Beat the Victim & Reward the Abuser! It’s the Republican Way!

22benhur1
The Republicans Have a Jobs Plan!

Economist Simon Johnson calls out the Republican party for bad economics, bad policy and basically being bad human beings.

But the severity and depth of our current recession raise an issue that we have literally not had to confront since the 1930s. What should we do when people run out of standard unemployment benefits — much of which are provided at the state level — but still cannot find a job?

In negotiations currently under way, House Republicans propose to cut back drastically on these benefits, asserting that this will push people back to work and speed the recovery. Does this make sense, or is it bad economics, as well as being mean-spirited?

In raw numbers, we lost more than eight million jobs, most of which have not returned.

 

The jobs crisis was caused by recklessness in the financial sector, made possible by irresponsible deregulation (including a period when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House) and resulting in enormous unconditional bailout protection for the bankers at the heart of the disaster (under both President George W. Bush and President Obama).

Let’s be generous for a moment and simply state that mistakes were made — on an enormous, macroeconomic scale with gut-wrenching consequences for families around the country. Why would anyone now seek to punish these people when they seek work but cannot get it?

 

How does it help any economic recovery when the people who lose jobs cannot even afford to buy basic goods and services — enough to keep their family afloat?

Why do this?  Because it’s so much easier to punish the victim than it is to hold a mirror up to your own culpability in the devastation wrought by failed Republican leadership. Deregulation caused this jobs crisis so clearly the answer (if you’re a Republican) is to blame the people who lost their jobs.  This, my friends, is their jobs plan.  Thrown children and families into the street because they’re sitting around on their butts not working.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, apparently.  Unless you’re a banker, of course.

Now, back to your oar, slave!

RAMMING SPEEEEEEEED!!!!!!

 

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19 thoughts on “Beat the Victim & Reward the Abuser! It’s the Republican Way!

  1. Why do you ignore the fact that the seeds were planted during the Clinton years that resulted in the forest of pain we endure today? Both parties had a hand in creating this mess. The Democrats wanted to once again make things equal for the near-poor by allowing them to own houses they could not afford. The taxpayers were seen as good co-signers on the loans.

    As always, some on the Right used the lemons that were thrown at them to make some lemonade.

    1. What “seeds” would those be? 6 years of uninterrupted growth and a budget surplus? A surplus squandered on a reckless tax cut for the wealthy and two unfunded wars?

      I’ll own Clinton but that means you own Bush.

      1. Phil, don’t forget the significant contribution that the unfunded Medicare Part B made to the deficit.

        Regarding the ever obtuse, ever predictable, Wingnut?

        His partisan blinders are just SO dang large that he can’t help but trip over them on a regular basis.

        Bush, the worst, the most obtuse President in the history of the country, was JUST making “lemonade” out of “lemons”? (*laughing*) As usual, homeboy is delusional.

        Hmmmm. Nice, unexpected alliteration there.

        Anyway, to recap. Bush, obtuse, worst President ever. Wingnut, Bush apologist, obtuse, partisan, predictable, delusional.

        1. Zuma Bound, it is good to see you have talked your way out of the Three Faces of Eve Clinic. I knew they could not keep you there for very long.

          1. @ the ever thin-skinned Wingnut fka Looking At Loons

            Dear, sweet, clueless Wingnut, even your insults are based on out-of-date references.

            What makes it worse is that it just isn’t clear what your insult is meant to convey about me, even if the reference wasn’t so archaic.

            You’re obtuse, buddy. Why fight it? Just accept it, and go back to yelling at the kids to get off your lawn. Still wearing that old bathrobe, frothing at the mouth and waving that rolled-up copy of the John Birch Society newsletter at them?

            (*laughing*)

            Or, hey, here’s an idea. Why not also just respond to the substantive points that Phil and I made in response to your comment, rather than resort to insults inspired by movies from the 1950s which most people are just not going to get.

            Oh, yeah. That’s right. You just don’t have the chops, do you, Grandpa?

            Moreover, you’ve just elected to embrace the wrong ideology. More on this in a minute.

            As always, Love and Kisses, you old codger.

          2. With all of the off-the-hook, wingnut/teabagger/Republican/conservative craziness finding expression these days, how is it that the “conservative” movement has any credibility whatsoever anymore?

