There is no welfare anymore. You might want to ask people how much they make, and, no, that is not where the 'money' is going. We have two wars on. We send billions overseas. We give serious tax breaks to the wealthies and large international corporations. Jobs have been outsourced so people who would be paying taxes are, instead, needing help to survive. We spend millions to sports teams and stadiums. The poor, sick, and elderly are not the ones to hit.

Dude! Your back! great to see you!

Excellent! now all we need is about 170 million more like us and this fucking plutocracy is over!

Remember, remember the 5th of November!

I agree. I've been all over the country, and rarely use interstates. People are really friendly and helpful. Even when I traveled alone, I've had no problem. No one asked if I was left or right before helping or serving or whatever. I, too, don't shop at box stores, try my best to buy US, and use a credit union. I don't eat at chains either. I don't have much money, but I willingly pay a bit more for things that are made in US, and when I do shop a chain (Target..) I put in a customer comment that I want more US made options. One thing I have noticed is that you drive down one street in one town and it looks like any street in any other town. A strip with McD, Walmart, and on and on. Fortunately, there is still main street. As for the food, oh ya. Not so good on the coffee usually. Doesn't it feel good to opt out of certain ways of doing things?

Wow, thanks for the comment. America is alive and well but struggling. I hope many people follow your lead.

That's the spirit! hats off to you sir!

The #1 way we can make Medicare and MediCaid/Cal more efficient is to allow our government to negotiate for lower drug prices with big pHarma.

You will notice, however, that this is not an option for either the Democrats or the Republicans.

Well, of course. To Republicans it is an entitlement. The Rich are entitled to our money because they know how to make it work oh so much better than the 97% of the rest of us since Gawd blessed them with this innate sense of how money works.

Just look at George III, (the last George III was insane as well) he made vast sums of money and never did anything except destroy several Oil Companies.

To a Republican, giving someone who is thirsty glass of water is socialism, it's an entitlement that needs to be done away with.

But we are Christians too! Don't forget that we support the myth that this country was founded on religious freedom, i.e. the Bible. (edit: sarcasm btw)

Voted up

Sorry I don't see the "funny" in this.

What is supposed to be funny about it, is the hilarious manner in which he successfully points out when people are being hypocritical bastards.

Ok I looked at it that way through that view and I see what yoy mean. I guess the shock factor of his words was all I heard at first.

Hope you work it out katy.

Second ArchDruid's comments--get as far away from Internet Explorer as you can. His recommendations are great; Firefox is easy to learn; get it here http://mozilla.org

When that happens try refreshing the screen.

I Katyids.... I'm pretty new too and and initially had the same trouble. After a week or so it seemed to work itself out with out me doing anything. I still will occasionally have the problem with "reply" and the red and green arrows but it will be only on one article site, but all other are open. I still have some problem with "running script"...a message I had never had before on any other site. It seems to make things run slow. I'm still not sure about it but Funky made a suggestion to use google chrome. Another person has also taken my information and is going to the site administrators. I need to look at my messages to get the correct spelling of her user name...can't remember it at this instant.. I will give your name if you want and she can contact you to see if it's something she can take to the administrators. I wonder if the problems have increased due to the large influx of newbies in the past few weeks?

I haven't had any problems since I started coming on through Firefox.

Dear Archdruid. Thanks for the suggestions. It does seem to be working better today after shutting down. And -- I got an email this morning from current. They got your message and wanted to know if I was still having the problem. Nice, eh? I can rate and reply. Yippie.

Hi, mr, Hee, Hee. I can reply. Thank you.

YAY! Welcome Back!

Hi kerriberri, I didn't know there was a problem with IE. I will try my google and firefox. Thank you.

Hi Mark, I'll try that, too. Thank you.

Thank you for your message, Maggielee. I'm kinda liking this site. Aside from good news, Keith Olberman has now introduced me to a very friendly site.

To all, I appreciate your friendliness about helping me figure things out. Good day to you all, you're sweethearts.

You are the 2nd person to say that Warren_Merrill. I am definetly going to change over to firefox. We have it on other computers in the house, so I just need it on my personal lap top. Thank you so much for responding with advice. That's one reason I want to make sure I have full access to this site...because of people like you! I am finding a whole lot of really nice people on Current.

