July 15, 2013
Did anyone else out there notice where the Tea Partiers et al in the House have pushed through a new Agriculture Bill that eliminates “Food Stamps”.
They took their stand: No more public money “wasted on feeding the poor“. The Food Stamp program (officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – SNAP), has been killed-off, while these same Tea Partiers piled on yet more cash subsidies for big business (fraud-ridden) agriculture.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/11/house-passes-stripped-down-farm-bill/2510185/ and
The USA already has food poverty rates that are physically and permanently impairing at least 20% of an entire generation of American children. Since 2010, 1 in 5 US children do not know where their next meal is coming from – and the Tea Party and Conservatives latest votes and latest choices and their latest “bold stances”, aggravate an already out-of-control problem. …
The brain damage and epigenetic changes in these children’s DNA and RNA are not only permanent – but the genetic damage has been proven to continue down for 100 years or more through successive generations. … http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1952313,00.html , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2861525/ et al
Why did Tea Partiers and Conservatives create and pass this bill?
Ideology….
The Tea Party leaders and Republicans are voting to sacrifice the health and well being of generations of future Americans to try to prove their beliefs are superior….
beyond troubling,
steve
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Fortunately, the entire world has not entirely descended into the depths of Conservative and Tea Party Madness:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/nA3LtXnNIto?feature=player_embedded
(Thanks to Dave Saunders for the link to the excellent video.)
* * * *
Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 
I hope this doesn’t turn into a political “rag”….if it is, count me out. Government needs scaled back and both sides are at fault…Please stay “on message” with the information you provide for the expat in Mexico and avoid U.S. politics with your site. …. Thank you , Don Hoblit
Hi Don,
One frequent theme and a consistent bias of “political rags” is their lack of factual reporting.
Are any of the facts reported above incorrect?
Fact: The Norbotten study has been peer reviewed, and almost universally accepted by scientists.
Fact: Decades of data show that even brief periods of severe malnutrition during key development periods of children’s lives, detrimentally affect the health of subsequent generations.
Fact: The children who currently face record levels of food poverty and malnutrition are most likely to be the most fecund in the future. Consensus data on the poor children of today, show that they are likely to have the largest future families, and reproduce more often than the well-fed Middle Class and Upper Class children.
Does it make sense to intentionally create generations of future health problems and future IQ problems for parts of US society who have had the highest rates of reproduction?
Fact: The House Tea Partiers wrote, pushed-through, and voted-for eliminating funding for Food Stamps.
The controversial thing comes in with our individual views on what makes a good society.
Can any of us really argue in favor of permanently impairing IQs and permanently impairing the health of 1:5 American children – let alone impairing their children and their grandchildren?
Do we really want decades of financial health cost burdens that can be eliminated by feeding children, now?
Is there some responsibility for citizens to stay silent on issues that affect multiple generations of Americans – and to intentionally only write about feel-good things or about tracking and interpreting legislation, laws and government regulations?
Are you equally offended by our reporting on US tax issues?
Are you equally offended by our reporting on Obamacare issues?
That’s where this issue popped up… While scanning the past week’s Mexican and US legislative changes, I was stunned to read what the Tea Partiers and Conservatives have passed for new legislation eliminating funding for Food Stamps. …
Really, I am a fan of temporarily changing channels when I see a program I find offensive or stupid.
Why attempt to censor people?
Why not follow a policy of: skipping the occasional post that you do not agree with?
Is it that scary to be exposed to a few facts that don’t fit your personal pecadillos?
steve
Don,
When you disagree with something, why not consider dialogue?
Why make censorship threats ?
Why not present facts that point to different outcomes?
Why try to silence personal reporting of facts?
Sure, the internet is a market-place.
Consumers are free to express their personal views.
Other consumers are also free to point out when a few individuals try to stifle facts
and suppress observations that do not fit the complainant’s perceptions of the world.
Why not simply ignore things you feel are inappropriate?
Skip that post.
