When SCOTUS said yes to "Marriage Equality"

last week Jeb Bush was heard to respond that "his faith" predisposed him towards support for 'traditional marriage". Fair enough, no member of the La Famiglia Arbusto has ever stuck their necks out on behalf of the rights of any minority....ever. But then, I do so love the sacerdotal silence that falls over Jeb Bush whenever the subject of global warming and the RCC's stance thereon is under discussion. But then it's a mutual sacerdotal silence, Jeb doesn't believe in climate change and won't let "his faith" inform him on the matter, meanwhile the US Bishops WILL NEVER EVER EVER call him on his apostasy. Certainly they will not get on Jeb's case about global warming and the death penalty they way they dogged John Kerry's ass in 2004. On that you and La Famiglia Arbusto may rely.

In Case You Hadn't Noticed....

Piyush Bobby Jindal the Grand Mendicant and Governor of Louisiana has announced for President this week....overshadowed and overtaken by events, as usual. Ah but it's been a long slow inexorable fall for Jindal a bare nine years ago, Piyush was the GOP's answer to Barack Obama, young, pragmatic, ethnic and thin. Now look at him, his whole "Governor Spreadsheet" persona is effaced, Jindal has long been Grover Norquist's narrow minded tax lowerin' bitch and the result is Louisiana is a debt ridden tumbledown mess and it's current Governor's approval rating is competitive with that of the Norovirus. So having ruined Louisiana, there is seemingly nothing left to do but for Jindal to run for President as literally the ninth wingnut sock puppet in the race blustery craven and likely the most luckless governor currently serving in the USA. There is a sad shamelessness to Jindal oh he can denounce "the tyranny of the Federal Government" with the best of them on a Monday & by Friday he can abjectly beg the Federal Government for Help after some natural or man made disaster has laid his state low. And besides, Bobby Jindal just looks like a loser, constantly surprised and overwhelmed he will not wear well with the American People. Just remember this we've got a few politicians in this state who have been elected to high office as spreadsheet worshipping pragmatists...well that was Piyush "Bobby" Jindal once as well look how he ended up....

Freedom won big today...

When SCOTUS essentially nationalized marriage equality today. Everything I know about freedom as an abstract concept I got from Abraham Lincoln's "Peoria Speech" in 1854. Much of the arguments therein are heavy going vis a vis the "Missouri Compromise" but there is also a definition of freedom both practical and philosophical that stands for the ages. In the play of logic as it relates to freedom, we have not exceeded said Lincolnian definition even today. The Great Emanicipator's argument is simple, when I govern myself I am essentially free in my self governance, when I govern another in contravention of their inalienable rights that is despotism no matter how free my own self may be. Therefore freedom and self government cannot exist in an exclusive enclave, it must apply to all or it withers away. Despotism therefore flourishes where freedom and self governance are applied to some but not to all. And that notion beautifully applies itself to the entire marriage equality question, what was unjustly reserved to the few is now freely available to all under the rule of law...the very essence of the Lincolnian Definition of Freedom. Well done. Well done....

Obamacare Uber Alles....

Survives yet another challenge before the Supreme Court and sails thru to victory 6 to 3....Scalia's dissent read like a Howie Carr column blustery & impotent. The real fun shifts to the GOP Presidential Field where at least half a dozen governors now must explain themselves...why access to a doctor is somehow a bad thing and terrible mortal blow to liberty. I predict a veritable cataract of incoherence....nice divisive wedge issue the GOP should have a few more driven into them...

Dzhokar is Sowwee....

...for the lives he took. Or so he said at his sentencing hearing today. Well shit I'm all broken up a this heartfelt expression of remorse. Just remember the twisted little bastard smirked as he put down the bomb in front of family with children....I'll just bet he is sorry...

