The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Ramona's picture

    Yes, Rudy, It Was a Horrible Thing to Say. Thank You

    According to an article in Politico, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani told a group of Republicans gathered to pay some sort of attention to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker that it's his belief that President Obama doesn't love them, him, or even the entire United States of America.



    This is what he said:

    I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.

    Well, the pundit class went nuts!  The progressives could barely speak and had to hiss, they were so mad.  The Republicans haughtily explained that there was no need to explain:  What Giuliani said was very, very, very close to the truth.

    Giuliani went on Fox News and said well, yes, Obama is probably a patriot but he keeps saying bad things about America, something no other president before him ever did.  He doesn't believe in American exceptionalism, blah, blah, blah.

    "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being," [Obama] said at West Point in 2014. "But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions."


    Then Giuliani went on the air wherever he could and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it.  The theme:  Obama is not like us.  He doesn't understand America.  He is, okay, let's just get it out there--the Other.

    But Rudy wasn't being racist.  Far from it, according to Giuliani:

    “Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people,” Mr. Giuliani said in the interview. “This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.” 

    And, bizarrely, apropos of nothing, "President Obama didn't live through 9/11, I did."

    So at the end of the day, you know who comes out smelling like a rose?  Obama does.  Because every person not so inclined toward stupid--Republican, Democrat, Independent, and Other--will now have to come out and defend the president. They'll have to condemn such remarks and remind the Americans that we're all Americans.  Even Obama.  Some of them--those who know November, 2016 isn't that far away--will have to hold their noses to do it, but do it they will.

    The punditry will be grabbing at Obama quotes to prove he does love his country, he does love you and me, he doesn't love Muslims more than he loves Christians, he's not a Communist or an anti-colonialist, he doesn't just say bad things about America.

    And all President Obama has to do is sit back and let it happen.

    So thank you, Rudy.  Well done!  Now come on over here and let me give you a big 'ol hug.

    Topics: 

    Comments

    Scott Walker comes across as a wimp. Walker will not say if he agrees or disagrees with Guiliani's assertion.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-walker-loves-america-giulian...

    This comes after Walker decides to "punt" on whether he "believes" in evolution. How does his inability to make a statement support Walker as someone who should even be considered for the Presidency?


    Rudy Giuliani is 70 years old, and many older folks get confused, and their inability to think clearly should be overlooked.  

    Maybe the old man confused Jeremiah Wright the mentor, who famously said. "Not God Bless America" but instead "God D..n America" with his pupil ?


    Here is the text of Jeremiah Wright's speech

    http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/21/the-full-story-behind-wright’s-“god-damn-america”-sermon/


    Send it to Rudy he's the one most likely confused.  


    Really, Resistance?  I'm 77.  You want to get into a sparring match with me?

    And your comment about Jeremiah Wright makes about as much sense as Rudy's comment about 9/11.


    You want to get into a sparring match with me?

    Not really 

    It's that I have associated with many elderly people in care facilities, who become combative and confused at times.

    I lovingly recognize, how their thinking becomes more impaired the older they get and I just want to give them a big hug.  smiley


    Oh, I know just what you mean, Resistance.  I've felt that way many times about people half my age.  Poor things.



    An investigative reporter that war-hawk Rudy loved his country so much that he avoided military service.

    http://m.nydailynews.com/opinion/wayne-barrett-rudy-giuliani-love-articl...


    I read that link earlier.  

    His family background isn't all that pristine either.  Plenty of criminal activity there.  

    The guy must be looking for speech bookings.  It look like his medicine show is written for the far far crazy right. 

    His is being such a grifter. 


    it's just another example of rabble-rousing, just happens to be Rudy this time. If there's any import to be found, it's in the response from Republicans who matter - especially Walker.

    I can almost see Obama's expression when told of it, and his immediate dismissal of a second thought. Let the rest of us turn cartwheels, he's got bigger problems.