It is OK to:
Read only the posts that make you feel-good.
steve
I too am offended that according to some, government needs to be scaled back drastically when it comes too feeding, educating and keeping children healthy. Yet there seems to be plenty of money for weapons systems, military hardware and what have you that the military does not want or need. Let me repeat that: that the military DOES NOT WANT OR NEED. I don’t hate government. I like libraries, police to protect me, firemen to put out fires, smooth roads to ride on, safe cars and airplanes and safe water and safe food. Today’s kindergartner may the doctor whose skill saves my life tomorrow, and you bet I want the best education for her. Its government that provides those things and I don’t want to see those things go away. In Houston, they have declared posh shopping districts in need of tax abatement so that they may better compete with other posh shopping districts a few miles away. Housing for the poor? not a priority. Yet we have hundreds of corporations in Texas that pay zero income tax. Zero. Zip. In fact, some of them get large rebates on top of that. Why do people think that is fair, but starving sick children and firing their teachers is okay?
Now that is what I call research..I may borrow it & give u credit..excellent!
Hi Deb,
Please feel free.
steve
Mr. Hoblit, you of course are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to speak for others and demand a forum only you want..if that is the case, do the work and start your own narrow vision of the world we live in. Cozumeldeb.
The USA is in a mell of hess, thanks to liberal politics. The Tea Party is only one effective
way to fight the left’s attempt to bankrupt the country! However, let’s NOT make this website a political voice for either side. Here, there are bigger, better and more relevant topics to discuss
other than U.S. politics.
Robb tells us:
…” let’s NOT make this website a political voice for either side. ”
as he claims:
…” The USA is in a mell of hess, thanks to liberal politics. ” …
Let’s evaluate his claims, using some facts. The US Public Debt spiraled up by $4 trillion under the Bush/Cheney administration, as Republicans tripled annual federal spending deficits to pay for “attacking Al Quaida in Iraq”. …
The same Tea Party voters who put Bush/Cheney into office, and the same Tea Party voters who said nothing as Bush/Cheney lifted regulations on wild investing schemes – then supported Bush/Cheney policies and risky debt-schemes that created a total of $4 trillion of ADDITIONAL guaranteed deficit spending.
Where were the Tea Partiers as their personally selected leaders and made the policies that caused the $7 trillion dollar “fiscal crisis”?
Where were the Tea Partiers when their personal selections as leaders doled out $2 Trillion to “rescue” their friends on Wall Street?
This stuff is NOT POLITICAL… It is a simple recognition of the fiscal realities that happened during the Tea Partier heroes and leaders – as the public debts spiraled up by 2X under Reagan and 3X under Bush/Cheney/
Since 70% of the US $16 Trillion of public debt was created by the leaders and their policies, that Tea Partiers hailed as saviors – Tea Party voter Leaders: Reagan, Bush, and Cheney – why should we blame the Left?
Why? Because both sides of the aisle trooped to the trough of overspending US taxpayer $$ – with both Reagan and Tip ONeill driving tripling of the National Debt… It took Pelosi and Reid et al to jump on the Bush/Cheney deficit bandwagons, voting to create over $10 trillion of the current $16 trillion of public debt – 88% of that debt ALL incurred triggered-by and occurring-since Reagan’s policies. …
To prove that this stuff is NOT POLITICAL, look at when the debts grew and spiked:
The evidence points to the greed and mistakes of LEADERS of BOTH the “Liberals” and “the Right”, to create the messes we now are dealing with.
Facts show that Tea Partiers have been the prime and central supporters of the Reagan/Bush/Cheney policies that created 70% of the public debt.
This proves that it is dis-ingenuous for Tea Partiers to blithely claim either the moral high-ground,
or
for Tea Partiers to blithely claim the fiscal-responsibility high-ground,
steve
I agree with your observations about facts, Steve. Facts are not political; they are neither liberal nor conservative. If statements are untrue, they deserve to be impeached, revised, clarified, etc. Merida is neither “Never-neverland,” nor an apolitical island. The expat community there seems more astute about facts than many of my neighbors back here near Buffalo. Bravo for inviting Mr Hoblit either to correct your statements if lacking in factuality, or to remain in denial of reality. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but nobody is entitled to their own version of the facts. As Jack Webb used to say: “Just the facts, M’am.”
