Starbucks hates Shutdowns

On Oct 10, Starbucks CEO requested its patrons to sign a petition asking Congress to open the Government, pay debt and all that good stuff.

IMHO, Starbucks should stick to selling overpriced coffee, drop this false equivalency and leave the political activism to the informed public. (Starbucks fanatics, don't get angry. I'm also a patron!)

One small... sorry Tall Cafe Vanilla Frappucino Lite please!

Reason I'm angry is, Howard Schultz wants us to petition to whole congress to do it's job. Only part of Republican House Members are refusing to do their jobs and holding country hostage every few months. It's not the whole Republican party either. I call bullshit on this false equivalency.

If you look at what starbucks is asking patrons to petition, that's exactly  President pleaded Tea Party and they refused. So instead of calling out Tea Party, Starbucks CEO was telling people that Congress isn't working, which isn't true. So why not just stay quiet and President and House settle this.
 

Problem with these me too campaigns is, people fail to notice that a faction of Republicans asked for this and caused this. What Tea party blames as the threat to American Way is the ObamaCare. The healthcare law passed by Congress, upheld by Supreme Court and based on which Obama got relected. And now Congress refuses to pass budget unless healtcare law is defunded. If you look back, Democrats got majority in house in 2006. Even though they hated Iraq war, they didn't force Bush to defund that war to keep the government running. For one one thing, ObamaCare is self-funded, Congress can't defund it. Once people realized that, TeaParty changed their demand to an 1 year delay.

Surprisingly President refused to negotiate, held his ground. As there's no leverage left, Tea party backed off and Republicans potty trained adults cleaned up the mess. Government will be open until jan 15th , debt ceiling extended until Feb 7th. Mark my words, we'll be here again, sooner than we think. You might ask why? That's cause 2010 and '12 elections bought so many Tea Party freshmen into house who wouldn't even listen to their Speaker. They'd voted for repeal of ObamaCare, 46 times. Needless to say, the mandate from their districts is to rescue the country from the jaws of socialism. In their hatred for President, they're weakening the country with these shutdown threats and debt ceiling fights. So much for patriotism. Not every republican is responsible for this, only the Tea party caucus refuses to be reasonable. Below is the voting pattern in the last CR vote which ended shutdown, you can see which house member is sane and otherwise.

Fl-22, a typical gerrymandered district.
Allen West won this in 2010, but lost in 2012.

You might be wondering, don't these wingnuts fear for re-election. No they don't fear general election, they fear primaries. If they don't vote based on these party lines, PACs and Tea Party groups like Senate Conservatives Fund and Club for Growth will draft a challenger and defeat the member in primaries. Their districts are safe cause of Gerrymandering. It's a process in which state governments carefully redraw electoral district lines to remove demographics which might vote for other party. This makes these districts very safe in General elections for the parties which're in power in States.

See how bad few districts are drawn. There's no way the other party can win in these districsts. Redistricting happens every 10 years based on census. Make no mistake, both the parties does this but in 2010 Republicans pushed the envelope too far. And it's helping them. You'll be surprised how extreme it became.

Healthcare bill opponents say that we've the world's finest health care system and it doesn't require any change. We all knew it's a lie, we've read and heard many stories about pricey healthcare is in our country. Ours is the only developed country without universal healthcare. And then, we all have a personal experience or two about how insurance companies try to nickel and dime us.

The U.S. stands almost entirely alone among developed nations that lack universal health care.

Tea Party people oppose the healthcare just cause of  ideology. On a second thought no, they just hate president. Health care bill is based on personal responsibility, preached by Republicans. As I mentioned many times here, Heritage foundation is the one who invented this Individual mandate. Romney adapted it successfully in Mass. Now the same Heritage foundation opposes it as the individual mandate infringes on our Liberties. Consider it a dog whistle.

Also not to be forgotten, the billionaires who're behind this Defund ObamaCare movement. Koch Brothers. They're the one who funded this. They grew up with Libertarian ideas, nothing wrong with it. But they're also trying shape the government as per their dreams by pumping millions of dollars into elections and primaries. Small government (read as Weak government) is good for their business as they routinely run into trouble with EPA and other regulatory agencies. Not just the Tea party, they fund think tanks, opinion journalists and universities to get legitimacy to their Small Government/Free Market ideas. So far it's working.

And if you think tempers raised, Tea party Congress men wanted to please voters in their districts, it's not true. It's a process deliberated and orchestrated by outside groups for months. While the people and corporations are suffering with shutdown, Ted Cruz raised used huge haul of cash by scaring people. There're two primary Public figures in this shutdown. Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is the self serving Canadian born, half Cuban half Caucasian Senator from Texas. He's the one who pushed the house members into this shutdown. Then there's former Senator of South Carolina, Jim DeMint. Senate didn't provide him the platform big enough to spread his Small government message, so he resigned and took the job of Heritage Foundation's President. Once a respected conservative think tank with few ideas, is now sending emails to support the United States Government to shutdown under his direction.

 

If you stop and think, it's not about deficits or saving country for next generation. If they care for Liberty and privacy, they'll be protesting NSA. If they want an accountable government they'll be fighting to stop Obama's drone program which had granted itself  legitimacy to kill American citizens without trial. This is the seething anger that a African-American president. Few days ago, a Tea party protestor showed up at the White House with Confederate flag. That indicates that South is in control of Tea party and this isn't about Health Care. They're still bitter about loosing Civil War and they still haven't gotten over it.