    Well done Ramona.

    And I remember Black athletes who the media told us didn't love America, during the Vietnam War and just months after the assassination of both MLK and RFK. Never believe the racists who spew that stuff.

    Tommie Smith and John Carlos on the medal podium in Mexico City raised their fists in 1968, they were protesting against exploitation of blacks and the poor, war, lynching, and racism in the Olympics and South Africa. Their careers were ruined, as was Silver Medalist Australian Peter Norman's. whose only offense was wearing an Olympic Project for Human Rights Badge on the same podium

    .

    When in 2002 San Jose State commissioned an outdoor statue of the protest (both Carlos and Smith were former students) John Carlos asked the late Peter Norman - could they include him?

    Norman said no, leave a place for me but let anyone viewing it take my place in solidarity against racism and injustice. That place will always be open.


    I remember watching the Olympics that year and seeing that.  It is nice to know that they are honored now.  

    Thanks for the info and pic. 


    The second best thing about this is that GOP presidential candidates have to uncomfortably disavow what Giuliani said.

    The best thing is that Nut Bar GOP primary candidates will attack the serious Mai stream candidates as Obama-lovers.

    O boy!


    Oh yeah, good observation.

    Republican candidates position on Obama's love for America may replace asking them to take a position on whether the earth is 6000 years old this campaign.

    Topics so vitally important to meet the challenges that face the nation and the world this century. We can thank our useless corporate MSM TV and media for promoting this malarkey.

    And then there is Murdoch's rag, NY Post, 3 days ago:

    He sees it, that's why he's not sending our troop in as targets for it.

    Has our media or press changed at all since Daniel Defoe wrote in 1722:

    We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since.


    Obama,take the blinders off, there is an immigration problem.

    Mall of America Heightens Security After al-Shabab Threat

    Feb 22, 2015, 12:16 PM ET

    Good Question: Why Did Somalis Locate Here? « CBS ...

    Over the past 25 years, the United States has admitted about 84,000 Somali refugees. Close to 40 percent live in Minnesota.

    ....... Minnesota has very active ones like Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities, and World Relief Minnesota. Those agencies agree to help the refugees get settled, to learn English, find housing, get health care, and begin a new life


    The Somalis are LEGAL immigrants, going back 25 years. 25 years ago was when George HW Bush was President.

    Perhaps CONGRESS should look at who we admit legally and legislate, instead of using Hispanics brought here as kids as political props and other partisan bullshit they are forever busy at.


    Just Great; now we got Legal  immigrants who could give a crap about the United States or it's people and should I dare ask, would illegals have a greater love? 

    If you noticed, the Churches promoted and influenced the process and innocent American citizens will have to pay the price for the Churches ignorance and meddling.  

    Church Meddling?   

    with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities,

    The American people should be free to direct their own laws without the Churches Meddling in our political affairs; by Southern Baptist ministers such as Jerry Falwell, Sr., "Pat" Robertson  or  the Popes Catholicism .

    These underage children had help getting to the border and I suspect the Churches were involved in order to create a crisis so as overwhelm our laws.

    Migration to the United States: Under-age and on the move ...

    Thousands Of Illegal Immigrant Children Will Be Able To ...

    All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.  Avalon Project - Washington's Farewell Address 1796


    What does this have to do with Rudy Giuliani?  If you want to talk about this, write your own post.  it's easy to do, and you can take all the time you need.


    Because Rudy is expressing his contempt for the apparent attitude and blindness to what he sees as aiding and abetting those who would harm America and what it means to be Patriotic, protecting America and her interests.

    As Washington so eloquently stated 

    With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles


    NOT SHARIA 

    ....The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you 

    should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety;

    discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.

    For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity,

    must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.

    With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles.

    America does not have to accept enclaves of those who would put Sharia above our common core beliefs if we wish to avoid conflict and attacks on our Mainland or Malls, as the rest of the World suffers. 