Hi,
In case you don’t check your listed email account, I sent you an email,
steve
The first thing that needs to be done to weed the families off of food stamps is to change the mentality of the adults who feel they don’t need to work because others are working for their benefit. We are already I believe at 47% of the adults on welfare sitting on their fannies and watching TV not even attempting to find work. We are responsible for this society of adults that expect the government to provide for them. I was responsible for my family health and welfare not the government. Until we as a society realize that obtaining a job and feeding our family is our responsibility we will continue on the slippery slope of socialism which does not work. I have been to Cuba and can tell you it does not work. The moral compass of this country is all but gone due to the lack of responsibility of the parents who are to lazy to educate themselves to make a better living for their families.
So, Dennis, did you complain to your elected officials when We-the-People bailed out Wall Street with industrial scale welfare? I thought the invisible hand of the market intended those businesses to fail, according the the “free market” folks who were in the Whitehouse at the time. But suddenly they recanted, and drank the welfare KoolAid? (But let’s not feed little children, as they’re like stray cats!)
Hey Dennis,
Help for those who really need it, when they need it, is a solid principle.
You go on to write:
“….The moral compass of this country is all but gone due to the lack of responsibility of the parents who are to lazy to educate themselves to make a better living for their families. …”
Fortunately, not all kids, and not all young adults are slackers: Both of our daughters worked really hard through J-High, High School and University – and then in their jobs – to build good good lives – so, I suspect only some segments of of the USA society’s moral compass is “all but gone”. Both of them, and their friends – are really fine people, leading very fine lives.
I just did a 3 week tour through Texas, and a week in South Dakota, and a week in Colorado…
I would say that pretty much all of the 100 or so people I got to know well there, were all pretty much: Hardworking people doing good things for their families – celebrating new graduates – celebrating diverse families – where the beautiful mix of skin colors, eye colors, facial features, and body types – including blue-eyed blondes, red-heads, Mexicans, and Native Americans – all in one beautiful family that was grilling dog and burgers – people with a bewildering array of features that defied stereotypes – had happily meshed as a single family for the past 30 years…
and yes, that includes the new family of a young Iraq Vet, 90% disabled, moving his “new” family (including 2 fine teen age boys by his new wife) from hard times in Montana – to go back to the support of family in Killeen Tx, even if they did break down with tires, blown by a big “Grapes of Wrath” trailer-load of all their possessions. And yes, two good men stopped and worked for 4 hours to get the load back up and running – and 4 other groups of men stopped – each interrupting their busy days to give real roadside help….
So, I do believe in the continuing solidity and values of American and Canadian Middle Class folk.
Common Man and Common Woman ways still work.
Common folk still can, and do: Stick together.
It is our leaders who have gone far astray. …
It is the Big Media – TV and radio types – who have gone astray in what I saw.
Ordinary working folks really do have compasses that still unfailingly point … North.
steve
Common Man and Common Woman ways still work.
Common folk still can, and do: ~ Stick together. ~
We simply do things, the “right” way, because that’s what we do,
and that’s who we are….
It is our leaders who have gone far astray. …
It is the Big Media – TV and radio types – and politicians (like Tea Partiers) ….
….who have gone astray … at least for the 100 or so new folks I got to know last month.
Ordinary working folks really do have compasses that still unfailingly point … North.
steve
I’m not sure why you believe that welfare recipients do not work! In fact, most do. Working is a welfare requirement now. Many United States soldiers’ families qualify for welfare and food stamps, and receive them. So do many WalMart and Target employees. And the full time worker at the burger joint down the street. And wasn’t there a 5-year lifetime cap put on welfare about 15 years ago?
Are you upset that folks (including, as stated, U.S. soldiers’ families) have to draw upon assistance for a few years because wages have dropped below a level sufficient to support one person, much less a family?
