A Thursday “Wake Up You Dumbshits” Rant

When will Americans stop rewarding stupidity and greed? How is it possible we have three branches of government filled with ignorant, self-serving, superstitious cretins who consistently neglect the needs of average Americans because they are too busy spit polishing the alligator loafers of the .01 percent? The keys of power in America are in the hands of men and women who have created a religious ideology that excuses their horribleness and forgives their blatant sins against humanity.

I wouldn’t even call what they believe in Christianity. It is a bastardized offspring that has cherry-picked the Bible and Ayn Rand to justify hate, bigotry and greed. Science is a buffet line to them where they pick and choose the facts they agree with and ignore those that are not to their liking or that displease their corporate masters.

The only talent these buffoons have is at being hyperbolic demagogues, conning their followers with their uber patriotism and nationalistic jingoism. They know exactly what buttons to push to make old white people cry as they paint a sugar-dipped Rockwellian picture of America’s past that never actually existed. They are con artists, adept at getting gullible, poorly informed citizens to vote against their best interests and to support the interests of the wealthiest Americans.

We need a great awakening. We must wake up the people who have been drugged into complacency and blind acceptance by the mainstream media and the Right-Wing megaphone to the realization that they are being dangerously mislead by those who only pretend to have their best interests at heart. And it has to happen soon because we are running out of time. Our downhill course as a nation is gaining momentum every day.

Watch what you say around your toaster: The current state of U.S. surveillance

It is not a conspiracy theory to say that Americans are losing their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms at an alarming rate. “Losing” isn’t quite the right word. They are being taken from us by the U.S. government in the name of security. Whether or not you have ever committed a crime in your life, whether you have everything or nothing to hide, you are probably being monitored by our government in one way or another.

I’m no terrorist. Why me, you ask? Because they can, and here’s how:

• Police can track you and your car through an automated license plate reader (ALPR), which is now being used by many U.S. law enforcement agencies.
• Elementary school students might soon be required to wear a garment with a microchip in it to track their movements. It’s happening now in select schools around the country.
• Secret government documents, published by the media in 2013, confirm the NSA obtains full copies of everything that is carried along major domestic fiber optic cable networks. It is intercepting and storing virtually all digital communications on the Internet.
• The government takes photos of the envelopes of every piece of “snail mail” that is sent.
• Nearly two-thirds of the American public – 197.4 million people – live within a “constitution-free zone” within 100 miles of land and coastal borders. The safeguards guaranteed by the Constitution do not apply in these areas.
• Surveillance cameras, traffic cameras and surveillance drones have become ubiquitous. By 2020, about 30,000 unmanned drones are expected to be deployed in the United States for the purpose of surveillance and law enforcement.
• The U.S. government is currently running at least 30 separate mass surveillance programs (There are probably many others that are secret).
• Your cell phone and vehicle location can be monitored by “Stingrays,” false cell phone towers containing sophisticated spyware that can capture your cell phone calls.
• It was recently revealed that Ancestry.com gave Idaho police DNA samples they had received for genealogical searches of family histories. The police had no warrant or court order for the DNA.
• It goes without saying the government is likely capturing your cell phone conversations, but the FBI now has equipment that can activate your phone’s microphone and listen to your conversations when you think the phone is off.
• Customs officials can search your computer or other electronic devices for no reason.
• Government agents have been caught attaching GPS devices to cars of people who have not committed or been charged with any crime.
• Children at schools around the country are conducting security drills that would simulate a lockdown, bomb threat, active shooter or terrorist attack.
• Special high-tech streetlamps are being installed in American cities that can be used as surveillance cameras or to record personal conversations.
• The FBI, the Pentagon, Homeland Security and at least 40 other agencies routinely spy on and infiltrate peace groups like the War Resisters League, Code Pink, and United for Peace and Justice, as well as the Occupy movement.
• The TSA is moving beyond airport security and is now conducting inspections at subway stations, bus terminals, ports and highway rest stops.
• Privacy International, a group that monitors the surveillance policies of nations around the world, ranks America as one of the most invasive and abusive surveillance states on the planet.
• The government has the ability to spy on you through your computer’s webcam or microphone.
• In 2013, leaked NSA files revealed that tech companies (Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) had cooperated with US authorities to facilitate monitoring of people’s use of their applications, like email and social media platforms.
• “Black boxes” are currently installed in between 90% and 96% of all new cars. And starting in 2014, all new cars will include black boxes that can track your location.
• Our government has the ability to spy on you through “smart appliances” connected to the Internet. We now have to watch what we say in front of our toasters.
• The government is currently testing a surveillance system called FAST that, when installed, measures a variety of physiological indicators, ranging from heart rate to the steadiness of a person’s gaze, to judge a subject’s state of mind. FAST relies on non-contact sensors, so it can measure indicators as someone walks through a corridor at an airport, and it does not depend on active questioning of the subject. It’s called a “Pre-crime” sensing device.

