The Young Turks: Cenk Uygur: ‘President Obama Sets Bear Trap, Republicans Walk Right Into It’

Source:FOX News– Fox News, talking about President Barack Obama.

Source:The New Democrat

“Following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, where he called on Congress to end discriminatory workplace practices that “belong in a Mad Men episode” Fox News host Martha MacCallum proclaimed on the program American’s Newsroom that women did not want special laws ensuring equal for equal work because they already were compensated “exactly what they’re worth.” On the Fox program, two men, liberal radio host Alan Colmes and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, debated equal pay for women. Carlson assertedthat women actually made more than men if the time they “voluntarily” took off work to raise children was factored in. “The numbers don’t lie,” he insisted…”.* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.”

From The Young Turks

The current Republican governing policy is, “if Democrats are for it, we are against it, even if we are for it, or were once in favor of it”. And even offered it in health care reform a perfect example of that where the Affordable Care Act actually has a lot of good conservative ideas like the health care mandate and the health care market place in it. Which is the main reason why there hasn’t been much compromise in Congress between the House and Senate because when Democrats say okay we’ll agree to that, the House GOP just moves the ball further to get more compromises.

Then instead of Republicans saying okay let’s do that, Republicans just move the ball and say well, “if Democrats are willing to give us this, we can get them to give us this as well and hold off on a deal”. The deficit reduction negotiations are a perfect example of this where Democrats have put entitlement reform on the table and what Republicans is do is to say well, “if they will do that, then they’ll take exactly what type of entitlement reform we are interested in”. Like cutting Social Security benefits to future retirees or cutting benefits to current beneficiaries.

The only goal Republicans have right now is absolute power. And to accomplish this, they need to hold onto the House and 2014 and retake the Senate in 2014. To give them a united Republican Congress and to win back the White House in 2016 as well. While hanging onto Congress and the hard right partisan Republicans in the House and Senate have one clear strategy. “If Democrats are for it, it must be a bad idea even if it is our idea. So we are only going to put policies that are as far to the right as possible to get our partisan right-wing base behind us to avoid primary challenges”.

Which leaves us with gridlock when you have the Republican Leadership saying no to anything that the Democratic Leadership especially in the Senate and White House say yes to. Because now Democrats are in a position where they are only negotiating with themselves. Trying to find more moderate members in Congress to go along with some of these more conservative ideas in broader packages, while not losing any of their more, well lets say progressive members. Instead of negotiating with their own caucus’ in the House and Senate, along with Congressional Republicans.

Read Full Post »

Melody Cat: CBS Evening News, 12/26/72: The Death of President Harry Truman

Source:Melody Cat– CBS News commercial break.

“CBS news broadcast from Dec 26 1972 focusing primarily on the death of 33rd U.S. President Harry Truman.”

From Melody Cat

I believe Harry Truman was one of our top 3-5 presidents in American history, but certainly in the top ten. Because of how he managed post-World War II especially in Europe and put America in position to successfully win the Cold War. With the buildup of the national security state to deal with Russia, as well as the NATO.

Harry Truman was the man not many people respected until they saw him in action. I don’t know of an American politician, especially a great American politician that was more underestimated than Harry Truman. A fairly unknown U.S. Senator who had only been a Senator for ten-years, where all of his Congressional service was served, becomes Vice President of the United States in 1945. Who didn’t have much of a professional resume at all before he was fifty-years old, not just becomes President of the United States, but achieves that within days of becoming Vice President. And becomes one of the best President’s in American history.

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on WordPress.

Read Full Post »

Russia Today: Barack Obama- A Socialist in Disguise?

Source:FreeState MD

“Obama: Socialist in disguise?

From Russia Today

“RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня))[9] is a Russian state-controlled[1] international television network funded by the Russian government.[16][17] It operates pay television or free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic.

