Your taxes haven't gone down. You're failing to factor in gas up 400%, inflation, corporate bailouts funded by taxpayers and more. Taxes take on many forms.
Lehman Brothers Bankrupt, Merril Lynch folds - Go Bush!
- Thread starter Unarmed Gunman
- Start date
- Status
Your taxes haven't gone down. You're failing to factor in gas up 400%, inflation, corporate bailouts funded by taxpayers and more. Taxes take on many forms.
Actually its £40+ billion pumped into AIG.
You are quoting the global GDP. Around $80 billion dollars has been printed for AIG. This surely devalues the $.
Please stop acting like the Democrats and Republicans are actually different. They aren't. They are all told what to do by the same people and the end goal is always the same, although they just might take different paths to get there.
Federal Spending Compared to Revenue - damn bush spent way more comparatively but oh yeah, we're fightin a war of terrar for our freedom against cave dwellers that made NORAD stand down.
Federal Spending Compared to Revenue - damn bush spent way more comparatively but oh yeah, we're fightin a war of terrar for our freedom against cave dwellers that made NORAD stand down.
There's a quote from FDR that I remember every time politics is brought up in conversation: "There's not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans."
They're not divided in their political philosophy. They're all Statists. They all want to see a centralization of power. If you don't agree, look at every major piece of legislation which vastly expanded the centralization of power in the hands of the Federal Government, and the voting record for said pieces of legislation.
- How many people voted against the PATRIOT Act?
- How many people voted against telecom immunity?
- How many people voted against centralization of power?
Not only are their voting records telling the true story of their allegiance, but looking at who was aware of what the Executive branch was doing that was later "exposed" ... shocking the public? Pelosi was briefed, and approved of the interrogation methods the Bush administration was implementing. How many others knew?
And LoZ, your snide little comment about having it "so hard the last eight years..." Guess what? A lot of people have had it extremely hard. And yes, they are responsible for their part in how their lives went, and in no small way.
But when a snake oil salesman comes to down, talks fancy, and dupes a lot of people out of their hard earned cash, who gets the blame? Of course the duped victims feel stupid, and think they ought to have known better. But who gets tarred and feathered, LoZ?
Or how about old ladies who get conned out of their money? Do we tell them "too bad, so sad, suck it up and move on?" Or do we help track down and prosecute the responsible parties?
There's self-reliance, self-responsibility, and all that. Then there's taking it too far, and blaming any and all hardship a person experiences on the idea that they must have done something, somehow to fuck things up for themselves and cause these bad things that are happening in their life.
Well, there are events that occur in life which are beyond the control of the affected individuals. I know that this all probably makes me sound very Democratic to you. But I'm not. And I'm not some anti-government conspiracy theorist who is going to start chanting "9/11 was an inside job" or post two hour long videos from Alex Jones or some other crazy nutter.
My whole point with this tirade is that I'm sick of watching the majority of people get hoodwinked into turning on each other and tearing one another apart due to supposed idealogical differences.
They've got you pissing and moaning about whether you should drink 2% or whole milk with your cookies while they steal the fucking cookie jar.
It's not Democrat versus Republican. It's statist politicians versus the citizens of this country. They imagine they have some right to rule, and that we are here to be ruled, taxed, micromanaged.
The longer the rest of us stay short-sighted, the closer we get to losing the little freedom we have. Which, by the way, is the most freedom any regular citizen of any country in the history of humanity has ever had.
^^^^
maybe you've stumbled on the mother of all conspiracy theories: The two parties are secretly all working together to keep us busy with debating one over the other whilst they inch us ever closer to centralization.
BTW, I haven't the slightest idea how old ladies who get conned out of their money has anything to do with all of this. I say hang the bastards who do that. That's someone's grandmother they're messing with.
maybe you've stumbled on the mother of all conspiracy theories: The two parties are secretly all working together to keep us busy with debating one over the other whilst they inch us ever closer to centralization.
BTW, I haven't the slightest idea how old ladies who get conned out of their money has anything to do with all of this. I say hang the bastards who do that. That's someone's grandmother they're messing with.
I guess so. Judging by your response, the point being made was to implicate Republicans in stealing from old ladies? That's an extremely asinine statement to make.
It's about holding people accountable. We hold blue collar criminals and con men responsible for their crimes, but the big money criminals operate with impunity because they're politicians (democrat or republican), or connected to them.
Government is supposed to work for the people and fear the people, not the other way around.
