Heard some positive comments on the tea party from Nader last night on the radio, went poking around his site for some context. His view seemed to be very much in favor of the concept, and very leery of many of the individuals and corporations who've jumped on the bandwagon to maintain or improve their position in the trough.
Here are ten questions for Tea Partiers that they want or do not want to answer. I say it this way because people who call themselves Tea Partiers do not have the same view of politics, government, Big Business or the Constitution. Their opinions range from pure Libertarian to actively furthering the privileges of plutocracy. Their income and occupational background vary as well, though most seem to be middle-income and up.
My guess is that most Tea Partiers come from the conservative wing of the Republican Party who are fed up with both the corporate Republicans like Bush and Cheney, as well as the Democrats like Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi.
When eighty percent of the Americans polled believe ‘America is in decline,’ they are reflecting in part the decline of real household income and the shattered bargaining power of American workers up against global companies.
The U.S. won World War II. Germany lost and was devastated. Yet note this remarkable headline in the October 27th Washington Post: “A Bargain for BMW means jobs for 1,000 in S. Carolina: Workers line up for $15 an hour—half of what German counterparts make.”
So you've got the tea party as represented by Palin\Fox\Beck on the corporate side and the class he called "Stealth Libertarians" on the other.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
"YOU" (meaning society or government or unions) aren't getting ANY more from me. No more time, no more money, no more effort.
GOD only demands 10%, the Democrats want the other 90%.
Look at your paystubs. 20% of your pay is gone off the top to federal income tax. Then you pay Social Security tax at 16% (you think you aren't paying your employer's share too? LOL), then you pay Medicare and then you pay FUTA, then you have State Income Tax and if you are dumb enough to live in some cities you have City or County Income Tax. Then you look at all the "other" deductions you have. How much of "your" portion of your health insurance contribution ends up covering the costs of government-mandated health care benefits as well as risk-sharing pools for the undocumented and the uninsured? Of course you have no say in this at all. I call them stealth taxes.
So at the bottem of your paycheck you have about 40% that is YOURS! Except when you stop at the gas station on the way home. Not only are you paying through the ass for direct gasoline taxes by your state and the feds, how about the hidden taxes in each gallon of gas? Remember the wind-fall taxes on the Oil giants? You don't think those taxes aren't figured in there and STILL being collected? How much is a GREEN tax because we are still being forced to import 98% of our oil and gas from countries that hate our guts?
Then you go buy some STUFF at Wal-Mart. 8% sales tax BINGO! But wait, how much of the cost of every item in the store was already inflated 3 times by taxes levied along the way? Freight taxes, taxes on diesel fuel and tires, road taxes, and the list goes on and on. Every greedy little politician in 3 states needs to get their cut.
So you finally get home to your sweet little castle only to find the yearly property tax bill (about 5% of the value of your property) is in the mail as well as your license plate renewal charges for your car. You just throw the receipts in the drawer so your tax accountant can figure it all out at the end of the year. Of course his $500 fee wouldn't be necessary if the tax codes were even remotely readable for the average human beings.
So you settle down in the easy chair to catch some entertainment only to be preached at by some Hollywood queer that you are a big fat white bigot and the world can do without you.
So I'm taking their advice. You all can do without me and my contribution.
OR
Let me put it another way. Recent statistics reveal that nearly 50 Million Americans are at or below the official poverty level. Now you'd think we could eradicate poverty considering the US Federal government rakes in $30,000.00 a YEAR in taxes for each and every one of those people in poverty. And you thought Enron and Bernie Madoff were big crooked enterprises. The Feds have the Universe by the gonads compared to chump change Enron category shell games.
So a combination of ruinous taxation along with a ruling class that despises their subjects is driving this country toward a day of reckoning that will be severe. Meanwhile most of you talk in your trite little phrases about the evil corporations when they are just the convenient scapegoats for the real wreckers. Folks like Pelosi and Reid who can make $trillions of wealth disappear with the stroke of a pen. The evil corporations actually have to work a bit for your approval and business unlike the demigods in Washington who thinks their shit don't stink.
If I don't like Wal-Mart I can choose to pay a bit more and buy it somewhere else. Where do I turn when government mandates that I meet a thousand different rules and regulations that demand my money or my life?
