One of my more respectable, ahem, associates called The Angry White Mom a "socialist" the other day. Well, what he actually said was that I was "pretty much a socialist." Same thing. I admit that it caught me a bit off balance momentarily because the person calling me a socialist knows better. Or should know better. And he knows I know better. And he knows I know he should know better. He should know that I know that Socialism is an economic system in which the government owns or directly controls the means and materials for major manufacture or industry. I would say that the US, where the truth is that some eighty percent of the country's wealth is in the hands of fewer that 180,000 people, is a long, long, long way from being very socialist.
He must have forgotten that I am well informed in economic history, and I have a degree in business, too, and that I know what no conservative in America wants Americans to know, and that is simply that Trickle Down Economics, sometimes called Reagan Economics (and Voodoo economics by his one-time competitor George HW Bush until GHWB was selected as Reagan's VP. What price truth...) which is what Republicans in Congress and all over the country support -- the idea that low taxes on the wealthy stimulates the economy because the money they do not have to pay the government is invested in the economy. This is the first BIG LIE. It does not work. It has never worked. In fact, history demonstrates over and over again how that system creates unsustainable growth that eventually plummets. Like in 1929. And in 1987. And in 1991. And gee, again in 2000. And, after nearly a decade of decreased taxes on the most wealthy, again in 2008. Go ahead. check these dates out. You will find that when taxes get cut below a certain level we get a recession of varying degrees. Go ahead. Look it up. And you will know better, too.
My name-calling friend also knows, and I know, and I hope he now knows that I know the country is not broke. There is lots and lots of money in the banks across the country, and he knows that. What folks don't know is that the banks are squeezing this money like a man with bad case of diarrhea clamping his asshole, and because the interest rates they could charge folks for borrowing it would be so low that the money made from lending just isn't worth their tight-assed time.
Now the really sad part is that I also know, and he knows that I know, that he gets his news primarily from Fox News. And this is sooooo disappointing, because I thought he was smarter than that. How do I now know? Because Jon Stewart and The Daily Show did us a big favor by compiling twenty or so BIG LIES spread by Fox News --not solely, but primarily -- determined to be BIG LIES by the independent research source Politifact.com. And nestled there among the BIG LIES was one or two arguments he had tried with me. You can go back and see previous blogs if you're that interested, but briefly the BIG LIES he repeated as facts to me first concerned the complete and total fabrication that fewer than 10% of Obama's appointeesever worked in the private sector. BIG LIE.
Another complete pile of doodoo concerned the idea that the Democrats had concocted "the largest tax hike
in American history." Well you can go back to my previous blog to see my reaction to that as well. BIG LIE.
Now Politifact.com rated Mr. Stewart's statement to one-time journalist and current Fox News anchor Mike Wallace that (and I am paraphrasing here) Fox News viewers consistently ranked last in grasping the facts
of current news stories. Mr. Stewart apparently was wrong. Instead, according to Politifact, Fox News viewers consistently rank only "near the bottom." Oh I see the distinction. "Last" as opposed to merely "near the bottom." Now we know.
Now I don't know about you, but I always thought that The Daily Show was a COMEDY show, not a news broadcast. I did not realize that comedians are held to the same high standards of factual discrimination that supposed news reporters and journalists. I mean come on. The Daily Show is on the Comedy Channel, fugoshsakes, and Fox News is Fox NEWS. Bob Hope would never have been so popular with the troops if he had just repeated what Walter Cronkite said. And you know, The Angry White Mom actually minored in journalism in college, and although it was a millenium ago I can still remember getting bad marks if we made statements not based in fact. For statements we could not attribute. For statements that were not verifiable. For statements... but I digress. Clearly Fox "News" sets its own standards.
Now seriously I would like to address the "socialist charge." I will admit to really, really liking some of the socialism -based things we do have in this wonderful country of ours. Like public schools and public hospitals. Like roads, bridges, dams and water-treatment plants. Like fire stations and trash collection. Like parks, and wildlife sanctuaries, and forests that belong to all of us; like free trade between individual states, like regulations that make sure my water, my air, my soil, my food, my medicine and stuff I buy is reasonably free of stuff that will hurt me. If that is socialism, sign my ass up. Now you know.
To me it is sooo very interesting that the very generation that suffered the very worst economic depression in our history was the very generation that BUILT America. They BUILT the Hoover Dam. The Grand Cooley
Dam. The Tennessee Valley Authority. The Interstate Highway system. Our public schools. Many of our public hospitals. Plus they fought a world war. Beat polio and smallpox. Went to the Moon.
The next generation, this name-calling generation, they directly benefitted from all the public schools, hospital care, vaccinations, flouride. They have directly benefitted the very most from the educational and financial opportunties created in those following years. The vast majority of the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of this particular demographic. And yet at the same time they are the ones calling these systems "Broke" and "Dysfunctional," and this really really funny one "job-destroying," and they want to tear them down, get rid of the public schools, banking regulations, the EPA, ad nauseum-- with little or no plans for anything to replace them.
It reminds me so much of these grand old houses we see out here on the prairie. Where one generation, my grandparents' generation built up the barn and the house, now their children have given up on the old homestead, allowing it to fall apart by not re-investing in its upkeep or simply by tearing it down. They grew up in it, lived in it, had the advantage of their own kids growing up there, and now because is it old and perhaps needs an upgrade or two to bring it into the modern era, now it has no more value to them. Sad.
