News Does America Need A Civil Revolution?

[cherryblossom]

I'm watching the 'unrest' in Libya with dread.

I'm also following this one with great interest.... but I'm not sure how to comment tactfully, and I'm not in a position to deal with the stress of replies, so I'll just keep quiet for now, and keep watching and waiting.

 

[catjudo]

If someone stood outside my door and hurled that kind of abuse at me, I'd be able to call the nearest handy-dandy policeman and have them hauled off for terroristic threats.

I do not like or agree with the Supreme Court ruling regarding protests at military funerals. I absolutely think it is wrong. That being said, your statement, anni, isn't entirely correct. If someone was standing outside of your door yelling/protesting and they were on your private property you could call the police and have them removed. But they would only be removed as far as public property...the sidewalk in front of your house.

 

[anni]

It depends on what they were yelling. If one can interpret what they are saying as threatening,which was the interpretation the single Justice who disagreed put on it, as some of these frootloops do, you can do something about it. These fruitcakes do hurl some vile dreck- they're not even 'normal' fruitcakes.

 

[mysihba]

I'm with you cherry. Have no tact left and it's all too stressful to keep up with. Your current mood is probably the best place to be lol.

 

[njray]

I love America.:) I really do :). I saw first hand a system work. It worked because there was evidence, witnesses, victim and an attacker that admitted what he did. He is serving time. Right over Wrong- Good over Evil . I might not be happy with the time he is spending incarcerated but American justice was served. Maybe... Is this person going to get the help he needs if it is drugs, mental illness, Is he going to be reformed HA I doubt it. I just hope he does not come out still broken or worse more broken because based upon what I went through worse is most likely death for the next unsuspecting victim. Is that my fault, the police officers fault, the prosecutors fault... No it will be Americas fault and there problem. But I wonder if there are any American's in the system that are over paid that prevent a full and total solution as opposed to just a band-aid on an American societal problem

We are constantly putting band-aids on open wounds and worse we rip the band-aids off before the wounds heal.

I do not know all the answers but guess what? I have been privy to a health care system from many angles and It is broke and the band-aids are not going to fix it unless a complete and holistic approach is performed to fix it. That means all involved... from the patients, to the health care professionals, administrators, Insurance companies and government employees that over see it. And to be honest there is not one person in that lot I trust 100% to be completely honest and forthright all the time. In my honest opinion there are 10 entities maybe 1000's of persons that gain from a single patient that will only financially gain all the time from the system where there is only one whom is NOT (look at all the persons and entities convicted of fraud and the amounts they steal from American taxpayers) and the political and economic powers those persons are part and parcel of. Should not the patient be the priority. I suspect if It comes down to dollars and cents (and it will) the victim or patient unless afforded a way to pay for health care fully will be at the bottom of the priority list. Unless all of us are mandated to the same and equal health care options and considerations. Oh whether union or not, public or private employee... Imagine that "fair for all taxpayers" not to just those the taxes are paid to..... WOW

Revolt I am not sure. Do I want the USA to be a Saudi Arabia? NO way.... But I do not want to be a China, Iran, India or other third world country.... So if I stand in front of a tank Is the American soldier gonna run me over if told to do so by an American officer taking orders from my American commander in chief...... I really do not know. But heck maybe they will name a street after me so my free kids can play in safety and without fear of a govt operating solely for profit without morals.

Just my thoughts as an American..
Proud son of a operating engineer of the armed services
father of a prior serviceman
uncle of a firefighter
prior volunteer EMT.
previous business owner
And now a recovering victim....

 

[mysihba]

I wish you all the best and thanks for your input njray. Now, I'm moving on to more positive things

 

[anni]

Whatever you have to say on those current events, CB it would be said with tact anyway. :) It's one of the nicer things about the political stuff one reads here. Even if the opinion is different ( although if yours was worrying the US is going to helpfully get involved in yet another aspect of creating further chaos over there no argument here ) most members go out of their way to just say what they think, not attempt to make others look silly or be dismissive of their views.

 

[anthony]

Interesting point Vee.... I was watching this morning that the diplomatic views on the US right now, is that the only socialism within the country is at the farms, because the way your Government works with localisation, the local community feeds into its farming community, thus bolstering farming within the US. That is something Australia needs to do, as it is opposite here. The US, your capitals are falling down to greed, but your farming is strong, and Australia, our capitals are heavily regulated to exponge greed, yet our farming is falling down from lack of support and funding, so overseas countries are buying it up, as its cheap, compared to property within capitals themselves.

Its weird, that we are all buying up within other countries, which I agree, does feed each economy as well as the countries export industry, making a robust solution all round, though it also comes with disadvantages when you have overseas interests owning too much of your agriculture vs. your own country owning it for consumption within.

