"The Tea Party movement was started by Republican Congressman Dr. Ron Paul in 2007.[11][12][13] [14][15] [16][17] [18]The movement grew exponentially following Barack Obama's first presidential inauguration (in January 2009) when his administration announced plans to give bailouts[19] to bankrupt homeowners." - From the Wikipedia article "Tea Part movement".
I looked this up because I wasn't all that sure of it myself. All I knew was that I had never heard of the Tea Party until shortly after Obama was elected to his first term. It's a long article but, if you just read the summary at the beginning, you can get a pretty good idea of what the Tea Party is all about. As I had previously read somewhere, there is no one Tea Party organization, it's a collection of loosely affiliated groups that more or less share a common agenda. Wiki describes it as a "grass roots movement", which is consistent with what I had read about it in the past. I was surprised to read, however, that about 10% of Americans consider themselves to be Tea Partiers. I suppose that includes sympathizers and fellow travelers as well as card carrying members, but that still seems like a lot of people in this fragmented culture of ours.
I noticed that Obama announced plans to bail out bankrupt homeowners, which is the way I remember the TARP deal as originally being sold to the public. Of course they did nothing of the sort, they bailed out the banks and left the homeowners twisting in the wind. I was against TARP as I am against all bailouts on general principles, but I said at the time that, if they were going to have a bailout, they should have bailed out the homeowners like they had originally promised. The banks would have ended up with the money anyway, so there would have had two bailouts for the price of one. Be that as it may, I don't suppose it would have mattered who was elected president in 2008, since both McCain and Bush II also spoke in favor of some kind of bailout.
I guess I got a little carried away with my xenophobic rant in my last post. That's what happens when I watch too much news on television. I should probably stick to the weather and stock market reports.
Of course it's unlikely that Beaglesonia will be over run by undesirable aliens any time soon, which is another good reason to live here. Terrorists, both Islamic and otherwise, usually target mass gatherings of people so as to maximize civilian casualties, which is another good reason to avoid mass gatherings of people. All things considered, I am as safe here as anybody can reasonably expect to be. I wish I could say the same for you. Have you bought that fast boat yet?
Illegal immigration, especially from Mexico, has been going on for a long time, and both parties are to blame for that. The Republicans want them for cheap labor, and the Democrats want them for cheap votes. It would be difficult to shut the door now, after it has been blocked open for so long, but there seems to be a growing demand that we do just that. I think that explains Trump's popular appeal, he is saying what a lot of people are thinking. Too bad a more rational candidate doesn't come out with a more rational plan to address the issue. Well, maybe someone has, but I haven't heard of it. Have you? No, amnesty is not a rational plan, it will just encourage more illegal immigration.
According to Wiki, the Immigration Act of 1965 is what changed the legal immigration demographics from European to Asian and Hispanic. I understand that the old quota system that was passed in 1920 was biased towards White people, and I can see why the liberal establishment of the 60s wanted to correct that, but hasn't the pendulum swung far enough the other way by now? You know, the only thing I've got against Asians, which includes Middle Easterners, and Hispanics is that there are so darn many of them. Come to think of it, that's what I've got against the whole human race, so maybe I'm not so prejudiced after all. I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if I was sure they all would stay in the big cities. They probably will, but I wish I could be more sure of that.
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