Myth of “American Exceptionalism” – The Ultimate, Pernicious Howler by Robert Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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rbecker@cal.net
December 3, 2010

God’s mysterious sense of humor strikes again, afflicting the lunatic fringe with this especially ludicrous zinger: the delusion of infallibility.  Beyond the ‘50’s jingoism of “America, right or wrong,” the right now stays this course, “America, never wrong.”  We must be special, the chosen elect, morally superior to every other country.  Why else would an omnipotent God put us in charge?   End of discussion.

Frankly, the Roman Empire was more culturally tolerant.

Obama Needs an Enemy – Or Else, ‘What’s Up, Lame-duck?’ By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
November 27, 2010

How quickly the meteoric prince has fallen to earth, with a thud.  The splashy campaigner has morphed into a cross between Neville Chamberlain, England’s Nazi appeaser, and George Armstrong Custer, rushing to get ambushed at the Little Big Horn.  Few recall Chamberlain, whose compromises to belligerent Hitler spurred, rather than deflected war – not that I am offering any absurd Nazi parallels.   And yet, appeasing bullies from the get-go is curious strategy for a newcomer once rich with political capital.

W.’s Double Whammy: Book Blitz Ambushes GOP Revival & Democrats Letting Evil-doers at Large By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
November 16, 2010

Guess what conspicuous, repulsive fly just landed on the surging GOP ointment minutes after claiming a midterm mandate? No, not weak-kneed B. Obama, vamoosing for Asia. Not Sarah Palin, though rancor and disruption are middle names. Not Tea Party growling from the likes of Rand Paul, nor which conservative wins the Alaska Senate seat.

Further, let’s dismiss the Smirking Chump’s memoir carries any historical weight — highly defensive, banal distortions add nothing new or substantial to W.’s sequestered presidency. The real news is what he never admitted, like why really he invaded Iraq, but that’s another topic. Sadly, his fantasy for children Bush didn’t quite write discloses not one juicy scandal. And then, shock and awe, reports Friday show extensive passages were stolen, word for word, from other books. As W.’s entire reign reeked of obeying other peoples’ ideas, so much for staying the course.

Confessions of a Reluctant Republican Shill, Fifth Columnist by Misdirection By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
November 1, 2010

My name is Robert, and I am some sort of Republican Shill. It’s uncanny and unsettling: nigh over 20 years, for every gorgeous phrase I lovingly fashion to advance the left, the right grows stronger and nastier, its candidates better funded and more unhinged. Screw good intentions when the fringe detonates and faltering Democrats seem more bereft than ever.

I despair Democratic leadership will get what it’s up against, let alone John H. Moore’s wisecrack, “The real test in golf and in life is not in keeping out of the rough, but in getting out after we are in.” Stuck in its own tracks, the Obama flash increasingly looks like a two-year marvel, a cosmetic layering over a permanent, impregnable reactionary power core.

Angry Leftists ‘Man Up’ Against Scapegoating – Defying “When in doubt, bash progressives” by Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
October 25, 2010

Berkeley, CA: “Is this open season on leftists for having opinions, especially when correct?” fires off a new progressive group: “We’re this season’s real piñata, smeared by Tea Party red-baiting, ridiculed by the president for thinking world peace should start or the Pentagon end, and lately chided as Republican shills by fellow liberals online.  That makes us the magnet this year for cheap shots, ‘When in doubt, concoct, then bash progressives.’”

Calling herself a “mama polar bear,” because “it’s bigger than a grizzly” Angelica Sharpee heads the newly-formed Progressive Alliance to Restore America By Holding Obama’s Feet to the Fire. Her press statement disputes the White House party line that progressives are somehow responsible for the enthusiasm gap, the presidential gap, the Democratic Party gap, and the mid-term election bloodbath gap that hasn’t even occurred.