Or are you angry that over 15 years ago, some folks were able to draw on welfare for more than 5 years?
Please clarify.
47% was the quoted number by Mr. Romney that sank his campaign..and it was wrong. The repulsive part of the House with a current approval rating of below 10%..gave huge increases to corporations farm subsidies while dumping the food stamp program, claiming they would pick it up later..which will not happen. Republican party is responsible for the 2008 crash and the resulting loss of millions of well paying jobs and also for jobs outsourced in the past decade. And lets not forget about the $billions and billions of $$ parked off shore and evading taxes, now that is a reason to hold the IRS responsible and call for hearings. The downturn and recession is responsible for the huge increase in food stamp usage as well as corporations like Walmart who is responsible for 25% of welfare by paying low wages with no benefits..Try living on $7.85 an hour..US is fast becoming a low wage workforce..and the Republican has blocked minimum wage increases for 20 years+..including blocking the current bill up to increase. Suggest research is the best answer..
MeridaGOround, one of the main problems was FannieMae and FreddieMac. They government wanted everyone one to own a home whether they could afford it or not. So they lowered the standards and you got the collapse of the housing market and all the derivatives along with it.
No one wants any child to starve but everyone including you should want parents to work for a living to provide for their families. Many kids have to work their way through college, why shouldn’t parents work to feed their children? The present day value system is about, What can the government do for me and not what can I do for myself on my abilities. Everyone has turned into being a narcissist, its all about me, me, and me.
Your comment about stray cats is right on target, as the mentality we all have engendered with welfare is its ok to have more kids because the government will give us more welfare. If it were up to me all male adults like the recent guy bragging about his 27 children and not paying any child care would be castrated after the first baby. You see WE ALL are to blame for this mentality by not holding our representative feet to the fire. Instead to many of us are complacent and figure it is not my problem until it is too late.
Dennis, surely you’ve heard of LIAR LOANS! – the financial industry induced this collapse, and laughed all the way to the bank, after getting away with the banking scandal some years earlier. So I won’t bother to refute the FannieMae thing, as it has been dealt with thoroughly by guys with real credentials – guys like Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: http://tinyurl.com/qb66nw8 . (I’ve linked a current article on crooked bankers, but his work is searchable.)
Our financial system is beyond corrupt. It is evil. We are supposed to be “our brother’s keeper” according to received wisdom. Blaming pregnant women for milking the market – that is no different than those banksters who played the same game. They just won bigger. Yes, it is our collective problem. But we continue to let Wall Street own the house (and houses). And we let NSA shutdown Occupy Wall Street, and let USAF hire contractors to insert comments into social media. Capital owns everything. Our republic is dead, and just waiting to fall over. Once the capitalists attach their parasitic jaws, it’s nigh impossible to shake them off. (I spent my career as a small business owner, so I understand something about capitalism, and how the deck is stacked.) Yet we continue to vote both parties back into office, based on the “least worst candidate.” Until there is a viable third party, we are lost.
Well said & crystal clear..
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the tip of the iceberg – and their bad loans were only a small percentage of the $60 billion of toxic real estate loans….
For perspective: Consider Bush and Hank Paulson’s 2004 lifting of banking regulatory oversight and loosening of investment “banking” rules – which allowed Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase et al to “loan” another $2 TRILLION at 40:1 margin rates for non-property “investments” …
These “investment bankers” passed out loans to their rich clients, who only had to show $1 USD of collateral to get a $40 loan…
This seems insane by most common people’s logic…. (Common farmers, ranchers, and other people who work in small communities are not Progressives in any way shape or form.) Yet, conservative estimates posit that there is over $50 TRILLION of this heavily leveraged debt worldwide, as a residue of the supposed “Free Market” economics of Blair, Pelosi, Reid, Bush, and Cheney.
