Gem of Advice from the Aristotle of Arrowsic

Fri. June 13, 2014:



The original inspiration for Bitesfromedwin is, as loyal readers understand, the Aristotle of Arrowsic.
Here, in tandem with yesterday's first post since back on Feb. 18, is the A of A's take on
Democratic party shortcomings.

Hoping it transmits [via cut & paste] for all you readers, cuz it is pithy, and, well, correct:

The Democrats have always believed that 'the truth will out." But, of course, it won't, not without a lot of effort. Repeated lies catch on really well, even with people who are not stupid. I don't see why Obama's handlers don't get this. Get rid of Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and get a real pro. Like the late great Lee Atwater. My nominee: James Carville. By all means, get BITES on the case!

"The President is taking a nap" -- Boehner's Latest Idiocy Breaks Bites's Silence

Thu. June 12, 2014:

                 
                                                      Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)


The usual GOP suspects -- John Boehner, Lindsay Graham, and John Shoulddabeenpresident McCain -- are once again leading the news cycle with totally bullbleep 2nd-guessings.
Take your pick:  Bergdahl, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine.

But in a way, the bigger criticism should go to the Wimp Democratic Party.
Once again, as with Obamacare and countless other issues, they allow the GOP to frame any upcoming debate.

Where is a Dick Durbin or Chuck Schumer?
What's wrong with one of them calling a press conference, to preempt the GOP's complete lack of credibility with a statement like the following:

Folks, in the next 24-48 hours, you are likely to hear the following drivel from our reliably noncredible Republican version of "loyal opposition":
1.  Obama should have left Bergdahl to rot in a terrorist prison.
2.  Obama should have kept sending US troops to the Iraq meat-grinder [where Iraqis in 2003 would "welcome our soldiers as conquering heroes"], to boost Al-Maliki's regime.
3.  Obama should have sent military advice and war materiel, including surface-to-air missiles to the "good guys among Syrian insurgents," to force Assad out.

And, here's why each whine is worse than silence, from any Loyal Opposition party when they are out of power in our USA political system.  
Each criticism is dead wrong, and ignores all refuting evidence.
Their hate-Obama reflex, on every single issue since 2009, eliminates their role as a helpful source of advice. The president, as usual, is left completely on his own, when a united front with credible & helpful critiques would serve our country.
And my fellow Democrats have undermined the president with their own silence.
That's why I, Dick Durbin/Chuck Schumer, am not going to take it any more.
Here, specifically, is what's completely wrong with each Fox News & GOP misinformation:
1.  McCain himself, for example, supported bargaining for release of Bergdahl, weeks ago . . . 
2.  Our public opinion overwhelmingly opposes any more senseless sacrifices of our troops in an Iraq whose government & people are conspicuously uncommitted & ungrateful for our troops' prior sacrifices . . . 
3.  Arm-chair critics like Senator McCain and Robert Ford totally ignore the major difficulty of sending military weapons to a tiny sliver of "good guy" Syrian opposition that has always been too weak to guarantee that items like Surface-to-Air missiles won't fall into terrorist hands, for use against western commercial airlines, among numerous other targets . . .   

BUT NO!  The Dick Durbins and Chuck Schumers have said nothing to keep Common Sense in control.
THEY NEED TO STEP UP, AT LONG LAST! 

                                                Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

Historian Gets Radio Exposure on Sarah Palin, but Jeopardizes his Professional Credibility?

Tues. Feb. 18, 2014:



Rarely does one find a more craven example of a professor bending over backwards to get radio exposure by pandering to the Right:

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/06/137011636/how-accurate-were-palins-comments-on-paul-revere

Tired of Knee-jerk Criticisms by Obama Detractors?