I'm nice even if you find you won't agree with me often.

Ahhh, it's ok to disagree... I will disagree passionately with someone..so far not you I don't think...but then I want to give them a HUG! : )

3:14 of reality from George. RIP my friend.

Indeed. He delivers a reality check like few can. RIP.

Thank you, you are very kind.

Here are a just a few suggestions, I will have much more to say in my forthcoming book, but in short, Americans on mass must unplug from the corporate controlled economy. The specifics on how each individual can do this are of course dependent on each individual's life situation and circumstances, some will be able to do just about everything-to completely unplug- others perhaps only can unplug a little bit to start but the cumulative effect Will eventually and inevitably (say 3 to 5 years) end this plutocratic nightmare, and the people can begin to enjoy life again.

The only way this will work permanently however, is that the methods and practices which got rid of it must not be allowed to stop. If you have a cockroach infestation, you don't clean them all out, then go back to leaving food around or living dirty and expect them not to show up again, it requires a permanent change in mentality, in buying behavior, a change so radical, that a teenager for instance would rather be caught dead than wearing jeans that were sourced from a shopping mall and made in Mexico by someone her own age who slaves 12 hours or more a day, and is routinely raped at the end of her shift. A personal example, I am not wealthy, I never have been wealthy, like the majority of you good folks reading this, I'm in the same boat, and until just two years ago, I was living paycheck to paycheck. But I have never, not once, bought anything, ANYTHING from Wal-Mart, and I never will.

Historically and from a rational point of view, there are only two effective possibilities to accomplish the goal of ending plutocracy, they are:

1) A violent revolution were all the fat cats are rounded up, ALL their Wealth is confiscated (that which they stole “legally” though "business") and is redistributed to the needy populous, this however (as history has also demonstrated) is only a temporary solution, because without a change from the old paradigm, in time, eventually the same thing will happen again, that's because the old fundamentalist (capitalist) paradigm inherently guarantees that never ending cycle.

2) An economic revolution that effectively radicalizes consumers, shifting their buying habits in ways that corporations can do little if anything about, those changes would be: not buying anything NEW if at all possible, (yes that includes a car) weaning yourself off of all things big-box sorsed, supporting small independent businesses, like getting your burgers or pizza from some independent owner (also let them know at all times, that your doing that for them, so they in turn will do it for others) rather than a corporate chain, avoid corporate chains whenever possible, that includes auto care, unless you move around the country a lot, are young and unsettled, or for some other reason need a nationwide warranty. Do not go to banks for loans, if possible keep all monies within the family or lone to friends, help your friends, do not charge interest. Your friend (the other advantage is you'll find out how good a friend your friend is) will never forget your help in their time of need, but the main theme here is Fuck the banks, because after all the only thing they exist for is to fuck you. Close any and all of those accounts and put anything you have in a credit union. keep some fucking cash on you, in the words of the immortal George Carlin, doesn't it seem the least bit stupid when some fucking moron is at a 7-Eleven running a card to pay 28% interest for a box of fucking Tic-Tac's? Speaking of cards, in general, get rid of them, keep one credit card, that you rarely if ever use. Get used to paying EVERYTHING IN CASH. A technique I use which I have found works really well, is this, after paying all my bills, I take any remaining cash that I have in the best financial institution in the world, it's called My Small Fireproof Little Safe, and the best thing about my financial institution? They never turned me down for a loan! And they are open 24 hours a day! Wow! Now that's service! I take my monthly allowance and put it on the counter, I say to myself -this is all the fucking money there is in the world-in my world-spend too much asshole-and you don't eat! which I actually did once, I didn't eat for five days, not because I was "cleansing" or "detoxing" while rubbing my crystal energy beads, or some other New Age neurotic bullshit, I didn't eat, because I want over-budget! Were not talking exactly rocket science here.

