Real Time New Rules: The Tea Party Isn't a Movement, It's a Cult
Real Time is back and Bill Maher takes on the Tea Baggers in this edition of New Rules.
Maher: And three, cult members always attribute all of their problems to one simple explanation. Now here's an amazing statistic. In a recent poll almost ninety percent of Tea Baggers said that they thought taxes had either gone up or stayed the same under Obama. Only two percent thought they went down. But the reality is taxes have gone down for ninety five percent of working families taxes went down.
Think about that. Only two percent of the people in a "movement" about taxes named after a tax revolt have the slightest idea what's going on...with taxes.
So, it would be easy to just mock, except that those who fall under the control of cults aren't necessarily weirdoes, they're victims. And we shouldn't forget that these people are our relatives, our neighbors and the folks at the next table in the restaurant. Especially if that restaurant is Hooters and it's dollar wing Wednesday.
However you feel about his politics, he is not funny at all.
that you don't have a sense of humor.
Too bad. Hope you find one.
Laughing is fun.
...for family gatherings.
I'm sorry that you'll apparently laugh at anything if it's framed in the context of 'I hate Republicans!.....Republicans are so stupid!....I hate Republicans!'
you are funnier?
Bring it on. Let's have a Laugh-in. Tom vs. Bill.
Loser pays Bill's rent!
I have to admit although I'm a fan of Bill Maher, I didn't care for his Religulous. It's one thing sharply questioning a preacher dripping with bling, or another rich preacher who claims to be the messiah, in a holy blood, holy grail sort of way.
But it's quite another to challenge hardworking truckers. There was even this foolish woman in a Creationists Museum, who although I kind of liked what Maher did to her, if she was just a simple tourist (and I do emphasize the word simple), one has to consider the venue. He actually got into a pretty interesting discussion with an actor playing Jesus, I think at the same park, and although the actor's responses were numerous and well programed,they were not as convincing as he thought they were.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Religulous!"
Dude relax. Pryor, Bruce, Carlin, etc. all went to the edge with their routines and pissed off someone.
Remember that rightarded television show that rightards tried to create? Called it something rightarded like "hour half news hour" or something -- something iditiocally Republican,.
How's that working out for rightards?
Right. The left are filled with intellectuals who harbor wit and humor -- not to mention superior morals -- over their less fortunate Republican neighbors.
If you wish to convey the notion that you're among the intellectually superior crowd, you might want to refrain from using words like "rightard".
What a sad waste of time defending the sensitivity's of those who despise you.
Amen, brother.
I still wouldn't waste my energy on whining about liberal humor!
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
RePUKE!!!!
I don't always agree with him, but I do find him funny.
Kingdom Tower
I don't think he's that funny, either. I agree with about 75% of what he says, but that doesn't mean he's funny. He's just thinking what I think majority of the time.
I'm not really down with Maher being such a wimp when he helps fearmonger about non existent terrorism but he's always spot on and hilarious when it comes to religion and right wing lunacy.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
anti-vaccine idiot, but other than that I agree with him most of the time.
Hell, I don't even agree with myself 100% of the time.
is a corporate sponsored astro-turf movement. People who join honestly believe what they are clamoring for; the main problem is, when you follow the movement to its 'logical' conclusion, the republican party ends up being elected again in the three branches of government, and the democratic party never gets to be elected ever again because it's evil and communist. Then time can be reversed back to the glory of the Bush years with low-taxes(for some), war on the world(american exceptionalism- see Cheney's chilling Cpac speech) and White Christianity(tm) back in command. These were the days.