    While the President is provided 24/7 protection, he blindly invites others into our tent and tells us peasants, STAY ALERT;  sleep with one eye open.  

    and if by chance the fit hits the shan, the President will take away more of our civil liberties, for our protection.  


    Rudy Guiliani is a racist given cover by White Supremacists and their lackeys. Obama has repeatedly expressed love for his country. Guiliani is a race-baiter.

    http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/02/22/president-obama-h...

    Guiliani is a liar. Guiliani put his disater headquarters in a building that was a known terrorist target. Guiliani failed to provide funding for improved communication systems that would have allowed the NYPD to directly communicate with the NYFD. Guiliani is an adulterer who moved his mistress into Gracie Mansion.

    Show your evidence that Obama has been easy on Islamist terrorists.


    Show your evidence that Obama has been easy on Islamist terrorists.

    Really, you believe sophisticated terrorist networks, send up evidentiary warning flags? 

    Zacarias Moussaoui was charged with an immigration violation, he is not the poster child of genius, for you must think other terrorists are as stupid? 

    As did the Bush administration who couldn't connect the dots, you show the same propensity of being blind to the realties of this world, 

     In a dangerous world where terrorists are looking for soft targets, Obama DID NOT vigorously protect  this Nation from folks who came through our Southern border;  folks who might already be here,  just waiting  for the right opportunity. . 

    No one said Securing the Border was easy, but if we are going to protect our Nation not only is being aware that some folks who enter legally are difficult to keep surveillance over and they do look for ways to strike America.

    It is preposterous to believe you KNOW for a certainty, those who enter illegally under the Radar, don't have a nefarious intent to harm America. 

    Of course when the death and mayhem occurs, you'll  take the position, saying "Who'd have thought'?  I suspect, you probably have your own copy of "My Pet Goat"? 

    Interestingly; Italy is now worried; illegals who have already entered Italy from their Southern border, might be ISIL operatives and will attempt to strike their Nation and people. .

    I believe you too, should take off the blinders, so you can see more clearly; or at a minimum STHU and let Patriots defend America from you damn liberals, who have lost all sense of reason.


    I repeat:  This post is about Rudy Giuliani.  If you want to write about something that has NOTHING to do with my topic, write and publish your own damn post.  Why is this so hard for you to understand?


    What is it you don't understand that it's alright for you and others to attack Rudy as I suspect many here are liberals; yet when I talk to other Americans First  and not just liberals; they agree with Rudy, because it is clear Obama doesn't give a crap, about defending America from hordes of invaders and then by his Authoritarian rule; something detestable in a Democracy;

    Obama violates his Constitutional authority and you question Rudy and what he believes? 

    So he's an idiot or a patriot or something in between, depending on who you listen too.

    If you only want biased opinions from your circle of friends, have at it.

    Talk about your thingmajjigs, in lightheartedness,  while the country comes to grip with a President, who many believe doesn't love this country or it's government (Separation of Powers) and is leading America in the wrong direction.

    Last I read about freedom; People can love their country, but fear their government. 


    Trouble sleeping at night?

    ~OGD~


    ​No problem smiley

    Image result for picture of a marine soldier

    Image result for picture of a vicious dog

    Image result for picture of a rifle over the mantle


    None of that protects you from Ebola.


    No matter how you twist my thoughts, you employ the same tactics in discrediting those sounding the alarm about the current rash of diseases, making you no different than the morons who joke about Global warming and totally miss the point of what is happening to the Earth 

    Whether it be the Ebola, emergence of measles or the newly discovered Bourbon virus. Pestilence is spreading as foretold;, all the while you join  in the chorus of the deniers,  as we await the future when you'll be exposed as the fool. 

    I at least am trying to warn others, so action to avoid a calamity can be avoided, while you play the mindless jester. 


    None of that protects you from Ebola.

    Nor did the Obama Administration, until some in this Nation voiced strong opinions.

