Why the Billionaires Chose Paul Ryan To Be Speaker

Because of all the prosperity and stuff,
 the little people are loving the austerity and stuff.
Plus, NOW you can't get rid of me. Ever. [cartoon source]

The GOP's Latest "Monument to Hypocrisy"

Not to mention, of course, out right lying to an information starved

 Republican base which has finally been abused enough to no longer care.

Although the cartoon [above] speaks clearly to Ryan's record of absolutely detesting any kind of social safety net, there are plenty of other pretty good reasons to avoid him like the plague. The "safety net hatred" is straight, unadulterated Ayn Rand style "Objectivism." Rand's dystopian wet dream amounted to a screw ball, Libertarian orgasm in which the US government would strictly limit tax expenditures to national military defense, policing and a domestic judiciary which would be limited to resolving looting issues between billionaires.

Paul becomes conveniently Catholic when he extends this free fall Libertarianism into his vision of domestic law to not only rape prosecutions, but also most forms of contraception. [Remember - he intends to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives where laws like this one traditionally originate.] He sponsored the "Sanctity of Life" Act which proposed issuing "full citizenship" to fertilized eggs. Still, slashing food stamps and winter heating subsidies while funneling "the savings" into tax cuts for his millionaire bosses didn't sit that well with either the Catholic Bishops or the Nuns on the Bus who took to the road to campaign against him.

Economically, Ryan is a "debt vulture" -- in fact, perhaps even the "head debt vulture," a real challenge among the retrograde GOP crowd in the House. He individually served as one of the main "cheer leaders" for the calamitous high end tax cuts during the Bush autocracy which are still in place, and which are still serving as "perpetual wrecking balls" to efforts to mitigate the national budget deficit. [Theoretically, this isn't entirely "hypocrisy." Those tax cuts are squeezing everything from the social safety net to highway maintenance by denying revenue to the government.]

Representative Ryan has still found the time to promote more than a little of his "inspired, Ayn Randian social engineering" work -- especially with his penchant for demonizing the poor. “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with,” Ryan said on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. Paul Ryan has never worked anywhere but in politics and the government.

Paul has met every loyalty test that big oil could pose for a "well lubricated" Congressman. Aside from his own family's extensive oil holdings, the big whigs in the "lubricating business" have made sure that Ryan's campaign war chests are "full to the gunwales" with oily, Federally subsidized, practically tax free, gold Ducats. Naturally, Paul doesn't lose much sleep worrying about imaginary, liberal follies such as climate change, either. [Read more  here Paul Ryan ADDICTING INFO]

The New Speaker's "Moments of Good Fortune" Strategy

Hmmm. Things seem to be rolling along suspiciously smoothly.

It's worth the effort to point out some of the peculiar features of the "completely coincidental, meteoric ascension" the Representative is enjoying at the time of this posting. MeanMesa has spotted three of these very curiously advantageous "coincidences."

Speaker Ryan's 

Series of "Coincidental Embraces of Happy Destiny"

Golly. The man's good luck is astonishing...

1. Everyone was watching Hillary and the Benghazi hearings.

Actually, Hillary's masterful domination of the Benghazi "special committee" surprised absolutely no one. In fact MeanMesa suspects that the entire fiasco amounted to a premeditated tactic for Special Committee Chairman, Trey Gowdy, to officially "fall on his sword" while all the network news cameras filmed it. 

In the beginning "Rowdy" Gowdy promised to be "great fun" while the Republican leadership was still lost in a premature ejaculation festival, fantasizing about the great political victory the hearings would bring a few weeks ahead of the 2016 election. But then...Gowdy, although the most credentialed "hatchet man" available in the admittedly rustic GOP House Conference, became more and more embarrassing. 

With the inevitable "licking" that Gowdy's committee was facing, the decision was made to use the "voluntary self immolation" of the committee to run media cover for the politically perilous Ryan Ascension to Speakership. Ryan had a well known image problem with most everyone who wasn't hypnotized by the FOX bubble -- including more than a few otherwise "fire breathing" tea baggers who happened to be living on their Social Security checks.

2. While the humble, reluctant hero, "suddenly" being groomed  to "save the day," was still in make up preparing for his scene, political daylight began illuminating his not so humble, premeditated, Machiavellian power grabbing scheme.

The "near Saintly" image scripted by Representative Ryan as he fumbled and bumbled, back and forth, torn between the love and devotion to his family and the call of his duty for "patriotic self-sacrifice," was so cheaply shabby as to be laughable. It wasn't even good propaganda, and that criticism, when extended to Republican FOXites, cuts to the bone. The billionaires who own the Party had always insisted on "good propaganda" to keep the hill billies outraged -- and in line.

The well managed crisis of utter unmanageability had descended on the chaotic GOP House Caucus like a 21st Century epidemic of the Black Plague. All the "candidates to be the next Caesar" had either committed political suicide, been assassinated already or were in hiding. While this might have appeared to be an "unfortunate coincidence," the whole affair had that "suspicious odor" of being a rather meat handed conspiracy to ordain Ryan as "heir apparent" and as a "solution to the emergency," This conspiracy had been birthed so long ago as to already be somewhat "long in the tooth."

McCarthy's loud mouthed "misstep" was probably part of the plan.

