Divided States of America: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation

[Gandhiforever]

Originally Posted by aaallison

"that was the way SPIEGEL referred to the United States in a 1979 cover story, when the US economy had been hard-hit by the oil crisis"
Reports of the decline of the USA have, and continue to be, greatly exaggerated. FWIW, the USA is now an exporter of natural gas priced at one-quarter the price that Europe is paying Russia.
What we are seeing, in Europe and the "Deep Blue" regions of the western USA and NE USA is the long-term failure of the Blue (Social Democratic) social model.

Summa summarum the blue regions support the red regions.

[Gandhiforever]

Originally Posted by powermeerkat

...




I know, Some in Mr. Obama's camp tried to have sen. McCain disqualified as a presidential candidate, claiming he was born on foreign soil (in a US base)


...

I don't think you can name them.

BTW It is Republicans who define a natural born citizen as one born in the USA, meaning that they believe someone born to US citizens outside of the USA would not qualify to run for President.

[powermeerkat]

N o they don'
t.

Btw.

Since when Kenya has been a US state?

[frankb022000@yahoo.com]

It is the US Constitution that says a president must be born in the United States.

There are some who are like the Taliban of US politics because they will not acknowledge they were defeated and will resort to the most ridiculous lengths and lies to try and bring down the winner. There is no reason to believe Obama was born elsewhere hence the premise of the "birthers"
is without foundation,

Originally Posted by Gandhiforever

Summa summarum the blue regions support the red regions.

Exactly! Texas pays 60 % less taxes than New York. Yet it's texas that complains about their taxes funding welfare, when Texans simply arent paying any! If the red states even paid any taxes, they might at least have some clout when they complain about chimerical communist taxes.

Looks like the laughable south will eventually fade into history. It was something of a joke anyway: Why would a man named Jesus who lived long before the USA was discovered become the central figure-head in cult in North America whose practitioners are mainly white-trash. Would Jesus have laughed an oracle told him: one day you will be worshiped and held dear by low-brow idiots in a land that has yet to be discovered. They will make a joke out of everything you are doing now while attempting to take you seriously. Would jesus commit suicide to avoid being a martyr for rednecks?

I live in Maine, the state with the second highest taxes, and have no complaints. Taxes are good for your health. We tax beverages like soda to fund healthcare. The soda is filled with sugar and caffeine and leads to obesity. We tax people, and they drink less, and have better health insurance. It's a win-win situation.

http://www.pressherald.com/archive/g...008-04-16.html

I think that Texas et all need to form their own land, and the reason is this: they are ulsterites, and like in the old world in Ulster, these people carry the British imperialist mentality, and that is that they are the arbiters of humanity, and consequently can do no wrong. Since this southern culture will forever be at odds to dominate the USA as the "leitkultur", there is only one option, and that is get rid of them.

Oh, why would we do that? The whole world has to learn to be like White Trash Religious nuts! Why doesn't the whole world want to be a white trash clown buying into a Middle-Eastern messiah? All the world must buy to the white trash charm of the South! This is not just a humble religion: it's a whole way of life, and it's so important, that the whole world has to respect the pitiful attempts at religion made by white filth in Texas. Everyone, bow to the trash that is too good to pay it's taxes.

These humble white trash in the American south have to send missionaries around the world to spread their religion of white filth and tax-dodging arrogance.

Update: due to conflicts in the middle east, the state of Texas no longer recognizes their former messiah Jesus but has elected a new one that embodies the ideals of Texas: Sir Allen Stanford. Sir Allen is the perfect messianic figure for the South, a tax dodger and offshore banker in Latin-America, Sir Allen believes in freedom. His patriotism and pure trashy Americanism makes him a perfect saint.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/...-bank-document

This Christmas Sir Allen plans to donate some of his money to charity for hurricane orphans and make his acting debut in a Christmas pageant that he wrote himself called "The Miracles of Sir Allen" during which he performs various miracles such as vanishing and pulling coins out of the ears of the audience, all while dressed as one of the wise men with the nativity scene behind him on stage.

