Now that the mastermind behind the Benghazi attack is in custody and has allegedly cited the video as the main impetus…uh, who cares? As Hillary said, “Why does it matter?” This was extrapolated by Fox to mean, “Why does it matter four Americans died?” They did this because they lie. That’s not news; they lie every news cycle, but what’s always been interesting to me about this particular “scandal” is how little sense it makes, even by typical Fox News standards. Heh, heh…Fox News standards.

No attempt to make this a scandal has worked and, remember, the GOP came at this from more angles than Pythagoras on crack, during his OCD period. Fox News’s last angle, the Obama knew all along it wasn’t the video that triggered the attack, just collapsed. So even their inane, picky nonsensical shit that no one understands (IPNSTNOU) isn’t panning out. The GOP is like Felix Unger with ADHD, after the head injury episode. Apparently, in several private conversations, Khatallah moved up the attack date after being enraged by an American anti-Islam video, or:

“So, of course, the attacks were linked to the dozens of other embassies overrun on the same day. If the GOP can’t connect those dots, we’re going to need some bigger dots. That is why the attack fell right on movie-trailer night. They used the riots as an excuse…you know, to do the old fake yawn and reach around thing. You think this just happened at the precise moment all of those other protests?”

—Mick Zano, 11/19/12

Isn’t it time to hold republicans accountable for their lies? My quote came soon after the attacks and, let’s be clear, I don’t really care about this part. Who would? Yet, the people who studied this shit, for years, still couldn’t create anything meaningful out of their bullshit, or:

Dear Rick Santorum,

Maybe it’s republicanism, not homosexuality that leads to bestiality…uh, because you people seem to always screw the pooch.

Sincerely,

Reality.

P.S. Wag more, bark less. Woof.

I don’t care about being right, I care that these same wing-nuts are now in position to win the midterms. Imposition? The imposition, here we go, the imposition, what a show. What movie?

Here’s a review of the real culpability on Benghazi:

1. Republicans chose to defund embassy security about a year before the attack.

(I guess hindsight is AK-47.)

2. This ongoing Benghazi distraction greatly diminished the death of Ambassador Stevens and his life’s work, here. And, as a direct result of Project Issa, 21 embassies have closed across the Middle East.

(Hey, but saving on embassy security reduced the deficit by .0000001, while greatly increasing the likelihood of another war, aka, another win win for our fiscally conservative neocons.)

3. The right all but ended the promising career of Susan Rice, not out of some misunderstanding, but from sheer bullshit, aka, the fuel of choice over at the Fox Nation

(Keystone Poopline?)

Fun fact: Republicans no longer require facts, fun or otherwise.

4. Republicans have, once again, wasted millions of tax payer’s dollars on legal fees, special committees, and Obama voodoo dolls. Shouldn’t they pay us back?

(…with interest?)

(Close Guantanamo and open GOPtanamo? Kidding, why feed them? It’s a welfare program.)

The only small difference between my list and theirs is this: reality. These are all facts. Essentially, Bush showed us how ineffective broader military campaigns can be and, now, his friends are making Obama’s weapon of choice, diplomacy, a much harder proposition. I guess having fewer embassy attacks on your watch and then bringing those responsible to justice is the new republican definition of incompetence.

All of the right’s arguments on this “scandal” have been dismantled, which only seems to embolden them. It’s like a wounded animal, on ludes. Here’s what’s next from a stronger, wronger Fox:

Is Obama “Fixing” Khatallah’s Confession?

Amnesty Deal in the Works for Benghazi Mastermind?

The Truth Won’t Stop Next Issa Investigation

Was Hillary Watching Twilight Marathon During Benghazi?

Honestly, I think that last one is true. I have Googled the dates. Hillary, prepare for this one in the debates.

Today, Fox News is interviewing the evil genius known as Alberto Gonzalez—in your spare time, please remove the word genius—about this matter, here. Will the right’s infatuation with people who suck ever end? (Hint: no.) That would start a dumbino effect and could lead to something called rationality. My 2008 dismantling of Bush’s Attorney General, here.

Conservatives should be happy Khattalah was brought to justice—and, if they cared about embassy security, they should fund it next time. If such things mattered to them, wouldn’t they know how many attacks occurred under Bush? Incidentally, no one does, because when you factor in Baghdad, the number is too high to track. Back then their excuse was “we’re fighting them there so we didn’t have to fight them here.” Of course, the they in question weren’t there, until we went there. Now, hear ye, hear ye, they are there…uh …but here? Them’s the facts. And, the only ones who never seem to notice when their arguments fall apart, is them. There, I said it.

