40 years are throughly disproved. Our only hope is to harken back to the years when FDR turned us around and helped our country to heal. Whether you love or hate our current president, President Barack Obama, he has proven to most of us that he is just such a man that can heal us.

The Tea Party is fading out, their weird policies of blocking everything that comes up does no good for anyone. Their propensity of seeking out the oddest characters to run for them has bitten them squarely in the butt. They will be a blip on our national screen in years to come. On the other hand, the Occupy Movement has evolved into an organization that collects money and helps people who are hopelessly in debt. Students, mortgage holders and others have benefited from their charity efforts. When did a Tea Partier ever give anyone anything? 

Related articles

Occupy and the 2012 elections

Romney-Lord of the Flies Victim

This picture of Mittens Romney is all over the 'nets today. They are throwing rocks and making fun of him in every way they can think of. It is rather pathetic, if you think about it and it is not just the merry, ol' Democrats. Oh, no, the Repugnats are jumping right on the band wagon and deriding him and jeering at him. Jeez, didn't they love him a couple of weeks ago?  Human nature, it's a bitch.

Red Flower Day

For some reason all the flowers at my house that are blooming are red this week.

 

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They're Always Pokin' At Him

 

 

Here we are, we got Obama re-elected and we're ready to get something done, right? Well, I've been getting this awful feeling about the next four years. After the last term, I figured the righties would have to knock it off and begin to respect Obama for the two term President that he is. Doesn't seem to be how they are playing it, does it? Anything they can think if to slander him, every small, petty idea they can think of, they are leveling it at him. I am old enough to remember how it was with Bill Clinton. If he had been able to govern as a president should, we would have been even better off when he came to the end of his two terms. He helped make our country so much better, all the while hobbled like a bad Shetland pony. Now the Republicans are winding up to do the same thing to President Barack Obama. So, every time we get a great person in, they are going to do everything they can to hamper their work. This may be how it will go, they put some oddious imbecile into the oval office and the mild mannered Democrats just sit back and wait for their turn again. After all, how bad can it be, the Dems think? Well, after that last one, (two wars, huge deficits, huge unemployment and the economy driven into the ditch), the Democrats should think again. Right now they should be putting on their boxing gloves and going right after the Republicans, who think it is perfectly okay to disrupt the  duly elected administration. As I mentioned in a previous post, they are quite simply, whiners and sore losers. We have to get meaner, we have to block every move the Republicans make to obstruct our legally elected President, Barack Obama.

Currently on deck, we have the bitter, resentful has been, John McCain. What is he up to? Just fucking with Obama for fun and profit. He lost in 2008 and he can't seem to get over that. maybe it is because he made such an utter fool of himself with that ridiculous choice for vice president. A shame really, she is a constant reminder of his bad decision making abilities. Oh, I bet that burns. So let's mess with the real winner of that challenge. He has so far ruined any legacy he had earned as a statesman and continues to make himself look more and more foolish every day.

Do the Congressfolk think we aren't paying attention to them as they start to drag their feet and try to make life tough for Obama? No, we are watching you people and you'd better believe we will remember you when 2014 rolls around. The "fiscal cliff" is going to hurt your reputations much worse than it will any Democrat. Obama can't run again so you can't hurt him on a re-election. Even if he hadn't won the last nasty, little contest, he would have gone down in history as the first African-American to be president and there is nothing you can ever to take that away from him. He won though, so he must have done something right. Back to the top, the Republicans are going to do everything they can to limit the impact of his two terms. We can't let them do it. So stand up and speak your mind. Don't let stupid, Faux-news-loving trolls get away with their filthy lies. Don't be afraid of them, they are cowards, you know. Just tell them they are wrong and walk away. If that happens enough times, maybe a glimmer will get through to them. If not, at least we have our dignity, which is something sadly lacking in the Republican bag of tricks.  

Pomegranate Secrets

 

How To De-Seed A Pomegranate with Martha Stewart 

http://youtu.be/Y_KKvqQ2QxUMartha Stewart-how to open a pomegranate

Cry Babies And Sore Losers-Taken From Liberals Unite, An Internet News Magazine

I really wish I wrote as well as this, this man says it all.

