Tag: teaparty

politics

Change I Cannot Believe

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Obama’s campaign slogan of “Change You Can Believe In” has become “Change I Cannot Believe.” The conclusion of the debt ceiling debate is an utter debacle and the way it has gone down has utterly shocked me – while Democrats control the Presidency and the Senate somehow, they could not use any of this power and basically just rolled over and played dead (or bent over and got screwed like an inmate to be more crass) to the Republican extremists in the House of Representatives.
As Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone wrote,

The general consensus is that for the second time in three years, a gang of financial terrorists has successfully extorted the congress and the White House, threatening to blow up the planet if they didn’t get what they wanted.

What a deal! It will provide more millions for millionaires, more billions for billionaires and more pain for the majority of this country’s citizens. The deal will hurt our “recovery” (which now features at a fake 9% or “real” 16% unemployment rate) where the only thing that has really recovered are the bank accounts of high net worth individuals. I feel like our country’s reputation as a “stable and safe investment option” to the rest of the world has truly jumped the shark and everyone will start to look for a new reserve currency. If you were a foreign national or government, would you trust the US now? I thought so…
What could Obama have done differently? He didn’t need to force a bad deal, period. As Joe Nocera in the NYT points out,

My own view is that Obama should have played the 14th Amendment card, using its language about “the validity of the public debt” to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. Yes, he would have infuriated the Republicans, but so what? They already view him as the Antichrist. Legal scholars believe that Congress would not have been able to sue to overturn his decision. Inexplicably, he chose instead a course of action that maximized the leverage of the Republican extremists.

It is sad that the Tea Party and the hedge fund managers out there do not realize how badly they are undermining America’s power in the world in the name of the almighty dollar. In a generation we’ll be England. Lovely.

politics

Tea Anyone?

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In the past week, both Time and The New York Times have published very good in-depth articles about the Tea Party Movement. If you ever wanted a good background on the subject, read who they discuss what is fueling it, what various groups fall under its vast umbrella, what these groups believe in and how their natural decentralized inclinations may prevent them from truly being as powerful as they might scarily be. As the NYT says, “it is an amorphous, factionalized uprising with no clear leadership and no centralized structure.” One thing is for certain: they are mad as hell and just aren’t going to take “this” anymore!

If you aren’t familiar with the film “Network” (where the clip above is from), you should know that it came out in 1976 – a good long 33 years ago. The fact that this has happened before just sadly means that will all happen again. Its happening now and that is bad enough.
What can do we do about what is going on? Is anyone truly satisfied with what is happening in this country? I have my own thoughts, but that is for a different post.
Bill Maher is someone who didn’t hear the calling the way Tea Baggers, as he calls those in Tea Party Movement, did. Tea Baggers to him are protesters who are longing for the return of the 1950s in America, who are 99.99% white, are who are extremists and so on and so forth. To hear it out of his mouth, check out the video below from his recent HBO special ” …But I’m Not Wrong” – enjoy.