dear politicians, what is wrong with you?
Since the main focus of this blog is science and skepticism, I rarely post something exclusively about politics and current partisan fights. Even then, I try to tie those posts to something a little more scientific, like the need for skepticism and evidence in the media, the role of religion in our government, or space exploration. But in this case, I really have no justification for this piece other than my sheer bewilderment at what’s going on in today’s political world. From howling pundits, to partisan zealots who screech hysterically every time someone on the other side of the ideological divide opens his mouth, and to a majority party that seems to be ready and willing to shrink from every challenge sent their way, chaos seems to reign in D.C. Take it away Jon Stewart…
So just to make sure I have things straight here, we have the Democrats with a massive majority in Congress and the presidency dancing to the tune of always furious Republicans constantly chanting about socialism or communism, as if possessed by the ghost of Joseph McCarthy. What’s wrong with this picture? I mean other than the fact that one party responsible for running the United States decided to forget doing anything to really help their country and spend the next four years blaming anything and everything on the opposition, including their own mistakes from the past, and the party that’s supposed to be leading and has the tools to do it, won’t even try to rise to the challenge? Is this how we’re going to accomplish things? Just fight for years on end and call these childish games profound debates about the direction of the country while outsourcing the last shot at public discourse to obnoxious loudmouth pundits who are Democrats or Republicans first and Americans second? Well, how far has this attitude gotten us in 2009?
Here’s the really twisted part. With far smaller majorities in Congress, the Republicans did whatever they felt like doing for almost a decade. If the Democrats ever tried to get in their way, they were shouted down as anti- American traitors and the bill was pushed through anyway. Now, when the power is reversed and Republican pundits are hysterically screaming about the impending doomsday of scary -isms and the unstoppable leftist march of doom, the Democrats manage to retreat every time they’re met with opposition. Oh sure, they love to talk about how they want to see compromise and just want to communicate the value of their ideas, but come on. Who are they kidding? We know that there’s no compromise with the people who compare attempts to get people cheap healthcare to the policies of Nazi followers. Things like reason and compromise are just not an option when the person on the other side of the table is foaming at the mouth or banging chairs together with a howl about how he’s being tortured, oppressed and victimized. Was the healthcare plan being offered great and flawless? Of course not. But was it an attempt to kill or enslave people as was done by Hitler’s minions in the days before World War 2? Hell no and comparing the two was a feat of weapons grade partisan insanity.
Look, not everything the Democrats suggest is gold. Far from it. But just sitting there, doing nothing but being an obnoxious roadblock and calling it a success of leadership is ridiculous. The Republicans might think that they’re saving the nation from the liberal ideas they hate with disturbingly irrational zeal and from which they’ve concocted bizarre and menacing rumors. But let’s consider that the only liberal thing to happen so far was the passing of a stimulus bill, and that started in 2008 with a Republican president in power. Now the GOP might lean back and say “you’re welcome” and take a bow on how well they’ve repelled the liberal menace, but over the last year, they’ve accomplished nothing but loud fear mongering and setting the metaphorical bar for their standards of political achievement lower and lower. I mean they’re down to “naysaying.” At this point, it’s hard to go any lower. Where are the big proposals? The big ideas? Ambitious goals to expand education, training for new jobs, and public projects on a truly grand scale to create new business opportunities?
Well, the party eager to implement them doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to actually carry them out and their counterparts have zero interest in actually contributing anything but cash to the very same financial institutions which caused a major market meltdown and enjoyed nearly free government life support. Oh well, I guess the national government isn’t all that important and we could just leave it paralyzed for the next three years. That’s something the Republicans could really get behind and Democrats seem to be more than willing to allow…
See the following…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
From this side of the Atlantic, it seems to me that US politics has three major problems:
1. dependence on terrifying amounts of money that must be raised from vested interests
2. a media that has marginalised meaningful debate
3. an form of nationalist ideology that renders unthinkable any meaningful discussion of adapting the system to changing times. (Would any nation, apart from North Korea, speak with such hushed reverence of its ‘Founding Fathers’?)
I was going to add something about your military budget, but, on reflection, that’s part of #3.
Your ‘ruling’ party can’t afford to offend the interests (unions and corporations) that fund it for fear of losing those resources to the other guys. Any attempt to changge the rules to reduce the power of money will run foul of #2 and #3.
That’s my two (Euro) cent worth…
President Obama is a lawyer. His education and aptitudes exclude mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. Karl Marx was as selectively adept. Both advocate national feudalism to which science is insubordination. Procrustean equality is everybody toiling in the fields for centrally administered boons – and survival.
