Give a listen to Bill Clinton doing what Bill Clinton does best, explaining reality to Americans in clear terms that even GOP idiots can understand. This is why they dread the Big Dog.

I have nothing to add to Governor Patrick’s speech at the DNC yesterday. He had to clean up Mitt Romney’s mess the same way President Obama’s been trying to clean up George Bush’s and the GOP’s mess. Fortunately Deval hasn’t had the obstruction the President has had. I can find nothing wrong in this speech and he’s right, it’s time Democrats grow a backbone and stand up to the right and their racism, lies and self-defeating policies.

Enjoy

I live and work in what’s known as a “Right to Work” state, though Thom Hartmann more aptly calls it a “Right to Work for Less” state. As a result, I have never been a member of a Union. However, I recognize the importance of Unions and what they have provided all workers, Union and Non-Union alike. So let’s examine why many of us have today off work.

Labor Day is an American federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday in 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day. Following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman strike, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; President Grover Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the (Central Labor Union) CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation’s trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers’ Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair (an earlier labor demonstration in Chicago that resulted in anarchists throwing dynamite at police sent to disperse the crowd and eventually resulted in May Day celebrations for workers) in International Workers’ Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.

Unions were and are the manifestation of workers’ rights. Let’s be honest, the most costly expense of any business operation is manpower. So logically the best way to increase the profit margin is to have slavery. However, if slavery is no longer available (Damn you Yankees!) then you find legal ways to pay the least amount with the least amount of benefits to those who must provide the most they can to take back little to subside on. Prior to (and post) the Union Movement, we had sweatshops, child labor, we had “company towns” where instead of getting paid in legal tender, you got company script to make all purchases at the company stores, unsafe and often deadly work environments. Those who merely spoke for the rights of other workers often ended up beaten and many times beaten to death. Business leaders benefited from exploiting their worker force and became extremely wealthy. Sadly, very little if any of that increased wealth ever trickled down to the workers that made it possible for them.

So as the country matured, and more and more Unions formed, workers’ rights gained an ear in Washington and State capitals. Over time, especially during the Progressive Movement and with the aid of Republican Teddy Roosevelt, laws were enacted to not only protect Unions and their workers, but all workers whether they belonged to Unions or not. The Union Movement gave us what we have today: Minimum Wage, Workplace Safety Rules, OSHA, Fair Labor Standards, Paid Sick, Vacation and Holidays, 40 hour work weeks, and the list goes on. As workers rights became codified into law, a movement began to swing the pendulum back to the direction of the corporate leaders. Workers are needed, but can be very expensive. In time, the “Right to Work” State movement came into being to nullify any positive impact of unions in the states that enacted them. Prevented public sector employees (Teachers, Police, Fire Fighters, etc) from having a stronger voice for their own kind.

And now with this recent election cycle, we are actually hearing from the Republicans, cries to repeal child labor laws, give more “rights” to business to exploit workers, reduce minimum wage standards. All things that would clearly increase the profit margins of companies and just as clearly would make the lives of workers far worse and despite the increased wealth of the corporate leaders, none of it will trickle down.

Union membership has been steadily declining, their influence waning and as a result, corporate profits for the few has been increasing. It’s no coincidence, it’s by design. Republicans and their Corporate sponsors are afraid of the workforce organizing for their own rights to get the best deal possible. Union stripping laws for public and private sector jobs (all written by ALEC) have been introduced and passed around the country by legislative action. Note that they never pass by popular vote. In fact when put to public votes, the workers come out ahead. Imagine that.

Henry Ford was a capitalist. He was also an asshole who admired what Fascists were doing in Europe. However he was also smart enough to know that if you pay your employees enough, they will come back and buy your product, thus increasing your profit margin. It’s a shame that many of these “brilliant business minds” don’t understand the concept that a cheap labor force, though good for short-term profit also destroys the middle-class work force and ultimately puts them out of business since no one has the money to buy what they produce. What’s the saying, penny wise-pound foolish.

Enjoy Labor Day today and even if you are not a member of a Union, be thankful to them for doing the hard work, even getting beaten up and killed for many of the rights you enjoy today as a worker. Support them because in doing so, you support yourself and the economic well-being of the nation as a whole, including the 1%. They’re just too greedy and pound foolish to recognize it.

