I'm sorry to be a wet blanket, Osama dead or not, but I won't feel safe until

The single mom at the grocery store isn't nervous about her food selections, while the cashier looks disparagingly at her food stamp card.

Half my friends are no longer afraid of losing their good paying jobs,
while the other half is unemployed, or looking for full time rather than occasional part time work.

When my country values its teachers as much as it values its Palins and Trumps.

When the slightest medical emergency doesn't cause the sufferer to fear losing their home, their retirement, and their life.

When I turn on the news, and I see someone I can trust talking about the issues, rather than blathering on about the "miraculous economic recovery." (Sometimes Rachel and Ed fulfill that need, but two people do not a Free Media make.)

When prisons are no longer filled up by small time marijuana users, and the mentally ill who acted inappropriately.

When we have a truly equitable health reform system, such as is coming to the truly democratic state of Vermont. (California has tried several times, but the lobbyists here have too much pull.)

When foreclosures, which were forbidden in 35 states during the Great Depression, are forbidden in thirty five states right now.

When we have a President more interested in thirty eight billion dollars to loan to states with deficits, rather than loaning thirty eight billion to nuke industries to put up more Death Installations. (Wall Street investment firms will not go anywhere near nuclear power reactors, and don't want the liability. That tells me all I need to know about how "safe" the industry is.)

When we have total transparency about our banking industry, and about our Federal Reserve. A larger window through which to examine the Federal Reserve. Many critics of the Federal Reserve know the nine trillions offered by Paulson/Bernanke/Geithner to the top banking firms is just the tip of the iceberg. And don't anyone here give me that crap about how the nine trillions have been paid back. They have NOT. The Federal Reserve gave them US dollars, and the Banking entities "repaid" the Reserve with derivatives, CDO's and CDS's, of questionable value. (Not much of repayment, and one us commoners can't use. I mean, can you or I pay off student loans by giving over our old telephone books?)

So very true.

And as long as so many of us keep working for a truly equitable system, there is REAL hope.

Rec!

The US Chamber of Commerce continues its plot to destroy the American middle class.

Businesses, for students, for the unemployed, to turn things around for us.

Good to know I am not the only one who thinks that the Osamas of the world are not are biggest problem..

The President comes on to announce that the wars are ended, that a continental high speed real way will be built to employ many Americans, and that we will have nine trillions of dollars released from federal Reserve to small businesses on Main Street.

What are the odds of being injured or killed in a Terrorist Attack?

What are the odds of getting sick, or injured in an accident?

I am 61 years old,
unemployed,
living off savings,
and have no insurance.


Osama The Boogieman was never a real threat to me.
Getting sick IS a real threat.
Going hungry IS a real threat.

Thanks.
K&R

I'm glad Obama again showed up the reich wingers, but there is much more work to do, people's lives are at stake.

The megacorps and their minions are the real danger.

I wish I could fix it..... a virtual hug just doesn't seem enough, but it's all I can do
:hug:



kick, rec

My primary fear after 9/11 was how the government and the general population would respond. My initial reaction other than shock was "there goes our basic freedoms". I had underestimated how bad things would get however. I couldn't envision even an incompetent government invading Iraq in response to the attack for instance.

The death of Bin Laden is significant and I am glad he is gone, but the many problems we have in this country are with us still. I know where you are at, unemployed but not yet 65 years old so you don't qualify for Medicare. It is an awful void and the fear is justified. The fear of terrorists is often just a distraction so we forget the real problems we face. Being hungry or sick or homeless is not being SAFE.

No need to apologize. What you say is absolutely true.

I share these same fears. Osama didn't make the cut; not even close.

ten years and hundreds, perhaps thousands of men, women, allies, military and intelligence and electing a BETTER POTUS.
The democratic process doesn't happen over night and sometimes we don't like the outcome.

When, when, when you ask?

When, oh when will this president get any recognition for what he has accomplished?

Next accomplishment of President Obama, I expect another wet blanket will blanket the internet.

This post reminds me of FDR's Four Freedoms speech. He was working toward a second bill of rights where a decent paying job, a home, and healthcare were all rights. He really understood that those were the things we were fighting for.
It is no wonder the right wing is still trying to slander him:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x573347
In a book my wife gave me called "Together We Cannot Fail", it states that FDR believed that protecting these rights was the best way to prevent the destruction of the country because it would protect the economy and extremist views such as fascism would have less appeal.
He did this during a real war, not one fought by choice, against a real enemy, not one that whose status has been inflated to create fear here (to boost the military budget).

Therefore, I would say that criticisms of Obama are valid. He has not shown the leadership the situation required when compared to a truly great president.

all the rich, short, white, ugly dudes are dressed in orange.

Same camp as you. Still quite a ways to go.

:kick:

And thank you for the Kick.