Case in point, Iraq is now Obama’s fault. Who knew? My take here.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. The right wing media desperately wanted to create a false reality and, at this point, they have succeeded. On a national scale my arguments are clearly losing ground. It doesn’t mean they’re wrong, it just means propaganda is often more effective. This may come as a shock to some of you, but O’Reilly is beating me in all timeslots, for all age groups, in all places on earth…except maybe Portlandia. Woot! Meanwhile, on behalf of reality: you all owe Ambassador Stevens and Susan Rice an apology…oh, and while you’re at it, ME! I could have obviously spent my time more wisely.

[Midget porn joke omitted by the editor.]

Today the New York Post is running a story suggesting Hillary didn’t believe it was the video that triggered the attack, here. This is what worries me—at times Hillary seems to be more neocon than a liberal. Sometimes there isn’t nearly as much light between her and republicans as I would like. She is distancing herself from Obama for all the wrong reasons. She knows the right’s fantasy narrative is gripping our nation, so she’s feeding into it in the hopes of some political gain. She’s a sellout. I don’t think we need to distance ourselves from issues that Obama got right.

But lest we forget this Fox News gem:

Fox News: “We Stand By Our Reporting On Benghazi”

Well, I too stand by my coverage of this issue, here, here, and here. And, once again, I beat an entire network of goofballs. Look, uh…if I’m a spoof news blogger, what exactly are you people supposed to be? I’m afraid republicans have broken the Flynn Effect over their dunce caps.

Okay. I’ll end with another of my nuggets, only because the last IF in this little equation was finally answered today and, as usual, the right is wrong on all counts. Lucky for them, they can’t count.

Did you see the parade of war criminals surface all across the Fox Nation this week? You know, the ones who never got anything right about Iraq and should be in jail? They have more advice now that Iraq is descending into a civil war. Fox also started running endless 2007 republican Surge-justification-quotes (SJQ). Here’s the thing, saying Iraq will fall apart without U.S. support in 2007 is kind of like Churchill, instead of his famous 1940 speech, saying, “You know, I think Hitler’s up to something.”

Here’s the first wisdom nugget:

“You could see in the Shia south, the Iranians reaching over and grabbing to take power. You could see in the Sunni northwest, the Al-Qaeda folks taking power and leadership in that area.”

—Mitt Romney (2007)

Fox says this was so “eerily accurate” that he must have had a “time machine”. I would like to add that, because he’s a republican, he must have set the controls wrong on that thing. Uh…because most of us figured that shit out back in ‘04, three years earlier. Romney’s ‘insight’ is like saying, “you know, the Alamo is going to be really nasty” while a guest on Anderson Cooper tonight.

Here’s the 2^nd wisdom nugget:

President Bush’s Dire Warning Ignored! Tell us more, oh Nostradumbass

Well, look who’s still talking? Make no mistake, republican’s revisionist history for this time period is now complete. Their conclusion: if only we’d listened to George W. Bush on Iraq. Sadly, it’s really no worse than the rest of their conclusions. I guess we can close that chapter from The World According to GOP. How about this one, Bush Accurately Predicts Own Incompetence on Handling of Iraq, or, better yet:

What they lack in brains, they make up for in balls. Republicans are so far beyond absurd, they can no longer even see absurd from their flying unicorns. The Iraq War is something I got right, not in 2007, in two thousand & fucking two. More importantly it’s one of the things Obama got right, in fact, it’s why he’s president. Forgot that part, huh? It’s also why I chose Obama over Hillary. So to hear a bunch of architects of one of the greatest foreign policy blunders in our nation’s history say “told you so” is astounding, even by normal republican delusional standards (NRDS).

NERDS!!! Wait, we are the nerds and the jocks…so republicans are the, uh, I’m going to have to peruse my high school yearbook and get back to you.

Colin Powell warned Bush, “You break it, you bought it” and “you know you’re going to own this place, right?” That doesn’t excuse his anthrax performance, but it still shows some insight, which was sorely lacking with that bunch.

But everyone knew by 2007—even republicans knew—there were no good answers in Iraq by 2007. It’s that same time delay I keep talking about. It takes years before information is properly processed by…oh, who am kidding? They can’t process information.

