View from Germany: GOP "A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses"

[Pepsi]

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the view is the same from where I sit

A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses

The US Republican race is dominated by ignorance, lies and scandals. The current crop of candidates have shown such a basic lack of knowledge that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein. The Grand Old Party is ruining the entire country's reputation.

Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed -- well, they shouldn't make such a big deal about it.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they've been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what's still the most powerful job in the world.
As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop.

It's true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it's just not that funny anymore. In fact, it's utterly horrifying.

It's horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They're ruining the reputation of the United States.

'Freakshow'

They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They've shown such stark lack of knowledge -- political, economic, geographic, historical -- that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe.

"When did the GOP lose touch with reality?" wonders Bush's former speechwriter David Frum in New York Magazine. In the New York Times, Kenneth Duberstein, Ronald Reagan's former chief-of-staff, called this campaign season a "reality show," while Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan confidante Peggy Noonan even spoke of a "freakshow."

That may be the most appropriate description.

.....http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,800850,00.html

[Observer]

Yes, the land of the good little Nazis... and Germany, too.

[ivanm]

It is better that the Republicans air their dirty laundry now that to wait and put a loser in the WH like the Dumbocrats did.

Did any of these young fools study history, and who wrote the books, some communist lover. If they think that socialism is so great then why did the former USSR eat itself up, why has China wised up and gone free market, and why has America produced more than half of western Eupope, the birthplace of the sick ideology called socialism? Hell California alone can out produce most Euro states, the bastion of utopia for the idealists.
 
Why a guy like Pepsi, who I am betting is making a very nice income, wants socialism is beyond me.  Maybe it is the free daycare for those making over a 100 grand a year turns him on.  When pigs fly.

He doesn't understand how the pie in the sky idiocy works. Under socialism you don't have to work and don't need daycare. You can lay at home and breed
up more useful idiots.

[JC3.0]

It is better that the Republicans air their dirty laundry now that to wait and put a loser in the WH like the Dumbocrats did.

Did any of these young fools study history, and who wrote the books, some communist lover. If they think that socialism is so great then why did the former USSR eat itself up, why has China wised up and gone free market, and why has America produced more than half of western Eupope, the birthplace of the sick ideology called socialism? Hell California alone can out produce most Euro states, the bastion of utopia for the idealists.
 
Why a guy like Pepsi, who I am betting is making a very nice income, wants socialism is beyond me.  Maybe it is the free daycare for those making over a 100 grand a year turns him on.  When pigs fly.

He doesn't understand how the pie in the sky idiocy works. Under socialism you don't have to work and don't need daycare. You can lay at home and breed
up more useful idiots.

I get that you are afraid of Socialism. But you have an irrational fear that you think Obama = complete and total socialism. Look on the bright side Ivan-even though you guys will lose this election cycle and we will have 4 more years of Obama, You have all this time between now and 2016 to try to come up with a candidate who will beat the Democratic nominee. If you do that and succeed-then you can thwart what you see as our unstoppable march towards socialism. We do have elections regularly in this country and you do have the opportunity to affect change. You just have to field rational candidates with no excessively damaged goods in their past. Good luck in your quest.

[vel]

I get that you are afraid of Socialism. But you have an irrational fear that you think Obama = complete and total socialism. Look on the bright side Ivan-even though you guys will lose this election cycle and we will have 4 more years of Obama, You have all this time between now and 2016 to try to come up with a candidate who will beat the Democratic nominee. If you do that and succeed-then you can thwart what you see as our unstoppable march towards socialism. We do have elections regularly in this country and you do have the opportunity to affect change. You just have to field rational candidates with no excessively damaged goods in their past. Good luck in your quest.

You give him too much credit. Goebbels said "We will decide who is Jewish" and so it is with Ivan and "socialist".

[dustup]

Obama's Weakness Is a Problem for the Global Economy

A new financial crisis has gripped the US, Asia and Europe, but Barack Obama can only respond with catchphrases. The United States will remain a "triple-A country," the US president insisted Monday, as stock markets crashed. The most powerful man in the world seems strangely paralyzed.
Info

America's president, as the political scientist Richard Neustadt once noted, may be the most powerful man in the world, but he has only one real power: the power of persuasion.

