Sacred cows taste better.


Tuesday, April 9, 2024

The Madness of Dan O'Donnell


Mark Belling is on his way out as far as WISN radio is concerned (good riddance!). His on-air time on the radio show that still ostensibly bears his name has been reduced to brief guest appearances every few days or so. One would hope he might go off the air sometime soon, and from there eventually join Rush Limbaugh in Hell. But for now, I want to focus on Belling's heir-apparent: the hyper-extremist Dan O'Donnell.

Charlie Sykes worked with Dan O'Donnell for years at WTMJ radio, and remarked way back in 2020 just how astonished he was at how Dan had gone completely overboard in recent years. In the years since, he seems to have gotten even worse. But O'Donnell's extremism doesn't seem to have given the executives in charge of WISN any problems. Far from it! In fact, O'Donnell gets three hours of airtime from 9:00 A.M. until noon on weekdays, and then gets yet another three hours filling in for the slowly fading-away Belling between 5:00 and 8:00 P.M. And what this person does with that additional airtime is breathtaking beyond belief.

There are some key differences between Belling and O'Donnell. For starters, Belling is at least leery of Trump and understands that he's a poor businessman. He still supports Trump, of course, but he's critical of him. O'Donnell gives reality no such latitude. In his book, it's all Trump or nothing. For another thing (and this plays to O'Donnell's favor), O'Donnell doesn't take the ridiculously long pauses between sentences that Belling takes. Belling wasted perhaps 40% of his airtime with not-so-pregnant pauses after forcing his listeners to endure 15 solid minutes of nothing but commercials leading up to, and sometimes during, his show. (I timed it!) O'Donnell at least keeps things moving along, and doesn't bother with dead-air time. Also, if he talks to someone off-microphone, he will allow that person to respond in the studio. Not so, Belling, who was constantly saying, "Paul says this," or "Paul says that." (Paul being his producer and call-screener.) Just give Paul the damned microphone already!

But I got a real taste of the kind of unbelievable bullshit when I listened to his podcast episode from March 20th. He kicked it off by (interestingly) campaigning strongly for early voting. This is a sea change for right-wingers in Wisconsin, who had previously decried mail-in and early voting ballots as skewing strongly toward Democrats. But now, it seems, O'Donnell is convinced that early voting plays to the conservatives' advantage, and so he strongly advocates for it. I look forward to seeing him proven wrong.

But that was just the beginning. He goes on from there to draw parallels from today to when the very first Republican was elected (Abraham Lincoln), and Southern Democrats threw a fit about it, preferring secession to advocating. The result was, of course, the Civil War.

"Man! Those Democrats just refused to give up their slaves!" he says. "What a racist party!"

Well, no. The crucial part that O'Donnell leaves out is that these Southern Democrats were ALL Christian conservatives! Yes! Don't believe me? Recall William Jennings Bryan, three time DEMOCRATIC candidate for president, and the prosecuting attorney in the John Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee. You don't get much more Christian conservative than that! This sad state of affairs stayed that way all the way through the 1970's, after which Reagan convinced most Southern Democrats to slowly switch sides. Southern Christian conservatism became exclusively owned by the Republicans by the time the 1992 mid-term elections ousted Democrats from their Congressional majority for the first time since Roosevelt.

And all the moderates either resigned or declared they would not seek re-election.

"It is just weird," he goes on, "that it's not taught anymore. That every single secessionist, was a Democrat." And later adds, "They launched a violent revolution against the Uni... some might call it an insurrection! against the government of the United States.  Who would have guessed that 170 years ago all of that would have been started by a group of abolitionists who were tired of Democrats treating people like their own personal property."

Apparently, somebody in the newsroom studio took exception to this bullshit and tried flagging O'Donnell for attention. Perhaps they were saying, "Dude, what the fuck?!"

"What?" O'Donnell Protested on the air. "What? It's history."

No, Dan, it's not. Because history is telling the whole story, not leaving out the most crucial part of it in order to transform it into political spin. These were CONSERVATIVES in the Confederate South. And they revolted, just like their ideological descendants did on January 6th, 2021.