Mon. Feb. 10, 2014:

Fred Kaplan has been one of the top two or three reporters on nuclear issues over the past two decades.
Partisanship does not interest him.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/02/barack_obama_isn_t_disengaged_the_president_s_foreign_policy_is_just_smarter.html?alcmpid=view

Bites Has Bemoaned Democracy -- But Not Robert Dahl

Fri. Feb. 7, 2014:


"Bites from Edwin" has not been thrilled with recent messy results of USA's democracy -- or what H.L. Mencken among others has lampooned as "boobocracy."
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" -- just one of
Mencken's jokes about it.

But recently an eminent scholar of democracy, the political scientist Robert Dahl, died.
A tribute to him quotes his stubborn optimism about it;

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/robert-dahl-understood-our-democracy.html?alcmpid=view

Australian article on USA's Tea Party

Wed. Jan. 5, 2014:


http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19618-the-revolt-of-the-lower-middle-class-and-the-stupidity-of-the-elites


A pro-Tea Party cartoon:

An anti-Tea Party cartoon:

Anger & Fear: What the Tea Party and Some Gun Owners Share

Tues. Feb. 4, 2014:


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/opinion/nocera-the-gun-report-1-year-later.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-03/how-the-tea-party-saved-america.html?alcmpid=view

One Big Reason Why Wall Street Gets Away With Murder -- Honey Pots & Revolving Doors

Fri. Jan. 24, 2014:


For those of us who want to repair our sinking ship of state, this is a must-read.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-21/prosecutors-balk-bankers-walk.html?alcmpid=view
A big reason why wolves of Wall Street get off scot-free.

Arguably the 2 Most Important Articles for the West since 9/11

Sun. Dec. 29, 2013:


SYRIA, and DAVID KIRKPATRICK'S NEWLY REVEALED BENGHAZI:
NOTICE THAT JIHADIS DON'T HATE CHINA!


Dear Bitees,

I.
What follows is one of the least persuasive Opinion Pieces in recent memory.
It comes from an academic expert on western foreign policies toward Syria.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/opinion/dont-get-in-bed-with-assad.html?_r=0

II.

What follows is a somewhat long, 5-part article, which will take you about 30 minutes.
IF it is accurate, it will prove to be the most important consideration for the U.S. State Department
since 9/11:

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/benghazi/?hp#/?chapt=0

Today's NYT expose of the real Benghazi attack, by David Kirkpatrick, should cure sensible Americans of any illusions that neo-con Bush Administration dreams about setting up a viable & contagious "democracy" in Iraq would work.
Let's face it, NOTHING the West has done since 9/11 has worked in the Middle East.

China's policy seems best:  Treat the Middle East as a hornet's nest, and don't go anywhere near it, except to let your enemies try stirring it up.

There is NO anti-Chinese sentiment among Islamic jihadis worldwide -- What should this tell us?!?

Two Times When Conservatives Are Right

Thu. Dec. 19, 2013:


Two good articles, for the nonpartisan:

1.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-18/why-newtown-didn-t-change-america-.html?alcmpid=view

2.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-18/your-taxes-buy-romance-and-3-d-pizza-toppings-extra.html?alcmpid=view

A "Bites" Reader's Question About Romneycare in the Eyes of Fox News/Tea Party

Mon. Nov. 25, 2013:


"Dear Bites,
What do Fox News, and the Tea Party, and the GOP generally, have to say about the success of Romneycare in Massachusetts?"

Good question, and Bites has an answer:

My guess is, they parrot what Romney himself spun during the 2012 campaign and after:  Massachusetts was a commonwealth where the overwhelming majority of citizens wanted a state-wide array of healthcare guarantees.

And, I suppose, the scale of a smallish state system is much more manageable than a nationwide one -- especially in a climate where vast majorities want it, and where a "bipartisan majority in both chambers of the state legislature" worked together with the governor's office to find workable formulas.

Several valid points in that line.  Still, the one thing that I think crushes those Fox News & Tea Party nitpickings & told-you-so's these days, is that they have absolutely NO long-range alternative to 2 worrisome options:

1.  Keep on following the pre-Obamacare track, which nearly everyone on both sides acknowledges is not sustainable, and will bankrupt the country unless the ever-expanding demographic of Senior Citizens is lined up and shot.

