#thepete #podcast for 2/9/16: When lies attack! Trump, Rubio and Jeb! OH MY! (And Hillary, too!)

This week I delve into more things that are just blatantly wrong about the world around us--specifically, things Trump, Jeb!, and Rubio said in the debate last weekend. LISTEN and be as annoyed as I am!

 I recorded this podcast yesterday but only posted it today, so it's technically for yesterday. Ahhhh, I'll get this date-thing worked out--just subscribe, dang it!

Here's a direct download of the mp3, or you can subscribe to this hear podcast! ;) Got iTunes? Sure, we're all forced to! Subscribe to #thepete #podcast on iTunes!

L, L, and the P of H: 2015 Edition (bringing the Founding Fathers into 2015)

Last week, I wrote about my history as a blogger and included a post I wrote for my blog on, the now defunct website GuerrillaNews.com.  I wrote that post over ten years ago and felt it was still pretty accurate. In fact, the sentiment behind it is probably more accurate in 2015 than it was in 2004. So, I thought I'd post an updated version.  Here goes:

L, L, and the P of H: 2015 Edition

Fri, 4 Sep 2015 13:00:00

We, in America, were always taught to revere the Founding Fathers.  They had the wisdom and strength to not only conceive of the Great Democratic Experiment, but to see it all the way through to fruition.  And they did so in the face of a mighty empire and its king who oppressed them all with unfair taxation.  What wise and brave men they were!

So, wise that for the past two-and-a-half centuries,  we have looked at the words they wrote and the system that put in place as almost sacrosanct.  On more than one occasion, regarding more than a few issues, our leaders, our news media, our idiot Television pundits have asked "what were the intentions of the founding fathers?"

As though, it's not fairly obvious when you consider the context of the Founding Fathers and the men themselves.

As though, culture hasn't changed dramatically since 1776.

As though, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were not written in English as a set of instructions to run a government.

As though, these documents were holy writ, words of deities written in another language and handed down to us, through millennia.

Yesterday, @NYTimes reported on a #veterans #suicide hotline losing its #Pentagon funding. #AmericanPriorities #KeepinItClassy #America

Yesterday, @NYTimes reported on a #veterans #suicide hotline losing it's #Pentagon funding. #AmericanPriorities #KeepinItClassy #America
Posted on July 05, 2015 at 11:26AM
View the original on Instagram https://instagram.com/p/4wmnsjSrvu/

More from the article:

Since 2011, Vets4Warriors has fielded more than 130,000 calls from military personnel stationed around the world. The counselors say their military service and nonclinical approach help them form a bond with callers that can break down mistrust. 

Now the hotline faces its own problems. Though the program has been lauded as a model, the Pentagon has ended its funding as part of an effort to cut costs and streamline services. Vets4Warriors has moved to find other funding so that it can continue on its own. In late June, weeks before the call center was set to lay off its 40 veteran peers, the New Jersey Legislature voted to spend $2.5 million so the program could operate another year, giving it time to find private funding.

Why does the USG want to start these wars but never want to take full responsibility for the damage they do to the soldiers they send over to fight those wars?

Sometimes I just shake my head at the way our leaders think. Seriously messed up priorities.  They should be ashamed.

Read the rest of the article.

In this week's all-new #BallpointAdventures #webcomic, someone is running for #president. More: BallpointAdventures.com #Republicans #GOP #POTUS #art #comicstrips #webcomics #comics #ballpointpen

In this week's all-new #BallpointAdventures #webcomic, someone is running for #president. More: BallpointAdventures.com #Republicans #GOP #POTUS #art #comicstrips #webcomics #comics #ballpointpen
Posted on May 18, 2015 at 12:17PM
View the original on Instagram https://instagram.com/p/21GYCGSrhq/

My pal @JayThePal on what the government shutdown stuff was REALLY about.

http://youtu.be/SLW12pIXbaA

It's kind of ironic considering the Republicans are usually the ones who ranting about the constitution and rights and stuff.

"With fifty men we could subjugate them all..." said the "brave explorer."

It's that time of the year again! Yep, the day we "celebrate" a man who would eventually come to meet the definition of "genocidal maniac" having "discovered" America. This holiday really needs to go away. We're such self-liars here in America. I'll get to how, as I type this, America is a country whose government is controlled by the whim of a solitary Republican in a post later today, but first, I wanted to post (as I have in the past) my favorite quote of Christopher Columbus. Are you ready for it? Here we go:

They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features... They do not bear arms, and do not known them, for I showed them a sword and they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make then do whatever we want.

