The US Government has ceased to exist in all major respects, it is broke, it can not pay its employees so all the normal little cogs of government have ground to a halt. Currently their military will be fighting for free to save the self same US politicians', who have caused this mess, political backsides.
As I understand it the Republican's in Congress felt it more important politically to protect the profit margins of private health insurers than ensure all people in the US had access to a basic human right, health care, by right, no matter how in debt, skint or poverty stricken they are they are. Given the 15% of US citizens live below the US poverty line that is an awful lot of folk with no access to basic health care.
The Republican's lost the vote in Congress to stop Obamacare, they lost the vote in the Senate on the same issue hence Obamacare (an upgrade to Medicare to make this basic level of care truly universally accessible in the USA) became law. The Republican version of UKIP (the Tea Party) threw its toys out of the pram accompanied by a whole series of inane statements to defend their petted lips - Obama is a Muslim and therefore a terrorist threatening the safety of the people of the USA, Obamacare is anti-American as it is anti-competitive, Obama is a socialist, the inanities of the Republican make the Private Eye's Coleman Balls series seem logical by comparison.
Only today I came across this classic from a Republican Congressman, Representative Joe Barton, from Texas: "Wind is a finite resource and harnessing it will slow the winds down which would cause the temperature to go up." This from a party which continues to state there is no such occurrence as climate change and if it is, fossil fuels are not playing any part in global warming. I have friends in the USA, they have serious University degrees - surely the average American can not believe this arrant nonsense?
In the meantime the USEPA are reporting major problems with aquifers across the US of A which are either being sucked dry by Coal Bed Methane and Shale Bed Methane Fracking's heavy demand for water or heavily polluted by the release of fracking chemicals and methane into the aquifer rock layers. Folk living around the vast US Fracking developments are being paid vast amounts to stop complaining about the leaks and the smell, compensated for the increase in sink holes in areas where fracking is occurring or damage to homes and businesses from localised earthquakes caused by stress relief in rock layers caused by fracking fluids at high pressure lubricating the fault lines.
I presume Mr Barton and his Republican friends in Congress are perfectly OK about this as long as their pals in Halliburton are making a mint from the methane extraction. The Republican's are clearly happy to subsidise Wal-Mart and MacDonald's profit margins using US Taxpayer's money to keep wages artificially low to the point people working a 45 hour week in the Us in either organisation still end up having draw food stamps to get by.
It turns out since the Republican lost twice in an open vote they are now trying to blackmail the US executive to give in over 'Obamacare' and do not give a fig about the people who actually make the US Government work. How can Republican's claim they are all for 'the land of the free' when by their actions they are deliberately creating an ever less free and more restricted, divided, violent and closed down US society lacking any opportunity to improve its condition or seek the 'American Dream'?
Worse still, this Republican Tea Party Policy is the politically fascist leaning model the current Conservatives of the left and right at Westminster are now trying to force on a UK populace. A population which is increasingly divided and splitting along political and financial lines to the point the Scots will exercise their right to end the 1706 Treaty of Union in September 2014 and put the United Kingdom, the 1706 treaty created, out of existence; returning Westminster to being solely the English Sovereign Parliament, directly ruling the English crown dependencies of Berwick upon Tweed, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland's independent parliament will reflect Scotland's long standing social democratic political leanings and function as a representative democracy where the Scottish people will be sovereign.
Note: To ensure we are talking about the same thing these are the meanings I have applied.
Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. At socialism's extreme edges there is little to separate socialism's processes and actions from fascism, as in both systems all power and control lies with a self selected elite.
Socialist: An advocate or supporter of socialism.
Fascism: The state, through official / unofficial cartels, controls all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. The people are usually rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, unemployed, sick and disabled (aka the untermensch in the German fascist state pronouncements). A process which is utilised to reduce individual freedoms for the good of the State usually by increasing police powers to the point they are paramilitary in their actions.
Fascist: An advocate or adherent of fascism who usually is a reactionary or dictatorial person.
Social Democracy: a policy regime involving a universal welfare state and collective bargaining schemes within the framework of a capitalist economy.
As I understand it the Republican's in Congress felt it more important politically to protect the profit margins of private health insurers than ensure all people in the US had access to a basic human right, health care, by right, no matter how in debt, skint or poverty stricken they are they are. Given the 15% of US citizens live below the US poverty line that is an awful lot of folk with no access to basic health care.
