Daily Topics - Tuesday - April 27th 2010
By louisehartmann
Hour One - What the hell is going on on Wall Street? Chris Hayes Washington, DC Editor of The Nation Magazine www.thenation.com
Plus...Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) http://brown.senate.gov on the Financial Hearings today and reform
Hour Two - Steven Hill author of "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age" www.newamerica.net
Plus..."Labor Segment" Karen Nussbaum www.notyouratm.com Calling out Wall Street to bail out Main Street...and the I am "Not Your ATM" campaign
Hour Three - Will conservatives ever recover their rationality or electoral majorities? R. Emmett Tyrrell, author of the new book "After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery" http://spectator.org
Comments
#2
Thom,
Pigeons are getting more bold, they're riding the subways now:
#3
Bold? I call that lazy.
#4
I know this is off topic, but being that AZ is still headlining everywhere, I can't help having their rascist law in mind.
I know this solution would more then likely not be acceptable to Americans as a whole, but keeping with the whole "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" sentiment engraved on our beloved Statue of Liberty, I propose this: Allow any person who wants to enter the US and live here, give them all an instant probationary citizenship, issue a ID card then and there. At the end of the probationary period, if they haven't violated our laws, they can automatically move towards citizenship. This would allow our government to document all people coming in and track them as they see fit, as well as remove the impediment entering the country.
It fits our country's idea of innocent until proven guilty idea (even if it is rarely practiced). It would instantly document all people coming in to our country, and it would almost automatically remove illegal employer practices that prey on illegals by threating exposure if they don't work in substandard working conditions, with substandard pay. I of course believe that anyone who is here already illegally, be allowed to also request and receive these probationary citizen ID's no questions asked.
I know it would cause confusion and delay at the beginning, since it would create temporary rush of people who want to enter, but eventually it will stablize (I'd be amazed if it lasted longer than 5 years).
#5
Senator, I do so many f'ed up things on a daily basis, I really can't recall the one your specifying.
#6
Why would people need to have their memory refreshed about the economic meltdown? Have they forgotten their house or neighbors house is in foreclosure? Have they forgotten that they're unemployed or that the company they are lucky to work for is trying hard not to go under? Have they forgotten that their 401K has almost completely evaporated?
That's like needing to have my memory refreshed about having a limb amputated... the lack of not having it, is kinda' omnipresent anyway.
#7
@Maxrot: amen. My memory has been terrible after my limb loss. I lost my head.
#8
@harry, I'm glad to hear that you're malady hasn't made you like so many others who have lost their head and left you to wallow in the neo-con pool.
#9
@Maxrot..sorry, I missed that...I was submerged...
#10
Carefull harry, Boehner loves to swim in that pool while being saluted by Syracuse Orangemen ;-)
#11
@Maxrot: Orange you silly!
#12
Mitch McConnell Yelping Dog- Love it
That same espanol guy also called Randi Rhodes yesterday. This was the guy Thom made the metaphor about the guy calling in immigrants into the callers 'house'. I heard him call one other show too, might have been Norman Goldman. Another caller read off a quote that was supposedly Randis. Randi denied the quote and took the guy to the Shed!
This is the 2008 election all over again.
#13
Senator Brown's comment about throwing a rock at a pack of dogs, and the dog that yelps is the one you hit. Then he said Senator McConnel yelped in response to the regulation bill, makes me wonder how does a turtle sound when it yelps (and why is this turtle leading a pack of dogs?
#14
Refried beans and Swastikas? Can I get a side of rice and mustard gas with that plate?
#15
I would like to know WHERE IS THE DEMOCRATIC PAID BOILER ROOM?
It isn't that I don't believe in our cause. It would be nice to pay my bills, and why is it that republicans GET PAID to be political...
And Democrats DON'T?
#16
Foodfacist, glad to see you're online, I think the refried beans and swastikas issue just has to be commented on by you if noone else.
#17
Speaking of lazy....one of my most memorable interchanges with the tea partiers was with a fellow dressed as though he were a genuine billionaire. I wasted no time. We began a civil discourse. Then I called him out, with my graphic of the l curve. Each tea partier said the 98% on the bottom were simply lazy and weren't working hard enough. I kidd you not! So I took the faux or maybe real billionaire on.
Define lazy. How do you measure lazy. What is the means test, the criteria? Your next action going to be to send around the 'lazy police?' You ever rogue corn for 14 hours a day 6 days a week?
Show me your data.
Hrrmmmph! I tell you- it felt so good tearing through their paper arguments and doing it face to face.
#18
If the train is going down the tracks to fascism, it will probably run on time.
#19
@Yellowbird, why do prostitutes get paid? Because they'll have sex with people, no one else will. Same thing with the need to pay people to espouse Right Wing speech.
