'Tea party' movement: Who are they and what do they want?

[Michael Tee]

<<And which of the rich is richer or more of a bastard than the government itself?>>

What a question!  They ARE the fucking "government," don't you get it yet?

<<Government is a landlord second to none in cruelty , and our government is not any more trustworthy with greater ritches or power than any other.>>

You make up the most ridiculous of generalities out of your head with no evidence to back any of it up and with two whole centuries of American history behind you to provide you with hundreds and even thousands of examples of the cruelty of capitalism, of business.  It's as if the history of labour exploitation, massacres of striking workers, child labour in the mines, share-cropping, the fight for the 8-hour day and the 5-day week, etc., etc. have just been wiped clean off the slate and into the memory hole and all we are left with are empty platitudes like yours which take no account of history or even common sense.    MY government can sometimes act like a bunch of ass-holes, cover up horrific crimes, etc., but by and large it takes care of me, my family and our fellow citizens.  It is NOT "second to none in cruelty," that is one of the most ridiculous and absurd statements I could ever imagine.  Based on . . . ?  Based on absolutely nothing except the decades of Cold War brain-washing bullshit that you and all Americans have been subjected to and now take as Gospel.


<<The best feature our government has is a collar and a leash that the people can shorten, as you have just been dismayed to observe, we did.>>

"The people," my ass!  Say the insurance industry and its captive corporate MSM and you'll be a whole lot more credible.

<<Your contempt for the wisdom of the common man fits you well in the group that Kruthamner was criticiseing in the article we were reading a cupple of days ago, I think that every victory of the common man will leave you gasping in indignation.>>

Amazing how the dupes of the Big Money all spout the same nonsense, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini BOTH claimed that their movement represented the masses.  What a joke - - the masses as served by the corporate state.  The masses totally shorn of any claim on the means of production!  The "victory" of the common man left the rich in full possession of all of the obscene profits that they can rip off from the healthy, the sick and the dying "common man" and left the "common man" fucked up the ass as usual, 47 million of them uninsured, 22,000 of them dying every year needlessly, due to lack of insurance and no remedy in sight. 

That is some "victory" for the common man - - or at least for any "common man" who happens to own an insurance company.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Is the "Tee Party"... Communist?

 

[BT]

Say the insurance industry and its captive corporate MSM and you'll be a whole lot more credible.

Show me the money trail that leads you to believe the insurance companies are behind the tea party movement.

[sirs]

Isn't it obvious?       

[sirs]

And which of the rich is richer or more of a bastard than the government itself?

 Government is a landlord second to none in cruelty , and our government is not any more trustworthy with greater ritches or power than any other.

The best feature our government has is a collar and a leash that the people can shorten, as you have just been dismayed to observe, we did.

Your contempt for the wisdom of the common man fits you well in the group that Kruthamner was criticiseing in the article we were reading a cupple of days ago, I think that every victory of the common man will leave you gasping in indignation.

[Michael Tee]

Other than BT's "show me the money trail" I am glad to see that there is not a single intelligent fact-based rebuttal of anything I said in my last post.

Evidence for the money trail has to be circumstantial, since the insurance industry doesn't go out of its way to publicize how it spends money to influence public opinion.  Cui bono,  the history of similar "spontaneous movements"  in Latin America, the history of the Florida rent-a-mob that stopped a recount in the 2000 Florida election and the recent revelation that numerous members of the "spontaneous" mob were actually GOP operatives from around the country,  the support of Fox for the movement and its gratuitous and frequent publicizing of Tea Party events in the early days of the "movement" - - there's a lot of circumstantial evidence in lieu of a "money trail" which only an idiot could expect to find lying out there in plain sight. 

I also should point out that my fingering "the insurance industry" as the source of ALL tea-party financing and support is short-hand for a congeries of interests opposed to any governmental expansion in the social safety net, and of course a Canadian-style health-care scheme, which scared the living shit out of all "free enterprise" proponents, would certainly have been a major incursion into that field by the U.S.  government.  Interests such as the Scaife family and other ultra-rich conservatives with an interest in blocking any kind of government social intervention, could be equally involved in the promotion and support of this "spontaneous" movement of "the people."

[BT]

Canadian style health care was never on the table.

Seems to me that congress is the recipient of insurance money and not the tea partiers.

That's what happens when you live or die by K street.

The tea folks just know the bill is crap and it is more costly less efficient crap.

[Michael Tee]

<<Canadian style health care was never on the table.>>

More's the pity.  And that reason that it wasn't is . . . ?

<<Seems to me that congress is the recipient of insurance money and not the tea partiers.>>

Seems to me that there's enough for everyone.

<<That's what happens when you live or die by K street.>>

Well, I know what K street is, but you'd still have to explain that remark to me.

<<The tea folks just know the bill is crap and it is more costly less efficient crap.>>

You're giving them too much credit.  They don't want a more efficient bill, they want government OUT of the health-care insurance business in all its aspects.  They're not just against Canadian-style, they're against any element of Canadian-style.  They're knee-jerk anti-socialism at its worst.

[BT]

Canadian style was never introduced because K street didn't write the bill that way, and since congress depends on lobbyist funds they went along with whatever crap was written.

The tea party folks and main street and often they are the same folks, might possibly go along with canadian style healthcare ie single payer if the funding sources were fair, universal and non punitive of any economic class. They have gone along reluctantly perhaps with other govt programs like social security and medicare as long as they are managed properly.

The problem is that govt doesn't have that track record of customer oriented service.

[Michael Tee]

<<They have gone along reluctantly perhaps with other govt programs like social security and medicare as long as they are managed properly.>>

Gone along reluctantly?  Every single one of my American aunts, uncles and cousins (with the exception of one far-right cousin and another one who's a gun-owning Libertarian) has no problem at all with either SS or medicare, and there's nothing at all "reluctant" in their support of them.  Except through this forum, I've never met an American citizen who had any qualms about either program.  My impression was that they are very popular.

[sirs]

Haven't met too many Americans, apparently

[BT]

Except through this forum, I've never met an American citizen who had any qualms about either program.  My impression was that they are very popular.

Your attention span is limited. The 2k election centered in large part about Social Security, options to privatize it or more importantly put aside the funds collected for future use instead of using those funds for fake budget surpluses.

Remember Gore's lockbox?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Everyone I know likes Social Security and Medicare.

Perhaps they have a different SS and a different Medicare on the Bizzarro World where sirs dwells.

[sirs]

Nope.  My country is the one in question.  Not yours and tee's alternative reality.  Many in fact are acutely concerned at both their impending financial collapses.  And IIRC correctly SS is now officially running red, where payroll taxes coming in can no longer equal their payout mandate

But it's just hunky dory fine, isn't Xo

[Christians4LessGvt]

Everyone I know likes Social Security and Medicare.

well well surprise surprise everyone likes the Tooth Fairy delivering "welfare checks"
to their mailbox every month from the Fairy God Mother gvt program that is going bankrupt.

wow XO....you mean people really like "money that grows on trees"?

I am shocked!