Originally Posted By SuperDry These days, Republicans try to steer as far away as they can from tax increases for the most part. But there's one elected Republican that is putting tax increases on the ballot this November and wants voters to pass them. He's Lubbock County Judge Tom Head (in Texas, the office of "county judge" is the chief executive officer of the county and is completely unrelated to traditional judges that hear cases in courtrooms). What would cause an elected Republican to want to raise taxes this year? Well, Judge Head is worried that if President Obama wins a second term, he'll relinquish sovereignty of the United States to the United Nations, and that UN troops might try to invade Lubbock County. And he wants to be fully prepared for it: <a href="http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/08/22/texas-judge-preparing-for-civil-war-if-obama-re-elected/" target="_blank">http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/0...elected/</a>
Originally Posted By ecdc Friends, we are dealing with some powerful stupid here. I suspect it'll only get worse as the election nears, and might even peak after that if Obama is re-elected and the Scared White People that is the Tea Baggers freak out again.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder There needs to be some procedure in place wherein the governor's office (yeah, I know, it's Rick Perry, not that far removed from this guy in the stupid category), the state legislature, something, someone, can step in and remove people like this when this type of thing occurs. I don't know what the standard would be, maybe this kind of thing, like trying to raise a tax for when the president of your own country gives up sovereignty. This just goes beyond stupid. What else is there to say?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Know why it's particularly stupid? I've been to Lubbock. Of all the places the UN (or any entity, sinister or righteous) might want to invade, Lubbock wouldn't make the top hundred. On its best day. If the rest of the planet had been nuked.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer [Obama] is going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the UN. Okay, what’s going to happen when that happens? I’m thinking worst case scenario here. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. We’re not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations. We’re talking Lexington-Concord take up arms and get rid of the guy. Now what’s going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He’s going to send in U.N. troops — with the little blue beanies. I don’t want ‘em in Lubbock County. Okay. So I’m going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say ‘you’re not coming in here’. “And the sheriff, I’ve already asked him, I said ‘you gonna back me’ he said, ‘yeah, I’ll back you.’” <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/22/726471/texas-judge-suggests-he-will-join-civil-unrest-civil-disobedience-civil-war-maybe-if-obama-is-reelected/" target="_blank">http://thinkprogress.org/justi...elected/</a> There must be one hell of an adventure story going on in this guys head, with him as the hero. You can tell that he wants this to be true. I've never thought about emigrating from the US before, but the thought has been occurring to me more and more lately. Until the GOP starts rejecting this kind of crazy from their party it's only going to get worse.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Google this guy. He's comedy gold. In 2009, he put up posters containing mugshots of people who were wearing Obama shirts when arrested. Underneath he wrote that you never see people arrested wearing Bush shirts. The Fox video is hilarious. The guy in the middle wearing the white polo shirt has this WTF look on his face.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I'm glad this latest batch of craziness this week has been captured on audio and/or video tape. Unlike the written word which sometimes can be mis-interpreted and/or taken out of context, listening to these guys say what they said leaves no doubt that the public's general understanding of what they said is fully consistent with what they actually said, and that nothing is being taken out of context.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder This guy was featured on MSNBC last night. The Obama t-shirt thing came up. Maybe it has just been a very bad week for the GOP, but it's also possible the Crazy is now coming to the fore, seeing as how the Crazy are now runnng things.