"Democrat" is nothing more than a team name. The real enemy is conservatism. And more specifically, that brand of Christian conservatism which has no problem with telling bald-faced lies on the air, designed to make their own people revolt yet again.

Later that same broadcast, he cites Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden's, and plays some key parts of his testimony in congress during the Joe Biden impeachment attempt. He claims that this testimony shows that Hunter Biden took payments from China in exchange for leverage against Joe Biden. As additional evidence, he cites the fact that Joe Biden bowed out of the 2016 election back in 2015. He (Bobulinski) says he believes that China's money bought influence regarding that decision, even though that's pure speculation. He says it's clear to him that Joe Biden was the brand being sold in the Biden family, which is more speculation. He asks, if Joe Biden were so innocent, why is his family being so dishonest about it?

"That's a great question," O'Donnell says. He then claims that 10% of the payments from China were being "held by H. for the Big Guy." Where H. is presumably Hunter Biden, and the "Big Guy," is his dad. He then highlights a $40,000 payment to Joe Biden. "Remember that amount," he says. "$40,000."

He cites Byron Donaldson's testimony, and plays a clip, in which he details various payments made from the CCP to CEFC, a company associated with the Bidens, and various smaller dollar payments that went from that fund to various members of the Biden family, including Joe. 

O'Donnell then plays a clip of a heated exchange between Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Tony Bobulinski, a former associate of Hunter Biden's who was testifying. O'Donnell plays that clip. For clarification, here's a brief transcript:

AOC: Did you witness the President commit a crime?

Bobulinski: Yes.

AOC: And what crime have you witnessed?

Bobulinski: How much time do I have to go through it?

AOC: It is simple, you name the crime. Did you watch him steal something?

Bobulinski: Corruption statutes, RICO and conspiracy, FARA...

AOC: What is the crime? Specifically. I asked you to answer the question.

Bobulinski: You asked, I answered the question - RICO. You're obviously not familiar, corruption statutes...

AOC: Excuse me sir, excuse me sir, excuse me sir-- RICO is not a crime. It is a category.

[At this, some audible gasps are heard from the floor.]

Bobulinski: It's a category of crimes that you're then charged under, a long hundred list of statutes...

AOC: (Speaking over Bobulinski) you have charges -- you have charges -- sir, please name...

Bobulinski: You want me to name the exact statute under RICO?

AOC: Yes.

Bobulinski: Well, it's funny, in this committee room, everyone who's not here, there's like eighteen lawyers who went to law school. I'll leave it up to you guys to find the statute.

AOC: I reclaim my time.

[Note: RICO is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.]

After playing the audio clip, O'Donnell actually laughs, going on to describe how he thinks corruption payments flowed over to Joe Biden and his family. But wait, there's another interpretation, here. That the Bidens had perfectly legitimate business interests which received money from the CCP just like every other corporation that does business in China.

AOC's question is perfectly valid. What IS the actual crime, here? Bobulinski couldn't name one and was forced to appeal to the authority of the lawyers in the room. That's a pretty good job by AOC in getting to the point of the matter!

In fact, on Keith Olbermann's podcast, Countdown, he played exactly this same clip as proof that the investigation into Hunter Biden is baseless. Now why is one ultra-left podcast getting pretty much the exact opposite interpretation from a right-wing A.M. radio program?

The answer is obvious: spin. The truth is somewhere between the extremes. Hunter Biden was into some shady shit, but we already knew about that. Does any of it lead to Joe? Not decisively. So then AOC's point is perfectly valid. There is no actual, identifiable crime here. And if there's no crime, then there's no impeachment.

And just how utterly ridiculous is it to conclude that a mere $40,000 can convince a Vice President to not run for office? $40 million, now we're talking. But $40 thousand? Come on! That's a drop in the bucket for any vice president. This paltry sum couldn't have bought anything. And, bear in mind, that Biden was only VICE president at the time. Just what kind of influence do these idiots think a VP could even peddle?