Our President is being played for an ass by professional Wall Street criminals Ben Shalom “BS” Bernanke, Henry Merritt “Hanky-Panky” Paulson, and Tomothy “Timmy!” Geitner. He is being played for an ass by the Republicans, a congenitally inconsequential grab bag of god-spewing morons ( A Palin-shadow of Charlton Heston’s “from my cold dead hands!”). He was played for an ass by Haiti, Islam, the Department of Defense, Homeland Severity, Detroit, Enviro-whiners, heathcare insurers… and the Supreme Court.
President Barack Obama has empowered us to depise an upper class Black man for reasons other than his skin color. What would you have him do with the next multi-$trillion squandered? “Return To Pacoima!” A rocket-powered bullet train will connect Washington, DC to Pacoima, CA. It will require 18 years and $3.7 trillion to lay track. The first trial run will average Mach 3.1, after which the demonstration track will be recycled into inertial confinement controlled laser nuclear fusion chambers. Many jobs will be created.
The American Chemical Society’s Scholars Program is 15 years of six-figure disbursements: 55% Black, 39% Brown, 6% Red; and the balance White and Yellow. It is a future only money can buy.
Status Quo is human nature.
Replacing a broken health care system with one that on paper looks equally broken while at the same time criticizing a deficit problem by spending further into deficit is what brought howls of criticism from the conservatives.
Show progress on one massive problem before tackling another massive problem, and the status quo-seekers will jump on board. This administration bit off more than it could chew too quickly on two fronts at once.
[Obama's] education and aptitudes exclude mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. Karl Marx was as selectively adept.
@Uncle Al. That’s a very disingenuous comparison, especially in light of the tradition of red baiting which was firmly and seemingly permanently embedded in American culture since the 1930s. President Bush also had no credentials in math or science, neither did his father, or Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan, or most presidents in many developed, industrial nations.
Both advocate national feudalism to which science is insubordination.
Huh? Science and technology are tools and since most pivotal advances in both over the last half a century came from funding by military R&D projects and federal grants, I would think that scientists would be more than happy to work with federal agencies. Also, I see a glaring historical error. Marx did not advocate any sort of feudalism and every fiber of his being despised the notion. He was actually a staunch advocate of a populist demonstration of anger at the bourgeois and were he alive today, he’d rebel at the thought of giving Wall Street a bailout…
Our President is being played for an ass by professional Wall Street criminals…
… kind of like that actually. And yes, I would agree with this statement. Obama is just letting the supposed captains of the free market get away with creating a system that refunds almost any mistake they make with public cash.
President Barack Obama has empowered us to depise [sic] an upper class Black man for reasons other than his skin color.
Dude WTF? Adding racism to an argument doesn’t make it stronger. It just makes all those who see it and know that skin color is not indicative of the value of others ask if you’re a member of a white supremacist group. Do it one more time and as per this blog’s commenting policy, I’m swinging the ban hammer. I kid you not. I’m allowing it this time because you have a political opinion beyond this, but my tolerance level for this sort of crap is very, very low.
Amadan: Your ‘ruling’ party can’t afford to offend the interests (unions and corporations) that fund it…
I don’t have the figures to hand, but if you think that labor unions are a major part of the Democratic Party’s funding base, you’re grossly misinformed (i.e., have been listening to/reading too much US media). Nationwide, less than 10% of American workers belong to unions – the political muscle there has thoroughly atrophied.
However, the part about corporate funding is right on target, and answers much of our esteemed host’s question as well. Though the process has been continuing for decades, the completion of Dem sell-out to megacorp interests was completed during the Clinton administration, and Obama has done nothing to reverse this (but quite a bit to accelerate it). Also, for any politician to oppose the Repub agenda, they must also oppose the broadcast media oligopoly agenda, which accounts for much of the rest of Democratic caponization.
Uncle Al – please attempt to make some sense: you’re embarrassing racist ranters everywhere.
gfish, I’m depressed. I’m baffled, stunned, confused and disappointed. I’m a yellow-dog Democrat and a lifelong supporter of human rights in all colors, races, sexes, etc., and I am feeling defeated.
I can’t remember ever agreeing with anything that Uncle Al said, except now. I understand your reflexive reaction to his comment about “…and upper class black man…”, anybody with refined sensibilities would have done the same, me included, but think about it. No, I don’t like “despise”, but Barak Obama seems to be singlehandedly killing us. He’s gone from our dream leader to dithering while Rome burns.
Man, I hate that, but what can I say? The damn guy’s got a point. Barak needs to take charge for a change.
1) Presidents have (OK, had) science advisors. Reagan’s “Star Wars” was profound political theatre. Curiously, wondrous other stuff came out. This odious State of the Union Address told science what and how to discover. Legislate thermodynamic loopholes and arrest anybody who violates statutary law. Lysenko redux. Millions starved.
