Forgetting (Ignoring) Ron Paul
Fun clip from Jon Stewart's Monday show where he takes on the media for ignoring Ron Paul, despite Paul's second place showing in the Iowa caucus.
Fun as that is, I'm fit to be tied when I see the media and political parties ignore candidates that call it the way they see it, instead of trying to bullshit everyone as the establishment candidates often do.
Being a Gary Johnson supporter is much worse. They wouldn't even let him participate in the debates.
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Addendum: Salon magazine has a nice commentary related to this. They even go so far as to mention former Governor Gary Johnson. Mention of Ron Paul and Gary Johnson starts with paragraph 6 and closes with this one:
The steadfast ignoring of Ron Paul -- and the truly bizarre un-personhood of Gary Johnson -- has ensured that, yet again, those views will be excluded and the blurring of partisan lines among ordinary citizens on crucial issues will be papered over. That's precisely the opposite effect that a healthy democratic election would produce.
The steadfast ignoring of Ron Paul -- and the truly bizarre un-personhood of Gary Johnson -- has ensured that, yet again, those views will be excluded and the blurring of partisan lines among ordinary citizens on crucial issues will be papered over. That's precisely the opposite effect that a healthy democratic election would produce.
Labels: Gary Johnson, Ron Paul
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:34 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
tra here...
Well I'm with you 100% on this one, Fred. The way the mainstream media treats Ron Paul is disgraceful.
I don't agree with Paul on some things (for example his support for criminalizing abortion, not a very "libertarian" position if you ask me), but it's clear that he does speak for millions of Americans, and obviously he is the preferred presidential candidate of a pretty significant number of Republican voters.
It's wrong that the media gatekeepers can decide that just because they believe that Paul has no chance at the nomination, therefore it's O.K. to totally discount his very close second place finish in the Ames straw poll -- while practically annointing Bachmann as the new front-runner due to her first-place finish (even though she was only a few hundred votes above Paul).
Either the Ames straw poll is meaningful, or it's not. If Paul's very strong finish is meaningless, so is Bachmann's just-slightly-stronger finish.
- tra
So I just watched the Jon Stewart clip.
It's really something to see the all those clips, one after the other, of our national media figures looking-right-past-the-invisible-Ron-Paul.
I thought the best line was: "When did Ron Paul become the 13th floor of a building?"
- tra
“ “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
(Henry Ford)
A kind reminder, folks:
On a dark day in 1910, a handful of the wealthiest bankers in the world met with a few senators and identified a lucrative opportunity to establish a federal bank to manage the US money system. In 1913, the Federal Reserve was born, and the power to issue money was transferred from the federal government to this newly formed private corporation. To be clear, understand this: it’s not 'federal' and there are no 'reserves'.
Though the U.S. Constitution requires silver or gold as backing for all currency, by 1965 Federal Reserve notes were no longer payable on demand in silver to the bearer. The silver standard became a thing of the past. Dollars ceased to be a “store of value”; instead their value lay solely in their use as a medium of exchange.
Folks, U.S. dollars aren’t backed by anything. It’s fiat money, decreed by the government based on ‘full faith and credit’ and accepted in payment of debt. No fiat money in the world has ever lasted much more than 50 years. Will we?
To make matters worse, the Federal Reserve has created a debt-based monetary system which relies on fractional-reserve banking techniques that undermine the value of the U.S. dollar. Many believe the whole system is unstable; we can’t get to a sustainable society with a debt money system.
Ron Paul believes that the first step towards monetary freedom is to allow open competition in currencies. Once gold and silver are allowed as legal tender and can be sold without sales tax, everyone can use them to store their wealth and to pay for the things they want to buy.
The Federal Reserve will finally have a very compelling motivation maintain the value of the dollar. Ron Paul has been an advocate of the gold standard and open competition in currencies for many years. He is the Federal Reserve’s most outspoken opponent in Congress.
…And skippy’s 'Believe It or Knot' for readers here:
Our Mattole/Petrolia SoHum community has been minting their own .999 pure silver coins (verified and manufactured by the US mint) for several years now-- their value pegged to the silver spot price-- in weights from one ounce down to 1/10 of an ounce. Perhaps they know something we don’t?
As was explained to yours truly by SoHum's smart and unofficial Mattole ‘banker’:
“With so much marijuana money coming into the Mattole Valley, it makes better sense for growers to put their dollars into a solidly stable and standard silver economy. Over $800,000 of the silver coins are circulating throughout the Mattole region; more are simply being held for different reasons. The Klamath Knot area has also done something similar. Those that invested three years ago into our Mattole silver coinage have doubled their money and purchasing power by the silver value alone, and away from being tied to the declining dollar. Because of their pure silver content, the coins can be redeemed anywhere for the bullion value. We'll also buy them back for cash. We believe this system, with which we operate without a profit, will build a more self-sufficient and a stabile economy over the years to come for the Mattole region.”
Yours truly has seen the coins. They're beautiful. Their inscribed design reads: "Mattole Free State: Ecology, Economy, Culture-- For a Sustainable Society" and stamped with the silver purity content. It’s also an ideal way to launder burgeoning marijuana money.
However you feel about it, Ron Paul feels we need to strengthen our dollar by having it backed by solid reserves.
It's hard to argue on the basis of common sense-- and keeping in mind how these currency-smart Mattole folks are currently rolling.
And a fair number of people think Ron Paul is a nut case for bringing up the Federal Reserve.
A great book about the Federal Reserve and the power they wield today is "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" by investigative journalist and frequent Rolling Stone magazine contributor William Greider.
This book has all the history, well-documented facts, and good, solid analysis -- all without the icky anti-Semitic "there's a secret cabal of Jews controlling all the money" spin that underlies the neo-John-Birchers take on the Federal Reserve and the banking system.
- tra
From Monday The Colbert Report on Monday Night --
According to the Associated Press:
"Saturday's outcome suggests XXX has a certain level of support and, perhaps even more important, the strongest get-out-the-vote operation..."
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394645/august-15-2011/colbert-super-pac---iowa-straw-poll-results
Yup, they actually printed "XXX" instead of giving the name.
Colbert took this to mean that they had simply generated that sentence as a placeholder and meant to drop in whatever name ended up fitting that billing, but simply forgot.
But to those who saw John Stewart's roundup of the way Ron Paul has consistently been getting the Invisible Man treatment from the media, an even more troubling explanation may come to mind.
- tra
...an even more troubling explanation may come to mind..
Indeed. I would have been satisfied if they at least mentioned him but qualified it with a "...but that's a fluke and there's no way he'd win the nomination, much less the general election., except it's like they went out of their way not to mention him.
A conspiracy? Naaah. That's a bit far- fetched, isn't it?
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