More Mike Jones (II)

We've seen this before. Once again, we are going to get a tired letter from Mike Jones saying the exact same sorts of factually-challenged things he always says:

If the past is prologue, we can forecast what will happen in Washington over the next two years. President Obama will veto any legislation that would help the economy, such as lowering taxes, canceling unreasonable regulations on businesses, eliminating waste and inefficiencies in government, decreasing the federal deficit, decreasing the federal debt...

See what I mean about being utterly and completely divorced from reality? Like, taxes are already at historic lows and there is little evidence to suggest that lowering them further would "help the economy." And what "unreasonable regulations on businesses" is he talking about? Maybe it's that baseless "160,000 pages" (scroll down) he whined about? And while we can all talk about "waste and inefficiencies" and no doubt a government the size of ours-- the US has well over 300 million people, and is one of the largest in area in the world-- is going to have inefficiencies and redundancies. But are we really going to imagine that some Republicans are going to offer all this "let's eliminate waste" bills that makes sense?

Yes, Oklahoma's own Tom Coburn annually writes up a list of what he considers waste. And of course, they're phrased to sound as absolutely ridiculous as possible, even when they aren't always as bad as they sound. A great example-- the list mocks the government for spending $10,000 to pay people to "watch grass grow"-- ha-ha, right? Look at the government waste money! Except, well, it's not really so simple. When you're sort of an idiot and can't see the big picture, then it is easy to see why spending on anything that sounds odd to you personally must, by definition be a waste. Remember when anti-science Republican governor Bobby Jindal was made to look sort of like an idiot when he mocked government spending on volcano research?

All of this is to say that just because some bitter, jaded, ideologically-driven politicians call something "waste" doesn't mean it is. There is probably less real waste that you think, and it probably comes in places you don't expect.

A great example comes from Mike Jones' next complaint:

... eliminating waste from welfare programs and eliminating Obamacare.

 Obviously, Jones has fallen victim to right wing media lies and he's convinced that government welfare programs are rife with waste. Unfortunately-- but not surprisingly-- for him, they're actually very efficient. Also, since somehow Mike Jones must have missed this news, the Affordable Care Act has been a huge success.

So far, Mike Jones has been wrong on everything he's listed. Can he keep the streak going? Yup:

He will veto bills that would stop using taxpayers’ money to subsidize “green” businesses that can’t make it on their own.

 Is this even a valid complaint? Like, is this something that's destroying America? Because it's hard to argue that when you are confronted with reality.

So Mike Jones is spectacularly wrong. Is this a surprise? Can he be more wrong? Of course!

The quickest and longest-lasting way to improve an economy is the extraction and refining of minerals, so he will continue using every excuse he can think of to suppress the petroleum and coal-mining industries.

Wait. "The quickest and longest-lasting way"? Like, based on what? How is this clown allowed to make blanket assertions based on absolutely nothing?!? It's insane. What sort of real newspaper would run a letter saying this? Oh-- right. One that loves to shill for OG&E.

And fuck. Didn't fucking T. Boone Pickens just tell people to stop drilling for oil?? Jesus Christ.

A weak military invites aggression, but Obama will continue shrinking the military and replacing strong officers with weak officers.

Now we are treading into the real of absurdity. The US spends more on its military than the next ten nations combined. We've been free of attack from any other nation state since World War 2, and given this country's ridiculous military advantage over the rest of the world, it is hard to imagine someone attacking this country because we don't have enough super carrier groups. Despite this reality, though, people like Mike Jones will continue to parrot the line that Obama (or any Democrat) has a strong desire to "weaken" the military. (And amazingly, these right-wing nut jobs who whine and moan about government spending suddenly stop complaining when it comes to buying more F-35's.)

Citizens who can’t defend themselves are easy pickings for dictators, so he will continue arming the government agencies while working to disarm the citizens.

Tinfoil hat alert!!! (Also, please cite an example of where gun-owning rights have been curtailed under the Obama administration. Can you? No? OK.)

A well-educated citizenry is difficult to control, so he will continue supporting amnesty and supporting national teaching standards instead of local standards.

Wait. So are immigrants stupid? Are they somehow getting in the way of educating American children? I don't understand.