2) Both Obama and Marx advocate a de facto feudal state in which amorphous labor is embedded in crystalline central oversight. Marx wanted to be on the Committee not in the factories. The Left is a Homeowners Association writ large, Zimbardo’s experiment at Stanford, Yale’s Stanley Milgram and his Dyson teaching machine. Starting with President Johnson’s Great Society we have disassembled capitalism. US social policy ended manufacture, confiscated earned wealth, and forcibly inserted the incompetent – with quotas – into every venue. Equality! A problem with the future is that it arrives.
3) Yeah, Obama really stepped in it.
4) Obama has a very special honeymoon in office. He could be Kennedy (also an initial disaster, but got shut of it and died before Vietnam discredited him). Obama could have governed by his great and practiced ability to bend words, subtlely playing race as a prudent goad. Obama has his Cuban missile crisis. If he cannot find a way out – before it blows up third quarter 2010 – a nation crushed by diversity will disapprove of him. He’ll be his own Reichstag fire. Mine was not a racist comment, it was a political comment. If Obama collapses he’ll take it all back down to Reconstruction. Cities will burn, Whites without hope against slums without Welfare checks, and all quickly without food, water, power, fuel, sewage.
PoliceThe California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is short $43 billion against obligations, Los Angeles Times 29 January 2010 p. B2. “Many more jobs” won’t do it. I’m keenly interested to see how Obama overcomes adversity.
Both Obama and Marx advocate a de facto feudal state in which amorphous labor is embedded in crystalline central oversight.
@Uncle Al. I don’t think you understand what the term feudalism means. The notions of trickle-down economics are actually the closest modern equivalent to feudalism. A feudal system means that power is decentralized by default, so to call central control feudal is actually using a definition opposite of the term.
Marx wanted to be on the Committee not in the factories.
A swing and a miss. Marx was a bookworm who was perfectly happy waxing poetic or being a busybody and did did not have aspirations of working for any office. He was a philosopher and a theoretician rather than an ambitious would-be ruler.
US social policy ended manufacture, confiscated earned wealth, and forcibly inserted the incompetent – with quotas – into every venue. Equality!
I know you were probably practicing this rant for a while, but here’s the thing. It wasn’t the social policy of the U.S. that created the Rust Belt, it was worldwide outsourcing and union obstinacy to learn and grow with the times. Basically, it was a huge spat in the business world rather than a government mandate. And who’s confiscating any of the earned wealth? If anything, the government rushes to give more money to CEOs, wealthy stockbrokers and Wall Street vultures. The top 1% of the nation is richer than ever and social mobility is on the decline because of how great the income rift is.
Mine was not a racist comment, it was a political comment. If Obama collapses he’ll take it all back down to Reconstruction.
Generally, when you dig a hole for yourself, you don’t bring in heavy mining machinery and redouble your efforts. I don’t know if you just sound like a racist because you just let whatever you want slip out, or if you just love gloom and doom fantasies and need to make them as grand as possible. But in any case, your meandering rant does not help how you come across. If anything, you’re just making it worse. You don’t have to like Obama or agree with him, but fantasies of race wars are better left on other sites where Social Darwinist ideology is alive and well…
Welcome back Uncle Al! Thank you for rescuing me from my doldrums. You are really inspirational. I hate what you say so much I feel better already.
Our government is a joke. No matter which party is in power, they spend massive amounts of money contributing to a growing deficit that left unchecked, is going to result in dire consequences for our country. The current reckless spending and the sale of billions in treasury bills to foreign countries to pay for massive government social programs that do not work are devaluing our currency. It is not a hard concept to understand. Stop spending if you want to get out of debt. The U.S. taxpayer is paying $500,000,000 million a day just to make the interest only payments for the debt we owe communist China. Every citizen should be outraged by our government’s careless spending spree. As of today, approximately 60% of our gross domestic product is used to pay for our current debt. In a few short years, if this reckless fiscal policy continues, the total tax revenues brought in by the federal government will only be able to make the interest payments for the massive amount of debt our government has incurred. That would mean no more money for anything, no defense, no social security, no medicare, no social programs, nada. It will result in a total financial meltdown. I like how the current administration is blaming the evil banks and Wall Street for the current economic crisis that our government is responsible for creating. You don’t hear our government talking about its government sponsored entities (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Countrywide) that gave millions of high risk loans to people knowing that they could never afford to pay them back while the entire time Congressman Barney Frank claimed that there were no liquidity issues with the institutions in question. A week later they went under, starting a dominoe effect taking down the likes of AIG, Bank of America, Merril Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and others. The practice of giving loans to people who could not afford to pay them back began with Jimmy Carter back in 1976 with the Community Re-investment act. Does ACORN sound familiar to anyone? The government put pressure on the banks to provide loans to high risk applicants while the community activist groups such as ACORN would picket those financial institutions that refused to engage in the risky loan practices. This practice was embraced by both parties to our present time under the guise of home ownership for everyone, with no consideration as to whether everyone could afford to pay the loans back. Wall