kamui

You are mixing very different things: lowered requirements for students - which of course have nothing to do with socialism - and a school system so bad that hundreds of thousands of Amercians can't read properly. Buy the way leading school systems in the world can be found in Scandinavia, especially in Finland, i. e. in countries which have historically very strong public social security/health care systems (and which are doing very well, even Germans emigrate to Scandinavia for well paid jobs.) Actually the definition of socialism of the US right has absolutely nothing to do with real Socialism. I am sorry to say, but you have no idea what you are talking about. Half of Germany was a socialist state for almost half of a century. The USA hasn't even partly to do anything with is. Among the industrialized countries the USA has the most capitalist and brutal darwinist system, with an almost complete disregard for the lower class, controlled by an incestious elite.** Sometimes I wonder if Thailand is so much worse. It is interesting to see that ALL planned cuts are at the expense of the lower and middle class while the GOP even defeated closing loopholes and tax havens for the rich. Koch Industries, Wall Street e.g. virtually own 80% of the GOP candidates. They only do not control the Tea Party radicals and now they pay for it with falling stocks, e.g. **It was funny so see how in the beginning Obama tried to appoint people, independent of high finance/K-Street/multinationals, for high ranking positions in the Government. The trouble was that 99% of them were already in bed with them in various positions (pun intended). In the end he appointed advisors who had been lobbyists for and at the payroll of Wall Street since years.

So the right wing, anti-tax, anti social security, anti public healthcare, anti public education, anti consumer protection, anti minorities, anti public funded infrastructure investments pro financial businesses, pro oligarchs and multinational companies pro super rich, pro military pro privatization of social security and public health care Tea Party reached it's goals almost completely. My prediction, the USA will enter a phase of a deep recession, because public spending into education, infrastructure, heath care, e.g. will go down considerably. As a result hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost in the public as well as in the private sectors. In the upcoming years the lower and middle class will have to chose between health care, education for their kinds and consumption, but won't be able to spend money all all three essentials for all people and the country (bad education will have severe impact on key industries for example). And it will probably have a negative effect on the whole world, but especially on the Western industrialized countries (including Japan). The only question is: How long will with the right wing noise machine be able to sell the downfall of the USA as an essentially positive development to its people. And how will the people react when they wake up much poorer in one-two years.

Nevertheless, he just stated well known facts: The US deficit started to spread like cancer during the Reagan era and became much worse during the Bush's years. Of course there where enough democrats who supported this (and the wars).

The USA reminds me of the Roman Empire in its final stage. When living conditions got worse expect for the superrich and powerful, while the elite became incapable to govern. Finally it fell prey to the 'Babarians' and the dark ages began. IN the USA it is the minority group of white, christian fundamentalist, right wing males, supported by the oligarchs and most the powerful men (and a few women), who hold the country hostage and who put their ideology above the common good. Soon we will have Wikileaks of Asian diplomats describing the USA as third world country where less the 5% of the people own 90% of the country. Whereas for example Hispanics lost 60% of their income in the past years, were the poor are denied access to good education and to quality health care, were the infrastructure is crumbling (like bridges collapsing) and essential transportion and communication joints are falling way behind Asia and Europe (airports, train systems, internet connections) - all the while the superrich don't pay taxes anymore but receive public funding; while the military-industrial complex wastes and receives more money than other countries earn in a year. Oh, sorry, my bad. Neither is this future nor are these secrets no one dares to talk about. That's published knowledge about the current state of the USA. Good Bye USA as we know it...

Just a reminder who caused this mess: 1999 Budget of the United States of America under the government of Bill Clinton was the first balanced budget in decades. But it wasn't supposed to be the last. Indeed, experts projected surpluses as far as the eye could see. $5.7 trillion in surpluses, to be exact. The surpluses were so strong that deep into the future—in 2009—the entire national debt was going to be zero. It didn't quite work out that way, did it? As Washington seems paralyzed, our economy stagnates, and America's full faith and credit is on the brink, it is useful to recall how we got here. This was not an act of nature. There was no unforeseen earthquake, no tsunami, no hurricane that wiped out our surplus. It was instead a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican president who squandered the surplus. In full possession of the federal government for the first time since Eisenhower, the GOP—with, to be fair, some help from some very foolish Democrats—systematically dismantled the economic and fiscal policies that produced the strongest economy and largest budget surplus in our history. Specifically, they did four things: cut taxes (with a heavy tilt toward the rich), waged two wars on the national credit card (one of which was against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no serious threat to America), passed a prescription drug benefit with no pay-for (the first entitlement in American history without a revenue source), and deregulated Wall Street (which helped turn the American economy into a casino and touched off the Great Recession). My link

The iP Board app works ok and it's free. I find Tapatalk, which I use for another forum, better designed and with more features. Tapatalk is available for Android as well. But it's not free. If it is not too much trouble for you I would recommend that you support both Apps.

The iPhone App for iP Forum's (like Thai360.com) is free and makes the Forum very easy to use: link But I haven't seen an Android App.