The Republican's lost the vote in Congress to stop Obamacare, they lost the vote in the Senate on the same issue hence Obamacare (an upgrade to Medicare to make this basic level of care truly universally accessible in the USA) became law. The Republican version of UKIP (the Tea Party) threw its toys out of the pram accompanied by a whole series of inane statements to defend their petted lips - Obama is a Muslim and therefore a terrorist threatening the safety of the people of the USA, Obamacare is anti-American as it is anti-competitive, Obama is a socialist, the inanities of the Republican make the Private Eye's Coleman Balls series seem logical by comparison.
Only today I came across this classic from a Republican Congressman, Representative Joe Barton, from Texas: "Wind is a finite resource and harnessing it will slow the winds down which would cause the temperature to go up." This from a party which continues to state there is no such occurrence as climate change and if it is, fossil fuels are not playing any part in global warming. I have friends in the USA, they have serious University degrees - surely the average American can not believe this arrant nonsense?
In the meantime the USEPA are reporting major problems with aquifers across the US of A which are either being sucked dry by Coal Bed Methane and Shale Bed Methane Fracking's heavy demand for water or heavily polluted by the release of fracking chemicals and methane into the aquifer rock layers. Folk living around the vast US Fracking developments are being paid vast amounts to stop complaining about the leaks and the smell, compensated for the increase in sink holes in areas where fracking is occurring or damage to homes and businesses from localised earthquakes caused by stress relief in rock layers caused by fracking fluids at high pressure lubricating the fault lines.
I presume Mr Barton and his Republican friends in Congress are perfectly OK about this as long as their pals in Halliburton are making a mint from the methane extraction. The Republican's are clearly happy to subsidise Wal-Mart and MacDonald's profit margins using US Taxpayer's money to keep wages artificially low to the point people working a 45 hour week in the Us in either organisation still end up having draw food stamps to get by.
It turns out since the Republican lost twice in an open vote they are now trying to blackmail the US executive to give in over 'Obamacare' and do not give a fig about the people who actually make the US Government work. How can Republican's claim they are all for 'the land of the free' when by their actions they are deliberately creating an ever less free and more restricted, divided, violent and closed down US society lacking any opportunity to improve its condition or seek the 'American Dream'?
Worse still, this Republican Tea Party Policy is the politically fascist leaning model the current Conservatives of the left and right at Westminster are now trying to force on a UK populace. A population which is increasingly divided and splitting along political and financial lines to the point the Scots will exercise their right to end the 1706 Treaty of Union in September 2014 and put the United Kingdom, the 1706 treaty created, out of existence; returning Westminster to being solely the English Sovereign Parliament, directly ruling the English crown dependencies of Berwick upon Tweed, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland's independent parliament will reflect Scotland's long standing social democratic political leanings and function as a representative democracy where the Scottish people will be sovereign.
Note: To ensure we are talking about the same thing these are the meanings I have applied.
Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. At socialism's extreme edges there is little to separate socialism's processes and actions from fascism, as in both systems all power and control lies with a self selected elite.
Socialist: An advocate or supporter of socialism.
Fascism: The state, through official / unofficial cartels, controls all aspects of manufacturing, commerce, finance, and agriculture. The people are usually rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, unemployed, sick and disabled (aka the untermensch in the German fascist state pronouncements). A process which is utilised to reduce individual freedoms for the good of the State usually by increasing police powers to the point they are paramilitary in their actions.
Fascist: An advocate or adherent of fascism who usually is a reactionary or dictatorial person.
Social Democracy: a policy regime involving a universal welfare state and collective bargaining schemes within the framework of a capitalist economy.
I notice the comments made by others have conveniently been removed. So it's OK to voice an opinion on your hit piece...just as long as it conforms to your beliefs? Way to stand behind your work.
ReplyDeleteThe post were removed because they were simply an ad hominen attack and did not move the discussion forward.
ReplyDeleteThis is the view many now have of the USA. One where business cartels run the USA for their own advantage assisted by supine Republican politicians. I note today that even the Republican's best friends at Fox News are reporting that 59% of Americans are pointing the finger at the Republicans for the shut down.
I merely held up a mirror to how the Republicans and more specifically 'Tea Party' Republicans are seen outside of the USA, reflected on how their policies of 'me first' have been imported and are now wrecking the UK creating a nearly as unequal country as the USA already is. By any measure the far right of the Republican movement now have much more in common with the fascists my father's generation fought and died to kick out of Europe and US Servicemen died to rid from Asia. The irony of it all is the Tea Party Republicans are in effect encouraging the growth of fascist far right, neo-Nazi groups across the USA.
This is the mirror I am holding up - if you do not like what you see, that is your own problem.
My integrity refuses to be altered to fit in with what I'm expected or intimidated to believe.
