Can House Right-Wingers Be As Irrational As They Seem?

Why do Tea Partiers and other GOP right-wingers work so hard to alienate their less dense, less obtuse fellow citizens?

                Why do Tea Partiers and other GOP right-wingers fail to grasp that in a democracy the majority rules?

                And what makes Tea Partiers and their fellow travelers so stubborn, so dedicated to the perverse and counter-productive policy against raising taxes?

                They can be assured that the majority of U.S. citizens approve the plan the President has put forward for averting nasty problems raised by the so-called Fiscal Cliff.  It seems the citizenry backs him even though he has even modified his plan to suit republican preferences.

                Mr. Obama has tried to be fair. He has been upfront. He has been logical, consistent, and diplomatic. He knows that most of the nation does not want him to yield on the points he ran on in the election and that Americans don’t want the right-wingers to have their way.

                And yet the stubborn, selfish Johnny- one-notes in the GOP keep defying the President and the majority of Americans.

                Listen up right wingers.  America knows you are the bad guys.

                The President himself provided insight into why the rightists oppose him. He said:

                “I’m often reminded when I speak to the Republican leadership that the majority of their caucus membership comes from districts that I lost. And so sometimes they may not see an incentive in cooperating with me, in part because they’re more concerned about challenges from a tea party candidate, or challenges from the right, and cooperating with me may make them vulnerable. I recognize that.

                “But goodness….If there’s one thing we should have after this week [in which the slaughter of the innocent children in Connecticut took place] it should be a sense of perspective about what’s important…Right now what the country needs is for us to compromise, get a deficit reduction deal in place; make sure middle class taxes don’t go up….”

                Though Mr. Obama’s words have most fair-minded people nodding in agreement, the House no-compromise Republicans dismiss them.

                So on the first day of winter, a gray, wind-whipped day in our neighborhood, the House right-wingers have presented the nation with a bleak outlook. The President’s rational plan is still opposed by irrational Republicans.

 The President—we sincerely hope—will stand fast. Consequently the universal tax increase and drastic cuts in government programs will take effect at the turn of the New Year. Many of us will see thousands drained from their incomes.

The Republicans will have engineered exactly what they’ve been arguing against—a tax hike. They will have infuriated the nation and proved again there is such a thing as a tyranny of the minority. Obduracy and disregard for the common good will have prevailed.

It seems likely, though, that when the constituents of the hard-headed right-wingers feel the sting of new taxes they’ll howl.

But wait. You know no politicians would be dumb enough to outrage their constituents—do you think?

                                                                                                ---Gus Gribbin

 

               

Move over Grover the Pres is in the driver’s seat

                After years, Grover Norquist, the chubby-faced GOP kingmaker with the pseudo beard, is watching his formidable clout weaken. In the face of a determined President, his loyalists are beginning to ignore their oath of fealty, the Taxpayer Protection Pledge.

What’s more, one or Mr. Norquist’s staunchest soldiers, Senator Jim DeMint, a Tea Party icon, has deserted. The South Carolina Senator announced on December 6 that he is abandoning his Senate seat to assume the presidency of the conservative Heritage Foundation, an assisted living facility for feeble GOP ideas.

Also ,South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, Georgia Sen. Saxby Chamblis, Arizona Senator John McCain, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and New York Rep. Peter King and Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell have inched away from Mr. Norquist’s no-tax-hike demand.

Plus, Lesley Stahl noted on 60 Minutes (Dec. 9, 2012) that several newly elected GOP Representatives have refused to take the Norquist pledge.

                These developments cheer many U.S. citizens who have deplored the stubborn. Counter -productive and corrosive power of Norquist and his Tea Party cohorts.

                The catalyst for change among the GOPers is the so-called Fiscal Cliff, the law that blends universal tax raises and spending cuts in an attempt to reduce the federal budget. The law takes effect on January 1 unless substitute legislation can be passed.

President Obama has been wonderfully stubborn in demanding that, to avoid the toxic mixture of tax raises and spending cuts, he wants a law that raises taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year. He would leave the tax rate as it is for those earning below that amount. He also says he is prepared to make significant cuts in spending. Many polls have indicated that a large majority of Americans like the President’s idea.

                But as the world knows, Republican House members who cherish Norquist’s no- tax-raise philosophy as an article of faith refuse to go along with the President’s plan. This despite the widespread belief that the President’s plan is workable and fair.