The Kochenstein Monster Lives

Without question, the biggest news of the weekend (sorry, Mayweather) was the announcements by former neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former head of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina that they are running for President. Wow. A surgeon who knows how to fix brains, but doesn’t understand how they work and a former business dynamo who was consistently rated the worst CEO in America have joined the field of Republican luminaries campaigning for America’s top job.

There is actually only one Republican running for President, but it has five faces  (and could end up having as many as 13).  This multi-headed monstrosity is the creation of the evil Koch brothers whom we also have to thank for the Tea Party, which visibly sustains the hideous creature. The Kochenstein monster answers only to its masters and speaks in one voice, advocating regressive, repressive policies that are favored by the criminally insane and old white people with dementia.

If I were a rich man, I would award a large sum of money to anyone who could identify a significant policy difference between any of the current Republican candidates. They all speak Tea Party, a language filled with code words and dog whistles that provides a thin veil over their true racist, elitist, greedy selves. They are united in their hatred of Obama and his accomplishments, blaming everything from the Baltimore riots to Dutch Elm disease on the socialist, foreign-born uppity negro.

At least in the Democratic race there is a clear choice between a very moderate establishment candidate and a boat-rocking progressive socialist, but on the Republican side there are many different faces, but they are all saying the same things.

The Kochenstein monster stumbles forward, its mass increasing as its mind shrinks, terrorizing many in its path as it lurches towards its final destination: Washington, D.C. It’s time to grab the pitchforks and light the torches.

Amateur Painter From Texas Offers Obama Advice

Coverage of the Baltimore riots reveals the media's true bias

These are two of the most enduring lies promulgated by conservatives: Taxes are evil and the news media in America is liberal. They are both nonsense, but the latter lie should (but won’t) be laid to rest after a week of news coverage on the Baltimore riots.

What flickered by on our screens and monitors was the blatant and clumsy attempt to create a narrative that serves the interests of this country’s corporate elite rather than the truth. From Wolf Blitzer to Geraldo Rivera to CNN’s Erin Burnett, the narrative has been this: Look at those black kids breaking windows and setting things on fire. Isn’t that horrible? Say it with me, “that’s horrible.” To their credit, a number of interviewees pushed back and said no, that’s not the narrative from the black community’s point of view. Our narrative is this: Police officers are murdering unarmed black people, and their police superiors and the courts are not bringing these criminal cops to justice.

The media’s focus on acts of violence is like a doctor treating a skin rash and not considering the internal issues causing the rash. Video of people running amok in city streets is much more enticing than graphs and data about police violence and murder in black communities, and it also serves to confirm the biases and bigotry of the news media’s advertisers and older, white demographic.

Coverage of the Baltimore riots lays bare the corporate media’s servitude to the interests of the elites. It’s 2015 and whistleblowers are jailed instead of those responsible for the criminal acts they revealed, major financial institutions and Wall Street are exempt from the law, and cops can still get away with murdering black people. These are clear signs of a democracy in decline.

Be Prepared For a Long, Hot Summer

As a teenager in the 1960s, I can remember clearly the televised images of the riots that erupted in a number of American cities. It was as if there were embers floating through the air that landed on gas soaked rags in city after city. In Newark, Detroit, Watts and even my hometown of Oakland, our television screens were filled with images of blocks and blocks of buildings billowing gray smoke from fires, looters running from store to store grabbing anything they could carry, vehicles engulfed in flames and dead bodies lying in the streets.