Well now you know.
The Truth Hurts. So go put a bandage on it.
He must have forgotten that I am well informed in economic history, and I have a degree in business, too, and that I know what no conservative in America wants Americans to know, and that is simply that Trickle Down Economics, sometimes called Reagan Economics (and Voodoo economics by his one-time competitor George HW Bush until GHWB was selected as Reagan's VP. What price truth...) which is what Republicans in Congress and all over the country support -- the idea that low taxes on the wealthy stimulates the economy because the money they do not have to pay the government is invested in the economy. This is the first BIG LIE. It does not work. It has never worked. In fact, history demonstrates over and over again how that system creates unsustainable growth that eventually plummets. Like in 1929. And in 1987. And in 1991. And gee, again in 2000. And, after nearly a decade of decreased taxes on the most wealthy, again in 2008. Go ahead. check these dates out. You will find that when taxes get cut below a certain level we get a recession of varying degrees. Go ahead. Look it up. And you will know better, too.
My name-calling friend also knows, and I know, and I hope he now knows that I know the country is not broke. There is lots and lots of money in the banks across the country, and he knows that. What folks don't know is that the banks are squeezing this money like a man with bad case of diarrhea clamping his asshole, and because the interest rates they could charge folks for borrowing it would be so low that the money made from lending just isn't worth their tight-assed time.
Now the really sad part is that I also know, and he knows that I know, that he gets his news primarily from Fox News. And this is sooooo disappointing, because I thought he was smarter than that. How do I now know? Because Jon Stewart and The Daily Show did us a big favor by compiling twenty or so BIG LIES spread by Fox News --not solely, but primarily -- determined to be BIG LIES by the independent research source Politifact.com. And nestled there among the BIG LIES was one or two arguments he had tried with me. You can go back and see previous blogs if you're that interested, but briefly the BIG LIES he repeated as facts to me first concerned the complete and total fabrication that fewer than 10% of Obama's appointeesever worked in the private sector. BIG LIE.
Another complete pile of doodoo concerned the idea that the Democrats had concocted "the largest tax hike
in American history." Well you can go back to my previous blog to see my reaction to that as well. BIG LIE.
Now Politifact.com rated Mr. Stewart's statement to one-time journalist and current Fox News anchor Mike Wallace that (and I am paraphrasing here) Fox News viewers consistently ranked last in grasping the facts
of current news stories. Mr. Stewart apparently was wrong. Instead, according to Politifact, Fox News viewers consistently rank only "near the bottom." Oh I see the distinction. "Last" as opposed to merely "near the bottom." Now we know.
Now I don't know about you, but I always thought that The Daily Show was a COMEDY show, not a news broadcast. I did not realize that comedians are held to the same high standards of factual discrimination that supposed news reporters and journalists. I mean come on. The Daily Show is on the Comedy Channel, fugoshsakes, and Fox News is Fox NEWS. Bob Hope would never have been so popular with the troops if he had just repeated what Walter Cronkite said. And you know, The Angry White Mom actually minored in journalism in college, and although it was a millenium ago I can still remember getting bad marks if we made statements not based in fact. For statements we could not attribute. For statements that were not verifiable. For statements... but I digress. Clearly Fox "News" sets its own standards.
Now seriously I would like to address the "socialist charge." I will admit to really, really liking some of the socialism -based things we do have in this wonderful country of ours. Like public schools and public hospitals. Like roads, bridges, dams and water-treatment plants. Like fire stations and trash collection. Like parks, and wildlife sanctuaries, and forests that belong to all of us; like free trade between individual states, like regulations that make sure my water, my air, my soil, my food, my medicine and stuff I buy is reasonably free of stuff that will hurt me. If that is socialism, sign my ass up. Now you know.
To me it is sooo very interesting that the very generation that suffered the very worst economic depression in our history was the very generation that BUILT America. They BUILT the Hoover Dam. The Grand Cooley
Dam. The Tennessee Valley Authority. The Interstate Highway system. Our public schools. Many of our public hospitals. Plus they fought a world war. Beat polio and smallpox. Went to the Moon.
The next generation, this name-calling generation, they directly benefitted from all the public schools, hospital care, vaccinations, flouride. They have directly benefitted the very most from the educational and financial opportunties created in those following years. The vast majority of the country's wealth is concentrated in the hands of this particular demographic. And yet at the same time they are the ones calling these systems "Broke" and "Dysfunctional," and this really really funny one "job-destroying," and they want to tear them down, get rid of the public schools, banking regulations, the EPA, ad nauseum-- with little or no plans for anything to replace them.
It reminds me so much of these grand old houses we see out here on the prairie. Where one generation, my grandparents' generation built up the barn and the house, now their children have given up on the old homestead, allowing it to fall apart by not re-investing in its upkeep or simply by tearing it down. They grew up in it, lived in it, had the advantage of their own kids growing up there, and now because is it old and perhaps needs an upgrade or two to bring it into the modern era, now it has no more value to them. Sad.
Well now you know.
The Truth Hurts. So go put a bandage on it.
Yo Yo Angry White mom. This is Clare who used to know you in San Antonio - keep writing!
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