What's in the water in USA?

Gotta get back on track!

SAY WHAT?
"Wasilla was so white that there was only one African American in the entire school system. One day when the boy was in junior high school, Todd, then a senior, and two friends waylaid him by the gravel pit adjacent to Wasilla High and beat him up, simply because he was black. 'Sure, Todd was a racist bully, but that just made him one of the guys. Growing up black in Wasilla was hell.'"
—from The Rogue, by Joe McGinniss

From Doonesbury, via Slate.
As is this.....

WHA?
Anna Bramfeld | Oak Park, IL | September 12, 2011
Wha....? Just now, as I was folding up today's Chicago Tribune, I realized I'd forgotten to read Doonesbury. I opened up the comic page again and discovered the following message: "This week's Doonesbury does not meet our standards of fairness. Please enjoy this substitute strip." I'm thinking of cancelling my subscription, which I have never considered in the past. The Tribune has a columnist and a cartoonist who have made careers out of trashing Obama almost every day, and I have accepted it as part of the ugly downside of a democratic society and a free press. And now the Trib says it can't publish a cartoon that quotes a book about Sarah Palin?

I am afraid everyone will stay home as it seems there is no sanity on either side.

Discussing the individual mandate, CNN's Blitzer asked Paul a hypothetical question about a young man without insurance who is severely injured and requires hospitalization for six months. Who would pay for his care? Should society "just let him die?" "Yes," came a few calls from the crowd.

Ugh.

(also from Slate)

Social Security didn't used to be a Ponzi scheme.  Money you paid was held in a reserve.  Then someone came up with the bright idea of spending that money now and letting current workers pay the benefits of current retirees.  At that point, it met the definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Telling the truth about it won't win a lot of votes no matter what political banner you run for office under.

Weren't the first Social Security checks given to seniors who never paid into the system...since it had not yet existed?  I've always been told that the dollars I pay into the system are not held in reserve for me.  It's a funded program and always has been. Just becuase changing demographics make it harder to fund, does not make it a Ponzi scheme. I believe it is solvent, right now, until the 2030's.

What A-Train said.
If the money just sat in a bank vault collecting 0.4% per annum, I'd be pretty pissed.

I think it's important to remember that the Sarah Palin and all of them are a loud but very small minority. I get the impression that even most Conservatives in the US hate them so even though they are on TV all of the time, it's another matter whether they will actually get to run, and yet another matter whether enough people will go and vote

They make a lot of noise, but I can imagine a lot of people, even people who hate Obama actually chickening out of trying to put some wingnut as president. There is a lot of protest here, the TEA Party thing doesn't really have any content.

Maybe I'm over optimistic though, I read a really good essay about it by an ex US Republican who has quit the party over the direction...

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

Once upon a time there was a social security trust fund.  Now any leftovers are (mis)used for other things.

I think it's important to remember that the Sarah Palin and all of them are a loud but very small minority.

They make a lot of noise, but I can imagine a lot of people, even people who hate Obama actually chickening out of trying to put some wingnut as president.

Maybe I'm over optimistic though, I read a really good essay about it by an ex US Republican who has quit the party over the direction...

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

Minority, yes, but not so small.  And their numbers are made up for by their noise and activism during elections.  Every GOP candidate, (except maybe Ron Paul), has to pay heed to the Tea Party or they will be out.  Just ask the former, (very conservative), Republican Senator from Utah. Or former Senator Arlen Spector.  The best, and most likey, scenario is that they nominate someone so far right that the independants can't stomach him/her. 

I know this is overly dramatic, but the National Socialists were a small minority as were the Bolsheviks. That didn't stop them from assuming power. And the nighmare scenario would be that the economy is so bad in 2012 that Obama loses to whoever the GOP throws onto the ballot.  President Rick Perry!?!? 

@A-Train --- "overly dramatic" is an understatement!  You just associated the Tea Party and GOP with the Nazis.  With all due respect...that is the kind of bullshit bomb throwing that people are sick of.  If you want to talk about politics, talk about the issues instead of throwing bombs.   

I know this is overly dramatic, but the National Socialists were a small minority as were the Bolsheviks.

you just associated the Tea Party and GOP with the Nazis.

Just a very small association!!

Sweet, a thread actually invoking Godwin's law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

You just associated the Tea Party and GOP with the Nazis.  With all due respect...that is the kind of bullshit bomb throwing that people are sick of.  If you want to talk about politics, talk about the issues instead of throwing bombs.   

The association was only with regard to the fact that a small minority can take power.  It was a response to Kitano's statement, not a "bomb". It also said nothing about the GOP. But then again I'm not saying that the Tea Party is NOT a group of racist, xenophobic, selfish, hate-mongers either.  The door's open for discussion on that one.

Sweet, a thread actually invoking Godwin's law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

"Precisely because such a comparison or reference may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin has argued[4] that overuse of Nazi and Hitler comparisons should be avoided, because it robs the valid comparisons of their impact."

So was my invocation of Social Democrats an overuse or appropriate?

There are quite a few parallels between the situations, capitalism coming close to collapse, capitalist democracy losing validity, fear gaining more and more political capital.....

I don't for a second think that the TEA party are anything like the Nazis though, when you look at it now you can see the Nazis had a strategy almost from day 1, the right in the US seem to be pretty random (unless they are being 'crazy like a fox'....)