Its certainly a nice gesture

for SC Governor Nikki Haley to call for the Confederate Battle Flag to hauled down from over the State Capitol, granted it's the legislature's decision and as of today, they tabled the motion...still it's a nice gesture. It's also classic American Distraction Politics in that while we slang back and forth about th' Banner of Th' Rebellion....and never once will anyone discuss the lax violence promoting firearms laws in South Carolina or the thick atmosphere of sheer gun worship that permeates the whole region. From That Debate, Nikki Haley will flee believe me, that woman has dreamy-dreams of being someone's VP Candidate in 2016 so this whole flag mishaugas is a perfect way to "Do Something" without really "Accomplishing Anything". But again...its a nice gesture but that is all that it is...

If case you haven't heard

Jeb Bush IS officially running for President. It is easy though how that might have slipped past y'all cuz his announcement down in Florida was immediately blown off the front page by Donald Trump's announcement and then Dylann Roof's murderous rampage in Charleston. So AS USUAL another member of La Famiglia Arbusto is off to a lousy start in the presidential sweepstakes. But at this point that is how they like it, remember that his brother's main meme from start to finish in campaign 2000 is that he was a teachable who needed his father's hirelings to successfully defecate...in the end all and sundry were sufficient to steal the US Presidency for Junior. So don't rule Jeb out by any means.

Charleston....

Its a truism by now that when some twitchy geek arms himself and opts for Mass Murder in defense of his sacred beliefs and or delusions he or she usually has a shark's instinct for finding a collection of victims who cannot shoot back in any manner shape or form. Such was the case with Messr. Roof who likely drove right past The Crips and the Bloods, sat for an hour in back of the AME while the Word of God was read to him, cased the joint for any potential armed opponents and then opened fire. The NRA insists and has imposed on us a truculent vision of "an armed society is a peaceful society" (one of the most radical social engineering experiments undertaken in my lifetime it makes gay liberation look like highway beautification by comparision), but that armed society is literally never every around whenever someone goes rogue with a firearm.... I am well past the point of believing we can do anything at all about gun violence in the USA our leaders are too cowardly and too arrogant in their rotten borough fastnesses for any useful legislation...and thats without even addressing the fact that the "gun population" of the USA may be too huge for effective regulatory action. So what is to be done? Nothing. Sorry. I have no solution, and yes that is a sign of a Republic in Decline, and no I am not ready to enroll myself in the ranks of the declinists. No...I say tax corporations for 15% of the GROSS (since they are people per the Supreme Court) use the $$$ to fix Social Security and provide benefits to victims and survivors of gun violence. Thats My Big Idea Anyway....

Ghod Donald Trump hasn't been in the race for twenty four hours

and already the hyperbole and outright narcissism is reaching toxic levels!! Allegedly The Donald paid professional film extras to cheer his announcement speech yesterday...a paltry $50 a head as well, well he didn't get to be rich by writing a bunch of checks did he? I think I am in agreeance with Howard Stern, Trump just wants to pretend to run for President, crash some debates shout some insolent provocative slogans, grab a few headlines then he'll devise some laughable gimmick to drop out of the race. Which is pretty much the pattern Howard Stern followed when he ran for Governor of New York as libertarian in 1994....as soon as it came time to disclose all the sources of his income...he bailed. Ohhh but if Trump ran as an independent....ohhhh that shitstorm would be epic!

Trump for President!!!

YES!!! Oh Lord the Gift for a Hungry Blogger's Prayer....I couldn't be happier if Frank Rizzo rose from the Dead and Ran on the Armed Vegetarian Ticket!!! I honestly thought He would back down he has done so three times before, I guess He started worrying about looking like a d-bag if he bailed a fourth time....GIngrich fell afoul of this a scant four years ago and Trump is twice as a arrogant and ten times as corrupt as Gingrich. The opposition reserach alone is worth a fortune..... I wonder....once Trump gets a load of how much even the GOP hates him would he ever run as an Independent??? T'is a consummation devoutly to be wished!!!!! He could run with Jesse "The Body" Ventura or maybe Rick Flair....or The Fabulous Moolah maybe.

Pagliuca at the Crossroads....