Ignore them, pass massive "emergency" spending bills and punt the problem to the next, (hopefully Democratic), president so the Republicans in congress can use it as a tool to get back into power. Republican politicians are hypocrites but masters of misdirection and deceit.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
...to the 1950's? Who was it said that here recently? I thought that was pretty accurate.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Seems like most of them would like an even earlier version, in which women can't vote and land barons own them and their families for generations, all in the name of "freedom". It's astonishing that so many can be college educated, yet can't spell "moron", use punctuation or know the difference between freedom and exploitation. There must have been a whole lot of lying going on in that poll that suggested the majority of them went to college.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
That was a CPAC document that to me means conservatives want to go back to a plantation way of life! Because despite efforts to whitewash what it was, Mt. Vernon was a SLAVE PLANTATION.
That said, I think Maher neatly summarizes the fallacies of the Teabagger "movement." I appreciate his succinct and yes, humorous evaluation. I think I can remember most of his points without having to write them on the palm of my hand.
To refuse the cons permission to exploit Mt Vernon for their nefarious purposes
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq_9wu-KjTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA3KewuSWfM&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atr4yRv27IQ&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
coincidentally.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
...an even bigger, "corporate sponsored astroturf movement"
(look at the progressive party) ...and how it was hijacked by the establishment.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
interest be in seeing progressive measures integrated to society? Why does the establishment fight so hard to privatize everything not nailed down in 'progressive' countries, while trying to 'socialize' the US? It doesn't make sense to me, if you can explain it please. Unless you mean 'infiltrate and derail' the progressive movement, where I could see some logic.
The "progressive measures" usually result in bigger government. Why wouldn't the establishment want that?
you're talking about having to hire more bureaucrats/white collar workers to take care of files and numbers, right? People which are your neighbors, pay taxes, consume in your store, hire you to build/fix things etc. It's not like a government is a shapeless shadowy entity that never benefits any society.
The 'establishment', on the other hand, would like to see the social bureaucracy privatized so they would get the contracts. They would then 'manage' the workforce, but it would still end up being paid with your tax dollars. They only wouldn't get the benefits from a government job, and the private interest would end up taking the profits; hence their cries for 'reduced government'.
...being outsourced to private enterprise? That's a sign of "reduced government" but increased profit for investors. Dick Cheney is a major investor in at least one private prison corporation; he was sued down in South Texas last year; unfortunately, unsuccessfully.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
This is what happens nowadays whenever government shrinks. Whatever task was previously handled by government bureaucrats, which are answerable to the taxpayers and various regulations, is then contracted(for an usually inflated price) to private interests. Your tax money still pays for the whole thing, but these private entities have their own sets of rules and social benefits(usually less than a govt employee would get, and the upper management uses the extra cash left over to give itself bonuses).
That they need to think of the economy as a living body, and that money is the life blood that keeps it alive. some areas may require more blood than others, but a consolidation of blood in any one area can kill the body.So jobs that benefit the rest of the body in the best way are the ones that keep the blood flowing inside the body. I mean, you could outsource all your bodily funtions to machines, but you give up all your autonomy and you risk choking off some otherwise healthy part of the organism. Unfortunately, Republican Capitalism is more like Cancer, that eats everything it can infest until the entire organism is dead. That's why you need government control, not big business control.
And Blackwater turned out so well as an out sourcing experiment.
See the thing is the banks actually invest in prisons, as sick as it sounds. They make money from putting people in jail these days. And they can do it because the government as a whole is incredibly corrupt.
you end up getting what you vote for. Some people consistently vote against their own interest by supporting right-wing policies every election- as they get poorer and poorer, they turn to the local preacher/charlatan who encourages them to vote for 'values', instead of looking at what they really need(IE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE, RURAL AMERICA!)
became the good friend of organised religion. The local churches used to be dedicated to charity and community organizing, but the Right uses religion as a perfect smokescreen, to cover their own sins while getting the gullible flock worked up by focusing on condemnation and retribution against anyone who is not on "their" side. If the churches were really concerned with the welfare of their flock, they'd be backing universal health care.
Who is saying government never benefits society?
Even the founders of this country knew that government benefits society. They didn't give us any government though... they gave us a Republican form of government. And not in the perverse party sense, but in the "final authority resting with the people" sense.
