Is the era of small government over?
By louisehartmann
Today – Reagan worshippers across America are freaking out after President Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, because he laid out a vision for America that puts an end to the Reagan Revolution and imagines a nation in which “we the people,” through small-"d" democratic government, take better control of our economy and better care of each other. While Reagan stressed the importance of individualism in his inaugural, President Obama talked about cooperation and collective action. As he said on Tuesday, “preserving individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.” It’s the difference between Reagan's “me” society and the traditional American “we” society the Founders envisioned. Reacting to the speech, Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer called the President’s words, “historically very important” and said that, “Obama basically is declaring the end of Reaganism in America.”
President Obama also defended social insurance programs like Medicare and Social Security – directly calling out people like Paul Ryan by saying that these programs don’t make us a nation of “takers.” And the President called for us to do something about climate change. But now that the speech is over, it’s time for action. With looming deficit reduction talks, entitlement reform, approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, and economic troubles on the horizon in Europe – the time for talking is over.
Over the next four years, President Obama must find his inner revolutionary and change the trajectory of America by putting an end to Reaganomics and once again – to quote the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – bend the arc of human history toward justice.
Comments
#2
"that's rather odd" indeed. That's why I repeated it. That's why I almost fell out of my chair when I heard it. I'll repeat it again:
THEY ONLY INVESTIGATE OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES AND THEIR EMPLOYEES.
That's what I was told. I too still find it hard to believe. If it didn't come out of the mouth of an old, trusted friend I wouldn't have accepted it.
Your hard earned TAX money at work. Do you feel safe? I don't!
#3
DAnneMarc: There have been instances of bank employees, bank officers, who have stolen the accounts of people who have died or who were so old and sickly and about to die that they embezzled from those accounts. I read recently of a situation in California..where this happened and something like $800,000 had slowly been embezzled from this old guy who eventually died..leaving nothing to the guy's family. He was caught but the money had been, over the years, squandered on things. I recently had a death in the family, a Vietnam vet, who didn't have much in the bank but it was quite an ordeal trying to deal with it.
I believe Leighmf is so into financial forensics (I guess that's what one would call it) because I believe she believes she was cheated out of a very sizable estate..I don't understand the whole thing and all of her data is just a blur to me.
Anyway, I'm glad you got things sorted out.
#4
DAnneMarc: Nope, I certainly don't feel safer with Homeland Security...I feel threatened because I know they are helping to drain our country of it's economic well being. And they are more out to justify their existence by going after non-terrorists. I believe that they actually set people up to do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do. Not just DHS but FBI and CIA and any other of these organizations...even politicians...federal, state, and local...they're all a bunch of cheesy opportunists that wouldn't think twice about sacrificing someone for their political gains. "Heck of a job, Brownie!"
#5
Yes, indeed Palindromedary. You might be right... Especially if my neighbor was a Postal Worker.
I believe in the Golden Rule! Love thy Neighbor. I'm not that interested in the official business of the DHS enough to try to test you're theory. I'm quite certain from my brief experience with the DHS that they are run by incompetent boobs. The same I'm told is true of almost all other federal agencies. I wouldn't waste too much time worrying about them "taking over the country." They seem to have their hands full enough looking busy for their supervisors. They are probably the least productive members of our society and the least talented; which, is why they need a Nanny agency like the DHS to baby sit them.
The only reason we are reasonably safe is because the Terrorist simply aren't that motivated to slaughter a bunch of useless, ignorant US citizens.
#6
What they do is redefine the word 'terrorist' to include many other definitions that doesn't fit the original meaning 'someone who tries to injure or murder an indiscriminate number of other people or do damage to property because of a political differences'. The selling point was to protect us against Arab radical Muslim terrorists who hijack planes and/or set off bombs to kill as many people as they can. It morphed into going after people having nothing to do with murdering people. It morphed into a kind of institutional 'Matowa' ..that is an Arabic term for those pious Muslim moral enforcers that go around the streets in Muslim towns swatting the bare legs of women who wear their skirts too short or forcefully cut off the woman's hair if it is too long and exposed. I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for a few years...but I refused to get on the yellow school buses that would take people to the town square where they chopped off heads and hands..or stoned adulterers...mostly women.
#7
Study of the French-Indian war (7 year war) has great impact on the American empire and lead-up to the American and then the French Revolutions. Which led to the creation of our constitution and a standing army.
#8
Wow Palindromedary,
What an experience that must have been. At the risk of sounding like a sexist ethnocentric, I can see punishing women for having long skirts, but short ones has me scratching my head. If I had my way, I'd pass a law saying that the shorter your skirt was the bigger your tax refund would be. But that's just the male chauvinist pig in me talking.
Women wearing pants would be a felony, and bras and panties would be permanently banned.
I got more good ideas where that came from.
