Re: <nettime> Wisconsin report

["J.A. Terranson" <measl@mfn.org>]

On Sun, 20 Feb 2011, Tapas Ray [Gmail] wrote:

> Sorry, John. Sincere apologies. The events you point out no doubt show
> that things can happen in the US. However, it has always
> surprised/confounded me that not a single American in private
> conversation (in my experience, which is about five years of graduate
> work) has anything but negative things to say about the US health care
> system but it still remains in place and has not been confronted head
> on - until Obama, that is, as far as I know.

What Obama did was FAR from looking at this head-on.  What he did was piss 
away a full majority [actual, not imagined - like Bush2] mandate.

Say hello to the New Boss, same as the Old Boss...

> And when the Republicans seem bent on wrecking Obama's initiative, there 
> is no upsurge of public anger as far as I can tell ... at least no such 
> upsurge seems to have made it to the media in India. 

Oh, there's TON of public anger - on BOTH sides: the Republicrats are 
pissed that even the watered-down, worse than when we started bill was 
passed, and the Demopublicans are pissed that not a single campaign 
promise has actually be realized, or even fought for seriously.  O [who, 
sadly I helped with both money and time - like a fool] is, IMO, a 1 term 
betrayal.

Regardless of O's accomplishments or lack thereof, you need to remember 
that the USA is as corrupt as *any* third world bannana republic - 
seriously.  The media is owned by the very same people who own the rest of 
the 90++% of the US wealth.  We only see what they feel is in their own 
best interests.

> In a country of near-full literacy and high levels of college and 
> university education,

Where functional illiterates can graduate with honors (as long as you're 
paying full freight)...

> where the poor are better off than, say, some "lower-middle class" 
> people in India,

Really?  I know a *couple* here who are surviving on less than $1,000usd a 
month (includes ~200 in "food stamps"). I know a few people who would 
*envy* that position as well, living in our North Side Ghetto.

> I find the existence of 40 million people without medical insurance (in 
> a nation of 330 million?) totally inexplicable. 

Remeber: the Guilds come first.  Despite being BROKE, the US incurred 
another $750bn dollars to give a tax break to the richest 1% of our 
people, after paying ~$3 Trillion (yes, trillion!) dollars to bail out 
criminal actors at the banks - not ONE of which need ever worry about 
imprisonment, or even a fine (see this month's outstanding story at:
 
"http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216";  )

> And then take the universities. I know there have been actions in some 
> instances against cutbacks, but there hasn't been any nationwide protest 
> action as far as I know, even though there seems to have been lots of 
> faculty lay-offs.

We are quite used to this: nobody's taken to the streets as you are 
expecting because we actually voted for this state of affairs.  
Everyone (especially my (so-called free generation of 
the 60's) is in it for only themselves now, which makes divide and 
conquer so easy that all they need to do is [continue to run] idiotic 
candidates who represent the same state of affairs on both tickets.  
Remember that every viable independent campaign has been denied access to 
the political system - debates, etc.  We will brook no change from the 
status quo. Yet, we *may* march in the streets if we can't have free trade 
agreements that ship our jobs to other countries, leaving us with a 
service economy that makes virtually nothing in our country., 
who ostensibly fought to prevent *exactly* this kind of environment)

//Alif

-- 
"Never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public
plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to
the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always
be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by
predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty."

Joseph Pulitzer, 1907 Speech


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