A question for the American citizens who want their country back:
Who the hell do you want it back from? We haven’t been invaded. There hasn’t been an overthrow of the government. No one stormed Congress and the White House and took it by force. The United States of America had an election last fall, and a whole bunch of your fellow American citizens voted to put the people in office who are currently in office.
Get a grip.
Were these the same people who were saying a few years ago that if democrats didn’t like the way the US was run they should just leave?
I grow tired of these people who complain about being taxed and saying the government can’t run anything. They got to their protests on roads built using tax money. Any mess they made in the streets will be cleaned up using tax money, I could go on an on in this vein. I’m sure these people would also like the armed forces to be privatized because as we all know private business does everything better. How long would it take to see the military being outsourced to say India, because it was cheaper and made a bigger profit…..
Mostly, those people are mad at themselves for being lazy and stupid, and knowing that privilege must be earned. They want a reward for being born here. Modern day Know-Nothings.
Imagine being a child trapped for 18 years under the control of such losers. Really strengthens the case for public education.
Good point John, modern-day Know-Nothings indeed.
Yes, Ekim, these are mostly the same segment of Americans who were calling Democrats un-American the last 8 years and that anyone who didn’t like what the government was doing should leave. After all, it’s totally un-American to complain about the President. He won the election! How dare you not agree with him?! Yup … same people.
Paul, I read the Texas GOP platform a week or so ago, and they want to eliminate just about all taxes. Seriously. Income tax, property tax, you name it … they want it gone. They don’t seem to have a clue about what all they have and use every day thanks to taxes. In my daydreams, everything that we are supplied by taxation would shut down for a day so they could see what it would be like. No roads, no schools, no parks, no fire or police, no water, no electricity, and on and on and on. Even hospitals, television, radio, and so many other things not obviously funded or made possible with tax money are there because of it.
How they think it could all be paid for without taxes, I don’t know. Privatization is how I imagine it would work in their world, right up until they couldn’t afford to hire firemen to put out their burning house or a cop to protect them and the roads were falling apart. It would never work, and most of the people griping are the ones who would have the most trouble paying for every service they need when they need it. Crazy.
I vote we march their ilk (death march style), from all 50 states, to SC, then give it to them. Take away all federal funds, and see how they survive. Bet the first thing they establish is psych hospitals. (Remember Hike for Hope? Maybe if they prove they’ve hiked from their home address to SC, we give them an acre or two. Hike for Dopes? Hike for “Freedom”? Hike for Conservative Security? Whatever sells it to ‘em.)
I once worked on a U.S Navy base and one of the sailors told me that the Navy was communist because it told him what to do. I have the feeling the grasp of political concepts isn’t much higher for a lot of these so-called tea partiers.
The thing is, I know people who I would have said had at least some grasp of political concepts. Maybe not a deep understanding of it all, but better than average. And some of these people I know are buying into this whole madness that seems to be going around. It’s like they have turned off their brains and just believe whatever the TV tells them.
I’ve tried to not jump on the “racism” being a factor bandwagon, not even subconscious racism, but it’s getting harder and harder not to see all this insanity as just a lot of fear about the “other” suddenly being in control of something big (like the White House).
I also think a lot of it is that old people in general fear any kind of change, and the world is changing a lot right now. I hope I never get that way, and I don’t think I will.
I don’t know. I try to ignore all this stupidity, because they are a minority opinion, but I also know there’s a lot of stupid in America, and it isn’t inconceivable that this craziness could spread enough to be a majority opinion in the future, and then we’ll be right and truly screwed. I guess we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
Sometimes, I think all a politician has to say is “America is the greatest country in the world” and masses of people never hear the next phrase, which is often something like “and to keep it great, we’re going to bend over backwards to set policy that will help the corporations that give me plenty of money. Don’t worry, if we have to cut services to make sure everything is great for the big business, because we live in the greatest country in the world.”
am always puzzled by Americans who wish for a socialized form of government but have never lived under a Socialized form of government. I would suggest you may first want to give it a try for a year or so. Let me know what you think of the Queens Writ, nationwide utility strikes (nothing like the smell of 2 weeks or more worth of garbage piling up), or instant transportation strikes, you could not afford your home in Europe, their health system is fine for bumps and cold, you just don’t want to get really sick and need an operation, CAT scans or any advanced medical procedure, taxes are extremely high. Now some Americans living and working abroad will tell you how wonder life is, and they don’t understand why Americans back home complain about paying higher taxes. They also probably will forget to inform you they don’t pay taxes on the first $85,000; to be completely honest this $85,000 figure includes housing cost.