Street investment firms such as Goldman Sachs contributed to the crisis by packaging up thousands of bundles of high risk mortgage backed securities that were eventually sold to unknowing investors. These high risk loans were insured against default by the now defunct and or government owned banks and financial institutions. The banks made a poor choice and bet that most of those high risk loans would not default. When the number of loans in default exceeded the banks ability to cover the insured losses, the mortgage back security bubble finally burst. Couple that with the federal reserve intentionally keeping interest rates artificially low by fed chief Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the perfect finanical storm was created. Tim Geithner was the head of the New York Fed when the largest finanical institutions on Wall Street failed. During that time, it was Geithner’s responsibility to oversee the financial institutions on Wall Street and to assure that they were engaging in sound financial practices. Hmmm. What happened with that? Shortly after the financial collapse, Geithner was picked by Obama to be Treasury Secretary of the United States even though he had not paid taxes for the past five years. It sure is funny how the government kept AIG from failing when it allowed the other large institutions to bite the dust. I am sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that several of Geithner’s friends at Goldman Sachs would have bitten the dust also had it not been for our government bailing out AIG. What a coincidence. There should not have been any of this bailout business, stimulus spending and those banks that made bad bets should have filed for bankruptcy. Instead of allowing our free market system to work, the government decided to come in and save the day which only resulted in making things worse. The jobs forecasted have not materialized as predicted, unemployment remains high and the deficit continues to grow every day. Even though it would have been painful to our economy, it would have worked itself out. I hope that I am wrong about this, but I fear that we are headed in the direction of a one world government and currency. I believe that most Americans would never willingly give up our independence and sovereignty. Create a financial crisis that results in our currency becoming worthless resulting in the collapse of our economic system and the unthinkable becomes reality. This could easily happen right now. If China or other countries refused to buy anymore of our debt, our government would go bankrupt. If China decided to cash in the treasury bonds purchased from the United States, our country would go bankrupt because our government does not have the money to pay the Chinese back. Fortunately, the Chinese need us as much as we need them for now but that can change. The federal reserve which is comprised of private banks should be abolished. There is no reason to give a few private banks enormous power and control to influence our economy. The Treasury Department can do the same thing that the federal reserve does and the interest rate should be set by the free market. Utilize currency backed by gold to protect our economy. Eliminate the IRS and progressive tax policies. Reject globalization, NAFTA, CAFTA, and all free trade agreements that have led to unfair trade balances for the United States. Do away with or not participate with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the United Nations. Prevent the export of our manufacturing jobs overseas by buying goods made in the USA. Secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws. We cannot afford to take care of people from countries that choose not to take care of their own. Illegal immigrants are sucking our social programs and services dry and when caught should be deported to their respective countries and not given amnesty. Why should the American taxpayer be responsible for paying for illegal immigrants when we can’t even take care of our own people? It is simply a matter of economics and we cannot afford to continue to do it. California’s current financial situation is a direct result of weak immigration enforcement and over generous social programs. We need less government involvement in our lives. Wake up America. Contact your Senator and Congressman and voice your concerns. Above all, utilize your right to vote. After all, it was paid for with a heavy price by those that fought to keep us free.
@government caused disaster: Woohoo! You’ve got it all figured out. Man I’m impressed. Have you never heard of the right-wing philosophy called “starve the beast.” “Weaken the government to where it can be drowned in a bathtub (Dick Cheney?) Bear Sterns went down when Dubya was in, and I think AIG too. You don’t suppose two billion a week in Iraq and Afghanistan is a financial burden do you.
A Neocon mantra, inherited from Ronald Regan is, “Defecits don’t matter.” Ever heard of “The ownership society?” The Democrats handed GW Bush a two hundred billion dollar budget surplus, and had actually started to pay down the national debt. Dubya and a Republican congress promptly passed a budget busting “tax relief” for the rich in spite of a full page ad in the NY Times from Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Ted Turner, et al., which said, “We don’t need tax relief, we’re doing just fine.”
Americans are going to Mexico for medical treatment. They have a universal single payer system, and if you check into a Mexican hospital with cancer, your treatment is free. “You’re from USA, no problem.” They’re not coming here to suck up your benefits, they’re coming here to make $5.00 per hour working their butts off. The country couldn’t live without them. Visit a construction project in your neighborhood. Chances are the only person on the job who can speak English is the surveyor, and he’s bilingual. My oldest boy works the high-iron, and his union is desperate to recruit Americans, preferably blacks and Hispanics, and they can’t get any takers. While it pays very well, it’s hard, dangerous work; you have to come to work Monday morning sober and ready to bust your ass.
Careful with your shit about the government. You may be full of it. And how exactly do you propose to “secure our borders,?” Shoot ‘em all? Create a quarter-million man Border Patrol? How’s that going to help the budget deficit?
