[Peace-discuss] Fw: We're unstoppable

E. Wayne Johnson ewj at pigs.ag
Thu Aug 20 07:15:32 CDT 2009


no i dont know the source...it came to me second-hand and i found it 
amusing.

dave johnson did some research on it.  i think that both sides are wrong.


On 8/19/2009 1:31 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> As usual, Wayne, I think there is good and bad in what you say...
>
> --- On *Tue, 8/18/09, E. Wayne Johnson /<ewj at pigs.ag>/* wrote:
>
>     Ricky, you can google out a verification as easily as I can.  I
>     dont think
>     the allegations are untrue but I chuckle at the rhetoric on both
>     sides.
>
>
>     [...Well, Wayne, I assumed you KNEW the source.  But if you don't,
>     or don't want to share it because it's too crackpot-ish, then it
>     certainly lessens my desire to read your future posts.  And as for
>     it being "untrue," that isn't the whole question is it?  Not even
>     half.  The question, as I alluded, is how distorted this rendition
>     is.  Very, as it turns out from the footage available, which is
>     far from clear about how this started but pretty clear that this
>     account is ... you guessed it ... nutso! 
>     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqpfU_AC7Ls&NR=1 - RB...]
>
>
>     I am convinced that the US health care delivery system is
>     disgracefully Awful,
>     and I would compare those who manage it quite unfavourably with
>     such nobilities as
>     wolves, buzzards, and maggots.
>
>     The technological level is good but there are numerous glaring
>     deficiencies in
>     what is being delivered.  There are huge problems with the way the
>     delivery
>     is done.
>
>
>     [ ... Certainly true, as far as it goes. ...]
>
>
>     Americans are being held hostage by the medical-pharmaceutical
>     legal-regulatory industrial complex, and most Americans are so
>     deluded and unaware
>     that they hardly notice how badly and disgracefully they are being
>     ripped off.
>
>
>     [...I don't think folks don't notice they're being ripped off. 
>     Quite the contrary.  Millions of people also happen to notice that
>     they aren't being served by this "good" technology.  My question
>     is, what "good" is it to me and my family if we don't have access
>     to it?  There seems to be an assumption among many scientists, for
>     example, that a new cure is inherently good.  I have had the
>     pleasure of meeting a number of others who are more thoughtful,
>     however, whose research focusses specifically on technology that
>     poor people and poor countries can afford - new cheap ways to
>     ensure clean water, etc.
>
>     I also think your aversion to regulations may be getting in the
>     way of clear vision.  Sure there are ways in which regulations are
>     unreasonable and even repressive - the government that issues them
>     being far too responsive to the interests of the upper classes and
>     too little to the rest of us - but there are also ways in which
>     regulations protect people from snake oil salesmen and the like. 
>     There's an overgeneralization I believe I am picking up from this
>     list at times that 'everybody is smart enough to make up their own
>     minds' or words to that effect.  True, of course, in most cases,
>     but as a universal it is embarrassingly obvious nonsense.  I
>     happen to have older relatives, for example, who are the constant
>     the prey of hucksters of various sorts.  I shudder to think of
>     their fate if they could get their health insurance to pay for
>     magnets in their shoes or various toxic wastes to be taken
>     internally as a cure for very serious illnesses.  Now THERE's a
>     program of corporate welfare for you!
>
>     I certainly support people's rights to seek alternatives, but in
>     my experience at least most people do not have the time or the
>     resources to research such things.  My mother could never figure
>     out the Internet, for example, and my grandmother doesn't know
>     what it is.  The library in their town wouldn't help at all.  This
>     would be fine, and they would simply not have to avail themselves
>     of 'alternative' cures - provided they could tell which were
>     'alternative' and which were simply 'innovations'.  But as we all
>     should know from experience or at least reports of telemarketers
>     pushing sweet-sounding deals for absolute horse hockey, the
>     much-touted "free markets" are shark-infested waters where the
>     weak do not have an equal chance.
>
>     Do I assert that there in't hucksterism in the current systm?  Not
>     at all.  But as bad as it already is, I sure wouldn't like to see
>     the leash come off. ...]
