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Oct 9, 2013 at 4:00 am
If You Don't Let Them Repeal Obamacare, They're Going to Kill This Orangutan
Fuming at a park ranger, frightened of teabaggers, farting idiocy on Twitter.
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At least with Rove and Cheney, you got the feeling there was a mastermind at work. Evil, but still... brilliantly so. This Tea Party crew has gone past denying scientific principles such as global warming and evolution, moving on to denying core principles of government, economics, and cause and effect.
I have lost hours and hours just taking in the scope of idiocy available on the internet, and hate-reading the tide of popular ignorant opinion out there. We seem to be a nation of racist trolls at this point. Michelle Bachmann seems to be welcoming the End Days in anticipation of her heavenly reward -- I'm anticipating a more secular apocalypse and not sure if this country even deserves to be saved.
I guess I was wrong. But it still seems like the orange-hued primate/Speaker of the House is pretty spooked by the Tea Baggers assembled outside his office door. How'd they get those pitchforks and torches past Security?
Repeal the low capital gains taxes and let the middle class pay more. You only have that kind of income if you have assets, and if you have those kind of assets you can pay a bit of taxes.
Obama did a terrible terrible terrible thing when he let the Republicans "force" him to not let the capital gains tax rates expire. We lost the America we love back then.
Unfortunately, that's not on the table thanks to our namby-pamby laws against murdering people who richly deserve it.
Comparing members of a political party to a primate?
Now you sound like one of the racist pro-Zimmerman commenters frequenting the boards at MyNorthwest.com
This is right up there with the Bill Moyers segment that was posted the other day.
I do wish, though, that we could talk a bit about the mechanism by which the public has been shifted so far into the camp of the right-wingers. It's not entirely intrinsic. It's been carefully cultivated and organized, using mass media in very clever ways. It started several years back, when someone started distributing daily talking points to Republican Party figures. Whether Roger Ailes is the originator or a recipient, it hardly matters, but it explains why Fox News and Republican elected figures are frequently in verbal lockstep. The phrase "vast right-wing conspiracy" sounded nuts when we first heard it, but the degree to which their propaganda is organized does speak to something similar.
Obviously, those Americans who have been cynically manipulated aren't the least bit aware of it. The rest of the corporate-owned media probably aren't directly complicit, but they're doing so little to oppose the propaganda that it makes one wonder: if they're not part of it, then why are they afraid to say something?
Orangutan
-Without context: A beautiful and majestic animal, one of our closest relatives, deserving of millions of dollars' worth of protection.
-As a metaphor: A dirty ape. A method to insult people you hate.
Ironic, since The Stranger and the SLOG are fueled by Internet rage from the left.
This article has helped make me feel sane, albeit depressed, about our current predicament. Feels like strong incentive to start focusing on visiting other countries.
Hunter Thompson hyperbole will get you anywhere. Or everywhere. Or something. That last graf sounds so much >_< like Hunter.
One of the things I haven't seen in articles like this is actual budget numbers, references (links) to actual proposed legislation. I get that some pre-digestion needs to occur, but geez sometimes I wish news was a little more like a research paper.
Hunter Thompson hyperbole will get you anywhere. Or everywhere. Or something. That last graf sounds so much >_< like Hunter.
One of the things I haven't seen in articles like this is actual budget numbers, references (links) to actual proposed legislation. I get that some pre-digestion needs to occur, but geez sometimes I wish news was a little more like a research paper.
Back in the "good old days," medieval Europe, the King taxed, not income, but the holdings of his royal underlings. (They, in turn, got to fleece their commoners to keep up their dukedoms, or whatever.)
A 10% tax on the holdings of the Waltons would yield a hell of lot more than a 90% tax on their annual income.
Anyway, such a scheme is called a "Personal Property Tax," and would apply to an individual's worldwide holdings of cash, stocks, bonds, art, commodities, yachts, jewelry, etc. It's a nice dream, but it's pretty hard to fully enforce without a combination of an army of intrusive investigators and those medieval executions the King used against his tax evading nobility to help keep the rest honest.
Simply sabotaging it, either by defunding portions of it, discouraging participation, or hampering efforts to implement it, doesn't prove a damned thing.
