Facilitating Government Shutdown, Crazy Legislation, Contracting Relief and Lemmings

Robert Reich:

Case in point: House Budget Chair Paul Ryan unveiled a plan today that should make every American cringe. It would turn Medicare into vouchers whose benefits are funneled into the pockets of private insurers. It would make Medicaid and Food Stamps into block grants that allow states to ignore poor people altogether. It would drastically cut funding for schools, roads, and much else Americans need. And many of the plan's savings would go to wealthy Americans who'd pay even lower taxes than they do today.
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But this so-called "blueprint" could be a blueprint for America's future when and if right-wing Republicans take charge.
Which is where the cynicism comes in -- and the shutdowns. Republicans may get blamed now. But if the shutdowns contribute to the belief among Americans that government doesn't work, Republicans win over the long term. As with the rise of the Tea Partiers, the initiative shifts to those who essentially want to close it down for good.
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I have been really thinking about what kind of a country these anti-American’s who falsely wrap themselves in the flag are actually trying to create. Sure, part of this movement is about Christian Theocracy, but I doubt those who are pulling the strings from the top actually believe in that crap, dominionists are just their puppets. The Koch’s and other overlords believe in the almighty dollar and the power it affords them, that‘s it. They have been rewriting history and issuing their own warped interpretations of the Constitution for decades.

What is their real objective? They are creating a large population of poor people while trying to take away the programs that help keep the working poor, elderly and poor surviving while the wealthiest pay next to no taxes. Normally during difficult economic times relief programs are expanded, not contracted. Relief is mainly in place to prevent civil unrest, not to help people. Why would they want to trigger civil unrest. Is it to create a shock doctrine situation so they can get legislation passed to take away even more of our civil rights? If they think people are docile enough to not cause trouble they will let them live on the streets. Relief programs are designed for controlling the poor and to funnel them into low paying jobs. That is why those who live in public housing have to sign several documents stating they will not go to school full time. If a poor person who can not find a job during this recession could somehow get help to go to college so he could get a secure job what a travesty that would be for the oligarchy when he could have been coerced to take a low paying job when the recession starts to lift. They prefer to keep him in public housing for several years rather than allow him to increase his chances to get a job much sooner.

A huge part of what is going with the oligarchic overlords right now is an attempt to control the population which is becoming slowly more aware, thanks to the internet, of the history of the control of our government by a small selfish segment of society. The spread of information is then amplified by experiences of large numbers of people who are enduring economic hardships. They are clearly desperate, fearing the elimination of Capitalism, or controls legislated against their greed, or fear of paying their fair share of taxes. That is why they spent so much money putting all of these sociopathic personalities into the governor’s offices of many states. Just look at Walker in Wisconsin. The rest are pretty much like him, he was just the one designated to start the ball rolling to implement the plan to eliminate unions. Between him and some other Republicans who have been governors in the recent past, like Sarah Palin, it is clear they have no ethics, could care less about their fellow humans, and their stated love for their country is a lie. How can they say they love a country they are hell bent on destroying? It is love of money and power that motives them, certainly not a new situation in the history of mankind. They come up with strategies for marketing plans to make changes over time disguised as another agenda, such as the radical religious right ideologies. These are basic public relations tactics which are working well on many people who don’t do their own research.

Their plans for reducing spending are like someone deciding to reduce their bills by using rather severe eliminations because their budget is out of wack and failing to prioritize or use logic. If this person stops paying for medical insurance and moves out of his home to live in a tent he will save a lot of money, but what kind of a quality of life will he have and how long will he live? In the case of those passing the legislation they will be filling their coffers while they force someone else to live in a tent, that guy living in the tent gets no say at all. We all know where that extra money that is saved by taking away from the poor and middle class will end up going, don’t we Mr. and Mr. Koch? Rather than look for the obvious reasons we have a big deficit, like the wars, or Wall Street greed or the decades of allowing very obvious widespread fraud of Medicare/Medicaid they want to shift the blame. They always want to blame those who not only have nothing to do with the problem, but were not the ones who made the bad decisions that caused them in the first place while generally these decisions have been made against the will of the majority of the people.