>
>
>     Americans are afraid to die, terrified in fact, and to one with a
>     "sick" sense of humour, its
>     simply hilarious to see them in action.
>
>
>     [ ... I suppose you get a really good belly laugh at someone dying
>     of colon cancer.  Ever seen that?  There are also lots of ways
>     people can suffer dramaticaly without dying, especially without
>     health care.  Are those just as funny, or is it just slow painful
>     death? ...]
>
>
>     I am constantly reminded of Tom Woods's classic statement about
>     the Stupid Party (clearly the Dems)
>     and the Evil Party (clearly the Republicans), and Bipartisanship
>     being when they get together in cooperation and
>     do something that is truly Stupid and Evil.  It is quite a circus
>     seeing the two sides of this fiasco turning
>     similar rhetoric and tactics on one another.  They really aint so
>     much different and quite frankly I dont
>     see either side working for anything that could remotely be
>     identified as any sort of genuine reform.
>     To use a worn out analogy, it's like rearranging the deck chairs
>     on the Titanic.
>
>
>     [... You had me until that last part, Wayne.  Stupid Party and
>     Evil Party, maybe, but there *is* a difference if you're on the
>     receiving end of such things as low wages, illness and inadequate
>     health care options.  For example, the Dems often raise the
>     minimum wage.  Not enough of course, and I'd agree there are
>     better rways to solve the problems of poverty if I had my wishes -
>     but I don't - and if you're trying to support a family on that
>     wage, maybe even depending upon those leftovers when they close
>     the kitchen at McDonald's to feed everybody supper, then, let me
>     just tell you if you don't know: that little raise goes a helluva
>     long way!
>
>     I'll just reiterate here, in case it gets lost in translation: I'm
>     for single-payer, not Obama's plan.  But if the alternative is the
>     rightwingers' plan, I'll take Obama's. ...]
>
>
>     I would favour a cooperative-based system
>
>     [... Sounds good in principle, of course.  I'm not convinced the
>     reality wouldn't be dominated by the same market-bully interests
>     that parasitize our current system.  A co-op based economy is a
>     goal well worth working toward - e.g. small local credit unions
>     instead of too-big-to-fail corporate predators - but they have to
>     be true co-ops, not fronts for corporate interests.  The
>     transition would be very important. ...]
>
>
>     with dramatically reduced regulations
>
>
>     [... I think your blindspot is showing again.  The problem isn't
>     the *number* of regulations.  The problem is *who* the regulations
>     serve, which is a mixed bag in my opinion.  ...]
>
>
>      dramatically increased
>     consumer education and transparency,
>
>     [... Agreed.  This is important regardless of other reforms.  Many
>     of our doctors don't like to give out information, as if it
>     weakens them somehow - and of course it does, if it's power they
>     like.  For example, we were skeptical about the new fad pushing
>     vaccinations for chicken pox, apparently "a potentially dangerous
>     disease" now!  But we try to be open-minded.  Q:  What is the risk
>     of the vaccine?  A: Minimal.  Q: But how much?  A: Minimal.  Q:
>     What are the odds of any serious problems from chicken pox,
>     really?  A: It can happen.  Q: Yes, but how likely is it?  A: Some
>     people have died.  ... Not the most helpful.  And the famous
>     Internet isn't much better, all full of anecdotal evidence, wild
>     claims and more evasive answers.  ... p.s. recent articles in the
>     media suggest the medical industry often doesn't concern itself
>     with the low-level health concerns many peopl have.  Not so in thi
>     scse, for sure.  Just the opposite. ...]
>
>     and a complete destruction of the predatory tort system
>
>     [ ... And when my grandmother is victimized by some quack with a
>     pharmaceutical sugar daddy, you propose that she simply lose what
>     little she has left trying to find a cure for his cure? ...]
>
>      and massive increases
>     in recruitment of personnel into the medical field.