That's why US presidents are so keen to get in front of the TV cameras and address the nation from what Americans refer to as the "presidential pulpit." Barack Obama was back at the pulpit on Monday afternoon, as the world's stock exchanges plummeted. "No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country," asserted the president. It had taken Obama three days to make a statement on Standard & Poor's decision to strip the United States of its top credit rating.

But Obama convinced no one. Even while the president was speaking, the Dow fell below 11,000 for the first time in nine months. This is certainly a problem for Obama, but more than that, it is a problem for America.

Do Americans Still Trust Their President?

The debates about debt ceilings, trillion-dollar austerity packages and budgetary tricks are highly technical, and only financial experts really understand them. But in the end it all comes down to some very simple questions. Do Americans still trust their political system and their president? More importantly, do they still have confidence in America's greatness?

The debt-ceiling compromise that Congress reached last week was intended to restore this confidence. But it didn't really satisfy anyone, and its impact has faded quickly.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,779179,00.html


It seems that Germany doesn't have any faith in any American President.......

[ivanm]

Yes, the land of the good little Nazis... and Germany, too.

We need to remember that the next time the Bear starts breathing down their necks.  Hitler got his butt creamed in Russia if that is any clue as to how vulnerable those people are.

I would like to have the countless billions we have spent while occupying Germany.  Krauts love at least two things, GI cigarettes and GI money.

[vel]

 

It's pretty pathetic when your best and only strategy is to try to disinform and discourage Obama voters.

I am trying to recall a single instance where a "conservative" has said something like: "We are cheering for President Obama to succeed because his success is our nation's success and we want our nation to succeed."

No, all I can recall are "conservatives" like Mitch McChinless saying that he values his ideology and party over the welfare of WE, THE PEOPLE, so he was going to do everything in his power to obstruct and sow discord and discontent.

You "conservatives" are traitors.

[lucy]

Traitors in what way? Have you done the same for Republican presidents that you are asking people to do for Obama, even if they are critical of his administration. Frankly, I don't find dissent or critical thinking traitorous. Abuse of office  or funds are traitorous offenses though in my book. But, one would have to agree on the definition of abuse.

[vel]

Traitors in what way? Have you done the same for Republican presidents that you are asking people to do for Obama, even if they are critical of his administration. Frankly, I don't find dissent or critical thinking traitorous. Abuse of office  or funds are traitorous offenses though in my book. But, one would have to agree on the definition of abuse.

No. I never hoped for George W. Bush's failure. I gave him the benefit of the doubt until he proved unworthy by lying us into a war.

Even though I didn't vote for him I viewed him as being my president of my country. His success would be my success. Judgment would come from me after failure.

I don't value my ideology per se. I value truth. I have also said many times that I would gladly subscribe to something like "supply side economics." I mean who wouldn't love it if you could really cut taxes and get more revenue? Who wouldn't love a sugar plum fairy?

But everything I know and see tells me that it's a fraud.

I am actually quite shocked and amazed at "conservative" disinformation. I am also appalled at the extremism of the Republican Party.

There is truth in real conservative thought and wherever and whenever I have found that truth I have incorporated it into my repertoire. "Conservatives" don't do that because their only real concern is to vindicate their ideology. They will deny facts and adopt flat out lies to protect that ideology, including the screwed up notion that they somehow represent the founding fathers. Their loyalty is therefore not to our nation or to WE, THE PEOPLE. Their loyalty is to their bastardized ideology and that, Lucy, is the definition of a traitor.

[vel]

Lucy, do you think it's okay to value an ideology over the welfare of one's nation and over the welfare of the people of that nation?

[Observer]

I am trying to recall a single instance where a "conservative" has said something like: "We are cheering for President Obama to succeed because his success is our nation's success and we want our nation to succeed."

You will probably never hear that because in order for the nation to succeed, Obama MUST fail.

[vel]

You will probably never hear that because in order for the nation to succeed, Obama MUST fail.

And you wonder why I consider you to be a cockalorum?

 

[Observer]

The only thing I wonder about you is how you manage to make it through the day without someone changing your diapers and spoon feeding you.

You should have been institutionalized long ago.

[lucy]

Ideologues meaning those who protect the Constitution as the law of the land?

What about the ideologues who wish to destroy the Constitution?

Or continue to protect the interests of corporate entities and banks over the reality of the harm being done to us fiscally, environmentally and otherwise. The ongoing nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico comes to mind here.