Weekend Update: Texas In the Rear View Mirror

(The dawn broke this morning slightly overcast, still warm from yesterday's 80+ degrees.  It's stayed overcast all day, muggy and a bit uncomfortable, but still Spring.  Drove across town late this afternoon, the sun shining through a light cloud level like a flashlight through a dirty shower curtain. Eugene, Oregon was quiet.  Not much traffic.  Very little sound.  Like it's waiting for something.  A little thunder tonight maybe?  That would be fun.  At least it's not raining.  It's raining in Texas again tonight.  The deluge in Texas began several days ago and hasn't let up, Apparently it's the wettest May on record for Texans, they've estimated some 35 Trillion Gallons of precipitation have blessed the Lone Star State since the beginning of the month, with more on the way.  At least 20 people have lost their lives, and the damage from all the flooding will undoubtedly be in the millions.  Pat Robertson was quoted the other day as saying he doesn't really know who to blame for this. Ordinarily Pat blames things like hurricanes, tornadoes, plague,and  9/11, on pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays "and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle."  But shit, this IS TEXAS.  Shit-kicking true-believers.  Pat's having a hard time coming up with a religious reason why god is punishing Texans with all this weather related misery.  I got one for you Pat:  Rick Perry.  But I digress ...)

• Conservatives generally agree that poor people in America "have it easy" thanks to government benefits. There exists in this country a dominate right-wing contempt for the poor, and yet compassionate conservatism (sic) is rampant in most, if not all, of the (10?) (15?) Republican candidates running for president in 2016.  But just listen to them - punishing the poor has become a campaign goal.  Don't expand Medicare, cut Social Security benefits, take away food stamps, get rid of health care - all mantras of the dark side of politics.  What's going on with these people?  Why do they seem to have no clue as to what happening to the average American?  Paul Krugman describes "The Insecure American," and it's a must read.
• Now let's slip back into Rick Perry for a moment, okay?  He's running for President again, don't you know?  And if elected, let's contemplate for a moment what he would do to the United States, by comparing what he's done to the State of Texas.  A key element of the
  
  Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is a Medicaid expansion clause which would cover uninsured patients, mostly working poor, who don't make enough money to pay for insurance on the exchanges.  Last year it cost Parkland Hospital $765 million to treat people without health care.  But when the all-knowing Supreme Court ruled that states could opt-out of Medicaid expansion, Rick Perry couldn't opt-out fast enough.  Thanks to Gov. Perry, Texas hospitals have had to eat $5.5 BILLION dollars last year.  Perry says Texas hates Obamacare. The business leaders in Texas are apoplectic.  "The problem is that in hating the Affordable Care Act, the state is leaving on the table as much as $100 billion of federal money over 10 years - money that could pay for health insurance for more than 1 million of its working poor." When I was in the service I had the misfortune to live in Texas for 2 years.  There are, to be real here, some places in Texas where rational and intelligent people live, like most of the people in the town of Austin. But for the most part, the best sight in the world is Texas in the rear view mirror.
• Nine brains were found along a northern New York Village, but authorities said there was nothing to worry about.  Comforting.  But while checking this one out we find this story:  Last year, at the University of Texas, 100 brains, conserved in jars, went missing.  Think of it.  100 Texas brains, including perhaps the brain of Charles Whitman, the Texas tower shooter (or whatever he was called) just flat out went missing! Perhaps there's a chance for Rick Perry after all.  If we can just find his freakin' brain!
•  Oh, and let's at least mention the terrible, awful, horrible, Texas biker brawl down in Waco, TX, where nine of them were killed, and 170 of them were arrested, at a bar right across the street from a Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  Holy Shit.  And what were they fighting over?  What were these overweight, balding, crusty, bored, sunburned and drunk idiots fighting over?  Drugs, stolen cash, women, gold, meth?  Nope.  They were fighting over "territory."  Big boring slabs of Texas terrain.  Goddammit, I miss Texas.  Mark Morford reports.

Wednesday Update - Can We Survive Without Jon Stewart?