A well-informed population is difficult to suppress, so he will continue belittling and intimidating people and organizations that reveal the truth.

What does this even mean? Mike Jones seriously lives in a fantasy world of delusion and paranoia! Why would any real newspaper continually run these guy's letters?!? It's insane.

Divorced from reality

Sometimes you read some letters in the Oklahoman and you have to marvel at how well the right-wing noise machine has convinced people that certain things are true even when they are directly opposite of reality. Take today's letter from Stan Williamson of Edmond (please). He writes:

Oklahoma elected officials are pleading ignorance with regard to the excess salaries being paid to school superintendents, along with the ridiculous pay raises recently granted to the heads of various state agencies. Perhaps they should take up acting lessons. Appearing angry, while demanding accountability, has worked rather well for Barack Obama. Even though transparency and accountability was the centerpiece of Obama’s administration and every other political candidate in recent years, that conviction only seems to evaporate with time.

So let's begin with that fact that this letter is horribly written. What's his thesis? It sounds like he's going to vent about excessive pay among state workers but then he shifts to some sort of anti-Obama rant. It is amazing to see letter after letter from right-wingers in the Oklahoman who really have no idea how to form an argument and continually fall back on this I-hate-Obama crutch.

Anyhow, so after this stream-of-consciousness rant, Mr Williamson continues:

If the state and federal governments continue to grow at the current pace while ignoring short- and long-term debt, a stagnant economy and record unemployment, there’s a real possibility the system could fail. Placing such a burden on the private sector and future generations, with the fear and uncertainty of Obamacare ... could easily guarantee such an outcome.

See? Like, what the hell is this rant even about? Remember: this started with a discussion about how Oklahoma politicians seem less concerned about certain government employee salaries. And now we get into a huge rant about growing governments and ignoring debt and the economy and unemployment!

Hey-- wait. Government spending continuing to grow? That's not right. I mean, look at this chart:

Do you see how the blue line goes down after the recession? Like, if you were thinking, Man, I want a president who is going to rein in government spending, then the two periods you'd point to as being what you like would be the ones where Clinton and Obama were in office, and the periods you'd point to as being bad were the ones where Reagan and George W. Bush were in office.

Seriously: how divorced from reality could a person be?? This is what happens when you opt to get your news from shitty sources like Fox News and the Oklahoman. And then, seriously: look at these unemployment numbers:

It's hard to talk about Obama not doing anything about "record unemployment" when unemployment numbers are nearing pre-economic crisis levels-- a far cry from the numbers that we saw during the actual economic crisis. To be sure, they are still not ideal and more work needs to be done. But to actually complain that this administration isn't concerned with unemployment is to ignore reality. Well, that, or just spend your time skimming the Oklahoman and listening to Rush on AM radio in the afternoon.

And what's the "fear and uncertainty" about the Affordable Care Act? As Forbes notes, it's not killing jobs-- in fact, the opposite is happening. And things like choice and competition and a slowing of healthcare costs-- all things that the right-wing nut jobs swore wouldn't happen-- are actually happening. By the way, I love that this Forbes headline reads "And You Won't Believe What's Going To Happen" since anyone who hasn't been deluded by right-wing spin already knew this. At least a right-wing news outlet like Forbes can be honest when confronted with reality, though.

In any case, Mr Williamson's letter-- which started out with "Oklahoma politicians should pay more attention to school superintendent salaries" and ended with "Obama's economic policies and healthcare law will destroy America!" is utterly fatuous and no real newspaper would run such an incoherent mess. The fact that this paper bothered to run it tells you what sort of "paper" the Oklahoman is.

Warped history

One has to wonder just how in touch with the world and its history some of the regulat right wing Oklahoman letter-writers are. I mean, we've read letters from plenty of out-of-touch nut jobs, but here we go again with another letter from part-time columnist Tom McNeill of Healdton. He begins:

Our open border policy stinks. What it amounts to is not having a policy. Why are so many people from Central America risking everything to get into the U.S? If you look at tourist websites for those countries, they look like paradise. So, what's the problem?