This is what we're fighting. There are thousands upon thousands of O'Donnells out there, each one spewing this same sort of spin-doctored crap, some of which they may actually believe themselves, driving their listenership insane for the sake of a few more ratings points. People are glued to this stuff, sometimes 18 hours per day, being lied to and lied to and lied to until they're so pissed off that an insurrection on the capital seems like the only thing to do!

It's all threatening to happen again.

And we're doing exactly NOTHING to stop it.


Eric

*




Wednesday, February 7, 2024

At Long Last, What Will It Take?


Adam Keiper is quoted recently in the Bulwark, saying, “Between the immigration bill being DOA, the D.C. Circuit ruling on Trump's immunity, Tucker Carlson hanging out with Putin, the failed Mayorkas impeachment followed immediately by the failed Israel funding bill, and now Ronna stepping down, today feels like a perfect storm of GOP insanity.”

Except it doesn't feel like a perfect storm. It IS a perfect storm.

What I have to express this time around is how obvious all this bullshit is. Yes, people live in their insulated bubbles of misinformation, and it's impossible to penetrate those bubbles without encountering insanity on the level so intense that we all quickly unfriend and block it before it drives us insane as well.

But seriously, come on!

The Republicans had a good deal. A damned good deal! Perfect? No. But damned good. In exchange for all the border policing Republicans want, Democrats (and indeed, ALL of us) would get more aid to Ukraine, which we all desperately need. Also Israel, though less so.

And the Republicans scuttled it. Not because they objected to anything in the bill specifically, but because they wanted to deny Biden the win. They wanted to keep immigration reform as a key issue in the upcoming election.

One has to be a Trump follower in order to be that stupid.

They threw us all under the bus, just to make Biden a (very!) little bit more beatable.

What disgusts me the most is that Republicans will get away with it! The blood is SO on their hands for killing this bill. Yet they will point those bloody fingers at the Democrats and say, "They failed on immigration!"

And nobody, not one, among the right-wing masses will ever notice how red those pointing fingers are.

So I, as one cursed to see things as they actually are, have to resort to venting on this blog with a burning question: What will it take? At long last, what can finally shake Americans out of the goddamned tree of stupidity?!

Because it must happen. Yesterday. Or we're all doomed.

These past three years under Biden have been good, with one grave exception: There has been no urgency, zero, to counter the Right Wing Media Cult. None. Democrats have not only not countered it, they have yet to even try! By leaving conservatives in charge of the FCC, they are even actively encouraging it! They have allowed its expansion into Spanish-speaking talk radio unchecked. They felt the terror brought upon themselves through their own inaction on January 6th, 2021. And STILL they do nothing!

It's maddening. You want to scream, "For fuck's sake, DO something! ANYTHING!"

This is not a case where we all have to shrug our shoulders and say, "Well, that's just freedom of speech for you." No! This is a case where laws MUST be enacted forcing for-profit, ad-driven news sources to adhere to a minimum standard of truth-telling. In other words, right wing media can go on lying to people, exercising their freedom of speech to its fullest, but they cannot retain the label of "news" if they do so.

Yes, that will make the news less profitable, but GOOD! The news isn't meant to be profitable! Profitability is for the entertainment industry. And if news becomes entertainment, then it will only tell people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.

They need to hear that Republicans are now the most anti-immigration reform party ever!

They need to hear that Trump is the antichrist! (I'm an atheist and I find that argument compelling!)

We need the Fairness Doctrine brought back.

I don't think there's ever been a moment in history where so many people have so fully committed to something so stupid. With the possible exception of Nazi Germany, and yes, the comparison is apt.

It could happen here. It mustn't happen here.

In the name of God, American Christians are in league with Trump/Satan. And no, that's not hyperbole. That's observation.

There's an old prayer apt to this situation: "Oh, Lord, deliver us from your followers!"

At long last, what will it take?!


Eric

*

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Give Palestinians A Way Out!


Well, I've finally decided to weigh in on the thorny perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestine. While I have historically sided more with Israel, I have to agree with many of my fellow Leftists that Israel has really gone too far this time. But, as is frequently the case when I feel the need to blog about something, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY is missing the main contributing factor in the conflict. There are no clean hands on either side, but there is an overriding, overlooked cause.