But what does "final authority resting with the people" mean in practicality? If you feel poorly represented, you have to organize an optional independent candidate(third, fourth party)and win. He won't be able to have much of an impact alone, but at some point, others will follow your example, and might be able to change the political landscape and finally have real debates, instead of the bipartisan accords that make it so easy for a corporate entity to steer everything its way.
I've been planting trees around my lawn for the last 2 years(and replacing the grass with clover and other various wild flowers). They're pretty small now, and I'm not sure I'll ever get to sit down under them and enjoy their shade. But someone will, someday, maybe in a hundred years, and appreciate them. Because something doesn't happen instantly doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.
The "final authority resting with the people" can be summed up as having an accountable government.
In a government that is accountable to its people, actions have consequences. If government officials are incompetent, they should be removed from office. If government officials are corrupt they should also be removed from office and then prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
If we look at it from a fear perspective, government should be afraid of the people and not visa versa.
The government we have today is not afraid of the people. It acts with impunity.
In just this decade it has sanctioned, financed (via taxpayers), and conducted the illegal invasion and occupation of 2 other nations. It has invaded the privacy of all its citizens, conducted torture and held people indefinitely without trial. It has given billions (trillions?) of taxpayer money to financial institutions that likely knew they were doing bad things.
Yeah, fixing this isn't likely to happen overnight. But surely you can see how people would be concerned with any "solution" that involves giving more power/authority to our federal government.
This can all be traced back to the seventies, when the people, with help from the Fourth Estate, managed to end an unjust undeclared war and drive a corrupt President out of office. Unfortunately, we didn't clean the entire house, because the vermin that survived learned their lesson well, and so with the aid of their Saint Ronnie (Fascism with a smiley face)they set out to corrupt or destroy anything that used to help or inform the people.
the draft is what united liberals and got them energized enough to go out and do something about it.
Now we just type, emphatically.
I hate to be a cynic, but I am afraid the corporations are just too deeply entrenched in our government. Sure, we could get together and vote the bums out, but voters are so deeply divided right now, I just do not see that happening.
My advice would be to find a country with a government you can live with and ex-pat the hell out of here. That is not easy either, I know, but easier than changing this pile of poo.
some of the things you are listing are basically crimes; I'm not familiar with US laws but I'm wondering if it's up to the president to prosecute governmental malfeasance, or if united citizens can sue (in the case of banking bailouts) or ask for an investigation/criminal proceedings(for the war crimes and war profiteering).
w/out their permission. Unfortunately
That was true, and I'm not sure now, but after the supremes told paula jones to go ahead and sue Clenis, they may've opened a door to it.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Supreme Court just may see this as a way to permanently bankrupt the US and therefore do away with all entitlements.
I'm pretty sure that was Bush's plan.
Am I the only one that gets the names Bill Maher, Bill Moyers, and Jay Mohr mixed up?
Well anyway, last night on Jay Mohr they had a great discussion about Citizens United v FEC, with the author of the Nine. He argued that most political races are too high profile to make getting away with essentially bribery possible, but that local judge elections are practically under the radar, so justice can be bought with impunity.
However he didn't state the obvious. If political ads (not judicial), are ran right up to election day, how many voters will use them as the extent of their voting research?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
from the Supreme Court, much like determining the 2000 election. I believe Cindy Sheean tried to sue George Bush for the wrongful death of her son, but got nowhere.
US code, about war crimes. I'm inclined to believe that there is a massive case to be made against at least Rumsfeld and Cheney(especially the latter, since he insists on clamoring about his central role in a conspiracy to inflict mental pain or suffering). I'm just not sure which court is supposed to take up the case, and how the process is supposed to be started.
of bringing these thugs to justice is if another country does it. Hey, you are in another country aren't you?
I don't see how we can do it w/out the Prez, his adm., Congress or the Supreme Court on board and they are not.