3. Meeting Ryan's demand for a few "minor rule changes" bodes dark weather ahead for ALL the House Republicans.

With the quivering corpse of the previous Caesar [Boehner] still "hot on the floor" the pitch that Ryan was simply maneuvering to avoid the same fate seemed understandable enough, but closer examination of the political realities at play suggests a very different scenario.

We must begin by speculating about precisely why Ryan has turned out to the the billionaires' "chosen one." Happily, the mystery is not particularly difficult to resolve.

We can begin by asking ourselves: "What has been Ryan's embarrassingly obvious obsession every time he's appeared before a microphone during the last decade?"

The answer isn't too tough. More than anything else in the entire world, Ryan's dreams are fixated on handing the $2.7 Tn Social Security Trust Fund -- or even a substantial part of it -- over to the Owners of the Republican Party. The "standard script" for accomplishing this is to convert the Trust into an "investment account" and pumping the entire thing into the Wall Street casinos.

When he speaks as a Representative [and Chairman of the GOP's House Ways and Means Committee] or when he was speaking as a Vice Presidential Candidate, nary five minutes can pass without another reference to "the absolute necessity of cutting entitlements." Ryan is always careful to add other "entitlements" as additional targets in his plan, but his scheme always returns to the $2.7 Tn in the Social Security Trust -- the source of funds for all the rest.

Ryan has wet dreams in the dark of night but not about what one might consider more or less "normal" things. He dreams about how "grateful" the billionaires would be if he were to be the one who finally managed to "deliver the goods" on the oligarchs' Social Security Trust scam.

And, although even this is horrible, there's more.

While autocrat, George W. Bush, was spending money like a drunken sailor, a good part of that money came from the Trust -- at least a trillion dollars. So, when we say that the Trust holds $2.7 Tn, we are including the "paper Treasury notes" from the Bush regime for around $1 trillion of that. [Remember Al Gore talking about the Social Security "lock box?"] The problem with all of this is that the Republicans have no idea how they might ever possibly pay this debt. Every time they get close to "running things," their avarice immediately clouds what little mental capacity they have, and they wreck the economy again...and again...and again.

If Ryan were ever able to cut "entitlements" the way he describes, it would represent a "way out" of this briar patch -- at least, a "way out" in Ryan's mind.

Now, on to the "dark horizons" part.

Ryan is nuts. If, as Speaker, he begins a slow, steady pressure to destroy Social Security [and, he could do this if he had the power of being Speaker], the move would be political suicide for the GOP. However, none of the sold out GOP Congressmen have any appetite whatsoever for being "connected" in any way with the political meat grinder of destroying Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the rest.

Previously, such "crazy talk" was never too much of a problem for the Republicans. Sure, there were always "voices" proposing something like this, but those "voices" were always ignored. But with Ryan as Speaker, there will no longer be any possibility of "ignoring" such proposals.

Whether individual Congressmen were "on board" with the scheme or not, they would be swept up in the mayhem.

The "rules change" that Ryan is insisting upon as one his "demands" calls for abolishing of the House rule that empowers members to oust the Speaker.

This means that otherwise non-suicidal House members would be stuck with Ryan at the helm, and anti-Social Security legislation moving through under the protection of the Speaker and with the votes of the mentally unstable tea bag caucuses.

As far as MeanMesa is concerned, it couldn't happen to a more deserving Party.

Additional Reading

Remembering Exactly What Paul Ryan Is.
The Billionaire "Do-Over" may have "Done Wonders," 
but this deceptively human manikin
 still requires plenty of pan cake for public appearances.

Paul Ryan has invested a great deal of effort to image himself as several "important" things throughout his lack luster career as a politician. Most American voters probably recall Ryan as the "somewhat animated" little henchman with the "salivating problem" while he followed bone dry Mitt Romney around in the last Presidential election. 

The "salivating problem" has always been evidence of a particularly nasty kind of wild ambition which was never successfully reconciled with the little guy's actual place in the scheme of his standing in the atmospherics of the right wing oligarchy crowd. We can all pretty much understand why actual oligarchs and billionaires begin their own, unique episodes of uncontrollable salivating when they find themselves within grabbing range of their latest "bright, shiny object," but Ryan remains a mascot, not a "player."

Come on. After being an overly eager, relentless "House hatchet man" for the Owners of the Republican Party for years, the perpetually "up and coming Young Gun" has barely amassed his first few millions for his dutiful service.

As a politician, a plausibly bonafide claim to "humble roots" was as important as clean underwear to the youngster as he scratched and clawed his way ahead to his place in the "big money realm" of the GOP. For a little background we can look at some LA Times reporting from the days of his Vice Presidential campaign days. [Excerpted. Visit the original article  here - LATIMES Aug 2012]

A closer look at Ryan's "asset record" helps explain the history of his utterly fraudulent, creepy eagerness to "liquify" vital social "safety nets" relied upon by "lesser Americans." His career has lent new substance and meaning to a famous sign on an Anchorage bar from MeanMesa's youth in Alaska: "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you."

LATimes

Despite working-class image,

Ryan comes from family of wealth

Paul Ryan was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., and his rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family money and connections.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Richard A. Serrano and Ken Bensinger

 Los Angeles Times August 25, 2012|

***

And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state.Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies.

The seeming contradiction appears to have its roots in a family crisis in 1986, when at the age of 16, Ryan discovered his father dead of a heart attack.

The death of Paul Murray Ryan forced the family to make adjustments. Ryan's mother went back to work. And Ryan took up jobs, as well.