(I subscribe to several magazines, mainly to offset the gloom of bills that arrive around the first of the month, and for fun and information.  I subscribe to Time magazine, which gets me a little more in-depth news occasionally; I subscribe to Air & Space magazine from the Smithsonian, because being in the Air Force for a few years of my life I grew to love new and old aircraft; I subscribe to Flying magazine for the same reason; I subscribe to National Geographic magazine so that my son can learn about the world around him, assuming I can get him to read it, and it looks cool sitting on the back of the toilet tank; and I subscribe to one of the most fascinating magazines in the world: Popular Mechanics.  This month's Popular Mechanics features "84 Survival Secrets That Will Save Your Life."  This is a fascinating article, touching on all aspects of the coming apocalypse, even including what to look for when looting a store.  Don't want to waste your time just grabbing beer and big-screen TVs, right?  In this same article they list "The Five Safest Cities," taking into account nuclear fallout, natural disasters, extreme weather, etc.  It's an interesting list for a national magazine.  Number 5 is Wheeling, West Virginia, Number 4 is Hurricane, Utah (in spite of its name,) Number 3 is Missoula, Montana, Number 2 is Sitka, Alaska, and the reason I brought all this up is, the Number 1 city in America to survive the apocalypse is Eugene, Oregon, and it adds "if you don't mind ceaseless rain - or plaid."  To all of those classmates of mine who graduated in 1964 and immediately moved away, it's not too late to move back.  You probably should do it before we get the fence built.  We only have so much room, after all.  But I digress . . .)

• And speaking of news, this next bit of news is about as depressing as it gets. We heard yesterday that Jon Stewart was planning to step down from The Daily Show in the next few months. Jon Stewart, for those few of you who don't know, is the other side of the balance against FOX "News."  Stewart kept that balance even, if not more than even, night after night, week after week since January of 1999.  My son has never known a world without Jon Stewart - yes, I forced him to watch it as soon as he could hold his own head up, and if you think I named my son Jonathan for a reason ... well, let's don't go there.  There are millions of us who have said at least once in their recent lives, "I get my news from Jon Stewart."  The reason for that was no matter how bleak and depressing the news of the day was, Jon could pull a laugh out of it.  He, and his writers, have been sheer genious in guiding us through what was really happening, as opposed to what FOX wanted us to believe.  Wondering what spin Stewart would put on a particular story kept our spirits up even through the Bush administration, and usually changed our anger into laughter.  Mark Morford wants us to "arise," for we are the "Daily Show generation," and continue Jon Stewart's anti-bullshit crusade as much as we can.  Read that one HERE.  So who's to replace him?  Sorry, right now I can think of no one.  How does one replace genius?
• Forty-seven years ago the Tet Offensive in Vietnam proved that Henry Kissinger was lying when he mentioned things like "light at the end of the tunnel," and "peace is at hand," only two of a huge series of lies told to the American public by the man who many scholars believe to be a war criminal.  Two months after Tet, then President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek re-election  for another term as president, and handed the whole mess over to Richard Nixon.  Nixon attempted to bomb Vietnam "back to the stone age," but eventually gave up and declared victory, thus ending one of the nastiest and blackest moments in American history.  Up to the "war" in Iraq.  And while the United States attempted to expand its empire, the Vietnam War cost us taxpayers $450 billion, as well of the lives of 60,000 of America's finest young people.    The war in Iraq will end up costing the U.S. some $6 trillion, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.   In 1995, Robert McNamara, in his published memoirs of his experience with Vietnam, titled “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” said "we were wrong, terribly wrong."  Can't say I disagree.  Have we learned our lesson?  Doubt it.  From Salon magazine, Robert Freeman.
• I guess we should mention Brian Williams.  Out of all the news anchors on all the networks, I liked Brian the best.  He appeared on Letterman, Jon Stewart, and other fun talk shows, and showed a hell of a good sense of humor.  He also apparently showed a knack for embellishment when it came to his own personal involvement in his daily news gathering tasks. I have a wonderful idea.  With his sense of humor and good nose for the news, why not replace Stewart with Williams?  Just a thought.  Here's the whole sordid story:  CLICK

