B'Man's Revolt
Archive for September 2009
Where In The World Is Universal Healthcare? Taiwan
The Natural News has become a regular daily read for me. The Health Ranger (Mike Adams) has been a long time proponent of Universal Healthcare, for many of the same reasons that I do. The first and foremost is that Medicine and healing should NOT be a “for-profit” endeavor that only really accomplishes one thing: a monopoly for Big Meds and Big Insurance.
In Mike’s latest article, “Read This, Seniors: Tawian’s Universal Health Care System Provides Full Coverage For $21 a Month – Why Can’t We?“, he delves into the system that Taiwan provides for extremely low to no cost. They, of course, take a wholly different approach to health in Taiwan and push for natural medicines (covering it, as well) and preventative care instead of the Big Pharma fix of more and more unproven medicines and treatments intent on keeping us sick and unhealthy.
Taiwan’s universal care system provides full coverage for slightly over $21 / month for an individual who is unemployed. A typical family of four where both parents work is paying roughly $75 / month which includes full coverage for both the parents and their two children.
A person who is self-employed pays roughly $45 / month. Someone who is employed at an average income level pays just $10 / month (the employer pays the rest). The out-of-pocket fee for a typical visit to the doctor is roughly five dollars.
Taiwan isn’t some third-world country. This is an advanced, first-world nation with state-of-the-art western medical care. They have high-end technology, world-class physicians trained in western medical schools (I mean, if you believe in western medicine as being useful), and some of the most modern hospitals in Asia. I was actually in a Taiwan hospital just a few months ago, and I got to witness a simple outpatient surgical procedure conducted quickly, efficiently and with amazing medical expertise.
Veterans are provided 100% free health insurance for life. Spouses of veterans get 70% of their insurance paid by the government. All farmers and fishermen only have to pay 30% of their insurance, too, because the other 70% is paid by the government. This means the average Taiwan farmer pays just a few dollars a month for health insurance.
Low-income individuals receive 100% free health care and pay nothing for full coverage. (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/webda…)
Amazing, huh? Are you wondering how they do it? Before we get into that, this is what Taiwan provides in their system:
What’s covered in Taiwan’s universal health care system
Taiwan’s universal health care system covers: (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/english/webda…)
• All doctor checkups and routine medical procedures
• All pharmaceuticals
• All dental care other than cosmetic
• All vision and eye care
• Emergency medicine, including ambulance costs (covers 80%, you pay 20%)
• Physical therapy and rehabilitation services
• All prenatal care and birthing care
• Traditional Chinese Medicine, including acupuncture, herbs and medical massage (Tui-Na)
• At-home care (covers 90%, you pay 10%)
• Long-term chronic care in the hospital (you pay 5% for the first 30 days, then increasingly more the longer you stay, with a maximum of roughly $875 out of pocket per stay, no matter how long)
• All mental health care, including psychiatric medicine
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t look so bad, does it? But, surely us Big Fat White People are simply so different from those little yellow people that comparing such systems doesn’t work (like Ed insinuated about Panama’s Single Payer System)? Do I have to explain how ignorant such a statement is? I mean, aren’t we America, by God? Can’t we do anything we want to do?
Here is what is NOT covered by their system:
What’s NOT included in Taiwan’s universal health care system
Taiwan’s universal health care system doesn’t cover everything. Here’s some of what’s not included:
• Cosmetic surgery, including breast enlargement, facial surgery and purely cosmetic dental procedures. If cosmetic reconstruction is necessary due to an accident or injury, then it is covered.
• Vaccinations
• Sex change surgeries
• Infertility procedures or birth control surgeries
• Over-the-counter medications
• Blood (for transfusions) (You have to buy your own blood, or bring a relative who has some to spare)
• Experimental medicine
• Eye glasses and artificial eyes
• Wheel chairs, walking canes
• Hearing aids
• Substance abuse addiction recovery
Those are the big exclusions. Nearly everything else is covered, including dental, prenatal, emergency medicine and medications.
One could squabble that EVERYTHING should be covered, but I don’t agree. I think we should evaluate each and every other Universal System in place in the world; take the best of each and implement it here. By doing so, we could end up with the very best system in the world and could truly say, “We’re Number 1!”, again in reality and truth.
No matter what, the value-deducting Health Insurance Companies MUST go. There is no place for the middle man that offers nothing of value; in fact, they deduct value from each and every visit to your doctor and every interaction in your health.
If you disagree, please explain to me in comments precisely what it is of value that Big Insurance does to earn that 30%?
Until then, take a gander as to how Mike explains the biggest differences between the Taiwanese system and ours:
The differences between Taiwan’s health care philosophy and America’s philosophy is revealingly found in a web-based ad appearing at the Bureau of National Health Insurance for Taiwan (http://www.nhi.gov.tw/). It offers the following advice:
• Exercise
• Drink Water
• Eat a Healthy Diet
• Enjoy Nature
• Be HappyIn the U.S., a similar ad on a U.S. government website would instead say something like:
• Get vaccinated
• Get irradiated with a mammogram
• Take more medications
• Avoid sunlight
• Avoid nutritional supplements and healing herbsIs it any wonder that the U.S. health care system is failing? The U.S. system pushes pharmaceuticals, surgery and truly bad health advice that just keeps people trapped in a cycle of disease. The Taiwan system, on the other hand, actually encourages people to adopt healthy lifestyle changes and prevent disease. Is it any wonder that Taiwan gets better results?
