TheNextReport

While we are busy holding the Obama administration accountable for its faults, the impending surrender of the Senate to the GOP/Tea Party spells disaster for the country. Lest we forget: these are the same people responsible for nearly tanking the world economy, waging unnecessary and costly wars, trampling the first amendment, blocking legislation that would keep guns out of the hands of deranged teenagers, deluded "patriots" and a host of other whackos; who would replace the certainties of science in the classroom and in public policy with the speculations of religious faith; who permit the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries while providing tax breaks to oil companies and private billionaires: who take healthcare, food stamps and unemployment benefits from the poor and the hungry, and toss Social Security to the wolves of Wall Street; who have no understanding of the workings of the environment and less of the subtleties of a woman's anatomy. Lest we forget...

(Written October 3, 2013) The brown shirts and the white sheets take over Washington! The key question: why would so-called mainstream Republicans be so eager to obey the commands of a small group of radicals? The last election made it clear that black, women, Latino and other minorities were not interested in what the GOP was selling. So what does the Tea Party arm of the GOP do to make its appeal more inclusive? It shuts down the government in protest of the President's healthcare initiative. Smart move for those who believe the public will swallow anything if it is repeated enough. The truth is GOP leaders have been seeing their party and its message becoming a political anachronism and are willing to swing wildly until they hits something. The suspicion that Speaker John Boehner finds his political leadership skills at the bottom of a scotch glass is becoming more apparent. The threat of engaging in violence, sometimes mistakenly referred to by this group as civil disobe...

Yes, I know. In reality it is all arbitrary, this New Years crap. It's a new year every moment, depending upon where you start from. This linear time thing just provokes more questions, for which there are no apparent answers, yet we still persist in asking them because... that is what we must do. My wife and son are in the next room singing songs in Basque, a language that has no apparent antecedent, from a people whose origins are unknown, a bloodline that apparently runs as an ancient tangent to the rest of what we call the human race. So we continue on in the world of what is apparent, with joy and trembling at the wonder of it all.

In another telling sidebar to the battle over health care, the state of Florida has has been working to prevent information about the new Öbamacare" law from getting to the public by attempting to restrict the use of health care counselors, or "Navigators," from providing assistance to Floridians who need help understanding the Affordable Care Act. Healthcare.gov, the website that helps administer the free Navigator program defines it as: "An individual or organization that's trained and able to help consumers, small businesses, and their employees as they look for health coverage options through the Marketplace, including completing eligibility and enrollment forms. Republican Governor Rick Scott, a former health insurance executive,is behind the move to bar the practice, claiming that the help offered by the Navigators will compromise the privacy rights of health care consumers. With polls showing that after several years of debates and explanations 70% of t...

As we approached the 2012 election and the presidential candidates engaged in the theatrics of the debates, we entered an arena where substance doesn't matter. What truth there was was expressed in either meaningless platitudes or the frighteningly heartless calculations of budget cuts. In the midst of all the chatter about tax rates, the budget and the deficit, the fog began to clear and the vague outlines of a calculated plan appeared. It was a plan enclosed by a threat: to allow the dormant aristocracy of the United States to return to power. The threat that unless we cede the presidency to Mitt Romney and effectively allow the GOP to protect the wealthy, we will head right over the fiscal cliff into a national financial abyss. That attempt failed. Yet, the political perspective that presumably represents the middle class and the nation's poor was quickly put on the chopping block, offered as a bargaining chip as an artificially manufactured budget crisis threatened to der...

Step right up ladies and gentlemen, step right up. Right here inside the big top, it's all here! A 20 percent tax cut and more take-home pay. Step right up to see the unbelievable! The massive deficit disappears by lowering taxes, closing nameless loopholes, while increasing the defense budget - and yes, you heard it right - you get more take-home pay! Come one come all, see 2 million jobs created out of thin air! Come on in folks for the thrills and chills as the bearded lady and other gender miracles step out of their binders and throw their support to the GOP and its square-jawed, smirky-faced standard bearer. That's right ladies and gents, come in and see Mitt-Boy, the fantastic deformed philanthropist who speaks out of two sides of his mouth at the same time. Watch him as he spouts empty moral platitudes, cutting taxes for the rich and and medical care for the poor. And that's not all, folks! Try a taste of Mitt's Magic elixir and watch as half of an entire nation...

Democracy replaced by plutocracy. A simple plan--Congressional leadership decides on a non-cooperation policy, blocking legislation, denying the Executive the opportunity to govern; by the time of the next election the President is branded as a failure, bereft of leadership skills, unable to work with Congress to overcome gridlock. Sick of the logjam in Washington, with the fiscal cliff getting closer and closer, with disaster looming, they plug in the solution: appoint an imitation conservative candidate for president, a neo-robber baron disguised as a moderate who says he knows how to work with the political opposition. He will claim he knows how to fix things, that he knows how to finally get the country moving again, how he will reach across the aisle, unlike his predecessor; he will claim he represents 100 percent of the people, but behind closed doors the truth will emerge: he really has only the interests of the gentry at heart. What could be better! A well-heeled charlatan p...