Didn’t take long for Rush Limbaugh to offer his own, twisted, fantasy-driven view of President Barack Obama’s speech to the Muslim world.
The mouth that roared immediately claimed Obama is trying to destroy America by reaching out to Muslims. Limbaugh told his brain-dead followers that if al Qaeda wants to destroy America it had better hurry before Obama beats them to it.
Looks like Rush is popping Oxycontin again.
Obama wasn’t even a Senator when the Republican Party that Limbaugh so reveres set out to destroy America.
It wasn’t Obama who devised the rights-robbing USA Patriot Act. That act, created by Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft and passed by a Republican-controlled Congress, turned America into a police state almost overnight.
It wasn’t Obama who turned the United States into a war criminal nation that ignored the Geneva Convention and made torture standard operating procedure for treatment of "enemy combatants." That was former President George W. Bush and his primary hit-man — Vice President Dick Cheney.
It wasn’t Obama who created the Gestapo-like Department of Homeland Security. That was George W. Bush.
Yes, America faces destruction from within. The seeds of that destruction were sown by George W. Bush, the Republican Party and conservative sycophants like Rush Limbaugh.
All are enemies of the state and should be treated as such.
65 thoughts on “Just who is really destroying America?”
The Democrats used to act in the best interests of labor, but now, they are also in the pockets of the corporations. Any debate between the two parties or about the two parties is pointless. Unless a third party comes to power, Democracy is dead. Politicians are puppets, and corporate money is pulling the strings.
I agree…
“It wasn’t Obama who turned the United States into a war criminal nation that ignored the Geneva Convention and made torture standard operating procedure for treatment of “enemy combatants.” That was former President George W. Bush and his primary hit-man — Vice President Dick Cheney.”
The only way we’ll stop them is is to
Prosecute Them Every Time They Violate Federal Laws.
HELP Push our basically Good President
To Enforce Our Federal Anti-Torture Laws.
SIGN THE PETITION To Prosecute the Bush-Cheney Torturers
in the Republican Extremist Party
https://ANGRYVOTERS.ORG
Over 250,000 have signed, Join them and call yourself a Patriot
“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare” James Madison
.
I think you’re right about America’s primary problem is within. We are so divided that we can’t agree on going straight or which way is straight. We’ll never fix this economy this way.
Pink Laptops
Great posts, Strat. I’d go one further, though. Every conflict and every political system has been designed to allow one class of people to control the laboring class. Money is the oldest control method; by taking the fruits of labor away from those who perform it, the money manipulators get a free ride on the backs of workers. I just wish working-class Repuglicans would finally figure out what’s been obvious to any Democratic toddler since the days of Moses.
Yes, once again, Doug, I thank you for this forum. The people who post here, whether I agree with them or not, CARE about what happens to their country. I do very much appreciate all of you.
Gazelle, I might have taken the same stance had I not seen Obama’s duplicity with my own eyes. When Claire McCaskill told that group of Missourians in Sedalia, MO that neither she NOR President Obama believe or support Single-payer health care, I knew we were being bald-faced lied to. Because publicly, and through the Organizing for America website, Obama was asking for help to get JUST THAT passed through Congress for the American People.
How do I know that? I was part of a conference call FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA and his team while he was on Air Force One just a couple of weeks ago. I was in on that conference call from the President. The very same week Claire McCaskill was saying he was AGAINST it!
And now, what is he doing? Giving in to the Republicans and taking the public option AND Single-payer options off the table in order to negotiate “bi-partisanship” of his health care bill, but handing them Taxed Ins benefits and FORCED buying of insurance or face IRS sanctions to the people. Tell me he’s for the people now! BULLCRAP. He’s giving the Big Ins conglomerates a bailout from the people, once again. Same as he did for the banks.
I agree, but it would take volumes to cover everthing that is wrong, not just a few paragraphs. I learned a lot from this discussion. It took me in directions I wouldn’t have gone on my own. We should all thank Doug for allowing us to play in his sandbox.
Thanks Doug.
Well said, however you neglected to mention the cowards and collaborators in the Democratic Party who enabled the Bush Regime. The enemy within is still within.