[frankb022000@yahoo.com]

State revenues do not come from income taxes exclusively. There are quite a few other sources such as park entry fees, school taxes, fire protection fees and many more. I mention these because they affect a broad section of the populace. For instance in my state we may pay higher income taxes but we don't pay a school tax, pay a fire protection tax, a garbage collection tax but we have a sales tax.

It takes money to provide these services and more and the citizens have to pay for it regardless of the manner the funds are raised be it taxes or fees.

[democratsramshield]

(Written by an American expat living in Germany who holds an MBA degree and provides social commentary and reviews of important economic issues facing the American working class at the Class Warfare Newsletter at the Daily Kos, which is America's largest progressive blog)

Dear Spiegel,
On 11/06/2012 you published an article entitled 'Readers Respond Is America Really in Decline?'

Wherein a selection of comments from this very discussion thread were published. I wrote an article reviewing this Spiegel piece entitled "German Spiegel: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation" at the Daily Kos, which is to reiterate the largest progressive blog site in the United States. Thanks to my readers I received 339 recommends to date, which voted my article onto the recommended list of the Daily Kos, where it continued to receive substantial participation from readers who made 317 comments, the majority of which were positive. As such I can say as the author of that article, it is my opinion having read those many comments and the many emails I received in response to my article from around the United States, that the selection of reader comments that the Spiegel published are not representative of the voices of progressive America in my humble opinion. In order to add balance to that selection I would like to request if I may please, that this post receive consideration from you to be added to "Readers Respond Is America Really in Decline?" as my article contains links below, which show that progressive Americans who read my review of your article did agree with the conclusions that this important Spiegel article drew, which is that America is clearly in decline, and in fact that this fact is apparent to all except for the most ardently mentally comatosed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mon Nov 26, 2012 at 12:34 PM PST
German Spiegel: "Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation"
Mon Nov 26, 2012 at 12:34 PM PST with 339 Recommends and 317 comments
by Democrats Ramshield (473 FACEBOOK LIKES)
A look at our empire in decline through the eyes of the European media...
SPIEGEL: Notes on the Decline of a Great Nation:

Link to my article:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/1...a-Great-Nation
------------------------------------------------------------
Here below is quote from my article:

"WHY CAN'T AMERICA HAVE JOBLESS BENEFITS THAT NEVER RUN OUT?

Unlike here, in Germany jobless benefits never run out. Not only that -- as part of their social safety net, all job seekers continue to be medically insured, as are their families. By contrast in America today, 2 million American long-term unemployed workers benefits are set to expire at the end of the fiscal year 2012. It should be noted, unlike in Germany, the American jobless benefits do not provide for medical care for unemployed workers and their families.
What kind of family values are these?"

"But the recession never ended for millions of Americans and many of them now face a frightening prospect: the loss of unemployment benefits.

In the German jobless benefit system, when "jobless benefit 1" runs out, "jobless benefit 2," also known as HartzIV, kicks in. That one never gets cut off. The jobless also have contributions made for their pensions (this would be unimaginable in America). They receive other types of insurance coverage from the state. As you can imagine, the estimated 2 million unemployed Americans who are expected to have no benefits this Christmas seems a particular horror show to Europeans. To reiterate, it's made worse by the fact that the U.S. government does not provide any medical insurance to American jobless benefit recipients. Europeans routinely recoil at that in disbelief and disgust."

(End of quote from my article)
---------------------------------
Thank you for your consideration of this important topic and thank you also for taking the time to read this. Please send your comments to:
democratsramshield@yahoo.com

Please note that I will reply to all emails sent in due course. To the Spiegel, please accept my thanks on behalf of the many readers of my article for the excellent piece of journalism that you have produced in this article.

Thank you also for making an English language translation available to my readers at the Daily Kos. We encourage you to continue in your quest to speak truth to power and to the reality that we in America have become a nation in decline.