After graduating in 1992 from Miami University, a public college in Ohio, he went to work as an intern and then as a committee professional staffer on Capitol Hill for Sen. Bob Kasten, a Wisconsin Republican, who was defeated that same year by Feingold. When Kasten was voted out, Ryan lost his job. He went to work at the Tortilla Coast restaurant on Capitol Hill, where he ran into Feingold. In 1993, he left behind his hourly job and began as a speechwriter at Empower America, the think tank formed by former congressman and George H.W. Bush Cabinet secretary Jack Kemp and other conservatives, according to a Ryan campaign spokesman.

***

But there was also more to it than work. Ryan's rise to political power and financial stability was boosted by family connections and wealth. The larger Ryan family has repeatedly helped the candidate along in his career, giving him a job when he needed one and piling up tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

In the year after his father's death, Ryan's maternal grandmother set up the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, which remains an important part of Ryan's finances with assets of up to half a million dollars, according to the congressman's 2011 financial disclosure statement. Ryan continues as the general partner running the entity for the family.

Court records indicate Ryan's father left a probate estate of $428,000, though the number of assets existing outside the will or the probate remains unknown. Ryan was to receive $50,000 when he turned 30. The will leaves the bulk of the estate to Ryan's mother, who now lives in an oceanfront condo in Florida.

In addition to the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, Ryan also benefits from another family entity, Ryan Limited Partnership, which was established in March 1995 by an aunt. Ryan's share of that is worth up to $500,000. Ryan makes no investment decisions in either partnership, the campaign spokesman said.

By the time Ryan had entered Congress in 1999 at the age of 28 and filed his first disclosure statement, he reported assets between $167,000 and $1.3 million, owned a home and had three rental units.

The next year, Ryan married Janna Little, a tax attorney, and his income skyrocketed. (Ryan reported gross income of $323,416 in 2011.)

Of the Ryans' maximum estimated assets of $7.6 million, Janna's holdings account for about $6.5 million. She is the daughter of Dan and Prudence Little, two lawyers in Madill, Okla., who over the years have overseen a vast network of land and oil and gas mineral rights in the Red River area straddling southern Oklahoma and northern Texas.

The wealth derived from Janna's grandfather, Reuel Winfred Little, a self-made millionaire several times over in oil and gas interests and other ventures. He arrived in Madill in 1927 after graduating from the University of Oklahoma law school, with just $25 and a second-hand typewriter. He invented and patented a type of injector used to poison trees, the Little Tree Injector. He made separate fortunes in legal work and redeveloping former military housing.

Meanwhile, the Ryan extended family was building up its own empire in construction, starting with Patrick Ryan, the congressman's great-grandfather. Ryan's branch of the family did not stay in the construction business, and Ryan has no financial interest in it today, the campaign spokesman said. But in 1998, when Ryan returned to Janesville to begin his first run for Congress, he briefly took a job with Ryan Inc. Central, a Wisconsin-based road grading company.

The Ryan roots run deep in Janesville.

Patriarch Patrick Ryan sent Ryan's grandfather, Stanley M. Ryan, to the University of Wisconsin law school, and he was named U.S. attorney for the western district of Wisconsin when he was 24 by President Harding. He rose to prominence in Janesville as a private attorney, serving on a bank board and as chairman of the fire and police commission. When he died, judges from all over the state came to his funeral. Ryan's father was also a prominent attorney, practicing in Janesville until his death.

Ryan and his family now live in a Georgian Revival home in Janesville that was once owned by the president of the Parker Pen Co. and former chairman of the state Republican Party. The congressman's aunt, uncle, cousin and brother all live within blocks of his home in the historic Courthouse Hill district.

***

And previous posts on this subject from MeanMesa:

MeanMesa Social Security: A GOP Dirty Tricks Primer

MeanMesa GOP: When the Billionaires Get Edgdy

Still Blaming W. Bush? Why stop?

A Legacy of Mistrust and Chaos

MeanMesa has watched the events in domestic politics with a stomach wrenching pain through the now temporarily befuddled plan to "speak out" about gassing innocent civilians in their sleep.  Spinning attitudes like marbles in a mayonnaise jar have sent public opinion polls into a tizzy reminiscent of a championship ping pong game.

The MeanMesa blog began "spreading joy" late in 2007.  The inspiration to begin blogging was due largely to a few students.  They could see how upsetting the autocracy's mad war making, domestic propaganda and economic looting was to this geezer. 

In particular two incredibly destructive aspects of the autocracy's "war on democracy" had risen to a grave, threatening level.

First, the Republican Party had adopted a system of political strategies in which the division of the US electorate was the highest priority. 

This was not a "flash in the pan" sort of manipulation of public opinion to squeeze one or two pieces of legislation through the entirely Republican House and Senate, either.  The "product" of this well funded, well designed new image of the country was intended to be durable and long lasting, perhaps in the fantasies of the owners of the GOP and the billionaires -- permanent.

There had already been starkly divisive maneuvering in the years following the election of Reagan, but during the Bush W. government, the penchant for issuing every possible "us and them" scenario reached incendiary heights.  Given the statistically low information, low education quality of the GOP base coupled with the smooth complicity of the -- by then -- entirely corporate domestic media, a rampage of violent vilification followed.

Second, the owners of the Republican Party had directed all of their extensive persuasive assets to establish a total mistrust of the US government among not only their own base of voters, but in a larger effect, to a large majority of American voters.

