I had the best smackdown today on Facebook that I have given to anyone in a long time. This is in response to a despicable rant by Mychal Massie wherein the wingnut participants got all up in arms because I called bullshit on the post. Here is how it ended up. The best part of all was that I got a private message from a person who is an old high school friend that thanked me for standing up to to the bullies. That made my day. Follow me below for the insanity.
Wingnut to Me: Mikeypaw - please write me in messages or to my email address posted on Facebook. Do you have a good understanding of Stalin, The Hitler movement, the cold war, all the issues going on in Europe, the major rise of radical Muslims, why the US was settled by so many people escaping from other countries during the last three hundred years, -- do you understand ww2', Vietnam, do you understand what made the US. Do you understand the rise and fall of the roman empire, the history of the Muslims and their wars over the last 1400 plus years. Do you really understand Obama??? Have you really really researched him? I don't think you really even understand what has happened in the US the last fifty years and I don't think you understand US economics?. Do you really understand communism, how socialist programs work - examples look at Greece Spain France.... Do you realize that blacks can be racists too? Did you watch the new tapes of Obama on Hannity last night?? Have you made a mental list of all the things Obama has not succeeded on. How many failures Obama has had that the news doesn't report on... I would like to know more about your background in us history... But not on the public channel..
8 hours ago · Like
7 hours ago · Like
Mikeypaw to wingnut--Since you questioned my intelligence in a public forum I think that it is only proper that I respond in a public forum. Otherwise people will come away thinking that I don't know shit from Shinola about anything. I have a BA in English Literature so I spent a fair amount of time reading on all of the subjects that you bring up. While I am certain that I do not have as much knowledge as a History major, I certainly do have more knowledge than your typical low information voter. Plus I can do the first 42 lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English from memory and I am quite sure that most History majors can't do that, so I do have that going for me. As far as US Economics I carried the following financial licenses in my career: Series 7, 63, 65, 3 (Compliance and Sales registered options principal) 53 (Municipal Securities Registered Principal) 24 Registered Principal. I currently sell tax software and advise the tax departments of multinational corporations on ways to automate their tax compliance under ASC740 and FIN48 (formerly FAS109) for the largest corporate tax software and tax research company in the world. So we do discuss tax and economic issues and policy on pretty much a daily basis. And despite the rhetoric you hear about our choking corporate tax rate, Corporations pay the lowest effective tax rate in over 50 years and revenue from tax from corporation is the lowest percentage of GDP in over 50 years. Paradoxically the S&P 500 had the most profitable year ever in 2011. Go figure. Also, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial doubled since Obama took office, and we stemmed the tide of losing 700,000 jobs per month that was the case when Bush was in office. If this is Communism then wow it must be great. "But look at all the debt that we added" I hear you saying. Yes we did. And it will need to be dealt with in due course. But to think that we could not have stemmed the economic tsunami we were facing without a good ol' Keynesian seawall is to ignore the lessons of economic history. Are we better off than we were four years ago at this time. The facts say yes and it is not even a close argument. Is unemployment still too high? Yes. Do we have a long way to go? Yes. Has Obama accomplished everything that we hoped? Of course not. But tell me what politician does.
Here is the thing. [Name Redacted] throws out a rhetorical bomb from a writer from WND and says that he is a respected author when in actuality he is nothing more than a fringe writer from the fringiest of fringe sites. He makes outrageous allegations and specious arguments. President Obama is a barely left of center (if that) politician and he sure as hell is not a communist. If he is then he would be the most covert communist that ever lived. Have your gun rights decreased since President Obama took office? No, they actually have increased. Does that sound communistic to you? The last I checked the Communist apparatchik were not keen on giving individuals gun rights. Do I understand how socialist programs work? Yes. I have a socialist fire station and a socialist library right here in my neighborhood. I also will drive today on a socialist highway. President Obama did take an idea from the Heritage foundation (those damn socialists at the Heritage foundation) called the individual mandate and made it the centerpiece of his affordable care act. As soon as he was for it, the Republicans were against it. Wait isn't that what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts? Oh yeah it was. And now he can't even talk about one of his signature achievements because it is verboten among the far right. And ironically enough by trying to appease the far right base of the Republican Party it is going to cost him the election. Parenthetically I would also add that Saint Ronald Reagan would never have withstood a primary in the current political environment. So when I said you better get ready for four more years of Barack Obama I meant what I said. He will win this election and he will win it with over 300 electoral votes and over 50% of the popular vote. You heard it here first. Well actually you could read the polls but the Right thinks that there is a vast conspiracy among pollsters to get Obama reelected (although they can't quite explain away that pesky Fox poll that shows the same thing). I think George W. Bush called his 49% win of the popular vote a "mandate". If that is the case then President Obama will have a super mandate.
And finally I am not sure what the Roman Empire has to do with this particular administration but there are certainly lessons to be drawn from it. Particularly that the USA has become an overly militaristic society (like the Romans) with too much of our GDP devoted to the military (like the Romans). If our military was its own economy it would be the 17th largest...larger than both Saudi Arabia and Sweden. And it is bigger than the next 20 largest militaries... combined. So yeah I guess I can see where we parallel the Roman Empire.
[Name Redacted] I will tell you just like I have told [Name Redacted]. Step away from the Fox crack pipe and echo chamber. If you are questioning me about my intellect while taking your cue from Sean Hannity then we can pretty much be assured that we will never agree on anything. There was a time when the conservative movement was populated with great intellectuals. William F. Buckley comes to mind for instance. I did not necessarily agree with him but he was a great thinker. But if the conservative movement allows itself to be overtaken by rock throwers of no intellectual weight such as Limbaugh, Hannity, O'reilly, Malken, and Coulter then it is destined to be out of power (at least from a Presidential political perspective) for years to come. And rightly so.
You can feel free to comment on this post but I will not be making anymore additional comments, simply because I do not have the time. Have a great day and God Bless America. [END OF FB RANT]
2:43 PM PT: Here is what the message was that I got privately from a friend after posting which made my day:
I just have to tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts in responses to people who think they know everything about politics. I am without a doubt the least politically minded person you could meet - but I don't enjoy Republicans talking like everyone who doesn't agree with them are idiots. Really - appreciate you stand up for the rest of us!!!