RT is a brand of TV-Novosti, an autonomous non-profit organization founded by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti in April 2005.[8][18] During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO “TV-Novosti” on its list of core organizations of strategic importance to Russia.[19][20][21] RT operates as a multilingual service with channels in five languages: the original English-language channel was launched in 2005, the Arabic-language channel in 2007, Spanish in 2009, German in 2014 and French in 2017. RT America (2010–2022),[22][23] RT UK (2014–2022) and other regional channels also produce local content. RT is the parent company of the Ruptly video agency,[5] which owns the Redfish video channel and the Maffick digital media company.[6][7]

RT has regularly been described as a major propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy.[2] Academics, fact-checkers, and news reporters (including some current and former RT reporters) have identified RT as a purveyor of disinformation[58] and conspiracy theories.[65] UK media regulator Ofcom has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality, including multiple instances in which RT broadcast “materially misleading” content.[72]

In 2012, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan compared the channel to the Russian Ministry of Defence.[73] Referring to the Russo-Georgian War, she stated that it was “waging an information war, and with the entire Western world”.[17][74] In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a foreign agent with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[75]

RT was banned in Ukraine in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea;[76] Latvia and Lithuania implemented similar bans in 2020.[77][78] Germany banned RT DE in February 2022.[79] After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland and then the entire European Union announced they were formally banning RT as well, while independent service providers in over 10 countries suspended broadcasts of RT.[80][81] Social media websites followed by blocking external links to RT’s website and restricting access to RT’s content.[82][83] Microsoft removed RT from their app store and de-ranked their search results on Bing,[84][85] while Apple removed the RT app from all countries except for Russia.”

From Wikipedia

I agree Barack Obama may be the worst Socialist ever for the simple reason he’s not a Socialist. And the same thing could be said about George W. Bush being the worst Conservative ever because he wasn’t very conservative, if you look at his record when it came to fiscal policy, especially spending and civil liberties.

To be a Socialist you, you must be a Socialist. I know that sounds crazy, but to be tall, you actually have to be tall. A man can’t just say one day: “Now dammit (or something stronger) I’m tired of being 5’7 and short. So today I declare myself as 6’1 and tall.” Why, because that man will still be 5’7. Calling yourself something doesn’t make you that. A patrol officer can’t just make themselves a sergeant and call themselves that. They have to be promoted to sergeant first.

Calling yourself something or calling someone else something, doesn’t make them what you’re calling them or yourself that, if you or they aren’t actually that. If I’ve lost you on that, I’m not surprised, I’m feeling dizzy from just writing that.

To be a Socialist, you must have a socialist record and socialist policies and ideas. Which is just not there in Barack Obama’s case. Unless you want to play guilt by association (In other words: Joe McCarthy) Meaning people Barry has been associated with in the past, Bill Ayers comes to mind, the guy hosting this show, Al Sharpton, now here’s someone you could make a serious case about being a Socialist.

But the charges against President Obama are just Tea Party propaganda trying to make a man they hate, seen as Un-American as not one of them and must be defeated and stopped at all costs. So they use one of the most unpopular words in the American-English dictionary which is socialist and socialism and so-forth, trying to make Barack Obama seem as worst then he is to scare people. Thats the modern GOP divide and conquer when you don’t have a popular message of your own.

Read Full Post »

PBS: The Great Depression- The New Deal Response

Source:PBS– documentary about The Great Depression.

Source:The Daily Journal

“PBS Presentation: The Great Depression”

From PBS

In 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt became President of The United States he inherited the Great Depression, which was basically an economy that was sinking and collapsing with basically no money anywhere, or no money being created. And anyone who had money at this point in the private sector was not spending, or investing the money. The Federal Government was literally the only game in town that it could spend and afford to borrow the rest to make up the difference of money.

America needed money to be invested in the country to get people working again and creating jobs so people had money to spend to generate economic growth, or at least create a floor for the Great Depression and buy time for the American economy to recover. Which is very similar, but not exactly how the Obama Administration and Congress responded to the Great Recession in 2009. We can argue about the effects of these proposals, but that’s how they were designed. And at least to a certain extent were effective in dealing with the Great Depression in a successful way.

