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Outback:
Medicare is not a single payer program there are many supplemental programs that "supplement" the government Medicare. Don't you realize that if one entity controls health care, that entity makes the rules decides who gets what, and when they get it. Medicare could not exist without the supplemental programs. And please stop with the attacks on me. If you can't defend your ideas without attacking me, your ideas are weak.
And why aren't Canadian pharmaceuticals being imported again #8? Where is all this competition?
Just think of how competitive labor willl be once there is a guaranteed minimum income along with Medicare for all. Why the competition in the labor market is going to be wonderful for everyone. If company A offers worse benefits than company B and there are four other job offers to choose from for each person, we are going to be a strong vibrant economic power house of a country again.
Presently, the only competition is to see who can sing and dance the best, how fast things can be outsourced, and which billionaire will become the first trillionaire. We can all see that Reaganomics and the Contract with America has lead us to Oligarchy Road.
First off, cudos to you, Thom, for FINALLY calling into question the tepid counterpoise to the far right agenda today's watered down, milque toast Democratic Party has become. Schumer and the rest are a far cry from the fire in the belly of FDR. Ironically, Olympia Snow's (R-ME) stand against the draconian health care bills being offered up by her own party make the feeble bleatings of the Democrats look pathetic. We truly need a third party capable of taking a Sanders-like stand.
But to OU812's comment, I'd have to ask why you would think that "competition" is the answer? Competition for what? For a market that offers good health care to the highest bidder? Why do health care conglomerates that guage their performance on profit (not patient outcomes) "trump" a system like Medicare that, for decades, has demonstrated its ability to deliver great service to the most infirm segment of the population at near zero overhead? You are obviously hooked on Fox weed. Engage your brain. Stop offering up this Reaganesque bilge.
The "Better Deal' is a branding exercise, not a declaration of principles. It has all the vapidness of the names we give our military ventures (Operation 'Enduring Freedom'). It's another attempt to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic and declare, in Clinton's words, that "we are already great." I'm sure they made a swell Power Point Presentation with lots of spiffy graphics to show everyone how great it will be. Color me underwhelmed.
I am afraid the Democratic party is not the way to go anymore. It is corrupt as the Republican Party. We need Bernie and Tulsi to take the Green Party and remold it to the peoples party or a full blown armed revolution will be required.
IMHO, here is a list of things this country needs to do (but probably never will):
1. Limit the size of corporations, based either on the number of employees, or the number of smaller businesses encompassed by the parent company (or both).
2. Limit the profits of corporations; for example, a corporations gross profits must not exceed it's net profits by more than, say, 10%. If it does, the excess must be turned over to the government (security nets) or charities.
3. Reduce the income tax on hourly wages and salaries; raise the income tax on dividend and interest income. (And there's a lot more that needs to be done with taxes, too much to mention here).
4. Take the responsibility of income tax collection out of the hands of employers, and put it in the hands of the tax payer; and make it a monthly system instead of annual. You pay your rent/mortgage/car loan/utilities monthly, why not your taxes?
5. Close all the tax loopholes for out-of-country investments and bank accounts.
6. Change the salaries of all of our Representatives and Senators to be the AVERAGE of those who could have voted for them. If they want a raise, than they need to do something to raise the incomes of their constituents.
7. Pass an amendment guaranteeing the right to vote to every American citizen, 18 or more years of age, not currently in prison.
8. Eliminate campaigning altogether; candidates for a public office would submit a resume and 'platform' to a NON-PARTISAN Candidate Validation Committee; they would verify the candidates qualifications and, optionally, mental fitness, for the office. Then, one month before the election, they would publish the results of their investigations for all the candidates. Voters would then make their voting decisions from that publication.
9. Switch to machine marked PAPER ballots with a voter verification system; the voter would be given a TWO-part ballot. Each part would have the same unique machine-readable number on it; the voter inserts the ballot in to the voting machine, makes his/her selections and presses a button; the machine marks both parts of the ballot identically. The voter then keeps one part, folds the other part and puts it in the ballot box. The ballots would than be machine read and a list of ballot numbers would be published. This would allow each voter to verify that their ballot was counted and read correctly. If a voter sees an error, they have the OPTION to remain silent, or to speak up and, possibly, reveal who they voted for (there may be away for a voter to anonymously complain about a ballot counting error).
10. And so much more that I have thought of over the last few years, but just can't remember right now.
I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would think a monopoly is a good thing. Yet most who write here want a monopolistic health care system. Single Payer is a monopoly folks. Competition is the key in health care, phone service, electricity and everything. The more completion, the better the quality, price and service.