Yes ACORN is a major pain in the butt for the rich and powerful. They help poor people to exercise their rights. Damn their hides. There’s just no excuse for anyone to empower those effectively disenfranchised ghetto people to assert their rights. Like the right to peacibly assemble and voice their grieveances, or vote, or join together to support a candidate. Man, that’s a crime, or it should be. Think what that might lead to. One world government or currency. Jesus H. Christ on a crutch! What would that mean for Americans? I don’t know, you tell me.
We had a one world currency already, the US Dollar. Now it looks like the Euro is taking its place. Thank you Dick and Don and Dubya.
“The Treasury Department can do the same thing as the Federal Reserve.” I like your concept, but you should make up your mind; do want more govrnment or less. Sounds like you don’t know. No, it sounds like your are an aggrevied white boy who has some seriously deranged friends who encourage you to see yourself as one assailed by the forces of darkness. Jesus, boy, wake up. Mexican girls are darling, Asian girls are awsome, and Ukrainain girls are too good for you.
RaggMopp: “Weaken the government to where it can be drowned in a bathtub (Dick Cheney?)
Uh, actually that’s a minor variant on a line generally attributed to a very powerful (more so than out-of-office Cheney) right-wing lobbyist named Grover Norquist, head of a nasty outfit called Americans for Tax Reform.
Dangerous: spit on sight.
(But I’m pretty sure that “deficits don’t matter” did come from Cheney, discussing Reagan’s legacy, not Reagan himself.)
Thanks, Pierce. You’re probably right, I know Grover N. is a wellspring of quotable quotes. I kinda don’t think “deficits don’t matter” should be attributed to Deadeye Dick, though, it seems more viral.
“…Spit on site.” LOL. Ahmed Chalaby maybe, but Grover Norquist? I think he deserves more respect, he’s a seriously dangerous lunatic.
Well Raggmopp, seems I struck a nerve with you. I don’t see anywhere in your response that refutes that our government has caused the crisis we are in. Like I said before, both parties are equally to blame, especially for allowing the mortgage crisis to bust. Seems you forgot to reply to that point or maybe you think it is okay to give loans to people that can’t afford to pay them back or to support those activist groups that demand it. Give me a break. Like I said before, it started with Jimmy Carter, continued through both parties and was supported by your beloved community activist groups like ACORN. Now nevermind that ACORN has been providing applicants with ways to cheat the system or that they are under investigation in 19 different states (that was several months ago and maybe more now) for corrupt practices and voter fraud. I don’t have a problem when people attempt to get others to vote, however I do have a problem when it is being done fraudulently or in a corrupt way. Apparently, because of this, ACORN can’t take the heat and is changing its name.
I was no big fan of Bush’s spending sprees just as I am no fan of your current president’s 3.8 trillionnnnnnn dollar budget proposal. You can stop using your lame excuse for blaming everything on Bush. Looks like your current president has inflated the deficit four fold than what it was under Bush. Sigh. The largest and unprecedented budget in history ever! But who cares? Just keep spending on ridiculous stimulus programs that do not work and continue to add to the deficit and devalue our currency futher. Maybe you should start learning how to speak Chinese if you don’t already. After all you said you liked Asian girls.
Even though Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, I was not a proponent of invading the country. What WMD’S you say? Well one example of WMD’S Iraq possessed was it’s poison gas (chemical weapons) that it used on its own people such as the Kurds in the north and against the Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war. How can anyone say that Iraq did not possess WMD’S when they just hung the infamous “Chemical Ali” for killing villages full of Kurds with poison gas? Last time I checked, poison gas was on the WMD list and banned by the Geneva Convention. Bush should have never proclaimed that the mission in Iraq was accomplished when we are still there. Afghanistan is a different story. It is full of muslim extremists that want to kill as many Americans as possible and I would rather take the fight to them than have to do it here. I distinctly remember your president proclaiming that if elected, he would end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hmm. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that as of today we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess it is not as simple as your president thought it was and we are staying there for national security reasons. Remember he can withdraw at any time.
I like how you complain about the Bush tax cuts for the “rich”. First of all lets use Obama’s definition of what “rich” is. Basically, anyone making more than $250,000 a year. I can tell you one thing, that may be more than most people make but it sure doesn’t put you in the class of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. The so called “rich” as you call them invest in and create businesses that create jobs in this country. Small businesses make up 70% of our economy. The same ones that you and the have nots of society cry foul of and demand that they pay even more. When you continue to raise taxes on those defined as “rich” your are reducing their ability to create new business or expand their current business. The top 1% wealthiest people in the country pay 70% of the total tax bill when the bottom 40% pay no income tax at all and yet receive stimulus checks. What is fair about that? Raising taxes prevents job growth and the government would only use it as a reason to spend more instead of paying down the deficit. Look at bankrupt California, small businesses are leaving that state in droves because of the tax rates on the so called “rich”. They can’t afford to run their business with such a ridiculous tax rate in place to pay for those over generous social programs.
