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Anthony Barnes, of Boston, Massachusetts, is a left-handed leftist.
"When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world." - Unknown Monk (1100 AD)
(51 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 5, 2016 Death of the Republican Party
There is a degree of legitimacy to the angst many Americans feel about this country's "greatness." The concept of Donald Trump as the remedy however, has no basis at all. Just look at what he's doing to the Republican Party! The time has come. In order to save itself, the GOP must destroy itself by way of a forceful, swift, relentless -- and perhaps essentially suicidal -- execution of gutter politics
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, November 5, 2012 SURPRISE! Chris Christie's 2016 Gambit
It's too easy to translate Christie's over-the-top tributes to President Obama right after Hurricane Sandy as the Governor's way of sabotaging Romney's campaign. It seemed more like the manifestation of Christie's inner fears about the potential long-term impact of the "Romney Effect" on the GOP brand.
SHARE Wednesday, September 19, 2012 Starlight and Shadows
In the tale of two conventions there were, of course, two stories to be told. Charlotte's spoke with reverence to substance, rationality, pride, enthusiasm, and inclusion. Tampa's depicted a dour, off-putting charade; a political infomercial peddling the politics of dark delusion.
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, July 16, 2010 ISRAEL'S SHAME
It appears we have come to the point at which there is no level of support for Palestinians -- including peaceful humanitarian support -- which escapes the possibility of a savagely lethal Israeli reaction.
(5 comments) SHARE Saturday, September 13, 2008 PIG TALES
The ease with which supporters of Sen. John McCain can be swept into frenzy over Sen. Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" remark provides another example of the ability of the hard-right to zealously swallow up any appropriately-packages fraud or irrationally convoluted premise.
(36 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 17, 2012 "Smart-Ass White Boys"
The assumptions the Romney campaign "strategists" made about how black voters would act this past November 6 makes Andrew Young's vivid characterization of the folks who ran Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign -- "smart ass white boys" -- seem so 2012.
(33 comments) SHARE Monday, April 24, 2017 TRAPPED IN THE CUCKOO'S NEST: Donald Trump's 'Deep State' of Denial
It seems remarkable that America has somehow managed to make it through the first 100 days of donald trump's hair-raising "presidency." But now, all layers of speculation about trump's character have been removed. It's fairly well established that expedient mendacity -- lying out of convenience -- is the prevailing focus of any donald trump strategy for handling personal and personal and presidential responsibilities.
SHARE Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Spook Juice for the Conspiracy-Minded
Conspiracy theorists take heart. Just because some people may consider you paranoid, doesn't necessarily mean someone, or something isn't out to get you!
(15 comments) SHARE Friday, July 22, 2011 Pledge Circus
"Pledge-mania" is running amok among Republicans, and it's helping drive the Party into political irrelevancy
SHARE Tuesday, January 12, 2010 TIGER'S FOLLY
If some of the high-minded outrage that's been expressed over Tiger Woods "transgressions" somehow carry a hollow ring, it's probably because many of his critics have discovered they were fooled not by Woods, but by their own willingness to latch on to a cult of personality.
(19 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Bin Laden's Flunkies
As the anti-government Tea Party Patriots movement's "take back my country" crusade spirals further into the secessionist mode, the line between its goals and those of Osama bin Laden become ever more blurry.
(23 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 13, 2018 Dead Presidency
Donald Trump's presidency is rapidly moving toward life support status. And, at least right now, the same can be said for the American Presidency itself.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 11, 2011 HARD RIGHT UTOPIA
It's time for a serious examination of just what kind of American society the hard right is looking for
(9 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 5, 2012 Another Mitt-Stake: Romney's 2012 World Tour
As of this past July 24, whenever the propensity to trample over the concept of nuanced diplomacy by boorish GOP political figures is discussed, one can rest assured that Mitt Romney will be noted not for being just another rampaging Republican elephant, but instead as that party's G.O.A.T. -- as in Greatest Of All Time.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Run, Sarah, Run! Please!
Out of the aftermath of the rise of Sarah Palin from the ashes of the GOP defeat by the Democrats in November, the Grand Old Party finds itself in a "be careful what you wish for" moment in its history. Despite Palin's popularity with its base, the fervent wish of some GOP conservatives for a Palin-led GOP resurgence could in fact, turn out to be a death wish in disguise.
(16 comments) SHARE Monday, May 14, 2018 The Trump Curse on the GOP
The GOP's failure to expunge Donald Trump from their party when they had the chance wasn't just a curse upon themselves; it was a curse upon us all.