Thom:
Democratic leadership still doesn't get it and they are woefully inept. They should have had Bernie Sanders or Al Franken and two younger members announce any new initiative.
One item I would like to convey to you and your audience is the following: I think the Democrats need to drop their strong gun-control (anti-gun) stance since it is only lost them voters over the last few decades without really changing policy. Especially in light of the Trump/Conservative/Putin/Koch party - since the public might need firearms to overtake the government. But seriously:
1) Gun control laws are mainly a historical by-product of racist laws
2) All the bluster has not really made much of a change in terms of outcomes. Guns deaths have gone down . The only real issue is suicides and these mass shootings - which are a phenomena that is hard to stop through legislation.
3) Crime/suicide would go down more if society was more equal through pro-worker policies - which they can't do because they lose too many voters from their gun control stance. Probably fewer shootings.
4) The NRA nuts don't shoot up anyone - they are just nuts - so again, the dem/libs establishment wastes too much time on them.
Having Bernie (and even Al and some other libs) to come out and be pro-gun could actually be believable.
The Target is not Democrats, But Democy Itself!
http://theocracywatch.org/govern_suspending_rules.htm
GOP is leaning more & more to being Anti-Separation of Church & State ... the NWO intends on forcing God down our throat ...
This is NOT propaganda. ... Dominionists actually own & manufacture our Electronic Voting Machines ... even the name of company that recently acquired Diebold, ES&S electronic voting machine manufacturers company is called "Dominion Voting Systems"
Steve Moreland is Chief Operating Officer of Dominion Voting Systems ... he's from Texas. The company has its beginnings in Toronto, CANADA, it now has offices in Colorado, New York and California.
definition of 'dominion': sovereignty; control
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Voting_Systems
Dominionists have hijacked our Democracy ...
http://revcom.us/a/033/dominionism-be-very-afraid.htm
[below: some quotes from the above link]
This Dominionist trend has been promoted and built up with major assistance from powerful ruling class forces. For example, two major contributors to the [Dominionist think tank] Chalcedon Foundation are Howard Ahmanson and Nelson Bunker Hunt - who are big monopoly capitalists and whose families played key roles in financing electronic voting machine manufacturer Election Systems & Software.
Dominionist beliefs;
If you don't follow the Christian faith, or if you ever leave it (we're talking millions of people in the U.S. alone) you'd be punished by death. Same thing for anyone who commits theft, who blasphemes (says "goddamn it"), or who commits heresy (says god does not exist). Frederick Clarkson, who wrote the book Eternal Hostilities: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, points out that "anyone responsible for abortion" (meaning women and abortion providers) would be given the death penalty as well.
Here's another Mosaic law: Leviticus 20:13.... "If a man lie with a man, as he would with a woman, they both commit abomination: they shall be put to death." Dominionist Gary DeMar told John Sugg of Mother Jones magazine that he was considered "liberal" among his cohorts because he only supported the death penalty for those who were actually caught engaging in "homosexual acts." And if the Dominionists made the laws, anyone who practices witchcraft or astrology, children who disobey their parents, women who commit adultery, and rape victims who don't resist sufficiently would all be executed.
Dominionists call for reinstating slavery, which is upheld throughout the Old Testament, most notably in the Ten Commandments. Slavery is openly defended by Dominionist writers such as David Chilton: "Heathen slaves ... were actually favored by [slavery], since it placed them in contact with believers. They received the relatively lenient treatment of the biblical slavery regulations, and they were also able to hear the liberating message of the gospel."
"Dominionists would nearly dismantle government, and establish the family as the basic governing unit of society - a family that would be mandated by god to unchallenged rule by the father. The role of the government would be limited to building roads and raising funds for armies carrying out sanctified battles."
Oldskoold,
In many ways, it is too late. But it is never too late to keep fighting for what's right, even if it seems like only a rearguard action. Maybe after the roof falls on everyone, everyone will remember the history. Great calamities like the Republican Great Depression tend to focus the mind, especially when you can't feed your family.
There is no meat on the bare bones of the "better deal." Even the name of this new proposal shows how insipid and weak it is. Do you really think you can counter aprogram with a slogan like "Make America Great again" with a slogen like "a better deal?" Couldn't they hire someone to come up with something better?