Money controls everything including our political process. Who controls the money? This problem has been haunting our political process since the Jackson Administration. These are facts. That this is something that needs to be put up for debate is my opinion.
The U.S. Treasury and the peoples money needs to be put back into the hands of the people where it belongs. It does not exist for the pleasure of a priviledged few. Until there is debate of this issue, all political discussion is a charade to distract from the problem. If you want facts open your firkin eyes. That is my opinion and I’m stickin to it.
What? You want facts? You can’t handle the facts. Just believe what the doomsayers and naysayers say and everything will be all bad.
The real question, AR, is whether anyone is destroying the US. Personally, I thought the “corporate decision” to turn away from the Republican nominee in 2008 and embrace someone with a more positive attitude and dare I say it a real vision for where he wants to take America in the next decade was just that, a positive step. We are categorically rejecting and denying and denouncing the past and looking forward.
But all the doomsayers and naysayers are coming out from wherever they were during the worst eight years our country has ever endured and they are kicking President Obama and his agenda and his goals and his assembled team before they have had a real chance to make things better.
Loot at Rush to Judgment Limbaugh. “They said the unemployment rate would top out at 8 percent now it’s up to 9.4. The new administration is just a bunch of losers.”
My counter: look at the job loss trend. It topped out at 700K for the month of January and has been going down pretty much ever since. Of course it has nothing to do with the optimism we were feeling in this country. No, not at all.
Listen to them: Failure! Failure! Failure! Failure to live up to the pundits’ predictions of doom and disaster. How DARE Obama do this? It isn’t fair!!!!! They might discover that they don’t need us dragging the country down psychologically.
People who live as pessimists die dyspeptic and far too young. We are going to get through this, though it may take a while. The rumors of the death of the US are greatly exaggerated.
STRAT…
If there is no consensus about what or who is destroying America then a “Genuine Problem” can’t be defined in order to go through to initiate the “Solution Process”.
You just voiced an “opinion” about the banks being the evil doers…okay, cool. But is it a dead-dog fact? If so…where’s the proof? Where’s the outlined pathology if you will? Is that the only problem or are there others? Are we seeing a sort of syndrome effect where there’s multiple problems appearing to be one?
I am really not trying to be an ass, really, I’m not. But there is one outstanding fact. Every TV and Radio so-called pundits are dropping every wild opinion humanly possible about who or what is destroying America…and we have mega-millions of people listening to these jerks and believe it to be fact.
So…what are the facts and what are the opinions about whether or not America is being destroyed? If so, how?
If we can’t come together as a people (or a government) to work on defining common problems and solutions…and that my friend certainly will destroy America. That’s what I see happening. That’s my opinion.
The Banks are destroying America. Their first attempt to take over the treasury during the Jackson Administration failed but they succeeded in later years. The Bush family made its fortune through banking and carried the destruction to new levels. The question now is what is the Obama Administration going to do about it. Giving the banks more of our money sure as hell isn’t the solution.
Whoa! This topic has wandered all over the place. But sticking to the header of “Who is Destroying our Country”. It is the banks, the federal reserve, and the co-mingling of public (government) and private funds. Control the wealth and you control the nation. Tne banks are controling the government; the government is not controling the banks. The problems all started during the Jackson Administration. That is when the government divided into Republicans and Democrats, and that is when the battle began to put government funds into private institutions. Instead of the banks serving the the people, the people became wage slaves to the banks.
All of those in this forum that can tell the difference between fact and opinion…please raise your hand.
If you know someone who you genuinely believe that they know the difference between fact and opinion…please raise your hand.
If you believe that at least 50% of American voters know the difference between fact and opinion…please raise your hand.
How many tv and talk radio spin jocks and jockettes know how many people in the U.S. don’t know the difference between fact and opinion? Hmmmmm, bet most do. Knowing these demographics help keep their jobs in tact.
NOW FOR THE BIG QUESTION!
How many politicians know how many American voters don’t know the difference between fact and opinion?Please post your fact or opinon as to the number of such politicans who know.