56 Times

I really don't know how to start this.  I really don't want to offend anyone.  But I really want to write something about the Republican Party, for
several reasons.  One, it's getting near that time again - the 2016 elections are just around the corner, if you consider a corner being 22 months away.  We need to start discussing the Republican field of candidates, and check out all their attributes, if you will.  Secondly, the Republican Party took over the House this last election, and changed their tune from obstruct obstruct obstruct to "the people have spoken," something like Sally Fields gushing "you like me, you really like me" at the Academy Awards.  And thirdly, we need to discuss whether or not the Republican Party is insane.  Apparently it has a become a right of passage in Congress for the Republicans to bring up Obama's Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in an attempt to vote it out of existence.  Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) told FOX News he allowed another vote last week, after 55 previous attempts, to give the new Republican congressmen a chance to cast their votes.  Most of them ran with the promise to their constituents that if elected they would vote against Obamacare, so this one was an attempt to keep themselves honest. (As if ...)  "Today, I am making good on my commitment to support a full repeal of Obamacare," proudly declared Rep. Alex Mooney, a freshman from West Virginia.  Well, good for you Alex.  Some people have said the definition of insanity is attempting the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Are they insane?

There are problems with all of this, of course.  One of those problems is that the Republicans have no alternative plan to Obamacare.  If they actually were able to repeal it (won't happen) it would leave all those constituents of theirs who now depend on it with no insurance at all.  In 2010, FIVE YEARS ago, the Republicans promised  they would start work immediately on a replacement health plan as a preparation in case the Supreme Court overturned Obamacare.  Last week, as a part of the 56th vote to repeal, the Republicans voted to begin that work.  And I thought I put things off.  I'm beginning to believe the Republican congress doesn't care about health care in this country.  Either that, or they hate Barack Obama so much they're willing to leave sick and poor people out in the rain to die.  56 times.  Are they insane?  Yes.

Now, I have a question for you.  Does it seem like every single "frontrunner" for the Republican nomination is weird?  Weird may not be the proper word, perhaps "alien-like," but you get my drift.  Weird, like Mike Huckabee.  Weird, like Ted Cruz.  Weird, like Rick Perry.  Remember Sarah Palin? (She's not anywhere near a "frontrunner," but I just wanted you to picture her in your mind for a second.)  She gave a speech at the "Iowa Freedom Summit," where, among other strange remarks, referred to President Obama as "an overgrown little boy."  We here at Bad Hat wish so much that Palin would run.  She's absolutely the looniest person in politics, stuck teleprompter or not.

And then there's Lindsey Graham.  If South Carolina's finest closet dweller had his way he'd bomb everything, and everyone who didn't worship America.  Scary thought:  He's got the support of casino owner Sheldon Adelson.  Big bucks.

And of course, we have the "usual suspects," those Republicans who just can't take the hint, but who just love the spotlight, even if it's a negative spotlight (is there one?)  We got your Rick (please don't Google me) Santorum with his everyman pick-up truck; Chris Christie, whom I'd really love to watch a football game with; Marco Rubio (could I get another glass of water, please?); Scott Walker; and Rand Paul, who, in spite of being a doctor, can't bring his Libertarian brain into reality by endorsing vaccines for children.  Sorry, I wouldn't vote for any of them for dog catcher.

Which brings us to Jeb Bush.  Holy Shit.  Mitt Romney came to his senses recently and dropped out of contention, and Dubya Bush's brother Jeb was the biggest beneficiary of that dropout, for money and staff.  Are the voters ready for him?  The "Tea Party" doesn't like him, and that may doom him, but how tired of the Tea Party are mainstream Republicans?  What's weird is that Jeb doesn't seem, from the outside, to be as insane as the rest of them, and not as stupid as his brother (of course, my dog isn't as stupid as his brother.)  But that could change in a Miami minute.  We'll see.

So there you have it up to now.  There's a few of us who have been playing a little drinking game, where every time the Republicans attempt to repeal Obamacare, we have to take a drink.  Some of the weaker guys have had to check out and go to re-hab.  Others are just sitting around glassy-eyed and mumbling.  Me, I'm loaded and ready for the next round.  GO 57!  Cheers!


JP