Record Low Confidence In Government

[vt]

Except for the military, which scores much better. Business and labor don't inspire any confidence either.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-11-15-47-05

[lektrode]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_POLL_FAITH_IN_GOVERNMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-03-11-15-47-05

The 2014 General Social Survey finds only 23 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in the Supreme Court, 11 percent in the executive branch and 5 percent in Congress.

would think that the 11% and the 5% are the same ones that voted for the Big D's...
(at least the ones that havent scraped off their 'yes we can' bumper stickers....)

funny they didnt ask about the dept of 'justice' - after all, they've been doing a simply smashing job
(of running blocking cover and running down the clock for their masters in lwr manhattan....)

[Jam]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

would think that the 11% and the 5% are the same ones that voted for the Big D's...

Historically, and not surprisingly, the survey has found that Democrats have more confidence in the executive branch when the sitting president is a Democrat, and Republicans have more confidence when the president is a Republican. In the 2014 survey, just 3 percent of Republicans say they have a lot of confidence in the presidency, down from a record high 45 percent who said so in 2002

[...]

only 7 percent of Democrats, 5 percent of independents and 3 percent of Republicans have a great deal of confidence in Congress.

.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?
“You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
“They called me the hyacinth girl.”
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed’ und leer das Meer.

[astonas]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Thank you for the reminder. I'll add another, not as distantly related as I'd like:

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar


[...]


Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

[Woodsman]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Thank you for the reminder. I'll add another, not as distantly related as I'd like:

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

"Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:

"'The horror! The horror!'

"I blew the candle out and left the cabin.'"

[flintlock]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

No confidence at every level. I was renewing my corporate registration yesterday. The online process to pay made the initial Obamacare website look cutting edge. Programming straight out of 1992. Endless bugs and clear as mud. And its like this every year, year after year. My 17 year old son could do a better job.

[Woodsman]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Except for the military, which scores much better. Business and labor don't inspire any confidence either.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-11-15-47-05

Half of Americans express extreme confidence in the military while the legitimacy of democratic, popular institutions lay in tatters.

As the events of Ferguson demonstrate, several decades of deliberate militarization of American policing justified in the name of “homeland security” has resulted in a domestic police force that looks, thinks, and acts more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to protect the public. When taken in concert with the tight coordination between federal, state and local police revealed during the Occupy summer and an ubiquitous system of surveillance monitoring our every communication, transaction and movement, the state has at last achieved full spectrum dominance over its citizens.

Americans ground down by a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, yearning for a supposed moral renewal and return to a lost golden age, venerate the military as the pinnacle of American exceptionalism. Hollywood, far from being controlled by a mythical left, produces waves of jingoistic propaganda like "American Sniper" championing the most despicable aspects of U.S. society—the gun culture, militarism, hypermasculinity, denial of historical fact, and a belittling of critical thinking and artistic expression.

These passions will inevitably liquidate the dying remnants of our open society as there is no shortage of simpletons whose minds are warped by this belief system. One of them was selected as president in 2001 and they populate the armed forces, the GOP and the Christian right. They watch Fox News and believe it to represent reality. They have little understanding or curiosity about the world outside their insular communities. They are easily manipulated by fear and patriotic appeals. They flaunt their ignorance and anti-intellectualism with pride.

And just this week at an election event in Concord, New Hampshire one of them in the form Senator Lindsey Graham, outed himself as a fascist. There he announced that if elected president in 2016, his first act will be to deploy the military against Congress to reverse cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets.

And here's the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn't let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We're not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.

Lindsey Graham: As president I would deploy the military against Congress

Graham says he would use the military to force members of Congress to not just vote on the bill — but to pass it. He didn't qualify this as "until I get an up-or-down vote on restoring defense cuts." He actually said "until we restore these defense cuts."

Our corn pone Confederate Ernst Rohm proposes as his first act as president to use the military to force the legislative branch to pass his agenda. Graham is basically announcing his plan to stage a coup: he is saying that if he gains control of the executive branch, he will use his authority as commander in chief to overcome the separation of powers and force the legislative branch to do his bidding, instead of allowing it to act as an independent branch of the government. A spokesperson for the Senator later attempted to clarify Graham's statement that he "would literally use the military," saying that it should not "be taken literally."

Taken together this is a recipe for a military takeover. All that remains is the perception of a grave crisis and the failure of civil authority to adequately address it. The public, spurred on by the media and now formerly crypto-fascists like Senator Graham, will demand that its most trusted and competent institution step in to "save" the country. And then the process will be complete.

Not with a bang, but with a whimper. That is how democracy and republican government dies. Luckily for us, "it can't happen here."

[lektrode]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Half of Americans express extreme confidence in the military while the legitimacy of democratic, popular institutions lay in tatters.

curious which 'popular institutions' you're referring to?