(14 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 23, 2013 Black Rambo: Christopher Dorner's Bad Ass Song
Christopher Dorner's murderous reaction to what amounts to an unlawful termination based on race can't be rationalized by any normal person as an acceptable response to an injustice perceived or otherwise. But the cause fueling that response -- a guarantee of a fair and honest system of due process open to all -- seems to be a cause that every American would support.
(14 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 7, 2017 Two-and-a-Half Minutes to Midnight: Could J. Edgar Hoover Have Saved the World from Trump?
James Comey's e-mail focus had much to do with the success Russian hackers enjoyed in influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential contest. Comey also apparently had little or no knowledge of rumors that Russia has compromising material on trump. Would any of this have happened if J. Edgar Hoover still ran the FBI?
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, June 22, 2009 BOOTLEG REPUBLICANISM
The GOP's embrace of Limbaugh-Republicanism leads the party to the brink of cult-like status
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, September 20, 2010 FRAUD COMPLEX
There are many reasons why the spiritually-connective clarity and apocalypse now tonality to the alarm used by Glenn Beck to draw so much attention to himself should be a source of concern.
(22 comments) SHARE Wednesday, February 6, 2019 A Pinocchio Theory
It's a bizarre paradox: a puppet that wanted to grow up to be a boy, and a real boy who grew up to become a puppet.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, March 4, 2015 TOY SOLDIER: The Fabulous Fabulism of Bill O'Reilly
Bad news for O'Reilly haters. Since the Fox News Channel's top-rated host is perhaps better known as a bullshitting blowhard than as a legitimate journalist, he'll easily ride out recent accusations that he may be a serial fabricator: accusations that include concocting stories during a disastrous stint as a CBS correspondent back in the 80's.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, November 10, 2008 OBA-MENON!
Barack Obama certainly won the support of the African-American community, and earned it for all the right reasons.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 26, 2016 Kitty Porn: The Perils and Possibilities of Donald Trump's Deviant Republicanism
A great, glistening fork made of purest silver on Planet Earth has been stuck in it. "It" being Donald Trump's run for the presidency. His allegedly "self-funded" campaign has been killed by a steady barrage of self-inflicted wounds, culminating in the release of taped conversation during which he was exposed as little more than an unregistered, serial sex offender.
But let's not rejoice or bury Trump too soon.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 11, 2012 The Empty Suit
It's hard to remember the last time the electorate has had to deal with a major presidential candidate as vastly politically pointless as the perversely overblown empty suit known as Willard Mitt Romney.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 5, 2015 Straight Outta' Wharton: The Peculiar Presidential "Candidacy" of Donald J. Trump
Donald Trump has the GOP on a familiar slippery slope. The Party bosses are trying to notch down the crazy, but Trump's antics have actually increased it as other presidential candidates like Rand Paul and Lindsay Graham attempt to draw "Trump style" attention by pulling their own dumb sh*t. The sad part about it is that Trump's may be only half serious about seeing his candidacy through to the end.
(4 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 23, 2009 POST-RACIAL DIVIDE
Through crass displays of racially-tinged pseudo-populism, some Americans have made it clear that change of the type President Obama spoke of, change which was endorsed by voters on November 4th, will never be allowed to occur.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 4, 2019 Tanks in Chocolate City
Is it at all possible that the Abrams tanks in Washington D.C. during July could ultimately lead to election-year "Missiles of October" over Tehran?
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 31, 2017 A Tale of Two Shots
Yes it was indeed quite telling. The force behind donald trump's sneering determination to step forward and aggressively flaunt his status as leader of the West's military alliance was in sharp contrast to the negligible sense of urgency he displayed when presented with the opportunity -- during a time of war -- to step forward to serve in his own country's military.
(27 comments) SHARE Friday, July 19, 2013 "God's Plan": George Zimmerman and the Trials and Tribulations of America's Legal System
What the Dickens! Clearly, the mind-boggling outcome of the George Zimmerman murder case, an outcome that enabled Zimmerman to escape any legal repercussions for the shooting of an unarmed boy in an event initiated by Zimmerman, provides sufficient reason to presume that Dickens was on to something when he wrote that "the law is an ass."
(15 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 14, 2011 Death and Texas
Has American culture reached a point to where Rick Perry can be seriously considered presidential material? If so, what does that say about American culture?
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 7, 2011 Hope Less?