My count for the number of politicians is: ALL OF THEM! That’s why they hold a high position in the U.S. Government and most people don’t.
These folks know every swinging person in his or her respective district that can be exploited or swindled.
KY Jelly Company should be making mega-billions.
I heard a sound bite on the radio today. It was Rush screaming about how President Obama came into office with virtually no experience at running anything before becoming president.
Of course Rush could have only come to that conclusion from his experience calling baseball games for the Kansas City Royals.
Yeah…ole Rush Stalinbaugh has America completely figured out. He intuitively knows what each American citzens needs are. Go Rush go!
By the way…Rush has a personal wealth estimated to be about 200 million dollars…thanks to all of those great listeners who don’t know the difference between fact and opinion.
The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him.
Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. “The bank,” Jackson told Martin Van Buren, “is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” Jackson, in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege.
from: https://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/andrewjackson/
This appears to be when things went to hell.
The point I was trying to make is that this country has been screwed up for a very long time. Crockett wrote an autobiograpy in which he makes several refferences to corruption. In 1835, on page 247, he makes refference to Jackson moving the funds of the treasury so he could use them to influence elections. This country did not get screwed up yesterday; the corruption has been here almost from its conception.
The Davy Crockett speech on the state of the nation always makes good reading. Does any of this sound familiar?
https://pages.towson.edu/duncan/crockett.html
I wish these discussions didn’t break down into a left v right thing all the time. As if only one bunch of people had the good ideas – depending on which side you’re on of course.
Doug has referred to this before but not enough in my opinion: it’s the whole system that’s bad. Money, lobbying, rampant corporatism and cronyism all create an environment where it’s only people who can play the game that get to power – and that virtually ensures that people who really do have good ideas on how to run the country never get in.
The US system is full of corruption and ways to ensure that big business’s interests are registered above ordinary people’s. Until that is changed it doesn’t matter whether you have Democrats or Republican in charge, YOUR interests are not being represented. If they were, America wouldn’t be involved in a war without end, debt without end and draconian state powers that seem to go on increasing, also seemingly without end.
Extrapolate the lines, imagine what country you’re going to have in fifty years. I don’t think it will be pretty – and it will be the fault of ALL politicians.
As for Limbaugh: it msytifies me why people give him the oxygen of publicity at all.
Ha. You only catch flak when you’re over the target.
Argumentum ad nauseum.
In my further searches, I found a Jeffersonian Party that hopes to restore Jeffersonian Ideals. No contact information, just a website.
https://www.jeffersonianparty.com/
Jefferson had it right. Things just went to hell from there.
From Wikipedia:
However, Jeffersonian ideals are not opposed to all manufacturing. The belief was that unlimited expansion of commerce and industry would lead to the growth of a class of wage laborers that relied on others for income and sustenance, as happened during the Industrial Revolution and Gilded Age. Such a situation, they feared, would leave the American people vulnerable to political subjugation and economic manipulation.
I can’t do anything but nod my head in agreement with the last three or four posts starting with Elmo.
Great article, Doug.
Gazelle, Griff, you kids play nice now, you hear? 🙂
Jeff H in TX
Good reading, yes, but good history, almost undoubtedly not. The Register of Debates and other contemporary documents do not include transcripts of floor speeches in the House of Representatives from that era. There are apparently no contemporaneous documents to prove such a speech was made and it was not until fifty years later that a dime novelist published this particular piece of prose. In the absence of transcripts it’s pretty much of a stretch to believe that this specific speech was authentic. At least in my opinion.
Continuing to harp on what Limbaugh and his ilk think about things is only amplifying their importance.
Rush’s audience, while still substantial, is ever shrinking because most of the ignorant people who mindlessly follow him are now dying in ever-increasing numbers.
The rest of us have long since recognized such big-mouthed bigots for what they are and are simply getting on with our lives.
Continually providing Limbaugh with “air time” in forums like these only postpones the day when such bigots (along with their sponsored radio programs) go the way of the dinosaur.
To ignore him is to cut into his audience share. Eventually, his sponsors will pull the plug on both him AND his program.
And the “mouth that roared” will “roar” no more.
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