Taken from page 1 of "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. Buy it, read it and understand we've been lying to ourselves for decades and decades. Really, centuries.

And don't adopt the redemptionist attitudes of some that would claim we can't judge people of previous cultures. We can and should. Otherwise, we will deify these people and fail to notice how their behaviors hurt us.

For instance, if we trust that our Found Fathers knew what they were doing when they created out government, we shouldn't have to pay attention, right? They were brilliant visionaries who saw a better world and brought it to us, right? Well, if we had done that, we'd never have abolished slavery or given women the right to vote or amended our government in so many other ways--in both good ways and bad. So, let's judge the past and it's "heroes" because if we don't, we absolve ourselves of responsibility for our present. We can't just point at some document written hundreds (or even thousands of years ago) and say "SEE? THEY SAID IT WAS FINE, SO..."

Monopolies hate competition: NYTimes reports (poorly) on USG investigation virtual currencies. Article reads like gov propaganda.

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/c_0-blSrpL/

From the article:

State and federal officials are starting broad investigations into shortcomings in the oversight of upstart virtual currencies like bitcoin.

Ah yes, because state and federal governments do such a good job of overseeing their own currency!

@NYTimes reports on House Food Stamps bill that will cut 5 million from program. #screwrepublicans

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/cbwwYUSrou/

From the article:

The food stamp program has become a target for conservatives in Congress as it has grown over the past decade. Nearly 48 million people currently receive food stamp benefits, and the program costs about $80 billion a year.

Many Republicans say the program is rife with fraud, with hundreds of ineligible people receiving benefits. The Agriculture Department says that fraud rates are low and that the people who receive the benefits need them because of a tough economy.

Read the whole article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/us/politics/house-plan-on-food-stamps-would-cut-5-million-from-program.html

So we have almost no problem with spending trillions to stop terrorists from killing Americans, but keeping *poor* Americans fed? Yeah, we don't like that so much.

Republicans Up to Their Old Anti-Democracy Tricks Again...

The Republicans are at it again. In Texas, over 80,000 registered voters were taken off the rolls because they were believed dead by the state. The catch is that one official found a lot of evidence to suggest that most of those 80,000 people were NOT dead. Here's a cutting from the above-capped article from NPR.org:

Texas got the names off the Social Security Administration's death list. Social Security warned Texas that the list shouldn't be relied on, but to no avail. The state Legislature and Texas Gov. Rick Perry passed legislation last session mandating the change.

In Houston, after Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners got hundreds of calls from elderly voters who'd gotten the death notice, he looked at the Social Security list that was being used.

"And then a quick check of some of the information on that database led us to believe that there was a big probability that even a majority of the names on the list were people that were still alive," he says.

Back in 2000 we saw some serious issues with the "election" of George W. Bush. Not only were there loads of evidence that the true will of the people was not represented by the ballot count, the final dispute of who should be president was not settled by Congress (as the US Constitution seems to suggest it should be), but instead was decided by the Supreme Court (the most dominant of judges at the time were all appointed by Republicans).

Then, in 2004, we saw more evidence that various election systems in place around the country weren't necessarily providing us with accurate results.

In both instances it was the Republicans who seemed to be "behind" efforts against accurate counting and making sure it was easy for everyone to vote. Just Google "Greg Palast" for the details.

Finally, in 2008, there was a candidate that was voted for overwhelmingly, so even major problems with ballot counting wouldn't ultimately matter. In 2000 and 2004, the margins were tight, so it took only a bit of inaccuracy to change results (yes, I believe that in 2004, Kerry probably won and, in 2000, I am sure Gore should have won).

Now, in 2012, during a race for president that everyone thinks is incredibly close, I am reminded of all the problems we had with close elections in 2000 and 2004. This NPR article provides evidence that the Republicans are once again pulling this same crap.

How any true conservative can continue to call themselves a Republican is beyond me. The very definition of the word "conservative" suggests a Conservative would want to make sure everyone who is legally allowed to vote should be able to do so AND have their vote counted. Yet, here we go again.

I am reminded of the many times during the regime of George W. Bush how any dissenting opinions were called, by Republicans, "anti-American."  Yet, it was the Republicans behaving in the most anti-American way of all--fighting against a fair and accurate election.

America is a pretty scary place, in this long-time-observer's opinion.

