Rant 1-24-13 - Lance Armstrong Politics

After the last election there were numerous articles in the mainstream media along with much chin wagging in the village talk fests and much toing and frowing about in the blog world over the future course of the GOP.  The demographic tide had finally turned for all to see and the party of angry white men was on the wrong side in their loud dislike of anything not white and angry and male. The talk centered about what was the GOP going to do; would they try not to be such pills about rape and other issues that women, much to the GOP’s surprise care about;  modify their stand on immigration; stop their opposition to gay marriage? Or perhaps maybe just try and be less crazy? It turns out they have decided to opt for another option – The Lance Armstrong Option

Cheat like fucking crazy.

The Virginia state house operating pretty much under the cover of darkness in a series of maneuvers that would have made Machiavelli blush a pushed through a redistricting plan for their congressional districts that ensures pretty much that the Virginia House delegation will be dominated by the GOP for the foreseeable future and is currently working on a plan that will award Virginia’s electoral votes based on who wins said districts and will then award the remaining two electoral votes to the candidate who wins the majority of the districts. The end result of these acts would be that Romney would have gotten most of the states votes despite losing the overall state wide vote.

Several other states Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and I believe Ohio are drawing up similar plans – and it’s such a bad idea that I’m surprised that Florida isn’t taking the lead on this.

The one good thing about this is the anti-democratic (small “d “ here) instincts of the GOP are on full display. George – I know less about baseball than climate change – Will has already beat the drum for the idea that not everybody should be voting because Hitler or something.

We are again face to face with the GOP idea that there are real Americans and not Americans – real America lives in small rural towns or suburban developments and is overwhelming straight white and hostile to and scared to death of anything not the exactly same as they are.

The justifications for this garbage are as one might guess very flimsy, one Virginia legislator was quoted as saying something to the effect that unless this was done the rural vote wouldn’t be important.  Allow the Professor to note that such concerns for the minority were not much in evidence after say Reagan’s re-election. Also note the Democratic Party did not try and change the fucking rules.

It is, short of the shelling of some government property off the South Carolina coast some years back the most appalling attempt to undermine the very foundations of the Republic, and a Rubicon that must not be crossed. Not that any of that means a thing to the power crazed pigs of the GOP.

Mini Rant 1-22-13

Not enough time to do everything that needs to be done. However the Professor feels he must note Mitt Romney’s decision not to attend the ingratiation and later saying he wouldn’t be watching on TV, is, one hopes, the last graceless note to a singularly graceless political career.

The Professor also expects that Fox News and the usual gang of centrist villagers will bemoan that Obama has lost the vital ‘rich white Mormons who ran for president’ demographic

Little rant 1-13-14

The plague or the flu kicked The Professor about for a few days so the delicately phrased and tightly written rant from a few days ago is sadly out of date and we’ll just have to make do with this off the cuff slice of gibberish. To wit:

It seems one of the best ways to keep the heat on the NRA and the vast fearful tribe of gun nuts they represent on the defensive is to keep letting them on national television and spout off. They can’t control themselves and within minutes start to threaten violence against unnamed forces coming to take their guns in a manner that makes the average person uneasy with the notion of these folks being armed with rubber bands, never mind the latest in man killing weaponry.

As the bodies cool at Newtown the NRA is ramping up both the “black guy in the white house is coming to take away your guns” and the “gun control = Hitler” memes along with the “bad people will find ways to do bad things so there is no point to trying anything.” Meme which given America’s mythic ‘can do’ attitude is a bit of a poser.  There is of course a difference between acknowledging that a law, which is something drawn up by human beings cannot be perfect and this bullshit. One of the major problems with gun over the last few years is that Congress at the behest of the gun sellers has put in major loopholes with the gun sellers then exploit the hell out of. That is something that can be fixed. At a minimum the Gun Show exemption needs to go bye bye.  And we add vigorous enforcement of said laws is also part of the solution.

I also suspect that the there will a continual attempt to distance gun control from the horror at Newtown. Soon there will be a sorrowful column by I expect David Brooks about how uncivil the gun control folks are and how they are exploiting the tragedy instead of understanding that the right wing is correct and that nothing can be done. This is the kind of thoughtful very important centrism that ends with children being riddled with bullets by a crazy person with a rifle. And I would counsel the gun control folks to continue to beat the NRA and their fellow travelers over the head with this very dirty stick (to quote Seven Days in May) as this incident (unlike the others) has changed the landscape. Let’s not go back as that merely sets the stage for another horror.