They said it would be Armageddon. Was that a warning or a threat?
March 25, 2010

 
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A brief follow up. Despite childish Republicans wasting the taxpayer’s time and money by calling for 23 separate votes on nuisance changes to the Reconciliation bill (like changing the date on certain pages) before it could come up for a vote, the Senate toiled late into the night voting to “fix” the problems with the Senate’s Health Care Reform bill passed by the House last Sunday night. The process dragged on so long, they decided to continue the voting through the end of the week.

Conservatives warned that disaster would strike if the bill passed. With no sense of hyperbole, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Oompa Loompah) told cameras that the health care bill spelled Armageddon and that the country was “24 hours from ruin”. Geez. Try switching to decaf, Boner.

Last January, CNBC’s Jim Cramer… the investment guru that told everyone “Bear/Stearns wasn’t going anywhere”… told anyone who would listen that a victory for Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senators race, which would deny Democrats their crucial “60th vote”, would sink Health Care Reform and therefore result in a “huge stock market rally”. Not only didn’t the market “rally” the next day, it plunged 190 points (not over health care but over an issue with China… but no “Brown Bounce” was there to counter it.)

So did the market plunge after Sundays’ vote? The next day, the DOW closed UP just under 44 points. It closed up the next day as well… 102 points… to close at 10888, an EIGHTEEN MONTH HIGH and the tenth gain in eleven trading days.

Okay, so maybe economic “Armageddon” isn’t what he was talking about? Social “Armageddon”? Hard to see how society could be “24 hours” from a total meltdown simply by passing a single bill that makes “pre-existing conditions” a thing of the past, and allows parents to keep their children on their insurance for five additional years (the college years).

The only thing left then is the complete destruction of the American way of life “Armageddon”. Before voting on Sunday, Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Palin-wannabee) announced from the House floor that we were just hours from “the death of freedom”… presumably because your right to not purchase health insurance and become a drain on society should you become seriously ill or tragically disabled… was about to be taken from you. Actually, if you don’t want to buy insurance and prefer to gamble on becoming a drain on society, you still have that right, only NOW it’s going to cost you. $695 a year OR as much as 2.5 percent of your annual income, which ever is less. You want to gamble? Fine. But you can no longer do it with the house’s money (and “No”, they can’t throw you in jail if you refuse to pay. They’ll simply take it out of your tax refund until you do. Failing that, you’ll be fined. Now, I suppose you COULD refuse to pay your taxes, and THAT could land you in jail… but not if all you owe is $695.

Anyway… the HCR bill passed Sunday. The stock market didn’t plunge into the abyss, the poor didn’t rise up and seek vengeance upon their overlords, the seas didn’t boil and the moon didn’t turn to blood. But what DID happen? Wingnuts everywhere lost their F’ing minds. Offices were vandalized, members of Congress received threatening phone calls, and in one extreme case, the gas line was cut at the home of the brother of Congressman Tom Perriello. Why “his brother“? Because one moron Tea Party tool posted the wrong address (I’m guessing he looked Perriello up in the phone book without knowing his first name) on his blog encouraging his fellow baggers to “drop by” and pay Perriello a visit. The irony is that had he of posted the correct address, there would of been no way to connect the potentially deadly vandalism to what this one jackass posted on his blog. But since they attacked the brothers‘ house, there’s no question where they got the address/idea from.

The Democrat (Bart Stupak) who nearly derailed heath care reform that will benefit hundreds of thousands of pregnant mothers and young children, over a nonexistent provision to fund abortions, eventually reconsidered ONLY AFTER he was promised a secondary “reaffirmation bill” signed by President Obama that no Federal Funds would go to pay for abortions. The reaction from the Right? These supposed Christians left messages such as: “you baby-killing mother f***er… I hope you bleed out your a**, got cancer and die, you mother f***er.” Nice. Do you kiss the baby Jesus with that mouth?

The Rabid Right, driven to a frothing rage by the Right Wing Media, is becoming unhinged. We saw this in the 90’s when Bill Clinton was elected, only then it was over “gun control” and “Waco” (“Ruby Ridge” happened in ’92 under Bush-41, but the wingnuts still blamed Clinton.) Only this time out, they have an entire cable network (Fox “news”), hate-radio super-celebrities like Rush Limbaugh (who was only starting to become famous in the 90’s) and Glenn “pending-on-air-mental-breakdown” Beck, conspiracy-theory advancers like Michelle “FEMA camps” Bachman, Glenn “Progressives are a disease” Beck, and Sarah “gunsight target map” Palin telling followers to “RELOAD!” rather than retreat in the face of defeat), and of course, the Internet to bring them all together.