I don’t know about you, but I have been to Mexico and I am not talking about the resort towns. I have seen there hospitals and you can have them along with your so called single payer system. Just like Canada. I will stick with U.S. healthcare. By the way, medical care for Americans in Mexico is not free and neither is the medicine although it is cheaper in some cases. I agree that changes need to be made to our healthcare system but I oppose the government running it. Look what they have done to social security and medicare. As of now, the unfunded liabilities for social security and medicare is $67 trillion dollars but your probably not concerned about that either. After all universal healthcare is a right for every citizen that our government should pay for either though we can’t pay for it. If you want universal healthcare then move to a country that has it. No one is keeping you from going there.
Illegal immigrants need to come here legally to work. I don’t have a problem with that as long as they do it legally and pay TAXES on what they earn. They do more than just come over here and work hard for low wages. Contrary to what you say, they are sucking our social services dry. They obtain a multitude of government assistance from programs such as WIC, food stamps and social security benefits that are paid for by the American taxpayer, these are services that should only be used for our citizens. Numerous hospitals along the border states have had to shut down or moved due to the large number of illegal immigrants flooding the emergency rooms. Because the hospitals cannot turn them away they are treated at the county taxpayers expense. Also, alot of them committ major crimes against the citizens of our country which means we have the judicial expense of trying them and keeping them in our prisons. A prime example of this would be in Los Angeles where 90% of the felony arrests in that city were due to illegals from Mexico committing the offenses.
I will say what I want about our government. The first amendment of the Constitution gives me that right. Or do you not believe in that either? I will criticize our government when the politicians in office fail to do what is in the best interest of our country and citizens. I stand by what I said earlier. Abolish the federal reserve. Do you not understand what the federal reserve is and has been doing to our currency? It is made up of PRIVATE banks controlled by PRIVATE bankers. It is not a government entity. It has artificially kept interest rates low which contributed to the economic crisis! It has enormous power and influence over our economy and government. Based on your earlier post, I take it that you are not a fan of the banks. Did you know that the federal reserve made over 40 billion in profits from this crisis or are you okay with that? Make no mistake about it, I am for less government. Having the Treasury Department do the job of the Federal Reserve is better than having our economy dictated and manipulated by private bankers.
Just because border security may be a tough issue doesn’t mean you run away from it. The border patrol is doing the best they can but they need alot more assistance. I would suggest we use the local police agencies, state guard, national guard and military to secure our borders as much as possible. I am sure our government has technology resources to help make it more secure. You have to remember that it might not be just illegals coming here to work in our country, it could be a terrorist trying to do us harm. That should motivate anyone to want better border security.
Your wrong about the dollar ever being a one world currency. A one world currency has yet to happen. When it does occur along with a one world government, I think you are going to be slightly disappointed with the outcome. What would that mean for America? If it happens, it would mean that you can forget about America being a sovereign country anymore, forget about your independence and Constitution of the United States. The rights that you and I now enjoy will disappear, America as we know it will vanish and it will be replaced by something far worse than you could ever imagine. Like I said earlier, I hope that I am wrong about this.
One other thing, don’t waste your time attempting to belittle me by using racial comments such as “aggrieved white boy” (note the correct spelling for “aggrieved”) or derogatory comments such as “boy”. You only show your ignorance by doing so and it has no place in a discussion.
@government caused disaster
A one world currency has yet to happen. When it does occur along with a one world government, I think you are going to be slightly disappointed with the outcome. What would that mean for America? If it happens, it would mean that you can forget about America being a sovereign country anymore, forget about your independence and Constitution of the United States. The rights that you and I now enjoy will disappear, America as we know it will vanish and it will be replaced by something far worse than you could ever imagine. Like I said earlier, I hope that I am wrong about this.
O.K. How? seriously how, I don’t think that just because we use one currency (which by the way is what allowed the ancient Romans create jobs that did not involve growing of food or manufacturing goods and which ultimately lead to large city’s) will bring down America as we know it.
Loeck, when you give up your currency you give up your ability to remain independent. Instead of your individual country deciding what economic policy is best for its citizens, it will be determined by the group of countries that you agree to join. Look at the European Union that utilizes the euro. All of the countries in the European Union no longer control their economic policy individually as they once had. It is now controlled by a group of members from the various countries in the union. I for one am not willing to allow members from other countries of a union or one world currency/government to dictate the economic policy of the United States. Control a nation’s ecomony and you can control their government. If that was to happen, I can guarantee you that their decisions would not be in the best interest of the United States. Once a one world currency is established the stage is set for implementing a one world government. When that happens, the laws and Constitution of the United States will no longer have precedence and will be replaced by law and courts of a world government. How do you feel about being ruled by a group of foreign countries than by the Constitution of the United States? If you have been watching the news lately and as I type this, I am listening to the continued talk on t.v. of replacing the dollar as the main currency of the world with another currency. What a coincidence. If that happens, it would be a big step in establishing a one world currency and ultimately a one world government. That is your answer to your question on “How?” Give up your sovereignty and so goes your freedoms.