I now watch the news on a computer monitor instead of a giant TV console, but the images of the Baltimore riots could have been from an incident fifty years earlier, and for me, that’s very discouraging. It doesn’t feel as if race relations in this country have progressed much at all over the intervening half century. Read the comments section of any Baltimore related news story or tune into FOX News, and you’ll be enveloped by the stench of persistent racism, some of it couched in code words and subtle inferences while much of it is blatant and straightforward bigotry hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.

The one dramatic difference between today and the 1960s is the number of people with video cell phones. Citizen videographers are now able to capture confrontations between police and the policed, and what we are seeing as a result is not a pretty sight. Many have claimed over the years that there are two systems of justice in America, one white and one black. The videos that we’ve seen over the past year or so only seem to confirm this assertion, as unarmed blacks are shot to death for infractions you know most white people would escape unharmed.

This has been a winter of highly visible, racially charged incidents. From Ferguson to Staten Island to Los Angeles to Baltimore, unarmed black men have been killed by police officers. They’ve all been under different circumstances, and not all of them can be labeled a police murder, but the videos do show how quick the police are to use lethal violence in confrontations with black men.

You don’t need a crystal ball to see that this will be a long, hot and violent summer across the U.S. as tensions over police conduct in black communities boils over to the streets. Rioting is not the answer, especially when it destroys the very communities in which black people live and work, but the frustration level of those who are the victims of justice by skin color is on the rise, and with a judicial system that lets them down time after time after time, where do they turn for help?

A Road Rage Incident in Victorian England

“My good man, I must inform you that your driving skills are wholly inadequate.”

“Dear sir, since we have not had the pleasure of meeting before, I excuse you for not knowing that I am, in fact, an excellent carriage captain.”

“It may be true that on some other day at some other time you are a skilled driver, but that day and time is not today. Your vehicle veered into my path.”

“I must assume that you have left your spectacles on your bedside table, My Good Man, otherwise you would have seen that I clearly signaled my intentions to merge.”

“Ha. No one would require spectacles to see something that was not there. And where, pray tell, did you purchase your driving certificate? Ye Olde Shoppe of Forged Documents?”

“You are testing my patience, Sir. If a constable were within shouting distance, I would insist that he arrest you for your insulting and boorish behavior.”

“Arrest me? Arrest me? The only one who should be shackled on this day is you. Your maniacal driving is a threat not just to me, but to other poor defenseless pedestrians who could be run over and disfigured or killed in your haste to get to the pub.”

“I’ll have you know I am as sober as your mother. Oh, how silly of me. Everyone knows your mother is drunken sot.”

“How dare you speak of my mother that way. She is a saint who resides in heaven. When I am finished with you, I will pray to her and ask her to wave at your ancestors who are most certainly burning in hell.”

“Your insolence cannot stand. I have in my hand my cane, which I will now use to teach you lesson in civility and good manners, since you have demonstrated you possess neither.”

“My answer is this umbrella. Its intended use is to protect one from rain, but I will now use it to protect society from a mindless brute intent on murder and mayhem.”

“En Garde!”

“En Garde!”

A Threesome of Short Scary Stories

A new trio of short scary stories. Find them here.

Jesus Junkies Caught On Video

You’ve heard the horror stories: People playing with poisonous snakes like they’re kittens; shouting gibberish in a trance-like state; traversing neighborhoods like zombies looking for strangers to accost. They’re the Jesus Junkies, hopped up and brainwashed addicts shackled to a mind-numbing drug called “Jesus Juice” or JJ, as it’s known on the streets.

Many of us have only heard about the destructive nature of JJ and it’s adverse affects on the mind, but now we have video of a gathering of Jesus Junkies in their “church” and can witness the terrifying behavior of addicts high on JJ. You’ll see the drug transform grown men into prancing, dancing lunatics shouting nonsense at each other as they gyrate and flail their arms about. Having lost all self-control, they skip across the stage like five-year olds, twirl their coats over their heads and make mysterious hand gestures displaying their Jesus Junkie creds.

This is not a video for the faint of heart, but if it helps just one person think twice before drinking JJ, it will have served its purpose. Watch the video here.