>
>     [ ... My sister and other family and friends are in medicine.  My
>     view is that the problem isn't lack of recruitment.  The problem
>     is the working conditions of the lowest on the totem pole of the
>     work.  Hospitals like to cut staff, increase workload without
>     additional pay, play fast and loose with people's hours in a
>     completely inhumane manner, etc.  The Heartland Human Services
>     two-year strike turned lockout in Effingham, and the local County
>     Nursing Home, are also example of the crappy treatment of people
>     we expect to do the care.  These are some of the actual reasons
>     people do not remain in health care as a profession. ...]
>
>
>     Licensure could be continued, but the penalties for lack of licensure
>     would be non-existent.   Medical care facilities could choose to
>     have licensed or unlicensed practitioners, and it would
>     be the responsibility of the consumer to choose between whether to
>     trust in a licensed quack or an oft more
>     competent unlicensed quack.  There are more ideas along this line.
>
>
>     [... I think this is frankly fantasy, partly for the reasons I
>     mentioned above. ...]
>
>
>     Single-payer doesnt fix the real problems, it just increases the
>     burden on the system.
>
>
>     [ ... Single payer certainly doesn't fix all problems.  But the
>     actual figures suggest it would *reduce* the burden on the
>     system.  I suppose it can't be reiterated often enough: the
>     massive overhead and waste in the current system can be eliminated
>     by single-payer.  There are problems with single-payer, which must
>     be acknowledged.  One of them is that the rich and powerful will
>     always lobby for an opt out, and then to underfund the system,
>     because they know they can do better on their own, damn the rest
>     of us.  In the US there are of course deluded individuals who
>     identify with our aristocratic classes, who will often team up
>     with them.  This is one of the eternal problems of democracy
>     attempting to coexist with capitalism, in my opinion.  Many people
>     who have health care now fear that any national plan would limit
>     their options, which is not necessarily true of course.  Many
>     people also fear anything smeared as "socialism" because they
>     believe it is creeping atheism, which is also not necessarily true
>     of course.  But the main problem that single-payer faces is that
>     powerful interests are arrayed against it and they have the PR
>     budgets to get results. ...]
>
>
>     I am suggesting a dramatic
>     reduction in the medical care burden via a common-sense approach.
>
>
>     [ ... I'm sorry, Wayne, but your suggestion - though I believe it
>     is not without compassion - is an excellent example of why common
>     sense is simply a myth in a complex context like this.  I am
>     skeptical of it in many contexts, but here it can be no bttr than
>     a figure of speech.  If it were real, I think, it would suggest
>     something quite different.  And since e.g. your honest, thoughtful
>     approach and mine are worlds apart, well, the sense involved can't
>     be all that "common." ...]
>
>
>
>     On 8/18/2009 5:46 PM, Ricky Baldwin wrote:
>>     Is there a source on this, Wayne?  You see, the reason I want to
>>     know is to assess the credibility of this reported event and
>>     other allegations therein.  That's important, because anybody can
>>     make up anything.  For example, in this email you forward below
>>     the author - whoever that is - refers to the Obama Admin's health
>>     care proposals as "socialist"  (the baldest nonsense, no matter
>>     whether you think the plan is good or not).  Such rantings in my
>>     opinion probably impugn the witness here substantially, but
>>     since I don't actually know what happened at this event I would
>>     like to keep an open mind.
>>     However, this is already pretty difficult given this
>>     characterization of support for the "socializing" health care as
>>     originating with MoveOn and "hired thugs".  As you may know Tim
>>     Johnson's meeting locally in the library was quite different. 
>>     Supporters of the much-touted "public option" and the
>>     much-maligned "single payer" idea were not "hired thugs" but
>>     local community members dedicated to health care and organized by
>>     excellent organizers - whether you agree with them or not. 
>>     Perhaps this did happen somewhere.  We can't tell from this
>>     anonymous report.
>>     You may be right that purists on both sides are wrong, and maybe
>>     if we had a beer at the White House or something we'd agree that
>>     there is good and bad in the plan.  The fact remains that in the
>>     richest, most powerful country on earth millions of people are
>>     without real health care options, most of them children and older
>>     Americans, some of them AWARE-istas from way back and dedicated
>>     individuals to the peace and social justice, others very good
>>     people who may be dedicated to helping their fellow human beings
>>     in other ways, or people who have worked hard their whole lives
>>     only to be robbed of their health care and so on at the end.