Admittedly, Romney’s speech lays out one important detail, and details are often lacking in the GOP’s foreign policy rhetoric. His sage like advice from that quote on Iraq also included:

“Handle carefully.”

—Mitt Romney (2007)

I’m not kidding, that was the only advice after he stated the obvious. So we didn’t handle Iraq carefully between 2003 to 2013. Damn it, guys! I said bomb the shit out of Baghdad, carefully. Maybe Iraq needed a giant warning label scrawled across the country, Handle with Care, or the Shiite could hit the Fallujah. Or, maybe, with the aid of drone strikes, we could have spelled out Fragile, so Palin could see it from her house. I think historians will be wrestling with questions like this forever, well, historians from the Heritage Foundation on ‘shrooms.

The “eerily accurate” quotes our friends on the right keep citing this week come from the ramp-up to the “Surge”, which I felt only acted as a Bushian human shield—you know, so he could quietly sneak away to go paint, or clear brush, or conduct some other task more suitable to his relative skill set, or:

“The closing of the American Mind under Rove’s direction seems almost complete. The Republican Party, however, has brought the concept of denial to levels unrealized since Pee Wee Herman’s dream of a new unsupervised playhouse.  Now, the catastrophic decisions by Bush and co. are swept away by the success of ‘the surge,’ which equates to a billion dollar a week pause button in the endless clusterfuck that is the Iraq War.”

—Mick Zano (2008)

Unfortunately this site only goes back to 2008, but here’s a fun Iraqi review:

1. Bush lied and started a war (see Downing Street memo).

2. The resistance to the occupiers escalated after we disbanded the whole Iraqi army (fun fact: they’re now an important part of ISIS).

3. Another fun fact: ISIS is the Egyptian Goddess of what are republicans smoking.

4. We propped up a Shiite, Maliki, who hates Sunnis. Who could have foreseen that that would become an issue? (Fun fact: he tried to have his Sunni VP killed, which was all part of Bush’s: Operation Iraq 1776).

5. Regional ethnic cleansing began, neighborhood by neighborhood (fun fact: Sunnis Shiites and republicans were all cool with this because they stopped shooting at Americans for a brief period. Winning!)

6. Years later, the election of Maliki bolstered Iran’s position and power in the region, which is still true today (Fun fact: isn’t that fun enough?)

7. During a pause in the civil war, at the conclusion of this ethnic cleansing, Bush “Surged” by sending more troops under Operation: please just kill each other not our troops long enough so I can leave office.

8. Al-Qaeda, who were never even in Iraq under Saddam, moved into the vacuum of power (this started under Bush and continued under Obama, which, of course = impeach Obama).

9. The marginalized Sunni’s waited very patiently to take revenge on the Shiite majority (this was set to begin whenever the fuck we wised up and left).

10. Civil War is beginning now (see: duh).

11. We reached number 11! Because my tutorials go to eleven! If that weren’t enough, the whole invasion sparked a more regional Sunni Shiite war across the Middle East, predicated by many before we invaded, including Bush’s daddy. But Bush Jr. has daddy issues so as a result hundreds of thousands of people died. (Fun fact: this example is the only time Freud was ever right about something psychological.)

So let me get this straight, the guy who didn’t want us to invade Iraq in the first place, Obama, is now wrong and the people who figured out we were fucked, a few years later than anyone else, are the new brain trusts? Really? Is that what the history books will say? Hey, why not add Bush and Jesus riding into Baghdad on dinosaurs? What? Too soon?

Reality Check:

A few years back during my 21^st century scorecard, out of 14 of the most important issues of our time, the GOP only got one full point for “The Surge”, but with this caveat:

“Oh, and when Iraq completely descends back into chaos, I’m taking that “Surge” point back! I hope to hell it doesn’t happen, but I have to contend with something they don’t, reality.”

—Mick Zano

Today, I’m taking back that point, right on cue. So the republican collective has yet to get any significant issue right…in this century! Hell, most real issues aren’t even identified yet by this bunch, story here. See my full two-parter takedown here, part 1 and part 2. Every word still rings true, especially the part about Smurfs. Hint: my comments tend to remain valid while their comments typically have a shorter shelf life than the Mad Cow meatloaf over at the Roadkill Café.