    Until Snowden  pulled back the curtain, most people were to blind to see the contempt by Obama and his predecessor of the American people and their rights.  

    THE PLAN? : Allow more immigrants into the country; tap in and listen to their conversations, domestic spying and  if a few lone wolves succeed in slipping by  ...OH WELL ....SHITE HAPPENS  those in power can accept the losses and can always enact more stringent laws to address any future problems WITH THE DUMMIES SUPPORT. 


    In those pictures . . .

    Not one of them protects a person from self delusions and ghosts hiding under their beds.

    ~OGD~


    I've given you your last warning, Resistance.  If you come onto my page again to spout your own rants without regard or respect for what I've written, I will personally delete your comments.  I have the power.  I WILL do it.  You will not hold me hostage to every off-the-wall rant you feel like placing in my space.  if you don't like it, that's too bad.

    Consider this your last chance, at least on my page.  You don't have to agree with me, but if you can't respect me enough to use my comment section as it should be used, you're not welcome here.


    The thing about resistance's post-takeovers, is that they always end up with tiny little postings on the right side of the page.  ALWAYS!  Sometimes there is only room for one word on a line. He gets into little nit-picky back-and forths which add nothing to the conversation but make her feel important. 

    you are right to call this high jacking, and I am glad you can pull the rug out from her. 

    PS..did you see those tweets to Rudy?  From Barbara Boxer:

    Hey, Rudy, why don't you ask Osama bin Ladin if Obama loves the country?

    Hey Rudy, why don’t you ask one of the 11 million people who now have affordable health care if President Obama loves America?
     

    Hey Rudy, why don’t you ask the auto workers whose jobs were saved if President Obama loves America?

    Hey Rudy, why don’t you ask the millions getting jobs after the worst recession since the Great Depression if Obama loves America?

    So resistance says our President doesn't care, based on nothing at all objective. Any objective standards show that George Bush harmed our country, possibly irretrievably, but I don't doubt that he loves the country. He just loves other things more.  Like being a "war President, and oil $, and goofing off in Texas, and...
     

     

     


    Good ones!  I'm going to miss Barbara Boxer.  I hope she doesn't leave public life all together. 

    I saw today that Donald Trump is "seriously considering" a presidential run.    Maybe he could get Giuliani to be his running mate.  I'm not sure two egos that big could fit in one room, but wouldn't that be fun?


    The thing about resistance's post-takeovers, is that they always end up with tiny little postings on the right side of the page.  ALWAYS!

    I generally disagree with resistance and mostly agree with those arguing with him. I also see his posts as rants lacking in even a semblance of evidence. But the itty bitty postings aren't totally his fault. There's a few people here that are afflicted with last-worditis. Every conversation eventually ends and someone will get the last word. Resistance has last-worditis bad and if the person he's talking to has a case of last-worditis too you'll get the tiny posts. They don't always end up that way. There are a few people here who sometimes feel it's necessary to push back against his bullshit. They make their point once or twice and than drop out letting resistance have the last word. He's bound and determined so he's going to get that last word eventually so there's no sense in prolonging the agony.


    Arguing with trolls is a waste of time.  You're right.  They'll do double somersaults to get the last word.  They love an audience and will say anything to keep them.  And yes, they live to have the last word.
     


    I don't see Resistance as a troll. I think she is ideologically consistent, and truly believes what she posts. The problem is that she posts her ideological stuff on every post that catches her eye, regardless of whether it has anything to do with the subject matter that the original poster has taken the time to research and compose. 

    She just can't help herself because she is so driven to make her points that the subject of discussion is irrelevant to her. So we have a choice...do we bite?  Or do we say, "No, honey...come back when you have a comment that is germaine to the discussion.

    Resistance has been around so long, posting diligently from her parent's basement, I don't want to send her away. I just think we should confine our responses to posts that she makes that have something to do with the subject at hand. 


