Obama and the "Grand Bargain"

I was telling people that, whether you voted for Obama for a second term or not, it was not going to do anything. Well, I was wrong.

With a clear Victory just a few weeks in the past, you'd think that President Obama would finally move forward with all those promises once elected. He has followed in the weeks hence that, with the power of the National Defense Authorization Act which he passed earlier this year, he can "...kill anyone in the world, without even probably cause."

And now, he is set to make what is being called the Grand Bargain with the Republican't's (who, btw, lost in large numbers to Democrats [or as the Un-loyal Opposition calls them I'm sure 'Demon-crats']) is about to strike a bargain (for them, not the rest of us) that will cut the very social services that he swore to protect, and, oh yeah, maintain the Rich's insane tax advantages, rendering the Rest of Us [throwing animal 'left overs' from slaughter houses is called "Rendering' of animals] officially high and dry.

Now, with the NDAA at his disposal, he can 'take out' me for criticizing his administration because of the above statement.

I'll say my adieus now...

Plastic, Profit and 'Progressive Nonsense!' oh, my.

[The below was written as a(n expanded) response to a story on NPR (and a comment from a Conservative critic railing against "Progressives" and their/my agenda against 'Free Enterprise and the American Way'), regarding the banning of Bottled Water containers movement that is growing on college campus'. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/12/146692656/battling-the-bottle-students-and-industry-face-off-over-water>. ]

Ah, "Conservatives!' Things like 'conserving the ecosphere' don't appear in their agendas. 'Conserving' profit, however, always does. 'Saving American Jobs' always does too, while these same 'Conservatives' either help to/ or are directly related to shipping 'American Jobs' to Third World countries, and the China they were so rabidly against (until it became a 'hugely profitable market.'

They don't want to ban plastic bottles, and where I live in Santa Monica, Ca., rail against the banning of plastic bags. 'Outrage!' they say. 'People should be able to buy whatever they want to!' they cry (when it effects their same bottom line about not beiing able to sell another kind f plastic -- most of which ends up either in the trash, or worse yet, gets ejected as soon as it gets out of the store ('I gotta right to it. I pay for it.' Yes, you do. All of us do.)

Which leads us to the Pacific Plastic Gyre. As big now as the state of Alaska (imagine that) and still growing, it is quickly polishing off the Pacific and its ability to recycle air, as well as, yes, ending up in the seafood you eat (which I haven't now  since sixteen -- Oh, the 'Conservative' horror! I've been a vegetarian since then). This, along with the killing of the Gulf of Mexico from, first the runoff from the Mississippi and the factory farming all along its length, to the BP oil spill (which seen from space in NASA photos whose trail of death is shown to be reaching almost to the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize).

That profit eclipses ecology comes as no surprise, but the depth of the self-serving-ness of these 'Conservatives' for some reason always does.

Step Right Up! Getcher Politician! Unlimited Time Offer!

This is sort of The Devils Bargain, part two, wherein Corporate America is Old Scratch getting Politicians to sell their souls (hey, wait! is that a contradiction?). Will Politicians in this new age of chicanery start acknowledging their Corporate Overlords with "brought to you by..." messages at the end of their ads? Or how about wearing proudly the logos of their Corporate Sponsors on their jackets, like the NASCAR's do?

Why not? As long as they're going to be bought and sold to the highest bidder, they might as well be proud of it. After all, NASCAR drivers are. Do they really think that the (left leaning) public interest groups (probably next on the Corporate Supreme Court  hit list no doubt) won't be able to find out?

And now it seems that the Conflict of Interest with "The Supremes" grows deeper. Justice Thomas'  wife has been a paid "consultant" to the Heritage Foundation and other Right Wing groups that are behind the Buying and Selling of America.

Now the Members of the Supreme Court are supposed to be above reproach. They are also supposed to recuse themselves when cases come before the Court in which they have a vested interest: such as Virginia Thomas receiving payment from, and helping to found another, organization (or two) with which the Court is in active litigation involving said organization.

The main backers of most of the Far Right and their actions (from the Tea Party to "Citizens United" are two oil baron brothers, the Kock (pronounce Cook) brothers, who BTW are funding a Billionaires Retreat on how to finish taking over the country this weekend in Palm Springs. Both Justices Scalia and Thomas have spoken at these retreats in the past  Considering that the Koch brothers created "Citizens United," that is so clearly a Conflict 0f Interest that the whole "Citizens United" case would be thrown out -- except in this case, the Supreme Court is the last place a case goes in this country. Oh, well, so much for democracy.

So, Fart Proudly*, I say! Step right up (or is that Step Right up?) and stand proud for who you represent. The American People? Hell, no. Only the disembodied Corporate ones (you know? the ones recognized by Law as living forever?) however. No need to acknowledge those "Little People" ever again. They don't count, anyway.

[* The title of an essay by Benjamin Franklin.  "Fart Proudly, because you're an American." (When once that name, American, actually meant something.]