Other major fiscal rat-holes manipulated by the politicians and Investment Bankers: Goldman Sachs and AIG then cooked up elaborate and intentionally-convoluted insurance schemes, where they got insurance policies to protect those $40:1 loans against losses. This ugly system ultimately caused Goldman Sachs to collect a cool $300 BILLION of taxpayer dollars to cover all their bad investments… and no Virginia, Goldman Sachs did NOT pay back that $300 billion to the US taxpayers, because they claimed it as insurance payouts… not loans….
So, the modest federal expenditures on “(t)he total cost for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the fiscal year ending September 2011 was $75.7 billion” to feed 47 million hungry Americans, hardly adds up to an excessive amount, when compared to the TRILLIONS of taxpayer $$ given to a small collective of Wall Street already-rich gamblers ( 2%’ers) who bet big, and lost….
Again, the problem is with our Leaders…
Our federal politicians ~ who take an average of $10 million per seat in “contributions” to pay for their advertising campaigns – have been bought and paid for by their big $$ donors….
And the Big Media who depends on those $ billions of political advertising, and Big Media depends on easy access to “news” stories from those same politicians – have also sold out, according to their public accounting reports…
Rayburn was right: Go along to get along.
Consider that Koch Brothers et al have personally paid over $60 million to host Tea Party events, which are advertised as an upwelling of common people, but if you follow the money – it is NOT common people’s contributions that put Tea Party politicians into office. The Tea Party leaders have not raised the S100 millions to get into office from common-man donors. The money came from the top $$ Conservative elite.
Time to reform … from the top down….
Facts show that It is not the US common folk who need to change,
*grin*
steve
Actually, it was provate Wall Street firms that were mainly for the housing collapse. It is very popular with the Fox News-tea party crowd to try to blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, however. Remember how the tea party got its start? After the Wall Street banksters were bailed out without any promises on their part, it was suggested that innocent homeowners also get a break. Certain folks who approved billions going to Wall Street who created this mess objected strongly that Average Citizens get help.
WTF does any of this ‘bullshit Progressive’ claptrap’ have to do with “Surviving Yucatan?”
Hi Fungo,
We much appreciate your articulate and fact-filled response.
Just which facts presented above are “Progressive claptrap“?
I personally come from a generations-long-line of rock-ribbed Republicans, and have voted Independent most of my life, which means I do not even know what “Progressive claptrap” is. Are you proposing “Glenn Beck Thinking“, because every single Glen Beck program I have seen has carefully crafted, semi-professional rants against “Progressives”, all presented in pseudo-professorial styles.
Ironically, every Glenn Beck program also had at least 3 serious distortions of historical events that he masqueraded as “accepted history” – by ignoring key facts that overturned/refuted to his perceptions, and in every episode, he intentionally omitted key facts that were fatal to his conclusions.
Fortunately, the observations made in the above post, are all from official sources, like the Republican and Tea Party controlled US Congressional Record.
Since you dispute Republican votes and Republican statistics, and you criticize Conservatives votes and writings, and you dispute the Tea Party leaders written positions, then you must really NOT like Conservatives, Republicans, nor Tea Partiers,
steve
And on the subject of Glen Beck, his reported income from donors, book sales, appearances, TV idiot show, etc..reported $90 million taxable income..proving that spewing hate & lies from the Fox News School pays off big..
Another left wing Ahole Obama groupie comment .
Hi L,
Thank for taking the time to write a reply that clearly shows who and what you are.
You simultaneously demonstrate your respect, your knowledge, and your understandings of the world.
steve
O bullshit, another bleeding heart Liberal, feed those who are to stupid,lazy,or stoned to get a job. ABORTION for all LIBERALS, don’t allow them to breed. Feed the poor as in Mexico !
Hi Harvey,
Thank you for your fact-based and respectful reply.
It is becoming clear that the group of readers who disagree with the facts published above have very limited skills in expressing themselves.
The people who disagree have universally devolved to Jr. High level name calling, personal taunts, personal threats, or vulgarities.
We welcome reasoned dialogue, we welcome the presentation of facts and historical perspectives.
We expect people to treat others with the same respect that they expect for themselves.