Solid Potato Salad
For 45 seconds to a minute, you will think that I have lost my mind and may reconsider pushing the play button. But, this is amazing…
Miss oOjocelynOo shares another interesting item she StumbleUpon‘d.
Ed Is Screwed
Ed from Not Another CONspiracy (a once friend and confidant) can rejoice today since his GOP run state has been very busy prepping him and the rest off the Sheople in Georgia for forced vaccinations. Linked by PrisonPlanet, to EarthJive‘s post that gets into the details of this bill. Are you ready to roll up your sleeves?
Groundwork Laid for Mandatory Vaccination in Georgia
On April 28, 2009 Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed House Bill 217 (“the/this Bill”). It is imperative that all citizens of Georgia read this Bill, as it is now law. It can be found at the following link:
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/versions/hb217_HB_217_AP_10.htmListed below are a few, not all, of the powers granted to the state government. Each item in bold print is taken directly from the Bill.
1. Physicians are given the right to “authorize the use of influenza vaccine orders for a group of patients”.
In the Bill, there is no definition provided for ‘group of patients’. Thus a group of patients could be residents of a certain county, students of a school, children of a certain age group, adults of a certain age group, ANYONE.
2. “No physician who complies with the provisions of this code shall be subject to criminal or civil liability or discipline for 1) entering into an influenza agreement with a pharmacist or nurse, 2) issuing an influenza vaccine order”.
Any physician who follows this code is exempt from any legal recourse.
3. “Consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian shall be a condition precedent to the administration of an influenza vaccine to a child under the age of 18.”
In an effort to define “Condition Precedent,” The University of Chicago School of Law states that:
- “To the extent that the non-occurrence of a condition would cause disproportionate forfeiture (in this case the possibility of forfeiture of public health due to the H1N1 flu) a court may excuse the condition…”
May a court excuse a promise? No. Again, according to the University of Chicago Law School:
Thus, the particular wording of this law allows for the Physician (at the direction of the state government) to disregard the Parent’s wishes.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~jmellis/condition%20precedent.html4. “Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a nurse acting pursuant to an influenza vaccine protocol agreement as provided in this Code section may possess and transport influenza vaccine and epinephrine”.
The above item allows a nurse to travel with the vaccine.
Where is the nurse taking it? To a school? To your home? No further clarification is provided.
The final section of this bill states: “All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed,” so there is no law to the contrary.
Taken as a whole, this Bill allows mandatory vaccination of any person if the Government deems it necessary, even in the person’s own home.
Are you Georgia rednecks gonna put up with this? Are you ready to roll up the sleeves and allow these maniacs to plunge unproven and unsafe substances into your body? There is a petition you can sign to stop this, but I am not sure if the Sheoplicity has finally taken full reign of your senses. It apparently has with Ed.
At the same time, guess what is being planned? Our wonderful government is now considering (over and above the mandatory state law listed above and in Massachusetts) that they will also put you in jail AND charge you $25,000 fine enforced by the IRS if you refuse to purchase health insurance.
From NaturalNews:
(NaturalNews) There’s a popular video circulating on the ‘net right now about how to escape handcuffs without using a key. Americans are watching the video to bone up on essential skills that will soon be needed for health care reform, it seems, since the new laws that are about to be put in place call for Americans to be arrested and thrown in jail if they refuse to buy health insurance.
This has now been confirmed by Tom Barthold, the Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation. And it’s not merely about jail time; it’s also about the $25,000 fine that could be levied by the IRS against individuals who refuse to buy health insurance.
That this is even being considered just boggles the mind. If a person is too broke to afford health insurance right now, how are they supposed to be able to buy it after paying a $25,000 fine and spending a year in prison?
As Paul Craig Roberts brilliantly pointed out in a recent essay, this is like trying to solve the homeless problem by forcing homeless people to buy a home, then throwing them in prison when they can’t afford to.
Now let’s put this in perspective. Over 250 people in my home town (children) have been diagnosed with H1N1 and most, if not all are over it within a few days. My own sister-in-law’s family had it for 2-3 days and its over. I have yet to meet a person who has contracted the H1N1, so as far as I know, I have not been exposed. But my work has me meeting and shaking hands of people all over the southeast USA (am leaving for Little Rock at lunch today, as a matter of fact). I suppose one never knows, but we DO know that the normal everyday flu is more virulent and dangerous than this H1N1.
I am taking personal precautions to avoid transmittal to me. I have been cleaning my hands religiously, especially after interacting with someone (shaking hands, etc). I am taking 2,000iu of Vitamin D3 (I have considered raising this). I also take a multivitamin that has selenium and calcium (the calcium helps break down the Vitamin D).
But can one seriously think that forcing poor people to buy insurance is a sane solution, when the average cost of Premiums alone is over $13,000 (and that is without any major health issues). Mine (family of three) was over $14,000/year in premiums… not to mention the deductible and out of pocket expenses that averaged around $23,000/year for the past three or four years.
Are these idiots paying attention to who their constituents are? Does the Georgia legislature truly believe that people can afford the piss-poor “service” they get? Does you elected leaders, Mr and Mrs Georgian, actually have a clue about your fight to survive without them forcing you into more poverty?
Get your head outta your ass and think about what is happening. They are going to force you into a non-value added system and imprison/fine you if you don’t.