As for the Middle East.... I give up watching it, and just hope for all the innocent Americans sake, your government stays out of Libya and doesn't go rubbing too much more up the wrong way in that vicinity, considering there are nukes over their, and they are crazy enough to use them, without care for their own people... and with Iraq pissing Iran right off with the refugee issue and war next door, they also are crazy enough to use the damn things.

 

[anni]

I just saw a story which ties into this thread in a big way. I'm not having a great time of it at any rate with the good old US of A and manuevering ways to acheive both health care and an education for a daughter who will be a raving asset to this country when she has both. 60 Minutes did a story on homeless children in the US- I'm incensed. 1.5 MILLION, with a few interviewed documentary style in their excellent program. These kids told of going to sleep hungry and frightened, going to school asking other children if they were going to eat that box of unopened cereal that day and the humiliation of not wishing others to know. They're doing a re-cap this morning on CBS, just fyi. The point is, is after the show the studio and school these particular children went to were inundated with calls from outraged citizens.It's still getting calls. There were offers for help, jobs, money, food and housing. People quite simply did not know, once the information was out there action was immediately taken and I'd have to think would be taken until perhaps there were zero homeless children in the United States.To a person, the people offering the help were shocked and said they just plain DID NOT KNOW this was occuring in our country. We're being fed the great myth that all is well, the enemy is elsewhere, we're taking care of all our people. It's worked- 1.5 million homeless children were hidden from the eyes of those who really will help them and no doubt will also insist the government disallows this shameful, abysmal, unthinkable evil to continue.

I'm terribly depressed about this but also hopeful-it's something to keep an eye on and take action on personally too while the momentum is there FOR some Civil Revolution to happen. Deb's post here is instructive by way of beginning, along with collectively encouraging the dam press to finally stop feeding us endless stories on celebrity's hangnails and finally show us these shameful truthes so we can DO something about it. 310,000,000 people in the US, give or take. I think we outnumber the dam politicians.

 

[Vee Lagrome]

Anthony - it's true that we have some great ideas when it comes to farming, but we have different problems, namely that we allow corporations to copyright genetic traits of plants, so accidental cross-breeding between these "copyrighted" plants and farmers' crops results in absolutely demolishing the farmers' livelihood. That among other things is a huge headache for farmers. Hopefully things will get better, but I do think we're perfectly capable of working with it. But shhh, don't tell anyone that what we do with farming is socialist. Americans generally know about the farming subsidies, but they don't know that it's considered socialism. Lol.

Anni - I think that's the perfect example of why things are so lopsided in the US. It's like being poor is something to be ashamed of. We've totally convinced ourselves that if you lose your home or job, you're a lazy slob. Welfare and government help is only for the weak, lazy, and cheaters, and if you ever say you need it, you're lying just so you don't have to work. You would think that such a bad recession would get people to start changing the way they think about those things, but I don't think we're quite there yet. I think these attitudes are what has stopped us from demanding that our government act to level the playing field (higher minimum wage, more enforcement of work safety laws and labor laws in general, etc). I think we are slowly realizing that the way things are is just absolutely unreasonable and that corporations have too much say. Have you seen the coverage of CEO pay and teacher pay?! It's ridiculous! That's enough to make my blood boil.

CEOs raking in million of dollars a year are thought of as totally deserving every penny, even though they work to undermine our economy and nearly brought the world to its knees. Teachers, on the other hand, are super lazy and should thank their lucky stars that anyone has hired them at all. If they complain about huge class sizes and few resources, they aren't thinking about the children at all, they're just trying to take more money away form important things, like tax cuts for CEOs.

!!

Also, have you seen that Governor Walker in Wisconsin just forced through that bill to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights?! It was just jammed through without any input from Democrats and in spite of the thousands of protesters who vehemently oppose it and have been working to recall the state senators who have supported this abomination. They gave absolutely no notice and actually started talking over the one Democratic senator who raise objections to the vote based on you know, it breaking the law. Democracy? Ha, that's just a joke. Seriously, these politicians need to go.

 

[anthony]

Australia has implemented CEO sanctions here now, corporate caps even, and those with excessive wages are heavily regulated, even forced lower by the ACCC, and regulated finally... so no more corporate CEO greed flowing across the world into our country... as it was starting to head that way, and they quickly stopped it, thank goodness.

 

[Vee Lagrome]

Australia has implemented CEO sanctions here now, corporate caps even, and those with excessive wages are heavily regulated, even forced lower by the ACCC, and regulated finally... so no more corporate CEO greed flowing across the world into our country... as it was starting to head that way, and they quickly stopped it, thank goodness.

You know, it seems to me almost every other developed country has figured out this CEO pay stuff by doing things like what you say Australia does. Every time I think about how we could be doing the same but won't because the CEOs are the ones buying off politicians, I want to beat my head against a desk.