Religion? Yes, that's a big one, but it's not being overlooked.

Historical claim to the land? Yes, but again, that one is also frequently cited.

The primary cause being overlooked is - CLOSED BORDERS.

Yes. Closed borders. It's not sexy or obvious, but it's true. Because when people are not allowed to leave somewhere, their economic prospects are limited, and everyone in that area suffers as a result.

Say you're a young Palestinian man living in Gaza. You want a good job? Good luck. There aren't any good jobs available. You might find good paying work if you went to a different Arab country. But will any Arab countries let you in? No! Because that would make too much sense, of course. How dare people leave Palestine to get a good job with better pay which they can then wire home to help support extended family and improve the lives of everyone in the region. How dare they want to work in a country where the language is similar and their job prospects are therefore better!

Why bar the Palestinians from leaving? Primarily it's because the rest of the Arab world is scared shitless that those Palestinians will refuse to come back. They'll have built better lives for themselves, and won't want to return to the ghettos they escaped. And, most importantly, every Palestinian that leaves is considered a winning vote for Israel, and a step closer to Israel's domination of the entire region.

No, the Arab world refuses to consider any solution to the Palestinian crisis except one: Trap the Palestinians in the region and force them into having no other choice but to invade Israel.

Of course, one might as well wish for the moon. Short of nuking the entire region, Israel isn't going anywhere. But that doesn't prevent the closed door policy of the Arab world from being just as immovable.

And all Palestinians pay the price for this stupidity.

So what is a Palestinian person to do if he wants a better life? Well, according to the propaganda the Arab nations constantly pipe in, he must arm himself and attack Israel. It's the only way.

Now, as impossibly stupid as that faith-based bullshit is, it overlooks the fact that one nation that was wise enough to open its borders to give Palestinians better pay and good, permanent employment. That nation, in fact, has had a running policy of employing Palestinians to better their lives.

Yes! That nation is Israel! The ONE nation that has given Palestinians a better shot at life is the one nation the extremists keep firing make-shift missiles into!

Again, you have to have religion to be that stupid.

Not Egypt. Not Jordan. Not Lebanon, Iraq or Syria. Israel.

Now, Israel has been brutally attacked by a hopelessly impossible assault yet again. Only this time, the assault was bigger and better planned than ever before. And the retaliation to that attack has predictably been just as ruthless. In fact, it's as ruthless Israel's currently extremist government will allow. It has made the conscious decision that if Hamas militants are hiding behind innocent civilians, those civilians are forfeit. It's harsh, it's brutal, it's ethically dicey at best, and it needs to stop. Many of my friends on the Left are screaming that this amounts to ethnic cleansing, and they're not wrong.

But here's the thing: Egypt could save millions of their fellow Arabs if they just open up the damned border and allow them to park their keesters in a HUGE FUCKING UNUSED DESERT so that they won't get killed!

And will they? Even now? NO! Because they are still too irrationally terrified that any Palestinians who leave will stay gone!

In my book, watching your own people get run over by tanks, and doing nothing when you had the opportunity to help them flee, is just as bad as running them over with tanks yourselves.

Fuck! Egypt!

The borders must open! Palestinians must be allowed to flee the BOMBS, for fuck's sake! And they need to make encampments where food, water, and medicine can flow in freely. Egypt is simply, plainly, not helping by keeping the borders closed! Neither is Jordan, for that matter.

They are every bit as complicit in this admittedly horrible genocide.

Also, I must point out that Hamas is, even now, STILL firing make-shift missiles into Israel. And once again, you need religion in order to be that goddamned stupid.

That's me laying the blame. NOW hear me lay out a solution. And it's so crazy it just might work. So hear me out.

First, everyone calls for a two-state solution. And that sounds great, but it's simply unrealistic. Ask a Palestinian child where they're from, and they'll likely name a town or village way on the other side of the border, deep inside Israel. Why insist on such a foolish narrative? Because that's their faith-based bullshit, that's why! And so long as that situation remains (which is forever, by the way), Palestine can never be an independent state. No matter what non-militarization treaties are in place, a free Palestinian state today will militarize tomorrow and be invading Israel by June.