Government is supposed to work for the people and fear the people, not the other way around.
Had nothing to do with pointing fingers at one party or another. That was actually the opposite of my point, actually.
Did you even read my post? Or did you just skim it looking for excuses to rip it up? I started with that FDR quote: "There's not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans."
And it's true.
My point was that Democrats and Republicans are both STATISTS. Know that word? It means they choose what's best for government, not what's best for the citizens. It means they re-enforce government's ability to rule your life.
I'm just as much against Democrats as I am against Republicans. Obama, self-proclaimed agent of change he is, voted IN FAVOR of telecom immunity. These politicians are two sides of the same coin.
I'm not an anarchist, either. I think the United States government would work just fine as it was set up in the Constitution. Unfortunately, it's just a "damned piece of paper," according to our favorite boy George sitting in the white house.
EDIT: looking back over this and my previous post, I have to laugh. It is insane that I feel it necessary to patch any potential holes in my armor in anticipation of Ad Hominem attacks. I don't think I've ever managed to have a salient conversation regarding politics, because few people seem able to keep on topic and avoid deteriorating into personal attacks.
Actually it's not, but it's a good quote. These guys very much believe and vote differently. They also budget differently ... though always bad.
Now as far as having integrity and being genuinely good people, you & FDR are totally right. They all suck balls.
Here you are absolutely correct and if fucking makes me sick.
The only difference is that the Republicans in office are hypocrites as their party traditionally stands for smaller gov't. Democrats feel that the gov't is better at running your life than you are, so when they get into office they make D.C. bigger ... just as they say they will on the campaign trail.
I did read your post and agree with it (except the part about old ladies). It was Unarmed Gunman's Obamaesque twisting of the meaning that I responded to.
Really, they keep their talking points different enough to get laypeople caught up in pissing matches over them, but on major issues regarding personal liberty, and holding those that transgress said liberty responsible they all vote the same way. Notice the bolded text.
from my earlier post said:
They may, and typically do, have a lot of dissimilar qualities historically when it comes to budgeting and government programs. But I would say that's not really true so much anymore. The Republicans, as you stated, have been very hypocritical in their philosophy versus their actions. They both seem to vote for more government spending and bigger budgets. They just differ in where they want to spend. They all want to spend more, regardless.
Really, they're all hypocrites when you get down to it.
Sorry for that. As far as the part about old ladies, I was trying to use it to illustrate a point. In that case, we as U.S. citizens are the old ladies and the politicians are the con men scamming us out of our money. Anyway...
The problem with partisan politics is that it turns normally rational people who would otherwise have no problem with each other into vehement enemies who go for the jugular. But if you can get people to transcend that, most people aren't that far apart when it comes to politics, government, etc.
For your viewing pleasure, Jon Stewart on partisan politics.
I already responded to this, but I wanted to draw attention to the bolded text in particular. When you're vetting a person, you have to look at the whole person and all their activities, not just the ones that directly relate to whatever you're vetting them for. In this case, it's politics.
When you're looking at politicians, look at which special interests are lobbying them. There's a lot of overlap there.
More so when you look at what extra-curricular (but still political) groups they belong to. The Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg group, Trilateral Commission, and so on. A lot of these politicans who supposedly diametrically oppose one another sit down together in these types of groups to discuss policy and how to proceed on important matters of state. And the scary thing is, they come away from those meetings in agreement over how they should proceed. They are doing in private what should be done in Congress.
I said earlier I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and that's true. So I try to stay away from discussing much of anything approaching what I said in the previous paragraph. That is mainly due to whackos having shit in this particular punch bowl.
I don't listen to most of the crap spun by such crazies, but I am greatly disturbed that the process which is supposed to happen as a public process is held in private. Not only in private, but while sitting at the same table as people of power and influence in business and other private sectors.
So these "powerful men and women" get to discuss the issues face-to-face with our elected officials, and the best I can do is get a canned answer in a form letter with a digitized signature which tells me that the politician probably didn't even see what I wrote/called about.
Couldn't agree more with this statement. Remember that Barack Obama's primary foreign policy advisor is a neo-con pioneer and founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations the faction responsible for almost every covert destructive action against the American people in recent times. If this doesn't tell you there really is no difference between the two major parties I don't know what does.
Everyone needs to read Ron Paul's book The Revolution: A Manifesto to understand what it will take to prevent this country from imploding in on itself.
- Status