Some odd, fun and disturbing random facts:

One in four Americans believes Obama is the antichrist.

One in four Americans think the sun revolves around the Earth, according to a National Science Foundation survey.

Mark Twain didn’t graduate from elementary school.

Until 1796 the state of Tennessee was called “Franklin.”

Nearly 30% of the Americans surveyed in a National Geographic Study (2003) could not locate the Pacific Ocean on a world map.

A 2004 survey found that 51% of Americans believe in creationism.

A study found that ¼ of Americans did not know we won our independence from Great Britain.

Seventy-three percent of people surveyed in a 2011 Newsweek poll did not know why there was a Cold War.

More than one-third of Americans believe sexual orientation is a choice.

Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had to do it all over again: 80

Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50

If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969 make it illegal for U. S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?

In 2012, more people were killed by toddlers than terrorists

Where does right wing conservatism end and mental illness begin?

A big story in this election cycle is how far to the right Republicans have turned in recent years and how they continue winning elections at all levels of government while holding views with which the majority of Americans disagree. How do they get away with calling Obama a socialist (he’s not), climate change a hoax (it’s not) and Muslims evil (they’re not) and myriad other lies and still be considered fit to hold public office by so many voters?

In speech after speech after speech, Cruz, Rubio, That-White-Guy Walker and the other Republican Presidential wannabes make outrageous accusations and tell flat-out lies with a conviction that is unnerving. Do they actually believe the garbage they are hurling at their audience? Are they so brainwashed by FOX News and their own demagoguery that they think merely by saying something it is therefore true? Doesn’t that break from reality fall into some category of mental illness?

A major reason why these clowns win elections is that America’s richest citizens reward them for their craziness with millions in campaign checks. These borderline mental cases are more than willing to be tools of the elites if they get to sit in big leather chairs and ride in a limousine. Despite the fact that they are destroying America for future generations through their greed, the .01 percent has no concerns about our democracy going to the highest bidder, because they’re always the highest bidder.

The bottom line: If you want to run for political office as a Republican and be lavished with money, being mentally ill isn’t a requirement, but it will definitely give you an edge.

America’s Elites Have Us Right Where Thy Want Us

A question many of us ask ourselves is, “How can we wake up the masses to the reality of America’s decline and inspire them to action?” I can’t help but look back at the 60s and wonder what made that era so different. Hundreds of thousands of people of all racial backgrounds took to the streets during that decade to protest the Vietnam War, racial segregation and the prospects of nuclear war. Many were college age, but if you go back and look at photos of the marches you’ll find plenty of middle-aged and older citizens as well. Why not now?

One major reason is the state of the economy in this country then and now. In the fifties and sixties, a family could live a modest yet comfortable life on one blue-collar salary, as mine did. Unions were strong, wages were high and the post-war economy in America was booming. Students could attend college without having to bear the burden of soul crushing debt and a person without a diploma could still get a job that paid a living wage. There was a sense of economic security in those days that simply does not exist today, and people could turn their thoughts to issues beyond simple survival.

Today, the economy is anemic at best, income inequality is staggering and attending college requires tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. Americans are struggling to survive economically and families need two jobs just to keep the lights on. Our lack of economic security is keeping us focused on getting and keeping our jobs to feed our families and avoid bankruptcy, and this is just fine in they eyes of today’s elites. They’re grateful we don’t have the time or energy to look behind the curtain and see what they’re really up to.

In fact, we are right in the sweet spot from the perspective of the .01 percent; not so bad off financially that we start turning our frustrations on our leaders en mass, yet not so well off that we can take the time to reflect on our situation and determine who’s to blame. And, best of all, our billionaires are raking in almost all the income that’s to be made in this economy. What’s not to love?

We’ll have a new President soon, and which way the economy goes will have a direct impact on whether the slumbering giant wakes up and begins demanding change.

Jade Helm, Walmart and Martial Law — Dust off Your Tin Foil Hat

What better way to spice up a cool, cloudy Monday than with the hottest conspiracy theory circulating on the Internet? This summer, between July 15 and September 15, elite service members from all four branches of the military will be conducting exercises throughout the Southwest, including Southern California, in an operation called Jade Helm 15.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command said the exercise is designed to train special units to “successfully conduct worldwide operations in support of our nation’s interests.” This is the kind of vague gobbledygook that you might expect from the military, but it should be noted that these types of operations have been conducted before in various areas of the U.S., although this one is the largest to date.