If a two-state solution were even remotely possible, it would have been done by now. But it isn't. So it hasn't.

So what do we do? Let Israel continue to occupy the territories? That hasn't worked out so well, either. Because Israel isn't really "occupying" Gaza. Oh, it's been encroaching into the West Bank for years, but Gaza, not so much. And the Palestinians living in those areas have been allowed to go pretty much unfettered, which is why the networks of tunnels and systems of smuggling in weapons have gotten so sophisticated over the years. "Occupying" a territory takes a lot of police presence, risk, and money. And Israel has limited supplies of all these.

So here's my suggestion:

Make Gaza and Palestine permanent protectorates of the United Nations. The U.N. can rule Gaza and the West Bank, administer passports, build airports, roads, infrastructure as possible and/or needed, and help distribute foreign aid. And best of all, it will help guarantee that weapons are not smuggled in. Or, if they are, that they are found and neutralized before use.

And Israel's extremist factions won't be able to use Hamas as an excuse to slaughter civilians anymore. Because they won't be the ones calling the shots.

I mean, what do we even have a United Nations for, otherwise?

It will be painful at first. Many nations will call it a boondoggle. But as Palestine prospers under this forced peace, people's lives will eventually improve. And as they do, the peace will gradually become more and more permanent.

The best way to avoid militant extremism is make sure the potential militants have full bellies and ample bank accounts.

It's the only thing that ever works.

Oh, and a note to my fellow Leftists who are being all pro-Palestinian right now: I guarantee you that you are simply planting the seeds of more future war. I simply know too much about Islam to say otherwise. If you succeed in building a Palestinian state, you will get wars, wars, and even more wars, and it will be your own, dumbass, damned, naive fault. I'm not saying that you shouldn't oppose genocide. But don't buy the narrative that the Palestinian cause is so holy and just. And don't lay all the blame on Israel, either. There's a reason Israel has been attacked, and attacked, and attacked. And it's not because Palestinians simply want to live in peace.

So knock it the fuck off with your naive bullshit.


So that's my two-pronged solution. 1) Fuck Egypt, force them to open their borders and give Palestinians a way out, then 2) give Gaza and the West Bank over to U.N. rule.

A perfect solution? Hell, no. But I dare you to come up with a better one.


Eric

*



Tuesday, December 26, 2023

BOYCOTT TWITTER/X!!!

 


Really? I haven't posted on the Sacred Cow Wursthaus since July?

Well, that partly makes sense. I haven't had much to say. I normally vent on this particular blog when I get frustrated at something obvious that nobody else is talking about. But lately, people are at least saying what needs to be said. Sometimes. Oh, the lying for-profit fake news sources like Fox News, Sinclair, and Newsmax continue to spout their poison with zero checks or balances, and that continues to be the primary cause of The Great Madness which defines this era, but at least a few people are calling out the bullshit.

Not so with X/Twitter. Not nearly enough.

Oh, John Oliver tried, branding Elon Musk on the ass to close out his 2023 HBO season. But that only scratched the surface of the social media platform Musk took over, and then ruined.

On Christmas Day (CHRISTMAS DAY, no less!), one of the biggest trending items on X was (and I'm not even making this up) "Nate Higgers." No, seriously. And that's my point. Blunt, obvious, and inexcusable racial hatred and bigotry is not only tolerated on X, it's become the new Twitter brand.

And I get the general principle of "free speech." Of course I believe in that. But we all know perfectly well what's permissible in the public sphere. The classic example is yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, but this also extends to deliberately feeding and promoting racism, hatred, and bigotry. There's freedom of speech, and then there's going way, way out of your way to be an asshole. X is the playground for the latter, and then some. Elon Musk somehow sees nothing wrong with this. 

Exhibit A: Check out this unruly piece of work. The n-word is right there in his name, plain for all  to see. And does Twitter/X do anything about it? Of course not! Because it is currently helmed by Captain "Wrong Way" Peachfuzz, which is the same as being controlled by nobody at all.

