I am becoming disturbed by the influence the Fascist Right still has on American politics.
Despite being comprehensively voted out of office, they still control a large part of the media and they know that any lie, repeated often enough, will become a truth in the minds of those not taught to analyse what is presented to them.
At the moment anyone anywhere near the Centre of politics is being vilified as a Communist. A pity there isn’t an education program in place to teach Americans critical thinking. Oh, that’s right. There was one. Until the Neo-cons, Fundamentalists and Creationists dismantled it.
So here is a new Blog Award for those bloggers who do think critically and who do hope for a better world and nation through better education and an honest media.
My first presentations are to four people dedicated to advancing the people of the world through the use of words and humour.
anniegirl1138, honjii, jams O’Donnell, Metro and to a fifth who will not accept it but who definitely deserves it, raincoaster.
Only two rules. Pass it on to someone else who deserves it and a link back here would be appreciated.
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 
Thank you. I am honored.
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I’m honored, especially to be among the first.
In accepting this award I’d like to thank Archie, everyone from the academy, the public, my family and friends for being supportive and last but not least NOT god.
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It’s pretty spooky to be an American these days. I’ve never liked the look of a gun strapped to my hips, but it’s all the rage here now. How can it feel like such a loss to have won?
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Wow, Archie. I’d deeply flattered. Woody Guthrie was cursed as a commie at the time he was writing. It seemed like the US didn’t have the political will to overcome moneyed interests then, either.
I’m astounded at how well the US right wing appears to have convinced the average Joe to speak out loudly and often against their own interests in 2009. Keep ’em ignorant seems to be the rallying cry.
Witness the rage against a presidential speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school and acheive that-thar book -learnin’. The Republicans know their only chance for hegemony is keeping the public dumb and distracted. But that only works some of the time.
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Toruble is, it works enough times and on enough people to make things very uncomfortable for everyone else.. 😦
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I’ve always been amazed that while the conservatives aim for prosperity for everyone, the “Progressives” do everything they can to lower the standard of living by unapologetically punishing success.
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Yes, fancy wanting such Un-American things as to:
* not have one of, if not the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed nations
* have health care as a right, for all Americans, and not a privilege
* not have people die because they cannot afford medical care
* not have your education system be one of the worst of all of the developed countries, so that perhaps people would be taught critical thinking skills which are so badly needed there
* not have the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor due to corporate greed, corruption, and power
* not have your elected officials corrupted by same big corporations
* not have children and adults who are homeless and hungry
* not have people praying for your President to fail (or die) because he is not white
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Archie, I couldn’t have said it better myself, it’s as if you took the words right out of my mouth (blog). 😉
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I know – I’m away from my normal ISP, on a pay for time hotspot scheme and ran out of time before I could give a credit. Back now – Credit being given 🙂
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Archie–
I was being polite. Please state your sources for such specious allegations, and I’ll address your concerns. Email me directly if you like. Sounds like a fun(?) research assignment.
All in fun, facts and logic, Bunk
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Bunk, meet honjii, honjii, meet Bunk
[sits back waiting for fireworks]
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Hello, Bunk
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Meanwhile, please provide me with a list of socialist/liberal/progressive programs that actually did what they set out to do without making things worse. I’d honestly like to hear of ONE.
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Just as soon as you can give me a few examples of Republican/Nazi/”free enterprise” programs which do not enrich the already rich and empoor the already poor.
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And talk like a pirate when you do it. =)
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Archie–
All I did was call you out on a number of unsubstantiated claims that you made. I’m talking to you, not honjii. And now you call me a Nazi.
You made the accusations, now it’s up to you back it up.
I’m not looking for a flame war, just a cordial discussion.
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I didn’t call you a Nazi. I simply asked for information as you did. You accepted that the term Nazi applies to you. I don’t think it does.
While I am not opposed to flame wars (I have learned from the wet one on this) I do like a discussion to reach some conclusion. I fear we are both too old and too entrenched in our positions to change, regardless of the evidence.