Since the first mentions of Jade Helm, conspiracy theorists across the Internet have been telling anyone who will listen that this is the prelude to martial law in America. This seems a severe stretch of the imagination to me. Obama? Martial law? I don’t think so. However, there is a tantalizing sidebar to all of this that will only add fuel to the conspiracy fire.

Last week Walmart closed five stores on the same day, two in Texas, one in California, one in Oklahoma and one in Florida. The official excuse for shutting down the stores (and putting nearly 2000 people on unemployment) was plumbing problems. This response was met with skepticism, which was heightened when reporters found that none of the affected stores had applied for any plumbing permits from their respective municipalities.

Fast forward to today. A woman with a video camera went to the Pico Rivera, California store to check things out. That store has kept its pharmacy open to allow people with prescriptions there to continue getting their meds. The first thing she noted was that there were police cruisers parked at every entrance and exit to the Walmart. She then went into the section of the store that was open. There she found that shelving had been erected around the pharmacy that blocked any view of the rest of the store. She was eventually kicked out because she wasn’t filling a prescription.

There you go. There will be a huge military exercise in the Southwest this summer where four Walmarts closed unexpectedly and are under police guard. I seriously doubt that plumbing repairs would require that level of security. What’s really going on? I have no idea, but stay tuned.

Congress Pays Fealty to its Masters

The United States Congress is home to a large community of corrupt, self-serving, money-grubbing psychopaths who have pledged their allegiance to the 0.01 percent and have no interest in the needs of their constituents. This past week they made an offering to their masters by voting to repeal the estate tax, which mostly benefits the heirs of billionaires. Why not let the next generation of elites know who they can count on to fight for them?

Citizens United opened the bank vaults and we are now watching the corporate funded puppets dancing to their masters’ tune. The Koch’s and friends are buying Washington as a gift to their children. It’s a lot better than a pony.

Many Americans can see what’s happening to our government, but many others cannot, and they seem to make up the segment of Americans who actually go to the polls and vote. Will we ever be able to convince this older, white demographic that they are voting against their best interests? Probably not, and we will all suffer as a result.

What will it take to inspire the rest of the country to take action? That remains to be seen.

The Cult of Cruelty in America

Over the past six years the number of homeless children in America has increased by an incredible 60 percent with 16 million kids now on food stamps. The U.S has one of the highest relative child poverty rates in the world, ranking us with Latvia, Lithuania and Romania at the bottom of the list.

How is this even remotely okay in a country that claims to be the leader of the free world, the country supposedly ordained by God to be the example of democracy for everyone else to follow? Every day there’s a new headline about the improving economy, but that supposed improvement isn’t reaching a whole lot of people. 

What do you expect when one of the two major political parties in America believes that the poor are in that condition because they are lazy and dependent on government handouts? In other words, Republicans blame the poor for their poverty, and constantly demean and demonize the most helpless class of people in the country. People like Cruz and Rubio and Cotton are members of a cult of cruelty, blaming the victim and rushing to unravel the remaining safety net that in some cases is literally the difference between life and death.

Poor children don’t vote, so they mean nothing to Tea Party conservatives. Like everything else conservatives believe, their perspective on poverty is supported not by science or data, but by twisted religious beliefs and a reality challenged adherence to the idea of free markets with absolutely no government intervention. In other words, they would prefer a dog-eat-dog world over even the slightest government regulation.

And who suffers the most in this Ayn Randian nightmare of free-for-all capitalism? Our children, of course. They pay the price for conditions they had nothing to do with creating. The cult of cruelty is the result of white elitists in positions of power who want no government regulation over how they make their money, calling any interference with their schemes socialism. Children are not as important as the bottom line, and neither apparently, is our future as a country.

