Daily Topics - Thursday & Friday May 27 & May 28 2010
By louisehartmann
Thursday
KPOJ's morning hosts Carl Wolfson and Christine Alexander are filling for Thom today www.620kpoj.com
Friday
Thom is "Live" from Northampton, Mass - Joining Thom in studio are: Tim Carpenter, Executive Director - Progessive Democrats of America, www.pdamerica.org, David Pakman, host of "Midweek Politics" www.midweekpolitics.com and Jo Comerford, Executive Director - National Priorities Project, www.nationalpriorities.org
Plus..."Brunch With Bernie" Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spends the hour with Thom discussing the issues and answering listener questions www.sanders.senate.gov
Comments
#2
Re: Show up at your local Democratic party
I've been told to vote for the lesser of the two evils and vote democrat for the past 25 years.
I have grown weary of the same old same old.
#3
@DRichards: The last iteration of the conversation was about Bill Press referring to Obama as BushIII and Thom responded that we voted for FDR and got Bill Clinton . . . To which I wrote:
THOM! I believe you are incorrect. We did not vote for FDR and get Clinton:
On human rights, President Obama is truly GWBush-lite. On taxes and regulation, President Obama is the bastard love child of Reagan and Clinton. On corporations, President Obama is largely DLC.
#4
GO, FLYERS!!
#5
rladlot
Re: On corporations, President Obama is largely DLC.
Can you explain to me the difference between the the DLC's position regarding corporations, and the position regarding corporations by the Republican party?
Thanks
#6
@THOM: I want a Democrat in the White House now . . . not just in 2012.
#7
Drichard: re positions: DLC's position: missionary: GOP:: doggie style: both "passive"
#8
Very little if any difference. DLC = DemonCrats Loving Corporations.
Senator Lincoln (D-Wal-Mart)
Senator Dodd (D-Banking Industry)
Senator Baucus (D-Corporate America)
#9
Re: Very Little if any difference
OK, so tell me again what the actual difference is between the republican and the democratic party is.
There has to be a better solution that just voting for the lessor of the two evils (Democrat).
We keep doing the same old same old and expecting different results.
#10
the fly in the ointment is the judicial appointments. thom is right we have to have a democrat making the nominations
#11
Harry
So how do we get real change if the democrats know you will vote for them regardless?
#12
@Drichards: we can't get real change 'til we get public campaign financing.that would solve many problems. break up the corporate controlled media, more open ballot access, ending the 2 party monopoly. sounds easy, huh
#13
Harry
It seems to be a lost cause. There is no way we can compete with the corporations to change public financing, break up the corporations, ect. The whole system is broken. We have lost our republic.
The corporations now own our country. Greed wins! Humanity looses.
The only thing left for society to do is to shame the sociopaths into better behavior.
#14
shame the sociopaths into better behavior...good luck with that!
#15
Re: Good luck with shaming the socialpaths
It works in other cultures, perhaps not with ours (though peer pressure may be somewhat effective).
What do you recommend?
Perhaps we need to start schooling our children into acceptable behavior?
#16
@Drichards: what do i recommend? see #62 :)
#17
Here is a subject for a new book; it was taken from the Oxford's entrance exam. “Does the moral character of an orgy change when the participants wear Nazi uniforms?”
#18
For the United States of Hell war is a glorious event.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/the-coming-iran-war_b_593434.html
#19
Since the Republican Party is the Goose-Stepping Party, their orgies are normal and not immoral.
#20
@rladlof, "Amen!"
Tikkun Daily has a great article on "Obama's Biggest Failure." In one of the paragraphs Obama is referred to as THE THIEF OF HOPE.
Personally, I knew three or four months into Obama's presidency that he would be a failed president.
#21
@Thom, I, too, believe that appointments to the Supreme Court are very important but the United States of Hell is burning now.
Obama is not an audacious person but a thief in the night.
FOOL ME ONCE SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE SHAME ON ME!
I can no longer listen to Obama's hollow rhetoric.
#22
Here are three paragraphs from a Tikkun Daily article.
Once the country had a tradition of civil liberties that was the envy of the world; today it holds people without trial, tortures (albeit through rendition), and has a President who can order someone killed for what this person says. Once the country had a tradition of independent intellectuals, instinctively mistrustful of both business and the military, who provided a critical alternative to the government’s super-powerful propaganda apparatus. Today Paul Krugman and David Leonhardt tell us that this government is going to lessen inequality, whereas the opposite is certainly going to be the case.
To show how unconscious reasoning works, Freud once told the story of a man who returns a borrowed pot with a hole in it. “I put the hole there to help hold the pot,” he explains, “besides I had nothing to do with the hole, it was there when I borrowed the pot.” The Obama administration reasons similarly. Look at how much I am doing for you, it proclaims: more laws passed than in the Great Depression, a new Lincoln, I, a new Roosevelt. But, Oh, you have to realize, nothing can really be done. You hoped for too much; expectations were too high. It’s the system. Its Washington, It’s not my fault that so little has been done.
This then is Obama’s great failure. It is not that he has failed to lead the country in a new direction. It is that he has not tried. He awakened hopes that he had no idea how to fulfill, and, even more, no intention of fulfilling. He remains the thief of hope. And like the Gulf of Mexico, the United States will be a long time recovering from the massive oil swill of an administration whose essential message is that very little can actually be done, and besides it will be doing that little: it will be cutting entitlements.