Cry Babies And Sore Losers

I’m seeing Americans post photos of our Flag hung upside down because the President won reelection. They’re defending this action as a “Naval sign of distress”. Let me tell you something: you are not on a battleship, you are a manager at McDonalds in Follansbee, WV, and you are in fact, a lunatic.

I’ve avoided “spiking the football” over a great night for the President and for common sense in the Senate – Richard Murdock and Todd Akin deserved more than a loss. But I’ve held off, because I respect, am friends with, and on certain issues agree with, many patriotic Republicans who work hard to make this country a better place and simply disagreed with who should be Commander in Chief. That’s fair and healthy.

And, I also didn’t spike the football because I’ve lost elections before and I know how terrible it feels.

It’s called maturity and not enough people in either party have it.

The following jaw punch is not directed at common sense Republicans, nor does it condone radicals on the Left. It is directed at the right wing fanatics who put party before country, conspiracy before reality, and ideology before science and intellect.

To Tea Party Patriots and hardcore Religious Engineers:

Republicans lost because their party leadership and most candidates feared you, listened to you, and looked the other way on important issues as you picked the dumbest, craziest nominees in key primaries (Murdock and Akin), or converted otherwise sensible, experienced candidates to Crazy Town (Romney).

There’s nothing wrong with wanting limited government. I do. There’s nothing wrong with believing in God, the Golden Rule, or wanting to reduce abortions. I do, too. But you’ve taken it too damn far and scare the shit out of people you could otherwise persuade.

Yes, the message and messenger matter (you’re failing at both, BTW), but no Madison Avenue P.R. firm, K Street lobbying firm, Fox News “analyst”, or local chapter of “Freedom Works” can sell the flaming dung you’re slinging.

Smart people can lose. But smart people always learn.

You didn’t lose because you “weren’t conservative enough” or because the country has become full of lazy “takers” who don’t want to earn a living or just want America to “turn in to Europe”.

You didn’t lose because of Hurricane Sandy or because Chris Christie hugged the President on TV – they were both doing their jobs.

You didn’t lose because of a liberal media, liberal college campuses, liberal polls that were “weighted to Democrats” (mostly because they were accurate), or because of “election fraud”… actually, that probably benefited you this time.

No. You lost because your policies, tone, conspiracies, rigid inflexibility and irrational rhetoric helped align enough moderates, swing voters, and minority groups whom otherwise could be persuaded by Republicans, to align with Democrats and a beatable incumbent.

It’s not that you didn’t get your message out, it’s that we all actually heard it and threw up a little in our mouths.

There isn’t a mandate for Democrats in this election. Liberalism wasn’t rewarded in this election. However, calm pragmatism, compassion, working together, compromise and sincerity were rewarded. People may not have agreed with President Obama, but more felt he was sincere and that he understood their daily problems, fears, and dreams. If you don’t trust what the polls say, take a look at who is sworn in on January 20th. I thought you’d at least believe in Math when it came to counting to 270.

Sincerity is the only thing in politics you can’t fake. You can’t teach it. No matter how shiny a candidate’s bio is, how smooth he is, or how perfect the gray hairs rest on his temples — any average Joe on the street can spot a bullshitter.

Mitt is a generous and good man, but he didn’t know who he was or “needed” to be at any given time in that campaign. That’s largely his fault for lacking core convictions or personal toughness (Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed both traits – that’s why they won).

But you, the right wing base of the party, who drove so many of us moderate republicans out the door years ago, were the main catalyst. Your inability to reason, compromise, or let new facts and evidence challenge your predetermined outcomes led millions of moderates to no longer be able to stand on stage with you.

Frankly, you’re embarrassing – more so than a crazy family member at dinner, or having your mom drop you off at a high school dance.

You say stupid shit and look stupid saying it.

You pass amendments to ban flag burning and then hang it upside down and post it on Facebook when you lose.

You preach limited government in the economy when Democrats are in charge and then look the other way when you’re in charge.

You want a government small enough to stay out of corporations and banks but big enough for bedrooms and hospital respirators (see Schiavo, Terri).

There’s a hatred inside of you that burns in a way that scares normal people.

