Wall Street Bailout - The party of Richard Nixon and 'poisoned wells'

[grantcart]

A Response to the Idiotic "There is enough blame for Everyone Nonsense".

So in order to try and give the appearence that the Republicans have just escaped from creating another wallstreet collapse the anchors are repeating ad naseum 'there is enough blame for everyone'.

What makes this nonsense more difficult to digest than normal is that for the first time in American History we have one party serving a completed 8 year tenure with the same president followed by an 8 year tenure of a president from another party. This gives us the opportunity to have the clearest apples to apples comparison of party effectiveness in the country's history.

This well is poison - just kidding

While Republicans like to idolize Ronald Reagan and imagine that they are extending the party of a president who atleast tried to expand the party the reality is that the party continues to carry out the fundamental strategy of Richard Nixon. That strategy is to poison as many wells as possible with hate and suspicion, trying to demonize the government in some fashion, and then show up the poisoned well and say 'just kidding'.

So Richard Nixon spent 2 decades fanning the flames of the 'communist scare' and then goes to China for a reapproachment. He helped rid the State Department in the 50's of such brilliant minds as John Stewart Service making the department incapable of handling the tensions of Indo China and opening the door for the hawks to escalate a needless war. Then he sits down with Mao Tse Tung, on of the world's greatest mass murders, after having labelled anyone sitting down with Mao Tse Tung a traitor and a friend to mass murderers.

Five Decades of poisoning the well of effective government

For five decades the Republicans have run against the idea that government can be a solution to a problem, that Government is the root of all problems. This continues to get lip service as a government agency takes mankind to the moon in the single largest planned technological leap in humankind's history. It continues while the CDC rids the United States of all communicable diseases that were common childhood experiences.

Any government misstep becomes a class action indictment against every action that government undertakes. The fact that the post office has a hard time reading somebody's illegible handwriting and takes 2 extra days to deliver a letter becomes proof positive that government cannot find a way to eliminate poverty.

Bush/McCain and poisoning the positive roll of the government

The cheap charge of 'government is the enemy' and be 'afraid of a government that want's to control your life' is GWB and John McCain poisoning the wells exactly in the same fashion of Richard Nixon, its just what happens when you don't have communists to kick around anymore.

When you have no respect for government you don't respect the product of the intelligence community you cherry pick it to get the opinion that your ideology requires, the same dynamic that reduced the intelligence/diplomatic community from handling a low grade civil war in Vietnam was the same tactics that undermined the ability of the intelligence/diplomatic community from handling a low grade threat in Iraq. And innocent American and foreigners pay for this poisoning of the well.

When you have no respect for government you don't respect agencies or the appointments that give them the leadership they need so you gut an agency like FEMA by appointing a frat boy to head it.

When you want to create an issue that will create fear and resonate with people to a degree that they will vote against their financial interests you are left with 'government is the enemy, I will make it smaller' of Bush/McCain/Palin

Bush campaiging for President in 2000

I believe in limited government. By having a limited government and a focused government, we can send some of the money back to the people who pay the bills. I want to have tax relief for all people who pay the bills in America, because I think you can spend your money more wisely than the federal government can. Thank you for listening. I'm asking for your vote, and God bless

McCain campaigning for President in 2006

Common sense conservatives believe that the government that governs least governs best

Palin campaigning for Vice President in 2008

Government is too big … (Obama) wants to grow it

McCain: less regulation not more, "I am fundamentally a deregulator."

Until recently, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain consistently described himself as an opponent of most government regulation. In 1995 McCain proposed an across-the-board moratorium on all federal regulations, but that failed in Congress. In March 2008 he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, "I'm always for less regulation.

"As far as a need for additional regulations are concerned, I think that depends on the legislative agenda and what the Congress does to some degree, but I am fundamentally a deregulator.


So just like Nixon poisoned the well against a rational foreign policy with communist super powers McCain has tried to poison the well against sound regulation, and now that people are dying from poisoned water he is trying to disown his past.

So,sorry no, there is not "enough blame for everyone" one party and one candidate has been poisoning the 'regulation' well for decades making it harder for common sense people to find the right regulations to keep our financial institutions safe while they grow into mega structures that could threaten all of us.

It is never been about 'bigger' or 'smaller' government. If Republicans really want smaller government then why don't the run against the services that they want to eliminate? Why don't they run against the CDC, NASA or the Department of Agriculture?

