A replay tonight of Art BELL in '96 reading govt projection of Medicare to go broke in 2001

[UTUSN]

With Art doing the "both parties" thing at fault for not wanting to discuss it, that (back then) 1 in 8 were on Medicare, and then flipping somewhat by saying it's "the American people" who don't want to hear the problem. He also predicted that everything - the country, the world? - was going to implode/explode? SOON in something he named "The Quickening."

After my recent reading of Robert CARO's LBJ books, in which, especially in "Master of the Senate," he lays out how the Congressional gridlock we are so familiar with is built-in in its design and exacerbated by the seniority system and the regional blocs choking things, and now hearing BELL in '96 about Medicare:

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Really, CARO's excrutiatingly detailed chapters on LBJ's stolen election should have been studied by our Dem crew in 2000. It was all spelled out back then. And his history of the Senate and its Rules, Southern Bloc, and how the things the people are ready to implement are stymied for generations is mindboggling.

[bluestateguy]

1. Wasn't Art Bell one of the Y2K nutjobs?

That fake, manufactured computer problem that was going to destroy civilization? I remember listening (don't ask me why) to a show he did with Gary North in 1998 about how Y2K would surely bring about the apocalypse.

[UTUSN]

2. I don't know, but it's completely likely, would fit his shtick. I only tuned in towards the end

of his run, that jaw dropping stuff about his wife dying, his retiring multiple times, the marriage really soon and relocation to the Phillippines - the whole weird thing. I mean, he's somehow likable and a master of the thing he created. Oh and on tonight's replay he did "sightings of the chupacabra" so why not the Y2K thing?!1

I detest the NOORY replacement who is pals with and frequently hosts the SwiftBotter/MinuteMan Jerome CORSI.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. Yes, he was.

That fake computer problem generated a whole lot of spending. It helped Clinton's surplus, I suspect.

[freshwest]

4. Not only that, he hosted the infamous 'we're all gonna die' caller:

I watched as a number of Christians I knew went completely around the bend about that time, listening to him nightly. They were hoarding guns, ammunition and food for the ravening hordes set to come out to the suburbs.

After that they went for Bush, and since then they've been Alex Jones/WND/Ron Paul fans. And uh, no, we don't talk much now since they're still hunkering down for the Armageddon.

Or Obamageddon, as they call it now. Another media success story from wingnut heaven. And yes, they were once reasonably sane. Sigh.

[LiberalAndProud]

5. Just a guess.

Do they listen to Rush Limbaugh too? Because you know --- I listened to Art (love me a good ghost story) but didn't ever once think of voting for Bush.

[freshwest]

6. Not sure, but after a while it became apparent they'd gone the whole 'God, guns and gays' road.

And the area (semi-suburban, had been rural and then became the home of the really wealthy with gated areas) had turned hard right. I know they were into internet blogging and all of that there. The local papers started to change in the letters to the editor. And naturally, Rush was available. That may have been the source, although things changed so much about then.

I used to try to pick up stations, and some Christian stations began to put Ann Coulter on, of all things. And I know not all people into conspiracy aren't hard right, but the most vicious of them believe a lot of it. You know, the Obama is the anti-Christ group. And just listening their stuff is close to a scary movie, too.

And even if he isn't, he's still a baby killing Democrat. Local businesses put out signs in their places to not vote for Gore because he was a baby killer and overall, it's been sad.