Mass Media Hypnosis

How people make decisions interests me. People can look at the very same world I’m looking at and make decisions about things that are the polar opposite of what I would decide. Are they smarter than me? Do they know something I don’t? The 2012 mid-term election is a case in point. It’s true the turnout was low, but people throughout America made a conscious decision to vote into office the very culprits who were responsible for this country’s myriad problems. What seems so crystal clear to me is seen through a completely different pair of glasses by a large chunk of American voters. Why is that?

There is no one answer, of course, but I believe the mainstream corporate media plays a critical role in shaping and contouring people’s perceptions about their country, and how they choose to pull the lever on election day. I’m not breaking any new ground here (See Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent for a thorough, well researched analysis of how the media molds public opinion), but I’m simply trying to understand how and why my own views differ so greatly from those of my fellow Americans.

After all, I grew up in a solid blue-collar home with parents who were loving, but not well educated. My father was an auto mechanic and my mother the stay-at-home parent, a pretty typical household unit in the nineteen fifties, and one that you would suspect would be a fertile breeding ground for conservative ideology. I even went to church regularly as a child.

But there was one important variable. Despite his lack of formal education, my father was a natural born critical thinker and he questioned things that others around him took for granted. He opposed the Vietnam War. He would argue for hours with his sister, a devout Catholic, about the problems with religious dogma. He was a huge fan of Mark Twain, as am I. So something unusual happened during my upbringing, my interactions with my parents and the larger world, that turned me to the left politically at an early age.

It may be my upbringing that has allowed me to elude the siren song of the status quo. The corporate media is a powerful force that has many people captivated and under its spell. Since its infancy, television was a vehicle to sell things, with some entertainment stuck in between commercials to keep eyes fixed on the screen. Pitching products and services is still a primary function of the networks, but it has an additional corporate/government responsibility to de-radicalize Americans and numb them into a state of obedience.

Tens of millions of Americans rely solely on the major networks for their news, so the political spectrum they are exposed to both overtly (i.e. the Sunday news panel shows) and covertly, runs from the far right to the wobbly center. Progressive views are marginalized and rarely heard. The so-called liberal press is one of the great myths of our generation. The media today is a for-profit enterprise that purposefully shapes its news programs to offend as few viewers as possible and support the institutions and ideas it considers “mainstream.” This soft, easy to digest pablum is served up on a daily basis and reinforces already internalized beliefs and biases. It does not challenge, it lulls. It is a form of hypnotism, keeping viewers in a certain state of political obliviousness while at the same time, inciting people to be good little consumers and spend, spend, spend.

Instead of encouraging critical thinking, the news media emphasizes group think and constantly reinforces the importance of “fitting in” to be cool, sexy and hip. By ignoring critical voices and a truly comparative analysis of the political candidates’ positions, viewers are left with little substantive information, and revert to picking the candidate that most closely mirrors their personal values, with little understanding of his or her record or policies.

Look into my giant eye. You are getting sleepy, very, very sleepy….

Messing with Texas

Is it just me or is Texas full of the looniest people in America? The news seems to be filled daily with stories about Texans acting and talking crazy. From Tea Party darlings in Washington like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Louie Gohmert to the marketing CEO (a female) who says a woman can’t be President because of hormones and Biblical sound reasoning to the Texas mother who objected to the regular visits to her son’s public school of “Bible Man.” Her complaints about overt Christian proselytizing in a public school were met with death threats and a photo of a house burning down. She said, “We just can’t get over how much hate there is in their loving, Christian hearts.”

George Bush is a Texan. And let’s not forget the ever-quotable governor of Texas Rick Perry, the man who never lets anyone forget he hates Obama, guberment and gun laws. His positions include eliminating the federal income tax, ending the direct election of U.S. senators and allowing states to opt out of Social Security and Medicaid. He has also suggested that Texas might secede from the United States.

How bad is Texas? Here are a few indicators:

• Texas is 43rd in graduation rate
• Texas ranks 50th in adults with a high school diploma
• Texas ranks 46th in SAT scores
• Texas ranks 49th in teacher pay
• Tax Expenditures per Capita 47th
• Percent of Uninsured Children 1st
• Percent of Children Living in Poverty 4th
• Per Capita State Spending on Mental Health 50th
• Teenage Birth Rate 7th
• Rate of Incarceration 9th
• Texas ranks 38th in funding per pupil
• Texas ranks 43rd in voting age population that is registered and 45th of voting age citizens who actually vote!
• Texas is the biggest polluter in America, according to the EPA
• Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country

Sure, every state has its issues, but Texas seems to breed a particularly virulent strain of wackiness. Everything’s bigger in Texas, including its problems.