Anyway I hope this helps someone, the important thing is that you must unplug, and you must incorporate these changes for the rest of your life. Capitalism is a branch of fundamentalism, and it has several "fundamental" flaws. The primary one, which explains why it is habitually unstable and dysfunctional (as history will attest to) is that it completely ignores the law of resource allocation, in short proponents of capitalism will tell you that wealth is limitless, and therefore you have a right (they even propose an obligation) to obtain the greatest amount of wealth you possibly can, the truth however is that is completely incompatible with existing reality, that is to say, it's bullshit. Because we live on a ball which is floating in space, the earth's resources are finite, they are fixed, there is only so much habitable land, only so much ocean fish and only so much fresh water to sustain human life. From an energy conservation analysis (which is not even addressing the second law of thermodynamics) it works out to roughly 1:1 to 1:3 resource units per human, that is to say the planet can comfortably support (although it's reaching its upper limit) the current population, but not if a small percentage of sociopathic "businessman" conspire to steal and board a disproportionate amount of resources (yes that includes money) for themselves, and fuck everybody else.

As always, I am, and remain, V.

Remember, remember the 5th of November…

"A violent revolution were all the fat cats are rounded up, ALL their Wealth is confiscated (that which they stole “legally” though "business") and is redistributed to the needy populous"

Wow! I've earned every dollar I've made. But if there are people like you out there maybe I need to buy a gun to defend my family and my properties. Right now you will have to settle for an arrow between the eyes from thirty yards.

First of all,which is typical of people of your ilk, you quoted me out of context to give a misrepresentation my intention, secondly, which is also typical of people of your ilk your first response to anything which remotely would involve any thought process, is to get a gun. Your vacuous logic speaks volumes of your vitriolic mindset!

V

I don't think I need to hit anyone between the eyes from the length of about ten football fields. But if someone thinks they need to seize what I've earned I will get a gun to defend it.

Quoted word for word is out of context. Good one!

Anyone who thinks they can seize my hard earned assets can feel my vitriol right between the eyes as soon as they step on my property. Your attitude is the perfect reason for the second amendment.

"Social Security doesn't add one freaking penny to the deficit."

Only because the government keeps taking more money from paychecks to pay for it. When I started working it was 6%. Now it's 15%. At this rate in thirty years it will be 37%. The half your employer pays is money he doesn't have to pay you. The self employed pay both halves.

seems like they want to take away any kind of money from all poor people, doesnt it? i wonder who is going to fuel their greed machine when all the poor people (most of america) doesnt have money to spend

I think that is the goal of some politicians.

Honey what you don't know and understand about SSI could fill a canyon.

Sorry...I scrolled down and judged you too harshly, I apologize.

Thanks eden49, I'll keep that in mind!

It's the main reason Presidents change the way the CPI is calculated so as to keep the COLAs as small as possible.

If the average Social Security check had kept up with true inflation (not the heavily massage statistics the BLS comes up with), The average Social Security check of $133 in 1970 would be an average Social Security check today of $3121, and not $1080.

Excellent Tyr, we needed a comment like yours and now we have it! Well done.

Well said tyr.

Beautifully and simply stated.

Not a ponzi scheme at all...solvent for the next 30 years if we do nothing, can be solvent for an indefinite period of time if we raise the cap of income taxed from $106K to no cap at all.

Amen, clevelandchick. No cap.

And apply SS withholding to all forms of income not just wages!

And apply SS to all political contributions to candidates, PACS and secret corporate donations!

We are 'evidently' holding perspectives from different sources. . . and oh btw, all that next 30 year solvency is all there . . . in the form of IOU's
http://current.com/news/92996241_combat-the-fraud-at-the-heart-of-social-securit...

But the IOUs are backed by US Treasury bonds. The reason SS holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has NEVER missed a single interest payment on its debts. Bush wanted to put SS funds in the stock market -- which would have been disastrous had he been successful. So the trillions of dollars in the SS trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget are as safe as can be.

"And apply SS withholding to all forms of income not just wages!"

Bullshit. I already pay a 40% tax rate on the interest earnings on the money I made after the government took 40% for selling my business. If there isn't an employer to pay the other half that's another 15%. No way the government is taking 55% percent of the interest earned on my life savings.