The New Deal represented economic progressivism in the United States and the creation of the safety net. The New Deal and President Roosevelt wasn’t looking to end American capitalism, but to save it and create a system that could respond to people who fell through the cracks of it. And be able to spend money and invest in the economy when no one else had the resources in a very centralized and anti-federalist way putting a lot of responsibility with the Federal Government to respond to economic crisis’ like this.

President Roosevelt brought a progressive approach to the New Deal designed to save American capitalism, not end it or replace it. Which is one of the reasons why his critics on the right as well as left, like Wendell Willkie a Classical Liberal similar to me called President Roosevelt a Socialist.

Thats the situation that Franklin Roosevelt inherited as President in 1933 and how we got the safety net in this country known as the New Deal, our first phase of the safety net in this country. Where previously we were more of an economic libertarian country, where support for these policies seemed extreme or far-left, or something. President Roosevelt made these polices seem mainstream.

Read Full Post »

NBC News: Lyndon Johnson’s Last Day as President (1969)

Source:NBC News– covering President Lyndon B. Johnson’s last day at The White House.

Source:The Daily Journal

“LBJ’s last day as President …as reported on 1/20/1969 (Nixon’s first day as president.)”

From Mike Gardner

I’m guessing Lyndon Johnson was ready to leave the presidency and had enough. 1966, was a really rough year for President Johnson and the Johnson Presidency. House Democrats, lose over forty seats in the House and three in the Senate because of the Vietnam War and how unpopular it was. Plus with the Republican Party and House Republicans, finally figuring out how to campaign and win in the South, Richard Nixon of course was a huge help there and he campaigned for a lot of House Republicans and House Republican candidates and did that in the South. Which helped him with his 1968 presidential campaign with all of these new Freshman Republican Representatives, who now owed him favors.

1967, the war gets even worst for the Johnson Administration in Vietnam. And now he’s having a lot of problems with his own party in Congress. Starting with Senate Democrats holding Vietnam War hearings that started in 1965, but continued through the next Congress in 1967.

In 1967 several Senate Democrats are now weighing presidential bids against their party leader in President Johnson. Like Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern. The anti-war movement and the New-Left emerges in the late 1960s. And they’re against President Johnson and calling him a war criminal, and war monger and a few things that you can’t say on network TV, even today.

1968, was the topper with LBJ now being the most unpopular elected politician in America. And now there’s talk if he can even win the Democratic nomination for president, let alone with the presidency against Richard Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, or George Romney, in the Republican Party.

By March 1968, President Johnson decides that he’s had enough and doesn’t want to run for reelection and announces that to the country. But 1968 is just getting started with two great political leaders, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Dr. Martin King, both being assassinated. There racial riots in Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles.

The Democratic Party, is now divided between their mainstream Progressives, which LBJ represents and their Far-Left. LBJ, was really smart not to run for reelection in 1968.

Read Full Post »

Real Time With Bill Maher: ‘Rosen-Gate: Just The Latest In Stupid, Non-Consequential, Meaningless Controversies’

Source:Mediate– Democratic Party strategist Hillary Rosen appearing on Real Time With Bill Maher.

“It’s time to play everyone’s favorite game: DISPROPORTIONATE OUTRAGE AT SOMETHING PRETTY INSIGNIFICANT! Tonight’s topic: Hilary Rosen-Gate! Everyone in the media has been absolutely obsessed with talking about this one comment made on CNN by a Democrat who doesn’t even have any strong ties to the Obama campaign. So naturally, this topic made its way into the discussion on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight.

RELATED: Ann Romney Responds to Hilary Rosen: ‘I Know What It’s Like To Struggle’

Maher brought up Mitt Romney‘s problem in trying to get women to support him and the fact that he currently trails President Obama in that demographic. Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said this was because Romney and his fellow Republicans “want to go back to the 1960s” and revisit issues like contraception that she thought had already been dealt with in the United States. David Stockman quipped that the Republicans were still stuck in the 19th century on women’s issues. Conservative writer Matthew Continetti pointed out that Romney can win the general election if he just keep the focus on the economy.