:hug:

Where this country would be if the money that was spent on war, had been focused on fixing the country's infrastructure, creating jobs, working towards green energy programs, eduction, etc. I don't know how much we spent on all of the wars, but I bet if you took that total amount, and divided it by 50 states, what a real difference it might have made.. Just imagine it!

one of my wishes to go with all yours: I wish that, when I hear of Osama, Al Qaeda or raised threat levels, I no longer had to ask myself why there are lying to me again and what other matters they are trying to paper over. I wish I could simply trust what I am being told.

Just not as eloquently. Thanks again. K AND R

You and I were "Sharing a brain." As my son's teen aged girl buddies used to say to me when they finished each others sentences.

:toast:

:toast:

:kick:

into the last really bad decade. There is so much to do, so much wrong with things. So much work to do. So much bipartisan shit to slog through to get anything done, etc.

But still I am glad Osama is dead.

You said just what I've been thinking but haven't been able to put into words. Thank you for reading my mind.

:yourock:

Great OP.

:kick:

I am far more afraid of our government and some of my fellow citizens than I am Islamo Bogey men. When we have millions that believe in their heart of hearts that Sarah Palin would be a good president, that scares the shit out of me!

The single mother who is nervous about using food stamps, is reacting to her own embarrassment or misconceptions. In most towns the food store cashier is a high school kid (who probably disparages everyone!), or an adult who is paid low enough that they fully understand the stigma of food stamps (and would be the last person to look disparagingly). Even, the food store owner also could care less, since food stamps = cash, as far as he is concerned.

Your country doesn't value the Trumps and Palins more than teachers. Your country values entertainment more than education, and the Trumps and Palins are (some people's idea of) good entertainment.

The "slightest" medical emergency (as opposed to a true medical calamity) doesn't cause people to lose homes, retirements, or life, unless it goes unattended and becomes a calamity. Emergency room bills going unpaid will often be written off as noncollectable debt (I know ... my wife is a medical biller), but at worst will cause a credit history ding.

It's been a long, long time since prisons were filled with small-time marijuana users. I'll agree with the mentally ill ... but even that is largely caught well before prison time (unless acting innapropriately includes causing bodily injury).

The rest of your examples ring true... I'm just not sure I'd equate my feelings of safety with full government disclosure and otehr "trust" issues.

Mainstream News services dish out 24/7.

If I see one more discussion of Lohan's jail record, community service updates, et al, I think I will be turning my TV off for good.

And I live in an area where many of the cashiers are RW Christians who have been told how bad we food stamp users are. They offer us on food stamps some formidable looks. It never dawns on them that if the government quits issuing the food stamps, then 18% of the dollars coming into that grocery will disappear. And some of them will be out of work, without food stamps as a buffer. (I just got off food stamps a short time ago, I know what I am saying.)

As far as medium sized medical emergencies causing people, who are now unemployed and behind on their back property taxes, you need to really truly start paying attention to what is going on in less affluent areas where people are losing their homes.

It was said ten years ago that many Americans were just one paycheck short of real trouble facing them. That day is over. Many are already in the horrid condition of not having adequate food, not having the ability to know if they' re keeping their home, and not having medical care. Just tw3o months ago, I was one hospital carrel away from a woman who had been told by her doctor to have testing done, regarding possible cancer. I heard her crying as she tried to explain that bey the time she makes her house payment, and pays her medical insurance, she has nothing left for co-pays and the % 1500 deductible.

In the end she left before i did. She was without the resources to get medical care, but the "Health Care Reform Act" is Keeping the executives in the private insurance scam in their Rolls Royces.

to capture one man and his rag tag army. that`s just the money that is on the books. if we had spent that 400 billion in the usa it would have generated around two trillion dollars of goods and services over the last ten years.

http://costofwar.com/en/


so add up the money we spent on iraq and afghanistan over the last 10 yrs and multiply by 4 or 5...sort of makes ya sick does`t it?

You say:
so add up the money we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 yrs and multiply by 4 or 5...sort of makes ya sick does`t it?

That's why this spring I am choosing to work on my garden.

There doesn't seem to be a lot I can do politically.

like Palin and Trump.

Even on 9/11 he didn't scare me.

I fear being homeless with no place to go. I fear it will be a long time before I find another job. I fear that if I get hurt or sick it could wipe out the little bit of money that I have left. I fear not being able to afford food.
Those are my fears. Osama didn't even make the top 100. I'm glad that he was killed but his death does nothing to improve my life nor the lives of millions of other Americans who are struggling just to survive.

I predicted my spouse's and my chance of making it to 2011 to be about one in one hundred million.

But due to a lot of people helping us out (including some rabidly RW church goers) we made it through 2005, 2006, 2007, and then on 2008 we started to be standing on our feet.

Medical bankrupcy had wiped us out by mid 2006.

Unexpected good things can happen. I'll keep my prayers and also my fingers crossed for you and your approaching success.