Why the Left Gets No Respect By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
October 12, 2010

Is it a mystery why a six-pack of rightwingnuts, loonier and less qualified than the Wasilla quitter, are vying for Senate seats while the most principled Democrat, Russ Feingold, faces ruin?  Hot-dogging prayer warriors sell better in off years than a modern philosopher king – all of two years after Democrats supposedly routed wrong-way Bush and demon Cheney.

What an irony if the GOP Demolition Party thrives from the very horrendous recession its own self-serving, tax-giveaway, budget-busting wars fomented.  Not only is this season’s nasty spawn of Palinistas riding roughshod, I see few progressive antidotes – not one, new, significant, emerging leftwing candidate who champions reason over politics as goon show.

The Audacity of Blame: The Politics of Put-down By Robert Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
October 6, 2010

Well, exxccuusse us doubters. Mr. President, for assessing real-world results of your major decisions (or non-decisions). Is the left responsible for the jobless recovery, too?  Afghan quagmire?  Oil spill fiasco?   It’s bad enough to distort our scrutiny into “inexcusable” liberal “lethargy,” even worse to blame liberals for alone squandering Democratic majorities.

Is this how cornered politicians win friends and influence people, fulfilling the new, if vacuous Obama motto, “Changing the Guard, Guarding the Change”?  What WH adviser pitched condemning friends with language fit only for the enemy camp of Angle, Palin, O’Donnell, Miller, Paul, and Gingrich?

Feral Fringe Unravels Obama’s Ruinous Outreach By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
October 1, 2010

Even more inept than Obama’s economic wizards, no easy task, is this White House’s crew of public relations losers. They’ve only lost nearly every messaging battle against the relentless, outrageous Rightwing Noise Machine. Whether scorning the fight against the wrong enemies, “Obama’s” TARP, failed Stimulus, insufficiently noxious anti-terrorism, subversive Obamacare, or defending unspeakable Bush tax rip-offs, deranged extremists have buried the president’s bully pulpit in nonsense. Amazingly, the fringe wins by banging the same idiot drums and telegraphing the same bareknuckle lies.

As the reactionary GOP House leader, John Boehner, admitted when talking up his Pledge, reflexively regurgitating Newt Gingrich’s 16 years ago, “we are not going to be any different than we’ve been.”

The Terrorism of Temper Tantrums: Where’s the Tough Love? By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
September 15, 2010

Image by oddsock via Flickr

Ever been shopping, or getting a bite to eat, and suddenly shrieking kids invade your space?  Perhaps good parents interceded, dragging ear-splitters from center stage; perhaps they’re really Tea Partiers in training.  While most families moderate small-time irrationality, in North Carolina a frustrated restaurateur had to post: “Screaming children will not be tolerated.”

Too bad no national stop sign exists to restrain spitfire tantrum throwers called “kamikaze Republicans,” willing to destroy America to save it. Or rogue Florida pastors who need to read many more holy books, not burn any.  Or bigoted, one-note media opportunists chastising diverse New Yorkers about religious tolerance.

The No-Drama, No Storyline Obama Tragedy by Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
– September 6, 2010
September 9, 2010

If tragedy occurs when anointed heroes who know better betray their own promise, Barack Obama’s no-drama, no narrative express is about to derail.  Expect no solace from truth-telling jesters populating classical tragedies, au contraire judging by so many lying rogues nowadays, nor anything like comic relief.  Top Democrats will be relieved if they only lose the House.

How swiftly the thrill of victory turns to the agony of defeat.  And we leftists are the “crazies” needing intervention or drug therapy?  If this White House cannot find a gripping narrative to justify its power, then – rest assured – wingnuts in the wings will reprise their perfectly coherent storyline. Brace for new and improved wedge-driven crusades against sham enemies, domestic and foreign.

“Conspiracies R Us” – Wedges Divide the Nation, Unify Factions By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
September 3, 2010

Before we unprofessional leftists get too high on our horse, blithely scoffing at Beck or Palin’s staged chicanery, let us acknowledge our own home-grown “conspiracy theories.” Agreed, ours are more realistic, indeed evidence-based, but they’re still self-serving, wide-ranging projections, often presuming more than they prove. Was Iraq only about oil? Is Obama merely the pawn of Wall Street, the Pentagon, or big business? Have safety-first, corporatist advisers rotted his once politically agile brain? Okay, some conspiracies have the ring of truth.