Maher brought up the statistic that a significant number of jobs lost in the recession were women’s jobs, and asked if that was mainly due to “Republican policies.” He argued that Obama was actually fighting to keep the jobs that are mostly occupied by women, like schoolteachers. Continetti noted that the Republicans narrowly got an advantage among women during the 2010 midterm elections.”

From Mediate

“Hilary Rosen apologized for a comment questioning Ann Romney’s qualifications to advise Mitt on women’s economic issues. Thursday, April 12, 2012.”

Source:Absolutely Definite– Democratic Party strategist Hillary Rosen on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

From Absolutely Definite 

This is not Hillary Rosen’s big mouth or feet. Just an example of what politicians and their employees sound like when they speak a lot and are desperate to win. Which are people with big foot in the mouth disease, who say the first thing in their head that they think can help themselves or their bosses.

Source:The Daily Journal– this is Hillary Rosen when talking about Ann Romney.

I’ve gone out of my way to avoid blogging about Hillary Rosengate (as Talking Points Memo coined it this week)  because it was one of the dumbest things I’ve heard said in American politics. Which is saying something, I mean we had eight years of George W. Bush as President.

Dumb thing to say especially coming from one of the best political strategists and analysts in the business today in Hillary Rosen. Both Democrats and Republicans would acknowledge that. So dumb to the point that after Hillary Rosen made her statement saying that “Anne Romney has never worked a day in her life” on CNN’s AC360 on Wednesday night, she ends up apologizing for it on the CNN Morning Show on Thursday.

The Democratic Leadership goes out of their way to make it clear that they disagree with what Rosen said. The White House makes it clear that Hillary Rosen doesn’t work for them, or for the Obama reelection campaign. Thanks to Rick Santorum who’s turned out to be a year around Christmas Gift for the Democratic Party, as well as for comedians, bloggers and political satirists, Democrats have kicked butt when it comes to female voters in 2012.

The Democratic Party has been kicking Republican Butt, especially Mitt Romney’s, when it comes to female voters, as CNN political analyst Gloria Borger said. “Mitt Romney doesn’t have a gender gap with women, but a gender gulf”, or gender canyon. Something to that effect. In others words: a huge deficit among female voters.

President Obama was already having a bad week to begin with from last Friday’s jobs report that showed job growth slowing. And Hillary Rosen gives the Romney campaign a gift from God. Something positive to talk about, their support for motherhood. I mean seriously who’s against Motherhood, I mean that would be like hating freedom, or sex or sleep, anything else where most Americans absolutely love.

To suggest that you’re in favor of motherhood, which was what the Democratic Leadership was saying post Hillary Rosen’s comments, is like saying you support having a strong country where everyone can get a job that needs one. That you’re against crime, especially murder and you hate racism. These things are so obvious, that you shouldn’t have to try to convince people of your positions.

Hillary Rosen is the big foot in the mouth that the Republican Party has been waiting for ever since they decided that Mitt Romney should be their presidential nominee and Rick Santorum should be his main challenger. They figuring that if: “We are going to have to foot in the mouth’s running for president, Democrats should have at least one. And I mean a really big one since we have two of them for both legs.”

You can also see this post at FreeState MD, on Blogger.

Read Full Post »

Guardian Mary Silver: President Franklin D. Roosevelt- Great Depression Fireside Chat

Source:Guardian Mary Silver– from a film about the Great Depression. Perhaps a left-wing propaganda film about it.

Source:FreeState MD 

“AP US History Assignment.

7th Hour

Great Depression/Unemployment

By: Riah Countryman, Kevin Islas, and Hector Mirelez” 

From Guardian Mary Silver 

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in early 1933, would become the only president in American history to be elected to four consecutive terms. He would lead his nation through two of the greatest crises in its history—the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-45)—and would exponentially expand the role of the federal government through his New Deal reform program and its legacy. From March 1933 to June 1944, Roosevelt addressed the American people in some 30 speeches broadcast via radio, speaking on a variety of topics from banking to unemployment to fighting fascism in Europe. Millions of people found comfort and renewed confidence in these speeches, which became known as the “fireside chats.” 