What makes you think that
A: America is in such good shape that we don’t need any help from others?
B: Other nations would be intent on destroying our way of life. Ferinstance in your example its almost exactly like how the united states operate right now.
C: that we would have no say in how things got run, why do you think that in this Representative based “government” that you talk about we wouldn’t have a say. Everybody would be tripping over them selves to not bug us. We still have the largest and strongest military.
So really I have to ask… are you one of those people who owns twenty guns for when the Chinese invade?
Loeck,
A: As I explained earlier to you, our government’s incompetence is the cause of our current economic condition that is indebting and causing us to rely on China to fund your current administration’s spending spree. We wouldn’t need anyone’s help had our government not engaged in such fiscal irresponsibility. That is the whole point.
B: Your kidding me right? You must not keep up with current affairs or know alot about history. Hmm. Let’s give you a few examples. Does the “underwear bomber” sound familiar? He was trained by terrorists that hate our country and only tried to blow up an airliner bound for the United States with 300 people on board that were mostly Americans. How about 9/11 and the numerous attacks before that on the world trade center committed by muslim extremists. Lets not forget to mention the attack on the USS Cole and numerous bombing attacks across the globe of American embassies that resulted in hundreds if not thousands of american servicemen and civilians being killed. We are still a sovereign country and we operate nothing like a one world government or multi-national union would operate.
C: Re-read the last post and maybe you will understand how our representative based government will be greatly reduced or even cease to exist. How will you have the largest and strongest military if you have no way to fund it, especially when other countries will be able to dictate our economic and foreign policy?
As far as your last funny remark goes, its not an invasion by the Chinese that I fear. Its the impending financial and economic collapse of our country that I fear the most. What do you think would happen if the dollar became worthless overnight in this country? Do you think that society would continue to operate as usual and that you will be able to just stroll down to the store to buy groceries or anything else you need? You think the people in Haitti have problems right now from that earthquake? If our economy collapsed it would be a “financial earthquake” for our country that would be far worse than what the Great Depression ever was.
Contrary to what you may think, I am not a conspiracy theorist that believes that this will happen. I am only suggesting that you be aware of what is happenning and the possible consequences of those actions. If I am wrong, then great. But, what if my concerns come to fruition? Always have a backup plan. You spoke about the Roman Empire in your earlier post. It is very interesting reading, The Fall of The Roman Empire. You should check out “How Excessive Government Killed the Roman Empire”. You can find it on the internet. It basically stated that the fall of the Roman Empire was caused by incompetent leadership, corruption, the devaluing of its currency, excessive taxes, excessive inflation and excessive government control. Maybe our politicians should read it to keep from making the same mistakes.
“government not engaged in such fiscal irresponsibility. That is the whole point.” and I totally agree with you but we are in this spot and we cant go back and change it.
B you kidding Me, right? I mean come ON, every single one of your examples are about people, from Iraq and Afghanistan that we are currently opressing with no end in sight. Would you, if another country came and occupied us just sit back and let happen? I think not.
“especially when other countries will be able to dictate our economic and foreign policy?”
Again you make a reference to a Representative form of control but expect that we wouldn’t have one, maybe you should reread about Representation.
“think would happen if the dollar became worthless overnight in this country?”
Ok it’s ALREADY WORTHLESS and it is because if incompetent governing.
“How Excessive Government Killed the Roman Empire”. Ya I know about that but you know what… drinking to much water can kill you. I think that that is a perfectly apt metaphor.
Loeck,
Our government should learn from their mistakes and stop repeating them, that would be the best way to reverse the damage they caused in the first place.
I agree that our foreign policy has not always pleased every country in the world and it never will regardless in times of war or not. Not everyone that hates us and that wants to kill us is from Afghanistan or Iraq. There are plenty of groups residing in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, Syria and others that dislike us and have engaged in terrorist acts against our country. An example of that would be the 9/11 terrorists. I believe most of them were of Saudi nationality. The “underwear bomber” was from Nigeria. You can’t blame their hate for us strictly because of our foreign policy. I really believe that they dislike us more just because of what we stand for and who we are more than anything else. Our free market captialist system has created the most prosperous and powerful country in the world where we also have the freedom to pretty much do want we want. We have a judicial system, although not without it’s problems, is second to none. At least you can expect a fair court proceeding most of the time. Without getting into a religious debate, you can practice and believe whatever you want and that is a big NO NO in those countries that enforce strict Sharia law.