Whatever, I distinguish a good, rousing conspiracy theory from its dark, hissing cousin, the Big Lie, the readily disprovable trickery fueling misdirection, war games or fear-mongering. What a growing list: death panelists, WMDs, Saddam’s 9/11 linkage, phantom al Qaeda behind Afghan surges, or a Kenyan-born, Muslim, racist president who hates America.

Going Republican By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
August 19, 2010

The tirade from Press Secretary Gibbs, nicknamed “Bozo the spokesman” by Rep. Grayson, is a boon to all those who favor reality over wishful thinking, or delusion. This White House invective settles it: the president isn’t a liberal, barely campaigned as one, and picked only a smattering of senior liberal advisers. Nor do they have a clue why liberals and centrists are fleeing in droves, preferring to blame the victim, not hear our horror stories.

American soldiers are dying in stupid, endless wars bankrupting our country. Washington feeds big corporations and starves, or puts on diet, 80% of the country, with perhaps 50 million people unemployed, underemployed or hopeless. Leftwing anger is far less about the betrayal of progressive dreams, even watered-down centrist legislation, or uninspiring Supreme Court nominations. What infuriates this leftist is what Obama hasn’t done, attend to Task One: Reverse Bush Crimes. Restore Constitutional protections, investigate and thus heal across-the-boards rights violations, deal seriously with energy, oil spills, and genuine threats to national security, like climate change.

Triangulation or Strangulation? Does Obama + Clintonistas = Bush III? by Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
July 19, 2010

Gadfly Dana Milbank nailed President Obama’s trademark, if not legacy: “This week alone, President Obama has taken several steps to implement Bill Clinton’s third term.” The real scoop isn’t just garden-variety WH misdirection from a reformer in name only, but what code-breakers term “substitution:” obscuring intention or format with duplicitous decoys.

Is this what Obama comes down to, warmed over Clintonism? Wait a minute. Haven’t progressives for months been groaning Obama’s victory over McBush-McWorse hardly dispelled our worst nightmare – Bush III? On key carryovers – multiple wars, bloated defense spending, anti-terrorist excesses, Iranian saber-rattling, hugs for Israel, stimulus spending and bank handouts, Obama extends the spirit, if not the letter of botched Bush-Cheney posturing (or goes beyond, with citizen assassinations without trials).

New Pledge of Allegiance: Rendezvous with Colonial “Join or Die” By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
July 13, 2010

picture is in the public domain in the U S

“We shall all hang together,” quipped the savviest of our founders, Benjamin Franklin, “or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”  Unlike us, Franklin found unity against a single, outside, mortal danger to Founders – British retaliation. We aren’t so fortunate, as a myriad of ill-defined threats loom.  That merits a new, updated Pledge of Allegiance that redefines a national commitment for a 21st Century super-power.

The Audacity of Ruin: Risk-Adverse President Enables High-Risk, Rogue Driller By Robert S. Becker

by Robert S. Becker
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Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
July 7, 2010

Iraq and Afghanistan are not yet wholly “Obama’s wars,” but the White House’s piece-meal, deferential retreat from out-of-control Gulf deluge has become his and his alone.  The Big Spill dramatizes, furthermore, how a once savvy politician squanders his first, best opportunity to redeem a steadily faltering presidency.

If heroes emerge by resolving daunting dilemmas, especially man-made, this paragon of caution remains pedestrian and reactive, as he plays it safe by risking the safety of the Gulf.  Yet when a risk-adverse president relegates the safety, and survival, of our most valuable coastal region to the reckless polluter who imperils it, he ironically becomes a high-stake gambler by default.  Failure to act under challenge qualifies as enabling an addict, and BP certainly qualifies, repeatedly enjoining all the world in its high-risk, costly oil misadventures.