(Note: the "account suspended" header is actually from another account which was temporarily suspended. This account, sadly, dates to January of 2022, and is STILL active after all that time.)


Nor is this a one-off. A simple search for the n-word on X reveals hundreds of gruesome results. It is literally like shooting fish in a barrel.

Like this fool, again with the n-word right there, plain as day, for all to see. Nor would we even need to have such an obvious display. The chosen screen name says quite enough!



And again, this idiot has been on X since October. And Twitter has done nothing to counter it.

Bear in mind, Elon Musk is SUING Media Matters For America, saying that his major advertisers aren't coming anywhere near this stuff. Yet look how easy it is to find! It's so obvious! I found THIS after only a minute:


And the racism on X is everywhere. It's gotten so bad it's the new 4chan or 8kun. Check this out:




"But there isn't a viable alternative to Twitter!" you might complain. Not so! That used to be the case, but BlueSky is finally ready. It recently allowed its posts to become public. Threads, even though it's part of Meta, is at least a better landscape. (Mastadon seems to have lost out.) There ARE better places to be.

It's time to be there.

Seriously, let's call this shit out for what it is. Twitter has become a cesspool of racial hatred and right-wing extremism. If you're still on it, YOU NEED TO LEAVE! It's time for everyone with a conscience to abandon this platform once and for all. If you're still on Twitter/X, you are worse than being socially irresponsible.

You are no longer trending.

The grass has literally become WAY greener on the other side of the social media fence.

It's time to let the scorched-earth hellscape that used to be Twitter finally die.


Eric

*

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

SCOTUS And Affirmative Action

 

By now, lots of people have weighed in on the SCOTUS ruling which struck down affirmative action for college admissions. Harvard can now push aside qualified black applicants in favor of old money again, because those with old money have greater "merit."

But speaking of merit, why shouldn't colleges simply admit based on academic achievement? Why not render higher education completely color blind? Isn't that fair? Isn't affirmative action, which was necessary in the past, no longer necessary? Has it become outdated?

And, on the flip side of the coin, is affirmative action part of the "racism of diminished expectations" we hear conservatives complaining about so much?

I don't think this topic has been clarified quite enough. Favoritism of one race over another is a primary component of racism, and there is no denying that affirmative action is, if nothing else, favoring blacks for college admission. So why do it, then? Isn't that racism too?

The answer to this is solid, but sadly, rarely used. It all has to do with the economics of opportunity. Hard work creates opportunity, yes. But privilege also creates opportunity. Better childhood education creates opportunity. Wealth creates opportunity.

And right now, for historic reasons which have been built into the structure of our nation, much of that opportunity has been denied black people. Better jobs, better schools, and better neighborhoods have all been hoarded by whites for a very long time, and they don't want to stop doing so, even when there's plenty to go around. Efforts have been made to alleviate this, but so far, not much has succeeded. We lack the political will to tell the suburbs, "Look, it's time to let the inner city thrive the way you let it thrive back when white people lived there."

As it sits right now, whites largely have the ability to invest in their own merit, and that of their children. This, more than any other factor, helps ensure that their children have good prospects and futures. Blacks, by contrast, cannot invest in merit in quite the same way.

That's why affirmative action exists. Not to fight racism with more racism, but to offset the economics.

That's why it's fair.

Am I saying that we are overlooking merit? Judging by color of skin and not content of character? Yes! But we must remember, whites were once the beneficiaries of affirmative action, too. It was the government's policy to swindle land away from Indians and sell it to white settlers at $1.25 per acre. It was the government's policy in the South to turn a blind eye to the evils of slavery and allow white people to profit and invest in their children's education for generations, while denying blacks the same ability. It was the government's policy to grant loans to white home buyers after World War II, but not blacks. It was the government's policy to enforce economic advantage for whites in the South through segregation, and in the North, through red-lining.

And after all these favoritisms, do I as a white male have the hubris to complain? I think not!

We judge by skin color today, because we judged by skin color then. Fair's fair.

