Matt Davies for October 25, 2017

Showing the Republicans don’t understand seasonal weather (or climate change). Keep playing to your base, like the grasshopper sitting in the hammock. Winter is coming, and soon Trump is going to find out how hard DC can be when he no longer has his party in control of things.

Late today, the Senate voted 51 to 50 to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses in financial contracts.

Flake voted to repeal the rule. So did Corker, Murkowski, and McCain. You know, all them Republicans who have discovered conscience.

Why do we need consumer protection? What’s wrong with personal responsibility?

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; his bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.It’s noon time; Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.

Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad’s; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark) He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.He turns on a radio talk show, the hosts keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of himself, just as I have.

Another lying RINO gone. Now, back to protecting Hillary from the Mueller investigation of a crime yet to be named…

Ouch. Sharp image.

As a matter of note, EVERY snowstorm and blizzard STARTS with a single snowflake – it is MUCH too early to make anything except a wild-eyed prediction. And please also note, state republican legislatures are continuing to work for ever more broad-based disenfranchisement of minorities and the young under the ridiculous ‘cover’ of voter fraud.

Its going to be a harsh winter. Thanks Republicans!

@NEOCONMAN I love your story. I’ve tried to explain to conservative friends of mine how liberalism works to protect conservative ways of life. They just don’t get it! I live in a lumber mill / old mining town. Most of the people in this town care more about trees, clean water, clean air, minimum pollution on all levels, than any town I’ve ever lived in except in the desert. You can’t tell them that they are really liberals. They firmly believe that they are conservatives who are protecting their way of life from liberals who would let corporations come in and strip the land. I don’t know where they get these ideas!

@BO: W.T.F.

Guys, How about a little reality check on the roles of political parties and corporations without any underlying appreciation of the benefits of a globalized world to all of us?

Explain to me politically just how someone who is unaffiliated with any group is going to represent you, much less get elected. Are you really expecting that individuals on their own can make a case for election to enough people to make a difference? You really are going to convince the country that your guy is the best? Without any organization?

Explain to me just how in a globalized world you can dispense with those who know how money and financial systems work? Explain to me how you are going to get the benefits of globalization that is distributed to labor equitably without multinational corporations? Instead of ranting about corporations, how about considering how use government to to regulate them?

When hard-earned expertise in a field gets no respect but only derision for being an “elite”, you are surely heading to a situation in which the uninformed make decisions that will be disastrous for a large number of us. We are, in fact, seeing this economically right now in the Trump appointments. The same argument can be made for those who have spent their lives working in the political arena. Some are scum, of course, but find me a field in which there aren’t some who are scum, but many, even most, are accentuated by a desire to make a difference. Some are better at it than others, but don’t be so fast to attribute malice until you have firm evidence of it.

For more discussions on this topic, check out www.project-syndicate.org.

Thank you Martens and neoconman. These comments have been brilliant. Both sets of comments are thoughtful, well reasoned, and insightful. I appreciate the time and energy it took to compose and post them.

^ Oh, I didn’t write it. I copied it from some dumb liberal university philosophy professor. Don’t even know what it means.