Due to an apparent obsession with a bi-partisanism, and a seemingly overwhelming desire to compromise, it appears the President Obama has also compromised his prospects for re-election.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 24, 2012 Mitt Romney, His Father, and the Mother of all Republican National Conventions
He's not his father's candidate. To his own detriment, Mitt Romney seems to have taken pains to cast himself as the political polar opposite of his father, former Michigan Governor, and 1968 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, George Romney.
(5 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 13, 2012 GAME CHANGE: Will the Republicans Now Play Ball?
Now that the grand bargain McConnell reached with his GOP brethren to focus entirely on denying Obama a second term turns out to have been a fool's errand, will Mitch and the rest of the Republican party come to their senses?
(11 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 1, 2016 Donald Trump's Great American Bowel Movement
It's been over 40 years since Gerald Ford declared the "long national nightmare" that was the Nixon presidency to be finally over. And now, this: A whole new nightmare. A demagogue has taken over a major political party and founded a profoundly odorous movement. This time, it will be worse than Watergate.
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, September 16, 2015 Can We TALK? If the "Zombie Apocalypse" has arrived, "smart" phones are to blame
With each passing nanosecond, it seems clear that our growing reliance and excessive use of inaptly named "smart" technology has Earth's Most Intelligent species slouching toward an evolutionary dumbing down as our exercise in routine thought processes becomes increasingly unfashionable, and old-school means of problem-solving grow disturbingly inconvenient.
(36 comments) SHARE Saturday, February 9, 2013 Kicking Ballistics in "Glockville"
If we can't change or abolish the Second Amendment can't we at least sequester it? Sort of like how we typically do with the First when we cordon off "free speech zones" during our national presidential conventions? Why can't we set up the extreme Second Amendment diehards in a place they could call their own? Perhaps it could be called "Glockville."
(2 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 16, 2016 Elephant's Graveyard: How Barack Hussein Obama Destroyed the Republican Party
It's easy to assign blame to Donald Trump for leading the Republican Party on its death march to political oblivion. But that would be somewhat misleading in that laying the blame solely on Trump would be to overlook the far more significant role that Barack Obama played in bringing about the GOP's impending death.
(4 comments) SHARE Friday, December 5, 2014 Brain Dead: "Moaning" Joe Scarborough's Rudy Guiliani Moment
Joe Scarborough was at his intolerable worst recently. It all started after he saw a group of football players giving a symbolic gesture of solidarity with those who believe Darren Wilson got away with murder. It offended him. Well, if I could spend a moment or two with "Moaning" Joe, this is what I'd tell him.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 25, 2010 DOCTORS of DECEIT
Wing-nuts with issues! Right wing conservative leadership is flush with high profile hustlers flawed by personal issues of their own which ought to raise questions among followers about the credibility of many spokespersons for the conservative values.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 7, 2017 The Art of the Impeachment
Donald Trump's effort to stymie the investigation of possible collusion between his campaign and the Russians has been marked by one utterly foolish self-incriminating breach of common sense after another, many of which involve James Comey. Now it looks like he might have to pay for them.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, October 11, 2010 Obama's Bogey Man
De-legitimizing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is one aspect of the ill-advised campaign initiated by the previous administration designed to culminate in widespread regime change among Mid-East nations. But could it also turn out to be a tool used to help Obama in 2012?
SHARE Thursday, October 21, 2010 Strange Brew
Having suddenly emerged from every orifice of the right-wing body politic like a nasty retro-virus, the GOP/Tea Party candidates are now poised to execute their agenda.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, December 5, 2011 A Real Newt Cake
Newt Gingrich calls himself "the most professorial politician since Woodrow Wilson." I call bullshit. Sure, Newt's been the recipient of a great education, the problem is, he seems to have been educated beyond his intelligence.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, September 24, 2012 Piss Christ, Anyone?
There's a free speech argument being tossed about regarding the latest surge in vulgar depictions of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, which seems to have become somewhat of an intermittent ritual for much of the Western world over the past few years. The Innocence of the Muslims is of course, the latest example of the terrible impact that can result when a right that most take for granted is exploited by idiots.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 15, 2012 Mitt No Longer Wants to be President...
It's been one jaw-dropping miscue after another for Mitt Romney. His biggest however, has to be his selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate. It begs the question: Does Mitt even want to be president?