My pal Mari needs some surgery--help her out with a couple bucks, wouldja? http://mariadkins.com

I posted this on my Tumblr yesterday but since Mari is still a hundred bucks short, I thought I should post it again... read on or just go here and give her a hand if you can with the Chip-In widget at the top of her sidebar, or, like I said, read on:

mariadkins:

i need a hysterectomy

And most of you are probably looking at that and thinking, “Duh, we know you and know that.” But here’s what you don’t know. I’m pasting in a note I sent around via e-mail and Facebook, and please excuse the lack of caps use. As I stated in the note, I hesitated to start another ChipIn, but I did it anyway; the link is at the bottom. Also, if you’d like to copy my widget to your website, please use this link. (by the way, Preston said my note sounded pitiful lol)

i called robin, the surgeon’s nurse, back *again* this morning because i’d never heard from her. she called me about half an hour ago and said that the clinic can’t schedule my hysterectomy until i pay a deposit. (i have medical financial aid through UK because i don’t qualify for medicaid and preston couldn’t ever afford to add me to his insurance) she said the medical aid office should have called me, and i told her that this is the first time i’d heard from anybody since connie called me on the tenth. she told me who to call and gave me the direct number.

i called and left a message, which seems to be what my life is made of any more – leaving messages.

shannon called me back, and we talked, and she said she hadn’t even received my paperwork until half an hour before. i checked the call log on my phone – that would have been when i talked to robin and around the time i left the message for shannon. anyway, shannon pulled up my records and said that i have to pay a $470 deposit. we discussed that and when my aid expires, and she told me to keep her number, etc, etc.

so i’ve sat here and absolutely bawled and have given myself a killer headache in the process, of course. i have no idea where we’re going to find $470.

i did that chip-in thing for my new computer last month so i’m very hesitant to turn around and start another one for something that’s this serious.

any suggestions, advice, help any of y’all can give me/us would be a blessing. otherwise, the way things looks, this is something i’m just going to be stuck with for the rest of my life. i just want to sit and scream.

http://mariadkins.com/i-need-a-hysterectomy

Here's where I came in with my standard rant on our wonderful health care system that requires people to *always* have a job with health benefits if they want to actually have health care:

Why is the most basic human right the first to be overlooked our society?  The right to health care is a fundamental need every single human on the planet will eventually require and yet, it's not guaranteed in the country that claims it is the most free of all the countries.

Mari is a really great person and needs a hand.  If you can help, please click the link above and give her chip-in fund a few bucks.  Anything can help.

I just get so angry that good people can't just get the health care they need.  No one's perfect and we can't all have jobs all the time.  Society is simply too flawed to guarantee employment for all, so what are the folks without a stable dayjob to do?  What good is society if it can't serve all of its members?

You must admit that forcing people to always have jobs with benefits is not fair and does not match up with our promised right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I mean, how can you pursue happiness if you're sick? How can you live if you're dying? How can you be free if you're forced to have a job at all times?

Worse yet, we live in a society that does not guarantee a job for every last one of us. Therefore, our society doesn't guarantee our health. And since we are under a much bigger threat from things like cancer and heart disease than we are from foreign invaders or terrorists, what the hell is our government really doing for us, anyway?

We are supposed to live in a free market country--how come the USG has such shitty customer service?

So if you agree with me and want to help my pal Mari, head over to http://mariadkins.com and check out the Chip-In widget in her sidebar. I'm sure she'll appreciate it!

Republicans Blame Obama for High Gasoline Prices in a complete #IronyFAIL

Here's a serious ironyfail. The above-capped article comes from the NYT earlier this month (here: www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/us/politics/high-gas-prices-gi... ) and with a title like "Rising Gas Prices Give G.O.P. Issue to Attack Obama" how could I resist blogging about it? I mean, really, Republicans? Gas prices are too high for you? Perhaps you should just STFU and support alternative energy? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's a cutting from the above article and refers to a "closed-door" meeting held by GOPers:

"“This debate is a debate we want to have,” Mr. Boehner told his conference on Wednesday, according to a Republican aide who was present. “It was reported this week that we’ll soon see $4-a-gallon gas prices. Maybe higher. Certainly, this summer will see the highest gas prices in years. Your constituents saw those reports, and they’ll be talking about it.”"

Oh really, John? You want to have this debate? Well, not with me, buddy. Because the basic laws of supply and demand tell us that if you want to lower price you either raise supply or reduce demand. The latter could have been done DECADES ago if only Republicans hadn't been such douchebags when it comes to protecting their pals in the oil biz. But hang on, there's more--here's another cutting from the article:

"“They want higher energy prices. They want to push their radical agenda on the public,” Rick Santorum said at a campaign event last week, accusing Democrats of pushing alternatives to oil. “We need a president who is on the side of affordable energy.”