                Most Americans want the Republicans to yield. And if they do, their yielding may tip off a decline of the Republican Right wing’s passionately wrong-headed and unpatriotic no-compromise approach to legislation.

David Brooks, the New York Times’ famed conservative columnist, noted early this month (Dec. 4; Op Ed page) that the GOP Right is “stuck in a miserable position.”

Mr. Brooks points out that the majority of Americans have said they will blame Republicans if there is no deal to avoid the Fiscal Cliff. The business community desperately wants the issue to be resolved and is tending to blame the Republicans for failure to compromise. Mr. Brooks predicts, “The national security types and defense contractors who hate the prospect of sequestration—the tax hike, spending cut law—will turn against them.”

Mr. Brooks adds that the Republicans will have to give in on the tax-hike for the wealthy. Otherwise Republicans will be taxing the middle class to “serve the rich—shafting Sam’s Club to benefit the country club.”

In a December 6 article, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.  pointed out that “…elections are 2x4s and many conservatives seem to realize the need to understand what just hit them.”

What hit them is the fact many citizens long for Norquist and his no-tax henchmen and Tea Party acolytes to shut up and go away. There’s now hope that might happen

                                                                                                ---Gus Gribbin

                    

 

An Odd Theft and an Odder Mystery

                The thieves stealthily trucked ladders, an electricity generator and circular power saw into the Sierra Nevada’s Volcanic Tableland and carved, battered, and stole precious images carved into the area’s rugged cliffs some 3,500 years ago.

The event occurred on Halloween.  The Los Angeles Times first reported the event on November 14, and television and eastern papers later carried spot accounts. 

The media told when, where, and how the heist took place. There may be little hope of finding who did the deed, and no one has yet asked why they might have done it.

 What was the motive for what archeologist Greg Haverstock of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management called, “the worst act of vandalism ever seen” on the Bureau’s 750,000-acre parkland?

 Pondering the answer is interesting.

                After all, the pillagers went to absurd lengths; this was hardly a Halloween prank.  Clearly this was vandalism. But the evidence indicates it was much more than that.

Videos of the site show the thieves made clean careful cuts in removing four petroglyphs that occupied a spot 15 feet above ground. The pillagers botched one of the images, fruitlessly slicing into three sides. They managed to extract a sixth carving then apparently broke it. They left it near the site’s visitors’ parking lot. A dozen other images were defaced perhaps out of frustration, spite, or just for fun.

The theft outraged BLM officials, and grieved Paiute-Shoshone tribe members who regard the images as sacred. They treat the rock-carving site as a sort of church and bring their young there to learn of and venerate the tribe’s past and its traditions. The pillaging was to them equivalent to defacing Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall or the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Bernadette Lovato, BLM Office Manager at the site, said informing tribal leaders of the theft “was the toughest telephone call I ever had to make.  Their culture and spiritual beliefs had been horribly violated.”

So why would the thieves go to such lengths? It’s estimated that the images might fetch between $500 and $1,000. That could be enough to temp down–and- out druggies or otherwise desperate people.  But would they market images?

The carved- out slabs of stone are bulky and hard to transport, They’re not likely to show well at the local art fair.  Importantly, reputable art dealers would probably know these images are stolen –bad news for the would-be seller.

Another possibility: the thieves were hired cop the images.

It’s well known that eccentric, greedy, and unscrupulous art connoisseurs will go to any lengths to obtain objects they covet.  Such art collectors are known to hoard art even though they can’t display or sell acquired works that are too famous or are being actively sought.  One example: In 1939 after the deaths of archeologist Howard Carter, precious bracelets and other objects stolen from King Tut’s tomb were found in his house. It was Carter who discovered the tomb.

Art crime is big time. It involves heists by mobsters, art dealers, small time hoods, and bungling amateurs. The FBI estimates that art-related crimes amount to some $6 billion a year. The agency has 14 special agents working to solve such crimes and operates the National Stolen Art File

It could take a while to find the culprits in the petroglyphs thefts.  It’s not even clear the thefts are being investigated. Neither the FBI nor the Bureau of Land Management has responded to requests for information about the status of the case,

Someday though, those images which were patiently, tediously, and lovingly carved with the most primitive tools might turn up. They could be tossed on the side of the road, or thrown  in a dump site, or  charmingly mounted in the home of deceased art lover .

It’s even possible that whoever arranged or did the theft will have a change of heart and leave the rock carvings at the spot where they were taken.

 I agree. That’s not likely.

                                                                                                                --Gus Gribbin