BTW You don't want to see where those ideas came from. LOL
#9
DAnneMarc: I've got the same problem. Fighting that little male sexist pig on my right shoulder is always harder than taking the advice of the more 'liberated' one on my left. If 'God' didn't want us males to be (fill in the blanks) ....he would have created us without a (fill in the blank)...but I guess he/she/it thought that propagation of the species was more important than political correctness and sensitivities. Because if men got pregnant they'd be less aggressive and reticent?..perhaps more respectful? Oh, that's right...I'm atheist. But, old age takes a lot of that out of many of us (not atheism...sexism and desire). It's just not that important anymore...less driven by the old Devil urges that may have entrapped us when we're young. We're more concerned with dying! My how time flies. If you don't hear from me again...Good morning. Good afternoon. And good night! That was a good movie...The Truman Show with Jim Carey. He got to the edge of the world and discovered the truth.
#10
Yeah Palindromedary, "he/she/it" is an interesting description of something that doesn't exist. I hope "he/she/it" doesn't mind.
Interesting movie reference, The Truman Show. Jim found The Truth at the edge of the world. Well, I always knew it was lying around here somewhere. I guess it pays to keep looking for what you need.
Myself, I'm to lazy to look for stuff. If my wife doesn't know where it is, it's lost. When I get up to go buy another one, she always finds it. True story!
By the way, she's about to get home from work. Time to look busy! Gotta go. I'll see you tonight on the next blog.
#11
There are many good posts, but I rate yours the best.
The thing I like about it the most is that it has a lot of "nuts and bolts" details. Please keep contributing to Thom's blog.
#12
I agree fully chuckle8 I hope to hear much more from WilliamHenryMee. Thanks for the excellent post!
#13
Thanks Palindromedary. Unfortunately, I don't have enough information to warrant a suspicion. Someone opened a new account in my fathers name a week after he died. The person worked for the bank and had an Arab sounding name. The bank refused to provide me with any more information saying that it was an "...Internal matter that had been resolved."
Of course, that wasn't good enough for me which is why I wanted to alert the Department Of Homeland Security. The idea that a terrorist organization could be using my fathers name infuriated me. I wanted answers. I was shocked and dismayed that the agency I was told was created to address such concerns wasn't the least bit interested. My friend not only assured me they couldn't help me; but after I insisted she brought the matter to the attention to her supervisor, he concurred with her. How is my local Police Department going to address such an issue. I had no choice but to let the matter go--not unlike the way President Bush let the Bin Laden family fly out of the country unimpeded after 9/11.
I appreciate the suggestion of seeking out Leighmf's council; but, quite frankly, without the Authority to compel the bank to open up its records, this whole matter is dead in the water. Besides, I now have control over my father's affairs and will keep a close eye on them myself. Thanks anyway!
#14
Who or what is Leighmf?
#15
Our president is dealing with obstructionists. They didn't stop his re-election. Now, you will see a new Barack, not as subdued with more focus on his agenda for change. The filibuster reform is essential for this to happen. I wrote my senator Boxer after watching Bernie Sanders do a most wonderful filibuster speech last year. I asked her why don't we make it law again to actually require speech to filibuster? I am glad that this might actually happen?
We cannot remain idle as watchers. We must act. Everyone of us must stand and do their part for change. I have decided to run for city council in Santa Cruz. We must defeat a planned desalination plant here. Desal's are the most energy inefficient water treatment system designed and contributes more to global warming than any other. I am a staunch environmentalist and support the tertiary solution. If you are interested in local California politics read bushforsccouncil.99k.org
#16
Thom Hartmann is always encouraging us to "get involved"..and it looks like Craig Bush is doing just that...I think it would be good for us all to see Craig Bush on the Thom Hartmann show to tell about how he is fighting almost insurmountable odds to change the future of Santa Cruz for the better. The only thing I know about desalination plants is the massive structures I saw when I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. I can understand the need for something like that in the wasteland that is Saudi Arabia that hardly ever gets any rain...but in Santa Cruz?
And, as Craig pointed out at his web site...the one desal plant they had in Santa Barbara ended up costing their citizens a whole lot of money just to have it fall apart, contaminate, and now they are trying to get rid of it.
The more than 8000 signatures he managed to get from Santa Cruz citizens shows that he is really serious about this. And I hope he does get voted onto the Santa Cruz city council. Good luck, Craig! And Thom Hartmann...please have Craig on your show!
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DAnneMarc: I keep thinking about what you said that DHS said..."they only investigate other federal agencies and their employees" ...that's rather odd, it seems...perhaps that's their response because you were questioning the activities of a bank? Had you reported that some neighbor was doing something fishy...they probably would have sent in police death squads for downloading porn....a real terrorist activity, that!
Remember the Walmart 'snitch and spy' programs starting back in 2010 that encouraged Walmart shoppers to spy on and snitch on other shoppers for anything suspicious? It's one thing to snitch on one's fellow citizens but another to snitch on a bank's dealings with potential terrorists.