This was when President Obama met with the GOP Conference in January 2010 after his State of the Union. The GOP were still in the minority and he took questions. Note how though partially respectful, they still refer to “Democrat Proposals” instead of “Democratic” and near the end he discusses with Paul Ryan his Medicare Voucher Proposal. Boehner thought this exercise would embarrassed the President instead Obama turned the tables on him and the conference. The president was focusing on working in a bipartisan manner while behind closed doors they were already working on not giving him any accomplishments going into 2010 and later 2012. This is an hour and a half video, but well worth viewing for perspective of today and what we face.

Jon Lovitz had a character he developed known as Tommy Flanagan. He was a member, no president of Pathological Liars Anonymous, yeah, that’s the ticket. He dated, no married Morgan Fairchild. Many of you know the routine. After the convention and most recently the radio comment from Paul Ryan about running his one and only marathon in less than three hours, this character came to mind.

So what is a Pathological Liar? There is a medical term involved here:

Pseudologia fantastica, mythomania, or pathological lying are three of several terms applied by psychiatrists to the behavior of habitual or compulsive lying. It was first described in the medical literature in 1891 by Anton Delbrueck. Although it is a controversial topic, pathological lying has been defined as “falsification entirely disproportionate to any discernible end in view, may be extensive and very complicated, and may manifest over a period of years or even a lifetime.

Lying is the act of both knowingly and intentionally/willfully making a false statement. Most people do so out of fear. Pathological lying is considered a mental illness, because it takes over rational judgement and progresses into the fantasy world and back.

The Romney/Ryan Campaign made it very clear this week during the convention that they would not be dissuaded by fact checkers in response to their (the fact checkers) analysis  of all the misrepresentations (otherwise known as lies) coming from their camp. The ads where they blatantly lie about President Obama’s position on Medicare and the $716,000,000,000.00,  as well as the lies  regarding Welfare and the work requirements. All have been clearly debunked, yet they continue to tell these lies. As Joseph Goebbels said, “tell a lie enough times, it becomes the truth.” And Hitler himself said, “Don’t bother with the small lies, tell the big ones.”

And before some of you get into a tizzy about comparing Romney/Ryan to Hitler/Goebbels and the Nazis; this is what they said about lying, the facts about what Romney/Ryan are doing with lies are undeniable. I’m not calling them Nazis, but they are using propaganda tactics similar to the Nazis. Prove me wrong.

So they lie, they lie a lot and they are starting to lie big. They dismiss those who fact check them. Ron Christie went so far last night on Bill Maher to ask, “who checks the fact checkers?” To which I respond by quoting John Adams “Facts are stubborn things.” For the most part, since they are non-partisan and depend on providing provable facts in their analysis, I go with the fact checkers. If they are presenting wrong facts and analyses, present the facts showing that what they presented was wrong Ron Christie. Facts are what is used in Courts of Law. They are presented, weighed and ruled upon by either a Judge and/or Jury. Facts are stubborn things, they are absolute when pulled and presented in an unbiased manner. Just because they show someone is “lying” doesn’t make them partisan. Denying the facts without presenting counter facts is partisan and lazy.

So they are liars, but are they “pathological”? I wasn’t prepared to go that far until the recent radio interview where Paul Ryan said he ran a marathon in less than three hours when he was 20. As someone who actually trained with professional marathon runners (it’s become a science people) and studied the mechanics and history involved in running, I knew he was bull-shitting. Not possible. It flies in the face of professional marathon runners, athletes and pure common sense. It was quickly debunked, yet Ryan himself has yet (as of this blog posting) apologized and admitted he was lying.

He has lied about his position on abortion, contraceptives and personhood responding to the flack regarding Akin, he has lied about what his budget would, and is capable of doing, he has lied about the record of President Obama, he has lied about when a plant in his own district of Janesville closed and who was responsible, all of these things are easily proven by facts that are available for all to read and assess. Paul Ryan knows the facts that counter his lies are out there, yet he continues to lie and won’t apologize or take any of it back. He is nearing the realm of Pathological. And Mitt Romney’s record of presenting falsehoods depending on which way the wind is blowing and who his audience or backers are? Well, he’s getting pretty close himself.

Building a political movement, let alone an administration on lies is like building a home on sand. The foundation is poor, unstable and will result in the whole structure falling in on itself. The Romney/Ryan Campaign have built their race for the White House on the weakest of sand dunes. We as a nation cannot afford to have the country collapse due to their poor work on not building on a solid foundation of actual facts.