Let me tell you all you revolutionaries what's going to happen. When my youngest is out of college I'm retiring and establishing residence in Monaco or San Marino and have a second home in the US. Then you'll get zippo. After enough people are driven to do this were are your "entitlements" go to come from? You'll be fighting with each other like rats fighting over the last piece of cheese.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suppose a group of ten people all gathered together at a restaurant every week for dinner. Suppose further that they had decided that they would split the check according to their incomes, with the person who made the most money paying the most, and the person who made the least money paying the least. To make the math simple, we’ll assume that every week, the dinner bill for the ten people comes out to an even hundred dollars. The people split the check like so:

--the first four, with the lowest incomes, paid nothing;
--the fifth paid $1;
--the sixth paid $3;
--the seventh paid $7;
--the eighth paid $12;
--the ninth paid $18;
--the tenth person, with the biggest income, paid $59

They continued in this arrangement for many weeks, until one day, the restaurant manager visited their table to deliver the check himself. He told his ten guests, “You folks have been great customers, and we appreciate your continued patronage. To show our appreciation, I’m going to knock $20 off the price of your meal. I’ve already worked out your individual payments, according to your original agreement.”

The payments worked out like this:

--as before, the first four people paid nothing;
--the fifth person now paid nothing instead of paying $1;
--the sixth person now paid $2 instead of $3;
--the seventh paid $5 instead of $7;
--the eighth paid $9 instead of $12;
--the ninth paid $12 instead of $18;
--leaving the tenth with a bill of $52 instead $59

Every person was better off than before, but after leaving the restaurant, they all started comparing their savings.

“Hang on a sec,” says Number 6, “I only got a buck out of the $20 reduction, and he got $7!”

“Hey, you’re right!” says Number 5. “Why should Number Ten get seven times what we got?”

“Yeah, I’m with you guys,” says Number 7. “Number Ten got more than double what I got.”

And One through Four chime in, “And we didn’t get anything at all! No fair!”

To make his dining companions feel better, Number Ten divides his $7 savings amongst the group, leaving each person (except Number Ten!) with $0.70 more of refund money.

The following week, Number Ten didn’t show up to the dinner group. The remaining nine people sat down to dinner as usual. But when the check came, they discovered that they were now $52 shy of paying their $80 bill.

Enjoy your meal!

Private accounts that the government still controls are not a good idea. That's a sham. If it's my money, give it to me, and I'll decide what to do with it. I've done better investing than I could ever get out of Social Security.

uh-huh. Till 2008 would have totally wiped you out. Social Security is a SAFETY NET.

I think Bush's "plan" refuses to acknowledge several elephants in the room:

1) Wall Street: These are the geniuses that crashed the economy in 2008. You know, the guys we had to give a trillion or so bucks to because they lost all the money in our 401Ks At this point I wouldn't trust Wall Street to feed my fish, never mind entrusting them with more of my retirement savings.

2) Wall Street: Whether most Americans realize it or not, retirement funds that are entrusted to Wall Street (401Ks) were/are set up to pay the fund managers and shareholders WAY more money than the investor. The article at the link below pretty much sums it up
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/investing/blog/make-money/vanguards-john-bogle-financ...

3)Wall Street: Diverting 12.4 percent of Social Security payroll tax into "private accounts"? Lots wrong with this. It ties our taxes to Wall Street, to the "too big to fail" banks and the legalized theft of companies like Goldman Sachs. Wall Street and their associates should NEVER AGAIN be trusted to look out for American citizens best interest because they never do. They (with the help of the Fed) failed us in the 30's, the 80's the 90's and again in 2008. This "plan" is the equivalent of insanity i.e. doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

No problem. Take all your money and invest it with a bunch of idiots that crashed the economy in the 30's the 80's the 90's and again in 2008. Just one thing, when they lose your money again (and they will), don't come knocking at the door for SS. Fair enough?

Some truth, makes me cry! I need a HUGE BONG HIT!

That's why I am against Obamacare. Once they start taking it out of your paycheck, it never stops, never.

As above, no problem. If you don't mind being refused private insurance because you have a pre-existing condition or don't have enough money. Or mind being denied insurance under your existing plan because you forgot to tell them you broke your toe when you were four. Or insurance rates that increase at 10 times the rate of inflation. Have at it my friend. But as I indicated in my comment above, don't come knocking on the governments door to be taken care of. Oh, and don't use the emergency room at a hospital because you lack insurance because guess who pays for people who need hospital care but have no coverage? Yup, the federal government i.e. my taxes.

bonum commune communitatis.

that's what they said in the 60's but I am getting a check today so I have to say you are wrong

But you look so young.

you made my day kind sir :) and ty