Cheney could actually, if the current canadian law was really applied, be arrested if he was to visit Canada. But the fact that the current prime minister is not being deposed under 'command responsibility' for the violations in Afghanistan makes me think that international law was meaningful BEFORE the great war against muslims and other miscellaneous cultures who happen to live over oil deposits.
Did you not see how easily we ignored the Geneva Convention?
Listen to this, start @1:20 if you are not a fan.
The infrastructure that we have built is becoming / has become a liability to freedom. The future is going to be very unpleasant if we don't start fixing this mess.
The government we have today is a tool of the corporations, which act with impunity. The recent Supreme Court ruling will only increase this fact. People can vote with their dollars, but they don't because they believe the boob toob. George Carlin said it best: "If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders...everybody's at the mall, scratching his ass, picking his nose and taking his credit card out of his fanny pack to purchase a pair of sneakers with lights in them."
But the blissful ignorance people have allowed themselves the luxury of experiencing is (or soon will be) evaporating.
Unemployed people have a lot of time to think about things...
If only "progressives" could explain to the Teabaggers that their beloved corporations - the supposed motors that run the country - are NOT American, but global, and their government that barely is to regulate these multi-national monsters is there to help and pretty much is the only constitutional "structure" that defines the nation and makes America American, we could progress to some place slightly better. If only we could explain to them that the government isn't there to create jobs for them, kill jobs or invent jobs for them but barely to warrant that they won't be f**ked over by the multi-nationals that don't give a flying f**k if they live or starve or whether they are US or German citizens (GM) and a little bit of regulating them is needed, just like the public option is needed, we, as a nation, could move forward and slightly progress somewhere. It's not our fault that Congress is for sale and some Democrats and Republicans proved over the last years to be overly fraudelent creating a perception in the Teabaggers' minds that these frauds ARE the government. Actually, "progressives" have done nothing much except for averting a total disaster by slowing conservatives and left-wing corporatists in their drive to deregulate everything, outsource everything and ultimately let the chips fall where they may. The fight over the public option indicates that it is the corporate side, not the government side that has the power and is winning, so there's nothing socialist and progressive about America fellow Teabaggers, you have been winning across the board. As progressives, we don't fight you, we just don't want you to be hijacked by the dark side, lose your freedoms and start new wars that invisibly kill this country. Since you fully entrust your lives and futures in corporations such as Monsanto or whoever else of thousands of global AIGs with assembly lines employs you, feel free to call us "backwards." Just don't even dare to blame us for destroying this once great, unique nation called America.
the Public Option does not go far enough. The Dems are fools unless the public option is cheap, covers all medical procedures and available to any who chooses it without mandates except for very large tax increases on US wealth. Now, how many lines does that really take to legislate?
Why didn't he just have Mr. T come on as an expert and say, "I pity the foools!".
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I saw "Religulous" but never watch Maher.
Meh
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
And many of these same people will not pay any attention to Elizabeth Warren even though she is fighting for their best interests. Her shortcoming? She is a smart woman who can articulate clearly about complicated issues.
The person who defines Reality wins.
Lets assume that taxes have actually gone down...
Spending has gone up. Way up.
Since we assume that taxes have gone done, the only place we could have got the money to pay for the increased spending is from BORROWING or PRINTING.
BORROWED money must be paid back WITH INTEREST.
PRINTED money STEALS purchasing power from dollars that are already out there which screws over people on fixed incomes (poor and elderly).
Fuck the doomed.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Thanks Bill for trying to make us sympathize with the morons in the Tea Bag movement and yes I have some family members who support that nonsense. But I am done with giving people a pass for not knowing shit. If you are dumb enough to listen to the MSM and believe everything they say then you are responsible for your own ignorance.
