McCarthy and the TFG Wing of the GOP are suddenly clutching their pearls and swooning over federal spending and budget deficits under the Biden administration.  And during such pearl clutching, they keep citing “$31 trillion in debt,” and that “we need to get spending under control.”  At the same time as he’s introducing turmoil into every American’s life by threatening the global economy, he’s decrying causing turmoil.  Saying he wants “government to work,” he’s guaranteeing on several fronts that it doesn’t.

The debt is currently about $31 trillion dollars, which sound like a huge number, right?  It is, but let’s look at it in perspective.  US debt was at $20 trillion when TFG took office.  When he left office, it was $28 trillion, caused by a gigantic tax cut to billionaires, a huge spending spree on his wall, defense spending, and bungling of the pandemic response which caused the highest unemployment rate in history as well as collapsing the economy.  In fact, that $8 trillion increase represents 25% of all US debt today.  And it goes without saying that McCarthy and his Trumpist friends increased the debt limit THREE TIMES without conditions during that same period of time to fund the TFG spending spree.

So Kevin, let’s stop bullshitting ourselves about spending and the debt.  The facts are that when there is a GOP president in office, spending and deficits don’t matter.  When a Dem is in office there’s nothing more critical than spending and deficits with a 24/7 hysteria over spending.  This is blatant mob style hostage taking to keep their base whipped up going into 2024.  Like 2011, Republicans are once again threatening the GLOBAL economy to extract unspecified spending cuts (except for threatening seniors with cuts to social security and medicare, AGAIN).  Obama learned the hard way not to negotiate with hostage takers.  Thankfully, Biden was there and learned that same lesson.  All McCarthy deserves from him is the middle finger.

I’m personally sick to death of McCarthy’s bullshit.  I know it won’t change anything, but I feel better at least telling him so.

My wife watched a play this week chronicling some of the goings on under Pol Pot in Cambodia. The play mixed in music in a creative way of telling the story. It essentially, followed a man who was in a rock band before the revolution and what had happened to him. Like most productions it included plenty of literary devices we teach our students. In this case, it including foreshadowing when the band was discussing what they would do if the worst occurred. Some discussed fleeing Cambodia. Others discussed hiding in the countryside. One essentially said he was in favor of Cambodia and would fly whatever flag or do whatever was asked to get by.

As you might have predicted, he ended up doing horrible things so he could stay on the “right” side. It was a singular moment in an otherwise poignant play about a very dark time in history. It is these stand alone moments that seem to grab my attention more than anything. One of the principle characters in the play was a math teacher and family man before he turned into the administrator of a prison camp. The prison camp ended up being more of a death camp than a prison camp. Naturally, the character justified himself by saying that he did not personally beat or kill any prisoners. The guards had done that.

Fascism never begins with the horrible. Decent people never do the horrible at the outset. They convince themselves they are for the state. They love the state. Their belief system gets coopted with the state where we start calling it “Christian nationalism” as if that’s even a thing. You are either for the state or against the state, so we should be for the state. That’s of course until the state begins to do terrible things. By then it’s too late. Decent people have begun to do very indecent things because the country demanded it. The signs were all there. Some out in the wilderness even said it was coming, but they didn’t listen. They allowed their focus to be on the team instead of the ideals that team was supposed to represent.

Orthodoxy in all of its forms is a dangerous thing. It requires strict adherence that is all-consuming until it is too late. The band mate that became a tool of the state really wasn’t a bad guy at heart. The math teacher turned monster wasn’t a bad guy to begin with. Yet, they became the very worst version of themselves. If we pay close enough attention it could be a cautionary tale for all of us.

Joe Biden has never been afraid of getting out in front of his party, or even his boss when he was VP.  After all, we have Biden to thank for dragging Obama over the line on marriage equality when it counted, and he’s also done it on assault weapons, troop support, healthcare, and other key issues.  He’s doing it again by shaking up the 2024 primary season, and that shake up is long past due.  The most controversial elements of the schedule is pushing South Carolina to the front, and relegating Iowa farther down the line.  New Hampshire would share the second night with Nevada.  Not surprisingly, Iowa and New Hampshire are pissed.

I happen to agree with Biden 100% in this change.  First let’s look at the obvious – diversity.  Iowa and NH are two of the whitest and most rural states in the US.  Iowa is 90% white.  NH is 87% white and packed with libertarian gun crazies.  After all, their state motto is Live Free or Die, which is not exactly comforting or consensus building.  Ignoring all other factors, the demographics alone disqualify these states as leaders, period. But it gets worse. In the last 12 primaries, Iowa chose a candidate who didn’t eventually win the nomination 4 times.  In 1976, in fact, Uncommitted beat Jimmy Carter by 10 points. In those same historic primaries, NH picked the wrong candidate 5 times.  To me, though, the death blow for Iowa happened in 2020 when it took them THREE WEEKS to announce the results, and that delay managed to pick…wait for it…Pete Buttigieg.  Biden placed fourth.  The Iowa caucuses can best be described with the words SHIT SHOW and have caused the state to lose all claims to being first in the primary/caucus season.

The rest of Biden’s plan is to push very important states to the front – South Carolina, then adding Nevada to the second week along with NH.  Those states will be followed by Georgia and then Michigan to round out the early states.  This plan makes a lot of sense as it brings demographic diversity, geographic diversity, and battleground states into the early results which will hopefully bring candidates with the broadest appeal to the front sooner.  This is a welcome change that has a number of advantages, not the least of which is motivating more people to participate.   I won’t be surprised, though, if the calcified leadership of the DNC kills it, once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Lying 101 is a course that teaches the ins and outs of creating a baseless fact – also known as a lie – by asking a question. In politics it is a course requirement for every Republican office holder or wannabe.