So, if they are going to force health insurance on everyone, we need to get loud and express that ANY health coverage that will be for all, will be a Single Payer system. Time is up for the Health Insurance Company, except for those few idiots that believe we have the very best healthcare in the world (precisely the same way they think we have the very best manufacturing in the world). Are you all ignorant or retarded?
Dumbasses like Ed need to wake up and see what is coming. The people against Single Payer are instrumental in making the health insurance companies even richer and give them even more control over your lives.
I don’t expect the insane to recover, but I can wish.
Snap out of it Ed (and the rest of you rednecks).
A New Path For Japan: Another Death Knell For America’s Hegemony
Our economy is barely propped up right now by foreign interests (especially Japan, China and much of the European Union). Basically, the industrialized world is seeing the truth about the Empire and is finally ready to call it quits. I have written about my prognostications regarding Iran, China and the rest of the BRIC nations pulling out of the global Dollar. Now, the second largest economy in the world is about to tell us to eat some fish heads.
When this happens and the rest of the world pulls out in quick haste, the end result will spell disaster for us in America. And the thing is that we have no one but ourselves to blame for becoming sheople to the herders that have taken and squandered our good name and moral compass that was used throughout the world for some time.
The great America is not so great when the Japanese (who we rebuilt and propped up for decades after we bombed them to smithereens) are very close to telling us that they want us out due to our “destruction of human dignity“, and that they will not buy any more bonds from us unless it is in the yen. They will dump the dollar this year, just as Iran did a week ago and China and Russia will shortly (if not already hugely downsized). The rest of the world will follow, even our “allies” (who only acquiesce due to the fear we put on them with money and might).
From Robert Morley’s blog, The Trumpet, “Japan Abandons America“:
Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States.
Hatoyama blames America for the global economic crisis and says that the U.S. is responsible for “the destruction of human dignity.” He campaigned on protecting traditional Japanese economic activities and reducing U.S.-led globalization.
During the run-up to the election, Hatoyama’s finance minister told the bbc he was worried about the future value of the dollar, and that if his party were elected in the upcoming national elections, it would refuse to purchase any more U.S. treasuries unless they were denominated in Japanese yen.
Japan is the world’s second-largest economy. It is also America’s second-most-important creditor. The U.S. government owes Japan over $724 billion! The only nation America owes more money to is China ($800 billion). The U.S. also imports $140 billion worth of goods from Japan each year.
If Japan were to follow through with its threat to only lend in yen, the dollar would probably fall hard. What would that mean? America gets more expensive consumer goods, higher unemployment, and currency inflation. If other nations like China follow suit, we would be looking at a currency crisis—Zimbabwe-style.
The new government in Japan has also pledged to diversify its foreign currency reserves away from the dollar. This means that at some point, it will need to dramatically reduce how much money it lends to America. America is planning to borrow record amounts over the next couple of years, so something isn’t adding up here. Where will the money come from?
“The financial crisis has suggested to many that the era of U.S. unilateralism may come to an end,” Hatoyama wrote in an August 26 New York Times article titled “A New Path for Japan.” “It has also raised doubts about the permanence of the dollar as the key global currency.”
But Hatoyama isn’t just charting a separate economic course for Japan. His campaign also promised a more “independent” foreign policy from Washington, and closer relations with Japan’s Asian neighbors.
More alarming for American policymakers, Hatoyama has authorized a wide-ranging review of the U.S. military presence on Japanese soil. He is reexamining the agreement that permits U.S. warships to dock at Japanese ports, and has said Japan should take a second look at why it is spending billions to house and transfer U.S. troops between its islands. Hatoyama has also moved to quickly end Japan’s fueling support for the U.S. naval anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
On Wednesday, an even bigger torpedo hit. Both U.S. and Japanese officials confirmed that discussions were underway to remove all U.S. fighter aircraft from Japan.
So many alarm bells have been clanging in Washington that the Australian reports the U.S. administration has requested “immediate clarifying discussions” on just how far Japan wants to take the disengagement. But there may not be too much America can do if Japan is intent on reducing America’s presence in Japanese territory. Regarding the U.S.-Japan security relationship, Richard Armitage, former U.S. deputy secretary of state, said: “If the government of Japan asked us to change things, we’d argue, we’d kick and scream, but ultimately we’d have to do it.”
Japan is a major platform for American power projection. Losing it would be devastating to U.S. security.
Japan is America’s most important forward base in the Pacific. It is an unsinkable aircraft carrier from which American task forces can operate to secure the flow of trade and resources across the Pacific.
At a time when China is increasingly challenging American authority in the East and South China Sea, when North Korea is brandishing nuclear weapons, and Islamic terrorism is on the upswing in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, America can ill afford to lose Japanese military and logistical support.
But it is losing it.
So, one of our staunchest allies… a country that we allowed to bomb us in a false flag event, then retaliated in war culminating in bombing them with the most destructive and terrifying means imaginable, and basically took over and formed them into an Asian representative of the US and a stepping ground for an attack on anyone in the rest of Asia… is finally telling us to go
fly a kite.
My only question is: what took you so long?
It is evident that they don’t trust us and that our hegemony; our immoral and murderous actions in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world (including Empire building in places like Columbia and Panama according to my bud, Kelso, in a phone call this week) is bringing pressure from other Asian nations to get rid of their nanny.
It’s about time!