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, July 29, 2022 Portrait of the Donald as a Sick Man
It is practically impossible, if not morally irresponsible, to understate the degree of peril America's democratic institutions and processes face in these months leading to November's mid-term elections stemming from the flagrant illegality of Trump's decision-making and behavior pattern leading up to the January 6 insurrection."-"-"-"-
(3 comments) SHARE Friday, March 11, 2016 Trumptopia
If the network media had made a more than cursory effort to drill down on Donald Trump's galaxy of character flaws, the running narrative on Trump would more likely reflect the story of a common businessman; a simple dyed-in-the-wool capitalist with a history of failed business ventures who is now marketing xenophobia from behind a veneer of synthetic patriotism for his own personal gain.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 25, 2012 Darkness in the Sunshine State
Florida seems a cuckoo's nest of both comically absurd and darkly regressive ordinances and laws. "Stand Your Ground" may be its most lethal.
SHARE Thursday, September 10, 2009 Rx, LIES, & TOWN HALL HATE
It's the "Idiocracy" in full effect. The thus-far successful effort to kill health care reform provides the strongest evidence yet of the existence of a bizarro world of off-kilter "populism".
(8 comments) SHARE Saturday, January 17, 2015 Clash of Cultures: The Pen vs. The Kalashnikov
Prettying up anti-Islam hate-speech by calling it "provocative satire" is frighteningly Orwellian in its clever inaccuracy. But it's the only way for some to justify the twisted misapplication of their right of free speech. And while the freedom to express hatred is something worth dying for, in some cases, dying for that cause is not always noble.
(2 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 1, 2011 LEADING FROM BEHIND
During the eight years that Bush controlled the White House, Dick Cheney seemed more a shadow President than a Vice President particularly on matters of national security and foreign policy. Cheney's recently-published memoir, In My Life, reminds us of the toll taken on the ex-president's legacy resulting from Bush's willingness to make him perhaps the most powerful Vice President in history.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 4, 2008 The High Priests of Hyperbole!
To some minority conservative pundits, America's racial problem consists of African-Americans and other minorities who fail to realize that there is no racial problem in America. In their attempts to prove this, they often resort to providing anecdotes instead of hard facts.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 1, 2011 Pee Wee Herman
In terms of pure political theatre, it would be marvelous to fantasize about an Obama-Cain debate that could legitimately carry the epic potential of a Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao showdown; but that's about all it is -- a marvelous fantasy.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 4, 2017 The Non Factor: A Talking Points Memo
Bill O'Reilly finally ran out of both time and mistakes. His were the wrong kind of mistakes. Mistakes involving women. Made at the worst possible time. And so, it became time for the smug, uncontrollably self-righteous "King of Cable" to be banished from the cable kingdom he helped create.
From Cable King to Village Idiot. All in one fell swoop.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, June 19, 2012 It's a BLACK Thing
It's well-understood that hyperbole, distortions, even outright lying are fundamental parts of a political process in which all's fair in love, war and politics. It's just too bad that during Obama's time in office, racism has to be a part of what's considered fair.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 28, 2011 The Fools on The Hill
At this point, there is little doubt that the Republican Party is willing to plunge the world into fiscal crisis if by doing so, it can recapture the White House.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 18, 2012 Revenge of the Nerd
Barack Obama "came to play" so to speak during the second presidential debate delivering a performance that George Will called "immeasurably, the best in American history." But was that dismal Debate One showing part of a deliberate plan?
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 2, 2019 Promise Land 2020
With the conclusion of the Mueller probe roughly coinciding with the start of the U.S. presidential campaign season now is as good a time as any to re-focus on some of trump's reprehensible behavior, reckless domestic and foreign policy decisions, empty claims and, for the purposes and his many broken promises.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, December 29, 2014 Barely Legal: Now 18 years old, the Fox News Channel Trots On
It's a time to rejoice. A deeply cherished vicarious thrill can now be experienced without a smidgen of guilt. In October, the Fox News Channel celebrated its 18th year of offering hope to those prone to flights of revisionist fantasy. Now, beating up on Fox can no longer be considered an act of child abuse. It's time to raise a glass to honor the transition into adulthood for Fox News. Who'll join me?
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, November 4, 2010 The "Farce" Urgency of Now
In all frankness, the ugly implication of the results of the mid-term elections is that the GOP's political gains are simply the fruit borne of its success at cultivating ignorance.
SHARE Monday, October 26, 2009 BABES in TOYLAND
Due to its constant distortions of fact, anyone with a desire to gain insight on the conservative philosophy will soon learn that it can't be fulfilled by the Fox News Channel.