Future posts that are written by people capable of only childish vulgarities, name-calling, and personal insults will have the names presented, but the juvenile items will be replaced with *’s – because it is important to realize that vulgar, venomous, nasty and petty people’s egos are fed by giving them a platform.
All the best,
steve
Dear Harvey,
Please know that I (the author) am no liberal.
I simply recognize the world-wide accepted view that good societies take care of their children and their elders, and those in need.
Anthropologists mark the beginnings of civilized behaviors by the evidence of small family groups caring for their relatives and friends with disabilities, broken limbs, etc… Our first documented/preserved civilized behaviors consist of tender careful burials by family and friends who spent years caring for individuals who were unable to walk, hunt, or tend fields/gardens for themselves.
Are the critics less-civilized than the primitive humans of 8,000 years ago?
Their words indicate: yes…
Harvey Kempema and others are welcome to feel as hard-hearted and petty as they like, but realize that mature adults around the world recognize the importance of caring for others – and the importance of respecting others. Their personal anger and internal nastiness really only hurts the critics.
Neither I nor other readers are hurt nor affected by your or their closely-held anger and bile.
I encourage you and the critics to show some respect for yourself.
I encourage you, all, to let go of the venom and personal pus and bile that is poisoning your views on helping hungry children and needy elders.
We welcome you to join society, instead.
Choose, instead, to become a respectful member of society.
steve
I absolutely agree. Cuts in education, food, and health care will damage our people, often irreparably. What kind of society are we if we do not help every person become his or her best educated and healthiest? Thank you for this thoughtful, FACTUAL post.
I will be checking out of this site I do not need to hear all this B S, But thanks for the INFO on living in Mexico Other sites stay out of politics so that is where i will go,Adios
Hi Philip,
Thank you for the notice that you are going elsewhere,
as we would not have known to wish you well, if you had simply left without announcing it.
It is disappointing that you find facts and other people’s understandings to be “B.S.” .
Have fun at the other sites – or come back if you want.
It’s all good,
steve
Sadly for some, facts do tend to have a liberal bias. Enemies of progress tend to fail in the long run, since change is inevitable. Adios!
Hau, hau !
He ce tuyelo !
steve
Your column would serve us better if you stuck to issues affecting US citizens spending time in Mexico. Why not start another hippie blog to pen your left wing comments. You could probably make a few bucks advertising on it too. After all, blogs just preach to their respective choirs and there are plenty (in my view way too many) who share your feelings which I perceive as, more or less just lets turn to government to solve our problems. Government programs should be a short term life line not a way of life which is what the food stamp program has become.
Dear Reckless,
Fortunately, facts are just facts, not belonging to Hippies or other people you disdain.
Considering facts, you wrote:
….” Government programs should be a short term life line not a way of life which is what the food stamp program has become. ” …..
On its surface, that looks good.
How do you account for the fact that the majority of our active-duty US Marine families, US Army families, and Navy families – the families of the grunts and swabbies – RELY on food stamp programs (SNAP) to survive ?
Partial evaluations,
snap judgements, and
overly simplified knee-jerk reactions
simply do NOT make for good policy choices for what is best for the entire country,
steve
While it is true that we need to address our problems and find solutions, programs such as food stamps are so rife with fraud that they need to be replaced. However my point was really that the topic has nothing to do with people who are living in Mexico. If our government was not out of control with handing everyone a check to buy their vote there would not be the backlash to end every program that comes up for a vote. As it has been so eloquently stated, the problem with socialism is that you run out of other people’s money. It seems to me that everyone is in favor of raising the taxes on everyone that makes more than them. Welfare and all of our hand out programs have done nothing to elevate people from poverty. It just becomes a way of life. The truth is that we are all “self-made” but it is only the ones that worked and succeeded that admit it. And that’s all I have to say on the matter.
Reckless,
You make unproven undocumented claims that the Food Stamp program is rife with fraud.
Where are the numbers? Where is the proof?
Where’s the beef ?
Your claims are hollow.
Your rhetoric has the quality of things repeated from Rush Limbaugh’s TOTALLY-TONGUE-IN-CHEEK or his non-factual party-line bombast that is floated out to keep his adoring public happy.