I sometimes think Steve Pagliuca was brought in less to "save" the 2024 Boston Olympics bid and more to provide a little comforting bipartisanship to this boondoggle's potential rejection. These are all rich people we are talking about and they didn't get that way in Massachusetts without weaponizing blame to a new and unprecedented degree. Pagliuca on the other hand is a good "Bain Democrat" which means IF our bid carries the day then he could use "a successful Olympics" as a springboard to public office....hey it worked for his old CEO Mitt Romney. Cynicism it seems is the only stream that never runs dry and flows in two directions at once 24-7. *** My only other take away from all this mishaugas is the sheer bliss resistance to public opinion exhibited by the 2024 Committee and it's fellow travelers...clearly a majority of voters are opposed to the project and just as clearly that is at best an afterthought grounds for snickers in the boardroom. Here again these are rich people jugglers of finance, proud vain insulated and they didn't get that way by heeding public opinion. And that is our quandary, you can vote out the governor you can't vote out the CEO of Liberty Mutual....

The Iowa GOP has canceled their

Infamous Summer Straw Poll...which is otherwise well regarded as a dandy fundraising tool and a quick means for spectrumy falangists to get some cheap heat in the headline. Allegedly it got sh*tcanned for lack of candidate interest which is odd given the overwhelming influx of twitchy lunatics into the republican presidential nomination race, you'd think a few of them would see the advantage...unless of course the pathologies therein have coalesced around the notion that they are ALL frontrunners who have to husband their lead most cautiously....and that is powerful delusion indeed for the cheap acts like Ben Carson and High Pitched Rick Santorum. Well if I had to handicap (and I dooooo) I'd say this was "Advantage Bush" since his campaign like a zombie thats been asked to solve a binomial equation for several weeks now, a setback in the otherwise meaningless Iowa Straw Poll is worth avoiding at this point. It likely a minor disadvantage for Walker/Rubio or whoever else is the Main Chance Conservative Flavah of the Month since it denies them a chance to show some ground game.

Chris Christie went up to Goffstown NH this week

rattling his saber demanding the USA "take a military approach" to the PRC's encroachments into the South China Sea. Oh thank Ghod I thought he was gonna advocate sending in the New Jersey DPW and really getting someone killed. I'm gonna gloss over the grim sad spectacle of Chris Christie ramping up the feckless international belligerence and instead suggest someone out there start keeping count of all the countries the GOP Presidential Field wants to invade confront or destroy as the primaries unfold. With upwards to twenty people and that incubus Donald Trump trolling around out there, it's gonna get to be a long sobering educational list by the time the first ballot is cast in Dixville Notch.

As Vice President Biden lays his oldest son to rest....

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Canada) took it upon himself to make a crass joke at the VP's sorrowing expense. Whereupon, Cruz promptly apologized in public. Well....I guess certain standards of gentlemanly behavior are still holding on by their fingernails over at Harvard Law. And anyway mark the moment, how many times does a republican apologize for anything? You can for example wait until perdition for Denny Hastert to say he is sorry. Well anyway Cruz did the decent thing for whatever reason I won't speculate. I will however note that for sheer crass rhetoric this is but the tip of the iceberg as far as the GOP presidential field is concerned, John Kasich (Governor of Ohio) piled in today, Rick Perry yesterday....the roster may top out at TWENTY yammering scolding barking mad candidates ere long all one upping each other to get a hold on the tea partei base. I predict a nasty off putting cacophony. And to Beau Bridges, peace to his ashes, succor for his loved ones and family.

Mike Huckabee has lamented

that he wished someone had told him about trangender status in High School so he could claim it and "look at girls" in the showers. Teenaged girls....under the age of consent that is what The Good Reverend Huckabee has on his mind....classy huh? Well boorishness pays in today's GOP sad to say, and yet I recall with the simplest nostalgia that Mike was allegedly the one wingnut in the USA who had mastered the "Indoor Voice". Clearly "The Indoor Voice" is an impediment to getting today's GOP Presidential nomination....confessing your filthiest most perverted thoughts....not so much.