Sadly, some misguided white people don't see it that way.

And admissions merely gets one in the door. Once inside the colleges, blacks must work to achieve just like everybody else. Blacks like Barack and Michelle Obama earned their grades on the same scale as everyone else. They passed the same standards as everyone else. And they graduated with pride, just like everyone else. Just like all black students must do, and have done, since affirmative action was instituted. Affirmative action may have gotten them in, but they stayed in because they earned it!

Someday, blacks in America will achieve economic parity with whites. When that day comes, we will be able to retire affirmative action and live in the perfect meritocracy conservatives prematurely call for now. 

But if we do meritocracy too soon, we deny blacks much of the economic opportunity to invest in their own merit, and thus enact an unintentional racism which inhibits them, and keeps them under. In other words, it isn't the "soft racism of diminished expectations" that is the issue. Rather, it is the "soft racism of premature color-blindness."

Premature meritocracy is like seeing a rope which was thrown to someone down a hole. And then, right before the person reaches the top, cuts the rope saying, "Well, you're 80% there, you can handle the rest."

And this is merely admissions to college. Not 40 acres and a mule. Is stamping a form really too high a cost to begin repaying the unbelievably huge tab which is reparations?

Perhaps what has really angered white racists is that affirmative action worked. Many black people have climbed the ladder, and built better lives for themselves. We are seeing more black participation in suburbia, in the entertainment industry, in science fiction, and in all the other recreational activities that were once exclusively white. Good! That's the way it should be!

And now SCOTUS has prematurely removed one of those ladders? Well, that's a loss...

But I think they're too late to stop the positive effects. And those who succeeded will put down ladders of their own.


Eric

**

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Milwaukee Has Made A Faustian Bargain

 


Ah, Milwaukee.

I love my city. It's grown and prospered greatly over the last quarter-century in ways I couldn't have imagined. I've been looking forward to contributing to that growth in helping to make Milwaukee a hub for sci fi authors, filmmakers and artists.

But beneath the outward expansion of the city skyline and riverfront, there's been a looming financial cliff.

Our new mayor, Chevy Johnson, has been tirelessly working to avoid that cliff, and it seems he's succeeded. A deal has been worked out with Governor Evers and Republicans in Madison to grant Milwaukee a greater share of revenue sharing, along with giving it the right to raise taxes within the city and the county (finally!).

In exchange, Republicans get to expand school vouchers and charter schools.

Okay, look, I know the city has it's back to the wall. Mayor Johnson had to compromise somewhere. But this deal essentially mortgages our city's children in order to pay for the present.

Do charter schools work? Sort of. Do vouchers work? Again, sort of. The numbers are comparable, and the charter and voucher schools don't seem to be producing scores that notably outpace traditional public schools. This report from US News & World Report shows that, as late as 2019, charter/voucher schools did not show themselves to be the magic bullet that advocates said they would be. And 2019 still applies to today, since Covid disrupted everything between 2020 and 2022.

So, if charter and voucher schools aren't delivering the goods, why are Republicans continuing the big push?

The obvious reason is because it shuffles public money into the pockets of private religious schools. Why simply teach kids creationism when it can be done on the public dime?

But more importantly than that, charter schools get to pretend that they do better with the "three-and-out" trick. Students that need extra help can get booted after three weeks, usually on trumped-up disciplinary grounds. The school's overall scores improve at the expense of the kids they kick out. And what happens to those kids then? Why, they get sent to the only place left for them - the traditional public schools, which now have even more kids and fewer resources.

That was bad enough before Covid. But after Covid hit, so many more kids got left behind in the system. An entire generation has been lost because many schools would rather expel kids who are behind than educate them. 

And when some of them finally get expelled even by the public schools? What then?

The answer is all the bullshit you saw on YouTube in 2021 with the "Kia Boys." These are the kids left without a school, and without a future. They have little else to do with their time except steal cars, and wait for the system to give them their permanent jail-time-careers as inmates.

Milwaukee needed a financial boon. It got one. But it also needed at least two or three boarding schools for boys where troubled kids way behind in their education would finally get a fighting chance at life.