Really, you totally ignored the facts where I replied to your prior incorrect appraisals, so, here is another copy for you to read, with the key parts bolded: Like feeding the families of our enlisted soldiers, sailors, and marines.
Do you really believe your false fraud claims that the poor hungry families of the nation’s soldiers, sailors, and marines are a bunch of cheats, who you falsely claim scam or sponge $100 million annually off of the Food Stamp (SNAP) program?
Reckless really should treat the families of those who serve the USA with a bit more respect. …
==================================
Dear Reckless,
Fortunately, facts are just facts, not as your false claims of belonging to Hippies or other people you disdain.
Considering facts, you wrote:
….” Government programs should be a short term life line not a way of life which is what the food stamp program has become. ” …..
On its surface, that looks good.
How do you account for the fact that the majority of our active-duty US Marine families, US Army families, and Navy families – the families of the grunts and swabbies – RELY on food stamp programs (SNAP) to survive ?
Partial evaluations,
snap judgements, and
overly simplified knee-jerk reactions
simply do NOT make for good policy choices for what is best for the entire country,
steve
==================================
Finally, chest-beating, like your claims that you are completely “self made”, ignores the taxpayer dollars paid by homeowners to pay for your schools, the teachers, the books, that gave you an education.
==================================
You did NOT EARN the sacrifices of the men who, like my fathers, grandfathers, and uncles who suffered and died to give you FREEDOM…
You did NOT EARN the interstate highways and bridges built by my fathers and grandfathers that you happily drive on.
==================================
You did NOT EARN the Social Security checks that your parents and grandparents received, which kept you from having to help pay their bills, or preserved a nice inheritance for you.
==================================
The myth of the self-made man is so full of holes, that there’s more air than substance to that bit of puffery.
You did NOT EARN the blessings that you parents and grandparents gave you.
Did you build every school you studied in? Did you start every business that you have worked at?
Did you personally generate every sale that generated every dollar you were ever paid?
==================================
We all are the products of the good efforts of MANY people:
Teachers, coaches, PARENTS…, police and firefighters who protected you, carpenters and masons and plumbers and electricians (who all went to PUBLIC SCHOOLS that YOU DID NOT PAY FOR) who built your home and businesses, …
…. let alone the sailors/soldiers/marines/pilots who sacrificed to give you a chance at freedom …
~ all of whom DID NOT believe in your over-inflated “Self-Made Man” schlock….
==================================
Instead of chest-beating and hollow boasts, why not show some humility, … and recognition …. and gratitude … for the people whose sacrifices … and efforts made you who actually made you who you are?
steve
So much hate saddens me. Hate because you’re a different color, hate because you didn’t have the same chances I had, hate because you’re different, hate because I got mine but you can’t have yours. “Hate” and “help” both start with the same letter but are worlds apart.
Has the US really changed that much? I’ve been gone for several years now because I couldn’t afford to stay, but it sure seems different from what I remember. If the comments above are typical of the way things are, I’m afraid you are on a really slippery slope with little chance of recovery.
The polarization and the open incivility and disrespect that started with Newt Gingrich causing gridlock in Washington, has grown and grown until we get to this point where the Congress goes for years without passing a budget -because of the ugliness and unprofessionalism that pass for “leadership”…
which is a bit of why I wrote this piece,
steve
I guess I’m not so surprised at the politicians. What shocked me was the response from many of the people who replied to this blog entry. I hope they aren’t typical of people in the US. The intense show of hatred really staggers me. If these people are indeed a true sample of what’s to be found up north, then shame on you.
The general frustration in the USA has slowly built over the past 30 years – since the Reagan “Reforms” of Reagan doubling the size (and effectively doubling the power and REACH) of the Presidential Administration – … and don’t forget Reagan TRIPLING the Public Debt … and Reagan increasing the Carter Era $40-$50 billion annual Federal Deficits by … 4X’ing and 5X’ing them up to $220 Billion…
This means that Reagan trumpeted and announced big cuts in spending and big cuts in the size of his administrative branch – while Reagan quietly then repeatedly did exactly THE OPPOSITE.