    As one guilty of responding to Resistance, the consistency is the problem. Religious verses are taken out of context. Some historical references are whitewashed or uninformed. Some statements are blatantly racist. Much of Resistance posts create a need for correction.


    Trollers aren't interested in getting it right, they're more interested in getting a rise out of someone.  What better way than to throw something out there that just begs to be corrected?  Please, just ignore unless the comment is worth your attention.


    And you would be wrong about that rm, when you continually respond to Resistance's crazy, it makes you seem just as bad as he is. We are all pretty smart, we know he is full of shit all the time. 


    I'll try to behave and ignore the racist commentary.


    Thank you.


    In fairness, Resistance doesn't create those back-and-forth scrolling threads alone. What he (she?) does is patently obvious, yet often difficult to "resist".

    PS - Boxer rocks.


    Trolls can't be trolls unless they catch enough suckers to keep going.  You're right.


    I think many of us share your frustration, Ramona. Comments meant to provoke are an aggravating display of disrespect. Personally, i accept it as part of the Dagblog territory - the ugly part. I do wonder, though, how it reads to the casual visitor to the site.


    I have no problem with comments that stick to the topic, or move away but still stay in the neighborhood, or even wander off into the rumpus room for a little fun.  But Resistance has a habit of posting whatever comes into his head, even when they don't fit in the the slightest with the topic.  it's rude and thoughtless and cowardly.  Cowardly in the sense that if he had the balls he would write his own damn posts and let people comment where he lives.

    He refuses to abide by what I think are pretty polite requests to stop doing it.  He loves nothing better than to have someone ragging on him about his behavior.  It means he gets to play the victim and then he can bring out his protective armor--a flurry of bible passages, because how could anyone but a heathen or a communist object to bible passages?  

    I've been a mother too long--I put up with rude, childish behavior for only so long and then enough is enough.



    So you have no proof that Obama has allowed terrorists into the country, 

    Since you want me to STFU blocking my free speech, I want you nowhere near a position where you would be in charge of local, state, or national security. 

    Guiliani argues that Obama does not love the country and is putting the U.S. at risk. He is incorrect 


    They would see there was 2004 reads and would conclude a stirring debate was going on, and that ridiculing Rudy, isn't a read where you snuggle up in bed reading and "they lived happily ever after" 

    What did the casual reader suspect, if a lightening rod, political figures' name is in the headline.? " My pink pony"?


    Your response is word salad.Please translate into English. Thank you for your attention to this matter.


    REMARKABLE!

    Sometimes I think that there is some DNA thing going on.

    Rudy was just born mean and awoke to the teet of the Corporate udder.

    How else might you just end up udderly devoid of a love for humanity?


    Lol.  Okay, Richard, that Dayly thingamajig belongs to YOU for this one!


    Oh I get it!

    I am just a thingamajigg to you.

    hahahaahahahah


    Sorry.  I couldn't think of the long, more formal name for it.  But go ahead, crown yourself with it.   You deserve it.   (I haven't used "thingamajig" in forever.  I may have to use it again.  Ha!)


    Thingamajig is the cousin to thingy. 


    Right, Momoe.  Or Thingy is Thingamajig's nickname.  I'm okay with either.  Lol.


    Since Obama will not be running against anybody in the next election, the main objective of Rudy's condemnation is to line up the code words that will be employed in the coming cycle. When Rudy says: "What the hell? What’s wrong with this man that he can’t stand up and say there’s a part of Islam that’s sick?”, anybody arguing against such a practice in the coming cycle will be tagged as anti-American.

    It is exactly the same method of hysteria employed by Joe McCarthy where any objection to his process was an admission to being the enemy he was stamping out.

    The GOP has found their Mephistopheles.
     


    Guiliani has created a mess for the GOP in the general election.,Scott Walker punts on evolution. Walker then can't say that Obama is a Christian or that Obama's loves American. Walker'ss response will be compared to McCain challenging a woman at a townhall when she said Obama was a Muslim. If Walker can't answer the easy questions, why trust him as President?