It is about 'sensible' and 'intelligent' government. As a nation grows and becomes more sophisticated some intelligent increases in function and scope of government is necessary for the commonwealth.

Nationalize our Bad Debt - Nationalize this.

I am pro business and pro market. I started a corporation that grew to 450 employees. But what it told me that while the market is powerful it isn't useful in all situations. After a certain point of maturation any industry will concentrate future profits not on market growth or product diversification (these become saturated) but cost reduction. In the health industry the only way that they can increase or sustain profit in a market situation is by reducing costs, reducing benefit- denying coverage.

Working with European doctors in the UN I learned a long time ago that Europe has already understood that the market cannot dictate service in a health delivery system. Some countries grew their government to absorb that services and some did not (Germany uses a flat percentage contribution of all its citizens but the services are actually all done by a few regulated non profits with no government involvement).

So if you want to nationalize all of this bad debt and save the capitalists, you now want to drink from the well of bigger government, yes the well of 'socialization' then I say this is the price you should have to pay:

Nationalize the worthless debt of the companies that profited from their bad acts and have paid huge dividends and corporate bonuses --- the price should be to nationalize all of the off shore petroleum, mineral/oil rights on government land, and the oil under Anwar

We should follow Norway's example and put all of that into a national trust and use it to pay down our national debt so that we stop sending future generations the bill for letting the Republicans, the party of Richard Nixon, do what they have been doing for 50 years - poisoning the well of smart government.

[grantcart]

1. ..

[Willo]

2. I printed this to read on the way home

Will return to comment.


hiya Grantcart! :hi:

[Willo]

3. This was a good read.

"When was the last time we did something right?" That is a question I ask quite often when I look around me. Seemingly, simple things like local school bus rerouting leaving children without access and streets flooding from minor rainfalls to major contstruction, renovation and repair projects that are over budget and behind schedule.

I am completed jaded and automatically suspicious when the media or local offical provides a cost guesstimate for damages and repairs. Instead, what I see are eyes aglow with dollar signs of the hand-rubbing greedy, preparing to line their pockets while announcing "Come get a piece. Come one, come all." Well...all except what is required for the actual need.

I blame the government and I blame the stunning level of greed of all individuals involved who -- rather than be satisfied with siphoning off a little at a time (for a long period of time), leaving most for the needs at hand -- impatiently aim to suck the well dry on the first visit. This gluttonous thievery pervades every part of goverment and every kind of business.

Yet, a sensible and intelligent government would put a stop to the easy availability to plunder at will. Those at the top will find greener pastures and the rest will be forced into honesty.

Correct me if I'm wrong but at some point wouldn't all private company profits reach a ceiling? There's a limit to how shoddy a product can be made and how high a salary can be paid. Ultimately cutting personnel and wages is inevitable, right? Unless the cost of living and the cost of doing business are both reduced and stabilized, how would a company survive?

[grantcart]

6. In a mature industry there is little that can be done to enhance price

think of detergent - every thing is 'improved' and then it becomes a question of cost cutting.

However business can become very very inventive at useful cost reduction once a market price point was established.

In 1988 I founded a furniture company that won the largest contracts and became the largest supplier of leather furniture to IKEA.

We agreed to accept a run of 10,000 suites of leather furniture based on a cost that showed no profit.

We were able to reduce costs by about 10% through elaborate engineering, material substitution, overhead reduction.

But eventually you hit a wall and then quality suffers that is where we are at with the health industry, but the whole market mechanisim is misdirected. The market mechanism should be aimed at improving the quality of human experience not cost. In otherwords it would be great to have the market allocate resources if that meant that it was improving the health of the people enrolled. Now the market is geared to pre select the most profitable population and then restrict the number of procedures so that cost can be contained. Market power is great, it just isn't always aimed at improving the quality of human life.

[phrigndumass]

4. Some will cry socialism, but isn't this what Alaska does with oil money?

If it's good enough for Alaska, why wouldn't it be good enough for the nation as a whole?

:thumbsup: for making me think about this ...

[Major Hogwash]

5. This is good stuff. While McCain was bogged down in the Keating 5 scandal, the S&L crisis was just

beginning.

Johnny Mac has never done a fucking thing to solve the problems in Washington.

Even if Johnny Mac wants to pronounce it as "Warshington" these days.
He's had 26 years in Congress - in the way - blocking progress, that's McCain's real legacy.

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way, we're coming through!" - that will be Obama's real legacy.