~ Reagan triggered the BIGGEST $$% deficit and debt changes (LOSSES) in ALL of American (non-wartime) history ~
~ Yet even after 30 years, many common people ignore the stark facts, and instead, … choose to still believe the hype and rhetoric….
This is why the billionaire Koch Brothers tap into public frustration – but write the Tea Party scripts, and pay for the Tea Party banners and over $60 million of Tea Party parties/events, all to create a factually false version of their “history” of Reagan as Reformer – where he actually was the worst president in history (% wise) for expanding non-wartime government… ( http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/d/d/Jimmy-Carter and http://federal-budget.findthedata.org/)
Common people are not stupid. They sense that they have been getting screwed by Wall Street, Washington, and by their State Governments (through the Koch Bros et al manipulating State policies and ghost-writing State legislation through ALEC). The common people, including even the misguided Tea Partier voters, sense and have growing realizations of frustrations:
~ as wages for ordinary people stagnated.
~ as we went from 1 worker households, to 2 worker households ~ just to stay “financially even” ~
~ as the “American Dreams” slipped further from our grasp
~ as the American common families slipped deeply into University debts, Mortgage debts, and credit card debts.
~ as home values balooned artificially due to Wall Street and the Fed dumping huge amounts of artificially cheap money into the Wall Street investment banks
~ bank rolling a 30 year Greed-is-Good party – where the AVERAGE Goldman Sachs employee made $275,000 a year in salaries
~ while tHE US Taxpayers had to bail out Goldman with $300 billion in “Credit Default Swap” “insurance” payouts that Goldman rigged to NEVER PAY BACK…
Really, common people on the Right, Left, AND CENTER…. have smelled the stinks emanating from the ROT – coming from Wall Street to Washington, and they temporarily got fed up, triggering the common Tea Partier’s (factually misguided) actions and the haphazard unfocused Occupy movement’s actions….
So, the same fuel of 30 years of Big Business and Big Government – corruptly – in bed together – is feeding BOTH fires ~ of Tea Partiers and Occupiers .
Unfortunately, some people mis-direct their personal angst and personal frustrations and their personal anger against others – as hatred –
…. which is exactly what and why the Koch Brothers and other 2%’ers created the Tea Party, and crafted the messages of class warfare… In a purposeful effort to take advantage of and re-channel the common Tea Party voter’s anger and frustration, and focus it away from the real problems, caused by the same 2%er’s who quietly founded, paid-for, and crafted the Tea Party headlines, Tea Party bylines, and Tea Party talking points => to all point away from the Wall Street-Washington cabal – and instead misdirect them to attack the wrong targets…
So, do we blame the messengers of hate and frustration?
or
Do we realize that they are yet more pawns in the bigger – very nasty selfish – power and money game of: Big Media / TV/Internet / Wall Street /London/ Singapore/ Beijing/ Hong Kong/ Berlin / San Francisco/ Chicago/ DUBAI / RIYADH / Tel Aviv/ and Washington ?
Do we blame the factions of common people who have been duped by slick Madison Avenue and heavy $$$ spent on taxpayer $$ give-aways to both international conglomerates and to poor people – spent to buy votes by BOTH sides of the spectrum?
Do we descend into attacking each other? (as paid for by the “Leaders” on both “The Left” and “The Right”)
Or do we instead focus our group energies on the real problems of REFORMING Wall Street, REFORMING the IRS, REFORMING the SEC, KICKING OUT the politicians at both State (ALEC contaminated) and Federal levels…. ?
steve
Steve, I appreciate your site and thoughtful and correct comments. The hope is those writing in knee-jerk Fox imprinted retorts, will pause, reflect and delve deeper in search of the facts. I will share your excellent comments giving u credit..Ex pats in the Yucatan/Q Roo are lucky to have sites like yours & Yucatan Living to offer them factual information on all many subjects that impact us all.