Bye-Bye Bourbon?

Before you think I have lost my mind or have decided to start drinking clear alcohol, hear me out.

The odious asshat pictured at the top of the page is Indiana Governor Mike Pence. He is a not-very-smart man. He recently proved this by signing a bill into law which, under the rubric of "religious freedom", allows for discrimination on the basis of religious belief. Not surprisingly, a lot of the country is calling this bullshit out.

The snark in me wants to say the best way to protest this would be for companies in Indiana that are opposed to this law to use it to refuse service to right-wing Christians. Because they always seem to be shocked that a good portion of their poorly-written laws can be used against them.

But no. There is another way. That dovetails nicely with a pet peeve of mine.

When it comes to booze, I am a stickler for truth. If you say your scotch is aged 12 years, it damn well better be 12. If you say your beer has three different kinds of hops, you best not be lying about it.

And if you are going to say your bourbon is "hand-crafted" like you spent a decade+ making it? Well, you had better be telling the truth.

That is where Lawrenceburg, Indiana and MGP enter the story.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana (not to be confused with bourbon-locale Lawrenceburg, Kentucky) is home to a massive brick complex that cranks out mega-industrial quantities of beverage-grade alcohol. The factory, once a Seagram distillery, has changed hands over the decades and was most recently acquired by food-ingredient corporation MGP. It is now a one-stop shop for marketers who want to bottle their own brands of spirits without having to distill the product themselves.

Their products are well-made, but hardly what one thinks of as artisanal. And yet, much of the whiskey now being sold as the hand-crafted product of micro-distilleries actually comes from this one Indiana factory.

I encourage you to read the whole piece as it is quite enlightening. And you can also find out the companies that use MGP as their source of whiskey. And then stretch the truth about where it comes from. And there are some big names on there as well, like W.H. Harrison Bourbon, Breaker Bourbon and Hooker's House.

So you have a state wanting to legalize discrimination in the name of God (which I personally think He is not cool with, BTW) and that same state housing the source of a lot of whiskey-laced lies. What to do, what to do, what to do...

Poor Have Plenty of "Skin In the Game"

He's the real victim, here.

In the 2012 Presidential election, one of the common lines of attack from the Republicans and Mitt Romney was that 47% of Americans were, in essence, moochers. That they took from the government and gave nothing back. The solution? Make them pay more in taxes so that they, too (according to Romney and Pals), had "skin in the game".

So while the petulant whining and butthurt from all these millionaires and billionaires amounted to another defeat, the idea that the poor have it easy and need to pay more in taxes persists. Which makes the news that the poor actually do pay plenty in taxes all the more interesting.

When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit.

That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington, labeled the most regressive, to Delaware, ranked as the fairest of them all.

According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent.

Now, of course, these are not federal taxes so you'll have plenty of Republicans say this doesn't matter. But remember, the complaint was that the poor paid nothing into the system, they were "moochers". When, in fact, they pay plenty into the system.

The reason is simple. Sales taxes, excise taxes, even property taxes, are regressive taxes that take up a larger percentage of low-income wages than the incomes of the one percent. Paying a 6% sales tax on milk, or a television, hits someone making $30,000 a lot more than someone making $300,000. And when a state relies on that kind of income, the result is an unequal system where people who need money the most are the ones without it.

The result is a self-perpetuating system where low-income families are always behind and trying to catch up while the wealthiest pay relatively little. Which, to a rational person, is insane since you cannot build a healthy economy by catering to the economic concerns of a tiny minority of people.

The Face of GamerGate

These are the brave warriors fighting a battle for ethics in journalism by...viciously slandering and attacking women.

“I have been terrified of inviting a deluge of abusive and condescending tweets into my timeline. I did one simple @ reply to one of the main victims several weeks back, and got a flood of things I simply couldn’t stand to read directed at me. I had to log offline for a few days until it went away. I have tried to re-tweet a few of the articles I’ve seen dissecting the issue in support, but personally I am terrified to be doxxed (having personal information such as an address, email or real name released online) for even typing the words ‘Gamer Gate.’”