On second thought, the name really fits the proposal. It is mostly a rehash of old Hillary Clinton proposals. Better Deal. Better Together. Same thing It is not specific enough to be meaningful. It is designed to be inoffensive and not challenging. If this is the best the Democrats can come up with, they deserve to be ridiculed, not elected to any office.
This is the kind of lowest common denominator innoffensive crap that has made the establishment Democratic Party the low energy loser that it is.
This is the party that stopped being the party of the working man or the friend of labor unions in the early 1970's. They are the party of jamie Dimon: Not of the working poor and middle class.
Doesn't resonate with me...and I'm about as Progressive as they come. Put another way, if the platform doesn't excite someone like myself, it's not going to be effective. I'm still voting 'Bernie' in 2020.
You are correct DS. However, the misinformation and gradual "dumbing down" (attack on education) has taken it's toll and we have lost at least one if not two generations to the noise of such. I'm beginning to wonder if it's not too late. However; you look at the polls and our progressive ideas and its a whopping 60% or more with us depending on the issue.
What a mess! And; bless their hearts because the roof is gonna fall soon.....
Good-paying jobs, healthcare, education, and extracting ourselves from the endless, hopeless, and ridiculously expensive wars in the Middle East over religion and oil, are by far the major concerns of most citizens. Since their taxes pay for everything, why do the dominate policies of our government work against the many to benefit the few?
Quit subsidizing money-grubbing transnational monopolies that off-shore jobs; quit fighting stupid wars of religion and profit; redirect our taxes to pay for our healthcare and college. Why does the Democratic Party struggle with the obvious way forward?
"Better Deal Agenda"?! isn't that rather spiritless? Since new generations of voters understand almost nothing about the original New Deal, shouldn't that be explained first? Moreover, instead of mincing words and appearing too clever by half, why not just come out in direct solidarity with FDR and explain in plain language why exactly the New Deal was wildly popular. Proudly embody the principles of FDR and fully embrace the revolution of our Founders -- standing up for what's right won the day before, and it will do so again and again despite fierce opposition from the forces of fascism.
The Employee Free Choice Act was first introduced by Democrats in 2007, then again in 2009. Without going into the details (easy to find online), the legislation would have given workers the tools they need to fight for themselves. In 2007, the EFCA was blocked by a Republican filibuster. In 2009, the Dems had 60 seats in the Senate. This time the bill was defeated by four rogue Democrats, including the odious Ben Nelson and, surprisingly, Dianne Finestein. As far as I can tell, Obama didn't spend a dimes worth of political capital on its passage.
The reason they hate us is because the most common belief system in the USA now is atheism & agnostism. The GOP has started a Covert Holy War with Americans, only they're not letting us in on their Holy War until it's time to start the actual Civil War here on home soil between "Believer's" & "Non-Believers" ... While they continue to get richer on fossil fuels to finance their war against "infidels" ...
Expect a Gihad to happen right here at home ... this is where I think we are headed ... [if elections are stolen over the 'Right To Life' issue ? wouldn't this be considered a religious war? ... It will led by the Evangelicals [dubbed America's Taliban] and Dominionists (who apparently manufacture our Electronic Voting Machines], Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia [our friend & ally- this should be a red flag no?]... and the Zionists who created the "false flag" of 911 to get the ball rolling; i.e., massive surveillance of everyone here in USA & great excuse to invade sovereign nations like Syria, not interested in the New World Order and the IMF and just so happen to have lots of natural resources; like fossil fuels (Iraq) ...
Syria has been their latest regime change efforts, which in truth started over a proxy war the USA is having with Russia over a gas pipeline; the "false flag" they used was lying to the public that Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Peace Activists from the United Nations went to Syria on their own dollar to find out the truth, because the lies made zero logical sense. Assad using chemicals on his people was a lie ; just like WMD's were a lie. And practically every journalist has been murdered [over a hundred]; unprecedented ... why? to keep the truth from getting out. They've even gone so far as to target hospitals; killing Doctors Without Borders [also have been witness to war crimes; they want dead]. The USA War Machine is supporting & arming terrorists in Syria ... committing war crimes on innocent civilians.
The Militarized Industrial Complex is EVIL ... They do not care about Americans! They use our youth for their Wars For Profit, that our tax dollars fund, while we don't even have healthcare, our infrastructure is crumbling, and they want to dumb us down (e.g., advocating trade schools, college unaffordable] ... They gain their wealth and power via irrational insane quest for more fossil fuels while our planet overheats. DO NOT THINK FOR ONE MINUTE WE ARE NOT NEXT ON THEIR ATTACK LIST ... they'll create some false flag to create a war at home for an excuse to increase & militarize the Police & their privately owned Force [e'g', thugs like 'Blackwater' in Iraq and the thugs at #NoDAPL @ Standing Rock].