I'm fed up with this stupid fucking country always giving a free ride to the least among us just because they are the ones making the noise. The rest of us have lives to lead and don't really have time to worry about every nut-bag. But becuase the MSM is willing to take these idiots seriously and act like they are an organized group of knowledgable citizens it seems like we have to constently defend what is right for our country against people spewing nonsense based on lies they heard on the TeeVee. Fuck these people.
Well said. I have nothing but sympathy for the mentally disabled and nothing but contempt for the willfully ignorant.
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
Can you tell I'm a little erked?
Unlike the 'baggers, we have reason to be irked and it has nothing to do with fevered taxation frenzies. At least your anger is of the INFORMED variety
Barack Obama: Change we can only imagine
No! Please don't! Fucking them (and creating little cretins with them) IS part of the problem. These people should be denied sex until they prove that they are worthy of receiving it. By getting a second-grade education.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Being denied sex is what turned them into republicans in the first place. it's an endless cycle.
Also when I was saying fuck these people I was thinking more of ignoring them. I certainly don't want to get close enough to these people to make physical contact of any kind.
I don't know, I bet some of their women are screamers.
Except ann colter. She'd probably be barking orders at you like a Prussian general.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
..that any man wants to see coulter's adam's apple bobbing around from that close of a proximity.
RE: Fuck these people.
Sat, 02/20/2010 - 07:40 — fastfeat
No! Please don't! Fucking them (and creating little cretins with them) IS part of the problem. These people should be denied sex until they prove that they are worthy of receiving it. By getting a second-grade education.
___________________________________________________
To them Jethro Bodine is an elitist with his sixth grade edjication:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5aNn4Sfmas&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The teabaggers remind me Ross Perot voters, that's why they are important. Good stuff from Bill this time.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
Gotta admit that the Iraqi shoe-thrower line was great.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
What he did was duck the foomed.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
The people within them get USED by those who need something from them. Palin, Bachman, and the others are using this group for their mass at rallies. Also for their lack of desire to get the facts straight. That's great. You can push any stupid idea forward with this group. It's not about the idea, it's about the unity within the group.
By the way it's not ignorance, it's just plain laziness and stupidity. Anybody can pick up a newspaper or a magazine on a subject. Anybody can find an educated conversation on the internet or TV. These people choose not to because they gain something by remaining blind to reality. They gain from each other while they are together and they feel important when Palin or Bachman (very important people in their eyes) stand in front of them and tell them exactly what they want to hear.
The real joke is, and this would be a good experiment, if somebody started a movement call 'trying to take oldest child away' or 'killing grandma with healthcare' oh that one has been done...you get the idea.
Jeanne
The Jim Jones Kool-Aid event, for example, was orchestrated at least in part by a deeply-black CIA experiment in mind control. Who was that Congressman who was killed on the runway, trying to leave that country with the evidence to prove it?
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
and he was down there at the request of relatives of some of the people who left with Jones & the Peoples Temple, because of what they were hearing. Jones had Ryan, and the Temple members (traitors in his head) who were leaving with him murdered out of paranoid fears. As one of Rep Ryan's constituents, I never heard the "black ops" crap, just listened to the final ravings of an abusive, power-hungry "preacher" No "CIA is behind this" just I have to "do this, children"
You really should listen to his "Final Sermon".
"Freedom means guns.
Diplomacy means weakness.
Elitist means reader.
And socialist means black."
-----------------
OK, maybe an oversimplification.
On second thought, NO, NO IT'S NOT!
That is these people in a nutshell. God, we are fucked.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Ignorance is only a lack of knowledge and can be dealt with.
Stupidity on the other hand is a willful denial of knowledge and as they say you can't cure stupid.
...it's an interesting question, isn't it?
When the country has become so bitterly divided -- when both the media and the government seem to rely ever more heavily on "spin" instead of reporting the facts -- there are moments when you're inclined to think that perhaps our whole political process has become little better than a war between two competing cults which are both doing their best to brainwash us for their own purposes.
Never trust anyone who insists that patriotism requires you to blindfold yourself with the flag.
