Democrats have been all over media scolding and Republicans have been doing the same.

[No Elephants]

One side trying to amplify the advantage that the shutdown gave its party and the other trying to control and reverse the damage that the shutdown did its party. So far, I have not heard any sincere regret or apology for the damage done us. If the American people are mentioned at all (usually veterans), it's to use as a club against the other major political party. I have not heard anything that sounds like authentic compassion, empathy, etc. But, what the hell? We only pay all the bills.

Calling the media blitz a freak show would be an insult to the poor souls who were forced to make a living by displaying their physical misfortunes to the public.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans will surely come together at some point before 2016 to cut Social Security and Medicare so that the federal agencies can continue to operate for the benefit of big business, the NSA and others in government can continue to violate our Constitutional rights at will and the rest of them can continue giving people all around the world more reasons to want to harm us.

Meanwhile, the cuts will cause deaths. Not instantaneously, but lack of adequate heating fuel, adequate nutrition, adequate shelter and adequate medical care will cause deaths. Of course, no one in government or media will, if they mention the deaths at all, attribute them to the cuts. And my darling fellow Americans will probably still not get made enough to do anything different from what they've done all their lives.

I just can't wait to vote next November, can you?

[Enthusiast]

1. Not only will the NSA continue to

violate our constitutional rights but they will be funded to the teeth at the expense of the elderly and less fortunate.

We have to recognize those "Democrats" that are working against our best interests and jettison them from the party. And I'm not speaking of a purity test as we see on the Tea Party radical right(as I would be accused of), I'm speaking of core party values. If preserving the New Deal isn't a core party value, the party has no value at all. And we are perilously close to reaching that no value status.

[No Elephants]

2. I am not sure yet which Democrats still believe in OASDI.

And, of course, LBJ's Great Society gave us Medicare.

A lot of the New Deal and the Great Society has already been dismantled or neutered, starting, I believe, with Jimmy Carter.

For example, under Carter, the Bankruptcy Code of 1978 replaced the Bankruptcy Act of 1934, which sought to hold the officers and directors of a bankrupt big business responsible if they had messed up the bankrupt company. The 1978 Code eliminated that.

By neutered, I mean that agencies that were originally set up to protect members of the public, at the expense of the public, now serve mostly big business, at the expense of the public.



We may never know who still believes in what because even votes are, IMO, manipulated.

For politicians and their corporate sponsors, it doesn't matter in most cases if a bill passes unanimously or by one vote. So, for instance, Amash Conyers failed narrowly. The narrowness of the failure could have been for show, to reassure the public that the politicians had really grappled with the issue. The important thing for them (and also, for different reasons), though, is that it failed.

And who voted for or against it to make it fail is important for them, too. So, you have Joe Kennedy III, a member of the House Progressive Caucus, from a liberal state voting against it, helping ensure it failed.

Surely, that cannot be kabuki? Surely, he struggled with his conscience? Or did Democrats use him to help make the bill fail because they think Massachusetts will not notice who voted how on this bill--and even if it does notice, it will never vote out a Kennedy?

I just don't know and can never know. However, I am skeptical of everything anymore and take nothing at face value.