As has been noted, the targets of this vile insanity are almost exclusively women. Men talking against GamerGate and it's mouth-breather adherents don't get nearly the same kind of response. I'll let you discern why that may be.

But to make this all really simple...

Fuck GamerGate, GG, #GamerGate or whatever the Hell they want to call it. Fuck every little WATB who thinks that slagging and attacking women is somehow acceptable.

Sorry women scare you so much, brohams. But it's the 21st Century. Get the fuck over yourself.

Why am I Subsidizing Boner Pills?

In the wake of five men on the Supreme Court deciding that corporations, provided they are "closely held", can have religious preferences, the scene is set for some bad things to happen.

First bad thing: this is another "one-off" decision by the conservative wing of the Supreme Court to get a result that following precedent would have denied them. Just like Bush v. Gore, it is an on-the-fly decision tailored to get the result they want. The Hobby Lobby case will not apply to all corporations, and (according to the judges) not even all health care options. Just 16 different kinds of contraception for women who happen to work for "closely-held" corporations.

And yes, it's all of them. One of the arguments after the decision was that the ruling only applied to the four kinds of contraception that Hobby Lobby supporters called "abortifacents". Their use of the term, unlike actual science, is more of a pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo catch-all word wrapped up in the Shroud of Turin. It has less to do with worrying about an egg smaller than the point of a needle and more about their need to go all Helen Lovejoy:



Yes, won't somebody think of the children? Because with decisions like this, our children are going to grow up in a very fucked up society.

Second bad thing: "Closely-held" corporations are a lot more prevalent than you think. According to this piece in the Wall Street Journal, up to 90% of American companies qualify as "closely-held".

The Internal Revenue Service defines a closely held company as a corporation that has more than 50% of the value of its outstanding stock directly or indirectly owned by five or fewer individuals at any time during the last half of the tax year. It also cannot be a personal-service corporation.

Massive corporations like Mars Inc. and Cargill Inc. actually qualify as "closely-held" companies. Those two companies alone employ over 200,000 people.

Now, will all these companies follow Hobby Lobby and discriminate against women and their health-care choices? Likely not. Least of which because it makes your company look ignorant, backwards and ridiculous.

But now there is a legal stamp of approval to do something like this. It creates a constant sense of concern for women because now they could lose a part of their health care.

Third bad thing: There is no guarantee this stops here. Remember the first bad thing about conservative court members trying to limit this religious exemption? There is no guarantee that will happen. Justice Ginsberg, in a stinging dissent, made it clear that the Court had entered some very dangerous territory.

Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be 'perceived as favoring one religion over another,' the very 'risk the [Constitution's] Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.

"The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield."

And it has. Now that the Court established that a corporation can have religious beliefs, trying to tell a closely-held corporation run by Jehovah's Witnesses that they have to cover transfusions is going to be a rough sell. And in the end, I don't see how the Court could make them do it because of the Establishment Clause.

In short, because Alito, Scalia and the other three are scared of vaginas, we're going to have a Constitutional crisis sometime in the next 10 years or so over this topic. Thanks a lot, guys.

But really, I just want to know one thing...

Why am I subsidizing boner pills?

Republicans' New Target: Kids

Politics is a bloodsport. Anyone who thinks otherwise really hasn't been paying attention. But you'd like to think there were some limits. Kids, for instance. You'd like to think that targeting children in bills would be off-limits. Because, you know, they're kids.

Well, don't fool yourself. GOP members in the House, known for their high-levels of assholery to begin with, have reached new heights of being assholes.

I'm not sure why this isn't a bigger deal. I hadn't heard about it other than in this brief passage tucked away in a Politico article about the House GOP agriculture bill. But it takes a small program intended provide meals to children in the school lunch program during the summer months and says it can now only be used to benefit kids in "rural areas".