#23
Obama has given the American people crumbs from the tables of his friends - the rich and the corporatists.
#25
Many Kinds of Terrorism
Let us look at the various kinds of terrorism that ninety percent of Americans suffer through their daily BOHICA moments. Here is a list of these terrorist acts.
Political Terrorism, such as politicians like John Boner, Demented, McConnell, Grassley, etc who obstruct passage of good laws for the American people and who pursue the enslavement of Americans! Economic Terrorism, such as slave wages, no cost of living increases, outsourcing of jobs, rifting of American workers, etc! Religious Terrorism, such as the five members who comprise the Catholic Mafia! Social Terrorism, such as racism and racial profiling! Intellectual Terrorism, such as the Texas publishing companies and the rewriting of American history and values! Aesthetic Terrorism, such as the filth and garbage on radio, television, and movie theatres! Financial Terrorism, such as deregulation of financial safety nets, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, etc! Banking Terrorism, such as the high interest rates on credit cards, shell games, and Ponzi schemes! Environmental Terrorism, such BP, Halliburton, Transoceania, Massey Mining, Valdez, etc! Communication or MSM Terrorism, such as Ann Coulter, Krauthammer, Limbaugh, Beck, Mike Drudge, Hannity, O’Reilly, wiretapping, intercepting of email, etc! Electoral Terrorism, such as the rigging of the voting processes, mishandling in the tabulation of votes, disregarding various votes, removal of names from the voter list, etc! Medical Terrorism, such as lack of adequate and affordable health care for every American, no health care for persons with pre-existing medical issues! Military Terrorism, such as the United States of Hell commencing wrong and immoral wars for adding more military bases and the take over of a country’s natural resources, etc! Corporate Terrorism, such as corporations who are considered persons but cannot be prosecuted for murders, etc! Judicial Terrorism, such as no due process, ability to arrest Americans on a whim, etc! Class Warfare or the American Caste System Terrorism, such as the elimination of the middle class and the huge differences in wealth between the rich and the middle class and the poor.
And, the United States of Hell calls herself a good, holy, and saintly nation!!! The United States of Hell has a monopoly as a terrorist nation!!!
#26
The five Catholics are the Supreme Court.
#27
When people are thinking, most people will scratch their head but I pick my nose.
#28
Here are the names of Catholics serving in the 111 U.S. Congress.
http://www.americancatholic.org/news/report.aspx?id=551
Remember true Catholics follow the Golden Rule, value Jesus' words, His words become a way of life, and become what you receive in the Holy Eucharist!
There are names on this list who are not true Catholics.
I share this information with you because Catholicism is not what many of these politicians practice in the U.S. Congress.
#29
I did not know that Jim Bunning is a Catholic and the same for Lisa Murkowski and David Vitter. In the House I thought that John Boehner or Boner is Catholic. I did not know that Steve King is a Catholic. These are names of politicians who make the news and in the meantime they disgust me. If Catholic politicians do not practice the Golden Rule, then all I can say is heaven help us.
#30
Please pray for Catholic politicians who do not practice the Golden Rule!!!
#32
The blackmailing of the president!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Day-in-November-by-Uri-Avnery-100529-101.html
#33
Here is some breaking news and it is my prediction.
Barack Obama WILL NOT SEEK RE-ELECTION IN 2012!!!
#35
Dear Thom Blog Listeners,
Please correct me if I am wrong. I sense that Thom seems to have cut back on discussing his optimism about our country’s future. Hopefully, Thom’s gifted intellect will come to grips with reality and the fact that the United States of Hell does not have a future. Maybe miracles do happen, just maybe?
#36
Israel makes me puke!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100531/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians
#37
Israel called the raid an act of self-defense. Now, I have gone from a puke to a terrential puke.
#38
Israel, no more excuses for your blood thirsty ways. Has the Israeli government released their mad dog murderers to the world?
#39
#84 has an article about Memorial Day. After reading page two scroll down to read more. Additional information starts with #11 of the article.
#40
I guess my criticism of Israel makes me an anti-Israel and an anti-Semite. The problem in our world is people are too afraid to tell it like it is. Pacifying Israel cannot hide the fact that the Israelis do have many, many murderers in their country.
#41
I will not pacify nations or religions. I am not interested in converting everyone to Catholicism or Christianity and I will criticize Muslims for their efforts to convert everyone to Islam.
#42
My guess is that all of Thom's listeners are on furloughs.
#43
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun Magazine and a co-founder of Network of Spiritual Progressives, made a statement deploring Israel's attack on the aid flotilla of small vessels. Both Tikkun and NSP offer great articles to read.
#44
Obama aide says that the oil spill could last several months. I have this sincere feeling that we are going to face endless BOHICA days.
#45
New here, just wanted to add to the dialog about the oil leak, (voilcano). If a person spills oil on the water and then uses a dispersant to hide it, has committed a crime. For instance, a common practice by recreational boaters was to squirt some JOY or DAWN diswashing liquid on the oil in the water and it would disapppear. If you were caught doing that you were guilty of violating the Oil Pollution Act. Number one you failed to repoport the incident and second you tried to hide it. Someone needs to bring charges against someone.
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I think Obama definitely different than Bush but the Senate is enforcing the bland sameness of NO - the possible is the enemy of the good - the perfect is NOT the enemy of the good.