Equal pay issue highlights the Republican’s war on women

The battle currently underway over equal pay for women reveals once again that conservatives are far more interested in pleasing their corporate overlords and defending their medieval ideology than finding solutions to real world problems. The arguments against equal pay are nonsensical at best and blatantly misogynistic at worst.

How can you genuinely argue that it’s okay to pay a woman less than a man for doing the same job? How do you force yourself to believe that? As with the abortion issue, conservatives have no problem with treating women as second-class citizens who don’t deserve the same rights as men. Republicans in congress call the wage gap issue a political stunt by Democrats. I doubt the majority of women in the workforce consider equal pay a partisan stunt.

Why would any woman vote for a Republican? Many of the programs that Congressional Republicans want to cut spending for, like Medicaid, food stamps and child-care assistance, are predominantly assisting women with children. Republicans deny they are waging a war on women, but if you judge them by their actions and their rhetoric, it’s clear they think of women as inferior beings.

It will always be the 15^th century for conservatives.

Being liberal or conservative is more hard wired than previously thought

I just read an interesting article in Mother Jones exploring current research into the physiological foundation for our liberal or conservative view of the world. The work of political scientist John Hibbing and others is pointing toward the notion that our political outlook is more hardwired, more closely woven into the fabric of our being, than previously realized.

Hibbing’s research finds that conservatives tend to focus more on negative stimuli in the world around them than liberals, and in response, build up ideological defenses against these perceived threats. The bottom line, according to Hibbing’s work is that liberals and conservatives see the world through different lenses or filters and that this divide is the result of more than simply environmental factors or familial preferences. It explains how two people (liberal and conservative) can watch the same debate and come away with completely different interpretations of the event. They are literally seeing different debates. People cannot fully control their political beliefs, says Hibbing, any more than they can control their sexual orientation or left/right handedness.

If you go to the comments section, you will find a lot of angry conservative responses to these findings as there has been for other research articles in this arena. This is highly emotional and controversial stuff and I feel like we’re still left with the question, “What do we do with this knowledge?” Despite the fact that at our particular point in history the conservative/liberal divide seems to be as wide s the Grand Canyon and intractable, it’s also as old as man and is perhaps a necessary friction for our growth as humans.

To the 99 percent: When will enough be enough?

I hear the call for mass action growing louder and louder every day. Frustration is building to a critical level over the complete disconnect of the 99 percent from what is supposed to be their government, the arrogant and criminal conduct of the elites who control the economy and the unconstitutional activities of the ever expanding surveillance state. We the people are clearly no longer in control of this country, and our inability to exercise any needed changes in the way things are done in Washington, D.C. is creating a deepening layer of angry, desperate Americans.

The Supreme Court is reducing elections to bidding wars between billionaires for the most obedient lackey. Congress is an ineffective joke. The economy is stagnant, and over half the American public is living at or near poverty. Republicans at the state and national level are successfully enacting policies to undermine women’s rights and cut the remaining threads of America’s safety net. The surveillance state is out of control and there is no one courageous enough or strong enough to rein it in. Our drones routinely kill innocent citizens in foreign countries. The majority of Americans do not support any of this, but no one is listening.

The need to make our voices heard is reaching a critical point. We must stop imagining that what’s going on in our country right now is abstract and only affects the other guy. It’s very real and personal for me. I have three boys and I know that the self-serving, cynical decisions made in Washington today are going to result in a very bleak future for them. If nothing changes, at the end of my life I am going to leave this country in much, much worse shape than it was when I was born, and that saddens me deeply. I can’t blame my children for looking at me some day and asking, “How did you let this happen?”

Non-violent protests in the past have been effective. In the 1960s they forced the government to establish laws making centuries-old racial discrimination illegal. Massive protests eventually ended our disastrous war in Vietnam. We need to rekindle that righteous anger today. In fact, I would argue that the crossroads we are at today could be the most crucial juncture in our country’s history since the civil war. Somehow, some way, we must make our voices heard.

Let’s consider term limits for Supreme Court justices

As the Supreme Court (I should say, the conservative majority in the Supreme Court) hands down decision after decision in favor of corporate and moneyed interests, the idea of term limits for Supreme Court justices is getting some traction. I think this is a good idea. The old argument that lifetime appointments to the court would free justices from the bipartisan ping pong match played by the other two branches of government just doesn’t ring true anymore.

            I don’t think anything could be worse than having a court majority of arch-conservative corporate stooges who could be passing out damaging decisions for the next two or three decades.

I suggest limits of ten years on the bench. This would give a particular court enough time to establish its agenda, but still allow for the court to change its perspective and add new blood in a reasonable amount of time.

Privacy is a thing of the past

Snowden’s documents have made us aware of the most glaring intelligence abuses of the NSA, but as someone who follows numerous alternative news sites, even I was amazed and deeply disturbed by how many devious avenues our government has in place right now to spy on its citizen. The Bloomberg Business Week article here presents a detailed graphic of the myriad ways in which your private data can be intercepted and stored by the government.