    The GOP has control of Congress but is about to shut down DHS because Republicans can't agree among themselves on how to deal with immigration. The GOP has lost Blacks and Latinos for the foreseeable future. Independents will see that the GOP has gone crazy. Bush employs the same foreign policy geniuses as his father and his brother.

    Guiliani exposes just one aspect of the problems Republicans have. The GOP is spending so much time appealing to racists and xenophobes.  


    I don't know how Rudy's outburst will play out in the fortunes of the GOP in the next election cycle. I was thinking more of coding as a process where the overt expression of an agenda is put out by somebody who will not be a contender and then winked at by actual players.
    The element that most disturbs me is the push for language that identifies Islamic thought as an enemy of our State. It is coming from more than one place.

    To indulge in such populist rhetoric is a threat to our Republic. If the crew that runs the government thinks it is okay to make the belief in a particular set of beliefs the enemy of our State, then Al Qaeda will have obtained their goal: to be recognized as the enemy on the level of their ideology.
    As screwed up as were the many decisions made by the Bush2 administration in this regard, they at least avoided calling it a war upon Islam, for the most part.
    There is a group ready to blow past that limitation.


    With an 18 trillion dollar National debt our Nation can ill afford the liberals agenda, where the working class, to dumb and blind to see what is about to occur, as the working class becomes enslaved to the debt holders. there will be no welfare when the bottom falls out.

    Conservatives have won the war, by giving enough rope to the liberals, they have sealed their own fate.

    Convenient for the folks who finance both Capitalist parties while the dupes blame each other.    

    Image result for what does 18 trillion dollars look like


    Not Guiliani related.

    Since Republicans run up the debt much more than Democrats, what is your solution?

    What would Guiliani do?

    By the way, here is a link to the actions that NYC Mayor David Dinkins took that laid the ground for the economic successes that Guiliani claims

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html?_r=0


    What if I told you liberals think we can borrow and spend our way out of our debt.

    If you told me that you'd be lying or you are vastly underinformed, uneducated, and ignorant. No liberal thinks we can borrow and spend our way out of debt. But republicans actually do believe that if we cut taxes tax revenue will increase. Kansas is a prime example of that failed notion.
     


    Kansas is an example of the result of that giant sucking sound, Ross Perot warned about when he said "America will lose their tax base" if businesses leave America searching for cheaper labor offshore .

    The same thing happened in California when those with money and property,  decided to leave CA and go elsewhere, to escape the welfare state and the Liberals agenda and propensity to go after the WORKING class (you know the 40% who get up everyday,to go to work to support, not only their own family, but also the 60% who don't support the system but they still want. 

    The ranchers in Kansas get nailed on every school bond issue, when they come up for votes, Ask the 60% that make up of the welfare recipients, who should pay for the new Taj Mahal schools and of course the poor will say, "tax the rich landowners" 

    Kansas will recover, as their expenses decrease and business needed to support the Tax base, which Perot warned about eventually return with their money, necessary for capital investment, necessary to hire and support the WORKING CLASS.

    The welfare state model, eventually fails  


    What "Taj Mahal schools"? Kansas' governor decided like a good Republican he should slash taxes. He's now learning that cutting taxes lowers revenue. Shame Republicans don't study math before getting into these brain farts, but then they worship a President who had Alzheimers half his tenure, so what can you do with the blinkered and the fans of the blinkered?

    If you stop taxing the rich, they just pocket their winnings and the economy creeps downward. Clinton taxed the rich and surprise surprise - revenues went up while the economy prospered, as government had cash to provide services that helped wage-earners and business. A win for everyone. Sure there's a limit until you kill the golden goose, but that limit's a lot higher than the Laffer Curve aficionados presume - ask Sweden - they're doing fine.