There are hundreds of FEMA camps all over the USA; fully staffed with no one in them. The real truth & danger here is we, the people, have lost all our power because our vote is no longer being counted. We have not had a real functioning democracy since 2000 when the election was stolen by Bush; i.e., the "hanging chads" were just a distraction; there was evidence that the votes had been electronically manipulated in Florida 2000 ... Evidence which has never seen the light of day on mainstream media.
There is a surplus of concrete evidence that the electronic voting machines (D.R.E's can be hacked electronically; whose inner workings are considered 'proprietary info' - inaccessible to us, the voters, who pay for them via taxes ... We do not have access to the inner workings of voting machines ???? RED FLAG #1 ... AND We've known since 2004, they can be remotely hacked; RED FLAG #2.
The people who run this country now [not us; Oligarchs, Zionists, Dominionists & Evangelicals ] decide who is going to be our next president. The Dominionists, i.e., Radical Fascists Christians are the equivalent of Saudi's Wahhabists. Their Holy War [which we know is about power & money; not morals] is to rationalize stealing our democracy on the moral high ground of the excuse it is all about the 'Right to Life', i.e., their anti-abortion beliefs.
IT genius and loyalist of GOP, Michael Connell, shared with his friend Stephen Spoonamore [also an IT Guru; both from Ohio), that the Republicans manipulate elections to "save the unborn babies" from the holocaust. He shared with Stephen Spoonamore his regretting helping Karl Rove [with election fraud 2000 and 2004]. Why? ... because he later believed he was used by GOP and that their intentions were not exactly just about saving babies lives [as he was led to believe]; it was for greed & power.
Mike Connell, a devout Christian, was a Republican IT Guru and Karl Rove's chief IT Consultant. He was hired to manipulate the 2000 and 2004 election in favor of Bush. On December 19, 2008, the day before Mike Connell, was subpoenaed and expected to testify against Karl Rove, died in a plane crash at the age of 45, leaving his wife and four children.[please 'google': "CBS News Republican IT Guru dies in Plane Crash" if you doubt this info]
Why American's are in a state of cognitive dissonance regarding this issue of election fraud boggles the mind. Does everyone really believe that asshole Scott Walker, anti-union thug, got re-elected by 'the people' of Wisconsin? ... REALLY??? Or, that we actually were so stupid to re-elect George W. Bush? anyone recall being dumb-founded he won??? He didn't win ... he cheated!
Republicans now dominate state government with 32 legislatures and 33 governors... REALLY? ... All the poor people, and the neuvo impoverished middle class, are electing Republicans ??? ... Not!!! ... GOP has achieved these wins by electronically cheating.
Stephen Spoonamore, IT Guru, proved ... that the Ohio election in 2004 between Bush and Kerry was stolen ... this was done via what is called 'man in the middle' in IT world. Spoonamore who is very very familiar with computers and hacking (e.g., his job was to catch thieves hacking into ATM system of Banks worldwide; the security of our voting machines Spoonamore said, two graduate students figured out how to hack into them in a matter of 2 hours).
The way elections are stolen is (i.e., in IT Security world) known as a 'KingPin Attack' ... whereby the results of the election via a computer is inserted into the communications flow of an IT system, with the sole intention of changing the election results before it arrives at its destination/ a US Govt site; thereby providing results of a false 'winner' and false 'looser'. [please research this if you question its validity; youtube Stephen Spoonamore - who took the time in several videos to explain this to the public].
Also, Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org also has been on top of election fraud via electronic voting machines was able to prove this via a Memphis programmer Benny Smith who identified that a master computer, via a program called 'GEMS' is used to manipulate the electronic voting machines. This program, GEMS changes the votes from a whole numbers [i.e., 1 whole vote per person] to fractions - The Oligarchy/GOP Christian Extremists have remote access to election results all over the country [e.g., instead of each voter being allowed 1 vote per person; their votes are changed into fractions - larger fraction for Republican voters and smaller fractions for Democratic voters- just the ones they choose to win; and they do not target EVERY election/campaign; just the select ones critical to the GOP accessing more control, locally in the States, and in Washington, D.C.
