Saturday, June 02, 2012

Post #419: Six Years and Counting

Early on the morning of 2 June 2006, I received an e-mail from a woman who had read some of the comments I had been making on the deliciously subversive website AlterNet. She told me that my writing wasn't that bad and that I should start my own blog. I replied that I wasn't very computer savvy and that doing so might prove to be problematic (Truth be told, I wasn't even sure what the heck a "blog" was). She responded by telling me that it was easy. "Just go to blogger.com", she told me, "They'll walk you right through it". I did. Within twenty minutes I had my first article posted, a little introductory salutation called, "George W. Bush: The Last Republican President". That woman's name has been forever lost to me. Pity. I owe the gal an awful lot.

On June 2, 2
006 I didn't really believe that Bush would be the last Republican president. That title was just a combination of cheekiness and wishful thinking on my part. Then, sometime last year, I began to believe it. That party has lost its mind, I thought to myself. They'll never sleep in the White House again. I believed it until the moment recently when GOP governors across the land simultaneously began to wage a phoney war on the non-existent plague of "voter fraud", disenfranchising the ballots of the traditional progressive constituency - blacks, Hispanics, city dwellers, the elderly, college students - the usual suspects.

I'm now almos
t convinced that Mitt Romney is going to be the next president of the United States. That's okay. The lower this doomed country sinks into the socio-economic/ideological cesspool, the higher my stock rises. Give me a bushel of nasty tasting lemons and I'll whip you up a pitcher of juicy lemonade.

So here we are
: six years into what started out as a lark and became - within a matter of days - a habit more powerful than heroin. This may sound a bit strange, but while the complete and utter destruction of this once-great nation has been a terrible thing to behold, it sure has been loads of fun to write about. So much unintentional humor! Sometimes these things virtually write themselves. There is an ambivalence in doing what I do that is impossible to put into words, so I won't even attempt to do so here. Why bother.

I'll just end this
little diatribe by saying that, while I always believed I could draw a handful of readers, the modest success of "The Rant" has been a pleasant surprise. Thanks for reading these spasmodic ramblings of mine for the last six years, folks. God willing, I'll be able to keep churning them out for another six years....Let me rephrase that....God willing, I won't be churning them out six years from now. Hopefully I won't need to. If the day ever arrives when human beings become polite, loving and generous toward one another, I'll have to start looking for real work. McDonald's perhaps.

In the meantime....

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AFTERTHOUGHT:

I always forget to plug The Rant's Facebook page. Here it is:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rant-by-Tom-Degan/332888152922

Please "like" it. I have no life.

SUGGESTED READING:

The Last Word
by George Carlin and Tony Hendra

Carlin's posthumous memoirs. As only George could write them.

21 Comments:

At 12:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

HEARYE, HEARYE, Democratic Hypocrisy in Full Force!

In recent years, Democrats have argued that requiring voters to show photo IDs prior to voting is an egregious act of voter suppression. Ben Jealous, of the NAACP, has gone so far as to argue that such requirements are tantamount to modern-day Jim Crow laws. In the world they inhabit, lots of voters don't have access to photo IDs, so requiring voters to provide this will "disenfranchise" them and leave them out of the democratic process. Funny they don't feel that way for their own party conventions.

On Saturday, Massachusetts delegates will meet in their state's Democrat party convention. The votes of these delegates will determine whether there are primary elections for their party nominations. With so much at state, Democrats have decided to implement Voter ID requirements:

A PHOTO ID WILL BE REQUIRED TO ENTER THE MASSMUTUAL CENTER

Wait, what? Democrats tell us that photo ID requirements disenfranchise minority voters, who, inexplicably, have limited access to photo IDs. Yet, at their own convention, they insist that all delegates provide a photo ID to even have access to the convention floor. When their own party is at state, it seems their priorities are somewhat different that their rhetoric suggests.

If the Democrats actually believe the rhetoric from people like Ben Jealous, then they have disenfranchised scores of potential delegates with this photo ID requirement. If, on the other hand, they instituted the photo ID requirement to ensure the integrity of the votes of the party delegates, they should repudiate the NAACP and work to ensure that their own rules carry through election day.

Voter ID is good for me, but not thee is not a winning campaign slogan.

 
At 1:41 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

Tom,

Congrats on the success in publishing your blog for 6 years!
One of the best things about your efforts is you have allowed those, like my self, say things when we disagree with you.
I read what you post because I find it informative and in most cases, you support your position. Keep it up.

 
At 1:43 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Thanks, pal. That's a nice thing to hear. We can all agree to disagree and keep it civil - YOU BASTARD!!!

Just kidding!

Thanks again for the kind words.

peace....

Tom

 
At 1:58 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Tom Degan, I got you a muffin basket.

 
At 2:07 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Anonymous, that's weird. I'd always thought that ID shown to enter a convention hall for security purposes and proof of residency to vote checked against state voter rolls were two different things. It's almost as though one can include non-voting people from other states while the other only allows those from inside the state.
But that can't be right. If so, it would mean that the Right would be pretending to be outraged over a deliberate false equivocation (here, as with last time is shown in the very part you copied and pasted here) that they themselves mixed together in a bowl of semantic FUD and, as usual, you obediently (and gleefully) copy 'n' paste it on without noticing (or caring about) the false narrative. And that would be crazytalk.

 
At 2:18 PM, Anonymous Harry from Goshen, NY said...