Hopefully, each and every country that we currently occupy or have bases in, even in agreement, will have us move out. Hopefully, since we can’t stop the aggressive murdering bastards who run our government, maybe the other countries can. Maybe stopping the US Empire will be done by those who we have relied on and done wrong to for so many years. Maybe, JUST maybe, we will finally become what the Founding Fathers envisioned, instead of the thing the lying crooks and evil bastards are trying to get away with now: Imperialism.
Read the rest of the article, as well, because it goes into some detail that I have been harping on for a while. The strategy of Japan is to become more involved in Asian affairs and it seems to rekindle and smooth over bad blood from the past. If successful, and there is little reason to consider they will fail after our failures in Iraq and the financial breakdown driven by our country, there will be a new powerhouse in Asian that will easily counter anything we can dish out.
Let’s just ask the question: What if Japan, China, Russia, Iran (and any host of other Asian or Middle Eastern countries) say, “We have had enough of America’s bullying and world domination.”? What if these countries decide that America IS too big and that she needs to be taken down a notch (financially or militarily)? Please do not think that American Exceptional-ism will save our collective asses. It won’t.
Most of us are too damned stupid to do anything about any threat. Our own country has dumbed us down. We can’t even make things for ourselves anymore because we became complacent and in cahoots with those Big Money bastards who convinced us that we could rely on cheap labor elsewhere (slave labor is more like it) from other countries and get rich from our home values or special Americanism.
We are lemmings and the government controlled by Big Money is king. If these other countries rebel from the control of our Empire (as they should), the end result for us will be travesty and horror. You will not be able to afford FOOD, much less anything else like that new Pop CD or especially that new government owned Chevrolet.
Now, regarding The Trumpet, I don’t know much about this source and he gets into some prophetic Biblical stuff and such. However, even tho much of that I don’t cater to or necessarily agree with, the fruit from his writing is very similar to mine (and my “prophecies” here). In that, I will sign off with Robert’s last couple of sentences (and I intend to go back and read more of his commentary):
America is about to be blockaded. For this to occur, Japan would need to take a radical turn from its recent historical political and economic persuasions.
It is radically turning. Today we are witnessing a dramatic fulfillment of this prophecy. America is about to become perilously isolated. The nation with the single largest merchant fleet in the world will turn its back on an economically waterlogged America. And America, without its most important military bases in Asia, will be one step closer to being pushed right out of the Asia Pacific altogether.
America’s ship of state is sinking. Japan’s lifeboat has already left.
Obama or Obamabot?
Compulsive Liars Are Happy
h/t Neatorama and Vimeo for the Stepford Wife of Potuses’
Obama or ObamaBot
“No One Has A Right To Medical Care”- Doctor Ron Paul
In a statement made in the House of Representatives and an article at the Campaign For Liberty website called, More Government Won’t Help, Dr Paul begins a list of points he wants Congress to consider regarding the government’s ever expanding intrusion into healthcare and how they have screwed up medical care for 45 years (except for the fact that I cannot find a single person on Medicare that agrees with him). He starts off his list with a freaking DOOZY of a bullshit line if I ever heard one, then follows up with several more.
1.) No one has a right to medical care. If one assumes such a right, it endorses the notion that some individuals have a right to someone else’s life and property. This totally contradicts the principles of liberty.
Really, Dr Paul? No one has a “right” to healthcare in this country (or in the world)? I am flabbergasted by such a sentiment from a doctor of many decades. It truly causes me to wonder about the followers of this man who claim to be Christian and the type to follow Jesus’ teachings and nature.
Do all you faux Christians pretending to be Civil Libertarians forget that Jesus’ MAIN deal on earth was to heal people? How many of you Paul followers are willing to suggest that Jesus would implement a free market system of healthcare? How many remember any Bible verses where He insisted upon his co-pay and check to make sure you are covered and your deductible met before he made your blind eyes to see? How many of you good ‘ole Southern Christian people really believe that Jesus was Conservative in His healing or, for even a millisecond, would have ever agreed with this ranting old man when it comes to healing?
How many stories do you remember of Jesus healing a person, making the lame walk, blind see or dead come alive and ask for a nickel? Can any one of you argue that Jesus didn’t cared for the well being of the rest of humanity? That He is called “The Healer” for a reason and money, or out-of-pocket expenses were unknown to Him in this regard?
Yes, Dr Paul, I am quite confident that Jesus would be frowning upon you at the moment your misguided heart penned those ignorant words. Shameful at the least, and horrifically evil at its worst.
Let me give you a clue by pointing you to Luke 9:2:
And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
Many people consider this a directive for the Christian Church, Dr Paul. Others determine this is Christ’s directive to all of His followers. Are you a
Where My Money, Bi-o-tch?
follower of Jesus or the Free Market? Your answer is found in your list, isn’t it, Dr Paul?
Please show me where Jesus declined to heal a sick person or denied the cure because of a pre-existing condition; in fact, pre-existing conditions were His specialty, weren’t they, Dr Paul?
I used this tact with Ed as we were debating the subject, as well. Not because I am a religious person (hardly that), but because of the blatant hypocrisy in the claims that these people make. Remember, it was Ron Paul who quickly shot up his hand about Evolution: this our good physician, Doctor Ron Paul. I feel pretty confident that he considers himself to be a Christian, doesn’t he? One that heals? But not one that follows the directive of his “Saviour” and guide. Yes, HYPOCRITE in bold letters.