You made unlikely allies in large corporations who are more interested in tax breaks and loopholes even if the government has to cut your Medicare and Social Security or cut education to a point where states and local governments have no financial choice but to educate your children in portable trailer classrooms with 35 other students.

Would these corporations do this just to help pad their quarterly earnings reports with certain tax and regulatory policies? You bet your sweet ass they do. And you better believe they’re happy to have you make the “freedom” argument as “concerned citizen patriots” on their behalf.

Yet, after those corporations spent billions on TV adds and herded you like sheep over the last half decade to discredit Barack Obama for everything from being a “Godless communist” — to his “being born in Kenya and hatching a secret plot to take down America” — to Obamacare’s “death panels and job killing regulations” -

YOU still lost.

After having a Senate Republican Leader state that his party’s top priority in Congress was to make “Obama a one term President” and a House of Representatives that blocked everything he tried to do and then had the brass to criticize him for “not getting anything done” -

YOU still lost.

After attacking gay people who want equal protection under the law (BTW, I’m referring to the 14th amendment to the constitution, I know you forget most of the amendments after the 2nd one) -

YOU still lost.

After attacking the Hispanic community who’s tired of being spoken “at” like criminals, attacking low income women who rely on Planned Parenthood for services of which 98% have nothing to do with abortion, and attacking relatively trivial things like PBS that children and adults enjoy as “1″ damn television channel that doesn’t include Honey Boo Boo or a “Fox News Breaking Alert” announcing Obama’s latest “Czar” appointment -

YOU still lost.

And after throwing all the red meat in your warped political base out to the rest of the country to eat, the majority of Americans weren’t hungry for it and didn’t trust ordering from your unhealthy, de-regulated menu -

YOU still lost.

You can read me the constitution, but you clearly don’t have a practical understanding of what you’ve read, heard on television, or forwarded to your entire email list of like minded xenophobes.

This country is great because our founders were smart enough to limit the government’s power and give the people enough freedom and authority to correct their own mistakes in pursuit of a “more perfect union” (it’s in the first damn line of the Preamble, in case you can’t find it in your Tea Party Constitution Cliffs Notes).

Our founders were utterly brilliant and sophisticated. I don’t like to speak for them, but I doubt they would have been friends with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. Nah, they wouldn’t have made the guest list at Mt. Vernon or Monticello.

But let’s be clear, our founders weren’t perfect. They owned slaves. Only White male property owners had a say in things. Women, blacks, native americans, and other constituencies had to wait for an American dream and in many cases, are still waiting and working for it. Speaking of work, children were working 12-16 hour days with zero safety protections in statute. Zero.

The constitution, subsequent amendments and Supreme Court rulings and opinions since 1800 aren’t perfectly clear (those who think they are tend to have had a healthy serving of Kool-Aid and have never watched oral arguments at the Supreme Court).

The founders knew that they, and the constitution they drafted, weren’t perfect. This is why they added a Bill of Rights and why they created a Supreme Court and a process that has allowed us to add 27 amendments to their work of art.

Their imperfection is what led to a Civil War to prove that human and civil rights aren’t a “states’ rights issue” – they’re endowed by our creator, not by legislatures in Mississippi or Alabama, and they’re protected equally in our constitution, but also in our democratically passed laws.

I run from the Capitol steps to the Lincoln Memorial most mornings that I’m in Washington. I may not be fast or smart, but I can read what’s carved in stone.

Please. I welcome a challenge to what I’ve said. If you think because I voted for President Obama that I’m a socialist or that I don’t want a better America, I’m happy to take time from running a business I’ve co-founded and time from money I’m trying to raise for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America to pause and give you a fresh one. At no charge.

But I do ask this: be a real Patriot. Look at that flag you’ve hung upside down. Look at what you’ve done to it and what that means. Thousands of our bravest men and women, braver than me, just lost limbs and in many cases their lives so that Iraqis and Afghanis could vote however they see fit. I did that on Tuesday and so did you. That’s what that flag stands for – equal access to a process, not a guarantee for any of our desired outcomes.

A country that defeated Hitler, Mussolini, and bin Laden won’t crumble because the guy you wanted to be President got beat.

You lost. Now learn from it.

Sincerely,

Guest Contributor, Rob Ellsworth, “A Proud American”