You can’t take something you totally got wrong and try to twist it into some type of anti-Obama argument. Oh, that’s right, that’s all you do. But this is offensive to those of us who got it right before the war and, especially, those who served and suffered because of these lies and blunders. As I have repeated ad infinitum, we will never change the mind of a single Foxeteer—that, in and of itself, is part of the problem. So, more importantly, we need to work together to keep them out of office. Organize for the midterms. Register as a Democrat and then, some day, when we once again have two viable parties in this country, you can switch back to independent. Until then, Go Hillary!

Despite the federal government asking for a moratorium on home foreclosures for the good of the national economy, recent figures paint a grim picture for the middle class. Please read this before you consider foreclosure! Oh, and please consider reading only this article as these guys are a little…well, you know.

341,000 new foreclosures were issued recently. Foreclosure auctions have risen by 35%. That’s one in every 159 homes. Those figures are up 49% from the same month last year, and up a whopping 111% from 2008! That’s worse than the Ghetto Shaman’s bar tab.

In Arizona, where the housing market is one of the worst in the nation, one in every 54 homes are in foreclosure. 49,000 homes were foreclosed on in the first quarter alone, even more if you can’t add. At that rate, almost a quarter of a million families could lose their homes annually. How long can any state absorb that financial loss?

The banks however are profiting from this tragedy. In this buyers market, since the federal bailouts, the majority of their losses have been effectively covered. Now as they foreclose on properties, they have whatever payments were made plus profit from the sale.

Once the foreclosure’s complete, the bank has ruined one person’s credit, while improving the credit and standing of the new buyer. This transfers money and power from the new middle class to the old money, aka our firmly entrenched upper middle class.

There’s little the average person can do to fight back in this situation. In most cases, people just want to protect themselves. That’s not always possible either. Legislators (mostly wealthy lawyers and bankers) have stacked the deck against you.

You can however, legally make every last dime off your property, just as the bank plans to do. You need to act when you know you’re going to lose the property, but BEFORE it goes into actual foreclosure. You should start to literally gut the entire home of everything of value in it. Gut everything, from the copper plumbing pipes, to every bit of electrical wiring. Rip out the flooring and the drywall, but don’t haul it away. Leave that expense to the bank. However, be careful not to flood the property, unless it’s already on fire, in which case the flooding might actually help.

Also, remove every window and door. Sell them, or donate them to a charity like ‘Habitat for Humanity’. You have every right to do this because you haven’t been foreclosed on yet. You still own it. Take everything out of the yard, including plants, hot tubs, swing sets, even dog houses. The idea here is to reduce the property value as much as humanly possible. Even leave some of the other Discord contributors on your couches. This will also hurt the banks.

Before leaving some people have such resentment, they’ve reverted to defecating on the floor and spray painting obscenities on the walls…kind of like last year’s Discord Christmas party. There’s no need to do this. By stripping out the property of all its value, the bank is forced to invest thousands of dollars before they can make a profit. If everyone of the thousands of foreclosed families were to do this, the banks would be forced to stop taking advantage of the American people.

There’s also a much easier, but illegal method. This only works if you have an older home. Strip the rubber off the electrical wires to an old lamp, plug it in, and leave for the weekend. Make sure you visit an out of town relative who’ll provide an alibi. You’ll lose everything you own, but you’ll actually make money. Even if you’re upside down on your home, you’ll at least make money off your lost belongings. Because this is illegal, I can’t and won’t suggest it. The Daily Discord will though, because the’re unscrupulous and one more lawsuit probably won’t bother them.

Yes, this is my foreign policy for Demmies. Whatever the hell the Obama Doctrine is, can we keep it? …or at least rent to own? If there is anyone who wants to retry the Bush Doctrine in 2016, how about we book you a Fallujah special? It’s sort of a Motel-6 after the blast. Most rooms come with a fire—not a fireplace, just a fire. We’ll leave the fight on for ya’.

Yes, I’m climbing out onto Obama’s rickety foreign policy limb, but why is this limb rickety? (Isn’t that a gin drink?) This limb should be of the Muir Redwood variety, but even some Dems are distancing themselves from Obama—faster than the NRA from their Climb a Clock Tower Tuesday promotional, which was at least better than their all-you-can-skeet buffet.

Do you remember when Romney was running? He said, “Obama is making error after error on every key foreign policy issues… Look, this is a failed presidency.” Yet Romney couldn’t really articulate anything meaningful on the subject, nor could he explain where the Bushies had erred—in either of his presidential runs—not because he was playing some party line, he really didn’t seem to know.