Hillary’s campaign logo: An unfortunate early misstep

As someone who has spent a career in the marketing/design world, I’ve seen some great logos and some ghastly ones. One thing about creating a logo is you have to think long and hard about all of the possible connotations of your image, because it’s going to be scrutinized by everyone and their mothers. Here are two examples of logos that somehow got through the approval process without the appropriate amount of scrutiny:

At the top of the page is the logo for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. Maybe it’s a subject I’m too close to, but I don’t know how anyone can look at her logo and not be reminded of the attacks on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. I understand the intent of the logo, moving forward, progress and all of that, but it boggles the mind that no one on her team said, “Hey, doesn’t that remind you of the World Trade Center buildings?"

Symbols are important communications tools both in their obvious connotations and the deeper, subconscious meanings that they convey. Think of the power of the simple cross or a swastika. The popular Da Vinci Code books and movies were all about the age-old mysteries of symbols. It’s unfortunate that Hillary’s campaign team missed the troubling implications in her logo. Not the best first step on the road to the White House.

The Republican Clown Car Bound For Washington Has a New Passenger

The Buffoon Brigade of Republican candidates running for President increased by one over the weekend as the first-term Florida Senator Marco Rubio selflessly offered his un-asked for services to the country. During his announcement to donors, he said that there is a real choice in this election between the past and the future. I assume he considers himself the future, which can be chalked up as the first ludicrous statement of many, many to come during his campaign.

As a Tea Party zealot, you don’t have to do any research at all to know what Rubio stands for: Tax cuts for the wealthy; war everywhere; privatize everything; demonize gays, blacks, immigrants; theocracy, anti-science, etc. There is no meaningful difference between Rubio and Cruz and Walker and Carson when it comes to their political beliefs. They all want to turn back the hands of time to some golden era of American conservatism that never really existed.

If any of the current Republican candidates wins the White House, it’s match, set, game over for America. These are people who believe the world is literally going to end soon, so who really gives a shit about anything anyway? In fact, there are those among their ilk who want to hasten in the end times and are willing to take drastic action to see their delusional prophecy fulfilled. Tell me again you want this person to have the codes to our nuclear weapons.

It remains to be seen how badly Americans have lost touch with reality and common sense. Will they send a certified lunatic to the White House? Stay tuned.

Hillary Clinton: The Stop-Gap President

Hillary Clinton announced today she’s running for President. I have mixed feelings about it, but they’re mostly negative. Yes, it would be a giant step forward in many ways for this country to have a woman in charge, and I am looking forward to that day. Beyond the fact that Hillary is a woman, however, there is little to cheer about.

Mrs. Clinton is the establishment Democrat. She voted with conservatives to start the Iraq war and has been a consistent hawk on military issues her entire political career. She has deep roots in both Washington and Wall Street and is a veteran of backroom negotiating. The biggest issue I have with Hillary is that I don’t see her halting or overhauling any of the Bush/Obama policies such as mass surveillance, the perpetual war on terror, the use of drones or our insanely large expenditure on national defense.

One thing I know for certain is how Clinton will campaign. As the primaries draw closer, Hillary will start courting the Left with much talk about helping the middle class, taking on the financial elites and fixing our broken economy, all hot button issues for liberals and progressives. Once she has the nomination, the rhetoric will shift to the right, to appeal to the broader group of voters resting in the middle of the political spectrum. Should she win the election, we would see her surround herself with Washington insiders and Wall Street veterans and she would move back to the middle/right where she naturally resides.

With no fresh ideas or bold initiatives, Bush’s corrosive policies will live on in a Clinton administration and America will continue its gradual slide into oblivion. Isn’t Hillary better than a Ted Cruz or Rand Paul? That depends. If you’re anxious to get the nightmare over with quickly and have a President who will put America out of its misery quickly, go Republican. Want some extra time? Vote for Hillary.