But let’s move on away from his blatant hypocrisy and move on to what I believe IS substantiated in the Constitution to provide healthcare for all.
When the Declaration of Independence was penned by Thomas Jefferson, he wrote a key phrase that covers this issue concisely, in my opinion. He said that we all have inalienable rights, including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness“. I believe that Mr Jefferson used these particular words and their order for a reason. I do not believe that happiness can be achieved without liberty. And that liberty cannot be achieved without life. And that life cannot be achieved fully unless well. To me, the right to life is the preeminent right that all others are based from. Without life, the others cannot be achieved.
There is not a single word about “affording” life, is there? The only thing that dictates if one gets healed or not revolves around MONEY. Pure and simple. What this means is that our “pursuit of happiness” is totally dependent upon MONEY, if it is MONEY that makes it possible to heal. What Dr Paul is doing in his erroneous stance is to make the pursuit of happiness dependent upon how much money an Insurance Company makes; simultaneously denying or limiting the healing available to that person totally dependent upon how much MONEY they have.
Dr Paul is pushing a policy that is anti-Christ and is against the Constitution. Yet, he wants me to believe he is a Constitutional authority AND cares for his patients.
Bullshit.
Did this asshole make his deductible?
Sir, you are no protector of life if you have this type of ideology regarding humans and health. You, sir, are no protector of the Constitution, if you deny life for those that can’t afford it and defend (even by keeping silent) the insurance companies, whose entire goal is to make MONEY by denying coverage and services.
He goes on with 15 more ‘points to consider”.
2.) If medical care is provided by government, this can only be achieved by an authoritarian government unconcerned about the rights of the individual.
Dr Paul: for a man who seems to have actually been alive and conscious the past several decades, I find this to be an amazing sentence of pure-de-old 
ignorance. Any person who has looked at the “government run” health services in the rest of the world could hardly agree that their government is authoritarian. Any sane, thinking person knows that Canada isn’t Authoritarian, any more than America (far less in my opinion). Most, if not ALL of the countries that use a Single payer could hardly be called authoritarian, altho there may be one or two (and I could argue that we, in America, are an Authoritarian country, far worse than most: just look at the state of the Prison Industrial Complex and the fact that we jail far more people than any other country on the planet).
Do you think we aren’t paying attention or are you truly this far removed from reality?
Look, it is pointless to go through every bogus “point” you make, especially when the first two are totally wrong and horrible for America.
I would tell you I am disappointed in you, but I am not the least bit surprised.
It appears, sir, that dementia has hit and I believe it is time you retired. I wonder if you will accept the nice health insurance coverage that I am paying for you when you retire? Dementia can cost a lot of money when you go it on your own.
I’m willing to step up and help you, sir. What about a little reciprocity?
(Just to make sure Mr Obama understands that he, too, is a part of the problem.)
B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: Redstate
I subscribe to Erick Erickson’s Redstate Morning Briefing (which is amazing in its amount of hypocrisy on a daily basis). I never add comment to their site, but I read it daily (it is my way of keeping tabs on the mental ward).
Hypocrisy being a daily occurrence there, this morning I was taken aback by their attitude towards Afghanistan, after 7 years of Bush’s idiotic forays into killing innocents and our troops. The author, a certain “haystack” penned what I consider blatant and total hypocrisy called, “Obama Lied, Soldiers Died” (not only are they the epitome of hypocrites, but they have no original thought).
To the detriment of us all, while Obama waffles and flips and flops (like the fish out of water we all knew he WOULD be in trying to fake it as a legitimate Commander in Chief) between all these strategies he can’t seem to make up his mind about, 317 MORE Soldiers have died fighting in defense of Operation Enduring Freedom which is more than 30% of the total lives lost during the entire 8 years of the conflict.
This is a record no man should ever be proud of. Barack Obama’s incompetence is directly and solely to blame for the flag-draped coffins of grief that have been delivered upon hundreds of American families and shame to the office he should never have been allowed to hold.
Why is it that these fools do a self-inflicted lobotomy when the tide changes in politics? I mean, is it not unbelievable that they can so easily forget who took us into the place and then turned his back on it? Does it not cause them to even think about what they write before they write it… because any sane person reading this shit will immediately recognize what appears to be a total lack of awareness to fact and proves that the place is nothing but a propaganda arm of the right to keep their obliviously out of tune readers as stupid as ever?
Of course Barack Obama is a liar and a horrible CiC. But he is just a black Bush, in that they all are owned and controlled by the same Elitist group.
The true shame is that the idiots that listen to “haystack” and Erick are as gullible as they are. They don’t understand that they are led like lemmings by propagandists who are so easily seen for the cranks they are. Yet, these idiots flock there and chime in (just read the comments) with some of the most ignorant ramblings imaginable.
Let me explain something to all you Sheople that subscribe to the left vs right paradigm, you are fools who apparently couldn’t hold your own thought in your head if you believe that shit coming from that crank site.
This country needs to understand the truth about American politics. Both the “left” and the “right”, when deciding to fall into one of these lemming camps, proves how ignorant and clueless they are. This is a detriment to our country, but somehow, I feel it is too late for you and for us to change it.
