Some More Medicine ...

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HA!HA!HA!

Oh boy - The Gadfly truly and dearly needed that.

----TFG

Laughter --- Truly The Best Medicine...

Some times when The Gadfly is just having a shitty day, he goes and looks for the latest Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert clips.

Today it's Mr. Colbert doing the task of lifting The Gadfly's spirits:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

LMFAO!

Thank you Stephen.


----TFG

Sigh . . . .

There is an old saying - something to the effect that people who fail to learn lessons from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them over and over again:

Goldman to Invest in City Jail Program, Profiting if Recidivism Falls Sharply

New York City, embracing an experimental mechanism for financing social services that has excited and worried government reformers around the world, will allow Goldman Sachs to invest nearly $10 million in a jail program, with the pledge that the financial services giant would profit if the program succeeded in significantly reducing recidivism rates.

The city will be the first in the United States to test “social impact bonds,” also called pay-for-success bonds, which are an effort to find new ways to finance initiatives that might save governments money over the long term.

... Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to announce on Thursday that Goldman Sachs will provide a $9.6 million loan to pay for a new four-year program intended to reduce the rate at which adolescent men incarcerated at Rikers Island reoffend after their release.

...The Goldman money will be used to pay MDRC, a social services provider, to design and oversee the program. If the program reduces recidivism by 10 percent, Goldman would be repaid the full $9.6 million; if recidivism drops more, Goldman could make as much as $2.1 million in profit; if recidivism does not drop by at least 10 percent, Goldman would lose as much as $2.4 million….

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/nyregion/goldman-to-invest-in-new-york-city-jail-program.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all


Really NYC?  After everything that has occurred to the world economy these past 4 years, and knowing full well that the Vampire Squids of Goldman Sachs were key participants in that criminal gambling spree that has devastated millions of people's lives?

Just ask the good citizens of Jefferson County, Alabama what it has been like doing business with the Goldman Sachs types of the world of high finance:

By Matt Taibbi
March 31, 2010 8:15 AM ET

Looting Main Street

If you want to know what life in the Third World is like, just ask Lisa Pack, an administrative assistant who works in the roads and transportation department in Jefferson County, Alabama. Pack got rudely introduced to life in post-crisis America last August, when word came down that she and 1,000 of her fellow public employees would have to take a little unpaid vacation for a while. The county, it turned out, was more than $5 billion in debt — meaning that courthouses, jails and sheriff's precincts had to be closed so that Wall Street banks could be paid.

Homes stood empty, businesses were boarded up, and parts of already-blighted Birmingham began to take on the feel of a ghost town. There were also a few bills that were unique to the area — like the $64 sewer bill that Pack and her family paid each month. "Yeah, it went up about 400 percent just over the past few years," she says.

The sewer bill, in fact, is what cost Pack and her co-workers their jobs. In 1996, the average monthly sewer bill for a family of four in Birmingham was only $14.71 — but that was before the county decided to build an elaborate new sewer system with the help of out-of-state financial wizards with names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The result was a monstrous pile of borrowed money that the county used to build, in essence, the world's grandest toilet — "the Taj Mahal of sewer-treatment plants" is how one county worker put it. What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street — and misery for people like Lisa Pack.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/looting-main-street-20100331


Sometimes I just find it difficult to feel empathy for the suffering that is going on in this country -- all due to the fact that We The People created the conditions for that suffering and then we go and look to the same bastards who created that suffering to begin with for relief.

It's just all so fucking maddening.


----TFG

Chik-Fil-A . . . A Cult By Pure Definition

Jeebus!  These people are just downright creepy - and scary:
 

The fast-food purveyor seeks loyal employees and operators who believe serving chicken is God's work. Careful screening of new hires keeps it out of trouble.

 "We tell applicants, 'If you don't intend to be here for life, you needn't apply,'" says Cathy, who opened his first restaurant in 1946.That's not the only company mandate. Chick-fil-A's corporate mission, as stated on a plaque at company headquarters (and by Cathy), is to "glorify God." It is the only national fast-food chain that closes on Sunday so operators can go to church and spend time with their families; franchisees who don't go along with the rule risk having their contracts terminated. Company meetings and retreats include prayers, and the company encourages franchisees to market their restaurants through church groups.

The Forbes article goes into much more depth on the pious business activities of these people:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0723/080.html


After reading that article -- tell me it isn't a cult based on the standard dictionary definition:

cult

noun, often attributive \ˈkəlt\

Definition of CULT

1  : formal religious veneration : worship

 

2  : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents 

3  : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents 

4  : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>

 

5  a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

Frankly, The Gadfly could care less whether the CEO and his brain-washed offspring have a hateful, biblical world view when it comes to gay people - they certainly have a right to their views as defined in our constitution.  The Gadfly, however, most certainly cares that they are using their economic might to proselytize their employees and demand obeisance to a perverse version of their own Dark Ages religious beliefs.