    Perot's great sucking sound isn't the jobs - it's us losing our minds and any values we once had.


    values we once had.

    Work hard, instead of looking for a handout? Now that is a value that made America strong.

    Land of opportunity, where if you worked hard you could achieve, instead of relying on your other fellow slaves struggling to make both ends meet and the members of the welfare state, enslaving the hard working class to produce for them while they sit on the porch? 

    Farmers, ranchers and manufacturers are hurting for workers, yet the current welfare recipients, find it pays better to stay home.

    Leading to a failed system that will eventually destroy the industriousness that made America great.

    Keep importing cheap foreign goods and exporting jobs, then wonder why we'll become a failed State.

    As for Clinton's storied success; the full ramifications of NAFTA and it's affect hadn't presented itself as clearly as it does now.

    There was a wealth factor, until businesses figured out how to game the system.  

    Keep importing the slave labor goods and wonder who is to pay the tax in order to provide the services, the American people desire  ....

    Let me guess your plan is TAX the rich, or the working class to support the welfare state? 

    Promise everyone a chicken in every pot, then find some sap to pick up the tab or run up their credit card ?  

    There is no realistic comparison of Sweden to the US

    Sweden "aided by peace and neutrality for the whole of the 20th century",  is no superpower making their costs significantly less.smiley


    I was thinking of something less self-laudatory and illusory, such as "don't torture people". Some in America have worked hard, some not. Much of our advantage has been stealing or preying on poorer countries or taking advantage of new immigrants until they're replaced, like some big pyramid/Ponzi scheme backed by huge new resources we then auctioned off. You can re-write any scam to look glorious.

    The welfare bit is overhyped myth - when there are jobs, people work. Why else would US community colleges be so well attended? Our real "welfare system" is the trillions to sustain our military to not fight wars or to fight them badly over several decades, and all the parasitic contractor companies that have grown up around them, and the resulting cottage industries in every congressional district across the country.

    Forget Sweden then - if we weren't dumping these trillions into the military (and into big agro, and Wall Street), we could afford a real health care system that took care of people with normal sicknesses without them having to panic and go bankrupt. Even a poor "new Europe" country like the Czech Republic with average wage about $2000/month pre-tax can afford health care for all. We are #PATHETIC. Socialism is okay if it props up the indentured 1%, the rest we insult and abandon? That's what we're left with.

    NAFTA was relatively neutral jobs-wise. The real shakeup was the effect of exporting manufacturing to China. Nevertheless, why would the most prosperous country on earth keep raw body assembly lines going when there are lots of desperate countries that can feed the bodies in to do this crap work for less? As you move up the food chain, you take on bigger and better responsibilities.

    Sure - tax the rich - as Willie Lohman said, that's where the money is, and half of them are thieves or deadweights sucking off the system without paying back into it. Perhaps it's not their fault - the lobbying of a few percent gave unfair advantage to all of them - but yes, need to correct. What's your idea, lower taxes to 0 and watch cities crumble and crime sky-rocket, pollution run wild so we can achieve Grover Norquist's dystopian post-tax society? People around the world pay higher taxes, have better normal government services (mass transit? Oh My God!!!) without bitching like the whiny Tea-Bagger independent-until-I-need-a-money-fix right.


    .


    How about "Rudy's been sucking on that 9/11 teat for over 13 years now, you'd think it'd gone dry by now".

    How about "hey, remember when Rudy thought New York needed him so bad that Michael Bloomfield should let him be co-Mayor for a few months? Has his swollen ego ever shrunk back down?"

    How about "yes, Rudy - Obama wasn't raised like you - son of a convicted robber and mafia enforcer and Sing Sing inmate - I'm sure Obama's Mahalo good vibes on the islands is a million miles away from your dog-eat-dog Flatbush memories. Ain't that a good thing? Not everyone loves America for its shakedowns and street crime and smelly trash-laden alleys and obnoxious in-your-face attitude. So celebrate America's diversity - not everyone was raised a prick."