>>     Many will eventually die because of the simple neglect of their
>>     society, perhaps after last-minute attempts to save their lives
>>     at ERs across the nation - which the opponents of reform will
>>     ultimately pay for along with the rest of us - but not as high a
>>     price as those without health care.
>>     I claim this is what this debate is ultimately about: what do we
>>     value most, our creature comforts (SUVs, TVs - more sets than
>>     people in the average home, according to Nielsen
>>     http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/more-than-half-the-homes-in-us-have-three-or-more-tvs/,
>>     etc.), narrow political or ideological advantage, or our fellow
>>     human beings.
>>     Some high-minded folks on this list will likely claim I'm being
>>     simplistic or disingenuous, but that's what it really comes down
>>     to, no matter whose name's on the bill, who supports it, what
>>     color their skin or electoral map fill, public or private,
>>     perfect or imperfect: what will do the most good for the most
>>     people?  How can we get the most we can and make it stick?
>>     I think that's probably single-payer, which it appears we won't
>>     get this time (but we shouldn't give up), which the Obama plan
>>     isn't of course.  But consider this analogy: you're suddenly
>>     homeless, but you have a job with an office.  You can sleep
>>     there, but you'd have to be out at 6am every weekday morning. 
>>     The building has toilets, and there's a gym where you can shower
>>     (group shower - at 6:30am usually occupied by jocks and ROTC
>>     recruits).  You're unlikley to find better for six months or so,
>>     but by then hopefully you can marshall your resources and try
>>     again.  OK, the analogy isn't perfect, but it's authentic and the
>>     life lesson applies: you don't turn your nose up at options when
>>     you're desperate, you get what you can and keep trying.
>>     My 2c.
>>     Ricky
>>
>>     "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn
>>
>>     --- On *Tue, 8/18/09, E. Wayne Johnson /<ewj at pigs.ag>/* wrote:
>>
>>
>>         From: E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
>>         Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Fw: We're unstoppable
>>         To: "Jenifer Cartwright" <jencart13 at yahoo.com>
>>         Cc: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>>         Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 5:01 PM
>>
>>         This is an actual item I received today.  I am convinced that
>>         the groups on
>>         both "sides" of the health care debate and debacle are in error.
>>
>>         _*
>>         Left-Wing THUGS Attack Americans Opposed to "ObamaCare*_
>>         It's getting ugly out there. All across the country,
>>         left-wing extremists are disrupting congressional town-hall
>>         meetings
>>         with venomous attacks on anyone who voices their objections
>>         to Barack Obama's plans to socialize American health care.
>>
>>         · At a town hall meeting with Rep. Kathy Castor in Tampa,
>>         Florida, as she was introduced,
>>         the reaction was overwhelmingly against her, with boos and
>>         chants of "You work for us."
>>         In the lobby, you could hear the counter of Planned
>>         Parenthood representatives shouting,
>>         "Healthcare Now." Shortly thereafter, violence erupted, where
>>         three big "goons" came out
>>         and started pushing and roughing up the people in line and in
>>         the hallway, at one point
>>         even using a chokehold on one of the people.  Police officers
>>         on the scene did nothing to
>>         prevent the violence being perpetrated on these citizens
>>         trying to exercise their free
>>         speech rights -- citizens who far outnumbered those who were
>>         allowed to stay.
>>
>>         · At a town hall meeting with Rep. Russ Carnahan in St.
>>         Louis, Missouri, police arrested six people for assaulting
>>         constituents who
>>         were opposed to the health care takeover. As reported
>>         locally, "Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from
>>         St. Louis, said he
>>         was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out
>>         yellow flags with 'Don't tread on me' printed on them. He
>>         spoke to the
>>         Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John's Mercy
>>         Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for
>>         injuries
>>         to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face. Gladney, who is
>>         black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a
>>         racial slur
>>         against him before the attack."