At least we can boycott Wal*Mart and McDonald's in the meantime (isn't the thought of eating "pink slime" passing as fast food hamburger repellant enough??). Paul's right---NOBODY is worth $100 billion dollars!
The Koches, Waltons and DuPonts are obviously chortling all the way to their Wall Street banks.
The teabaggers are the ones keeping us from making progress (and actually dragging us backwards) on all of these goals. So yeah, I'm outraged. We are long overdue for a single payer system.
The Walton's have $3 for every other person in the US. That's entirely too much hoarding of money. Fuck those guys.
Nam vet that should receive public health assistance- I would be willing to chip in for the euthanasia drugs.
"What would it take to change my opinion?"
If the answer is: 'nothing', You need to go away. Leave. Stop. Just stop. You are intellectually dead, and have nothing to contribute to any community discussion of any kind.
I think your answer to the question above is 'nothing' because you're literally wishing your fellow Americans suffer from unnecessary sickness, bankruptcy, and death for the sake of the profits of insurance companies.
The other reason I think that nothing will change your mind is that there are literally dozens of aspects of Obamacare that are objectively better for America than the previous system, and you'd have to be willfully ignorant to ignore them.
Good luck to you.
✒✒✒✒✒✒✒✒www.JℴℬS72.ℭℴℳ
1) If left to it's own devices, do you think government can be trusted?
2) Does the government have any business telling people what they can or can not do, if said activity does not infringe upon the rights of others?
3) Is it right to take away the rights of the MANY because of the actions of the ignorant, irresponsible, greedy, power-hungry, violent, crazy FEW?
I hope you will all go out and seek one of your political opposites, or someone from any strata in between, and try to find that common ground that I have found most people have. We are not so divided, we are just being lead to think we are. If we ever discover that simple fact we might all realize that our rights can never be taken away, that our freedoms are absolute, and that the only purpose for government is to protect the rights of individuals against the tyranny of the many. Things can be ok, we just need to call bullshit when and where we see it, no matter what the politics.
Yes. The examples you give, however, suggest you are unaware that your own publication is also in the business of peddling outrage.
Not that there aren't things to be outraged about. Still, the fixation reminds me of an old (and valid, in my opinion) critique of television news that it presents a distorted reflection of the world as being overrun with violence, mayhem, and pedophiles.
"In reference to the ...story". I know you knew it was bullshit. But damn, man, you called me out in a harsh way when all I was doing was making a quick post using bad syntax to mark the history of an urban legend reference. Ouch. I will now go sulk away. A bazillion apologies.
...
Many times when I come across blatant disregard for history, geography, science or something in my bailiwick, I just bail on the article doubting the writer's knowledge or motive"
Are you just ranting to defend your proud love of lazy skimming? Because that's all this appears to be.
Your story was lazy, bad writing. I agree with your politics, but your elocution is pathetic.
This version was a little more savage, so points to the poor drunken vet for making it a far more interesting story.
And like anything by Paul, good article.
Still no progress on that project you launched back in January to leave SLOG forever, huh? Too bad.
TURN YOUR FUCKING CAPS LOCK OFF YOU fucking BELL-END.
CAM M. BEAR
Great writing,too.
What Does Homeless Look Like?
I don’t use drugs or alcohol. I don’t rob, steal or cheat. I am not the beggar holding up homemade placards on the busy streets. I didn’t live under the Davidson Street Bridge but I too, have been evicted from my home and now when I call you it is from my Obama phone.
I own designer shoes, clothes, and purses. I am polished and professional. I have a college education. I have travelled across the country working in my chosen occupation. I am a great communicator. I carry my resume` in a leather portfolio yet when you stand next to me in the elevator and we smile and exchange pleasantries I get off on the next floor so that I may apply for public assistance.
After you interview me for a job, I visit a Pantry for food. I pawn my expensive jewelry for bus fare, toiletries and the rare treat off the Value Menu. I have bathed in public restrooms. I have slept in Emergency Room lobbies. I have cried myself asleep with one eye open to protect myself and my remaining property.
What does homeless look like? Who do you see when you pass by me on the city streets? I am not disheveled or haggard if and when we meet. I am now a jobless woman trying to get back on my feet. So don’t become confused about what you see just because I am not pushing all my belongings in a shopping cart down the street.
I am the new face of homeless! It is I! It is me! The college educated woman broken and lonely trying to get back on my feet!