We've basically had a coup d'etat by our own government a.k.a. the 'Deep State'-- all done in the name of religion & 'right to life ' apparently [but we all know this is a lie & it's about power, control and money]. The people of this country are closing their eyes and ears to any and all evidence of election fraud via use of hackable electronic voting machines! (studies from Princeton, Stanford, Harvard ... all concluded there was election fraud Primary in 2016; all exit polls predicted Sanders won, and instead Hillary won, by 4% 6% even 12% error rate [anything greater than 2% is considered cause for a recount; if this happened in some of the newer democracies around the world they would have been flipping cars. No recount EVER happened here in every district showing evidence of fraud ... NOTHING WAS SAID, OR DONE ABOUT IT.
Following the 2016 POTUS Election, USA dropped its ranking from the 19th best democracy in the world to now the 21st democracy and is now categorized as a "flawed democracy" post 2016 Election. ...
The best democracies on the planet use PAPER BALLOTS that are HAND READ [like we use to] ... It's cheaper and safer ... it's possible there may be some corruption, but no where on the scale and to the degree computers being hacked can cause (in the multiple millions).
The two countries in a state of chaos right now; both India and Brazil, both have 100% of their voting via electronic voting machines. Both countries democracies have been hijacked by fascists.
The way these machines are manipulated is by 'fractionalizing' the individual vote. Say for example, in the 2016 POTUS Primary; it is more than likely Bernie votes were assigned a fraction less than 1 [e.g., 0.75 vote] and Hillary votes were assigned a fraction greater than 1[e.g., 1.25 vote]. The Votes are covertly tallied as money - only the owners of this proprietary information can see the actual fraction total; the closest whole number appears to the district; they NEVER see any fractions - which of course would be a red flag. Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting.org has dubbed this this theft of our so called "democratic" elections 'Fraction Magic'.
Why the GOP hate us ?... most of us are infidels & they want to control us "in the name of God" ... what else is knew on this planet? Their plan is to force religion down our throat - like they did to Native Americans... in every community across the nation & world - the NWO (they laid down all the ground work already via Community Management companies incorporated world wide) ... And they know better than to tell us their agenda at this time in history because they know we will freak out.
The first thing we need to do is get our VOTE back ... it is the cornerstone of our democracy... without it we have no VOICE!
'Right-wing oligarchs like the Koch Brothers don't just want to roll back a few regulations - they apparently want to repeal our democracy, too.'
ha ha ha...REALly? they're too LATE! WHAT democracy...? as if elections haven't been rigged, one way or another since the git...and every once in a while(younger bush. both elections) we get a peek behind the curtain. so to speak...but it's not just the voting machines or the electoral college...it's that the govt is nothing and has never been anything BUT business reps. major companies get their way. one way or another.
and what kind of 'democracy' is it when you have two parties, the only difference between which is who will jump through these corporate hoops the quickest...
i used to think 'the people' didn't know what was going on...but now i'm not all that certain...i think, maybe, it's just easier to pretend than to tip over your own apple cart, huh?
so keep sendin in those tax dollars, folks..support them invasions into countries under the pretense of democracy. when all that govt has done for at least a half century is increase and protect their markets/marketplaces...
maybe it's true that the logical extension of business is murder...?
A well run Democracy ends up with GOod GOvernment, which frightens our Republican friends.
The have the whaa-whaa syndrome; bunch of crybabies. They are afraid of what everybody loves and wants; dear and beloved wonderful goo-goo, more goo-goo - good government.
Those goo-goo fearing republicans do not want everybody to vote. Our leverage in the elections goes down as the voting populace goes down. We want everybody to vote!
Well said, ErinRose.
It turns out that "The Brainwashing of my Dad" is not a one-off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXTjz2H57rE
re: The Bobbsey Twins #6 & #11:
Ah, the bliss of ignorance in full bloom, a pure delight! Do we not all appreciate a Trump troll's talent for polishing a turd, such as the badly mixed metaphors in Grammy Muck's jejune jeer du jour?
Or, this gem: "Obviously this is another ridiculous inflammatory OP..." In a mind fried by Fux News, whenever someone outside the bubble happens to report on whatever someone inside the bubble says or does on any given day, which reveals beyond debate their ideological lunacy and shameless immorality, it is always the fault of the messenger. Never mind that Republicans -- all by themselves through their own words and deeds -- continuously demonstrate appalling incompetence at governing a people's government; outside reality is not their point.
Through the magic of Fux think, simply to repeat the written words of ALEC -- a “draft resolution recommending constitutional amendment restoring election of u.s. senators to the legislatures of the sovereign states.” -- is to inflame the liberal base. Does it not occur to a conditioned mind that such a "ridiculous" truth should be "inflammatory" -- to all concerned citizens -- or is the conditioning too thorough?