>>
>>         Many Representatives have announced they won't be holding any
>>         town-hall meetings after seeing that their constituents are
>>         OPPOSED
>>         to the socialist "ObamaCare".  We've got a plan to fight back
>>         against these radical left-wingers. Barack Obama's
>>         "Organizing for America" group is sending out
>>         Alerts to get their people to come out to townhalls to shout
>>         us down with "powerful voices". MoveOn.org has hired skilled
>>         "grassroots
>>         organizers" -- meaning, people like the union thugs in those
>>         videos -- who are working at townhalls across the country to
>>         give the impression
>>         that there's ANY support for Obama's plans to socialize
>>         health care in America. They've built new online tools to
>>         track events
>>         across the country -- and to make sure MoveOn members turn
>>         out at each one.
>>         They're raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to push
>>         their far-left agenda, against the true grassroots uprising
>>         we're witnessing in
>>         America.
>>
>>         WE'RE FIGHTING BACK -- but we need the help of patriotic
>>         Americans like YOU to succeed!
>>         Can you chip in a donation today to support our work?
>>
>>         If the bullying tactics of the left-wing goons are successful
>>         at suppressing the only true grassroots voices our senators
>>         and representatives
>>         hear over the recess, we'll have a hard time stopping the
>>         socialist plans of Obama, Pelosi and Reid in September.
>>         That's why we're getting the word out about Town Hall
>>         meetings across the nation -- we've created a new ad for
>>         television and radio,
>>         we're sending millions of email to our members to fight back
>>         with a strong town hall turnout, we're offering personalized
>>         blast faxes to
>>         every single member of Congress, and we're activating an
>>         energized network of on-the-ground constituents who aren't
>>         afraid to speak
>>         out against ObamaCare and the bullying tactics of the Left. 
>>         This month could decide the future of health care in
>>         America-and we're already one week in. If you've been sitting
>>         on the sidelines,
>>         now's the time
>>
>>
>>         On 8/18/2009 3:07 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
>>>         Definitely not just another Dem rubber stamp. Glad that
>>>         Dean's still a staunch supporter of public option... and
>>>         getting a lot of air play these days, even a bit on MSM.
>>>          --Jenifer
>>>
>>>         --- On *Tue, 8/18/09, Gov. Howard Dean, Democracy for
>>>         America /<info at democracyforamerica.com>/* wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>             Jenifer -
>>>
>>>             Here's what I know: *When we work together, we're
>>>             unstoppable*.
>>>
>>>             As my brother Jim said yesterday, the media has it
>>>             wrong. The campaign for the choice of a public health
>>>             insurance option will be over only if we quit or we've
>>>             won. That decision is ours to make. Not the media's
>>>             decision - Not the insurance industry's decision - It's
>>>             our decision.
>>>
>>>             *We have the power and we're going to win.*
>>>
>>>             Make no mistake, victory won't happen overnight. Just
>>>             like President Obama's campaign for President, this
>>>             campaign is a long haul. Congress returns in September
>>>             for the final stretch to pass reform by the end of the
>>>             year.
>>>
>>>             We must have the resources to fuel this fight. If we
>>>             raise $200,000 by Monday, we can hit back immediately.
>>>             Congress will know we're not backing down in the face of
>>>             pressure. We're standing up to get the job done.
>>>
>>>             *CONTRIBUTE RIGHT NOW AND DELIVER THE RESOURCES TO WIN
>>>             <http://dfa2.convio.net/site/R?i=sXzZXNDf2O4yompyP_Zlxg..>*
>>>
>>>             Victory takes courage, conviction, and commitment. It
>>>             takes you. The power to change America is in your hands.
>>>             It always has been.
>>>
>>>             Thank you, Jenifer, for everything you do to win.
>>>
>>>             -Howard
>>>
>>>             Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
>>>             Founder, Democracy for America
>>>
>>>
>>>             Democracy for America relies on you and the people-power
>>>             of more than one million members to fund the grassroots
>>>             organizing and training that delivers progressive change
>>>             on the issues that matter. Please Contribute Today
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>>>            
>>
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>
>

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