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You equated Nazis and Republicans, therefore, since I am a registered Republican you called me a Nazi.
Let’s take your accusations one at a time. Where is the documentation that the U.S. has “one of, if not the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed nations” as you asserted?
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Lemme help you on that one. The average world infant mortality rate is between 42 and 49 per 1,000 births. That’s a 5% average at worst. The U.S. rate comes in at 0.6%, or 6 per 1,000 births.
Next, you insinuated that here in the U.S. we should “have health care as a right, for all Americans, and not a privilege.”
As a matter of fact, everyone, citizens, travelers, students with visas, the homeless and illegal immigrants ALL have access to healthcare. There are free clinics supported by charity throughout the nation, and laws that require hospitals to provide emergency care regardless of a person’s financial or legal status.
The current political wrangling has nothing to do with health care, but everything to do with nationalizing the insurance industry.
Two down. Should I go on?
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The comment re infant mortality was made for “Developed countries”. There are very few “developed countries” below #45 on the CIA list.
As for health care, I copied and pasted all of that reply from a source I respect. I do not know enough about the American health system to comment myself.
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The difference in IMR between Iceland (0.23%) and the U.S. (0.63%) is 0.4%, is statistically insignificant, especially when you consider the ethnic makeup of the U.S.
For example, when you note that Mexico has a rate of 1.67%, and you consider the large number of immigrant in recent years (both legal and illegal) the overall U.S. IMR is skewed downward.
The IMR of any group of people is affected by many variables, most notably ethnicity, diet, and medical care.
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The difference is actually 300% as 0.63% is three times as big as 0.23%. That IS statistically significant.
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Archie, three times a very small fraction doesn’t equate to making it a large number. That is a misapplication of statistics, and you ignored my suggestion that the U.S. number is affected by the number of 2nd and 3rd world immigrants that arrive. The majority of other countries around the world are not in the same situation.
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“The current political wrangling has nothing to do with health care, but everything to do with nationalizing the insurance industry.”
And you say that like it is a bad thing.
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Nationalization of the healthcare insurance industry IS a bad thing, at least in the U.S. The federally controlled programs already in place (Medicare, Medicaid, the Veteran’s Administration, etc.) are all financial wrecks, even by the President’s admission.
However, I completely agree that our current system needs reform, but there are other ways to do it without putting government lawyers in charge of making medical decisions.
Not the least of the remedies is tort reform, which would reduce costs of medical malpractice insurance and take big load off the pharmaceuticals industry.
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Bunk, I never heard Obama state that Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA are financial wrecks. I have, however, heard many people that are the beneficiaries of these programs state they are very happy with them. You talk about government lawyers making health care decisions, how did you draw this conclusion? As it is now the health insurance companies employ non-medical people to make health care decisions, in fact they employ people who are required to find ways to deny as many claims as possible. Sounds as if you are buying into all of the lies being perpetuated by the medical insurance industry as their last ditch effort to keep their foothold on the big mountain of money they now occupy.
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honjii– I’m not interested in arguing with you as you didn’t make the grossly inaccurate statements that my friend Archie posted above.
I was unable to find the exact Obama video I saw, but these may suffice:
“Medicare and Medical are about to go into the red in a few years.”
Here Obama blasts the inefficiency of the USPS.
Mr. Babble in action. Pheew.
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Bunk, the “grossly inaccurate statements” were a direct lift from honjii’s blog. She IS the person you need to argue with as honjii has the knowledge I don’t.
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Naw, I’ll pass. I’m not interested in debating someone whou se basis for argument is name calling.
No offense intended, Ms. H. It’s your blog, and you can spout any opinions you like, including innuendo that all those who oppose the left’s policies must be inherently racist.
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heh– typos above are because the comment box isgetting skinny and cut off my words.