These same group of jackasses would be the same group that howl if you consider reducing defense spending or didn't go to war in Afghanistan I assume?
May 2003 - "Mission Accomplished"
June 2005 - "The mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight"
-- G W Bush, freelance writer for The Daily Show.
Met - The society you envision would need to be a hunter-gatherer one, anything much past that requires public infrastructure of some sort. Not to say our existing structure is perfect, it's still far better than what most of the world has.
Who's going to pay for the wars that you seem to be in favor of? That's a big chunk of the budget right there.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
"YOU" (meaning society or government or unions) aren't getting ANY more from me. No more time, no more money, no more effort.
GOD only demands 10%, the Democrats want the other 90%.
Look at your paystubs. 20% of your pay is gone off the top to federal income tax. Then you pay Social Security tax at 16% (you think you aren't paying your employer's share too? LOL), then you pay Medicare and then you pay FUTA, then you have State Income Tax and if you are dumb enough to live in some cities you have City or County Income Tax. Then you look at all the "other" deductions you have. How much of "your" portion of your health insurance contribution ends up covering the costs of government-mandated health care benefits as well as risk-sharing pools for the undocumented and the uninsured? Of course you have no say in this at all. I call them stealth taxes.
So at the bottem of your paycheck you have about 40% that is YOURS! Except when you stop at the gas station on the way home. Not only are you paying through the ass for direct gasoline taxes by your state and the feds, how about the hidden taxes in each gallon of gas? Remember the wind-fall taxes on the Oil giants? You don't think those taxes aren't figured in there and STILL being collected? How much is a GREEN tax because we are still being forced to import 98% of our oil and gas from countries that hate our guts?
Then you go buy some STUFF at Wal-Mart. 8% sales tax BINGO! But wait, how much of the cost of every item in the store was already inflated 3 times by taxes levied along the way? Freight taxes, taxes on diesel fuel and tires, road taxes, and the list goes on and on. Every greedy little politician in 3 states needs to get their cut.
So you finally get home to your sweet little castle only to find the yearly property tax bill (about 5% of the value of your property) is in the mail as well as your license plate renewal charges for your car. You just throw the receipts in the drawer so your tax accountant can figure it all out at the end of the year. Of course his $500 fee wouldn't be necessary if the tax codes were even remotely readable for the average human beings.
So you settle down in the easy chair to catch some entertainment only to be preached at by some Hollywood queer that you are a big fat white bigot and the world can do without you.
So I'm taking their advice. You all can do without me and my contribution.
OR
Let me put it another way. Recent statistics reveal that nearly 50 Million Americans are at or below the official poverty level. Now you'd think we could eradicate poverty considering the US Federal government rakes in $30,000.00 a YEAR in taxes for each and every one of those people in poverty. And you thought Enron and Bernie Madoff were big crooked enterprises. The Feds have the Universe by the gonads compared to chump change Enron category shell games.
So a combination of ruinous taxation along with a ruling class that despises their subjects is driving this country toward a day of reckoning that will be severe. Meanwhile most of you talk in your trite little phrases about the evil corporations when they are just the convenient scapegoats for the real wreckers. Folks like Pelosi and Reid who can make $trillions of wealth disappear with the stroke of a pen. The evil corporations actually have to work a bit for your approval and business unlike the demigods in Washington who thinks their shit don't stink.
If I don't like Wal-Mart I can choose to pay a bit more and buy it somewhere else. Where do I turn when government mandates that I meet a thousand different rules and regulations that demand my money or my life?
I may be stupid but it's blindingly obvious to me that we are all getting short-changed. But hey, you brilliant thinkers can just pay my way as well as your own. I'm done with producing.
Metanis wrote:I may be stupid but it's blindingly obvious to me that we are all getting short-changed.
No disagreement from me, however I don't think change is going to come from the same clowns wearing different makeup.
Much like I said prior to Obamas' election, the revolution won't be. This is a far different crowd than the Reaganistas or the folks that came in in '94.
"Life is what happens while you're making plans for later."
Mockery from such as you is disconcerting. It's like being lectured by Al Gore on conservation while his limo idles in the parking lot for hours.
So you're saying it's hypocritical for me to mock you? I don't really see it what's hypocritical about it. Or were you just trying to prove my beliefs on how stupid you are by providing a nonsensical analogy?
QED
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."- Barack Obama
