MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bipartisan efforts failed: US Government shutdown
For first time since 2013, the US government is in shutdown after senators rejected a temporary spending patch. Trump accuses Democrats of taking Americans hostage with their demands. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesRemember Obama's problems? The US is an evenly divided country, like Britain, like Argieland.. Nothing new, different differences, same problem.
Jan 20th, 2018 - 11:55 am - Link - Report abuse +2Yeah, this is a bit of deja vu. Why can't they sort it out without all the hysterics?
Jan 20th, 2018 - 12:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There's nothing to sort out, dumbass.
Jan 20th, 2018 - 04:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The socialist leadership, media and intelligentsia have moved so far to the left of the traditional core values of America's center that they have placed their selves on an ideological island with steep cliffs.
Much of their historical base is to the right.
Their activist wing is still concentrated further to the left.
Many democrats are having to move towards the center to remain electable.
Hell, some rino's are no longer viable.
Obamy never got the dead cat bounce.
The difference can only be attributed to the Donald's presence.
The US economy is back and is roaring.
Even the leftist NYT hung it Schumer's ass.
Thanks for the entertainment.
I had forgotten just exactly what a dithering idiot you are.
“There's nothing to sort out, dumbass.”
Jan 20th, 2018 - 05:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Tell that to your military who aren't getting paid.
You're totally wrong about the movement of US politics, but I haven't forgotten that you are incapable of rational discussion, so I'm not going to bother. If anyone else wants to discuss it they are welcome to post.
Chronics future... https://youtu.be/BBvIweCIgwk ;-)
Jan 20th, 2018 - 08:15 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Zombie apocalypse!
Jan 21st, 2018 - 10:22 am - Link - Report abuse -1Film at 11:00, maybe!
Lol.
Jackasses.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2018/01/20/dear-lord-the-screams-writers-tell-the-harrowing-tale-of-dc-after-the-shutdown/
The Voice
Jan 21st, 2018 - 08:54 pm - Link - Report abuse +1There is a difference between the UK and the USA. In the UK HM the Queen can dissolve a hung Parliament and send the self serving politicians to answer to the voters. Since none of the self serving politicians want to do that they always find a way to compromise.
IMO the USA should just do away with it's President (down grade it to Prime Minister or something) and ask for the Monarchy back. It would cost them less and they wouldn't have some nutter with all the power.
They'd have far fewer problems and a better, more transparent democracy because of it. And while they're at it they should introduce election spending limits like we have in the UK. That means that company's or rich people can't 'buy' the election. And if they haven't got too much to spend, then the poor electorate of the USA wouldn't have to put up with so many stupid and outrageous political adverts. In fact, they should ban political ads on TV. Maybe then instead of just trying to assassinate the character of rival politicians they would actually spend the money espousing their policies.
However we all know that will never happen, because the corrupt Supreme Court basically ruled that money is 'freedom of expression' so therefore only rich people should be allowed to express themselves.
I'll be the USA's founding fathers are spinning in their graves. They rebelled against the UK because they didn't want 'rich' unelected people dictating what they can and can't do, and then they bought in a law which basically says that 'rich' unelected people can buy politicians and use them for their own self interests.
@leprecon
Jan 21st, 2018 - 11:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That was a beautiful post!
“We in the UK have an excellent political system”
“You all in the US have a ludicrous system!”
And in this ludicrous US system:
“Only rich people are allowed to express themselves.”
That's why Donald Trump, of all people, was elected POTUS.
Because only “rich” people expressed themselves.
Blue-collar people had nothing to do with it.
Great post!!
“ask for the Monarchy back”!! That's just an awesome idea!
Do you think your Queen would want to deal with a bunch of Trump fanatics anyway?
Bushpilot
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 05:57 am - Link - Report abuse +1Thank you for your comments.
Yes blue collar workers express themselves, but when you look at how US politics work, politicians brazenly lie about their opponents (protected by the 1st Amendment in a way I doubt it was ever intended) and then spend billions on advertising and spewing these lies across the country almost constantly. I mean if Obama hadn't been black would his birthplace have ever been mentioned? I mean Trumps mother was Scottish and no one is claiming that he was born in the UK and therefore ineligible to hold office in the USA. In most democracies pushing such blatant lies would see you before an ethics committee, and they could also get sued for libel and slander.
Let's face it, if you aren't rich or backed by the rich, you just aren't going to get your message across, and your message will get lost. Hence why only rich people truly have a voice. The blue collar workers just pick the best one out of a bad lot and hope they'll keep to their promises.