There is no integrity on this page only ignorance. Comment on your own country., You are a laughing stock in this one. Those involved in the legislation are laughing until they are sick about how you bought what they could never sell to an American. You are just to dumb to be taken seriously and have no credibility. I'm actually trying to help you. You are embarrassing yourself and looking like a buffoon. You need to stop to salvage any sense of reputation that could be had. Why do you insist on wanting to look like a jackass? Just apologize for the stupidity you have shown through the vomiting out the disinformation that they fed to you. Refrain from discussing American issues about which you are ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI note that Lucretia, and, I presume, those deleted, has no concept of how to conduct debate. If someone makes an accusation, it is incumbent upon those objecting to the accusation to provide some counter-proof, some factual rebuttal. What we have here is just a series of insults - "ignorance", "laughing stock","buffoon" etc.
ReplyDeleteWhat Lucretia also fails to realise is that outside of the USA people are gazing with fascinated horror at the rise of the profoundly anti-intellectual Tea Party whose policies hark back to the McCarthy Era socially and to the 19th century economically - neither one a desirable option. There is plentiful information reported on American issues worldwide since what affects America affects us all eventually - we are far from ignorant of American affairs. The reverse is not true. Americans like Lucretia appear totally unaware of the fact that most, if not all of their European allies pursue policies that they would decry as "Socialist" (in complete ignorance of the meaning of the word) or "Communist" (ditto). We regard the terrible state of public health provision in the USA as an indication of political maturity stalled at the savage level. The Tea Party's attempts to turn a secular Republic (as the Founding Fathers defined it) into a theocracy by telling bare-faced lies engenders revulsion on the part of a continent which has suffered terribly over the centuries through unbridled religion and has, in the main, drawn its teeth long ago. God should never be in goverment - all human history teaches us that such is a recipe for oppression and atrocity. I, in common with many others, had great hopes for the USA as I grew up. It is now becoming fast apparent that, politically at any rate, the USA is a failed and undemocratic state. That makes me very sad as I have known countless decent Americans who would never subscribe to Tea Party savagery but are having to suffer the consequences of a philosophy that preys and exists on the backs of the politically ignorant.
You are not an American and the information you have is so bad and so wrong that it makes you look like a jackass. If you are so stupid you have no credibility in your own country we don't want your stupidity here. Do you even understand how you are being used? The danger with some one like you who has a low IQ and no education when you are given a little false knowledge you buy it hook line and sinker.
ReplyDeleteGo back and write about your own country we don't want you here.
Do you understand that the more you talk the more everyone is laughing at you?
And we don't care about other countries who are are desperately trying to immitate us. Every other country has so miserably failed and everyone wants to live here. We don't want or need that backward movement. Stay in your own backward coutnry
ReplyDeleteIn effect your posts epitomises the weakness of your own argument - The USA claims to be the world's policeman when it comes to defending freedom yet is making things worse every where it goes. The Libyan's are not best pleased with your latest exploits. Iraq remains a total mess. Afghanistan is heading back to the dark ages.
DeleteYou are clearly not aware of just how broke the USA is after the Fed had to spend an estimated $2,000+ billion simply bailing out US debt in UK banking institutions when Lehman's went down the pan. I would love to know what the actual Fed bail out figure was for Wall Street's casino bankers who triggered the crash with the Fanny and May disaster.
PS: I am in my own country, Scotland. The country that created your representative democracy through its Enlightenment Philospher's influence on your constitution and its writing. Scotland, the backward country that had a large hand in creating the USA. One of whose sons, who was born where I live, created the USN - John Paul-Jones. What I see is a country falling far short of its founding fathers intentions for it, first and foremost a constitution which states religion has no place in US politics.
You are not European so you do not see what a laughing stock the 'Tea Party' are making the USA in the eyes of the world with its insularity.
Please address the issues raised - I am leaving your responses simply because they make my argument for me.
Lucretia,
ReplyDeleteAgain you resort to insult instead of argument. Do you have any facts to back up what you say? According to you, I have "a low IQ and no education". Not to brag, but I have a PhD and a recorded IQ of 145. Your statement that "everyone wants to live here" is far from true - while the USA may be an interesting place to visit (and I have done so several times and met some wonderful people there), I wouldn't live there for all the tea in China - and I know plenty of people of the same opinion. The USA treats its citizens like shit - why would I want to live there? My former in-laws, citizens of your demented country, are living in poverty in their old age -after a lifetime of high-level, highly-paid professional work - because of medical bills. In my poor "backward country" their savings would have been protected and their medical treatment free. That's what I call civilisation - something of which you seem to have no concept, lost as you are in the savagery that is American right-wing philosophy (if you can call something so patently stupid a "philosophy"). I know how America works. You, obviously, have NO idea how Europe works.