Not all movements are political or musical either.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I don't agree that "these people" are our friends and family, the Tea Baggers are the Klu Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, Save Our State, "Minutemen," National Vanguard, Christian Identity, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, the core of the white supremacists that have plagued this country forever.
Tea Baggers aren't normal, average, every-day citizens. They are mentally disturbed Christians with racist ideologies of hate and bigotry that form the extreme Republicanism of today.
be distant relatives on my Dad's side *maybe*, and it would have to be relatives whose more immediate family is not as racially, ethnically, culturally, or religiously mixed as my more immediate extended family is. My family has too much pluralism and fratenization with the "other" to have any real teabaggers in it.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
The Tea Party movement> I am Black and I am member. I do not think the KKK would allow a black person into their group> For all of the people here that are saying that the TEA PARTY movement is a cult, do a little research you will actually find out that a lot of our views are yours too.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are unconstitutional
The US empire is to big and unmanageable
The Preventative war strategy, is completely stupid. American is starting war and conflict without cause. We are the bullies and we wonder why the whole world hates us.
Our nation was built by immigrants, so why are we trying to kick them out. The immigrants that already call our country home should be allowed to become citizens or leave. And our borders should be defended both in the north and in the south.
Cutting spending and taxes. Yes Obama cut taxes but he cut taxes for those Americans that don't pay taxes. A way to increase taxable income is to help educate Americans; an education increases the amount of money a person makes. The welfare and health care systems are overused, and misused. The health care programs that the government already run should be put in the hands of the states, and the programs should also establish a Health Savings account.
THE GOVERNMENT
Passing bills into law without reading them
The Constitution is being ignored
The states are losing their sovereignty
Our elected officials are not listening
I don't think any of these things are impossible to fix and I don't think any of these things sound crazy. I also know in my heart that we are not the only ones worried about how the president in running our country. At the end of the day we are his boss.
It's mildly unfortunate that Bill enumerates the Scientology crime syndicate in among legitimate, more traditional cults. Scientology is at core organized crime, a criminal enterprise, a racketeering corporation equal to the Gambino Mafia and other, more traditional crime families.
By listing Scientology in with cults, Bill grants a bit of unwarranted legitimacy to the crime syndicate's efforts to pretend they're some how religious. That's as nutty as Eliot Abelson (Gambino crime boss lawyer specializing in pornography and Scientology crimes) proclaiming himself a "Reverend."
Or as nutty as Sarah Palin every time she opens her fucking rightarded kook yap.
or better than these nutcakes waiting to be raptured away. Both require more faith than common sense.
Spitzer is bright and politically astute, Seth McFarland was hilarious and smart, and Norah..... well she has a nice laugh and was laughing a lot.
Bill's alright. Gets on his "high horse" about eating healthy foods, which is important of course, but a personal choice that doesn't need to be preached from someone who makes a personal choice to fill his lungs w/pot smoke, not that I'm judging, I'm just saying.
Although I do admire someone who can both smoke and stay away from junk food. That is almost like being a compasionate conservative in terms of difficulty.
Maher is proud of saying that he doesn't smoke; he vapes. He has a Volcano Vaporizer (probably more than one, since he can afford it), the luxury car of vaporizers. There's no smoke involved.
So wäre es einfach nur lustig, es sei denn, dass diejenigen, die unter der Kontrolle von Sekten fallen nicht unbedingt weirdoes, sie sind Opfer. Und wir sollten nicht vergessen, dass diese Leute unsere Verwandten, Nachbarn und die Leute am Nebentisch im Restaurant sind. Vor allem, wenn das Restaurant Hooters und Dollar-Flügel Mittwoch.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/taliban-in-policy-shift-on-beards-and-burqas-1660013-büyütme-bayan azdırıcı -sex shop-.html
barely speak one language, Ja?
good said.
Thank God for the Tea Partiers, or we would have the Pubic Option!