Haystack said,
I admit to not being a Military strategy expert…
Yeah, no shit? So when you write this afterwards
For all that can be fairly said about the mistakes of the Bush Administration in Iraq and Afghanistan, one thing has become quite apparent; Obama has not learned from any of them. He may be interested in success, but sadly the success Obama seeks appears to be in the voting booth and not on the battlefield. In the meantime, Soldiers die as they await a strategy and a plan…and the resources necessary…to accomplish them.
Don’t stop there Mr Military Expert. Where, exactly, did Mr Bush make a mistake?
Perhaps it was the fact that we invaded and occupied two countries for bogus rationale. That the man who made a mistake, as you describe, did EXACTLY what he so desired, with YOU and the likes of you championing him on all the way.
There is but a very small contingent that aligns itself with this group, but it is loud. Being loud and wrong can still get you message across and cause the type of damage to this country that your undying dedication to Herr Bush allowed.
I hold you imbeciles responsible and the fact that you NOW bitch about these engagements just proves what imbecilic hypocrites you all are.
Yeah, so does Obama. There ain’t but a shade of skin color different between them.
Wake up, dumbasses.
The Dumping Of The Dollar Begins
I am not at all surprised that this begins with Iran. It is virtually their only weapon against us. But, smart economists in other countries have been calling for the elimination of the US Dollar as the world’s currency for quite some time.
IRAN No more dollars, Tehran set to use Euros as main foreign exchange currency – Asia News
Tehran (AsiaNews) – Iran, the fourth largest oil producer in the world, announced its intention of replacing the US dollar with the euro in the country’s foreign exchange accounts. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad signed the decree a few days ago.
The order was issued following a decision by the trustees of the country’s foreign reserves, Iranian media reported. The decision will be particularly significant in the oil field.
Iran produces more than four million of barrels a day, 80 per cent of its foreign exchanges and 50 per cent of the government budget.
In fact, Tehran had already announced its intention of switching to the euro in the past. The presidential decree now appears to implement the decision.
Iranian authorities also called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.
Following the switch, the interest rate for the facilities provided from the Foreign Exchange Reserves will be reduced from12 to 5 per cent.
There simply is no way that our current strategy will correct the mess. To me, this tells that this is purposeful, as I have insinuated many times on this 
blog (that’s just one example of many). But I have never been able to connect all the dots as to why they want it done. All I have is observation and speculation (and a certain distrust for most things that our government is involved with, since they are owned by corporate interests).
The fact is that the dollar is dropping in value in quick haste.
But here lies the snag: when the dollar degenerates due to too much in the world market or most any of the plethora of reasons why it might drop in value, the one thing we used to be capable of was invigorating our manufacturing because as a rule, when the dollar declines, foreigners see an opportunity to buy our products. Exports normally go up.
But it isn’t happening today, is it?
The entire world (except for the ultra rich) is putting the scrag in mason jars and burying them in the back yard. We (most of us) learned the lesson (some, like me, the hard way) that we must stop the insane credit life of perpetual indebtedness. Some of us figured out that it is nothing more than a gigantic Ponzi Scheme and the more we buy on credit, the more we are owned and indebted to the very ones that caused the problem to begin with.
There is no doubt in my mind that what is happening is intentional. I cannot seem to grasp the end-goal, unless it is the horrific agenda that folks like Alex Jones seems to think it is (mass eugenics).
No matter what the end game, I am as prepared as I know to be at this moment in time and with the resources I have.
The Dollar value thingy means so little to me personally because I don’t have any to worry about. But as a nation, we better be very concerned about what the next steps are after Iran drops the Dollar. It is only a matter of time before China, Russia and, yes, even Europe dumps it, as well.
It will be that moment that the true nightmare begins in this country. Why? Because we are unable to produce our way out of it since we have lost so much of our manufacturing base.
Trader’s Narrative wonders if the Fed can pull off the seemingly impossible:
Can the Fed pull a rabbit out of its hat? That is to say, can they strike the balance between protecting a resurgence of economic activity while not nuking the dollar? If they do, it will be among precious few achievements on their mantle. Right now sentiment is skewed severely towards bearishness on the dollar and a disbelief in any outcome other than one in which the US dollar is laid to waste. Given everything we know, this may seem to be the most rational way to think about things. But you have to wonder when so many are taking the same side of a trade.
hat tips also go to Gorilla’s Guides and AsiaNews.it
Criminals With Badges Defend Themselves From A Legless Man In A Wheelchair
Can you imagine the “Man” it takes to taze, push out of his wheelchair, knee the neck and wrench the arm behind the back of this legless paraplegic to keep him from getting away?
What is this country coming to?
Auto-Tune the News 6
Auto-Tune the News 6
The Housing Crisis is Over?
I saw the graphic down below at Washington’s Blog and first sent a link to a friend whose business is basically dependent upon Housing restarting (He sells equipment that is involved with making furniture). I heard from this group while I sold for them up until I shut down my business and started working for another that housing was on its way back. I would regularly receive links and articles from sources that were nothing but the most optimistic opinions and they would never send bad news. Hilariously, I also subscribed to many of the same sources and would have already read them when I received the latest selected propaganda. However, I could, within the very same publication, always seem to fins maybe one or two articles that had bad news. I got to where I would share that news with them in counter to what was sent me (or explain why I thought there was a “blip” in home sells out west, ie: defaulted homes being picked up for pennies on the dollar).
It was as if they were intentionally sending propaganda in the face of the reality. I understand that one should keep the people uplifted and positively optimistic. But to do so in the face of all evidence is kind of crazy to me, but understandable.