The Fox News Effect Protecting our politicians from reality since 1996

I think Mitch McConnell actually said Obama’s foreign policy failed in January of 2008, while he was still unloading his stuff from the presidential U-Haul. That was part of Obama’s first scandal, Fast & Fragile, wherein Michelle never really labeled stuff adequately and just threw shit into boxes.

Someone on the right gets it:

“Foreign policy, the interventionist critics claim, has no place for nuance or realism. You are either for us or against us. No middle ground is acceptable. The Wilsonian ideologues must have democracy worldwide now and damn all obstacles to that utopia. I say sharpen your knives, because the battle once begun will not end easily.”

—Rand Paul

Rand Paul has some foreign policy sense, which disqualifies him from becoming the republican nominee in 2016. As Todd Aiken reminds us, when someone’s got a brain, “The GOP has a way of shutting that whole thing down.” Did you see their last convention? Did you see what just happened in Mississippi? It seems that system is working well. Perhaps too well.

Sorry, I love that. I gotta have some fun. But it’s no surprise republicans are giving Rand Paul a hard time. The GOP is now only taking applications from those who promise to:

1. Amplify the disparity of wealth domestically, and:
2. Rule the rest of the world with an iron fist.

(You know, part Hoover part Hitler.)

Why am I constantly forced to defend competence? Oh yeah, this is opposite world. Today’s average congressman D or R make our 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate look insightful. Don’t remember who that was? (Hint: I can see her blouse from here.)

But damn our President for muddling! He’s muddling! Sure the plans Obama is putting into motion are gradually yielding fruit, but he’s muddling. Americans don’t muddle. They act swiftly and decisively, against the wrong country.

Look, Obama learned from Libya (his Iraq), which had no loss of American lives and cost about 12 bucks. But he factored Libya into his algorithm when dealing with Syria. Yes, liberals have algorithms and republicans rely on Roger Ailesgebra or Drudge Nuggets. Okay, I made that up, just like they do.

What almost no one in this country seems to understand, or even mention, is that since sanctions began Syria has handed over an estimated 90% of their WMDs…uh, which had no loss of American lives and cost about 12 bucks.

“Wait, so he accomplishes shit without killing lots of Americans and endangering our economy? That’s un-American.”

—John Q. Republican

P.S. Impeach!

I think I kind of nailed this one via a funny little post, here. Look, if you take out these despots things will continue to unravel. There ha never been any good answers in the Middle East. I don’t want to drone on about this, pardon the bomb, but the worst case scenario seems to involve broader military campaigns—you know, the GOP’s only strategy. (Hint: The GOP always employs the worst strategy. See: list of GOP 21^st century successes.)

“Actually try Googling that shit. Nothing comes up.”

—Captain Obvious.

Besides:

“An era of American primacy has finished, and the many, many smart people among us understand this. These Americans are able to see their nation in historical terms.”

—Patrick L. Smith

This is the reality of our collective future; Bush simply hastened things a bit. I would like to blame it all on him, but I’m not an all-or-none thinker like my friends on the right. The world has been falling apart for a long time, a trend that certainly accelerated post 9/11. Our neocons have taught us, and the world, just how incapable we are at intervening anywhere. What would republicans actually have done between 2008 and 2014? I have never seen a group blather on about nothing for so long since my last existential Meetup group.

Reality Check:

“Obama is battling a knee-jerk sentiment in Washington in which the only kind of international leadership that means anything is the use of military force.”

—Fareed Zakaria

“Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

—Barack Obama

Fareed then quoted a similar sentiment from Eisenhower’s exit and feels this may capture the essence of the Obama Doctrine.

“I’ll tell you what leadership is… It’s persuasion — and conciliation — and education — and patience. It’s long, slow, tough work. That’s the only kind of leadership I know — or believe in — or will practice.”

—Dwight D. Eisenhower

Bingo. I understood Bush’s blunders during each tragic misstep because, like My Pet Goat, he was a pretty easy read. Obama is smart, so it’s much harder to glean all of his longer term strategies. I remain cautiously optimistic that Obama, with what he was given, is moving us toward a new era in the best manner possible. History will likely agree, or:

“I have always been impressed with Obama’s ability to navigate these foreign minefields. Republicans, on the other hand, tend to just kick every rock…with their dicks (Cheney joke omitted by the editor). Thankfully our president can reassess, change in the moment and weigh options in real time…w/ Bill Maher.”

—Mick Zano

So, once again, on behalf of those few of us still residing in a place I like to call reality, thank you, Mr. President!