Who would have ever thought the day would come when someone would have to defend Dirty Harry? I mean, this is Clint Eastwood, he’s the man. Almost every character he’s ever played was a confident, strong and solid man on whom all could depend upon to do what’s right, and beat up the bad guys. Almost every movie Clint’s done I’ve enjoyed. Even as he’s gotten older, this guy knows his craft and comes up with the most endearing and cool characters imaginable. This Screen Actor’s Guild union member is good and will always be seen as a great actor, writer and director.

So what the hell happened last night?

When word broke that he would be speaking at the convention I wasn’t upset. It didn’t surprise or concerned me at all. Everybody knows that Clint Eastwood is a Republican. He’s clearly right of center. However, there are also those areas, those causes that he supports that also places him center and left of center. In other words, the man is an American. His views span the ideological spectrum. However people are expected to pick a side to which to belong, and he’s selected the Conservative right, via the GOP. God bless him. He’s not afraid to say what he believes. It’s interesting that this man took flack during his Super Bowl commercial from the right earlier this year. Well, he’s still a Republican and he’s still an American and he will say what he thinks and what he believes. No matter if it’s right or wrong in the views of those who hear it. The man is a straight shooter in more ways than one.

Now Clint wouldn’t want my support, or any man’s support for that matter. He wouldn’t want pity or anything because this man has and will always be able to defend himself. However I am going to say what I believe anyway because like Clint, I will say what I think no matter how it’s received.

Some have speculated that the way he fumbled through the lines on the teleprompter and appeared somewhat out of sorts that maybe, just maybe Clint at 82 is starting that decline that many of his age will experience. Then there was the whole routine with the empty chair and the imaginary President Obama.

Well, I would like to think that maybe Clint was pulling a fast one on the idiots who run the RNC with their dog whistles and fact-less accusations against the President. I’m sure that in reality, Clint does not support President Obama. That is his right as an American. However based on his work, his interviews and his statements over the years, I don’t believe this man is a racist, isn’t an idiot and doesn’t suffer fools. Though still a member of the Republican Party, he has to contend with a lot of fools in his party.

So what was that whole schtick with the imaginary Obama? I think he was pulling a subtle jab at the speakers at the convention. The Obama that the GOP have been complaining about is clearly imaginary. That Obama doesn’t exist. They have made up an imaginary Muslim, Kenyan, Socialist, Communist, Fascist, Angry, Black vindictive charlatan with no facts to back it up. Only speculation, racism and dog whistles. Dinesh DeSouza’s fantasy fiction of 2016 sums up this imaginary boogie man the GOP has created in order to justify their racism to the world.

Clint was merely talking to the imaginary Obama that the GOP created. He knows that man is imaginary and he was telling the GOP that they are fools to keep talking about a man who doesn’t exist. By making himself look foolish, he was demonstrating how the GOP looks today.

I could very well be wrong. But I honestly don’t care. I do like Clint Eastwood. I admire his work, just not his politics. He is an icon of this country and he doesn’t need my help.

Hope you’re doing well Clint. I will be seeing your next movie, I’m sure it’s great.

The convention is over and listening to these people, including the two headliners, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, I’m left with the thought that is the title of this rant. We are still recovering from the worst economic calamity we’ve faced since the Great Depression. But how did we get here? Who lit the fire?

It began over thirty years ago with Ronald Reagan and Reaganomics. The economic theory that his own vice president, George Bush Sr. called “voodoo economics.”

After the Great Depression and World War II ended, as the only industrialized nation left unscathed by war, and with the banking regulations and social programs enacted by FDR and later by Truman (like the GI Bill), we built the strongest middle-class in history, even with a 95% tax rate for the 1% of the time (and that was under Republican Dwight Eisenhower). Our economy boomed and didn’t bubble at all thanks to the regulations. Thanks to Social Security the elderly didn’t slip into poverty at the rate they did prior to FDR. We had school lunch programs implemented that fed our children and made the population healthier because they were fed.

Eisenhower used government and tax revenue to build the Interstate Highway System that resulted in more infrastructure enhancements and an ever-growing economic base. Yes you built that via your tax dollars to the Federal System and both Democratic and Republican representatives worked to serve you by improving the nation. The power grid, education system, hospitals, the Veterans Administration, a lot of government spending, with sufficient tax revenues coming in to fund it. And yet, nobody was ever taxed into poverty, people actually got richer as the middle-class grew.

But then came Reagan. He thought that by slashing the tax revenues from those who were already so wealthy, the taxes they paid had zero impact on their ever growing standard of living, and eliminating the banking regulations that kept another bubble economy from forming, let alone a depression, things would improve for all. Make the rich richer and it would trickle down. Well, our deficits and national debt began to grow exponentially. And with the first Bush, we had our first major recession as a result and that resulted in Clinton becoming president.