No one wants to admit that we are on the precipice of doom. It is easier to deny it and hope for the best, I suppose. But I look at the facts and have been leaving hope out of it.
The housing crisis is no where near over and according to Moody’s, it will be decades before this has healed. h/t Washington’s Blog and graphic found at ZeroHedge
Click to Enlarge
2014 – 2020 before Peak levels are hit again for most of the country, while California and Florida will take until 2030.
So, if you are bargaining on using your equity in your house, like they were pushing us to do just up until last year, you are set up for a horrible let-down.
Now, in my opinion, this entire scenario is off. I don’t believe we are any where near the bottom yet. We have many more homes to be lost and the commercial real estate bubble to attend to over the next several months and years.
This country is fucked and as usual the American public is being left to hold the bag. As called for by myself on several occasions here, the bailouts went to banks on your back, but should have been sent to us. What if the bailouts had come to us, the tax payers? Of course most of us would have gotten out of debt and may have avoided bankruptcy and the credit would have eventually opened back up when the banks were able to close out the toxic loans, etc.
Washington’s Blog addresses this in the light it should be addressed in, showing how misguided intentionally inept the people are running the show, which tells me that there is purpose in this debacle:
Steve Keen Out-Thinks Larry Summers
…
Keen concludes simply:
So giving the stimulus to the debtors is a more potent way of reducing the impact of a credit crunch—the opposite of the advice given to Obama by his neoclassical advisers…
Obama has been sold a pup [i.e. tricked into buying something that is not worth anything] by neoclassical economics: not only did neoclassical theory help cause the crisis, by championing the growth of private debt and the asset bubbles it financed; it also is undermining efforts to reduce the severity of the crisis.This is unfortunately the good news: the bad news is that this model only considers an economy undergoing a “credit crunch”, and not also one suffering from a serious debt overhang that only a direct reduction in debt can tackle. That is our actual problem, and while a stimulus will work for a while, the drag from debt-deleveraging is still present. The economy will therefore lapse back into recession soon after the stimulus is removed.
You should read the entire article because it highlights the false paradigm that we work in in banking systems. Barack Obama is as clueless about this subject as I am apparently and has taken the advice from people who are total fools. Logic is a bitch and Summers ideology has none.
Life’s Lessons In Stopping America’s Government Thievery
What would you do if you saw a guy robbing a bank as you entered to do your business?
What would you do if symbolically that dude is our government and it is ripping off its citizenry?
Would you stop it or let it happen?
Sometimes we just gotta take matters into our own hands. Maybe, we, as a collective nation of people fed up with the rip offs that our government officials in their Corporate bloated conspiracy continue to carry forward, should just jump the ropes and tackle these thieving bastards.
And if my ‘Ole Lady wants to get a kick in to the thieving fucker’s head… good on her.
REPORT: BuelahMan Urges Obama To Step Down
In a report picked up by no one, the always pertinent BuelahMan asked President Barack Obama to step down from his position of President of the United States due to his total lack of truth and the basis that virtually everything he told America in the run up to his election was a damned lie. Not that BuelahMan was fooled regarding the lies and deceit the black man from Hawaii spewed, but he did hold out hope that the man would turn out to be something that he obviously was not: truthful and noble.
It is apparent that the Single Party system of bogusness that we pretend is honorable and right has turned out to be just another Elitist system of control and thievery. With such a criminally active administration set to continue the previous skull and crossbones’ minion’s attack on our freedoms, rights and intelligence, it is imperative that you step down from your position, Mr President, because you, like the previous scumbags, are a detrimnet to our security and well being as Americans.
You have shown yourself nothing more than a puppet of Big Money: kowtowing to every initiative THEY tell you to pursue and stopping the truly helpful initiatives for Americans.
You see, Mr President: We Know Who You Are. A Big Insurance Clown. A Big Military Buffoon. A Big Banking Bitch.
The right-wing fruitcakes have their little bullshit nothingness to continue the confusion (playing their part in the play precisely as they are intended… not by participation, but by wholecloth stupidity). The left-wing fruitcakes who are still enamored that a half-black guy who lies with impunity will continue their idiotic worship and allow the right-wing fruitcakes to strangle any good, honorable and decent initiatives (like Single Payer healthcare) to a slow and painful death.
So, Mr President with no scruples or truth contained, it is time for you to step down from your seat of malicious control of NON- change.
For, just like your request of Governor Paterson of New York to step down, it is apparent that you will not be elected again. That is, if America can awaken from its idiotic slumber of right-wing freaktastic following or the left-wing idol worship of a liar and crook.
If The Shoe Were On The Other Foot…
Last March I wrote about how I felt in response to Muntazer al-Zaidi’s shoe chunking, going so far as to call him a “patriot”.
I wrote:
Of course you don’t normally treat a foreign head of state in such a manner by throwing shoes. But in this case, the man had my permission and should be let go and paraded throughout the streets of Iraq as a hero, even if only a hero to many Americans. It just so happens that my mother threw a thousand shoes at me, so the significance of “offense” eludes me, therefore I recommend a big stinking, hot turd for the next patriot that tries. If close enough, a good hocker to the face will do.
Now THAT would be offensive and deserved.
I can understand, perfectly, why this man would hold George W Bush and America, as a whole, in disdain and hatred. Can you not understand that?
Are you so detached that you still believe we are there for their good and not ours? That we are there for lies and war profiteering? To control the region as we take over control of their resources (namely oil)?