            Two articles posted today at Daily Kos answer the question:

            One can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/12/1063989/-Republicans-undiscover-fire?via=blog_1

            The other is the “Abbreviated Pundit Round-up”, compiled and presented, along with his editorial comments, by Mark Sumner wherein he observes:

            “Actual conservatism is dead because it was given everything it asked for over a period of decades, and the result was disaster. Yes, there’s a worldwide wave of austerity, which is kind of conservatism’s dried up husk, but expecting the Republicans to produce new and workable conservative policies is like asking trilobites to crawl out of the rocks.

            Conservatism is no longer an economic policy or even a governing philosophy. It’s just a cult.

            You don’t get new ideas from cults. You get rituals.”

            AND wild-eyed, frothing-at-the-mouth freak-outs like Andrew Breitbart’s at CPAC.

            You also get morons like Steve King, Iowa Congressman, hanging out at CPAC with white nationalists and speaking with admiration about their “work”.

            Sorry, Wingnut, you’re just on the wrong side of, well, everything.

            Good luck with that.

            At least now you know why you always come off sounding as erudite as a[n antique] doorknob , huh?

            1. I did not realize you were a teenager, Zuma. In future, my references will not pre-date the Lady Gaga era. It is no wonder you were bewildered by my reference the The Three Faces of Eve. An adult would have realized that I was referring to your having had at least two simultaneous personalities on this blog. One was an attorney and the other a professor who just happened to know James Arness.

              You are like a bloated pinata. One can just barely tap it with a stick and suddenly he is up to his knees in a flood of verbose comments. Does your Grandpa help you with your grammar? Oh, I forgot, you seem to hate anyone who has voted in more than one election.

              Give the people a clue as to how many handles you are currently using to post on this blog.

              1. @ Wingnut aka the old guy on the porch yelling at kids to get off his lawn

                Ahhhh, Wingnut, still have a reading comprehension problem, I see. Que lastima, pobrecito. And, unfortunately, I see that you’re still unable to debate rationally and substantively. Well, you do call yourself, Wingnut, after all, and THAT is what they teach ya at Wingnut Tech, right? So, no surprises there, I guess.

                So, let’s look at what the cranky old codger had to say today:

                Wingnut wrote: “I did not realize you were a teenager, Zuma.”

                Yeah, Wingnut, I’m not. I’m 59. I just don’t act or sound like I am an old geezer like you do. I don’t look it, either.

                Wingnut wrote: “It is no wonder you were bewildered by my reference the The Three Faces of Eve.”

                (*laughing*) Yeahhh, I wasn’t, but that would have been apparent to anyone who had closely read what I wrote. My concern was for the people here who have no idea what old codgers like you are talking about when you make “Three Faces of Eve” (1957) references. Anyway, preach on, Grandpa. What else ya got?

                Wingnut wrote: “An adult would have realized that I was referring to your having had at least two simultaneous personalities on this blog. One was an attorney and the other a professor who just happened to know James Arness.”

                Still smarting from the ass-whooping that I gave you way back when under that one particular blog post the title of which escapes me right now (I’ll see if I can find it and create a link to it), I see (*laughing*) Good!

                Since I’m familiar with what “The Three Faces of Eve” was about, I got the “multiple personality” reference you were TRYING to make, it just didn’t make any sense.

                As I recall, a commenter named S.M. Lawson, a Rhetoric professor, excoriated you for your disingenuous, juvenile sophistry, and applauded my unsuccessful efforts to have an adult conversation with you. He or she also said, in so many words and in a more “elevated” and academic way, that I had kicked your ass.

                So, what’s your point. Someone agrees with me that you’re a twit, incapable of honest discourse. and they MUST be an alter ego of mine?! (*laughing*) You’re an idiot.

                Just deal with it, Wingnut. You’ve elected to embrace a moribund, if not dead, political philosophy. You’re dealing with progressives here who are far more intelligent than you could ever hope to be, people who offer arguments, supported by evidence, and who avoid the favorite tools of the wingnut, deflection and false dichotomies.

                So, stop with the inane insults which either no one gets or which don’t make sense.