Clinton, without any votes from the Republicans increased the taxes on the rich, and even though the GOP said it would destroy the economy, it didn’t. Not only was the budget balanced (something Reagan never achieved) we ended up with a surplus. But Clinton also did something very Reaganesque and destructive. He eliminated the last vestige of New Deal regulations of banking by signing the GOP repeal of Glass Steagel.

When he left office and Bush Jr took over, we had another bubble that impacted the economy and Bush followed Reagan’s lead and imposed the largest tax cuts for the wealthy in history, while at the same time increasing government spending to fight two wars. With the repeal of Glass Steagel, investment banks and regular banks started playing with each other money and then it happened. Due to all the deregulation of the banks and the new “derivative markets” the world economy crashed. It was in a full tail spin when President Obama took office. The GOP Arsonists with some help from Bill Clinton had lit the fire and the country was burning. It was a 5-Alarmer and Obama had his hands full trying to put it out.

He was able to build a fire break via the stimulus that everybody who’s looked at it has credited for avoiding another Great Depression. But it wasn’t enough. The stimulus was too small to effectively stop the still burning fire, it merely slowed it down.

The reason being, the Arsonists were still there in Congress. These little peckers were sabotaging all attempts to stop the fire and begin rebuilding the damage. On the day Obama took office, many of these arsonists met to plot strategy to make sure the fire continued to burn. They had a plan, they wanted things to get worse so they could blame the fire chief for the arson and take blame off their shoulders for starting the fire.

It would be bad enough if Fire Chief Obama only had one or two arsonist to contend with, but he is dealing with a gang of arsonists. Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Frank Luntz, Grover Norquist, Eric Cantor, and the young gun, Paul Ryan. These guys plotted to prevent allowing Obama the equipment and funding needed to put the fire out completely while they plotted new fires. Through filibusters in the Senate and wasted legislation in the House that focused on everything except putting out the fire and rebuilding, the economy is stalled.

Now we are at the end of the RNC Convention and the new arsonist gang leader Mitt Romney, with the help of little arson boy Paul Ryan are telling their victims that the fire chief is responsible for the fire and all the delays in getting work crews out, insurance claims paid to repair the damage and rebuild.

What’s worse, they say this while holding gasoline cans and matches called the Ryan Budget that they plan on using to start the blaze all over again. They want to remove the fire hoses in place to fight more fires known as Dodd Frank.

These guys are felons, arsonists and sociopathic liars. Anyone fool enough to support these arsonists deserve to lose what little they have. Problem is that with an arson fire, it spreads to those who tend to be very careful and takes them down too.

November is coming, do we vote to stop the fire, lock the arsonists out of Washington and begin repairing and rebuilding the nation or do we let the country burn to the ground. Fire Chief Obama needs your help. Only you can prevent GOP Arson Fires.

As the formal Klan rally in Tampa otherwise known as the Republican National Committee Conference is underway, I thought this would be a good time to get some facts out regarding poverty in this country. To listen to the GOP during the debates and stump speeches, as well as “True the Vote” rhetoric, the impoverished are the enemies of the country. They insinuate that those who are poor are all on welfare, draining the resources of the middle-class and all are minorities to, coincidently enough. Some are even quoted as saying that President Obama stole the 2008 elections with his “food stamp army”, a statement that I’m sure made Newt Gingrich proud. But as we all know, facts have a liberal bias, and here are some facts for you all regarding poverty and the impoverished in this nation.

More than 15% of our population (43.2 million American men, women and children) live in poverty per US Census Bureau, 2010). Research shows that it is very difficult for people born into poverty to achieve an education and earn a living wage.

One in four working households in America (10.6 million families) spend more than half their pre-tax income on housing. There is no community in America where minimum wage earners can reasonably afford to pay rent. In February 2012 the National Low Income Housing Coalition conducted a study of housing across the United States and found that no city had rentals priced low enough where a minimum wage earner could live comfortably. In 86% of the counties surveyed, even those who earned twice the minimum wage still did not earn enough to pay rent and other basic needs.

Nationally, the average welfare check for one parent and two children is $478.00 per month. Twenty years ago it was $408.00 per month. The national average for a baby born to a family already on welfare is $60.00. The average disability check is $600.00 a month. Less than 2% of the Federal Budget is allocated for welfare.