At first the focal points of this abiding mistrust had centered on traditional "irritants" already well developed -- that is, common irritants such as the IRS, synthetic classification of various laws as socialism, regulation of essentially any type, gays, minorities and a newly invigorated Xenophobia about immigrants, foreigners, Muslims and the like.

However, with the election of Barack Obama these default sensitivities became much more aggravated, and the further exploitation of the gradually constructed mistrust offered the oligarchs an irresistible opportunity to consolidate what would have normally been a rather modest and temporary political advantage.

The short sightedness of the money class revealed itself again -- just as it had with its ambition of a permanent division of the electorate -- with clear fantasies of permanent mistrust of the government.  Facing their inability to win elections, their apparent "second choice" was to reduce the country to a state where it was ungovernable.

All this rather meat handed exploitation was made possible by a number of factors, but one which seems to stand quite above the rest is the fact that civics is no longer part of a standard high school curriculum.  In the past even low information demographic populations such as the one making up the modern GOP base would have had sufficient exposure to the fundamentals of the American democracy to make most of such propaganda ineffective if not conspicuously suspicious.

We won't need to argue too much about the price we are paying for the national division and the national mistrust.  It is probably also interesting to examine precisely when and where these crippling additions were added to the national mentality.

The Robotic US Media's

Most Recent Compelling Phrases

A week ago when the President's intention to punish Assad for the child slaughtering Sarin gas attacks seemed to be reaching a "material substance," the very obedient US media's relentlessly repeated lament was "What does he expect to accomplish?"

As if the comatose US media actually cared. 

The US media had been given marching orders by the oligarchs in command of the corporations which own it.  The marching order?  Make Obama look ineffective regardless of the cost in network credibility.  Unhappily, for the oligarchs, those networks are already tragically over drawn in their "credibility accounts."

If anyone were going to play chess, which, it turns out, was exactly what Obama was doing with the Syrians by issuing his open ended threats, the oligarchs had decided that it would have to be the GOP's Obama hating "war experts" like Grampy McCain and six drawling Texans.  Unhappily, this team doesn't know how to play chess.  All this bunch is much good for is terrifying hill billies and enraging the bigots in the GOP Party base.

Unexpectedly, at precisely this point the formidable politician Obama deftly passed the recently heated "hot potato" to the House tea bags. 

The media's "replacement lament" emerged immediately -- so quickly, in fact, that MeanMesa assumes it was already written in anticipation of the President's fast hand at the draw.  Network after network regurgitated the talking points almost word for word and almost simultaneously.

"Obama's faltering has cast the leadership of his Presidency and the predominance of the US in world opinion into grave doubt."

As if THAT were anything new.

To date, the terrified, cowardly House Speaker has refused to call his boisterous, unpredictable tea bags back into session until early September when they will stagger back into D.C after NOT holding town hall meetings in their home districts.  Who knows how many Syrians Assad will have gassed by then.

Once the clown car is safely seated in the House chamber, the Sharia law bills, the repeal ObamaCare bills and the wild eyed, racist liable will re-commence as vehemently as a teenage school girl vomiting in the back seat of a Packard.  The remote possibility of a "tea bag debate" on the Syria crisis will be abandoned, fluttering in the wind -- perhaps near the cave where Speaker Boehner is hiding with a room temperature Rob Roy looking for his testicles.

So, Why Blame W. Bush?

Here, MeanMesa asks visitors to remember just how wretched things had become by mid 2008.   This blog was posting about the unelected President back then.

One of his "more Presidential" moments.

The thread here is, however, specifically about the origin of the current state of

the nation in which Americans do not or cannot trust the intentions of the current President.  How in hell did we wind up in a place like this?

A glimpse at what it all looked like back then might help.  For this we can re-visit an old MeanMesa post from July, 2008.

Dancing with the "T" Word:  Treason?

MeanMesa, Monday, July 7, 2008

Enough of This Polite Confusion
None Dare Call It Treason?

Although this may be borrowing the title of an old book, we can translate its rather provocative question right into the present. As we measure our leaders we see them in essentially three dimensions.

The first is probably whether or not we agree with them. This matter spreads out to all sorts of things: economics, foreign policy, social ideals, justice and personal philosophy. No matter how contentious the issue might be, we can approach it with the confidence that we will survive, pretty much in the state we are accustomed to, even if we strongly disagree with the choice finally made. After these disagreeable matters are put into place through the action of our democratic system, we calm down, somehow comforted by the possibility that the next time will be our chance to prevail.

Issues of disagreement can be dramatized as “treason” while we rant and rave, but there is not really any actual treason at play.

The second dimension has to do with mistakes. Our national leadership can make military mistakes, foreign policy mistakes, domestic economic mistakes and all sorts of other mistakes. It would be comforting to categorize these mistakes as being “innocent” or “unavoidable” in one sense, or “suspicious” or “self-serving” in the other sense. In any event, although errors in judgement, the “conspiracy” side rarely materializes. We survive these in much the same manner as we survive the disagreeable variety. Quite comfortably.

Again, as citizens we are, of course, directly responsible for these mistakes, their consequences, usually to others, and their historical ramifications. Similar to the “disagreeable variety” we can correct them. We get out our voter ID’s and go to town at the next election.