#20
I propose a toast...who brought the Pepto Bismol?
#21
@Food facist: Ive been waiting for the Lazy Police for weeks, now.
#22
I've been waiting
all my life for my ship to come in. It's called The Titanic and I think it may have been to big to sail.
Speaking of The Titanic, today's Democracy Now has a great segments with James Cameron on his advocacy for indigenous rights, John Ross on his book "El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City" (he's been living there since 1985 and has tremendous insight) and Congressman Raul Grijalva (D - AZ) on Arizona's new (you know what) law.
It's a great show.
#23
Hi Maxrot-
Do you know that my father had me study geology because I am deft with especially personal politics. No kidding, I am just a dummy when it comes to politics. When I discovered progressive radio, it was like having a new addition onto my brain because I am so stupid at politics of all kinds that I really rely upon this show and other progressives to be the brother who used to help me through all political reasoning before he was killed by a drunk driver.
IT is not that I am not an independent thinker. I have tried listening to right wing media, but it is not logical to me. Progressive radio is logical.
In short, what I am trying to tell you is I have no idea on how to interpret the refried swastikas action and or posts. Could have been a cynical action, could have been a cry for violence as a result of fear. I would like some hard numbers on the issue.
I know first hand illegal immigrants dealing in identity theft taking good paying American jobs while taking gravy from social services. I also do not care for their culture of having more children than they can afford or using having children here as an excuse to stay here. I lived in the UK when I played in rock bands as a youngster. I wanted to stay so I stayed beyond my visa. I was there illegal fair and square. I owned up to it and left. I might have been jailed, the person helping me leave the country certainly could have had this action taken.
I am a big believer in local sustainable economies. I am of the mind that the Mexicans need to take their country back, invest in polycuture and hold their leaders accountable. The could reclaim the desert. We could help them do this. We could also legalise some of the drugs and have these treated as health issues rather than criminal issues. We could relinguish the message of the Pope who tells them birth control and family planning are evil. We could help them change their culture so that their women are not pushing out so many children.
The employers like Smithfields and other factory farms are artificially inflating costs and our currency. Americans need to comprehend the concept of true cost including longer term planning to sustain resources.
Discompassion with compassion.
#24
@Foodfascist: Or, we could have not taken away half their land in 1848.
#25
that was expressed clumsily. I mean, wonder what Mexico would be like today if we hadn't taken away half their land, Including the land many of us live on today, in 1848
#26
Foodfacist, you're more on top of politics than you think. Ever watch a political pundit on TV, they don't know diddly squat, they just pontificate as though they do. In politics the only thing needed to succeed in commentary is to say it with confidence and conviction.
Sorry about your brother, I too had a brother I was close to that was killed back in 1990 (different circumstances though). I remember him telling about how the destruction of the middle class was coming and being orchestrated. He was wise beyond his years, but then again, sometimes our mentors seem to be ever much more than we can believe ourselves to be, however, if there wasn't some glimmer of understanding in us, would our mentors have bothered to mentor in the first place? Anyhow, all I'm saying is don't discount your knowledge and wisdom because you don't feel you know everything, the wisest among us know more than anyone else how little they really do know.
#27
In Mexico, there's 2 sayings about the U.S.: 1. "whenever the U.S. sneezes, Mexico gets cancer." and 2.: "Poor Mexico; so far from God, so near the United States."
#28
Thom
I hate to have to correct you, but I've noticed you mispronounce a word in your opening. You say Duhmocracy and the correct pronounciation Doh!mocracy. Please try to do better, I'd really appreciate it.
I'll give you a great word in advance for correcting your pronunciation:
Kakistocracy - goverment by the worst elements of society - government by the least qualified and most unprincipled citizens
Does that concept seem familiar?
#29
@harry, what would the world be like today, if the US hadn't taken the southwest in 1848? Would we have had the same outcome in the Civil War? Would we have entered WWI without the Zimmerman note? Would we every had a city like Hollywood? Would you actually be able to get good authentic Mexican food in Chicago? (Deep dish carne asada pizza anyone?)
I shudder to think. ;-)
#30
@Maxrot: Just think of the Presidents we would never have had! :D
#31
Can one yelp without lips? :-D
#32
Polk might have ran for a second term if he had failed to sieze the whole Southwest from Mexico in his first term.
All the gold discovered in the west may have been retained by Mexico. Yes it definitly would have been a different world.
#33
THX Maxrot-
"He was wise beyond his years, but then again, sometimes our mentors seem to be ever much more than we can believe ourselves to be, however, if there wasn't some glimmer of understanding in us, would our mentors have bothered to mentor in the first place?"