First off: "open border policy"? When one starts off asserting that the US has an "open border policy" when, in fact, it has nothing of the sort, you know you're going to be in for a letter that doesn't jibe at all with reality. (I feel sort of gross linking to a Heritage Foundation article, but it does demonstrate that there is no "open border policy" in the US.) Next, holy crap. Did he really just openly wonder why someone might want to come to the United States from Central America because tourist websites show pretty pictures?? Like, is he that stupid? Seriously?? So, because the Belize tourism board shows a photo of some Americans lazily floating down a river in a scenic setting, the entire county must have loads of economic prosperity, opportunity for education, safety, and security?? Jesus. What a fucking idiot.


Still, even after this disastrous opening paragraph that no real newspaper would run, the Oklahoman has him continue on:

People are risking life and limb to escape conditions caused by the autocratic, socialistic governments that those very people have elected and tolerated for decades.

Oh! So maybe that last line about lush pictures was sarcastic? Like, it was some sort of rhetorical tool to get to the point? Again: the right-wing nut jobs who continually write into this paper to lecture Oklahomans about politics and history to prove whatever right-wing nut job point they're trying to make suck at writing.


But to the point-- does this guy really imagine that the citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador have spent "decades" just voting in autocrats and "socialistic governments"?? Jesus. Let's just look at the history of Guatemala. There's no need to go point by point, but when you read up on its history you see lots of "coup d'état" and "assassinated" and "CIA" and "military junta" thrown in there. You also see lots of "fraud" and "human rights abuse" there too. Given this, it's hard to imagine that Guatemalans were all just happy and loving their (United States-backed) governments that engaged in massive "scorched earth" warfare to suppress dissent. So when he writes this:

The citizens of those countries are, themselves, responsible for electing and tolerating the dictatorial leaders who’ve made the countries into the hellholes that they are.

You know that he's just a clueless asshole. But it gets worse:

Our Founding Fathers risked their lives and their fortunes to attain the liberty and prosperity that we now enjoy.

Hahahahaha! OK. So let's compare things in 1776 to things in 1976, shall we? Of course, we should all know this so it's not worth going into too much detail, but in 1776, there were some wealthy British colonists in North America who didn't like the British way of doing things-- taxing and some minor abuses of power-- so they wrote to the British government to say they were splitting off and forming their own country. With the technology of the day, it took the Brits months to travel with their armies, and their armies wielded largely inefficient weapons. After several years of fighting, each side face approximately 20,000 in casualties-- most due to disease.


And 1976? Well, in Guatemala you had an elected government that seemed to be improving the quality of life of millions of people only to be overthrown by a CIA-led coup because of threats to US business interests and overblown fears of "socialism" in the region. After that, you had decades of different coups and other attempted overthrows. To keep power, these different rules engaged in massive human rights violations resulting in the death of over 200,000 people, and the displacement of another million. This was easy to do, of course, since governments have access to incredible weapons, tanks, and airpower-- often supplied by the world's largest military power, ever.


In light of this, does it really make sense to compare the "Founding Fathers" to those fighting for their freedoms in Guatemala? Really? But I guess it's real, because he then writes this:

Where are the reformers of Central America? Why don't the citizens there put themselves on the line to reform their terrible governments?

Yes, dude: hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans were kills by the government to suppress resistance to said (US-backed) "terrible governments" so please please please fuck off.

My greatest fear is that, by allowing anyone and everyone to become American citizens, they will vote for candidates who mirror the leaders and the type of governments that they left behind in Central America.

Jesus Christ. So a) we aren't allowing "anyone and everyone" to become American citizens, and b) WHAT A FUCKING MORON. Like, your biggest fear is that... uh, some Central Americans would vote for the people that they didn't want in power in the first place because they were US-backed tyrants who cared more about Chiquita Banana, Inc. than actual Guatemalan citizens? Does that even make sense?


Only for a person who doesn't know jack shit about Central American history would think that this makes sense. You'd think that a real newspaper might hold off on running letters by people who have no idea about anything. But then Oklahoman isn't a real newspaper,  and they love to run letters that feed into various calming notions about brown people (It's their own fault for being poor and oppressed! We can't let their kind in the US!). Sad, but true.