However, the third dimension of measure brings us quickly to the grave realm quite beyond either “disagreeable” or “incompetent.” The third measure falls to the threatening prospect of treason. It stands out beyond our considerations of “disagreeable” or “incompetent” because it offers the possibility of our not surviving it.

The conclusion of “treason” is not quite as murky as a conclusion of “disagree-ability” or “incompetence.” Those lesser complaints rely rather heavily on opinion. Those easier ones are based, often, on the information we have made the effort to accumulate about a certain thing or other. In many cases, there will be contradictory information supporting an alternate opinion. Then we get to argue with each other. This, of course, is the American way. The end result of this is that we wind up hearing about the facts supporting the opinion of the other side, probably not changing our original position much, but at least, understanding the other side a little better.

However, returning to the matter of “treason,” we immediately must also address “trust.” After all, enough “trust” in the character and motivation of one of our leaders can serve to move what might have otherwise been “treason” to a more palatable place nearer what could be called, for instance, “incompetence.” We find it rather difficult to construct the indictment of “treason” even to situations presented with misdirection, deception, outright lies, confusing motives, intentional complexity and the like. With all those “buffers” in place, the fabric of inescapable “pure, true treason” can become elusive.

After all, he didn’t just hand Los Angeles over to the Chinese Army or something.

As tax payers, we have provided the President with some pretty potent tools to use for our protection and for the protection of the country as he steers us through risky situations and other challenges, not the least of these is the most expensive military the planet has ever seen. We elected him because we thought he would be much better at such tasks than we would be if we were President. We also made a statement in that election. We declared that we “trusted” him, his motivation, his ability and even his intuition. We also expected that he was going to “trust us” as far as possible as he did his job.

This President spoke, apparently convincingly, about “Political Capital.” That term describes something either the same as “trust” or, at least, very involved with “trust.” These comments about “Political Capital” may have been some of the most forthright comments this President has ever made.

You know, “honest.” Oh, yeah, anyway. Well, you know.

We can gauge our “trust” a bit by looking at who our “leader” has “trusted.” That would be “Brownie” of FEMA-Katrina fame, Putin, the man whose soul he saw, or something, the Iraqis, the ones he “trusted” would simply leap into democracy, the “Generals” who managed to create a five and half year long meat grinder, Mr. Wolfowitz, a neo-con genius, Mr. Bremmer, a neo-con genius, Mr. Rove. a neo-con and alleged "human" of unknown origin, Mr. Rumsfeld, a neo-con military genius, Mr. DeLay, a political neo-con genius exterminator (yeah, bugs), Mr. Abramhoff, who he quit “trusting” when it became difficult, Mr. Cheney, you know, “shooter,” and others. He even “trusted” the famous Jeff Gannon of MilitaryStuds.com enough to give him Helen Thomas’s seat at press conferences.

We can take a look at the stuff that makes our country strong. He has pretty much wrecked the Army while losing a battle with a trailer park east of Cairo. He has tanked the economy which is the basis for the wealth we need to defend ourselves. He has managed to drive off most of our friends, those would be the ones who couldn’t be bribed or threatened. Sometimes friends are helpful in matters of national security.

He has always been too tormented by his fear about decisions he makes to “trust” anyone. He clearly believes that “enough authority” means one doesn’t have to “trust” anyone. Where does “incompetence” make the last journey to outright “treason?”

Perhaps the suspicious transfer of billions of tax dollars to his friends via tax breaks can resist the new definition, thereby remaining no more than “incompetence.” Perhaps a national debt, not counting the “emergency funding billions” for Iraq and Afghanistan, rising to an astounding nine trillion dollars with nothing to show for the purchase can still be simple “incompetence.” Maybe his “line blocking” Republican cronies in the Congress obstructing a record seventy-eight House bills with their filibuster threats, extracting his war profiteering funds by the hundreds of billions every time he asked, protecting his impeachment investigation from proceeding are really just in the “disagreeable” category.

So, no “treason’” right?

Not exactly. Our nation is apparently able to survive all this damage. We recall that “treason” didn’t really cross the line until it threatened our national security. Has that happened, too?

Yes. It has.

The most valuable “trust” of all is our confidence that this man will step up to lead us through really dangerous matters should they arise. We have no choice but to count on him for such matters. Even if we “disagree.” Even if we think he is “incompetent.” He remains the only “horse” we’ve got, and that means he is the one we have to count on, his judgment may be faulty, his ability may suggest “incompetence,” but he remains the one with the keys to set our defense in motion should the need arise.

Our problem is that we can no longer trust him. Sure, he remains an incredibly powerful man thanks to the assets we have given him, but we can no longer “trust” him when he tells us that we are facing danger or that we must go to war. We have learned the painful lesson that his words will always be self-serving and deceptive. We, frankly, have no reliable means to determine for ourselves the gravity of situations which might face us. We are “flying blind.”

That frightening situation is beyond “disagreeable,” beyond “incompetent.” Through his own strategy he has emasculated the political leadership we have created to protect our democracy and our nation. His careful, premeditated, intentional creation of that state of affairs is treason.

THIS is why we needn't so much as break a sweat with the prospect of rehabilitating George W. Bush -- it can't be done.

We are paying a monumental price for the autocrat's "legacy" of mistrust and chaos.  So is Syria.

This is what happens in the ruins of democracy.