From the outside it looks really sad. The most powerful country in the world is able to agree on the basics of good governance. The political establishment, i. e. the Dems and the GOP are looking like a bunch of sorry, more or less corrupt powerplayers, who have forgotten why they have been elected. Nonetheless I still think that Obama still tries his best - but I am still not sure if is just lacking the ability to implement his political goals, or if the Zeitgeist and the political tide is just against him.

"Hachi" is one of the most famous stories in contemporary Japan/Tokyo. The name of the real dog who was waiting for its owner every day at the station, even after his ownder died, is " Hachiko ". You'll find a sculpture of the dog next to Shibuya station. Today it's a well know meeting place at one of the most busies crossroads in the world. In Japan Hachiko is a national symbol of loyalty...

As as I understand all major intrusions into individual freedom (Patriot Act, Homeland Security, e.g./ except gun laws) are GOP inventions during GWB's reign.

Hahaha, I guess you don't realize that you sound like your partents who warned not talk to hippies, and who told you that Jimi Hendrix, the Doors e.g. were pure evil and all who listen to them will burn in hell. :content:

Defeating the Dems in the midterm elections and defeating Obama are two very different matters, especially since the GOP can't offer an alternative to him. But I guess you know this anyway.

The current GOP candidates are either wingnuts, losers, or completely incompetent, or even all three together. Does anybody really believes that they can win over the center and the independents?

I am not permitted to comment on this. :content:

You mean, only US citizens are able to read and comment on US crime statistis? I did read it anyway :content: and just copy the content without a comment, since it speaks for itself: Quote: "A comparison of the rates, relative to population, at which blacks and whites are sent to state prison for drug offenses offers what may be the most compelling evidence of the disparate racial impact of drug control policies: [color:red]the black rate (256.2 per 100,000 black adults) is ten times greater than the white rate (25.3 per 100,000 white adults).[/color][76] Disaggregating these rates by gender reveals that black men were sent to prison on drug charges at 11.8 times the rate of white men and black women are sent to prison on drug charges at 4.8 times the rate of white women. As Table 1 reveals, blacks are sent to prison on drug charges at greater rates than whites in every state for which the data are available." "According to the 2006 surveys conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), an estimated 49% of whites and 42.9% of blacks age twelve or older have used illicit drugs in their lifetimes; 14.5% of whites and 16% of blacks have used them in the past year; and 8.5% of whites and 9.8% of blacks have used them in the past month.[42] [color:red]Because the white population is more than six times greater than the black population, the absolute number of white drug offenders is far greater than that of black drug offenders.[/color]" Race, Drugs, and Law Enforcement in the United States

Yep...I think that there is an ideological aspect. Goes back to permisiveness ("I'm ok, you're ok") and failing to hold people accountable. HH Come on. Liberal crime laws in the USA? Like the strange three strike law or the largest number of prisoners per capita in the world? And is it liberal that blacks are jailed 10x more often than whites for drug offenses, despite the fact that "that whites engage in drug offenses at a higher rate than African-Americans.†Link And here today's news in regard to individual freedom in the USA: F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds

Because GWB diverted the military, resources, intelligence and money to Iraq.

The reserved table at Tilac? :content:

Full repeal of health care law fails in Senate Republican efforts to repeal the health care reform law died a quick death in the Senate Wednesday, with a united Democratic caucus voting down a GOP repeal bill that cleared the House last month. A procedural vote ended the repeal effort, 47-51, as expected. Democrats framed the Republican amendment as an attempt to take health benefits away from Americans. .... Politico

VAT is 19%. Extremely bad for our (international) business.

Strange that in Germany everybody has to have health insurance and we have medicare (for the unemployed, the poor, e.g.). And it seems that we pay much less, don't have coverage caps (no family goes bankrupt when one family member get cancer e.g.) and we don't have such a severe preexisting condition clauses - and we pay less and it is working well more or less. Of course our system isn't perfect, there seems to be a lot of corruption and waste as well, but nevertheless.

I guess, that's why Germany is doing so bad with just 3,3% grows, the lowest unemployment rate since the unification, with health care, unemployment insurance, labour unions, e.g.

We had this kind of boarder within Germany: Patrols, German shepards, razor wire, spring guns, guard towers, e.g. This kind of border is mostly used by dictatorships...

Voter education? It won't happen anytime soon. The US state in the absolutely worst shape, Arizona, is moving more and more to the radical right. Voters support those politicians most who put the whole state into deep shit. That the politicians are responsible for the collapse of the state doesn't really matter to the voters as long as the politicians represent a pure anti-government ideology. Interesting read: Tea Party in the Sonora: For the future of G.O.P. governance, look to Arizona PS: reading the article explains McCain's recent flip-flops and his move the radical right. He is under threat by the Tea Party and fears that he won't be reelected.

"Same Same but Different" About a German backpacker who goes to PP and falls in love with a BG (Some Germans can be really stupid... ) and later learns that she is HIV positive. Great movie. Highly recommended. I just posted some additonal info in the culture sub-forum: Rink 6VjZSx6bjqk