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox What scares the sh*t out of me are voters like Donny. I firmly believe that he's not as crazy as these clown car passengers running the GOP. But because of his blind hatred for Obama and the Democrats, he will willfully ignore the Republican psychopaths and their desire to roll back the calendar to the 1800s. The GOP has made it crystal clear of their desire to toss the middle class, women, and minorities under the bus so the privileged 1% can privatize and control the entire government. Donny and his fellow Republicans are going to toast our democracy simply because they've bought into the lies and deceits by right-wing media and refuse to fact-check the information for themselves. They willfully desire to remain ignorant. They're smart enough to find out the truth of these matters for themselves, but deliberately choose not to do so, in order to stay emotionally comfortable about supporting politicians who basically hate their guts. Willful ignorance coupled with fear of losing power is what's driving the white voting base of the GOP. Romney and Ryan know precisely which dogwhistle to blow to get white conservatives like Donny all scared and fearful that minorities are going to take control and do to them what they and their ancestors have been doing to minorities for centuries. It's all about FEAR. And the GOP totally excels in ginning it up in order to get elected, so they can take control of the government and dismantle it for the benefit of the top 1%. If the Dems lose in November, you can kiss your civil rights goodbye in January. Guaranteed.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I don't want Romney to win. I think he'll really hurt the middle class with his policies. But I'm not going to be like the extremists and say that this nation is DOOMED if he is elected. Every 4 years we go through this. If ____________ is elected, it's all over!!! At some point, I have to trust that whoever is president will rise to the office and try to do his/her level best for the country-- all of it. I don't want to turn into some version of these crazy conspiracy nuts. I don't think it's healthy for the country to take every argument to the scorched-earth levels that has become commonplace in the last several years. We've got to get back, somehow, to a more moderate tone in regards to our politics. Back to where compromise seemed more like a win/win scenario, not seen as a complete failure.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Sorry, 2oony, but I strongly disagree. The GOP has completely caved to the wingnut evangelicals and the corporations, particularly Big Oil/Gas/Coal: <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/23/734721/big-oil-buys-gusher-5-pro-oil-planks-in-romney-energy-plan/" target="_blank">http://thinkprogress.org/clima...gy-plan/</a> <> Big Oil Buys Gusher: 5 Pro-Oil Planks In Romney Energy Plan By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 23, 2012 at 10:49 am After raising nearly $10 million in Texas oil money in two days, Mitt Romney announces an energy plan on the Texas-New Mexico border later today that includes billions of dollars in giveaways to industry contributors. Romney will call for extensive expansion of oil and gas drilling – including along the coasts of Virginia and the Carolinas – and eliminating most federal safety and environmental standards that govern the development of energy resources on our public lands. This corporate polluter agenda should come as no surprise, as the Washington Post noted: “Romney’s plan caters heavily to oil and coal interests, and oil executives are some of his biggest benefactors.” Romney’s energy team is comprised of oil and coal industry insiders, from oil billionaire Harold Hamm, the chair of Romney’s energy policy team – and $1 million donor to the conservative Restore Our Future Super PAC — to coal lobbyist Jim Talent, as well as retreads from the George W. Bush administration. Politico described it as “Bush energy advisors going to Romney.” The Romney-Ryan plan once again claims mysterious “trillions” of dollars in government revenue; however, a recent Congressional Budget Office analysis found that their proposals would bring in only limited federal revenues over the next decade. Instead, the Romney-Ryan energy plan includes billions of dollars of tax breaks to corporate polluter allies, access to lands and waters owned by all Americans, and fewer restrictions on mercury, toxic, and carbon pollution. Here are five facts about the Romney-Ryan “oil above all” energy strategy you ought to know in advance of his energy speech in New Mexico today. 1. The Romney-Ryan plan gives the big five oil companies a $2.3 billion tax cut above and beyond existing tax loopholes Both Romney’s plan and the House-passed Ryan budget would retain $2.4 billion in annual tax breaks for the big five oil companies – BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell – that made a record $137 billion in profits last year, and over $60 billion so far in 2012. Perhaps more outrageous is that the Romney-Ryan proposed cut in the corporate tax rate would provide a $2.3 billion tax cut for the big five oil companies. With the existing tax breaks, the big five companies would skim over $4 billion annually from the U.S. Treasury. 2. Romney plan gives Americans’ lands and waters to dirty energy interests Romney also proposes the extreme idea of giving states control over energy development on America’s public lands. This is a misguided proposal that would end the tradition of managing lands that belong to the entire country for the wide array of resource values to “meet the present and future needs of the American people.” Instead, on a state by state basis these unparalleled national assets – including national parks – could be turned over to energy companies, making energy development the primary use of the land, at the expense of grazing, hunting, fishing, and all other forms of recreation. A similar proposal was too radical even for arch conservative Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. She vetoed a bill turning all federal lands over to her state. 