If you have traveled in Europe anytime during the last 55 years, you’ll see something that you only see here in the States during times of turmoil. Truck transport full of armed military police patrolling the streets. They are not hard to spot, dark jumpsuits black boots with bloused pants and are carrying automatic rifles. The regular police, state and locals, carry side arms. Wonder what the ACLU would have to say about that?
As they say, you really have to be careful for what you wish for, you just might get it.
That socialism you’re complaining about? You’re soaking in it … right here in the USA.
Actually, Jocko, I have traveled and lived in Europe in the past 55 years and that’s not anything I’ve seen in Europe. I’d take the British NHS over the greedy health insurance companies any day. Just today I was getting a prescription and two of the people in front of me were told by the pharmacist that their insurance company wouldn’t pay for their medications. Now, if that were a government agency doing that some might call that rationing. And what part of this country do you live in where the police don’t carry sidearms? If you’re worried about jackboots in the night…they’re already here.
What countries are you referring to, Jocko? That is not something I have witnessed in my travels throughout western Europe.
Ekim,
Well for starters, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Naples, Madrid, Athens, Berlin just about all your major European cities, but not London. However, I am not sure what you were referring to when you said that is not what you have witnessed? I’m speaking of the extra military/federal police presence. It is very similar to certain parts of Mexico with their Federalizes.
Paul,
This is why health insurance should be as available as car and life insurance. The reason it isn’t is because of Congress.
Where people get confused between health coverage here in the US and that found in most European countries, except for the Swizz, is medicine, general medical practice, and specialized medical practices. Like Said for colds, cuts bruises, Europe is one up on America, but when it comes to specializing in medical procedures the world looks towards the US.
If your prescription isn’t a tier 3 medicine, code name for a brand name as seen on TV, your insurance company would have no problem paying for the generic equivalent. I have a friend who will not take a generic medicine, but then bitches because he has to pay a high deductible. Go figure.
So what do people who take medications for which there aren’t generic equivalents do? And you would be surprised how many Arabs go to London for health care and I’m sure Stephen Hawking was glad of the treatment he got from the NHS. Jocko, are you getting money from the health insurance companies? And off the top my head, artificial knees and hips were pioneered at NHS hospitals.
Jocko,
When were you last in those cities you name? I have never seen a military uniform in Barcelona and in Berlin only at train stations when the people wearing them were going between platforms.
Ekim,
I was in Italy 2 years ago, Paris 3 times in the last 5 years, Athens and Barcelona 4 years ago, and a number of other such cities going back to 1963. In most European countries, there are 3 types of police, I know I said “military”, I really meant police. You have your local, town city PD, then you have your state/territory/regional PD, and at the top of the PD food chain are the Federal PD. They are the ones who dress in a more military style, your local/state/regional and state PD look pretty much like, police officer. The other distinguishing characteristic is in the firearms they carry, the federal PD carry small automatic weapons, probably H&K’s MP5, or other similar light automatic rifles. You’ll see them at airports, train stations, patrolling the streets. In Pairs, you’ll also see just standing around in 20 man clusters, just waiting, on what I have no idea, but at times you’ll see them racing through the streets in their troop trucks. On weekends in Paris, they gather in the open areas of places like the Jardin des Tuileries, the park that runs next to the Louvre Museum, the Champs-Elysees and well known public gathering areas. It would be hard not to see them, but most visitors not knowing there is a difference would think they are either military or riot police.
I could well believe that so soon after the Madrid bombing Barcelona would have additional armed police out on the streets. Greece… well it has Former Yugoslavia to the North and the Middle East on the East.
Former Yugoslavia and the former soviet states I won’t contest. They’ve still a long way to go. I’m told that there were some very loud “bring back communism all is forgiven” protests during the downturn.
German airport police carry pistols as standard. This surprised me since even British ones carry SMGs. When they were policing the protests about a nuclear waste train going through Germany I remember the police having both hands free as well. I wasn’t paying attention to their guns but when some protestors broke through a secure area and made for the train the police paired up and two of them carried each protestor back to where they were meant to be and dumped them on the floor.
I haven’t been to Paris but when I was in France, believe me if there were security conscious armed police around the way I was dressed they’d have made themselves known.
I’m curious when you were in Berlin. I’ve only seen it in the late 90s, pre 9/11 and long post reunification. I don’t actually remember the year, they were getting ready to move the parliament proper from Bonn.