Mmm ... we're left to wonder if Diane, the unending fount of all wisdom for us less desirables, had spent more time actually reading John Nichols' article than polishing her turd, would she still feel as compelled to question the mere-mortal commenters on this blog whether they "...understand the process of actually repealing an amendment to the Constitution?"
And the answer is ...drum roll... Of COOOUUURSE !!!
The shine from a washed brain and a polished turd is blinding.
Merry Christmas Diane:)
Why Republican Plans to “Repeal Obamacare” are ILLEGAL in MANY WAYS!
If the Republicans in Congress sent a bill to Donald Trump who signed it to enact a law that required all Democrats in Congress to be rounded up and jailed without due process and denied food until they starved to death, would that be legal? Absolutely NOT! It would violate the due process requirements of the United States Constitution and be a form of MASS MURDER (among other downright evil and illegal features).
If any of the healthcare reform bills that the Republicans have produced so far were to be so enacted, it would LIKEWISE be illegal for many reasons and also have the dubious distinction that it would actually kill at least a thousand times MORE innocent US citizens than the illegal example described above!
Think about it!
For 7 years now, Republicans in Congress have attracted substantial donations from health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations by promising to “repeal Obamacare” based on a HUGE PACK OF LIES! Now that they are faced with the possibility of actually keeping such promises, they have collided with reality. The fact that they have been BLATANTLY LYING for years has been exposed and is quite obvious to anyone who has personally experienced or had relatives who have personally experienced “Obamacare”, Medicaid, and/or Medicare. Our Republicans in Congress will only make such matters WORSE for everyone (including themselves) if they “keep” such dishonest promises. If they end up implementing their conspiracy to commit mass murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent US citizens by denying them healthcare, many of them could end up serving the rest of their lives in jail! When they violate their Congressional Oath of Office like that, their legal protections as Congressional legislators would no longer apply in such a case.
Why do Republicans hate democracy?
Short answer: Because democracy is based on everyone getting a say in things, and these people want to control all the say about everything.
Longer answer: Because they want to control everything so they can do terrible things to others with impunity. Anyone who is attracted to the Right-wing draconian zeitgeist has a problem with fitting in; they comfort their inability to get along with others through acquisitions; telling themselves they are better than the next guy and here is the material proof. (Just listen to the Koch brothers and their lying BS on YT, and have a look at our POTUS; his lifestyle.) Most of these people (and this includes the Neo-Liberals,) are undiagnosed sociopaths; they lack empathy; they think in terms of everything being either a commodity to be bought and sold, or "things" to provide services; trains, planes, guard dogs, women, etc.. For some mysterious reason, We, the People, tend to worship cold-hearted, rich, selfish, misfits, instead of kind, fair, selfless types of people. I'm guessing that's because cold-hearted and selfish translates "masculine" and "strong," in a patriarchy that values males over females, because men wage war; and war means profits, and so males are prized over females. And then there are those who are undiagnoses psychopaths; they have a need to have others suffer because they are so emotionally dead, that the intense sufferings of others is the only thing they can feel. And We, the People, go on worshipping these misfits. Even many denominations of the churches have gone from teaching the New Testament; and a god of love and forgiveness, to teaching the Old Testament with a god of hell fire and brimstone. I think the collective unconscious is beginning to turn, but we have a long way to go. If we get something sudden, violent, and unmistakably horrible for average people, things will turn around quickly. As it is now, we are dying of a slow blood-letting; the heat in the frog pot is gradually rising, and because this is happening 'incrementally' people keep accommodating it. It won't be until enough people reject this accommodation will things change for the better. And if the whole does nothing to correct this tilt to the extreme Right, things will only get worse; and that's a guarantee. Just like people want to do nothing but believe in the F(r)EE Market that will right itself on its own, people want to do nothing but have everything turn out okay for them and their issue. When they wake up to the fact that things don't work this way; and never will, when they start to fight for themselves and their own best interests, then the whole of humanity, and the planet, will have a chance to survive.
In reply to #6, You Fascist Republicans want to rewrite the Constitution.
http://billmoyers.com/story/kochs-to-rewrite-constitution/
It was that way originally in the Constitution. Why would that be so bad?
Nonetheless, the last two Republican presidents came into office even though they lost the popular vote. Is this a trend? Is this really democracy?