From History

Source:History– President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat, New York) 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)

The fact that President Franklin Roosevelt was speaking about a recession in America in 1938, is pretty good evidence that five years after becoming President of the United States, that we were still not out of the Great Depression yet.

The economy was getting better in 1938, but we slipped back into recession in 1936 or 37. We were still looking 20-25% official unemployment. Maybe half of the country living in poverty. By the time the United States got involved in World War II in 1941-42, we were still dealing with the Depression, Recession and high unemployment. And it was really World War II that moved the country to full-recovery from the Great Depression. With all the money that was spent financing our involvement in that War.

What the New Deal deserves credit for, is establishing a public safety net that the country could turn too, when they are unemployed, or don’t have a large enough retirement account, to protect people’s savings in banks. And the New Deal did put some unemployed workers back to work through infrastructure investment.

But the Great Depression was so deep which is why it was labeled the Great Depression with so many people losing all of their money and jobs at the same time. With so many banks and business’s all failing at once. What the New Deal did was help sustain the country through the Great Depression, so things couldn’t get worse, but it didn’t bring us out of it.

It was World War II that brought the United States out of the Great Depression and back to prosperity and an economic power, as well as a world power, where we’ve remained ever since with the millions of people it employed, either in the Defense Department, or working with private contractors that did business with DOD. Making all of our equipment and the American auto industry did very well during World War II making all of those tanks And President Roosevelt deserves a lot of credit for this as well.

The New Deal, served as a buffer from the Great Depression. Put in the floor that the American economy could cash on and buy it time to recover. But it didn’t get us out of it and back to full-recovery.

 

Read Full Post »

Richard Nixon Library: Oral History- Tim Naftali Interviewing George McGovern

Source:Richard Nixon Library– Former U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic Party presidential nominee George McGovern, talking to presidential historian Tim Naftali, in 2009.

Source:FreeState MD 

“George McGovern recorded interview by Timothy Naftali, 26 August 2009, the Richard
Nixon Oral History Project of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.”

From the Richard Nixon Library 

“George Stanley McGovern, who rose from small-town roots in Avon and Mitchell to the highest heights of American politics, died Sunday morning at a Sioux Falls hospice facility from a combination of medical conditions associated with his age. He was 90.

Though he was known mostly for his unsuccessful 1972 presidential campaign, McGovern was more than that. He was an accomplished student and debater during his school days in Mitchell; a World War II bomber pilot decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross; a doctorate-level scholar; a history professor; the rebuilder of the South Dakota Democratic Party; a U.S. representative; director of the Food for Peace program in the Kennedy administration; a U.S. senator; an icon of the anti-Vietnam War effort; a lifelong crusader against the scourge of hunger; a United Nations delegate and ambassador; the author of 14 books; and, in his later years, an elder statesman who remained a sought-after speaker and commenter on issues of the day.”

Source:The Mitchell Republic– U.S. Senator George McGovern (Democrat, South Dakota) running for President in 1972.

“Sen. George McGovern gives the victory sign to throng of about 20,000 persons assembled at Madison Square garden, June 14, 1972 in New York for rally in support to his attempt to win the democratic presidential candidacy. (AP Photo/Dave Pickoff)”

From The Mitchell Republic

George McGovern was someone with one hell of a political and professional resume, who represented South Dakota in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate as a Leftist Democrat in one of the reddest states in the union. And yet he represented South Dakota in Congress for twenty-two years.

Mr. McGovern served as Director of the U.S. Food For Peace Program, who won the Democratic Party nomination for President in 1972, who rebuilt the Democratic Party almost on his own, by bringing in so many new Democrats, who thought the Democratic Party was still the Dixiecrat Party that didn’t welcome ethnic or racial minorities or women, and so-forth.

Senator McGovern benefited the Democratic Party by 1976 with Jimmy Carter being elected President in 1976, who was a Progressive Democrat from the South and not as far to the left as the national Democratic Party. George McGovern was a man who truly believed in public service, that it was about representing the public and not furthering your career financially.