MeanMesa: How To Be A Democrat

Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

In this season of political neglect it is, perhaps, only too easy to constantly focus on each new outrage in relentless purging of democracy at the hands of the Republican Party.  However, with this post, MeanMesa will "turn the lamp" just a bit to focus on the concurrent shambles of the Democratic Party, an admittedly already quit dull blade amid what swords remain to right the ship.

Very much more about the Republicans would, at this juncture, be essentially irrelevant.  The "Grand Oligarch Party" has made itself into a whisp, a gaseous sort of unpleasantness made tolerably palatable only by its continuing decline. 

There are no "conservative" ground swells languishing over the horizon to sweep the miscreants into office again.  The GOP's dismal outcome in the 2012 election left the wreckage of the Party hanging from a narrowing thread of gerrymandering assisted only slightly by the lesser "election crimes" the overly arrogant state level zealots have dared to impose on the growing number of their disenfranchised victims.

One would think that when the field of battle is now so quiet following the political suicide on one of the opposing armies, those opposing survivors would rush to make solid their coincidental opportunity.  Not the case.

The Democrats have, rather than exploit their good fortune, turned their sand dials back to the very same mindless, passion-less, 1950's irrelevancy, the same pointless fantasy and retrograde nightmare which has enamored the Republicans so much.  Now, the only combatants left standing, that is, the Democrats, have hypnotized themselves into a political coma with an unlikely and unworkable -- and shockingly artificial -- civility.

They have, instead, decided to "fiddle as Rome burns."

The Pretend World of the Invisible Democrats

Probably as a result of casual neglect, the modern Democratic Party -- along with its policy interests -- finds itself attempting to conduct politics without the benefit of media.  American voters essentially stare into a media void when their fickle curiosity occasionally leads them to inquire about the Democratic Party's agenda.

The six corporations which control 90% of the domestic commercial media share very few of the ambitions of the Democratic Party or the vast majority of the American people.  Not even the speeches of the President are commonly presented in full as "news worthy."  Instead, the most inflammatory -- and often the least factual -- utterances of Republicans fill the minutes and hours of what was previously considered more balanced "coverage."

The "directed interest" editorial policies of corporate networks shouldn't surprise anyone.  Between the inevitable phone calls from oligarchs' think tanks and the constant influence of the largest commercial advertising purchasers, the behavior of these corporations -- including the highly engineered subtlety of their perpetual bias -- is to be expected.

Corporate media propaganda naturally reflects the interests of those owning the corporations, and those interests predictable coincide with the wealth redistribution obsession of the Republican Party.

Dig out your stop watches.  Record the air time minutes of interviews or speeches delivered by Democrats with the corresponding minutes of comment or rebuttal by Republicans.  The Democrats are effectively invisible.

Immediately, we move to the next proposition, that is, that the Democrats, having forfeited any possible political advantage from a persuasive media exposure have no effective means to restore their media presence in an unregulated, hostile corporate industry.  The corporate ownership of Congressional minorities precludes any legislative remedy -- especially when those well funded minority caucuses are now firmly in control of Congressional agendas in both the House and the Senate.

Not entirely pure victims in this disaster, the Democrats have contributed their own part to the destruction of any sort of balanced "Fourth Estate."  While Republican tea bags have been quite dependable in their role of inane utterances, generally without fact, as incendiary fodder to their hill billy base, the Democrats have apparently cast a solemn vow to remain just as "ignorable" as the tea bags have been flammable.

Why would we expect that the corporate media would waste time covering politics in which no media consumers are interested?  Congressional Democratic policy has long ago ceased to provide that interest, any news captivating enough to tempt the corporate media editors or even any legislative results notable enough to peek any particular interest among the mindless hordes being dutifully frightened by the right every night.

If that kind of "interesting" policy were, in fact, moving quietly around in the "back circles" of the Washington Democrats, it still wouldn't matter.  The Republican minority remains firmly in command of the Senate with record numbers of filibusters, and the House hasn't passed any legislation which could, even conceivably, benefit any American family with a yearly income less that $200,000.

The American people are under attack from the oligarchs' puppets in the Congress.  That's nothing new.  But now the Democrats are now "sleeping, full steam ahead" to lose the 2014 mid-term elections, permanently cementing "minority rule" into the future political structure of what's left of the country after the Republicans finished looting it the last time.

Although it clearly didn't matter much, MeanMesa campaigned for both of the Democrats currently representing New Mexico in the US Senate.  As a result of this, "news" arrives regularly concerning the legislative work being undertaken by these two.  In the last week Senator Udall has informed New Mexicans that he has proposed a fiber optic cable network to serve the state and that he is "concerned" about government surveillance, etc.

In the past -- that is, in better days -- such positions would have been acceptable as the day to day work of a Senator.

These are not "better days." 

These are also NOT the issues being burned into the hides of the majority of Americans at the moment.  We don't care about this stuff -- at least not right now.

We know that Democratic Senators are unable to legislate anything which will benefit their constituencies.  We understand that.

What we can't understand is what world do these Senators inhabit? 

MeanMesa has collected just a few typical posts from Face Book, nothing special, nothing particularly note worthy, but a few things which typify the daily conversations between average Americans.  Have a look. 

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?
 

Settle for 2nd worst?  (source: UNICEF]

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

1956 [source: Republican Party]

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

Representative Government?  Two Party system?

  

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

Just another "economic correction?"

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

So let’s see, Bush..