As the events of Ferguson demonstrate, ....

such as this event?
which tends to confirm why the prev event occurred in the first place

.....
Americans ground down by a stagnant economy and a dysfunctional political system, .....

will sure as hell agree with you on that
the last 6years (or maybe 8, starting when prince harry and queen nancy 'took over') - have been the lowest, most disappointing of my 56

Hollywood, far from being controlled by a mythical left, produces waves of jingoistic propaganda like .....

'madam secratary' for instance?

and i'm sure you'll delight in my confirming your obs here, but it does turn up another question....

These passions will inevitably liquidate the dying remnants of our open society as there is no shortage of simpletons whose minds are warped by this belief system. One of them was selected as president in 2001 and they populate the armed forces, the GOP and the Christian right. They watch Fox News and believe it to represent reality. They have little understanding or curiosity about the world outside their insular communities. They are easily manipulated by fear and patriotic appeals. They flaunt their ignorance and anti-intellectualism with pride.

ya dont suppose that after 8years of wildbill's antics - along with the ole 'culture wars' since the 60's - that it was somewhat inevitable that a guy like geedubya would be elevated as the next fallguy to take all the blame - read: clinton&co's FAILURE TO TAKE OUT OSAMA, WHILE HIS INNER CIRCLEJERK OF FINANCIAL MANIPULATORS ENGINEERED THE REPEAL OF GLASS STEAGAL, thus setting up the markets for nearly the biggest wipeout of all time - until 2008-9 anyway - or that by y2k that the lwr manhattan mob would've known what was coming and purposely put the big R's in charge - SO THEY COULD BE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG - after the '2nd coming of camelot fixed everything' so... uhhhh... nicely an all - just like the current bunch have, aka 'the 3rd coming' - according to some, anyway...

could it be that - just maybe - 'our betters' - aka the intellectually pompous ivory tower crowd that now dominate beltway policy discussions - have so completely screwed up the process - never mind the 'results' -
or THE LACK OF ? (ANY results whatsover)

that the right-wing hardliners start to sound 'reasonable' by comparison?

And just this week at an election event in Concord, New Hampshire one of them in the form Senator Lindsey Graham, outed himself as a fascist. There he announced that if elected president in 2016, his first act will be to deploy the military against Congress to reverse cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets.

sorry woody - but when you juxtapose 'flaunt[ing] their ignorance and anti-intellectualism with pride.' with your next sentence?
cant help but get the idea that you think guys like graham will resonate in NH?

he might've, once upon a time - but in case you havent noticed, the Blue Hampshire crowd has been making inroads - likely only a matter of time until 'the live free or die state' puts 'scenic' back on the license plates and passes both an income tax and a sales tax - so they can re-create the same hellish political crony-clusterfuck they all left from, bringing their politix with them - to a place that got along just fine without any of em, for nearly 400 years

....
Not with a bang, but with a whimper. That is how democracy and republican government dies. .....

yep - death by a thousand cuts = one 'small tax increase' at a time - but 'its for the children' - right?

riiiiiiiight....

[dcarrigg]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

I dunno, Woody. The only outlets I've seen pick up this "story" and run with it are the Koch Bros. mouthpieces - Reason et. all. Obvious hit-pieces to a stupid statement. Sure, it could happen here, but to imagine that the architects of the business plot are going to pick Lindsey is as much of a stretch as calling him corn-fed. A 5'8" 120lb southern dandy named Lindsey doesn't quite have that requisite populist appeal in the land of hyper-masculinist hollywood tropes, ya know? It's all a Yankee can do when he pops up on the screen not to break out the accent and start quoting Blanche DuBois. Tasteless and sad excuse for a joke? Sure. Stupid. You betcha! A real threat against Congress? I doubt it.

[Chris Coles]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

The problem is on both sides of the Atlantic. earlier this week I watched in horror at a young man on BBC TV Breakfast tell how he had not a jot of confidence in the political process; the people, the policies; every aspect.

Very disturbing.

[Woodsman]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

... Sure, it could happen here, but to imagine that the architects of the business plot are going to pick Lindsey is as much of a stretch as calling him corn-fed...

DC, thanks so much. I am completely off base here and I'm grateful for you pointing it out to me. Obviously, describing "a 5'8" 120lb southern dandy named Lindsey" as "corn-fed" is a stupid mistake on my part. I meant to write "corn pone."

Thanks for helping me with my error.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Just keepin' it lively!

[Woodsman]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Just keepin' it lively!

And we do appreciate it! Happy Friday the 13th.

[vt]

Re: Record Low Confidence In Government

Meanwhile there may be a lack of confidence in Russia:

http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...rumors/387652/