George McGovern grew up in the New Deal era in the Democratic Party era, the Progressive Era of Franklin Roosevelt and thought this was the politics of the future. And something that he believed in and was the dominant political philosophy up until the late 1960s or so.

The problem that Senator McGovern had was that by the time he was a national Democrat and becoming a major contender For President of the United States, Senator McGovern was not a New Deal Progressive Democrat, but more of a Henry Wallace Democratic Socialist, during a time when the country was moving to the right on economic policy and when high taxes, Welfare, big government were becoming unpopular.Yet

When the country was moving right economically, the George McGovern and the Democratic Party was moving left, thanks to the New-Left and Baby Boomers of the 1960s and 70s. Which made it almost impossible for a McGovernite like a McGovern to win nationally and win statewide perhaps in most states.

The main difference between Barry Goldwater and George McGovern’s landslide presidential losses, is that Senator Goldwater was ahead of his time and the country wasn’t quite ready for his let’s call it conservative-libertarianism in 1964. At the heart of the Great Society era in the country.

But in Senator McGovern’s case, the country moved past his and LBJ’s progressivism and Wallace/McGovern democratic socialism. And instead we’re looking for fewer taxes and more economic development and growth in America.

What I call the McGovern wing of the Democratic Party, that’s different from the FDR or LBJ wing, was forming, but hasn’t had the power to nominate another McGovern Socialist to run for President in the Democratic Party.

The Far-Left of the Democratic Party tried with McGovern again in 1984, Jesse Jackson in 84 and 88, Dennis Kucinich in 2004 and 2008. But none of these Far-Leftist Democrats, have come even close to being a major contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. And we are now seeing McGovern-Democrats running for President in social democratic third-parties.

George McGovern’s legacy for the Democratic Party, is that he expanded it. Taken it away from the right-wing Religious-Right of the South and giving the Republican Party a Christmas gift from hell. And turning the Democratic Party into more of a Northern and West Coast party. That relies on minorities and women, to be successful politically.

Read Full Post »

CSPAN: President Barack Obama- ‘At The 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner’

Source:CSPAN– President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) speaking at the 2011 White House Correspondents dinner, in Washington.

Source:FreeState MD

“President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. View the complete program here:CSPAN.”

“Journalists, politicians and celebrities gathered for the White House Correspondents’ Association Annual Dinner where journalism awards were presented. President Obama gave humorous remarks focusing on his potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. His speech featured a fake trailer for “The President’s Speech,” a spoof sequel to the film “The King’s Speech.” He was followed by “Saturday Night Live” head writer Seth Meyers.”

Source:CSPAN– comedian Seth Meyers.

From CSPAN

Ever since the mid-term elections of 2010, the President has been in full reelection mode. Thinking that if Democrats can lose the House, he could lose the White House just as easily.

And every decision and policy position and speech President Obama has given, has been based on that. Only when President Obama has to take a stand on anything, it’s after endless concentrated thought on every possible proposal and idea that’s out there. Libya being a perfect example of this and then after finally taking a position on anything.

Watching Barack Obama make up his mind on anything, (from a distance, anyway) is like watching a midget try to tackle an elephant: it is really difficult and painful thing to see that you want it to end and for some resolution to the matter: “If we do this, than that will happen and that will be bad. But if we don’t do this, then this could happen and that might be worst”. Politicians who try to please everybody tend to be the most unpopular. Because they end up offending everyone. And that is sort of where President Obama is right now.

It’s the weakest position possible designed to offend the very least. It’s Independent voters that the President is targeting. Meaning that he can’t seem too strong on anything, because he might offend those who look for the middle ground on everything­.

Which means that President Obama ends up doing what he wants the least, which is looking weak. Because he can’t figure out what the hell he should do. Right now President Obama who’ve I tended to agree with on foreign and economic policy, is the On the Other Hand President.

President Barack Obama: “Well, if we do this, it could work, but on the other hand if we do this instead, it might work better. And costing the country economically because we have a weak economy that needs strong action”.