                For the record, you pathetic and addled rightwinger, I am a music industry lawyer based in California. Am I speaking slowly enough? In the future, try to keep up. AND take your medications, all of them. Just out of curiosity, does Alzheimer’s Disease run in your family?

                Wingnut wrote: “You are like a bloated pinata. One can just barely tap it with a stick and suddenly he is up to his knees in a flood of verbose comments. Does your Grandpa help you with your grammar? Oh, I forgot, you seem to hate anyone who has voted in more than one election.”

                Oops! Too late. (*laughing*) Anyway, sorry that you can’t keep up.

                I’m happy to let my comments speak for themselves, just as I am to let yours speak for you. Who do you think is going to win that comparison?! (*laughing*)

                Twit.

                Look, Wingnut, elevate your game, huh? There’s a lot of substance in the comment thread under this blog post alone that you could have sunk your teeth into (assuming you’ve still got them), right? Instead of exclusively offering up lame insults that impress no one, much less serve to restore your damaged ego in any way, try digging into substance of things. [I’m only suggesting this because it is what political DISCOURSE is supposed to be about, NOT because I actually think that you have the capacity to formulate a cogent argument] Prove me wrong. Show me that there’s more to you than an old codger nursing old wounds, something more to you than an obtuse old wingnut armed with nothing more than hot air, insults, steam building up inside your head that you need to vent, rightwing talking points and a moribund political philosophy.

                For the record, I’m not holding my breath.

                “Give the people a clue as to how many handles you are currently using to post on this blog.”

                Just one, little homey, and you know what it is.

                1. Here’s the link, Wingnut. Read it and weep.

                  http://www.bloggingblue.com/2011/07/13/dont worry/

                  And here’s an excerpt from it:

                  “S.M. Lawson says:
                  July 30, 2011 at 9:10 pm

                  I’ve followed your various exchanges with Zuma Bound over time.

                  The conclusions that I set forth above, about Zuma Bound, about you, about your intellectual slipperiness and intellectual dishonesty, were based on the totality of those exchanges.

                  I regret that you chose to assume otherwise, but I am not particularly surprised that you did.

                  Having actually already read the totality of the exchanges that Zuma Bound and you had throughout Blogging Blue before I ever wrote one word here, particularly the exchanges/passages that you “characterized” in your last comment, I literally laughed, and shook my head slowly, back and forth, astonished at your whiny, defensive, self-serving characterizations of them and at your attempt to use those characterizations to rationalize what you wrote above and how you wrote it.

                  You clearly see yourself as an intelligent, witty, well-spoken political visionary. The bottom line is that you are anything but.

                  In truth, and it pains me to have to say this about anyone, you are nothing more than a mindlessly arrogant, narcissistic partisan hack who lacks the requisite intellectual depth to keep pace with the rigors of true discourse.

                  Zuma Bound was absolutely right about you.

                  You are “the Black Knight”, ever arrogant, ever delusional, ever wrong, ever unable to admit to it.

                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

                  In my academic career, I had occasion to teach people just like you. Some had the good sense, not to mention the good grace, to recognize their failings, admit to them, and then work on overcoming them.

                  I am truly sorry that you never took that step. “

                2. I do believe you admitted to not getting my reference in an earlier post. Now after it has been explained to you, you say you understood it all along.

                  For someone who claims others are thin skinned, you wound quite easily yourself. And for someone who claims I have a head full of steam, you seem to be ready to go Vesuvius at any moment.

                  I will end this conversation at this point before you drag “Professor Lawson” into it and ruin all the work you have done at the clinic.

                  1. @ Wingnut aka cranky old dude aka The Black Knight

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4

                    Wingnut wrote: “I do believe you admitted to not getting my reference in an earlier post. Now after it has been explained to you, you say you understood it all along.”

                    Well, Wingnut, you are, indeed, clueless, and you clearly still have a reading comprehension problem. Here’s what I wrote in that “earlier comment”:

                    Zuma: “Dear, sweet, clueless Wingnut, even your insults are based on out-of-date references.

                    What makes it worse is that it just isn’t clear what your insult is meant to convey about me, even if the reference wasn’t so archaic.

