“Iron Lady” Fiorina and Dr. Carson ticket? No way.

The stories I have been reading pronounce Carly Fiorina as the winner of this week’s CNN Republican debate. She certainly made a strong presence both in her, seeming, knowledge of foreign policy as well as her stopping the Donald Trump train in its tracks.

Despite Fiorina bitch-slapping Trump with silence over his off-the-cuff remark on her looks in a Rolling Stone article, the former Hewlitt-Packard executive at times resembled the reincarnation of the U.K.’s Maggie Thatcher.

The GOP “Iron Lady” talked tough on Russia and its leader Vladmir Putin by barking the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet should be built up along with missile defenses, and thousands of troops being sent to Germany. Whether such moves are reasonable or even needed is questionable.

I wondered, as I told my friend and correspondent in Tokyo, Paul, whether Fiorina might start a war with Argentina as the original Iron Lady Thatcher did.

My prognostication for the November 2016 match-up doesn’t include Lady Fiorina. We can’t have two women run for president. That’s preposterous! That is just as we couldn’t have another black president, such as Dr. Ben Carson, anytime soon. A ticket with both Fiorina and Carson? That also is unlikely.

Barring some arrest or indictment on either side, I still see Hillary versus Jeb. No two women will run. That just goes against the natural order of the parties and their people. A black man as the Republican nominee? As much as the right hates Obama, mostly because he is (partly) black, a large part of the electorate wouldn’t elect Dr. Carson if he could heal by laying on hands.

These predictions probably sound like I am the misogynist here or the racist here. No, I’m just the Democrat here. And I am looking at the way things are. That’s good for the Democrats — oh and if the GOP shuts down the government again this discussion will become moot. The Republicans might have that divide I’ve wished for over the years. As good as that might be for the Dems, I don’t see how the outcome will help equality in our nation.

The actions of our democracy were outside the chambers last night, sorry to say

This was the first State of the Union address I have missed in several years. I did not miss watching it because of something the President did or didn’t do. I missed it because I knew every good deed that was proposed in the past year was usually grounded because of our pitiful excuse of a Congress.

Here is a full transcript of the 2014 SOTU. Beginning with:

 “Tonight this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent: It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our union strong.”

What would the President say? “Man, this whole stinkin’ union sucks!”

During this past year, the minority within the House majority, along with the minority of the Senate minority, caused the federal government to shut down for half a month. We, the workers (part-time ones like me too) were all paid but we worried about whether that would happen because our senior U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R, Texas, held up the legislation allowing us our pay to the end of that sorry saga. I wish someone viable would appear to defeat Cornyn, the piece of dusty furniture that occupies our vaunted Senate succession from the great Sen. Sam Houston, who was for those from another planet was also President of the Republic of Texas and Governor of Texas. That is, until Big Sam was overthrown by Texas citizens of the United States who wanted to undo all the state had fought for by succeeding from this nation over slaves they couldn’t even afford.

No viable candidate brings me to the end of the SOTU. Read it yourself. I will. I have read the excerpts and the pundits, some of them. I rest my case, whatever it was on the SOTU because the scourge of idiocy showed itself outside the great congressional chamber where first, one of Cornyn’s opponents “showed his ass,” as we say down in Texas.

Rep. Steve Stockman, R, Texas is leaving Congress to run against Cornyn. That’s the good news, that he’s leaving Congress. Stockman, unseated congressional legend Rep. Jack Brooks who served 42 years in office. I wasn’t living in that district then. I am living in that district now but because of redistricting we have a brand new piece of Republican Tea Party furniture. Thankfully, I was ably represented back then, in 1995, by Rep. Charlie “Good Time Charlie” Wilson, D, Texas of “Charlie Wilson’s War” fame. Not that I could have done anything to stop the looney tunes Stockman from taking office. During Stockman’s tenure he was reviled for a bizarre incident in which he received a fax from Michigan militia types just after the Oklahoma City Bombing. While Stockman was accused of having received the message before the bombing and not reporting it to the FBI (he did report it), his sanity and ethics were questioned for sending the fax to the NRA. Plus his ties to a Michigan militia seemed also shady.

But Stockman, these days, seems shady-er, shadier. Cornyn’s high-powered Republican operatives have dug deep and found all kinds of dirt about financial shenanigans from Stockman and his missing in action from the House.  

Then there was that whole Stockman, figuratively thank you, showing his ass last night by walking out on the SOTU. The Senate candidate said he did so to protest the President abusing his power yadda, yadda. What a moron you are Steve Stockman.

Finally, the Republicans also made news for the party’s former Marine and FBI agent member of the House who last night threatened to throw a reporter off the balcony of the Capitol and to break the reporter into. That was because the reporter had the gall to ask Rep. Michael Grimm, R, N.Y., a question that was about some campaign finance irregularities rather that something from the SOTU on which the congressman probably had ready for a quote.