But lets face it in the UK we don't have Government shutdowns because our system of democracy doesn't allow for it. If the Government and Opposition can't come up with a compromise solution, then the Queen dissolves Parliament and forces a new General Election. Since no politician wants to risk the ire of the voting public.
As for your comments on the Queen, you're quite right, she wouldn't want to deal with those people.
But I still think that the USA could learn a lot from the UK system. Get money out of politics, then even blue collar workers would be able to run for office without having to sell their souls to big corporations. This would mean that politicians actually represent the interests of the people that voted for them and not the interests of the big corporations.
All democracies are flawed but the US democracy is severely flawed.
Senators and the House of Representatives are all elected as is the President. In that way the US system is more democratic than ours with the house of appointees, Lords, and the Sovereign. There is something to be said for both systems. There is no doubt that the British system is in dire need of an overhaul. Consistuency equalisation in size is a good start, a democratic much smaller Lords would be second.
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 09:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0Yeah, TV is right that the US system is more democratic than ours in many ways. And AFAIK they purposely made it difficult for their government to do anything without wide support, to stop any one person from gaining too much power. They probably thought it would encourage cooperation too!
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 12:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The advantage in a parliamentary system is that by definition the leader has enough support to govern effectively, since if they don't they rapidly cease to hold that position and someone else takes over. However, there would be no need for the US to readopt the monarchy, something I'm sure no American would ever agree too. Plenty of countries like Ireland and Germany are republics but have a more-or-less ceremonial president and it's the leader of parliament who does the governing.
I agree that money has far too much influence in US politics, but it's not like we're immune from that problem either.
As for our system, I think we need to do something about all the safe seats so that everyone's vote can make a difference. Just redrawing the boundaries to create more swing seats would help, but some kind of extra seats to make parliament more representative would be better. TV, do you think the Australian model with a senate would be a good replacement for our house of Lords? It's directly elected and has a lot more power to block legislation.
Whats democratic is that every vote should carry the same weight and that representatives should be elected area by area and that includes any second chamber. I know nothing about Oz's system but I have visited the US Congress and did the tour of it and the Supreme court with a very full briefing on how it all works. It seemed very good to me, reflecting Statehood and regional preferences too. Voting since the early 60's my wife and I have never felt we had anyone to vote for. The US and the UK both seem to be polarised presently. I admire the Germans who seem to sort out their differences before taking office and then cooperate for the greater good. Just watched a video on the production and development of the VW Beetle and the VW T1/2/3 and subsequent models after WWII. Inspirational! I love working with the Germans.
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 03:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Representatives being elected area by area is certainly not required for a country to be democratic, though it certainly has benefits. I would also like a system in which every vote carries the same weight rather than some being worth more than others (which is exactly why I want something more proportional), but the US is even worse than ours. Apart from the electoral college which gives more power to small states, the congressional districts are gerrymandered to hell because there is no independent body to oversee them.
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 04:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0One thing I do like about America is that they educate their citizens on how their political system works. People here don't seem to have a clue and I never learned anything about it in school. You'd think the various parties don't want us to be informed...
I don't think the UK is really polarised in the way America is, it's just the Brexit referendum which has brought out some nasty attitudes.
“Voting since the early 60's my wife and I have never felt we had anyone to vote for.”
Do you mean that none of the candidates have ever reflected your own beliefs? I suppose a lot of people feel like that.
It isnt very likely that any candidate would exactly reflect anyones beliefs, but in our case no candidate got anywhere near.
Jan 22nd, 2018 - 08:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorted out, dumbass.
Jan 23rd, 2018 - 07:48 am - Link - Report abuse -1Socialist cave.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/democrats-caved-on-the-government-shutdown.html
Why indeed?
Because socialists want to lead their constituencies ideologically further to the left instead represent their existent interests.
The ultimate fear of the socialist is not the universal repudiation of his ideology but rather the loss of the personal largess that accrues from his active leadership in it.
“There's nothing to sort out, dumbass.”
Jan 23rd, 2018 - 09:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0“Sorted out, dumbass.”
The real dumbass just admitted he was wrong. :)
@TV
I'm surprised, you haven't expressed any particularly unorthodox views that I can recall. What beliefs do you have that no candidate was even close to?
DT
Jan 25th, 2018 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Come, come,..you should be honoured to have such an elegant and cogent correspondent with such a classical command of the English language. His words trip from his keyboard like jewels to the edification of we lesser mortals.
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