Mr Zaidi is a hero to many Iraqis and truthfully, to me, too. For he stands in defiance of the Imperialism that has murdered and pillaged its way into his country.
The only thing I can do to try to understand their plight is to imagine myself in their shoes… as if their shoes were on my feet. I actually posted a video back in January about how I would set up an insurgency if we had been invaded by Iraq. Essentially turning the tables (sort of rambling the first couple minutes… yawn):
Yes, ugly cuss and hardly able to string a sentence together, but hopefully my point is understood. If anyone invaded this country, especially over lies and deceit and bogus rationale, woudn’t YOU help others stop them?
ISN’T IT THE PATRIOTIC THING TO DO?
I saw a snippet of Mr Zaidi’s article published at the Guardian UK over at AfterDowningStreet and it caused me to rethink my original position. It is even more emboldened in my mind. I do not want another single American killed over these criminal wars of aggression on innocent people (let us bring our forces home where they need to be). And I don’t want another American (or bomb) killing another of these innocent people.
For who knows: It may be me throwing a shoe at some Chinese leader someday (or a turd, should that be more offensive here).
Why I threw the shoe
I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country.
We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.
Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents.
I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.
As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.
The opportunity came, and I took it.
I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.
I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.
When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.
If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.
I didn’t do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.
Muntazer al-Zaidi is an Iraqi reporter who was freed this week after serving nine months in prison for throwing his shoe at former US president George Bush at a press conference. This edited statement was translated by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Sahar Issa http://www.mcclatchydc.com
I personally commend you and agree that the man you threw that shoe at is a criminal. It is my desire that he and the rest of the complicit cabal of liars, thieves, war profiteers, and murderers pay for their crimes (and a shoe is the very least thing I wish upon them).
How Our Newest Supreme Could Break American Fascism’s Back
A few days ago, Washington’s Blog featured an article on a recent essay that Nouriel Roubini and another by Nassim Nicholas Taleb that both seem to insist that our economic situation is being “socialized”. He then goes on to write what I have been saying for a long time, that there is no socialism to be found in any of this. As a matter of fact, Socialism would be a dream world compared to what is truly happening, which is Fascism (the melding of corporate and governmental powers). When corporations run the state, fascism is the name for it.
Socialism, Capitalism or Fascism?
Some, however, argue that the economy is more like fascism than socialism. For example, leading journalist Robert Scheer writes:
What is proposed is not the nationalization of private corporations but rather a corporate takeover of government. The marriage of highly concentrated corporate power with an authoritarian state that services the politico-economic elite at the expense of the people is more accurately referred to as “financial fascism” [than socialism]. After all, even Hitler never nationalized the Mercedes-Benz company but rather entered into a very profitable partnership with the current car company’s corporate ancestor, which made out quite well until Hitler’s bubble burst.
Is Scheer right?
I don’t know. But Italian historian Gaetano Salvemini argued in 1936 that fascism makes taxpayers responsible to private enterprise, because “the State pays for the blunders of private enterprise… Profit is private and individual. Loss is public and social” (page 416).
This perfectly mirrors Roubini’s statement about the American government’s bailout plan.
Remember that one of the best definitions of fascism – the one used by Mussolini – is the “merger of state and corporate power“.
That could never happen in America, right?
Again, I don’t know. But consider:
- Two powerful congressmen have said that banks run Congress
- The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the former Vice President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, and two top IMF officials have all said that we have – or are in danger of having – oligarchy in the U.S.
- Economist Dean Baker says that the real purpose of bank rescue plans was “A massive redistribution of wealth to the bank shareholders and their top executives”
- The big banks killed any real chance for financial reform months ago
Ultimately, though, whether we have economic socialism or fascism is not really important. Whatever we have, it isn’t free market capitalism.
I do not agree with the next to last sentence. I believe it makes a world of difference when comparing socialism and fascism. There is a huge discrepancy between those two ideologies. But the point is well made. Whatever is truly being practiced, it ISN’T what we are told it is.
So, when I read this from our newest Supreme judge, it makes me smile and wonder if Obama really knew what he was doing when he selected her, for this stance, if taken to its fullest extent, would nullify Corporate Personhood, just as it should be done away with.
WASHINGTON — In her maiden Supreme Court appearance last week, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a provocative comment that probed the foundations of corporate law.
During arguments in a campaign-finance case, the court’s majority conservatives seemed persuaded that corporations have broad First Amendment rights and that recent precedents upholding limits on corporate political spending should be overruled.
But Justice Sotomayor suggested the majority might have it all wrong — and that instead the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.
Judges “created corporations as persons, gave birth to corporations as persons,” she said. “There could be an argument made that that was the court’s error to start with…[imbuing] a creature of state law with human characteristics.”
After a confirmation process that revealed little of her legal philosophy, the remark offered an early hint of the direction Justice Sotomayor might want to take the court.
Damn, I may end up liking this woman even more than I thought.
To me, this is one of the foundational problems we have right now. This very issue is what drives Big Military, Big Meds, Big Insurance, Big Banking… Big MONEY! They rule everything with this undeserved power.
So, our newest Judge may be one who could help fix this mess (or at least introduce the idea which is so obvious as to be stupifying that it hasn’t been railed from the Senate rafters already). h/t AfterDowningStreet
Highly recommended viewing (2.5 hours):