• Started 2 wars, which have cost American taxpayers well over $1 trillion
• Cut taxes, which reduced the revenue being brought in by the federal government to pay our bills, creating giant deficits
• Used accounting tricks to push much of the costs for both wars to the end of his presidency so the next President would have to deal with them
• Passed 3 different stimulus bills totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
• Passed Medicare Part D, again totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
• Deregulated Wall Street, leading to rampant corruption—which was the driving force behind our economic collapse
• Bailed out Wall Street by passing the TARP bailout, also totalling hundreds of billions of dollars
• Left office with a national debt nearly double what it was when he took office and destroyed a balanced budget in the process

In other words, Bush created a catastrophe the likes of which the world has never seen before.  This economic crash didn’t just take out our economy, it put most of the world’s leading economies into a recession.

(source)

  
GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

Democrats just "standing by" for more of THIS?

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

These people are still willing to even show their faces at an election?

GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP GOP?

 MeanMesa's Message to Elected Democrats

When the elected Democrats do nothing with this wind fall of political opportunity, alleged people such as RNC Chairman Reinze Preibus can continue -- with a straight face -- talking about winning the entire Congress in 2014 and the Presidency in 2016.

This man and this Party shouldn't be able to file for a parking permit in Washington D.C. after what they've done -- to us!

After what they've done to the entire industrialized world.

Now, you Democratic Senators complain, if the voters knew this, they might stop voting against their own interests by electing these losers.  But here on the ground with the other little people, this isn't what's happening.  Instead, Democratic Senators are stumbling along as if everything is just fine, as if everything will -- sooner or later -- simply return to "normal."

You Democratic Senators find great comfort in the excuse that your "message just isn't getting out."   You're right with the "message is just not getting out" part, but you're dead wrong with the "comfort" part.

The billionaires are slaughtering us.  The country is plunging into poverty.  The children are hungry.  Wages are in the tank. Voters are losing the right to vote. Unions have become illegal in a third of the states of the union.  The banksters are careening to new highs of wealth, income and power.  The government is controlled by a savage minority Party that didn't win the elections to hold that power.

All while, Senator Udall is working diligently on the fiber optic cable network and is "concerned" about NSA spying.  This won't do.  It's not just Senator Udall, either -- all the Democrats are invisible.

Haven't any of you been to Face Book lately?  Have you been so busy collecting skanky campaign contributions and hiding under your desks that you've missed the picture of what it's like out here?

The Republican Party should be eating three meals a day from a steady, straight diet of George W. Bush's record.  The wars.  The debt.  The torture.  The hatred.  The poverty.  The hunger.  The 2008 Depression.  The unemployment.  The untended infrastructure. 

The class war.

Nobodies like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell should be in such a relentless state of political terror as to not have a single night's sleep.  They stink, but Democrats say nothing.  As their Party rips the ballots from the hands of Americans in their gerrymandered elections, Democrats say nothing.  As their unfortunate states attack women with language -- and laws -- which wouldn't have been acceptable dinner table talk three decades ago, Democrats say nothing.

As their heavily soiled, corporate fascist Supreme Court plunges one anti-democracy dagger after another into the belly of our nation, the Democrats say nothing.

Afraid to Listen to Us?

By the way, we are the majority.

What do Democratic voters want from elected Democrats in Congress?

Open your damned mouths.  Don't blather any longer about "bi-partisan solutions" or "reaching across the aisle."  Every time this happens, we get hit again.  There isn't anything for us "across the aisle."  Haven't you been paying attention?

Support our President.  He's the only one left we can count on now that you have all hidden under your buckets.  In the rare "interviews" of elected Democrats it's as if you've never heard of him.

Fix the damned economy.  If the billionaires block the way, villify them.  They've deserved open combat with the elected government for a long time.

Call out the racists and misogynists.  They don't belong in front of a microphone -- or in a governor's mansion beyond Alabama,  Georgia and Mississippi.

Repair the elections.  No excuses.  We can't do it, so it's going to be up to you.

Take some risks.  Quit being frightened mice.  The Republicans have really stepped in it this time.

Jump 'em while they're down.  Go ahead.

A MeanMesa Conclusion

We may need different Democrats.

GOPCons: Governing by Hostage Taking

The Legislative Path to Keystone XL

What it would look like if we weren't in denial about the US House

The most recent -- and most convenient -- example presenting the point of this posting can be seen in the "poison pill" inclusion of the Canadian pipeline authorization which is added to the House proposal.  By insinuating this otherwise un-associated provision into the legislation as a condition for the extension of the middle class tax cuts and unemployment insurance benefits, we can hardly miss another glaring repetition of similar, past, bad behavior.

We've seen it before.

And, we have not only seen it before, we have seen it quite recently and quite frequently from both the tea bags and the even more grotesque "nova Republicans" who are now imitating their bad example.

["Nova Republicans?"  These would be the latest, opportunistic, hybrid spawn of traditional "old school" GOPCons, a heavily soiled mix of the old corporate "bite and grab" crooks with the more modern,  truly thuggy tea bag ideological gangsters.].

A bill like the one authorizing the pipeline would normally be authored by sympathetic Congressmen with constituent districts which could, presumably, benefit from the project.  Also, some of the "forward defensive tackling" would have been handled well before such a bill took its final shape.

For example, US agency opinions would have been investigated.  The domestic market would have been analyzed.  Price impacts would have been calculated.  Environmental impact difficulties would have been anticipated.  Perhaps, a few of the farmers with fields which would have suffered when the thing plowed its Juggernaut style easement would have been interviewed.