This is a program that dovetails off of the "Head Start" programs that help to make sure that kids get breakfast and lunch at school if they qualify. Because kids going hungry is not only morally repugnant, but it negatively impacts their ability to learn. This program simply makes sure that these kids eat in the summer as well. This should be pretty non-controversial. But no one should be surprised that the Republicans have decided to make it very controversial indeed.

So why should only "rural" kids benefit from this program? I am sure that Republicans have some wonderfully vague and nondescript talking points. But here are the real reasons:

1. Rural kids live in rural families in rural areas that tend to vote Republican. Urban kids live in urban families in urban areas that tend to vote Democratic.
2. Rural families tend to be white. Urban families tend to be non-white.

Sorry kid, but giving you lunch is a step too far for the GOP

Argue all you want against those two statements. But at the end of the day, it fits with the way the modern Republican Party works.

And here is a bonus reason. The reason the Republican party gets poor white people to vote against their best interests and voting Republican is by using coded racist language and appeals to racial fears (e.g. immigration). Had the Republicans killed funding for this altogether, then poor whites and non-whites alike would have a common reason to attack the Republican Party. And the last thing they ever want is poor people, regardless of race or ethnicity, coming together in common cause.

So, you "divide and conquer". They write-in the program for poor, white rural families and cast urban residents to the side. The divide is kept intact. And, when someone inevitably points out that this is bullshit and urban kids count too, the Republicans can talk about immigrants and/or the lazy poor getting "your" benefits. Which reinforces the white/non-white divide in the lower class.

When Jesus said "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me", he didn't mean "make them suffer". Someone should clue the GOP into that.

Another "Just Kidding" Moment About Racism on Fox

Unless you just popped in from Mars (greetings and salutations if you have), then you must be aware of the kerfuffle over Megyn Kelly at Fox News saying that of course Santa Claus and Jesus are white and you'd be crazy to suggest otherwise. This was in response to an article at Slate.com by Aisha Harris that argues having only white Santas perpetuates a "white-as-default" culture that can have a negative effect on non-white families.

Now, as a white guy, I have never given this much thought. Which is at the same time the benefit of being a white male in current-day America and the curse of being completely clueless about how other people perceive what we may consider "normal". The goal is to recognize that what I experience in this country is not what most people experience, and to be empathetic and to try and see things from other points of view. I really sucked at this when I was younger but I like to think I have gotten better at this as I have aged. Which is the long way of saying that Ms. Harris has a completely legitimate point. And while she couched it in a tongue-in-cheek suggestion we turn our symbol of Christmas into a penguin, it's a point worth looking at and discussing.

Unless you are on Fox. Enter Megyn Kelly:

"By the way, for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white but this person is just arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa. Santa is what he is and just so you know, we are debating this because someone wrote about it, kids."

....

"Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change...Jesus was a white man, too. He was a historical figure. That's a verifiable fact -- as is Santa. I just want the kids watching to know that. My point is, how do you just revise it in the middle of the legacy of the story and change Santa from white to black?"

As Jesus himself said, "Suffer little children to come unto me...so that I may use them to shield my blatant racism." Or something like that.

It's Better Than Bombing

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

So the usual suspects are freaking out about the interim deal reached with Iran over it's nuclear program:

"This agreement shows other rogue states that wish to go nuclear that you can obfuscate, cheat, and lie for a decade, and eventually the United States will tire and drop key demands," Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thinks the agreement makes "the world a much more dangerous place". And both Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate want to pass even more sanctions on Iran.

All of this hand-wringing, whining and disappointment miss two key elements when it comes to Iran and it's nuclear program.

1. Iran has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty: This matters quite a bit because, per the treaty, Iran has the right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. If you are intent on bringing Iran back into global society as a responsible member, you cannot deny them the rights they have under international treaties that they have signed. That's not how it works.