Newt Gingrich wrote on Twitter on Friday that “gasoline prices are unacceptable. We can do better!” He urged his supporters to sign a petition on his Web site calling for a return to $2.50-a-gallon gas. “Drill here. Drill now. Pay less,” the petition says.

And talking points from the Republican National Committee that go out to conservative commentators every Friday often include rising gas prices among the “Top Line Messaging” for the week. A recent “Pundit Prep” document cited the national debt, unemployment and the price of gas as the three best ways to define the “Obama economy.”"

Gosh, it is a shame car-drivers are forced to pay these high prices for gasoline! Too bad there aren't other ways to fuel your car, like some sort of, oh I don't know, ALTERNATIVE kind of ENERGY that could be used.

I'm so SICK of looking at politicians shrug their way through explaining why things are so messed up, as though they could never have seen these problems coming or done anything at all to avoid them. Whether it was 911, the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war or the economy, NO ONE apologizes for any of it and everyone claims they couldn't have seen it coming, despite anyone with eyes, basic math skills and a history book could have predicted all of it.

The fact of the matter is that our leaders in Washington, Democrat and Republican alike, are fucking ROCK STUPID and choose to follow their lust for cash and power around rather than their morals or feelings of responsibility for their fellow American citizen.

Seriously, Republicans, do you realize how unbelievably MORONIC you look complaining about high gas prices??? When Clinton was in office, gas wasn't much more expensive than $1/gal. 911, two Republican wars in the Middle East and a decade+ of inflation and YES, YOU'RE GOING TO SEE HIGHER GAS PRICES, YOU UTTER DOUCHES!

We seriously need to instate a Hypocrisy Police in the US. This shit is getting too crazy for words.

Santorum is making it hard for me to be a polite atheist

Back on the 17th I found the above-capped op-ed at NYTimes.com (original here: www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/opinion/blow-santorum-exalts-i... ). The piece talks about Santorum's "increasingly unhinged" public comments. This is an understatement to a guy like me. I feel like my right to free thought hinges on my respect for the right of others to free thought. In other words, if I start saying things like "you're belief in a god is ridiculous" I open myself up to people saying things to me like "your lack of belief in a god is ridiculous." So, I try to hold my tongue.

Of course, religious folks fall just short of telling me my lack of faith is ridiculous, as it is, and based on the way Santorum talks, it seems like a lot of folks with similar beliefs would like to shape government based on these beliefs. (And they worry about Islam?) Here's a cutting from the above op-ed:

Also last week, he suggested that liberals and the president were leading religious people into oppression and even beheadings. I kid you not. Santorum said: “They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine."

Then, just today I saw Santorum quoted as saying (source: www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-57385629/romney-santorum-... ): "To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up."

Santorum was bagging on a speech JFK used to explain that he wasn't going to force his religious views on America. Instead of, as another CBSNews.com article points out (source: www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57385430-503544/santorum-... ):

Santorum said Kennedy "was trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you."

So, Santorum says JFK and the USG shouldn't force their religious views on We The People. Fine, but how can he turn around and wear his religion on his sleeve, thus suggesting he'll impose his religous values on us?

Of COURSE people of faith have should have a role in the public square, but their faith itself? Yeah, bad idea. We need facts to take center stage, not belief in a magical being protecting us from pollution, rising sea levels and a dramatically changing climate (not to mention AIDS, cancer and terrorist bombings). And that's what scares me. Maybe it's just the media making America seem more prone to Believery than we really are, but it really seems like we've become the subject of an episode of "The Twilight Zone" where people trust a malfunctioning computer in a cave instead of trusting facts and common sense to protect themselves from danger and stagnation. Only, in this case, the computer is Christianity.

That's the real danger of believing in God and trusting men in robes (or white collars) to provide all of your guidelines for living your life--you forget to think for yourself. Regardless of whether there is or isn't a God, we all know humans get things wrong all the time. So how can you blindly assume that your pastor or priest, rabbi or imam, hasn't misunderstood the will of the being that created the entire freakin' universe?

Let's be honest--the universe is a vast and amazing place. The idea that any human can even come close to understanding what God wants indicates an amazing amount of ego and hubris. In the end, you really MUST make your own judgment and NOT trust only religion and religious people, because what if they're wrong? Either way, you'll have only yourself to blame for your decision, so why not take responsibility for yourself?