Sometimes you just got to say, screw it! And do what you think is right and let the chips fall where they may. That is what leadership is about and what being President of the United States is about. The On the Other Hand Presidency might turn out to be effective leadership in the long-term, but it’s definitely weak leadership in the short-term. And costing President Obama popularity and the ability to lead a large divided country.

Read Full Post »

Fair Economy: David Morris- ‘Why You Want Government Running Health, Education and Defense’

Source:FreeState MD– people buried under Big Government?

Source:FreeState MD 

“This article by David Morris of OnTheCommons.org supports the commonly made argument that privatization is not always the answer because certain services, such as health care, are more cost-effective and better.”

From Fair Economy

“President Obama on why the private sector is more efficient than government”

Source:U.S. Representative Jeff Duncan– President Barack Obama, talking about the government shutdown, in 2013.

From Jeff Duncan

The title of this article from the AlterNet that I read is called: “Why You Want the Government Running Health, Education and Defense”. No, for real, just look up top incase you missed it. Yet the whole article is about comparing the American health care system with foreign health care systems.

This article had nothing about education and defense. Because I believe this writer understands that the American public education system isn’t very good right now. We’re ranked I believe by the United Nations, and organization that the Left especially the Far-Left puts a lot of faith in, 39th in the World. And no one is calling for privatizing the Defense Department. Except for perhaps Dick Cheney, Ron Paul and Libertarians in the Tea Party.

Another issue I have with the AlterNet article is some of its so-called facts: I know, why would the AlterNet care about fact or let them get in their way of a good ideological argument. But saying that in America the private sector runs our health care system and in the rest of the developed world the public sector runs their health care systems, is purely false.

Holland, Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Japan (to use as examples) France, Germany, Italy and Japan all being large countries, all have private/ public health care systems. America has a private/public health care system. It’s just different and not nearly as effective as these other countries, with its health insurance.

Socialists like to say that government ownership or management of the economy and other key services, is the best way to go to have the best country possible. And they point to Sweden as their example of how well this system works. Not recognizing or realizing the fact that Sweden has a very large private sector and a lot of their economy is privatized.

What Sweden does have and why I call it a social democracy, well because that is exactly what it is. (Speaking of facts) But what they have is a very large welfare state (at least by American standards) with very generous benefits financed through high taxes. (Again, at least by American standards) In other words, the Swedish Government or Swedish Socialists tax most of their people’s money away, so they can give that money back to take care of them. Or another way of putting it, they tax people to death and them bring them back to life with their own money.

The economy’s that work best are the economy’s that privatize most of their economy, but regulate them well to prevent and punish abuses. That has unlimited fair and open competition and a substantial and affordable safety net for people who fall through the cracks. That empowers them to get on their feet.

America used to have an economy like this, but we moved away from it and look where we are now. What doesn’t work well in an economy are monopolies, whether they are public or private. Where Big Government, “my people are essentially if not officially, because my public school monopoly doesn’t teach them very well. So what I have to do is take most of their money from them to prevent them from spending it unwisely, to take care of them”. And you can just look at the former Soviet Union, or Cuba or North Korea today.

What also doesn’t work well is what I and others would call “cowboy capitalism”. Which is capitalism with essentially no rules or the rules aren’t enforced. Or the referees are paid off and essentially taking coffee breaks over at the closest Starbucks from the stadium the whole game and they allow whatever to happen to happen, the free market being everything that is. Except that it is not free when the government at taxpayers expense pays these companies for the hell of it, who play by no rules. And I give you the Bush Administration of 2001-2009 as the only example I need. And look at where we are today.

Government should let the people be free to live their own lives as long as they are not hurting anyone else with their freedom. Thats the economy that works the best, freedom with responsibility.

I don’t and I imagine most Americans don’t want a Federal, or for that matter a state, country or municipal babysitter (meaning government) to take care of us, for us, at of course our expense. Big Government to its taxpayers: “Give me your money, so I can take care of you for you.” Uh no, just give the people the tools they need in life to be successful and allow for them to take care of themselves. Freedom and responsibility: reward good behavior and discourage bad behavior.

Read Full Post »