    Believe it or not, Resistance - even you have the ability to stay on topic. Should you choose.


    What was it that didn't stay on the subject of RUDY?

    Except; for a few humorous diversions.  

    Were all the comments supposed to agree and give high fives to Ramona with only the perspective of   WHAT (Rudy said) 

    How dare someone puts into context,  WHY Rudy said what he said and why so many other voters have the viewpoint Obama does not love or protect them. 

    She presented the What and I presented the Why 

    The WHY of this most recent threat to the Freedom to express an opinion, can all be summed up in few words  Arbitrary Judgment and Religious Bigotry.

    By claiming one is not staying on topic is the excuse necessary to act arbitrarily. 

    BTW?  How does various threads that are created within a post, detrimental to the poster? 


    This is Dagblog and we're all proud of what we're doing here.  Everyone who publishes a post here has worked hard on it before they put it out here for comments. 

    Already, just today, I've had two people--former regulars--tell me they've given up on posting here because they've had enough of you taking over the comments to preach or rant about things that have no bearing on the thread.   That is unacceptable and is a TOS violation.  ( "Participating in Dagblog for purposes of disruption is not respectful") 

    There will be no more trolling on this website.


    .


    You got my message, Resistance.  The rest is up to you.
     


    "What was it that didn't stay on the subject of RUDY? "  - your whole message & GIF re: "with an 18 trillion dollar national debt" for one.


    Ramona, is it alright if I respond to the readers query?. 


    Sure.  I can hardly wait.


    Can we move this column any further to the right?

    Good on ya, Ramona.

     


    Thank you, Oxy.  I try.
     


    Resistance, I think you got the message. Please keep you comments pertinent to blog posts and discussion threads. If you wish to make a comment that is not directly related to the thread, you are welcome to write your own post.


    Reply towards bottom of the post 


    What Rudy has done is take some of the MSM focus off of the HLS shut down.  A diversion tactic and make Obama the story.  It didn't work very well.  This is black history month and plenty has been published and shown on TV about the accomplishments of our African American Citizens.  Rudy's comment came across crass and racist because that was what they were.  It is also just plain irrelevant statement that has no bearing on current state of affairs.  

    It used to be that cutting taxes was the glue that held the GOP together but that has taken a back seat now to racism.  It is racism that is the glue that holds the current coalition together. I am afraid we are going to put up with their desperate dog whistles  and scare tactics for the next 2 years.    


    As though identifying oneself as AFRICAN - American rather than an American, isn't divisive? 


    What is divisive is a small group of European Americans in the GOP attempting to prevent African-Americans from voting.

    Noting racial differences is important because it can point out facts like health care disparies between Whites and Blacks with the same levels of insurance, income, and education. The medical field realizes that its practitioners need education so that everyone gets the same level of healthcare. 

    Edit to add:

    Your attempt to Whitewash things has completely failed, Apple' s new iPhone/iPad emojis include a variety of skin colors in their ne Beta release.


    Hi, Ramona! Long time no see on these pages, but glad we're keeping up with each other on Facebook!

    I was wondering what my long lost peeps were thinking about things in the news these days, so thought I'd pop in and snoop around. I cracked up at how little had changed (ie Resistance.) 

    I've enjoyed this thread so much that I was planning on making a note to remind myself to come by more often, when it occurred to me that Dag might be on Facebook. And lo and behold, there you were! Woohoo! So, I liked the page, and now it will be easy to remember!

     


    Yikers! Just realized the last post over there was back in July of 2014! Any plans to revive it, or is it too much trouble to double post on the Facebook page?


    Lol, I guess it's been a might neglected!  I guess we should do something about that, huh?  I'll talk to Michael about it and see if we can't keep the page going.  In the meantime, it's great to have you here.  Don't go away so soon!


    Comment removed by Mod.  ToS violation.