3. Romney and Ryan would cede clean energy innovation, exports to China, Germany, other nations. They outsource energy jobs to our greatest competitors. The worldwide market for clean energy technologies will be $2 trillion by 2020. Yet Romney and Ryan would cede this market to other nations by opposing incentives to help emerging technologies grow to scale. Romney and Ryan oppose the extension of the Production Tax Credit to encourage wind energy. The PTC helped the U.S. double its wind electricity generation over the past four years, and ending it could cost at least 37,000 jobs this year. An American Wind Energy Association analysis predicts that New Mexico and Texas could lose up to 5,000 and 20,000 jobs, respectively, if the PTC expires. 4. Romney plan won’t reduce oil and gasoline prices Romney falsely claims that his energy plan will “lower energy prices.” Oil prices are set on the global market, regardless of domestic production. Even oil independent nations such as Canada experienced high gasoline prices this year. The Wall Street Journal reiterated that “Producing a lot of oil doesn’t lower the price of gasoline in your country.” To determine whether domestic oil production lowers gasoline prices, the Associated Press analyzed 30 years of production and price data. AP determined that there is: “No statistical correlation between how much oil comes out of U.S. wells and the price at the pump.” 5. Romney and Ryan support continuing mercury contamination from power plants The Obama administration issued overdue reduction standards for mercury and cancer causing pollution from power plants. The standard saves thousands of lives of children, seniors and other vulnerable people. Yet Romney promises to undo it on his very first day in office by issuing an executive order that “Directs all agencies to immediately initiate the elimination of Obama-era regulations that unduly burden the economy or job creation.” The Mercury and Air Toxics Standard will produce “$3 to $9 in health benefits” for every dollar in pollution reduction costs, according to EPA. In spite of record-breaking temperatures, severe droughts and raging wildfires plaguing the U.S. this year and worsened by manmade climate change, Mitt Romney has put the interests of big donors over science once again. The Romney-Ryan energy plan is simply a handout to their biggest polluter supporters, ignoring the devastating impacts of continuing to rely on a fossil-fuel based economy that does nothing either to address the growing threat of global warming or to increase our competitiveness in the growing clean energy economy. – Daniel J. Weiss is a Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Noreen Nielsen is CAPAF Energy Communications Director, and Christy Goldfuss is the Public Lands Project Director. <> That last paragraph nails it. Romney doesn't care about the future of our environment. He only cares about himself and his fellow millionaires and billionaires. And I have no doubt that Romney will make good on his promise to weaken if not outright eliminate the EPA, given the millions pouring into his campaign from Big Oil/Gas/Coal. Losing civil rights and social safety nets we've had for decades is bad enough. But trashing our environment further in the wake of climate change destruction is global suicide. The vast majority of the top 1% are narcissistic children who only care about wealth and power. Nothing else. They are the last people who should be holding any political office, including city dog catcher.
Originally Posted By velo The problem with taking a more moderate approach to whomever might be elected is that many of us did that when Bush Jr. was elected. We thought "oh well, what could he do - he probably has good intentions, etc." We found out what could happen... and we're living (and dying) with it right now. The possibility of another Repub in the White House scares the you-know-what out of me.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<The possibility of another Repub in the White House scares the you-know-what out of me.>> Me too. And what scares me even more is the possibility of the Republicans controlling Congress as well - plus a majority of the state governments. They won huge victories in 2010 by promising to get people back to work - and instead immediately started passing crazy right-wing laws. They've rolled back the rights of workers, tried every trick in the book to limit women's access to abortion or birth control, attempted to get religion (Creationism) taught in our schools as if it was Science, and kept gay people from having the right to marry who they love. It's scares the **** out of me to think what four more years of this crap would mean. I don't want to be an extremist, but these people really do scare me.