* edit: post fail *
Now that Al Franken is in, maybe we should push Bill to replace fake Democrat Feinstein in the Senate.
..except that Maher isn't a Democrat either.
The cult of the stupid .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
I don't understand this idea that you have to agree with someone 100% of the time in order to find them funny or enjoy watching their material.
Typical fringe progressive attitude. 100% or nothing. No offense to the moderates out there.
It ain't a political question but personal preference.
I suspect many of them are Jon Stewart fans, and think Maher's copying him.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
To whom it may concern: It appears that Mr. Meyers does not realize that printing money causes inflation, and that inflation is a tax. The current administration, in one year, has printed more 'money' than all of the former administrations combined. It usually takes 18 months to two years for the effects of inflationary printing to be felt in higher prices. Stand by for reduced buying power of one's earnings and savings--a very big tax.
Torsten
They're just two sides of the same coin. Teabaggers believe all intelligent people are elitist, while Democrats believe only members of the elite are intelligent. As someone who supports the concept of democracy, I am forced to empathize at least somewhat with the teabaggers - even though their ideas are totally repulsive - because at least they do represent populism to some extent. The Democratic Party has become anti-populist in the extreme, which is just absurd for a party that labels itself *Democratic.*
Sortition vs Elitism
Early existence of pre-western democracy occurred around 500BC in Athens Greece. Sortition, also known as allotment, is an equal-chance method of government official selection. An elaborate “Las Vegas” style system of lottery was used to choose government office holders randomly from the general population. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the primary method for appointing government officials, a system considered a principal characteristic of democracy. This method delivered “government of the many”, democracy, as opposed to “government of the few”, oligarchy.
Sortition assignment of federal officials, if randomly administered, assures mathematically equal representation of all political fault lines in government. That is, it assures equal gender, ethnic, economic, religious, and political representation in governing bodies.
Sortition helps us understand “grass roots” and possibly Sarah Palin and the tea party movement. These are citizens with a point of view, not necessarily understood or deemed worthy of serious political consideration, and not likely represented in the current political or media elite.
When pondering the “fringe”, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Palin, or on the left, think sortition elect. Ask, where’s their heart? Think “Las Vegas”.
Sortition guarantees every government representative is “grass roots”. How much “grass roots” do we really want? How much do we truly believe in human equality? How much do we truly believe in democracy? Is America a democracy or an oligarchy? What would happen if the senate were chosen by sortition?
Our heritage is the right to “alter or abolish” government. How far are we willing to go? Citizen is coach to team democracy. It’s your call coach.
The Tea Party movement> I am Black and I am member. I do not think the KKK would allow a black person into their group> For all of the people here that are saying that the TEA PARTY movement is a cult, do a little research you will actually find out that a lot of our views are yours too.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are unconstitutional
The US empire is to big and unmanageable
The Preventative war strategy, is completely stupid. American is starting war and conflict without cause. We are the bullies and we wonder why the whole world hates us.
Our nation was built by immigrants, so why are we trying to kick them out. The immigrants that already call our country home should be allowed to become citizens or leave. And our borders should be defended both in the north and in the south.
Cutting spending and taxes. Yes Obama cut taxes but he cut taxes for those Americans that don't pay taxes. A way to increase taxable income is to help educate Americans; an education increases the amount of money a person makes. The welfare and health care systems are overused, and misused. The health care programs that the government already run should be put in the hands of the states, and the programs should also establish a Health Savings account.
THE GOVERNMENT
Passing bills into law without reading them
The Constitution is being ignored
The states are losing their sovereignty
Our elected officials are not listening
I don't think any of these things are impossible to fix and I don't think any of these things sound crazy. I also know in my heart that we are not the only ones worried about how the president in running our country. At the end of the day we are his boss.
I don't think he's that funny, either. I agree with about 75% of what he says, but that doesn't mean he's funny. He's just thinking what I think majority of the time.
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