What Friday's feeble U.S. Job Growth numbers showed is what most of us already knew. Obama's failed policies, massive wasted, spending, and failed Presidency have given us the worst recovery since the Great Depression, the worst long term UNEMPLOYMENT since the Great Depresssion, the longest period of over 8% UNEMPLOYMENT since the great depression, and the lowest pecentage of Americans working since 1981. And Obama has bought that miserable record with over $5 trillion in debt. Obama hasn't solved a single economic problem since he took office, he just hid them with massive spending and debt. Now UNEMPLOYMENT is going back up as the bubble created by all that debt bursts, and we are almost cetainly headed back into recession when the right policies, Reagan policies, would have given us a roaring economy and jobs. We have to end this failed Presidency in Nov before its too late to turn our nation around!

 
At 2:35 PM, Blogger Modusoperandi said...

Harry from Goshen, NY "Reagan policies, would have given us a roaring economy and jobs."
You mean tax cuts, stimulus and negligible regulation? You got that, and you would've gotten more (like Obama's jobs act) but the deficit hawks (who, note, are only deficit hawks when the Democrats [nominally] run things) shot down or fillibustered the rest.

 
At 3:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

President Obama had ZERO record of accomplishment before 2008 & now has a record of FAILURE, while America was built by successful business men not government stooges produced by DemoCRAP New Deal Marxism.

 
At 3:59 PM, Blogger charles moore said...

Congratulations, Tom. Six good years, and I think I have read every one of your Rants. Keep 'em coming.

 
At 5:21 PM, Blogger Darlene said...

Congratulations on keeping your followers informed with your with and well researched information. You do drive the wing nuts crazy and I love it.

Keep it up for 60 years, if there is still such a thing as the Internet then. You're still a young whipper-snapper to this old lady.

 
At 5:54 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Aloha, Charles and Darlene!

Charles, you were there from day one. Darlene, you were there shortly thereafter.
Love the Hodgepodge, Darlene. Charles, you really have to start a blog.

"The more the merrier" as they say!

Tom

 
At 10:27 PM, Blogger Yellowstone said...

Tom-

I don't often chime in . . . But I want you and your readers to know I share your insight.

Though I still maintain that Jeb will make a surprising entry - and somehow Romney will fade away.

Let's see what happens next.

 
At 12:52 PM, Anonymous Nancy said...

Loved reading this, Tom.

 
At 10:11 PM, Blogger Wisewebwoman said...

I may have blog-urged you on Alternet, Tom, as we frequently liked each other's comments and by the time you started I had already had my blog for a year!
We've disagreed in the past (I thought Obama a poor choice and Clinton better) but I find myself nodding more often than naying at you.
Keep it up, my friend and congrats on keeping it rolling!
XO
WWW

 
At 5:37 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Wisewebwoman....

I have since gotten with the program. You were right. I was wrong. Hillary Clinton would have been a better choice. My problem at the time was that I couldn't get past her vote to let Bush go into Iraq. Had it not been for that, I believe she would be the president today. I wish she were.

Hindsight.

Might you have been the one to spur me on? Send me an e-mail, please:

tomdegan@frontiernet.net

It has been bugging me for years that I was never able to retrieve her (your?) name from my files.

All the best,

Tom

 
At 1:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Tom,
Tragically, you might just be right about the next president. I don't think I'd mind another republican president necessarily, what I do mind though, is having to look at the smiling, mindless, politically-perfect, cosmetic'd, tanned and combed Mittens. The very idea makes me sick. Next...

We are coming up tomorrow here in Wisconsin with the chance to vote Snot Walker out of office. I'm voting Barrett as are many I know. It's gonna be close...but even if Snot wins he will most likely looking at a prison term as the John Doe Investigation looms in his near future. I can't think of any governor who has over $100,000 in his "criminal defense fund." He already had some $60,000 when he transferred additional monies very recently.

Sal

Thank you Tom for your humorous take on the political climate of our once great nation, without humor many of us would be dismally depressed. It surely helps to laugh.

I'm with you. If Mittens wins, my stock portfolio will love it even if I don't!

 
At 1:09 AM, Blogger Cirze said...

Congrats, Tom, on the six years.

Shucks I think it's six for me too, but since I don't remember that far back . . . I'll just congratulate you on your stamina and acute powers of observation that keep me checking in.

And who's that guy Yellowstone who agrees with me about Jeb and the unelectability of Mittens? We'll see in another month or two.

Oh yes, what I meant to say was never lose that cheekiness.

I like your style.

Don't stop!

That title was just a combination of cheekiness and wishful thinking on my part. Then, sometime last year, I began to believe it. That party has lost its mind, I thought to myself. They'll never sleep in the White House again.

 
At 3:17 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

We need not wonder whether or not the next six years will provide plenty to rant about.

Keep up the good work. You're one of the good guys.

 
At 4:44 PM, Blogger Ellis D., Esq. said...

Tom, congrats on 6 years of fine blogging. I'm sure the next 6 years will provide plenty of material for you.

 
At 7:54 PM, Anonymous Jack said...

Congrats on six seasons of sedition, Tom. Keep it coming! From the your bro-in-law at the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
Regards, Jack

 
At 4:19 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Hey there, Doctor Jack!

Thanks for tuning in. Now if you can only get my sister to read this commie swill!

Cheers!

Tom

 

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