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The president needs to remind us that as members of the same society we have obligations to one another -- that the wealthiest among us must pay their fair share of taxes, that any of us who loses our jobs or homes or gets terribly sick can count on the rest of us, and that we have collective obligations to our elderly,Obama must show America that the basic choice is between two fundamental views of this nation. Either we're all in this together, or we're a bunch of individuals who happen to live within these borders and are mainly on their own.

This has been the basic choice all along -- when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, in the Civil War, when we went through World War I and World War II and the Great Depression in between, during the Civil Rights movement and beyond.

The president needs to remind us that as members of the same society we have obligations to one another -- that the wealthiest among us must pay their fair share of taxes, that any of us who loses our jobs or homes or gets terribly sick can count on the rest of us, and that we have collective obligations our elderly, our children, and the rest of the planet.
Thito s is why we have government. And anyone who wants to shut it down or cut it down because they say we can't afford it any longer is plain wrong. We are the richest nation in the world, richer than we've ever been. We can afford to remain a society whose members are in it together.*****
The far right wing of the Republican Party and the Tea Party are doing the bidding of their overlords. The goal is to convince the American people our government is dysfunctional and our deficit is high due to all those freeloaders (Those who are unemployed during this recession and the elderly/disabled) who get unemployment, Social Security and Medicare. In fact they are almost convincing the youth of this country that grandma who worked her whole life and paid into Social Security and Medicare is really just a leach.

It doesn’t matter that their arguments are not based in fact or logic because the uneducated and dumbed-down part of our society which is becoming larger all the time can’t think for themselves or identify fact from fiction. These lemmings just jump off a cliff into an ocean of doom, not even realizing they are harming themselves and their country. In fact they are taught that thinking about the welfare of others is a type of evil called socialism. Most of them don’t know what socialism is, they have just been programmed to react in a negative way to the word.



Then there is the Alaska legislature which is in part hampered by a radically right dominionist governor who wants to give away Alaska’s resources to oil companies. So far our state legislature has only passed two bills and both of them were a complete waste of time. The insane Anti-Sharia Bill which clearly could never be passed, but served to waste the time and resources of the legislature is an example of part of their strategy on the local level. Then we have a bill introduced by Rep. Bob Lynn that is one of the most irresponsible and batshit wingnut crazy wastes of time I have ever seen. Ignoring decades of research he wants underage kids in the military to be allowed to drink and smoke. What a great guy. Here is his twisted logic:

From the ADN:
"It's not fair that one guy in a fox hole can go home and have a beer while another guy in the fox hole can't," said Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage. "It's not about drinking, it's not about smoking, it's about equality. If you get shot at, you can have a shot."

Adolescents rely more on the emotional center of the brain because the logic part is not fully developed yet. That is why they make decisions which are risky and think they are invincible. This makes it difficult for them to make decisions that lead to moderation of drinking. The brain does not develop the ability to override emotions by logic fully until about age 21. BTW, Rep. Lynn since you are apparently clueless. Getting shot at causes PTSD and alcohol is one of the worst things those with PTSD can ingest. PTSD also makes people more prone to addiction due to self medication which is one of the reasons soldiers in the middle east seek out drugs in whatever environment they are in. Alcohol stalls PTSD recovery by keeping the brain stuck in the bad memories. It is also well known that alcohol and drugs stop adolescents from going through developmental stages, an eighteen year old is not fully developed. Then on top of all of this there are a lot of kids who have alcohol problems and mental health problems who end up in the military to begin with. Making drinking legal in the military will change their demographics because kids who want to drink will join the military just so they can.  Do we really want more suicides or murders in the military, or kids getting DUIs and possibly killing themselves or others driving drunk? Sometimes I wonder if they put some kind of stupid inducing drug in the water, or is it some kind of alcoholic dementia? What is with all these people in Alaska promoting alcohol and tobacco? Shouldn’t a representative be considered a role model? I have to wonder if Rep. Lynn owns a bar or stock in some alcohol company or is he one of the many in Alaska who has a lifestyle that includes lots of drinking so he thinks it is normal.

http://www.adn.com/2011/04/06/1795845/alaska-bill-would-allow-military.html#ixzz1ImIw3pqX
http://www.adn.com/2011/04/05/1794384/with-12-days-left-legislature.html#ixzz1Ikmkuh9N
http://www.adn.com/2011/04/06/1795845/alaska-bill-would-allow-military.html