Summations Only

Hi, hooah.I believe mass protests make a difference--not because the government cares about what crowds of young people think or do, but because every protester has friends and, more important, families who already treasure their promise and idealism.When people see their children and grandchildren treated as criminals for protesting a rapacious oligarchy, the ground can begin to shift: we have always relied on the young to fight our wars and ignite our changes. Armchair cynics hand-wave away street action, but that's what it takes to light a fire under complacency and apathy.The Civil Rights Act didn't pass because people wrote letters to Congress; it passed because Americans saw the essence of the struggle in broadcasts of peaceful marches met by the likes of Bull Conner, dogs and nightsticks--and that drove home the injustice of the status quo. Change came after the movement led to dead freedom bus riders and blown-up little black girls. The civil rights movement won with courage and blood, not with written moral suasion.You can write a million letters to GOPers in Congress, and it won't change one vote. But mass protests can change a million votes.I wish George Carlin had lived to see the beginning of Occupy Wall Street. He'd have recognized those people.Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.

Why do you think the Occupy Wall Street folks are left wing protesters?Tea Party rallies and spokespeople have condemned the Wall St./bankers bail-out and escape from prosecution--so why is this a left-right issue for you?

The Civil War images are especially haunting.Somehow that fledgling photography achieved an immediacy we still struggle to match.

Very few people like the Tea Party these days.

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According to a recent New York Times/CBS survey, tea party members are less popular than atheists, Muslims, Republicans, Democrats, and 21 other groups. The movement has lost 20 percent of its supporters and gained 40 percent more opponents, according to the poll. Another NYT/CBS poll published earlier this month revealed that the tea party’s unfavorable rating had increased 29 percent since April.

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According to the Times, the tea party is catching up to the Christian Right’s low popularity. Times writers David E. Campbell and Robert D. Putnam present possible justifications for this, stating that the tea party’s mixing of politics and religion simply doesn’t appeal to the majority of Americans. Citing Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer rally and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s lengthy prayers at campaign stops, the story claims pro-tea party folks are becoming increasingly out of step with most Americans, even many Republicans.

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Poll: Tea party less popular than Muslims, atheists | The Daily CallerBefore you reject the poll results because they come from a "lib" newspaper, note that these results have been replicated by others.The Tea Party is essentially an instrument of the religious right, insisting they are "Taxed Enough Already" when taxes are lower than they've been in most of their lifetimes. They deride Obama as a tax and spend liberal when he has cut taxes; they stockpile ammo and buy guns by the crate because Obama will take their guns away, while he has explicitly rejected any thought of doing so.The Tea Party has pushed past unreasonableness, through irrationality and far into self-delusion.Most TPers reject evolution, supporting prayer, creationism and religious instruction in public schools. They want "government hands off my Medicare" while they support candidates who support gutting both Social Security and Medicare.I'm surprised to find someone capable of the rationality you show in this forum in their company.I'm curious: Did you think the Civil Right marches and anti-Vietnam war protests were far left-wing efforts?Edited by Omnivorous, : 2nd irrationality->self-delusion

Here I is!

I probably qualify as far left. Liberals make me impatient, and conservatives--real conservatives--passed away a long time ago.It's pretty lonely out here. The mainstream in the US today is lost in a near-fascist fog.Nearly every 20th century Republican president would be unacceptable to the right now, including Nixon, Ford and Reagan. I know Reagan is the patron saint of the GOP, but no one who would raise taxes a dozen times, dismiss evangelicals as kooks and refuse to wage abortion wars, and compromise with Democrats for the good of the country, could pass Republican muster, however misty-eyed they get about "The Gipper."I suppose to those who think unions are socialist thugs, teachers are parasites and Obama is a liberal, the left looks big.

All too well.

Well, I certainly don't anything to do with the handiwork of the GOP... ...like Abu Ghraib... ...or Oklahoma City.NB: Apply your objections to your own cherry-picked material.

The gig ain't what it used to be.Like in many other areas--Social Security, Medicare, pensions and likely immunity against charges for raping or killing minorities--the "Greatest Generation" made out like bandits, and the rest of us honkies are left with Fox News, NASCAR and DIY porn.Even the chances of becoming a DWM (Dead White Male) literary lion look bad these days.But the GOP still loves us almost as much as money.Edited by Omnivorous, : DMW->DWM

On the off chance you might gain some ground with sympathy votes, I've cheered all Onifre's posts for the past three months.P.S. I'm only one sheet to the wind, myself, but I'm jibing vigorously .

Alas, no. I am a middle child, and my father's imprint is strong: many insistences to the contrary, I am as legitimate as an illicit-minded man can be.I have lifted your rating from 7.7 to 8.2. It would have been easier if you didn't have so bloody many posts--or perhaps so many bloody-minded posts. I only needed to respond to one in which I found you slighting my favorite tryptamine. Tut.Still, it was fun, it suited me in its subversive abuse of a social ranking system, and I feel vaguely slutty.All in all, a good night.

Let's see: 25 cent gasoline was about 1960. Are you claiming there was no inflation prior to the 1960s?Wherever your money was invested, your return would have been eroded by inflation.I'd be interested to hear the numbers you use to derive "easy street" income from the equivalent of your life-time Social Security withholding.I've heard the claim many times, but a close look at the numbers usually shows that the assumptions are wildly unrealistic.One site, for example, posits an annual return of 10% and applies it to the maximum Social Security withholding in order to conclude that we'd all be better off without Social Security.Others use similar, wishful-thinking scenarios, such as assuming an employer would have given you the Social Security matching tax as a tax-free IRA, etc.None of the models I've examined have used a real world money market fund's track record to plug in average SS contributions and derive credible results. Nor do these anti-SS analyses consider the private cost of disability and survivor benefits.So what numbers are you using when you make this claim? If it's based on someone else's analysis, a link, name or web address would be good. Oh you wild and crazy guy! Edited by Omnivorous, : Sorry, AdminPD...written while you cautioned.

So, unlike the Tea Party, you supported TARP and other Wall St. bail-outs.I suppose you supported the rescue of the U.S. automotive industry for similar reasons.

Hopeless.

They sound pretty American to me: Like the richest few percentiles who have claimed an unprecedented proportion of the nation's wealth in the past few decades. Like our founders and the Civil Rights Movement. Like every American president and Congress. Ever. Like all Democrats, Repubicans and Independents. Like the original Tea Party in Boston harbor. Like everyone who smiled benignly at Tea Party talk of "2nd Amendment solutions" to a Democratic president: I clearly recall the WSJ's deep concern about that "dangerously out of touch" rhetoric.