MeanMesa calls such a process a "causal vector swarm."  To visualize such a concept, just imagine a cork with thousands of needles stuck into it.  Each needle is another one of the predictable "multiple constraints" inherent in such an undertaking, that is, each needle amounts to another "ox to be gored." The final conclusion about the workability of such a project would amount to totalling up all the "pro's and con's" to see how many -- and whose -- oxen were still standing.

When one has the ambition to create a gigantic, multi-billion dollar result, it's usually a good idea to have hammered out a "good idea" before one begins spending the money, much less, pissing off voters.

However, when political realism is added to the mix, you have to make sure you have enough needles, that you have examined each one carefully and that you are ready to hand over all the dead oxen to your election opponent.  More and more gaseous, essentially irrelevant tests will be added as you watch in horror, yet, in a Republic like ours, this torturous route remains the map of the journey.

In the end, the final product will be far from the purity of its engineers' original dream, but it will make sense.  This highly modified new design will have successfully merged individual interests with corporate interests in a way which, more or less, satisfies both parties.  Lyndon Johnson famously said that if a bill passed with more than one vote, too much had been negotiated away during the process.

The Nature of GOPCon Hostage Taking

The American people have spoken. The legislation has wide popular support. (image source)

The Keystone XL pipeline project is only the latest "burning question of the day" so far as hostage taking examples go.  Let's look at a conveniently short list of other recent examples.

A well-informed MeanMesa visitor might, at this point, simply sigh and lament "So, what's new?"  However, let's try to glimpse the "big picture" of what's actually going on here.

Normal governance would suggest that each of these expenditures would be debated, run through the process of Congressional "ox goring" and, finally, either fail or be passed.  Part of each plan adopted would be figuring out a way to pay for the expenditure without further increases to the national debt.

Americans understand that we have to pay for things we need or things we want.

Paying for things which we need or want includes collecting the taxes when necessary.  Raising taxes is part of the package -- unless you can slip by this step by holding something desirable or necessary hostage.  When the "hostage" course is taken, the "ransom will be paid" by lowering the expenditures on something else

The scheme can best be described as watching a kidnapper "holding a knife to your daughter's throat" while demanding that you turn over your house's heater.  At the moment, saving your daughter is paramount, but after she is returned, both of you are sitting through the winter in a cold house.

Why not just govern the regular way?  Collect taxes for what is needed and then buy it?  

If you are a Congressman, this would make perfect sense if raising taxes were a choice you could actually make.  However, when that prospect is "off the table," you have to take the heater in payment.

Americans are getting close to a point where they have no more heaters to sacrifice.  1/6 of the population is now below the poverty line.  1/5 of the population is unemployed.  1/4 of American children are food challenged.

Meanwhile, there is the matter of debt coming due.  To avoid taxes during the Bush autocracy, more and more money was borrowed -- from anyone stupid enough to lend it to us.  The daughter was returned, but, since the parents borrowed the ransom money, the house's heater remained in place.

This worked great for a little while, but plans like this one have a habit of falling apart as time runs along.

Obama, again in the "big picture" view, is now trying to lead the nation back to the regular scheme.  His proposals connect the revenue derived from increased taxes to the urgent necessities now facing the nation, urgent necessities such as jobs, infrastructure challenges and economic recovery.

Where Do Spending Cuts Go
When They "Grow Up?"

Okay then, where does the hostage ransom go 

after the daughter comes back home?

Spending cuts, according to the prevailing myth, become tax cuts.  Spending cuts mean, ridiculously, that less money will need to be borrowed.  The "ridiculously" part enters the equation due to the very, very flimsy reasons that most money is borrowed in the first place.  These reasons become flimsy when they are joined with comments and pledges about not "wanting to drown our children in debt."

The more the national debt is reduced in this way, the lower the interest payments required to service that debt will become.  If the flow of tax money is sustained at the same levels it flowed before the spending cuts, the debt is repaid with the surplus.  The "foot of brass" foundation of the entire Spending Cuts - Lower Debt - Lower Interest - Lower Taxes scam might have actually worked, theoretically, at some point in the distant past, but those days are long gone now.

The tax reductions which are the constant, atmospheric promise of modern spending cuts are. of course, mostly described by the old adage: "To the victor go the spoils."

Further, all spending cuts are not exactly the same.  In fact the motivation behind any specific tax cut separates them into categories.  Needless to say, the motivation in many cases is sheer opportunistic looting, but the other choices are also interesting.

As we look at the design of the spending cuts now being offered in the legislative process, the  distinctive differences are usually disguised as a "blend" of two or more of the varieties shown in the diagram (above).  However, there are a few fundamental questions about spending cut proposals which "sort them out," making the picture a little clearer.

1.  Will the benefits of spending cuts be benefits to all the tax paying base?

2.  Do the spending cuts actually make any sort of sense when it comes to hard numbers in the budget?

3. Do spending cuts target the relaxation of regulations which have been previously generally accepted by the electorate?

4. Can the spending cuts be classed as either "demand side" or "supply side" benefits?

5.  Are the increased "profits" made possible by spending cuts actually taxable themselves?

A Reminder About Exactly Who
Is An "Expert" On Spending

A Reminder About Job Creation

A MeanMesa Christmas Gift Suggestion

For Your Republican Relatives

MeanMesa's compliments to the President.