The U.S. surveillance monster has tentacles reaching into every aspect of our daily lives, seeing, hearing and monitoring everything we do. As prescient as Orwell was about the future, even he could not have imagined a scenario like the one in which we find ourselves today. Unless you go completely off the grid to a cave in the Yukon, privacy is a thing of the past.

We have completely lost control of our government.

Americans: Dumb and proud of it

It seems the Christian right has its panties in a knot because Neil deGrasse Tyson, the host of the rebooted Cosmos series, won’t include creationism in his show. His SCIENCE show. Yes, I’m shaking my head too, but it’s true. In 21^st century America, we have a substantial portion of the population that cannot distinguish between science and superstition.

Treating creationism seriously in Cosmos would be like including unicorns in a documentary about animals. As a clever writer in Salon pointed out, why not cover other more interesting creation myths like the ancient Greek or Egyptian versions? We all know the bible story backwards and forewords.

You know your country is in trouble when your House Committee on Science, Space and Technology is packed with climate change deniers, Luddites and creationists. The confounding thing is that Christian fundamentalists seem to relish their ignorance. Just watch five minutes of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club if you don’t believe me. We don’t need to be smart or even make sense. We’ve got Jesus.

We (American voters) have to take some of the blame for this as we continue sending imbeciles like Michele Bachmann, Darrell Issa and Steve King back to Washington. Maybe we should have a national intelligence requirement (IQ over 70?) for voting. Seems like we need to do something before we dumb ourselves down to the point of extinction.

Supreme Court ruling is death knell for democracy

The Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision allowing a donor to contribute millions of hard dollars -- in limited contributions -- to political parties, candidates and political action committees is essentially the final nail in the coffin of fair, democratic elections in this country.

This is a huge win for Republicans who rely on cranky white billionaires and large corporations for a lot of their campaign contributions. Now the wealthy can skew the political system even further toward their interests and farther from the vision of democracy championed by our founders.

Making the absurd observation that influence and access are not a corruption concern, Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas handed this country’s future over to the elites whose only allegiance is to the bottom line. I don’t believe there has ever been a time in our country’s history where the will of the people has been so callously disregarded by those in power.

We’re no longer on the road to an oligarchy, we’ve arrived.

            

New story at "They're Only Shadows"

I've posted a new short story titled The Eyes of John Abbott at They're Only Shadows. Here's a brief excerpt:

Jennifer ran through the litany of the odd events of the past few months with Clio nodding knowingly and shaking her head in disbelief in equal measures. When Jennifer finished, Clio took off her glasses and pinched the space between her eyes as if physically trying to contain what she just heard. Leaning to one side on an elbow, she met Jennifer’s expectant glance. “I believe you are under attack from a demonic presence.”

The earth paused in its orbit for a moment, rivers reversed course, and Jennifer tried to maintain decorum, but could not. A messy, blustery laugh escaped despite her best efforts. She covered her mouth to try and contain the damage, but it was too late. Clio’s lips pursed and her body language became defensive.

“I’m sorry. So sorry, but demons?”

“You asked.”

“About the symbols. What they mean.”

“Bloody handprints, the all-seeing eye, the sacrificial animal, a dark man hanging around…they clearly point to the presence of an evil entity.”

“But Aunt Clio, I don’t believe in that stuff. There’s nothing that I’ve told you about that couldn’t be done by a human being. I mean, this hooded person has been seen on the property twice now. I don’t know why, but he’s trying to scare me.”

“Are you absolutely sure that’s all it is?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound dismissive.”

Clio looked down at her lap with a knowing smile. “The wine is nice. Could I get a little more?”

And then she said, "That's going too far!"

I've been writing this blog for ten years now, and I've never done this before. No, not lick the monitor. Self promotion.

If you end up here for some reason (you mistyped the URL for a porn site), and perhaps you enjoyed something you read, tell a friend who you think might also appreciate political observations and satire from a progressive perspective. Best of all, it won't cost you a penny.

As a 10-year anniversary limited time special offer, if you refer a friend and that friend posts a comment, I'll send you an autographed photo of me wearing a mankini dancing to the Butthole Surfers from a boom box in Times Square.

Time's up.

Many questions still surround Malaysia Flight 370

Something seems a bit off to me about the Malaysian government’s recent announcement that missing Flight 370 definitely went into the Indian Ocean killing all passengers. The evidence for this can hardly be considered airtight. An article about the crash in the Huffington Post explains it this way:

The conclusions were based on a thorough analysis of the brief signals the plane sent every hour to a satellite belonging to Inmarsat, a British company, even after other communication systems on the jetliner shut down for unknown reasons.

Relatives of the passengers are understandably upset, and some suspect, as I do, that the announcement that the flight crashed into the sea had as much to do with trying to appease the families with closure as it did with finding conclusive new evidence. It is a logical assumption that the plane probably did go down, but I’m skeptical of the definitive explanation given by Malaysian officials.