And since by all accounts, that is exactly what they are doing, it is only fair then that those of us who wholly disagree with them have the right to criticize them publicly and organize boycotts of their products accordingly.  It really is no different than the original Tea Partiers of the 1770's Boston boycotting tea imported from The East India Tea Company and eventually driving that company out of business by refusing their product.

You see - if there is one concept that these religio-whacko people always fail to grasp -- it is that this freedom of speech and freedom of religion stuff, which is enshrined in OUR constitution (much to the fundamentalist nut's chagrin I'm sure), is a two-way street.


----TFG

We Are All Just Soylent Green To Them . . .

This is the America that the Koch Brothers and their ilk want to see come to fruition.  And the TeaTards, like sheep being led to slaughter, are their dim-witted, willing accomplices:

The share of the economy made up by low-wage jobs has grown since the Great Recession, and according to one new study, it won’t shrink in the future even as the economy continues to recover. The number of Americans working in low-wage jobs — those that pay wages equal to or below the poverty line — will remain steady over the next decade, according to the Economic Policy Institute, as CNNMoney reports:

Some 28% of workers are expected to hold low-wage jobs in 2020, roughly the same percentage as in 2010, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
The study defines low-paying jobs as those with wages at or below what full-time workers must earn to live above the poverty level for a family of four. In 2011, this was $23,005, or $11.06 an hour.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/02/627021/workers-low-wage-jobs/


The Gadfly has no doubt that seeing news like this has the Rove and Koch creatures spontaneously jizzing in their silk underwear with inexhaustible glee.

One out of every 4 American workers stuck in a life of being nothing more than a paycheck-to-paycheck living indentured servant, and no opportunities for economic advancement short of selling one's soul in exchange for even more crushing debt in the form of a high interest loan in order to attend one of these new for-profit "Universities" that are popping up all over the country like maggots out of a pile of cow dung on a hot sunny day.  "Higher learning" they call it.  For the amount of money they are charging people to attend these "Universities" they ought to just simply request that the borrower give up their first born child as a usury bond in the event the borrower is unable to pay back the shark-finned loan.

It is Corporatocracy in it's finest form, and is just another nail in the coffin of what used to be the lifeblood of this country's societal structure - a vibrant middle class that offered opportunities for all to succeed economically for themselves and their families and ultimately realize that ubiquitous American dream we all strive for.

The Gadfly still has some hope that enough people will come to their senses in his lifetime to realize the extent to which the plutocrats are enslaving them and their future generations to lives of miserable serfdom.  Unfortunately, the stoopid is strong in this country Obi-Wan -- and therefore that hope is not much more than a single wispy cloud on the far horizon of a clear, blue sky day.  But even though The Gadfly still has that sliver of hope that things will change, every passing day brings more news which chips away at that fragile sliver and has him beginning to think that maybe George Carlin was right when he spoke about this [ skip to the 2:13:47 mark and watch thru to 2:20:14 mark ]:




----TFG

Tyranny Through Ignorance - The Right's Final Solution . . .

Former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett, as quoted in the photo above, is absolutely correct.

If the following quotes re: the women's health care provisions kicking in today fail to prove once and for all that the far right conservatives in this country are just plain and simple batshit fucking insane, and should not ever [ E V E R! ] be allowed anywhere near the levers of government power, I don't know what will:

House Republicans called the Obama administration's birth-control mandate "religious bigotry" and compared it to the events of Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001.

The heated remarks came at a press conference marking the mandate's first day.

"I know in your mind you can think of the times America was attacked," said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), a freshman.

"One is December 7 — that is Pearl Harbor Day. Another was September 11 — that was the day of the terrorist attack.

"I want you to remember August 1, 2012 — the attack on our religious freedom. That is a date that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/241595-gop-lawmakers-birth-control-mandate-is-bigotry-akin-to-pearl-harbor-911


So basically what the batshit fucking insane wing nuts are saying is that providing contraception and the following medical services to women is no different than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 terrorist attacks:

Breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, as well as access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women.

Contraception: Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling, not including abortifacient drugs.

Domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling for all women.

Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening and counseling for sexually active women.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) counseling for sexually active women.

Well-woman visits to obtain recommended preventive services for women under 65.

It has reached the no-return point that I just simply now despise these people with every fiber of my living being.  I wish we could just give them all a couple of landlocked states like Idaho and Montana, build a 200 foot high wall around the whole fucking place, put them all in it and let them rat fuck each other into extinction.  I wish for it and dream of it.


----TFG


**UPDATE**


Here's a video explaining the benefits that basic access to contraception contributes to the overall health and well being of American society as a whole, and why it is vitally important to shout down the brain dead ass hats like the Republican rep above who equate it with war and mass murder:





It's a fucking crying shame, not to mention a national embarrassment, that here we are in the year 2012 and shit like this even needs to be explained to the dumb-as-a-doorknob, moron conservatives in this country.


