Wednesday, February 24, 2016

We Are Governed by Children!



We'll begin first with a few of the Republican candidates for president, the dumbest and most ignorant of which is probably Ben Carson.

Ben Carson has said so many stupid things in the course of his candidacy that they would fill a book.  

He’s still out there, pretending he can become president because…well, he’s really a black man and president Obama is not.  You see, says Carson, Obama was raised “white” and therefore does not understand the black experience.

Ben Carson is dumb as a stump about too many things.  He may be 64 years of age, but he’s still a child.


Marco Rubio is a child also.  He’s lied consistently about his background and how his family came to the U.S. from Cuba.  He is a non-entity in the Senate to which he should never have been elected in the first place.

Rubio is not very bright.  As Paul Krugman says, “His notions on foreign policy seem to boil down to the belief that American can bully everyone into doing its bidding, and that engaging in diplomacy is a sign of weakness.  His ideas on domestic policy are deeply ignorant and irresponsible, and would be disastrous if put into effect.  

In other words, he’s a George W. Bush clone but not quite as bright as Bushki.


Now consider D. Trump.  Yesterday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast he put a couple pieces of bacon - a banned food for Muslims - inside the Quran.  

He said he was “just fooling around.”

That’s our not-so-presidential presidential candidate, D. Trump.

He probably wasn't happy with the news that he really doesn’t have much pull in the city of New York.  According to those in the "know," he’s not one of the players although he pretends to be.  He’s 2nd-rate when it comes to New York in that his holdings and businesses there don't compare with the real powers in Gotham.  Some of the banks don’t want to do business with him because he can’t be trusted to do what he says and he doesn’t pay his bills.

Then there’s this little tidbit which I discovered, that so far has stayed under the radar, but I think speaks volumes as to Trump's character.  In John Feinstein’s book, “A Good Walk Spoiled,” which details life on the PGA Tour back in the early 90s, Feinstein says that at the 1994 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Trump was paired with Paul Goydos.  Goydos, a relatively unknown on the Tour, was surprised and wondered why.  He was told, “‘This way it will be Donald Trump’s group.  If we put him with a big name, then he would be shoved into the background."

Trump is a decent golfer and he actually shot a hole-in-one during the tournament.  He told his friends there were 5,000 people who saw him accomplish that feat.  Goydos said it might not have been more than 50.  Also, while out on the course, Trump talked to Goydos about a sponsorship deal which was music to the struggling pro's ears, but Trump never followed through.

A sponsorship deal did happen the next year when Goydos was paired with Jack Olsen, Hertz’s chairman of the board.  Goydos and Olsen worked out a deal where Goydos got $50,000 for wearing a Hertz hat and carrying a Hertz bag for the rest of the year. 

As Feinstein put it:  “Trump talked.  Olsen produced.”


Ted Cruz.  He’s the darling of the far-right evangelicalistas.  He’s the one anointed by the Dominionists to take over the U.S. and then the world.  God wants him to be president.  Just ask his crazy father!  

Ted has no morals, no ethics, does not believe in the American system of government and by his words and actions demonizes the United States Constitution.  He would break down the wall separating church and state.  He has no empathy with people, either, recently stating he would eliminate the serving of gluten-free meals in the military.  On this issue he is also either totally uncaring or just plain ignorant.  He seem to think gluten-free is some kind of liberal plot having to do with political correctness when in fact, for many people, to eat gluten means sickness and death!  

He’s a child-man.  

One of those stumping for Cruz is the Duck Dynasty dumbass, Phil Robertson, who is a racist, a misogynist, and homophobic scumbag but thinks Cruz is the right person for the White House.  And Cruz, who will pander to any moron who will vote for him suggested if he’s elected he’ll appoint the Duck Dynasty fool as ambassador to the United Nations!

Not to be outdone by the temper-tantrum child, D. Trump, Cruz also wants to build a BEEG fence to keep all the Mescans out of our fine country.  Heh, heh.  Nobody told him that more Mescans are going back to Mexico than are coming here.  It ain’t so hot here anymore for the folks who do the crap labor nobody else wants to do.


The Republican children in Idaho are mostly rightwing Christianists so it's not too surprising they want the Bible to take center stage in our public schools.  

To ensure this happens the Senate’s education committee has put forth Senate Bill No.1232 which “expressly” permits the Bible to be used to “further the study of literature, comparative religion, English and foreign languages, United States and world history, comparative government, law, philosophy, ethics, astronomy, biology, geology, world geography, archaeology, music, sociology, and other topes of study where an understanding of the Bible may be useful or relevant.”

Unfortunately, the Bible is not a good source for information on any of these topics but more to the point, it is unconstitutional!  This bill would be laughed out of town by adult legislators.  But we have too few of those these days to make much of a difference.


The Republican members of the Oklahoma legislature, also children, are dealing with a piece of legislative crap which would basically drop all regulations and rules for the public schools.  

Now, because these stupid childish legislators have had their way before, private and charter schools in Oklahoma are already exempt from the normal regulations.

Here is what this bill means for the public schools:  (from Daily Kos)

Elimination of the teacher's minimum salary schedule.
Elimination of the requirement for school districts to participate in the Oklahoma Teacher's Retirement System (OTRS).
Elimination of school district provided health insurance.
Elimination of criminal background checks on school employees.
Elimination of teacher evaluation and due process protections.
Elimination of payroll deduction.
Elimination of due process protections for support staff.
Elimination of all certification requirements for all school district positions.
Elimination of negotiations between a school district and employees.
Elimination of student curriculum requirements.
Elimination of required continuing education for local board of education members.

Those of us who are adults should also be aware that his is part of the Koch-inspired attempt to rid our nation of all public schools.  The above is just one way of achieving that goal.


And then down in Iowa, Republican children in the legislature are considering a bill which would allow children of any age to shoot guns.  This bill, they say, puts the power back where it belongs, in the hands of the people.

Okay, but why stop there.  Let's give the people all power.  Let’s no longer have any speed limits; let’s no longer have any laws at all.  The people can decide what is best for them and their families and their neighbors.  

This is all so sad.  The children who lead us say over and over again, because they are children, “You can’t tell us what to do!”

Or, as so many Republicans put it today, “We don’t need no damn guv’mint!”


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Educational Levels in the United States

The following was sent to me by a friend.  It tells a tale that we need to heed.  Instead, the people who govern us currently are doing everything they can to destroy our public schools.


This map shows how states could be renamed based on education levels within them.  Americans like to think they are #1 in everything, but when it comes to education, the U.S. quickly loses boasting rights. Math and science are particularly rough: U.S. ranks 28th in the world for those subjects. Although we may be a developed nation, when education is broken down by state, we aren't all that different from countries that are more economically challenged.

HomeSnacks.com used information from the U.S. high school graduation rates from the U.S. Census and compared them against the education index of each country from the United Nations Development Program.  The result? A map of the U.S. with each state renamed as the country that resembles their level of education.


h/t to Lou Cardamone