2.  Start a conversation, at least, toward a more modern solution.  Whatever its flaws, Obamacare is at least trying to do that, but I don't see the Georgia folks making any useful contributions to this discussion.

Have they thought upon that?  As professed sturdy patriots of this democratic-republic of a country, which Lincoln called the Last Best Hope of Mankind?   What contribution are these gloating naysayers making to what -- in the long run -- is most important?

SUGGESTION to Fox News & Tea Partiers:  

Compile a list of all your Obamacare gripes, and CONVERT that list into a viable alternative which would help this country become stronger, sooner.  And, with the following values, that we ALL [I think!  or, do Tea Partiers think that only their sufferings matter?] hold dear, intact:  compassion for the powerless little guy in the Georgia pickup truck AND the welfare mom in Watts [oh, wait!  SHE brought on her troubles herself, unlike the Georgia pickup guy?], fairness, free enterprise, a representative republic striving for as much democracy as possible, with as small a central government as possible which can still deliver on countless daily necessities which Georgians & Mass-holes alike take for granted. 

It may take another decade -- or more --  to work out the devils-in-the-details of a truly affordable, sustainable healthcare system that both maintains research- and application- excellence among American doctors AND provides care to as many democratic-republic citizens as humanly possible.  Complaining Tea Partiers could speed this process up, if they stop getting consumed by their nostalgic hatred of all forces ruining their 1950's booming postwar white America, with that communist Eisenhower as president, who got Congress to pass a massive Federal Highway Act.

Let's Not Forget Those U.S. Healthcare Problems that Brought Obamacare in the First Place

Mon. Oct. 28, 2013:


Yes, there is pent-up Demand for bitesfromedwin, way up in Arrowsic, Maine.
For all you do, this post's pour vous:


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-28/obamacare-will-survive-its-botched-rollout.html?alcmpid=view

Devil In The Details: An Expert's Insights on Steps To Be Taken About Chemical Weapons

Fri. Sept. 27, 2013:


Patient Loyal Readers,

It has been nearly 3 weeks since our last blog post.

But this item is rare enough to break the silence.  Please read it, and urge your Congressional Representative to stop repealing Obamacare and start doing something useful that would SAVE lives rather than wrecking lives:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-26/we-re-not-prepared-to-police-chemical-weapons.html

"A Michele Bachmann to Root For," or, "The Campaign Finance Briar Patch"

Sun. Sept. 8, 2013:


Dear Faithful Readers,



For months, this bitesfromedwin blog has wished for common sense to fashion Campaign Finance Reform.

But here's one of those rare articles that provides an Exhibit A in one short space.


AND, it comes to sympathize with Michele Bachmann, not to bury her.

Read it and Wish, if not Weep:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-06/-if-michele-bachmann-is-a-crook-so-is-barack-obama-.html

A House Divided? Or, a House Devoured? John McCain & Saxby Chambliss as TERMITES on the Sunday Talk Shows

Mon. Sept. 2, 2013:

If you missed it, consider yourself lucky.
Termites like John McCain & Saxby Chambliss are not only
leading the Dividing Brigade, for Lincoln's "House Divided."
They are also EATING the USA's house.

On Bob Schieffer's Face the Nation for Sunday, Sept. 1, 2013, Major Garrett was substituting for Schieffer.  Naturally, the topic was President Obama's recent decisions regarding "alleged" use of
chemical weapons in Syria, presumably by the Assad regime, in which over a thousand innocents
died an agonizing, writhing death at the hands of a nerve gas called Sarin.

It will surprise no one that John McCain was one of the featured guests.
It will surprise a few that his usual clone, Lindsay Graham, was not on the show, but Georgia's
Saxby Chambliss instead.

                                  U.S. Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Saxby Chambliss


The fundamental problem with Sunday talk shows is,
every Republican is under coordinated GOP orders
to criticize President Obama one way or another -- no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the issue, no matter what the president's policy.  Democratic spokespersons, for their part, doubtless operate under reverse instructions.