SHARE Monday, May 7, 2007 George Bush's Acid Reign in Iraq: Pernicious Nation-building Creates a Failed State
Even were it overtly promoted as a lethal, pnac-inspired exercise in iraqi-style disaster capitalism, furthered along by bush's oedipal urge to finish the job started by his father, the complicated nature of the iraqi culture all but assured that, desired or not, the iraqi venture as undertaken by the bushies, would oscillate into full-blown nation-building. At that point, the failure of the Iraq mission was all but sealed.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, October 25, 2012 Meek Romney
Anyone who, for the final presidential debate, expected a Patton-esque bad-ass to show up looking for a showdown found him or herself stood up. As might have been expected, "severely conservative" Mitt failed to show. But even "moderate" Mitt was nowhere to be found. Instead, it was "me too" Mitt who showed.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, January 8, 2016 Brother Visions; Thelonious Monk; and the New Chaos Theory
The doctor is out"... of his mind? Or so it seems sometimes anyway. Looks like the jig is just about up for Dr. Ben Carson. As a physician, Carson's magnificent; a masterpiece at his craft. But as a politician, he's a bit of a charlatan.
SHARE Wednesday, February 27, 2019 Journey of the Hermit Kings
Is it foolish to assume that faced with the prospect of a criminal indictment, that maybe running around scaring the holy bejeebers out of everyone by means of thermonuclear-themed political stunts, might be a misuse of a dwindling opportunity by donald trump to legislatively cover his ass.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, October 26, 2015 The Silly Season
Bring On The Clowns! Who would have thought that the political silly season leading up to the 2016 presidential election could have turned out this wacky without any significant input from Sarah Palin? No worries however. The void was been filled by Donald Trump, who's done a far better job than Palin in forcing the rest of the GOP circus act to significantly step up their own clown games.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, December 16, 2015 Sticks & Stones; Thoughts on PC
In large part, the spate of mass shootings and other terror-related events represent the culmination of the kind of events which are manifested within and across cultures that choose to marginalize civility.
SHARE Saturday, September 27, 2008 McCain "Plays" the Base
John McCain's coyly executed Sarah Palin VP rollout strategy reveals just how little regard he has for the judgment his party's conservative base. In some ways, his attitude is justified.
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, October 15, 2012 Smile and Substance
Unlike Al Gore in 2000, when challenged by political "malarkey" -- as he put it -- during his debate with Paul Ryan, Joe Biden didn't rely on sighs of indignation; the responses he chose were smiles, laughter, and amped up derision which, in this case, was completely appropriate. Right-Wing bellyaching aside, each Biden smile was a prelude to a barrage of substance.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 27, 2012 Cliff Notes-- On Being Able to Recognize "Game"
The transcendent nature of the era of Obama has been brought forth by way of a approach to legislative politicking that seems almost pathological in its cageyness. And it's been to the detriment of conservative economic and cultural values as some significant conservative cultural sacred cows have gone, or seem set to go the way of the 8-track tape. And perhaps the greatest milestone is that he did it while black.
(3 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 1, 2007 Everybody Loves Rudy! But to Some, the Question is Why?
This artice focuses on the upcoming presidential compaign of Rudy Giuliani. Specifically, the fact that Rudy will rely heavily on the "heroic " image derived from his activities during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and advises voters to look closely at Rudy's overall management of that crisis along with examining closely, his temperment.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 29, 2012 Surrogate Pinatas
Not so fast! Darrell Issa's beating up on Attorney General Eric Holder during the Fast and Furious investigation has all the makings of another GOP fiasco that could ultimately backfire on the GOP and opponents of gun control
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 17, 2012 Guns R Us
It's quite likely that there will be renewed soul-searching over lax gun control laws in the wake of the Connecticut massacre. It's also likely that it will pass faster than a speeding bullet with little having been done.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, May 30, 2013 Leave it to Priebus
Is there at least one reason to believe that the suggestions in Reince Preibus' recent "autopsy" report will do anything to get his Party off political life-support? Because reasons for doubt are many.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, October 10, 2007 MO' BITTER BLUES
Clarence Thomas' autobiography, is a vivid and dramatic display of obfuscatory finger-pointing which is why it probably should be ignored.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, October 19, 2007 End of an Error
As Nobel Prize winner Al Gore receives the world's acclaim, many Americans count the days until the end of the Bush era.
SHARE Friday, August 18, 2006 Death by Deception: "Faulty" Intelligence, Deliberate Deception and the Case for Due Process
Taking a look at the subtle acceptance by insiders who should probably know better, of the "faulty" or "flawed" intelligence excuse used by the Bush Administration which may help it escape accountability for what was actually deliberate deception. The idea that so many people have died due to a deliberate campaign of misinformation seems to have been lost by many.