A bad situation is only more worse with a bad plan. This is something to remember the next time you hear someone in the media talking about Paul Ryan, the new Vice Presidential pick Here we have a man who claims to be both a Roman Catholic and a follower of the cold-hearted elitist Ayn Rand, a woman who took the terrors of the Russian Revolution of her youth and assumed--wrongly-- that the United States could either be a country of individualism or a collectivist nation. If you don't believe me, read her book "The Virtue of Selfishness" some time.
The truth that this manichean thinking is not what the reality of American politics is about. To try and find a way to preserve Medicare and create an affordable health care insurance plan for Americans cannot be solved by caving in to one extreme faction over another. It will take balance and compromise, the sort of unity and common purpose you will not find in the modern conservative movement, bankrolled by casino billionaire Sheldon Alderson and the Koch Brothers and sold to America with the "wink and giggle" antics a pseudo-celebrity like Sarah Palin.
The plain facts are that Paul Ryan voted to turn Social Security over to the Stock Exchanges in 2005 and he still wants to end Medicare, giving people like myself who have worked for decades and paid into the program a "voucher' and throwing millions of middle and working class Americans unto the "tender mercies" of the mega-rich and bureaucratized private health insurance industry.
Health care is not like buying a car or choosing a restaurant. Those who will get old will nveery likely need health care---most of you reading this now know in your heart this is true. We cannot afford to go back on the Affordable Health Care Act and we cannot cut 5 trillion out of the domestic budget and let the wealthy score yet another big tax break.
I believe Barack Obama and others are right--we build an economy from the middle out----the more people can buy goods and services the more jobs we will have. The idea of the trickle-down school of econommics---where money given to the rich creates jobs has been proved wrong in the last decade by the Bush-Cheney Administration where after eight years we had nearly zero job growth.
Paul Ryan is not George W. Bush. His tea party pals in Congress are worse, more idealogical and more committed to staying in office by attracting as much wealth from the top and anger from below to stay in power in perpetuity so they will never have to face the real economy most of us have work or worked in. They are creatures of political power from well-off families and, unlike men like FDR, Theodore Roosevelt and John Kennedy, they have no empathy for average-income Americans.
Our economy barely survived the last economic meltdown. Can we afford another. Are the two candidates really just all the same. Well, no, not for people who plan to live in this nation and see it not become a temperate-zone version of a banana republic.
Actor Martin Sheen from a March 2012 commerical, now more relevant with Romney pick for a running mate.
ReplyDeleteYou've summed it up very well, Doug.
ReplyDeleteNow, the 64 million dollar question (if you pardon that pun on the 1%-ers): Do you really expect the Dems to do anything about it?
thats all they are is a bunch of liars trying to get a vote from anyone. They twist words like when Biden said about chains and shackles, he meant the banks, but of course the Romney bunch right away lied and said he meant it in a racist way...what a bunch of crap.
ReplyDeleteDoug, unless the dems get out there and defend the words of Obama and Biden, and stop the lying from the corrupt mouths of the R's, there will be a change in Washington for the very worse men to gut this economy further than Bush ever could or did.
How can any elderly person that is sick with disease live on a voucher of 6000 bucks a year....that wont even pay for a bandaid that they have to put on your arm or ass after a needle is stuck in them. It makes me sick to see how squirly the Republican party has become. The lies coming from their mouth every time they speak about makes me want to puke.
Well Americans are being asked to vote for this Ryan cove who is one of the ones guilty for putting America in the shit in the first place. Just like criminals return to the scene of the crime Paul Ryan is promising to save Americans from a disaster of his own making and of course thousands of other Paul and Paulette Ryan lookalikes. Nobody in their right mind could take this man seriously, so it does look like he's in with a chance then.....but none of these corporate shills gives a damn about the average Mr America do they?
ReplyDeleteThey break the social contract with a completely dismissive shrug and pocket mucho wonga from Johnny Corporation and the boys....but as Astra says above what will the Dems do anyway? Jam tomorrow?
I think we should be realistic about the situation, defending welfare capitalism in the context of Banksterism and neoliberalism is a non-starter in the capitalist world today I think.
Localism is the only way forward in my opinion all the rest is no more to me than advertising hype and crass PR.... so far as I can see anyway.
The only way to do this it seems is to support Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.
Without the megabucks to keep her afloat in the Pressitute media she isn't getting much of a look in ...but if I was an American that's who I'd be promoting, giving support to and voting for in the forthcoming synthetic democracy workshop otherwise promoted as an election. I think President Stein would make the perfect first female president of the United States, a largely symbolic role anyway given who really runs the country of course, but a fairly prestigious one on the whole nonetheless. Conviction politicians are few and far between, break the mould end the logjam vote for the only presidential candidate to have so far been arrested whilst on the campaign trail...go for it Jill!