As far as our representative form of government goes, I am not willing to take a chance with what we MIGHT end up with if we were combined with other countries into either a multi-national or one world government. Why even chance that? That is the point I am trying to make. You won’t know how its going to turn out until it happens and then it may be too late to change it if it is not in the best interest of our country.
The dollar isn’t worthless yet. You will know when that happens when the benefit of burning it in your fireplace to stay warm is the only value it has left.
Instead of using your water metaphor, I thought you would have used the example of how excessive taxation by the Roman Empire caused people to sell themselves into slavery. Because slaves were not required to pay the heavy taxes that were levied against the free, they chose slavery. Now that is crazy. What’s even crazier, is that when the Roman Empire realized what was happening, they passed a law preventing people from doing it to avoid payment of taxes. That would be an example of excessive government regulations.
Anyway, this has been an interesting discussion. Unfortunately, I am not going to have enough time to continue replying to every blog. I will leave this discussion to others. Good luck.
The United States of America can be typified as a corporate welfare state. Consisting of the military industrial complex, big energy, big Ag., big med., big pharma, big insurance, big finance, and of course lobbiests. And now that the corporations own and operate the Congress, we have corporatism, not capitalism.
I know what an unfunded liability is. It’s a terrorist tactic. Ronald Reagan started harping on the subject vis-a-vis the civil service retirement system, so we finally looked it up. What it boiled down to in that case was that if everybody who was potentially owed a nickel were to show up tomorrow demanding his money, it would be a big problem. The concept came from banks, where this is not out of the question. It was patently ridiculous when applied to a retirement sustem, first you have to be eligible to retire, and at that time you could only get it in monthly installments. How anybody could apply the concept to Medicare is beyond me. Voodoo accounting maybe.
We are not at war. We invaded Iraq for fun and profit, and stayed around to get ExxonMobilChevronTexacoBPShell the oil deal of the century. As with everything else, except to unseat Saddam and stage a rousing replay of the first Gulf War, the Iraquis hung in there until we gave up and let their oil contracts to the highest bidders, France, China, and Russia, which is just exatcly what we were trying to prevent. Obama is not staying in Iraq, he said that during the campaign and still says, we’re leaving, and that’s with the hearty endorsement of the Iraqi government. It just takes a while to pull all the plugs and turn out the lights.
Our incursion in Afghanistan was not for neocon entertainment. We went after Osama bin Laden. The reason it was so easy was because there was a well developed opposition to the Taliban regime, all we really did was supply air support, they did the fighting. We scattered the Taliban and missed Osama. We had no obligation to stay one more minute, certainly not for nation building, but we did, like imbeciles, and now our prestige is on the line. God, how could we live after losing face? Maybe we could take lessons from the Dallas Cowboys. Obama said that we must establish a stable government in Afghanistan to prevent the return to power of the Taliban and he said that during the campaign. I don’t agree with that. Like if we walk away the Taliban will just take over? BS. Besides we’ll be backing our guys this time, who’s backing the Taliban?
Imagine the agony of Virginians when they found out that Georgia was going to get two senators in the new federal government, just like Virginia! Oh, woe and fie. I’m represented in Congress by a man who shares none of my views. He thinks voting fraud is a big problem, even though he can’t name a single verified case within this century. He thinks Democrats should watch what they say. He doesn’t see any reason to be offended when another Congressman calls the President a liar in joint session. He rails against socialized medicine while he draws his Medicare. He thinks tort reform will alleviate soaring medical costs. He demands victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though he can’t give me any clue what victory might mean. He thinks that fighting the proxies of an internationist terrorist organization in some Godforsaken desert is keeping them “over there”, so we don’t have to fight them here. What the hell does that mean? They’re terrorists, not vikings. You can’t tie them down in the trenches, wear down their best armored divisions in the steppes, sweep the skies of their vaunted air force.
@government caused disaster: Thank you for your genteel response to my ignorant post, and thank you for pointing out my typo. And no, I didn’t respond to each and ever one of your points. Sorry. I live in southeast Texas, and I hear most of that stuff several times a day, so I’ve lost interest. I might point out that nobody ever said Saddam didn’t ever have chemical and maybe biological weapons. He really was starting on nuclear weapons (the only real weapons of mass destruction) in the late eighties. The point was that UN inspectors before and US inspectors after agreed that he had none when we invaded Iraq. And new evidence shows that the Bush Administration was fully appraised of that fact months before the commencement of the invasion. It was a smokescreen, and he knew it. Oh, and I think the consensus is that the bubble burst because of bad bundling of strange instruments, not just because of bad home loans. I too wish the banks had shown more sense, but I don’t know of any government authority that was forcing banks to make stupid home loans, I think they were enjoying it; think of the equity position!