                    You’re obtuse, buddy. Why fight it? Just accept it, and go back to yelling at the kids to get off your lawn. Still wearing that old bathrobe, frothing at the mouth and waving that rolled-up copy of the John Birch Society newsletter at them?

                    (*laughing*)

                    Or, hey, here’s an idea. Why not also just respond to the substantive points that Phil and I made in response to your comment, rather than resort to insults inspired by movies from the 1950s which most people are just not going to get.”

                    Still think that I didn’t get the reference, Wingnut. You’re truly an idiot, then. Go take a remedial English course stat.

                    Wingnut wrote: “For someone who claims others are thin skinned, you wound quite easily yourself. And for someone who claims I have a head full of steam, you seem to be ready to go Vesuvius at any moment.”

                    Zuma: Yeah, well, Wingnut, I’ve been dealing with your peculiar brand of brain-dead idiocy for a while now. Let’s just say that I don’t suffer fools gladly. And you, Wingnut are a fool.

                    Wingnut wrote: “I will end this conversation at this point before you drag Professor Lawson into it and ruin all the work you have done at the clinic.”

                    Zuma: Professor Lawson is here, little homey. Just below. Testifying to your idiocy, to how trying to have a rational exchange with you is like trying to nail jello to a tree, to your hardheaded denial of the most basic and unflattering truths about yourself, to the fact that you had your ass handed to you by me in our previous exchanges.

                    The “clinic”. Aw, how cute. Best you can do, little homey?

                    (*laughing*) You never were really up to the challenge of going toe to toe with me, were you?

                    You’re a dinosaur, Wingnut, tethered to a moribund political ideology. Instead of mindlessly talking about “clinics”, desperately trying to come up with an insult worthy of note that no one is going to get anyway, why not turn your attention to matters of substance for once. There’s plenty of substantive evidence in this comment thread alone that evidences the death of modern conservatism. Why not just spin your wheels dealing with that?

                    Ultimately, Wingnut, in any battle of wits in which you try to engage with me, the reality is that you’re going to be outmatched. Just accept that, and move on.

                    We’re done here, fool. Off you go now. Off you go, sport, to the wingnut echo chamber of your choice where arrogant cluelessness and stupidity are worn as badges of honor, rather than laughed at, as they are here.

                    While you’re there. Spread the word. Conservatism is dead.

                1. You don’t know the history here, Steven. You need to take a chill pill, not to mention, watch your language.

                  Who is Wingnut to you, anyway? Your Dad?

                  Wingnut is an ass who deserves to be upbraided, whether you agree with the upbraiding or not.

                  In plain and simple terms, Wingnut doesn’t debate fairly, much less coherently, and when cornered, starts exclusively slinging insults, often odd ones epitomized by “The Three Faces of Eve” mental illness allusion you find in his earlier comment.

                  Just hold your powder, brother. Wingnut is simply not worth it.

                  Seriously, don’t you have better things to do than giving Wingnut a pass, while calling me an assh*le?

                  I would expect better of you, Steven.

  2. Is that guy in front dreaming of what he could do with a concealed carry law? Where would he conceal his rifle, in his cold dead hands?

  3. Further to the rhetorical question I posed above, “With all of the off-the-hook wingnut/teabagger/Republican/conservative craziness finding expression these days, how is it that the “conservative” movement has any credibility whatsoever anymore?”

    (1) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/12/1064156/-The-GOP-flies-in-the-face-and-teeth-of-reality-?via=spotlight

    (2) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/05/1061921/-breaking-The-Republican-The-Boys-Shower?via=sidebyuserrec

  4. “Actual conservatism is dead. . .

    Conservatism is no longer an economic policy or even a governing philosophy. It’s just a cult. You don’t get new ideas from cults. You get rituals.”

    – Mark Sumner, Daily Kos (2/12/12)

    Cultish rituals like these. . .”Conservatives”/wingnuts/teabaggers, unhinged and unleashed by the election of a black President, speaking in racist “tongues” at the slightest provocation. . .[Spoiler Alert: Virulent, Faux News-enabled tsunami of racism ahead]:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/12/1064209/-Oh-for-Fox-sake-Wingnuts-disgrace-Whitney-Houston-s-grave-with-massive-N-bombing?via=siderec

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