She's certainly a big hit here on Airstrip One where we provide canon fodder but of course are unfairly denied any voting rights viz . - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RULvPm2fzOU
No Paralyzation Without Representation!!!!
Doug I believe the voters in Florida will remember this or at least I hope DNC will remind them through ads until the election. great reminder of what Romney/Ryan really stand for.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do Will. In an ideal world there would a corporate-free paladin who would have a shot at being Prez, but there isn't. Obama is the best choice.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're right, Mike. I'm anxious to see how those polls look in Florida in a couple weeks. But I feel some optimism putting Ran on the ticket will wake older people the hell up.
ReplyDeleteMarty, you are exactly right. It will get worse if people who need health care now or in the future through Medicare don't hold it together. This Ran plan is an economic time-bomb that has to be defused.
ReplyDeleteRyan is indeed like a criminal returning to the crime, AA. He's certainly from the same gang.
ReplyDeleteI believe Joe Biden does give a damn about the average American. His working-class background is proof enough for me. President Obama admittedly seems more of the aloof and academic type but he is a piker at elitism compared to the dudes he is running against.
But the power of corporate money makes playing the game of staying in office so hard that they have to play to the elitists to some degree to raise money. Even for a Jill Stein to come close to elective office would force her to co-opt her views. It's not right, it's not fair, but it's the way it is I believe.
AA, I agree with a lot of what you say, and I know that my fellow friend Will here agrees even more. But I don't think the Green Party is going to be worth a fiddler's burp in the coming elections. I just honestly don't. Please do not take this as an offense, but it's a matter of strategy to me and betting on a long, long shot is not my strategy.
You will see the Greens get a lot stronger in other nations before they have any impact in the USA. That's not my hope, but it is my analysis, for what ever it's worth.
Normally a VP pick would make little difference but Ryan isn't the normal pick. Ryan is anti social security, anti medicare, in fact anti government as are most of his tea party supporters. The tea party was rejected by the majority of Americans two years ago but they still believe that they are still in step with main stream America. In Nov we shall see
ReplyDeleteI agree Mike. You summed it up.
ReplyDeleteIn November "we shall see" all around.
The future: People have not been pushed hard enough far enough yet, but this will happen, especially if the republicans win the election. Then, when social security, medicare, and medicaid go away, outsourcing is commonplace so that there is no middle class, the government remains as corrupt as it is now, corporations and banks retain control, and 1% of the nation retains the majority of its assets, people will retaliate employing the tactics of Gandhi, engaging in a civil war, or establishing a resistance movement where the sniper rifle and spotter replace Robbin Hood's merry men equipped with the most efficient weapon of their day, the English yew long bow. Tis well to remember that while a resistance movement can ill afford to purchase tanks and planes, a single sharpshooter placed in the right position can kill a politician or CEO at a distance of nearly a mile and hold off a regiment indefinitely. .50cal sniper rifles can also kill choppers and lightly armored vehicles.
ReplyDeleteI think it is worth quite a lot. I do not see any significant impact of the Green Party, or any third party on the U.S., in a foreseeable future. My view is quite cynical, I suppose. Considering the burden of a majority (in my opinion) of stupid, uninformed, & indifferent voters, & then weighing in the astronomical, bottomless bankrolls contributed to Republican campaigns as well as purging, & buying votes--we are standing on very shaky ground.
ReplyDeleteVery well reasoned. The future is hard to predict, but I sincerely hope that the Romney Ryan team doesn't get to the White House. Things are bad, but they can always get worse if the country gives in too much to the powers that be in this Second Gilded Age.
ReplyDeleteNo argument from me on those excellent points, Dragon.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dragon, there will be rioting in the streets and those same jerks that voted for Romney/Ryan will be the first ones yelling and screaming and pulling out their weapons they have been squirelling away since Obama took over afraid he was going to take away their guns.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kurt more than anyone here. "People have not been pushed hard enough far enough yet"
ReplyDeleteAs to weaponry however, I lack information. Could drones be used on the people, could high tech 'find' the snipers?
It's totally obvious to me, that it's come to the point of money/power & we know who has most of it. If Romney & Ryan make it, we have no other options than "engaging in a civil war, or establishing a resistance movement"...
Just to be clear, I'm not saying we might as well give up the ship at this moment in time, but like a game of chess, we must think clearly, & plot many moves ahead.....
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the choice is simple really , vote Green or vote corporate crypto-fascist.
ReplyDeleteBarack Obama is probably the most hated man on earth everywhere outside the US.
The choices in the forthcoming election are a lose-lose situation it seems to me, in which warmongers and madmen compete for the affection of the American people, as the country disintegrates under the yoke of totalitarianism and political psychopathy.
The only hope for America is to break the cycle of corruption and war psychosis but that can never be done by supporting either wing of the one-party neo-fascist US state.