And it is a course that every Democrat fails.

To be successful, the lie MUST be a question, because questions can’t be lies, right? Detecting the lie is a no-brainer then, because the question is asked in public but no answer is proffered.

And then the unanswered question establishes a truth, and anyone that responds later with facts or figures to “answer” the question is too late.

The damage is done.

Witness Texas Senator John Cornyn’s tweeted “question” of the other day, quoting from Huffpost:

“California Has More Than 100 Gun Laws. Why Don’t They Stop More Mass Shootings?”

See, California suffered two mass shootings this month, and 11 people are dead. Senator Cornyn apparently asks this rhetorical question at their expense so his voters are pleased with him by “owning the libs,” and his gun lobby patrons will reward him with more campaign cash.

Only afterward did California Governor Newsom tweet a response to Cornyn’s tweet:

“Texas’ gun death rate is 67% higher than California’s.”

Yep. Truth.

But a truth told 2nd is always trumped by a lie told first. Ask any school teacher (I was one once). Any teacher will tell you that the first thing a person hears about something is the thing the person remembers and believes to be true, and it is an uphill battle to dissuade them from it with supporting facts.

It’s a trap that Democrats keep falling into, much to the glee of ultra-conservatives and Trumpists.

Democrats need non-comeback comebacks. Ones that are humorous, folksy, and cover a wide array of issues.

And I hate to say it, but Ronald Wilson Reagan had the best one I’ve ever heard: “There you go again”.

See? No muss. No fuss. No data. No supporting information. Just good fun.

I wish I could come up with something original and witty, but I don’t do either any justice at all.

Any suggestions would be helpful

Welp, it appears that now Chris Sununu (the Son of a John)  is “considering” running for President against TFG in the GOP primary.  He joins a long list of people also considering but too poopie del pollo to announce.

Actually, it’s more of an announcement that they’re praying that TFG crosses the Jordan River and they want to be ready to pounce.  There is not a one of them with a lick of courage or even a political foundation of ideals or goals.

But, Sununu stands out among the crowd with his campaign slogan.

GOP Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire said Sunday he is considering a White House bid in 2024, citing the Granite State’s “live free or die” spirit as a model for the Republican Party.

Holy damn cow.  The guy wants a civil war.  That is just bone chilling for a fluffy little rich white boy who didn’t even join the Boy Scouts because pocket knives were involved.

Sununu is trying to run as a moderate Republican in the Rockefeller-style but describes himself as “a Trump guy through and through.”   He vetoed a bill outlawing carrying guns on a school campus.  He voted for Trump. He’s flipped on abortion rights so many times that they have menu items named after him at The Pancake House.

So, anyway, I want to announce that I’m considering doing a whole lot of stuff but prancing around announcing that I am lining up on death watch to continue Trump’s legacy, you know, just in case he dies ain’t one of them. And apparently that’s real hard to do.

I have a beef with the Democratic party, progressives, and leftists. I’ve made no bones about the fact that I’m a Catholic. I also have made no bones about the fact that my Catholicism shapes my politics. While it is true that the first amendment guarantees of freedom from religion as much as it guarantees freedom of religion, there is a difference between the reality of policy and the tactics that we use to communicate those policy ideas.

This past Sunday, the gospel reading was the Sermon on the Mount. Obviously, the homily was too. The sermon on the mount was compared to Moses bringing down the ten commandments from Mt. Sinai. In Moses case, he was bringing God’s law down to the people. In Jesus’ case he was trying to lift the people up to heaven. The famous eight beatitudes are listed below:

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit
2. Blessed are the meek
3. Blessed are they who mourn
4. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice
5. Blessed are the merciful
6. Blessed are the clean of heart
7. Blessed are the peacemakers
8. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’ sake

This is where Democratic and left wing thought slides off the rails. Many want to shun Christianity in favor of something else. This has given over Christianity and its values to the right wing and the right wing alone. Therefore, people that call themselves Christians can get the vote of others that call themselves Christian without embodying none of the characteristics listed above. Conversely, someone embodying most of the characteristics of above can be called immoral and unfit to lead because the voters reject the packaging that they come in.

Admittedly, it is a tight rope balancing act. The general idea is to make yourself palatable to Christians without pigeonholing yourself as only palatable to Christians. Non-religious people can be most of those things above and many are. People of different faiths can be most if not all of those things above and many are. The simple fact is that there isn’t a single objectionable quality on that list no matter what faith (or lack of faith) tradition you come from.

I hate to use a golf analogy, but there have been many a round that I have played that began poorly. In fact, that’s the norm these days. The road back does not begin with a string of birdies, eagles, and pars. It begins with a single shot. You execute a single shot. Then you execute another and another. When you look up, you have rebounded from your poor start.

In a similar way, our politics will not rebound overnight. A sea of performance artists and carnival barkers won’t suddenly give way to serious people with serious ideas. It starts with a single shot. It starts by asking ourselves one simple question regardless of religious affiliation or not: which candidate embodies most of the qualities above? That’s true whether it is the local school board or the presidency. That’s true whether it is the dog catcher or the governor. It’s true whether they be Republican, Democrat, or third party. Good and wise policy cannot come from bad people. There is no getting around that no matter what they call themselves.