A Bad Deal for America

16 days and 24 billion dollars later, the Government will resume its operations and the public debts will be paid. The deal struck by Congress last night, signed immediately by the President is just another example of a government that is stuck in reverse. The gears of our nation remain broken, with only some oil and grease lubricating its failing parts without a new engine being put to work. A 90-120 day combined reprieve is nothing more than a band aid on a tumor. Looking at the deal, you can see it is not different from what we should have had in place two weeks ago. It continues to be insufficient to address for once and for all the dysfunction of this failing system. There are no winners, only losers and anyone in government who gloats or rationalizes this compromise as a success, is truly living in a reality TV show. There is no end in sight to this debacle and we will be right back at it again once these imbeciles realize they resolved nothing. Where are you Americans for reason and truth?

A work of fiction.....a teacher's lament

I teach Civics....more specifically, Advanced Placement Government and Politics to High School students. I teach them how to pass a test with the hope that some of the information will resonate with them throughout their lives. Today, I will teach them that the Constitution is a work of fiction. Yes, fiction. They will be tested in May on how a bill becomes a law. The test will want them to answer that it takes a majority of each house of Congress plus a President's signature. They will be tested on which branch of government is responsible for releasing money to spend on Government functions and priorities. The test will want them to say Congress, the legislative branch of government. Unfortunately, today, these answers are not accurate, thus making the Constitution a work of fiction. Today it takes a majority of the majority party in the House when it opposes the President, for a bill to become law. Today, it takes 60 Senators to get a vote on a bill. Today it takes all 100 Senators to agree to expedite legislative action. I defy anyone to find these procedures in the Constitution. You won't be able to. Our government is not honoring the terms of its most precious document, thus making it a work of fiction. Where are you Americans for reason and truth?

Utter Stupidity

Our Founding Fathers had differences that would make today's disagreements seem mild. Some believed in the ownership of human beings as property. Some believed in a strong central government while others believed in genuine libertarianism, not like the fraudulent spectacle of a Ted Cruz. The document that they ultimately wrote, the Constitution is known as a Bundle of Compromises by men who did have two things in common, a love of the nation and its principles and they had intellect. They were learned men, men of distinction, men of the classics, men of philosophy and men of the best education offered at the time. They were statesmen, scholars, lawyers, property owners, elected officials, politicians and yes, pretty wealthy and distinguished. They doubted the ability of the common man to make the kinds of decisions required of our leaders and could not conceive of Twitter, the Internet or Facebook. Most important, they weren't stupid. Today is different. Some of our leaders are stupid, and more damaging is that these loud mouth destroyers and haters mock intellect. They poke fun at the well traveled, at the cultured, at the reading of a book or the understanding of science and math. This group has been holding the nation hostage because those with the power to doom them to irrelevancy are too weak kneed and inept to confront them. They allow them to lie to our citizens, preach fear and show ignorance on the issues in ways that have caused this crisis and doomed our nation to a future of mediocrity. The polls have been devastating for these people and their party but even so, as of this post, the nation's Republican leaders still cower over the tea party, denying any sense of reality, wisdom and care for our nation while they ponder their Koch funded primary opponent at the next election. Their safe gerrymandered districts promote this intransigency and stupidity, but the nation continues to suffer. There is hope as always that at the last minute some deal will be struck, but the President is right...we cannot do this every few months. A six week deal is a preposterous attempt at Republican face saving and whereas I believe future budget negotiations are important, the nation's credibility is more so. The Speaker's ineptitude has been catastrophic and we all suffer because of Utter Stupidity. Where are you Americans for Reason and Truth?

We Fixed the Gliche

One of my favorite all time movies is "Office Space". I can recite the dialogue and never stop laughing and now, more than ever, one needs to laugh because of the sad and depressing spectacle unfolding due to the sheer ineptitude and bullying of the House Republicans. No matter how many attempts they make at passing the blame or attacking Democrats as culpable for the problems as a way to deny the truth, intelligent citizens see the writing on the wall. The fault lies with Ted Cruz, his puppet the Speaker, 35 lunatic fringe representatives and the rest of the Republican caucus, so afraid to be primaried, that they have sold their souls and their hearts to the devils Koch. One of the great lines in the movie was "We fixed the gliche", reference to Milton's pay no longer being processed. Lumbergh, the general manager, is John Boehner, too weak to confront Milton and hoping it will just work itself out. Not that simple. So, instead of owning some responsibility, these nitwits blame Obamacare. Obamacare, the great Kenyan socialist plot to destroy America....take away our freedom....blah blah blah. Once people realize what the Affordable Health Care Act will do for their lives and for the long term success of our country, they will love it and the Republicans know it. So after a few days of startup gliches, all they are talking about are these terrible gliches, destroying our lives, awful program...blah blah blah. How many of us have logged into our banks to check a balance only to get the message "weekend maintenance on the site. Please try again later". We all have, we deal with it, we recognize that technology has its moments and thus, we wait. We don't leave the bank. We don't stop tweeting when the system is overloaded with tweets. We try again. We don't trade in our Apple products when the Apple store website goes down. We recognize that any website, any search and any new program will have these hiccups. The only real gliche, is the stupidity of these Republican haters who have gotten us into some mess. This is the only gliche that really needs fixing, the real technical difficulties. Where are you Americans for reason and truth?