----TFG

Conservatives Find Another Cause To Declare War On - The Act of Voting

Hmmm - let's see -- the Pennsylvania GOP rush through state voter ID legislation just a couple of months before a presidential election and the state's top election official cannot even explain in a court hearing what the law stipulates.

Secretary of Commonwealth Carol Aichele on the fifth day of a trial over Pennsylvania's voter identification law testified at one point that she didn't know what the law said.

She was asked about the details of the law by a lawyer for the plaintiffs, and at one point responded, "I don’t know what the law says," according to CBS.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/31/carol-aichele-pennsylvania-voter-id_n_1725988.html


It speaks volumes about how desperate conservatives are to keep as many Democrats from exercising their constitutional right to vote on election day as they possibly can through legislative chicanery.  It also speaks volumes about how un-American they are for doing so.  That's fucking right - I said UN-AMERICAN!

Not only is the state of Pennsylvania's top election official totally clueless as to the details of this purportedly very important new law which they CLAIM is designed to protect the integrity of the state's voting process, the same election officials have also signed off on a legal deposition related to the court case which states that "There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/pennsylvania-voter-id-trial_n_1697980.html

So you get it?  On one hand they claim rampant voter fraud exists which prompted the draconian voter ID legislation to be rushed and signed into law, yet on the other hand they have signed a legal deposition which states that they have no knowledge of in-person voter fraud events under investigation either in their own state or knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions anywhere else in the country.

These people are frauds and liars and the fact that they would deliberately use their legislative powers in an attempt to deny their fellow Americans the right to participate in the nation's electoral process makes them national traitors in my eyes. Un-American, dishonorable and cowardly traitors.


----TFG

Ummmmmm - No.

One of Fox blowhard Bill O'Reilly's ass kissing hacks, Bernard Goldberg, claims Democrats are too stupid to vote - I am presuming solely because they don't vote for corporate bought and paid for Republican candidates:

Bernie G apparently hasn't seen the multiple independent studies that show Fox viewers are significantly more uninformed on the major issues of the day - even more so than viewers of  comedy shows like Jon Stewart's 'The Daily Show' and Stephen Colbert's 'The Colbert Report.'

Here's the proof:  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/11/22/374434/fox-news-viewers-misinformed-study-jon-stewart/

I love it when the righties just openly lie to their viewers.  For someone like me who has made a hobby of debunking right wing bullshit and misinformation, it just makes my task of performing that hobby all the more easier.

----TFG

Just Think About It -- That is All That Can Be Asked....

Let us set aside our political, philosophical and religious differences for a moment.

If you have children or grand children and care at all about the future life they are going to be experiencing, or if you are a young person looking forward to a long, peaceful and satisfying quality of life, please watch this video interview by Bill Moyers of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and award winning war correspondent Chris Hedges:

If it is the only online opinion piece you watch all year - make it this one.  If what Hedges is talking about and predicting comes to pass, it will undoubtedly affect you regardless of the political party you support, regardless of your skin color, regardless of your religious views, regardless of your socio-economic status and regardless of your own views of what exactly it is which equates your being an American to being a uniquely fortunate human being:

For an in-depth view of the work by Hedges, check out his book, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt."  Here's a link to Amazon for the book:  [ Click Here ].

It is vitally important that we the people get a clearer understanding that what is happening in America is not a right/left, Democrat/Republican, white/non-white or believer/non-believer situation.  To a certain extent, it is not even a rich/poor issue.  It is a condition that has been brought about due to our view of the distorted role in which we have allowed unfettered, unaccountable capitalism to play in the progression and continued viability of, not just our democracy, but also our shared human experience.  It is, quite literally, the discussion about whether our children and grand children will live to see either survive.

----TFG

The Limeys Sour on The Willard . . .

Looks like the Brits, similar to John McCain during his 2008 VEEP vetting process, were totally unimpressed, and perhaps even annoyed by, the whirlwind visit of the GOP's empty designer suit - Willard M. Romney:

In his first trip abroad as a presidential candidate, Mitt Romney intended to show off his strength as a statesman. Instead, he made a number of bungles -- and in their traditional fashion, the British press tore him apart for it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57481007-503544/brit-papers-blast-mitt-romney/


Hell - even Britain's right leaning press couldn't find much of anything positive to say about America's self-styled aristocrat.  I mean, you have to admit it - when even the right leaning media is blithely comparing your party's Presidential nominee to Sarah Palin, that's got to fucking hurt man:

The Times, a center-right publication, ran a couple harsh headlines, including "PM delivers Olympic putdown to Romney." That article cites two unnamed "diplomatic" sources, one of whom says of Romney's visit: "It is worse than Sarah Palin in terms of basic diplomacy." The other source said of Romney: "There is none of the stardust of his opponent."

LMFAO!


----TFG