If you though the 90’s were bad, hang on tight. A noxious mixture of religious extremism, guns and racism, I fear these lunatics have only just begun.
 


 

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March 25, 2010 · Admin Mugsy · 8 Comments - Add
Posted in: Healthcare, Politics, Right-Wing Insanity

8 Responses

  1. Grant in Texas - March 25, 2010

    Now the MSM, after running non-stop stories about threats on Democrats (for ratings?), is now implying that Democrats are hyping this for sympathy. The media types must be reading Glenn Beck who says the same now in right-wing NewsMax! Kevin Jackson, the lonely black teabagger even says racial and homosexual epithets towards black Democrats last week are ALL LIES dreamed up by Democrats! However, those of us over 70, like I am, well remember the “Wanted for Treason” posters, leaflets, and full-page Dallas Morning-News ad in Dallas before John Kennedy’s fateful visit to that John Birch Society and Minuteman Militia stronghold. The assassinations of the 1960’s were all preceded by hate talk by racist right-wingers. Words matter!

  2. Mugsy - March 25, 2010

    I wasn’t aware someone had taken anti-Kennedy ads out in the Dallas newspaper the day before his visit. I should research that.

    On a second note, isn’t it ironic how the people accusing Obama of being a Nazi/Fascist are the ones gong around breaking windows (Krystalnach) and spreading hate?

  3. Mugsy - March 25, 2010

    I wasn’t aware someone had taken anti-Kennedy ads out in the Dallas newspaper the day before his visit. I should research that.

    On a second note, isn’t it ironic how the people accusing Obama of being a Nazi/Fascist are the ones going around breaking windows (Kristallnacht) and spreading hate?

  4. Grant in Texas - March 25, 2010

    I notice now that the MSM, after running non-stop stories about threats on Democrats (for ratings?), is now implying that Democrats are hyping this for sympathy. The media types must be reading Glenn Beck who says the same now in right-wing NewsMax! Kevin Jackson, the lonely black teabagger even says racial and homosexual epithets towards black Democrats last week are ALL LIES dreamed up by Democrats! However, those of us over 70, like I am, well remember the “Wanted for Treason” posters, leaflets, and full-page Dallas Morning-News ad in Dallas before John Kennedy’s fateful visit to that John Birch Society and Minuteman Militia stronghold. The assassinations of the 1960’s were all preceded by hate talk by racist right-wingers. Words matter!

  5. Grant in Texas - March 25, 2010

    I notice now that the MSM, after running non-stop stories about threats on Democrats (for ratings?), is now implying that Democrats are hyping this for sympathy. The media types must be reading Glenn Beck who says the same now in right-wing NewsMax! Kevin Jackson, the lonely black teabagger even says racial and homosexual epithets towards black Democrats last week are ALL LIES dreamed up by Democrats! However, those of us over 70, like I am, well remember the “Wanted for Treason” posters, leaflets, and full-page Dallas Morning-News ad in Dallas before John Kennedy’s fateful visit to that John Birch Society and Minuteman Militia stronghold. The assassinations of the 1960’s were all preceded by hate talk by racist right-wingers. Words matter!

    Having a problem getting this posting up…fatal errors???

  6. Mugsy - March 25, 2010

    Notice: If you are having trouble posting or are receiving what appear to be garbled notifications, please be patient as I am working on improving the blog’s Update Notification system. – Mugsy.

  7. fastfeat - March 25, 2010

    Agree with Grant. I just about threw a shoe at my TV this AM when Eric C*ntor came out and blamed Tim Caine and the DNC for “fanning the flames” for political purposes, while COMPLETELY ignoring the Teabaggers’ contributions to the discourse. Truly pathetic.

  8. Mugsy - March 25, 2010

    It’s almost comical that the people who were screaming at Congress members on their way in, carrying signs calling President Obama a Fascist and threatening gun violence should the bill pass, that people like Cantor would now have us believe these people are incapable of committing such acts of violence on their own or require provocation by Democrats.

    On YouTube, my latest video showing violent protesters reacting to the bill received a string of profanity laced comments from one person claiming that the lack of “video proof” that Rep. Cleaver was spat upon means it never happened. It’s a Democrat lie.

    He convinced me that it was all in my mind that tea-baggers are incapable of such incivility around the third time he called me “a Mother F-ing SOB”.

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