It does not occur to these Numbskulls, that their credibility among those seeking fair & truthful answers
is Zero.  This by itself divides & eats the USA's house.

But McCain, and Chambliss, took extra bites & mouthfuls.  (Bitesfromedwin knows bites):

1.  McCain claimed that Obama was 2 years too late, in entering the Syrian civil war.
He never acknowledged how U.S. financial or military involvement could blow up in our face -- 2 years ago, now, or 2 years from now.

2.  McCain boasted about his own [gratuitous?  expensive?] visit to Syria, and said he could assure us that the Syrian opposition forces he met were not Al Qaeda or other bad-guy terrorists.

This 2nd statement is infuriatingly misleading:  Any bad-guy terrorists among the opposition would not even pass the security check, for any Advance-people's preparations for McCain's trip!
For McCain to try assuring the American people that the Syrian opposition is pure as the driven snow, on the basis of his V.I.P. hotshot Senator trip to Syria, IS A JOKE.

Did Major Garrett call him on it?  Hardly.
Virginia's Tim Kaine tried to give a counter-view, but it too ignored the specious criticisms coming from McCain.

Either Garrett or Kaine should have asked McCain:

If you were president, would you have committed us to jumping in on the side of the rebels 2 years ago? What form would this have taken?
What risks would be involved?  Would a President McCain intervention have infuriated the whole muslim Middle East?
How reliable is the Opposition coalition?  How do you separate the reliable allies from the terrorists in this
Opposition coalition?
Are chemical weapons a "red line" to a President McCain?   If so, how do you eliminate them, or at least neutralize them, without starting another Quagmire?

So Termite McCain kept nibbling against every President Obama decision, as Termite Chambliss took his own knee-jerk mouthfulls.  Republican puppeteers must be quite satisfied with these 2 guys' delivery of the Sunday Morning talking-points -- without fear of challenge or contradiction,
from Anchor
or Rival Guests.

Any president of the USA should have his/her decisions questioned, but by Loyal Opposition.
McCain's & Chambliss's opposition is mandated by the Republican game plan.
Week after week, the designated GOP voice comes on the Sunday Talk Shows to attack, attack, attack.

It's dangerous enough to play these "democracy" games about domestic issues.
But for matters like a possible Foreign War, our citizens deserve -- NEED -- nonpartisan discussion.

These Termites are not only doing the "dividing" in Lincoln's "House Divided."  
They are eating Our House until it crumbles,
just to bring down its temporary landlord -- one particular president and his political party.  

Fun in the Nixon Tapes: Leonid Brezhnev A Maniac at Camp David in 1973

Sat. August 24, 2013:

                                    James Dean as Leonid Brezhnev at Camp David in 1973

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-23/the-secret-bromance-of-nixon-and-brezhnev.html

A Revised Christmas Song for the Two USA's

Tues. April 6, 2013:

"Although it's been said many times, many ways":

Merry Splitsville To You, U-Hate-'em States of America!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-05/political-polarization-as-massive-resistance.html

Voter Reform -- Please!

Sat. Aug. 3, 2013:

1.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-16/how-to-make-voting-easy-efficient-and-fair.html

                                                     Adam Cohen, of Bloomberg News


2.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-17/making-voting-easy-efficient-and-fair-part-2-.html

A New John McCain?

Sat. Aug. 3, 2013:


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-28/mccain-goes-maverick-again-as-obama-s-republican-ally.html

And Now, A###oles, Revisited -- No Connection to Previous Post

Fri. August 2, 2013:


Faithful readers, you have long waited for such a Revisit.  Your patience is hereby rewarded.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/asshole-awarded-for-asshole-behavior-by-business-c,33334/

              {TO BE STUDIED CAREFULLY:  A Picture Is Sometimes Worth 1,001 Words}


I know you are wanting to thank me.  But that would be misdirected.
The credit belongs to the connoisseur in such matters, and you guessed it, The Aristotle of Arrowsic!