2. Military strikes on Iran's nuclear program are useless: Using air strikes to achieve a goal like stopping ethnic cleansing or preventing incursions into no-fly zones work because those strikes just have to be effective enough to convince the bad actor to stop their actions.

   In the case of Iran's nuclear program, "effective enough" isn't good enough. If you were to use air strikes to eliminate Iran's nuclear program, they would have to be 100% effective AND they'd have to work the first time. Because if they don't, then Iran has no reason to not go ahead and finish weaponizing their fissile material and making a working bomb. There would be no bringing them back to the negotiating table.

   And there is no scenario - none - where there is a 100% guarantee that Iran's nuclear program could be eliminated by air strikes. Could air strikes dent the program and delay it? That is likely. But that only would set Iran on a crash-course to finish weaponizing their material for a bomb. Unless you can guarantee with 100% certainty the strikes would work...the strikes are useless.

Negotiating with your enemies is hard. Especially considering the history that the US and Iran share. But if we could do it with Germany and Japan in 1945...if we could negotiate arms reduction treaties with the Soviets in the 70s and 80s...then we can negotiate with Iran to reduce their nuclear program to a level consistent with peaceful usage.

This isn't North Korea. Unlike them, Iran is engaged with the wider world. And their people are aware of what is going on globally, of the freedoms that exist elsewhere, and want to be a part of that world.

This is a chance to peacefully resolve one of the major foreign policy issues the United States - and the world - face at this moment. We'd be fools to ignore the chance to make it happen.

This is ironic...right?

The concept of irony has been so misused and abused I'm not even sure what the Hell qualifies anymore.* But I am pretty sure that a video of a Neo-Nazi finding out he is part-black qualifies. Especially when he is trying to create an all-white town in North Dakota.

Do yourself a favor and watch the video. The best part isn't the racist's reaction to the news. It is the black lady sitting next to him with what is one of the best laughs I have ever heard in my life.

The next best part is finding out that Cobb requested the test because he thought science would make him 100% white. And when science declined to go down that road, Cobb decided it was bunk. Which gives me an excuse to finally use this picture

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* Thanks a lot, Alanis.

"He-Man is More Powerful than Jesus"

Now, before you start trying to save my soul or argue that Skeletor is stronger than either of them, I am not the one that said this. This quote comes from a video made in the mid-80s by Phil Phillips and Gary Greenwald that attacked the demonic, anti-Christian gateway toys, movies and cartoons such as He-Man, Dungeons and Dragons and ... The Smurfs.

Okay, I'll give them the last one. Smurfs are weird.

Greenwald was the asshat who really ramped up the "Everything kids like are full of Satan" movement in the 1980s. And the video excerpted below was his masterpiece, his Pietà of insanity, simply called Deception of a Generation.

Game pieces possessed by demonic spirits. Voltron is sexually oriented. G.I. Joe is occult-oriented. You have to watch out for those sneaky Hindus. Obi Wan Kenobi practices something called "Obi Witchcraft" (God as my witness they actually say this). And of course, the creepy creepy Smurfs are dead, gay Satan creatures.

Some things from the 80s really, really sucked. Greenwald and the other Bible-thumpers were one of those things. And while it is fun (and proper) to laugh at this bullshit, it has serious consequences for the rest of us even today.

The people who said and thought things like "They think He-Man is more powerful than Jesus" are the same knuckleheads who say "The Affordable Care act is socialism" and "Obama is like Hitler!" today. It's the same reactionary mindset that sees enemies and conspiracies around every corner and in the heart of every person that is different from them.

It's a toxic mix of self-righteousness, fear and stupidity that never questions itself, never wonders if they have it right. They see something different...and it's bad. Or possessed by Satan. Or Stalin brought back to life.

Yeah, Greenwald is a doofus with a bad haircut. But he set the table for people like Glenn Beck and the Tea Party. And it's why we can't get anything done in this country today.