So what's the end game, I don't know.  We'll be back into this by end of this year. House will be with Republicans for atleast 7 more years. But cause of changing demographics Democrats will have more chances to retain majority seats in senate. If they don't screw up, may be White house also. But again Dems know a thing or two about pulling  Defeat out of the jaws of Victory. So get used to this.

There's a glimmer of hope, US chamber of Commerce is now disappointed with Tea Party congressmen whom they supported, funded and sent to Washington. It's repenting now and is planning to support less crazy candidates in the 2014. House might still be under Republicans control, but with people who're smarter than batshit crazy Tea party members who're in control now.

They say elections have consequences, these are the consequences. Call you voter friends in South Carolina and Texas and thank them for sending these traitors to Washington.

The Way We Were

Remember how we're when we're kids....until that age we didn't know what worry is and what it means. Everything is taken care of by parents and grandparents, we just grew up, get used to parents, home, surroundings and don't need to do anything else.

(I can only speak for myself and friends who grew up along with me in a middle class upbringing. Anybody born into poverty or a broken home, might've experienced hunger or abusive parent very early.)

As we grow up slowly we wouldn't be worried ...but we come to know what money is and that few posses it more than us and few less than us. That might be one of the important things which we discover ourselves in our lifetime. It wouldn't be an epiphany, but a slow process.

Then we would be worried about homework, exams and movies which we couldn't go even though all our friends are going. As we get into teens, it's all about impressing the opposite sex. Then for the chosen few (from Indian perspective) girlfriend or boyfriend issues. Then study abroad / job search..

Few just cruised through, few worked hard and few struggled, but I didn't experience phenomenon by name frustration. That helpless feeling that sinks in when there's so many things in this world which're unjust and we can't do anything about it.

For me I guess the first thing (apart from personal things) which got me all worked up and frustrated was Iraq war. I couldn't get my head around thought that we can go to war with less powered nation for made up reason with clever media management and a bumper sticker 'war against terrorism'.

It took me years but I made peace with it, then the financial crisis, my immigration hassles and related issues. Then right wing group, their thinly veiled racism and their aversion to science, gender equality, social safety net and rise of batshit crazy people like sarah palin, michele bachmann, allen west et al. I've grievances with liberals also.

This frustration might vary from person to person, I can see why these bother me so much. The amount of time I spend reading the news, columns, listening and sometimes writing. I've been interested in reading since I was kid, but when you're 9 year old your focus will be about how things work. My initial interests were stories, astronomy, then slowly progressed into how things work, politics, movies, technology. I was interested about politics in India also, but that never caused frustration. What was missing then...which exists right now? I guess until I came to US, I only read how things're and how things work. I might not've read why is system flawed and who is benefiting from it.

I was never frustrated about any singular thing as I'm about gun control now. Even Visa hassles which gave me so much pain, didn't make me this frustrated. I already read and heard so much about guns  and culture even before the rampage of all these shootings. So nothing is really surprising to me. But after Sandy Hook there's scrutiny of NRA's process, which was missing before. The travesty in the name of second amendment protection is sickening.

How much NRA bullied politicians, influenced Gun regulation or lack thereof is mind boggling.

Tiahrt Amendment

Ban on CDC research on Gun Violence

Restrictions on ATF

No centralized database of guns

When you walk through an airport security, a shampoo bottle bigger than 3oz or grandma's medicine is a security risk. In the same country, in almost all the cities you can walk with concealed weapon or automatic weapon with minimal restrictions. It's like we live in two parallel worlds. Any form of gun control is considered as infringement of second amendment.

After Sandy Hook, I'd a breakdown on social networks, donated money to Gun Control advocacy groups, will donate again,  But I can't go to rallies cause of work. In the past, no matter what we did, NRA got the upper hand. Because they've a product to sell...and we oppose the product. They've a monetary cause, ours is safety/survival cause. That could be the reason they're winning. Same with Arizona and other states immigration laws. Private prison lobbied for AZ law as this law will keep the inmates coming to these prisons. As a bonus conservatives can rally the extreme right voters.

That feeling of loss isn't boding well with me and I really look back at days of those blissful innocence. The more we know, the more cynical we become. Information or facts are only useful when you can use them for our advancement or society upliftment. Information might be power, but ignorance is a bliss.

Is there any reason to be optimistic? So much money poured into last election to defeat Obama. Koch brothers had spent almost 400 Million USD, Adelson spent another 100 Million and all those SuperPACs. But Obama prevailed. I'm not saying he's messiah or anything...he's just another politician. But money can't buy all the elections, that's one of the takeaways from last general election.

I hope common sense will prevail over money in Gun Control fight also. The stake are high, it's our next generation lives.

Rick Santelli, new Swift boat Veteran

This tool Rick Santelli, is exposed by playboy.
Here's the article from Big Picture blog.

Actual playboy article (SFW)

I used to watch this guy on '06. I always thought there's something phony about this guy.

Here's video of Matt lauer grilling this tool, about White house threatening his family.

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