The rates for hunger in this country continue to be high for an industrialized nation. Many people think hunger doesn’t exist because of obesity. The fact is 46 million Americans suffer food insecurity and one-third of this group experience chronic hunger. A person on food stamps receives $3.00 per day. Healthy food is too expensive to be paid for by what’s allotted for with food stamps.

The impoverished do work hard. Despite how hard they work they are unable to get out of poverty. According to National Labor statistics, two-thirds of people living in poverty are working 1.7 jobs.

Youth living in poverty are the least likely to become educated in our nation. Many students living in poverty have low academic achievements and schools struggle to address their needs. Families living in poverty often experience education “stress” and see it as a place where they do not belong. A college education can help people break the barriers of poverty and escape its hardship; yet today, it is less likely a person in poverty will attain a college education than it was in the 1940’s.

Many people in poverty have internalized their poverty as a personal deficiency. They see no hope for anything but an insufficient welfare or disability check. Further, by law, no person can receive a welfare check unless they are employed and even then, for no more than five years period. After five years, they can never received another welfare check. These people often engage in activities that barely pay enough to keep food on the table and often result in incarceration. Nearly 80% of people in prison cannot read at an 8th grade level/ Poverty affects education success, health, relationships and most of all the ability for humans to develop to their full potential.

The overwhelming majority of people in poverty are whites, not minorities. Whites make up the majority of those collecting food stamps, unemployment, welfare, disability, any government assistance. And what’s more, most of these see themselves as Christian fundamentalists and tend to vote Republican, if able to get to the polls, let alone get a valid ID.

As mentioned earlier, 15% of the nation is impoverished yet only 2% of the Federal Budget is earmarked for their needs. And under current GOP plans, they want to slash all programs to assist these people even more. Slashing of food stamps, housing assistance, disability, welfare, education, and healthcare to make it even worse for those impoverished. This is the GOP’s war on the impoverished. They blame them for many of our problems, attack what little exists to assistance them and in doing so, increases their numbers. GOP budget cuts and refusal to address serious job creation measures continue to shrink the middle-class. When people leave the middle-class, it’s because they move down to the impoverished class.

Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society addressed his War on Poverty. Federal money and assistance was directed to end the generational poverty of American families. And guess what, it worked and poverty levels went down. Then came Ronald Reagan and the GOP propaganda of Welfare moms, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, and slashing and even eliminating services to assist those who need assistance. What has the result been, an ever-increasing number of impoverished in this nation.

The GOP has declared war on the impoverished and because of that war, their numbers are increasing. Very few people have the ability to make it to the 1% unless they are already a part of a 1% family, or have been given government assistance of some type to supplement their initiative and drive to do better. It takes money to make money. Even then, the numbers are few. But guess what, even though very few will have the opportunity of being in the 1%, all of us, even the 1% can end up being impoverished for reasons beyond their control. A bad economy, a serious health condition, any number of reasons.

The United States once led the world in upward mobility, now we’re nowhere near the top. European nations are doing better in upward mobility than Americans. Maybe we should look at some European ways Reince Priebus.

The facts are undeniable unless you have your head so far up your ass you fail to recognize it. Poverty is a cancer that destroys nations. Our cancer is being left untreated and it’s growing with the help of the GOP. Time to eradicate this cancer by eradicating the GOP from office in November.

I was 8 years old when this man did something never tried before. He landed a vehicle that was never landed before on the moon. It had been simulated, but it was never tried. It was also live on television. He was able to land “The Eagle” nearly running out of fuel in the effort. The man was a calm, intelligent and very cool test pilot. Then he did what had never been done before, he got out and walked on the surface of the moon.

The entire country and world were transfixed at him and Buzz Aldrin. Again nobody had any idea about what they could expect. Were there “moon bacteria” micro organisms that could be brought back destroying life here. Nobody knew, yet we took the chance. Then he did something else never tried before, he left the moon. Nobody knew if the ascent engines of the Eagle would even ignite. But they did. He was able to rendezvous with Michael Collins in Apollo 11 and all three made it back to earth.

Once back, he did something unexpected then and unheard of today. He went back to work. He avoided the acclaim. He didn’t cash in on what he did. He was a test pilot, he was an astronaut, and he did the job he was paid to do and came back to earth and went back to work. He was brave, intelligent, and humble. What a combination of attributes. Again, hard to find among people in this country today. I think that’s why I’m tearing up more than anything at his loss today. He brought the country together and set a great standard that too few abide by today. Rest in peace Neil Armstrong, you deserve it.