I Remember, I Remember When I Lost My Mind

Amid all the insanity of the final day of the government shutdown/threatened default/Tea Party tantrum, this also happened

Amid all the chaos of the last-minute deal in Washington, there was an unusual moment on the House floor moments after the bill passed.

A House stenographer and well-known employee calmly took to a microphone and began screaming.

"Do not be deceived. God shall not be mocked. A House divided cannot stand," she said, according to a House GOP aide. After a few seconds, she was escorted out by the Sergeant-at-Arms, but an audio recording by Todd Zwillich of Public Radio International captured the rest of her rant.

"He will not be mocked, He will not be mocked, (don't touch me) He will not be mocked. The greatest deception here, is that this is not one nation under God. It never was. Had it been... it would not have been... No. it would not have been... the Constitution would not have been written by Free Masons... and go against God. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ."

Ummmm....wow. And I thought the craziest thing I would ever hear during this debacle was that asshat Republican from Florida saying that a default would be a good thing for the global markets.

But Free Masons?? I don't thing they've gotten a callout in politics like that since John Quincy Adams was President.

But hey, if the Crazy Contingent of the GOP wants to break off and form their own party...just saying there's a moribund party name just sitting there waiting to be used.

This Guy Is An Asshole

This asshole you see to your left is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He is, as I stated at the start of the previous sentence, an asshole. Why, you ask? Because this asshole is the primary reason that the US stands on the brink of default.

At the stroke of midnight tonight, the authority for the US government to issue debt ceases to exist. Also known as "the ability to pay our bills". Technically, there will still be enough money in the coffers to pay all our current debt for another 1-2 weeks. But then that is it and the US will be in real, actual default.

That would be catastrophic. Not only would interest rates go through the roof here in the US, but you'd see the housing industry collapse again and jobs start to be lost once more. Add to that having the global economy take a massive hit and we'd have the Great Recession, Part II. As a topper, it would also likely be the end the run of the US dollar as the global reserve currency. That is a current benefit of about $100B to the US as it lowers borrowing costs.

So, because Republicans can't accept the fact that the Affordable Care Act was passed and deemed Constitutional, because Republicans can't accept the fact that we had an election that centered on this law and the President WON, they are going to hold their breath, stamp their feet, and ruin the nation because we had the audacity not to agree with them.

And that brings us back to that asshole Ted Cruz.

For someone who went to Princeton and Harvard, he is an idiot. He went behind the backs of his Senate GOP brethren and stirred up the dumbest Republicans in the house (stalwarts like Michelle Bachmann, Steve Stockman, Louie "Terror Babies" Gohmert and Steve King of Iowa) to actually block anything that didn't defund the Affordable Care Act. Which is the one thing, the one thing the President would never ever consider going back on.

And he did this in public. Why? Because Cruz has his eyes on 2016 and the Presidential race. And he is thinking this will shore up the Tea Party base to back him. Which, to be fair, it will. The problem is that the rest of the country is now pissed with him and Republicans in general. And the Tea Party is a shrinking part of the electorate. Which means that this whole thing has likely put Cruz even further away from reaching the White House.

And it has actually put the House of Representatives in play for the Democrats in 2014. Poll after poll is showing that the GOP is taking a massive hit with voters. To such an extent that there is an actual chance that, if this current public mood holds until 2014 (and that is a big if), the Democrats will retake the House. Which would be unheard of.

So, in short, Ted Cruz's ego and desire for self-aggrandizement has put the US (and world) on the edge of another recession while damaging his own party's election chances in 2014 and pretty much making sure he'll never see the inside of the White House unless a standing President invites him inside.

And he doesn't regret it a bit.

Like I said, this guy is an asshole.

Summing Up the Government Shutdown in One Picture

All of this is one big Republican temper-tantrum because the Affordable Care Act is law. And that isn't going to change. So like a child they are collectively holding their breath. Except, unlike a child, this idiocy is hurting the economy to the tune of $300M a day.

Assholes.