Suppose my brother would not have bothered taking the time had he not thought I might not actually awaken someday.
#34
@harry, the irony might have been that Mexico would have an illegal immigrant problem from the US. Damn gringo's coming over here with their pink babies.
#35
Co-ops.
Here is a website I like to give out to introduce persons to cooperatives. This would indeed be another solution to our immigrant problem which has a multi pronged solution:
I belong to our cooperative here in SAC, it is so cool. And you can order a years worth of pet food at outrageous discounts.
#36
Speaking of memory
I noticed a few comments about memory problems earlier on today's blog.Here's a poem about memory by Billy Collins who was George Dubya Bush's selection for Poet Laureate of the Homeland. It's even better to hear Collins read it. I heard him on Prairie Home Companion.
Forgetfulness
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
Billy Collins
#37
@Maxroot, Yellowbird re: why we do not get money for blogging.
One has to realize the right wing is of, by and for money. The money is for only a few, and those few have to pay the masses to get any presence on the blogs, letters to the editor etc.
#38
Government shrinks above 19%. Lower taxes lead to bigger government from the 40s to the 80s from the KADO institute? Well..its like buying a wardrobe of high quality once every 5 of 6 years as opposed to buying crap from Wal-Mart on a regular basis. One purchase of high quality well researched will be durable and remain in fashion. Cheap crap only makes you upset and look stupid. It is even better, per a real model who tutored me on this, to purchase a good Pendleton from a used clothing store than a new piece of cheap crap from Wal-Mart.
In Biology we call this the k vs the r strategy. The r strategy is the insect or fish that throws out a gazillion eggs knowing only a few will survive. The k strategy is the elephant that carefully raises a few offspring that the parents can manage well.
These strategies is what I based my get the pope remark and the Mexican culture's over population on. Typically, the improverished will try to wage a genetic war of their own by out populating their oppressors. A new strategy for them per greater education would be greater advanced planning taking into consideration the cost of raising a child to their ideal optimum. Including college, this could easily be a quarter of a million dollars per child.
#39
RE: 1848.
I believe America was great, not because of the land and gold of California, but because of Paine, Jefferson, Washington and the oppression of an oligarchy, headed by British East India company and King George III.
Mexico beat us to being an oligarchy, but Reagan gave us that boost to an oligarchy. As you might have noticed after the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush continuation towards an oligarchy, Mexicans started to return to Mexico.
#40
I've said it before, and I say it again. Someone please read Shakespears' The Merchant of Venice, in regards to GMO foods. If these corporations want a pound of flesh, let them have it, but they can only have the pound of flesh, they are not waste one drop of blood.
If their seeds contaminate crops, then take each and every contaminating seed back but leave each and every healthy seed where it is.
#41
Its emigration not reverse immigration.
#42
Caller to Norman Goldman show said buses to take immigrants back to Mexico were loading and that these operators were making good money. We ought to get Greg Palast on this. I truly believe and respect Palast's reporting on the voter suppression, but that alone is too simple a silver bullet to understanding this very complex multi-pronged issue.
#43
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THAT VOTING IS NOT ONLY THE SILVER BULLET IT IS THE GOLD BULLET.
#44
@chuckle8, I agree with your comments, but California was not the only land of gold in the Southwest, Idaho, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, North Dakota, etc... the southwest was loaded with the yellow stuff (though in truth, I think Idaho was controlled by Britain at the time). Everyone just thinks California was the only source in the west, but that's overhyped.
#45
Chuckles-
What does it do to wages when someone is willing to work for slave labor?
#46
@Foodfacist, re slave labor comment; minimum wage remains well below a living wage.
#47
Correct. This is where the Thom Hartmann super duper Mon Dragon Cooperative ratio of employee to employer comes in. Should you read Richard Branson's autobiography, his first couple companies employed such ratios. Everyone loved being his customer because all the employees loved each other and there was an egalitarian vibe the customers picked up on and loved equally.
#48
The simple difference between liberals and conservatives:
Liberals identify with and root for Robin Hood.
Conservatives identify with and root for Prince John.
(T-partiers think they're supporting Robin Hood, when they do the Sheriff of Nottinghams' bidding)
N
#49
Still seeing "Bank Owned Property" signs here in California. Just as much now as a few years ago.
N
#50
This amused me ... a quote from the introductory paragraphs of Tyrell's "After the Hangover" -
"...the conservative political animal is so fundamentally different from the liberal political animal that the two might be drawn from different species. Politically speaking, the conservative is more domesticated, less feral." (Emphasis mine.)
SAY WHAT??!! The party of FEAR is less feral?!The party of GUNS FOR ALL is more domesticated?? Gimme a break!
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