Ballpoint Adventures for February 13, 2012: JPMorgan and Martin Luther King Sitting in a Tree

I SERIOUSLY doubt that MLK Jr would have been cool with JPMorgan supporting his cause.  Banks are largely to blame for our current economic state and I just don't think Dr. King would look kindly on the way banks have behaved on the last ten years or more.

Check out how supportive the banking giant JPMorgan Chase is of King's cause: http://www.jpmorganchase.com/Corportate-Responsibility/mlk-event.htm

NYTimes: "7 in Renegade Amish Group Charged With Assaults" You read that right! There's a "Renegade Amish Group"

NYTimes: "7 in Renegade Amish Group Charged With Assaults" You read that right! There's a "Renegade Amish Group", a photo by thepetecom on Flickr.

You know the world is getting weird when the NY Times reports this: "Federal agents arrested the leader of a renegade Amish group and six others in eastern Ohio on Wednesday and charged them with hate crimes for a series of beard- and hair-cutting assaults against Amish men and women."

Just look at those guys in the NYT article's photo--it's like a Daily Show segment or something!

source: www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/us/7-arrested-in-hair-cutting-...

"With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

I posted this over on website666.com but I usually like to post some anti-Columbus Day thing on my main blog, so here it is:

simplyopinions:

“They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

—

Christopher Columbus,

Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States

(via cultureofresistance)

Happy Columbus Day, everyone!

If you haven’t read “A People’s History of the United States” you’re not smart enough.

I'm not even kidding.  If you haven't read "A People's History" you only know half of history.

USA.gov: Happy Columbus Day! thepete: Um, "Happy"? Really?

USA.gov: Happy Columbus Day! thepete: Um, "Happy"? Really?

falconieri:

usagov:

Every year, on the second Monday of October, the United States celebrates Christopher Columbus’ landing in the Americas. Columbus’ official siting of new land was October 12, 1492.

Columbus, a native of Italy, scoured Europe for royal sponsors of his expedition to find the New World. Finally, in…

@usagov, LIAR

“LIAR” indeed, Falconieri.  Aren’t we all educated enough to understand that it’s kinda lame celebrating the genocidal asshole who didn’t really discover America and only did that because he was looking for India?  Yeah, let’s celebrate a man so greedy and cruel that he would order the hands of locals chopped off if they didn’t bring him gold.

It’s pretty disgusting how we still pat ourselves on the back for “taming” this continent.

If I had a dayjob, I’d go into work today, anyway.  

Oh and if I sound like I’m talking out of my ass, go watch “Even the Rain” on Netflix and see how you feel after.  It’s also available to stream on Amazon.

"The second some jerkoff hits a computer key, he thinks he’s a journalist..."

The second some jerkoff hits a computer key, he thinks he’s a journalist. These clowns put out stuff every day to damage people.

Roger Ailes, Fox News Channel president, on bloggers. (via newsweek)(via newsweek)

HA!  Come on, Roger! Everyone knows journalists don't need TRAINING.  Just look at all those idiots on Fox Ne--OHHHH...

AHEM...

< puts hands in pockets and wanders off, whistling >

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

jesus fucking christ

Yeah, America is so full of shit it’s not funny. We spend trillions on war but refuse to pay for everyone’s health care.  We invade two countries and kill hundreds of thousands to prove how great a country we are.  And now people protesting the execution of a black man convicted of killing ONE cop (possibly unjustly convicted) are having their freedom of speech suppressed by being arrested.

GOOD PLAN, AMERICA!

Oh and don’t forget: 

Troy Davis is Still Alive—let’s keep it that way! Call 404-656-5651

BBC News - Wikileaks: Swiss bank shuts Julian Assange's account

BBC News - Wikileaks: Swiss bank shuts Julian Assange's account

Yes, that’s right, Assange’s SWISS bank account has been closed—there’s buckets of irony there. How many international criminals have used Swiss bank accounts for hiding their money??  And here comes Assange who, apparently, lied on his application regarding a Geneva residence. I’m sure this lie coming to light now has nothing to do with international pressure.

Assange should go to the bank that all the baddies on TV go to.

Meanwhile, George W. Bush’s ATM card is still working fine, I bet—and he admitted to ordering torture!

>_<

Found via thedaytheytriedtokillme.com.

How Ma Bell Shelved the Future for 60 Years

How Ma Bell Shelved the Future for 60 Years

Gizmodo’s Tim Wu blogs about how innovation was stopped in its tracks, effectively, due to capitalist interests.  Funny how we’re all told capitalism is great for innovation. Too bad that’s only true until innovation might damage the current business model.  Take the example of the answering machine that existed in the office of a Bell Labs engineer… in 1934.