Even beyond this, there are dozens of other questions that remain unanswered. Why did the plane go off course so dramatically? Why was the transponder and other tracking devices turned off? Was it hijacked? Were there explosives on board?

It’s a big planet with deep oceans, and unfortunately, we may never get these questions answered.

Spy agencies turning to Snowden as convenient scapegoat

In something of a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the failure of our intelligence agencies to foresee Russia’s plan to invade Crimea, there’s this: It’s Edward Snowden’s fault.

According to an article in today’s BuzzFeed, hints and whispers coming out of the surveillance community are about trying to pin our Crimea intelligence failure on leaked Snowden documents. They somehow gave Russia a leg up on our spooks. Sorry, I just snorted coffee out of my nose. I’ve also heard that climate change and the Washington landslide are being pinned on Mr. Snowden.

There seems to be a large group within the intelligence community who really, really hate Edward Snowden, and it’s clear they will stoop to anything to try and discredit him. As is apparent, they’re not above shifting blame for their own failures to the fugitive hacker. The charges are ludicrous, but even if they weren’t, our spy agencies know that Snowden is not in a position where he can defend himself, so they can make up pretty much anything about him and toss it to the media. Glenn Greenwald does a pretty good job of batting back the insane claims of the agencies, but it’s a large task to take on.

We need to take anything and everything Washington, D.C. says about Edward Snowden with a huge grain of salt.

Our navel-gazing spy agencies miss the big picture

Seems the CIA, NSA and every other acronym in the government’s alphabet soup of spy agencies missed the Russian invasion of Crimea. The Ruskies somehow cloaked their communications, and ooops, slipped into another country before our spooks had their second cup of coffee. They could probably write a five-page report on what I had for lunch yesterday, but couldn’t see one of the world’s largest militaries mass at their border and invade a neighboring country.

Could it be that their attention was focused inward, instead of on the real threats that exist in the world? The expenditure of billions of dollars and many thousands of man hours spying on innocent Americans is, beyond the legal and constitutional ramifications, a huge waste of time and energy and one that undoubtedly distracts our spies from focusing on actual threats.

A few members of congress are asking for an investigation into our surveillance agencies and their activities. I wish I could be optimistic about this, but I know what’s going to happen. If an actual investigation becomes a reality, the agencies and the president will only allow it if everything is kept secret. National security, you know. We will continue to be kept in the dark, maybe thrown a few bones of “reform,” and then the spooks will return to business as usual. And our country will once again not see the forest for the trees.

My new short story blog - They're Only Shadows

I have created a new blog featuring my short stories called "They're Only Shadows." If you're into horror, suspense or supernatural stories, please check it out here. Thanks.

The secret to becoming a billionaire: A psych evaluation

Yet another billionaire has issued another apology for comparing critics of income inequality to Nazis. This time it’s Home Depot founder and long-time GOP supporter Ken Langone. The only conclusion I can come to after the recent string of tone-deaf billionaire bloopers is that our wealthiest citizens are truly clueless about the world that lies beneath their penthouses. Is it simply willful ignorance or something more innate?

There have been articles published in recent years about how many clinical sociopaths there are in the C-suits of large companies. These are charismatic people who are incapable of experiencing guilt or shame for their actions and rarely apologize for their behavior (unless forced to). They are also very manipulative and constantly try to influence and dominate others. Sound familiar? If you want to become a billionaire in America (and probably other countries as well) you need to possess the characteristics of a sociopath.

This is a sad commentary on what it takes to achieve wealth in the twenty-first century.

They come after you. Pelosi admits reps are cowed by intelligence community

Back in October I wrote a post speculating that the reason why Congress has been so lax in its oversight of the CIA and NSA is that the House and Senate members know that if they push too hard, these surveillance agencies could come after them with embarrassing information. No one has any firm evidence that this is the case, but it did seem to make sense to me as a distinct possibility. Now, however, there is some indication that this may in fact be something more than speculation. According to a March 13 article in Roll Call, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi praised Sen. Diane Feinstein’s courage for alleging the CIA spied on members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in this statement.

“I salute Sen. Feinstein. I’ll tell you, you take on the intelligence community, you’re a person of courage, and she does not do that lightly. Not without evidence, and when I say evidence, documentation of what it is that she is putting forth. You don’t fight it without a price because they come after you and they don’t always tell the truth.”

They come after you. Here is the most powerful person in the House of Representatives telling the American people that even if you’re a Senator or Congressperson, the intelligence community will seek retribution if you cross them. Isn’t this admitting that blackmail is being used to keep representatives in line? Again, I’m sure that it is not overt. No one has spell this out. You just know that if you get on the bad side of the NSA or CIA, embarrassing events from your past can suddenly become very public. And, as Pelosi states, they’re not above making up shit about you.

How do you rein in a monster like this? Who has the guts to even try?