And as for our republican friends, I’m sure you had other ideas for this time period…um, because you have no idea.

Whereas the list of Obama created scandals are exaggerated or biased (see: Benghazi), the list of atrocities perpetrated by republicans remain profoundly disturbing (see: climate change denial). It’s profound enough for me to use an adverb, against my better judgment. Most posts go against my better judgment…fine, I don’t have a better judgment. But do you remember when only Glenn Beck was crazy and the rest of the GOP had some sense of perspective and reason? Yeah, me neither.

But the ongoing and pervasive obstructionism of our president by the right has had a real negative impact on his accomplishments, his approval rating and his ability to govern. Is this a cop out? Is this an excuse? Hardly. Behind nearly all of our problems rests either republican policies or obstructionism. And reality is apparently passé these days—which was fine that one weekend in Amsterdam, or so they tell me—but not so much for our political world. Holland stopped selling illicit substances to non-residents after my visit, by the way. Coincidence? I thought peeing in the Penis Fountain made perfect sense at the time. And the collateral damage created by our 21st century republicans far exceeds my Eupropeeing vacation. Sorry.

But breaking stuff and creating an alternate reality is paying off:

“It’s all fairly remarkable. McConnell (Mitch R-K) has correctly grasped that if you sabotage the government, most voters won’t really know how or why it happened. They’ll just know that things are a mess and they’ll get peevish about it. And when they look around for someone to blame, it will be the party in power.”

—Kevin Drum

This is how not being right, ever, can get you back into power. Offer nothing in the way of meaningful policies and the masses will elect you anyway, just as long as you F things up sufficiently enough when you’re not in power. It’s the magic of our broken system and the cynical nature of today’s republicans. The Ghetto Shaman had a similar “let’s just break shit” approach over at Kelly’s Pub, but I guess only the GOP can get away with such tactics. Where is an ideological bouncer when you need one? Go home, republicans. You’re drunk.

“There are many differences between the extreme right and the extreme left, perhaps most importantly that the extreme right has a much closer relationship with powerful Republicans than the extreme left has with powerful Democrats. When you find a crazy thing a liberal said, chances are it’s an obscure professor somewhere, or a blogger with twelve readers, or a random person at a protest. The crazy people on the right, in contrast, are often influential media figures or even members of Congress, people with real influence and power.”

—Paul Waldmen

Regular Zano readers (RZR) heard this before, but Waldmen then points out how even the craziest variety of liberals—as misguided or unrealistic as their individual approach may be—are usually trying to do something for the greater good. This is simply not the case on the right. They remain greedy, selfish, and uncomfortably closer to power…uh, like when Mr. Burns moved his mansion next door to his nuclear facility.

“However loopy, bigoted, incompetent, or detached from the realities of economic life the Republican Party may be, it is always just one recession away from regaining political power. It is therefore of the highest importance that sane, non-sociopathic people regain some influence within the party for when that day arrives.”

—Jonathon Chait

Does Chait have a point or is this the definition of political nihilism? I feel the GOP deserves nothing accept our scorn. Obama’s talk today on foreign policy gives some insight into what adults do with power. He’s navigating some tricky waters as opposed to occupying the wrong country. It was a great eulogy for our neocons. May they rest in…er, may they rest. I think the essence of their upside down priorities over the last two decades is captured in Cheney 1% doctrine. Remember that?

“One percent chance there’s a terrorist somewhere and let’s blow shit up. But a 90% chance the earth is dying. Naaah, we need more data. So, uhh, who can we bomb again?”

—John Q. Republican

P.S. And what’s data?

Sadly, events on Earth have nothing to do with our current political reality:

“More Americans say they trust Democrats than Republicans on the ‘main problems the nation faces over the next few years’ as well as a number of key policy issues, including the economy, health care and immigration.”

—Brendan Nyhan, Dems have Advantage on Issues but it won’t Help Them in Nov.

Is that depressing, or what? I could add about twenty items to that. How about this one: No Connection to Reality Clear Advantage for GOP. Sounds like a Discord headline.

Dems historically blow off the midterms, while the right remains organized and motivated. Yeah, they’re mad about something and they spend every news cycle articulating their disgust….well, articulate isn’t the best word. How about Ozzy Osbourne off his meds with a burrito stuffed in his mouth? Yeah, like that. Although the Tea Party is listing to port…uh, starboard, it will still likely cost several seats in the general elections and stupidity may well cost the GOP a few more, which could change this Senate landslide. Besides, I refuse to lose hope. I have a good track record in the face of adversity. Just read the Dutch Police report. I am no stranger to shimming out onto some rickety limbs. Did anyone hear something crack? It sounded like a stick? Wow, I’m kind of far up this time. I can almost see reality from here. No easy trick these days.

