Sunday, October 13, 2013

The Wayback Machine

Anybody remember "the Wayback Machine"? In the good old days there was a cartoon show called Rocky and Bullwinkle. It was on TV from 1959 to 1964 and ever after thanks to reruns. Today, in 2013, I've been reading some interesting things about Republicans and their crushing on "The Founding Fathers", comparing the government shut down to the American Revolution. Sigh.
Not all of our genius founding fathers were slave  owners, but most of them were. It took another century to rid this country of that evil, because they didn't have the guts to really create a more perfect union. I would really like it if we did have a revolution in this country and become more civilized when it comes to healthcare. Instead, unlike Senators and Congresscritters, millions of Americans are told they can live free and die because they don't have access to healthcare.
"I will remind you that this group of renegades that decided that they wanted to break from the crown in 1776 did great damage to the economy of the colonies. They created the greatest nation and the best form of government, but they did damage to the economy in the short run.” Morgan Griffith (R-Va) Yeah, ok.
Because the best form of government means you can own a human being and women have no rights. So let's imagine ourselves as a band of renegades who keep women from having access to birth control. It's 2013 and every civilized country has a single payer healthcare system and I'm supposed to believe that America is the greatest country. It's Patriotism and apple pie for all, however, no healthcare.
Maybe we should go back and learn about the East India Company.  That's right, it was a corporation. Surprise, surprise, it had a lobby in the English Parliament. It was a monopoly. Interesting fact, Britain had a huge trade deficit with China (sound familiar?).....so the company decided to create a monopoly in the opium trade. They shipped the opium by way of India to China. The East India Company had a devastating influence on India that lasts to this day.
The East India Company had a monopoly on tea in the American colonies, it also had a huge surplus of tea it needed to unload. We didn't want the to be taxed on tea in our country by way of the East India Company, so we rebelled because of the whole "taxation without representation"  Tea Act.
We were taxed without having any true representative in Parliament and now the only representatives we have in American government are a subsidiary of corporations by way of lobbies. Today's Tea Party is funded by corporations.
Morgan Griffith got it wrong. It's more like the Civil War than the American Revolution and he's a closet Confederate. While he should be rebelling because corporate concerns are more important that the average American's concerns, the reason being is that corporate money is what is being represented in the United States. He doesn't care about that, but he should. If shutting down the government does cause another economic recession-depression I don't think our pals in China who own a buttload of our debt are going to be real happy.
 People's food stamp debit cards aren't working in the grocery stores, because of "glitches". We have seen what happens when the elite tell people they can go ahead and eat cake.
 There's going to be a revolution all right if things get worse, but it's not going to be the kind Mr. Griffith (R-Va) imagines.
Back in the "good old days" they had this too.


8 comments:

  1. To paraphrase another cartoon celebrity, Marvin Martian, "I think Tea Party Republicans are the most interesting insects on earth. There is a tendency to think of Tea Party Republicans as rational, thinking beings which is absurd. There is simply no evidence of any intelligence within that group."

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  2. Welcome Mr. Ornery, thanks for supplying Marvin's alien point of view.

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  3. Gerrymandering has created seats in the house that will never be voted out. Gerrymandering needs to be thrown out, if that's possible. Also the Presidential vote needs to be a popular vote, not the antique electoral collage system we have which means 5, maybe 10 states are all that matter, they don't even campaign or care what the rest of the states vote.

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    1. The Democratic Party can't let the gerrymandering stop them from an "all districts" strategy. The Red States were disproportionately hurt by the shutdown (they take a disproportionate amount of federal money), surely someone in Arizona or Texas who was hurt by the shutdown will be willing to vote for a non-Tea Partier.

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  4. I agree with the gerrymandering being thrown out and your idea about the electoral college, it is anachronistic. The thing is, that President Obama did have the popular vote, but these crazy closet confederates don't care.

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  5. Love your illustration! I've always thought that the broad plaza formed by the Intersecting T of Wall and Broad Streets would be a great place for that sort of thing.

    Crankily yours,
    The New York Crank

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    1. Yes, that's the neighborhood where the casino that took down the economy still thrives, unlike the rest of us.....

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