What they got instead, thanks to Republicans from White Suburbia, is more of the same. Because raising kids as Christians on the public dime is more important than actually educating them.

Milwaukee has avoided a fiscal cliff. Hooray. Yet it has gone over a different cliff. The educational one. We've already lost almost an entire generation of kids, no thanks to Covid and Trump's mis-management of it. Now we're about to lose another one. We're going to have to cross our fingers and hope that institutions like the Milwaukee Area Technical College system can make up the difference.

If Republicans don't want to slash funding for that, too.

What's that? They're already trying to do so?

Well, shit.


Eric

**

Monday, November 7, 2022

Preserving Democracy Is The ONLY Issue!

 


The latest polls leading up to Election Day - which is today, for most of you reading this, show that people are starting to lean Republican based on certain issues which they feel Democrats are weak on. Issues like crime, the economy, inflation, immigration, losses in our children's education due to the pandemic, and so forth.

But here's the thing, if our democracy falls, and Republicans are currently VERY blunt about wanting exactly that, all those other issues won't matter worth jack. And there's a good bet the net result for all those issues will be worse.

Take inflation, for instance. If Republicans overturn democracy, what do you think will happen to inflation? That's right, it will go through the roof! Republicans are also campaigning very bluntly on the platform of denying any more funding for the defense of Ukraine. That means prolonging the war Russia has unjustly waged upon it, which increases economic uncertainty for the rest of us. Meaning, that too will vastly increase inflation.

So much for that one.

And the economy? It absolutely floors me that so many people think that Republicans are better at the economy than Democrats are. Republicans have been the direct cause of the last two economic crises, and not ambiguously, either! Reagan was the last beneficiary of a thriving economy, and he inherited that from the last-minute desperation efforts of Jimmy Carter. How do we know? Because it takes at least three years for a president's policies to be felt. Carter invested the time. Reagan dared to take credit in February of 1981. There simply wasn't time for him to have done anything, yet people think his policies saved America from inflation once before. Bullshit!

And just what is the Republican plan for dealing with inflation and the economy this time around? Why, it's the same one it's always been: cut taxes for the ultra-rich, deregulate banks, and say a goddamned prayer!

Why would anyone assume Republicans are better at the economy based on that? Don't we remember the economy absolutely tanking under Sonny Bush? And tanking even worse under Trump?

Is your issue crime? Well, then you'll want to avoid Republicans like the plague. Because their idea of fighting crime is to increase the likelihood that jail will take a small-time criminal and turn him into a big-time criminal. Republicans keep hammering Democrats about no-cash bail, but setting bail high doesn't deter crime. It sends people to jail more frequently, and jail, as we all should know and recognize, is Criminal Training Camp.

Do we really want to increase the bail on criminals so that they can have even more time in Criminal Training Camp and be an even worse criminal after eventual release? And if someone is locked away after a minor offense in this manner, what will happen to his family who must now do without his income and financial support? Won't that father's absence make it far more likely that any children he has also become criminal?

Net result: Three times the criminality out on the street. All just to keep bail high.

I call bullshit.

Oh, and let's wonder aloud why Republicans should care about crime when they themselves are criminals? Ron Johnson, as prime example, had paperwork for alternate electors go through his very office! He's a seditionist and a traitor, which is so much worse than your common crook!

Republicans say they're tough on crime? Ask them why they nominate criminals as candidates!

And again, if our democracy falls, as Republicans openly want it to, crime in the streets will go up, not down!

Is your issue immigration? Then ask yourself: how will we be able to stem the flow of illegal immigrants when our democracy falls and the amount of immigration policing and processing goes from insufficient to none whatsoever?

The only issue which might get better after a fallen democracy would be gun rights, and that only because there would be no central government to enact any background checks at all!

So you see, preserving our democracy is the only issue. All other issues are of secondary import, because they are utterly and completely dependent upon our government surviving.

Oh, and don't forget, our own personal survival is at stake too. 


Because if our democracy falls, it's going to be a bloodbath!


Eric

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