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Oh Bunk, you’ve gone and done it
again, I did NOT say ALL of those
who oppose the left’s policies
are racist, I said MOST of the
stupidity and outrageous
claims floating about had their
basis in racism. See this is
exactly the problem, it’s like the
U.S. is playing that old party game
of telephone. People either don’t
listen or read carefully enough, then
what has actually been stated
gets more distorted each time is
is passed along until it becomes
a completely different statement.
And then of course there are the
out and out deliberate lies that are
being spread.
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I know Wikipedia is not an authoritative source but when they use charts prepared by The UN and by the CIA the figures seem to have some substance. 33rd by UN figures and 45th by the CIA figures is hardly a ringing endorsement.
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The figures for both charts vary, although not widely. See my previous response above.
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Bunk, you are citing the average world infant mortality rate, if you read more carefully I wrote that we have one of, if not the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed nations.
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Hello, honjii.
You are correct, but please read my previous statement to Archie at 4:14pm.
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*not have one of, if not the highest infant mortality rate of all the developed nations
[See my previous comment. The statistical deviation is negligible.]
* have health care as a right, for all Americans, and not a privilege
The U.S. Constitution states, in the very first paragraph:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
[Note that it doesn’t say “provide.” That is a great distinction that the political left frequently overlooks.]
* not have people die because they cannot afford medical care
This is a patent falsehood. See my previous comments.
* not have your education system be one of the worst of all of the developed countries, so that perhaps people would be taught critical thinking skills which are so badly needed there
The U.S. public education system is a wreck. I won’t argue that. K-12 is another failed government-run program, controlled by the teachers unions. Many, including myself, have argued for a voucher system that allows parents credit for private school education. It’s very telling when a large number of public school teachers (and politicos) put their own children in private school. Even though the voucher system has been successful where it was tried, the system has been constantly thwarted by the unions.
*not have the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor due to corporate greed, corruption, and power
In a free market system, the wealthy have more money to invest than those with less. A man with $10,000 to invest will naturally earn more on his investment than a man with $1,000 in the market. That’s a big duh. The fact is that the poor in this country are not poor forever. People are continually moving up the ladder. In 1984, I made only about $11,000, but I didn’t consider myself poor. (I considered myself lazy, though!) Twenty years later I made almost 10 times as much.
There is no such thing as “corporate greed.” Corporations are ephemeral entities that employ people. Ideally, they make profits to expand their production and hire more people. If the corporation/company ‘s profits are confiscated by aggressive taxation, they are forced to cut their labor force.
I shouldn’t have to explain basic economics.
* not have your elected officials corrupted by same big corporations
Like ACORN, or the AFL-CIO, or…
* not have children and adults who are homeless and hungry
Name a country that doesn’t have this problem. The U.S. has many taxpayer-funded programs that are intended to ameliorate the problem, but again, the federal systems are filled with fraud. On the other hand, there are many charitable organizations that work beyond the government’s ineptitude, and I contribute to them.
*not have people praying for your President to fail (or die) because he is not white
What kind of bullshit racist statement is that?
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I will comment on the last. Pastor Stephen L Anderson may be just an outlier on the bell curve – or he may be a sign of a deep division within the USA. Either way, he is a part of the American electorate.
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Archie, I don’t deny there is racism in this country, but it’s not as pervasive as the mainstream media would have you believe. You can find extremists on both sides of the aisle.
As for death threats on Obama, there were just as many during the Bush years, including at least one book suggesting how his assassination could be accomplished, and a MOVIE that actually depicted it. Were these wackjobs racist, too?
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Well this has been fun, but I know I’m getting bored with it, and am ready to move on. I could respond to each item above but after reading your comments in this discussion there would be no point. I’m guessing Bunk is a white, Christian male. I am a bi-racial female. You are correct about the mainstream media, they do not paint an accurate picture of racism in America. It’s far worse.
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Ms. H– Now you bring race into it again. So what if you’re a bi-racial female? That has nothing at all to do with the discussion, any more than the fact that I’m wearing a black shirt. You don’t know how wrong you are.
Carry on, but please don’t go through life with a chip on your shoulder. It’s not worth it.
Cordially,
Bunk
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