It turns out Grimm has a long history of bad behavior toward the press and others as well as many ethical and financial questions trailing his time in Congress.

Both congressional Republican morons think they can speak to reporters on their own volition. But that isn’t the way our democracy works. As it turned out, I made the better decision to just keep a copy of the SOTU handy to read at my own pace. Besides, all the action, if you want to call it that, was outside the chamber. Unfortunately.

Stupidity be thy name, Mr. GRIMM and Mr. STOCKMAN.

Congress: The good news and the bad news

The U.S. Senate is in need of about eight Republican who can be coerced sweet-talked into approving a bipartisan budget deal that was approved last week by the GOP-led House. The speculation among Dems and Repubs alike is that a deal will be passed this week. Not surprisingly, everyone doesn’t like the budget deal. I am included in that group. But I also will be happy to see it passed.

That is the good news. The bad news a bit later.

Like most Americans, self-interest is what makes me want to hold my nose while applauding both houses for approving the first budget that I can remember. Not that it has been that long ago, I just can’t remember when was the last time we weren’t operating on what everyone by now should know is a concurrent resolution. I just know it’s been more than a couple of years since an actual budget was in place.

I don’t know what all is in the budget. But I will stay happy with it if it doesn’t cut my pay through raising my pension contributions — it will make new hires pay more — and provides the first pay raise, even 1 lousy percent, in many football seasons.

If some other stupidity winds up in this budget — once again, provided it passes — I will face that when it happens.

Now for the bad news. Let’s say this little amoeba-sized-hailstone piece of bipartisanship happens. And here, let’s say theoretically that I don’t care whether it’s good or bad. This will likely be the last significant measure we will get out of this Congress, according to The Washington Post. Why, oh why, should I not believe it.

It isn’t to say the Congress won’t do anything after passing a budget. Maybe a farm bill will pass which will pay sorghum farmers for not raising dairy cattle or will provide subsidies that encourages Louisiana rice farmers to export their crop to Thailand.

Or maybe Congress will even come up with some sensible immigration reform before they all head home to really start campaigning for their upcoming elections. You know, they will probably make it easier for Southeast Asians to come here for tech and medical jobs. Something on that order. As for Mexico: ¿Quién sabe? 

I’m not one to support a “do-nothing” Congress. There are plenty who do. But there is a good case for it once they head home to start speaking at the Rotary Clubs and the VFWs and the Log Cabin Republicans, should you have a chapter in your town. Those in Congress who have done nothing will get their applause from their supporters. But they might just find their support dwindling, depending on who were inconvenienced by the government shutdown. The whole veterans at National Park/National Monument mumbo jumbo was just that. It was meant for the Fox News crowd. I am a veteran and what pissed me off the most were those poor old WWII guys were just getting used by the politicians who sought a distraction from their lockout of government employees and the American people.

Hopefully, such a crowd, audience if you will, might not carry a big bunch to the polls for the mid-term. I could be wrong. I’ve been wrong many times. As far as I am concerned, the quicker this Congress gets out of Washington the better. Even if it is only to politick for their mid terms. Although an absence for good would be much better.

 

 

Happy Weekend

It has been a long week even though I only worked yesterday for the first time in 17 days. Today I was off and I slept in until 11:30 a.m. I stayed up watching TV late. I think watching Craig Ferguson kind of perked me up to where I didn’t want to sleep. Ferguson and his show is fantastic. I can’t tell whether his guests are prepped for the show or not. Even so, having a “skeleton robot” and a “two-person” horse in a horse costume as his sidekicks should tip you off that the “Late, Late Show” on CBS is gold. You really need to watch.

I have to work a short time tomorrow so I will make this short.

Happy weekend, everyone!

A man can only stand a mule’s kick so many times.

Our great national nightmare is over — for now at least.

Some confusion surrounded the question of whether I should go to work this morning or tomorrow morning. It’s one of those bureaucratic things. I ended up going this morning although I had little sleep. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the culmination of ending this whole shutdown. And perhaps we will turn around and have to do this again in January. President Obama said “No.” Republican Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also said that it wouldn’t happen again.

 “One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. The first kick of a mule was when we shut the government down in the mid 1990s and the second kick was over the last 16 days,” McConnell told The Hill. “There is no education in the second kick of a mule. There will not be a government shutdown.”

But Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said don’t be so sure.

Cruz was the one who got us there in the first place. It makes one think, if just one senator can pull some type of procedural shenanigan along with a few of his Senate cronies, then doesn’t this seem more like a fascist state than a democracy?

Many people and a number of institutions were hurt during these last 16 days, not the least of which were people like myself. My financial situation was no good to start with, only to have a personal foul committed by piling on upon my economic life. This makes me wonder what I am going to do to survive during the rest of my life.

Yes, you are quite right Sen. McConnell, the first kick of a mule is quite enough. We have all been educated quite enough.