Forgive me, if I don’t want to relive this schitznik, Pokey. This is like reaching over on Ground Hog day to shutoff I Got You Babe on my clock radio. What is wrong with you people? Oh yeah, you outsourced thinking to the Koch Brothers. Good luck with that. What I will do is offer some cliff notes as well as some exciting new insights in the form of sarcastic cartoons. You know, the usual.

Remember the stuff we used to argue about back in those diners and coffee shops all across Pennsylvania? Well, as it turns out, they are all institutionalized and legal now and my new list of concerns are even scarier. Here’s my beef these days, the same folks who made this expansion of power possible have mounted an all-out spinsurrection, a complete assault on reason and reality. They have zero insight about our future and the difficult choices our nation faces…and, uh, I think you caught it, Pokey. It’s gone airborne…AM radio air-borne.

In your last post you made the statement you believe Obama is arming al-Qaeda? …without a shred of evidence? Really? At times like these I’m glad this is a spoof news site. Thankfully, more folks are coming around to my way of thinking. There’s a great related story, here, on how conservative media is tearing apart America.

So to channel Truman, “The suck stops here!” Republicans have no regard for our history, their policies, or their laws, let alone the political context of 2014. I call it the Scheissgeist of our time.

Quick IRS ‘scandal’ note (sorry):

Have you read the actual law, Pokey? Heavy scrutiny on groups requesting tax exemption, D or R, was legal until Obama recently tightened the law. The law was too vague, which allowed for such shenanigans. It sounds crazy, but legal things not linked to the White House are still…er, legal things not linked to the White House, or:

Dear GOP,

As for the IRS ‘scandal’, please find the smoking gun, or in lieu of such evidence just set some of your own guns on fire.

Sincerely,

Reality

P.S. I despise the IRS, only republicans are ranked worse in the cosmos, albeit barely.

When I read articles that claim, Is this Obama’s Smoking Gun? The answer is invariably no. Ultimately, additional IRS scrutiny is a good thing as these practices have apparently gone on for way too long, story here.

But if I was an IRS agent I wouldn’t need a memo to screw over the Tea Party. If a group wanted to shut down the agency that I work for and they were looking for a tax break to do it, “Uh..oops, what happened to that application? I hope that sound wasn’t the shredder again.” Of course, why this was happening under Bush remains less clear.

Quick Benghazi note (even sorrier):

Every dime from every committee not spent on improving embassy security measures needs to be paid back to the American people, by the GOP, in full, with interest. This interest is the only interest I have on this subject. We needed this scrutiny for Iraq, not for this crap. Iraq was an immeasurably bigger deal. It was a choice we made to invade and occupy the wrong country. It wasn’t about how we did or didn’t respond to this shack-attack that occurred in the middle of a Libyan cesspool. Yeah, let’s ignore Iraq and spend years on one of the only embassy attacks under Obama. Nice.

As for your other comment, how Obama refuses to call a terrorist a terrorist, sorry he’s too busy killing them. And his approach is why I voted for him. Changing the rhetoric is important as not to incite additional and unnecessary violence. But when it comes down to it, the real reason your point is moot is this: Democrats—besides Obama himself—are neocons. They followed Bush’s insanity for far too long, which is Hillary’s main problem (hint: it’s not that bullshit Fox is covering). So your depiction of Obama’s ‘wording’ issue is irrelevant. We still hunt down and kill terrorists, albeit more effectively via smaller tactical forces or drone strikes. Remember Pokey? My idea. And Obama does this minus all the GOP chicken hawk, saber rattling.

And, dude, if you think doubling down by bringing in an even crazier conspiracy theory to trump this already crazy conspiracy theory…uh. So Obama was arming al-Qaeda through the Benghazi embassy? Really? Stevens was, if anything, too buddy buddy with the locals. It’s a commendable approach, one I admire, but it has been cited as part of his undoing (see: findings of Benghazi investigation #437). So I doubt he would allow such a program to occur under his nose and on his watch. Besides, the only dubious gun-running programs are started by republicans (see: history).