Under the auspices of the Bush's, the Clinton's and Obama America has been cast in the role of THE global basket case, which mean that other than in the fevered imaginations of nazis and gangsters abroad, America has no friends anywhere in the world and beyond its shores there are now nothing but enemies plotting its final comeuppance.
The Green Party maybe isn't 'worth a worth a fiddler's burp' as you say Doug, but the alternative is the equivalent of turkeys voting for Thanksgiving yet again, the future is very bleak indeed for America and the Anglosphere in general in my view.
The choices are I think change or oblivion and as you say Doug there's not much evidence of the former I'm afraid.
it seems a long stretch from a 78% approval to the "most hated man on earth"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theblaze.com/stories/survey-obama-retains-wide-approval-in-europe/
I think we have to agree to disagree on this, AA. IN my view, The United States as a society has problems but it is not nor is it rapidly becoming the next Cambodia or Belorussia.
ReplyDeleteMike, I have to agree with you on this. Obama is nowher near the most hated man on earth. I'll take him over Vlad Putin or any of the one-party Al Capones, the Great Leader in North Korea, the military juntas of Burma and parts of central Africa , theocratic hard-liners in Iran, et al
ReplyDeleteThanks for those links.
I respectfully disagree, AA. Just the health care issue is a big enough difference. The Democrats and the GOP are not the same on domestic policy. I think people in some nations who have had government-managed health care take it for granted. I want to keep Medicare for my wife, my friends, my grandkids and myself.
ReplyDeleteI do agree the future looks bleak in parts, but I will not throw my vote away--and that's how I feel, honestly--- by voting for a for a minor candidate fro President. I admire your consistency and intellectual heft on many issues, as I do several others here, but I don't agree with you or Will on The Green Party right now in the USA.
This will be my last blog on the 2012 Elections until election day. (See my reasons if you want on a "Note" I just posted )
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments here.
Well your first reference is I think highly dubious a 75 per cent approval rating across Europe is little short of miraculous, but I'm afraid your second link is now out of date.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the same source as you cite the 2010 findings from, in their 2012 assessment the situation - Mr Obama has slipped in the global opinion polls according to Pewglobal.
They say for example:-
"Among the EU countries surveyed in both 2009 and 2012, a median of 78% approved of Obama’s policies in 2009, compared with 63% now. Among Muslim nations, the median has slipped from 34% to 15%. Major declines have also taken place in China, Japan, Russia and Mexico."
Rejection in China, Russia, Japan and the entire Muslim world not to mention a rapid cooling across Europe is beefing up the numbers, I can't think of any living politician more disapproved of.... if not always hated....in Pakistan Obama has only 7 per cent approval rating according to some polls.
Global publics are much less interested in the 2012 U.S. presidential election than they were in the 2008 contest according to Pewglobal. For example, four years ago 56% of Germans were closely following the race, compared with just 36% now.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/06/13/global-opinion-of-obama-slips-international-policies-faulted/
So ok perhaps in some places 'hate' is too strong a word (if not in some other places) but strong disapproval even across parts of Europe is I think no exaggeration at all.
I don't know who these polls sampled though, nobody asked me, but the evidence is Obama has lost the sympathy of much of the world..
I take your point Doug but on the other hand I am now aware of the Programme for a New Cambodian Century or any hint that global full spectrum dominance is an ambition of Belorussia.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right in pointing out that the influence of the USA is much bigger than the two nations I cited, AA.
ReplyDeleteI really was trying to make a point,perhaps too bluntly I'm afraid, that other nation states have more ruthless "regimes" whereas the USA I feel still belongs to the nations that practice public rule by the consent of the governed, however misguided that might be at times.
THANK YOU, MIKE.
ReplyDeleteI'm just one of those foolish persons who keep up with reality...I KNOW all the things that Obama has accomplished in spite of his adversaries, I know people whose lives have been saved by his healthcare reform, but oh God forbid that anyone else should pay a penny for them!
If someone wants to hit on us, hit on the administration that got us into this...on the power of corporations, & even of a Congress both evil & passive. Thank you.
Voting for a third party is out of the question for obvious reasons. We have a choice. So, I'll get a little dramatic, too. Romney & Ryan would throw all those under the 1% (or whatever it is now) to the wolves. Ryan is an evil man & targets not only the poor, but all women. Romney's position on the poor, disabled & elderly is known. But there are issues of great importance on which they refuse to reveal their plans until AFTER election. Duh.
ReplyDeleteOne thing, one absolute thing this country knows for sure...regardless of misc. disagreements over time....the Democratic party has always been the people's party. The Republicans answer to another God, to rich corporations. So, there certainly is a choice after all.
Lucija, I share your opinion 100 percenton on this. You put the issue better than I could in a lot less space. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI almost lost a very good contact who intimated Obama is the same as Blair. My contact lives in the UK. "consistency and intellectual heft" is not enough to tell ME the ratings of my president, nor do the statistics in their diversity mean more than the number of clicks on the keys.