Still true ...

Closer to the Fall-of-Rome comparison that we'd like to think ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Exactly ...

Please Mr. President, don't spew any more nonsense about principles and the rule of law, OK? You are enabling torture, and have fallen so far down the chasm from your campaign rhetoric, that you'll soon be bumping into your predecessor as you hit bottom.

When no one will listen, you try to make them hear you any way you can ...

Glenn Greenwald's writing is among the best of those who actually understand how the Democrats managed to shoot themselves in the foot (or was it the head).

from Lawrence O'Donnell vehemently denies his own word

People are suffering economically and Democrats have done little about that. Beyond that, they failed to inspire their own voters to go to the polls. Therefore, they lost. By basing their power in Congress on Blue Dog dependence -- rather than advocating for the views of their own supporters and implementing those policies -- they failed, and failed resoundingly. Building their party around a large number of muddled, GOP-replicating corporatists not only creates a tepid and failed political image, but far worse, it prevents actual policies from being implemented that benefit large number of ordinary Americans. Democrats repeatedly refrained from advocating for such policies in deference to their Blue Dogs, failed to do much to alleviate the economic suffering of ordinary Americans, and thus got crushed. Anyone who thinks that Democrats lost because they were "too liberal" -- rather than because Americans are suffering so much economically -- is wildly out of touch, i.e., is a multi-millionaire cable TV personality who has spent decades wallowing in trite D.C. chatter.

The Republicans have long lived by what they call "The Buckley Rule": always support the furthest Right candidate who can plausibly win. This year, knowing that it would be a wave election, one that would sweep in huge numbers of Republicans in districts where they ordinarily couldn't get elected, they changed that to: support the furthest Right candidate, period. That's because they believe conservatism will work and want to advocate for it. Democrats don't do that. The DCCC constantly works to prop up the most "centrist" or conservative candidates -- i.e., corporatists -- on the ground that it's always better, more politically astute, to move to the Right. Even in the pro-Democratic wave years of 2006 and 2008, the Democratic Party blocked actual progressives and ensured that Blue Dogs were nominated, even though the anti-GOP sentiment was so strong that any Democrat, including progressives, could have won even in red districts (as Alan Grayson proved).

With that strategy, the Democratic Party now reaps what it has sown. Its message and identity are profoundly muddled, incoherent, unclear, uninspiring, and self-negating. Worse, its policies are mishmashes of inept half-measures that, with a handful of exceptions, produce little good for anyone (other than Wall Street, the Pentagon and other corporate interests). They are perceived as -- and are -- beholden to Wall Street, special interests, and the corporations they vowed to confront. They are without any ability to confront the massive unemployment crisis and financial decline the country faces. And as a result of all of that, they lay in shambles. Anyone who can survey all of that and cheer for the strategy which Democrats have been pursuing -- let's build our majorities by relying on GOP-replicating corporatist Blue Dogs -- or who thinks that this election loss happened because "Democrats are too liberal," resides in a world that has very little to do with reality. And that's true no matter how many times they repeat the simplistic snippets of exit polls to which they've obsessively attached themselves.

Medicare Part D ... not that the T-bags will leave even this much for us in the future!

Decided I needed a new prescription plan. AARP's plan not only has continued to increase in price by leaps and bounds but they play games with liquid medications (such as eye drops) so that one pays for a full months prescription for what only lasts 25 days. Little things like that make them so endearing. I'm sure the T-bags just luv them. It's so free market.

... after all we're here for the rich to get richer off our labor ... no one even pretends anymore that society is a construct for mutual support, mutual survival and well being ...

Back to Medicare Part D and looking for a new Prescription Drug Plan. I visited the medicare.gov web site. Cumbersome but full of information.

Picked two plans to ask for information to be sent to me in the mail. First one was Humana Walmart-Preferred Rx Plan. Called a few days ago and asked for info over the phone but didn't give them my name. Today I called and asked them to send me information and they took name and address and said they would sent me info.

Humana was so straight forward (contact wise, not necessarily Drug Plan-wise) that I was lured into complacency.

Second call brought me up short. I called Advantage Star Plan by RxAmerica (1-800-429-6686). A 'sweet & kindly' male voice answers the phone and tells me I've made the right choice to call. I ignore being treated like a demented rabbit and ask that they send me information about their plan. He continues to speak softly to me and assures me that they would gladly send me the information and that he will just ask me a few questions. I say that I don't want any questions, just the information mailed to me. More soft talk about asking a few questions first. I say all you need is my name and address to send me information about your plan in the mail, isn't that right? He's says (sadly, I swear) "No, ma'm." I say I'm not interested in dealing with you people in that case. I assume he cried when I hung up.