Since the Benghazitis outbreak what have we learned? And here are the consequences:

“The embassies in Libya and Tunisia have been manned by skeleton crews since 2012, contributing to the US inability to play a role in the aftermath of the Arab upheavals. The US embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, was closed last week after some al-Qaeda attack in the capital. The GOP’s hysteria about seeking to blame the administration is hurting our political reporting and ability to make and maintain contacts.”

—Juan Cole

There is a price to pay for stupidity and with republicans we always pay in full. The witch hunters didn’t care about screwing up the Clinton years or the Obama years. Could you imagine if these presidents had actually been allowed to govern? We let republicans govern when they are in charge, which, as it turns out, we shouldn’t.

Juan Cole’s article made the bold statement that the Lewinsky witch-hunt days had implications for 9/11. Crazy connection? Hardly, I have said this for years. The Clintons turned the GOP into monsters and the republican’s Dr. Jekyll can no longer reign in their Mr. Hannity. The end of the Clinton years marked the beginning of our demise. The right’s inability to see patterns and grasp larger issues leaves them, and the rest of us, fixated on their bullshit. And, make no mistake, they are winning. Sure it’s a Charlie Sheen winning, but they are helping to keep everyone’s eyes off the ball. That’s my conspiracy theory. Conservatives are a distraction by design. Who’s design? The Rothschild’s, the Koch Brother’s? Alien-human hybrids? I don’t know, but any time I can work in alien-human hybrids…

Obama did not restore the rule of law and he failed to hold Wall Street or the Bush Administration accountable. Those are his failings, not the nonsense peddled on Fox News. Dems don’t pursue real scandals as they are truly balless beings and republicans simply make shit up to benefit the rich. You want to fix this country? Prescribe Low-T medicine to liberals and Ginkoba to conservatives. One side needs balls and the other side needs brains.

And, no offense to those who died in Libya, but someone still needs to hang for Iraq and no one need break a nail for Benghazi.

And pseudo-intellectual? Mwah? If republicans have some great minds out there, where are they? You say you have a viable movement and some great ideas, yet there’s just no one out there who can articulate them? Isn’t it more likely your party is just batshit? Foxham’s Razor, the simplest solution is the correct one.

Think about it. The GOP’s economic guru, Paul Ryan’s, has a budget that doesn’t follow the laws of math, let alone economics. Their whole economic ideology, trickle down, hasn’t worked anywhere in Earth’s history—although, admittedly, our early Pleistocene records are incomplete. Oh wait, republicans don’t believe in the early Pleistocene so never mind.

As for the neocon part of the wing, the McCains and the Krauthammers of the world can’t seem to invade the right country. They’re main strategist, Karl Rove, makes Lindsay Lohan look stable. And their prognosticators, Dick Morris and Bill Krystol, never see anything coming, ever. Even the things they try to sabotage, like Obamacare, eventually end up in their loss column (see: future of the Affordable Care Act).

Hint of the day: Republicans only have a loss column.

Do you think that’s a coincidence? And being one of the first to voice my concerns about the expansion of executive power doesn’t make me a denier, nor a proponent of this phenomenon under Obama. You of all people should know this. My quote from last year at this time:

“It’s time we worked together on addressing this expansion of power. It’s a huge issue regardless of who is in the White House. It’s been exceedingly tough to focus on the meaningful when nearly half the country is obsessing over the trivial. Instead, let’s all focus on restoring the rule of law.”

—Mick Zano 5/13

I guess to wrap things up, even today on Drudge they’re carrying another story about a hospital’s current woes with Obamacare. These hospitals usually reside deep in those square states of ours. It doesn’t change the fact that an estimated 9 out of 10 hospital administrators believe the ACA will do what it was designed to, decrease overall healthcare costs, story here.

It’s like that dentist commercial thing, 9 out of 10 dentists believe brushing prevents cavities. Fox News and their ilk are always scouring the country for that one ‘specialist’ who buys into their absurd agenda. The guy who thinks brushing causes cavities. Yeah, that guy. Of all the important issue of our time, I am hard pressed to find one example wherein the majority of a given specialists, on any given topic, favor a republican held viewpoint. They reside in another world, a world beyond data, beyond science, beyond reason. And they remain quite mad, both emotionally and psychiatrically, or:

It doesn’t matter if you call it climate change or global warming. It doesn’t matter if you call them terrorists or Islamic extremists. Nothing covered on Fox News matters, but what isn’t covered will be our undoing. Turn that shit off, Pokey. We got work to do.