Is President Obama on the verge of handing Republicans yet another victory?
According to sources within the White House – the President is planning on announcing deep cuts to Social Security in his State of the Union address next month. Hoping to preempt Republican calls to cut the social safety net and show some seriousness about trimming the deficit – President Obama will once again shirk his progressive base and embrace Republican ideology. If he thought the left was angry over the tax cut capitulation – just wait until he sees the outrage from progressives over cutting Social Security less than a month after extending a budget-busting, deficit spending tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.
Comments
The stench in the United States is unbearable.
Smells of America
I want to say to you in this open letter that I am deeply upset. Yes, I have been critical of my country and from my posts you, too, can sense my criticism but I tell it like I perceive it. What makes me deeply upset are the subtle rumors, probably by non-Americans, that America smells like human arm pits. If people are going to be critical of my country, they need to be honest and truthful in their assessment of the smells of America. I do not believe that America smells like human arm pits!
If people want an honest and truthful assessment of the smells of America, they must take the time and go outside to fill up their nostrils with the smell of napalm in the morning and the smell of burning human flesh in the evening. The smells of America are napalm and burning human flesh. These smells are my olfactory perception of America.
http://www.truth-out.org/saving-social-security-stopping-obamas-next-bad-deal66099
Can we save social security?
If Obama hits Social Security I prey and hope that USA Hackers shutdown the Government by hitting all systems! Jeffereson clearly warned, "We The People" about this type of action and what to do when a government no longer listens to the citizens. The administration is fastly niave if they do not recognize that today there is the ability to have a revolution without firing a shot. By the way that is the last straw for me if this happens I will stay home on election day! For this would provide undeniable proof that our votes no longer matter!
Wow. Who is Obama getting his advice from? This will be pretty awful if it comes to pass. This is so devastating on so many levels -- not least of which is the fact that young people came out in record numbers to put Obama into office. By going against his promises and ignoring the progressives, he's going to make all of those young people ignore politics for the foreseeable future to the detriment of us all. And I can't blame them. How many times can progressives be punched in the gut before we just stop caring? It's seriously depressing at what a disappointment Obama has been.
No one talks about taking the high income CAP off of SS. That would take care of any possible shortfall in 20 years. SS has nothing to do with the deficit. I am developing the most intense anger toward this deluded President. What makes him think Republican ideas work??? They haven't worked for the past 30 years! Who does he think supported him and helped him to win office. I, personally, have never spent so much in political campaign as I did his. This is beyond infuriating.
I am so disgusted with Obama, that I am finding it difficult to care anymore..
I think he should run as a Republican on the next election.. Because I dont see how he can win the next election as a Democrat, when he has alienated the progressive base, and the conservatives will always vote for an actual Republican (I am having a hard time seeing his strategy). I would be surprised if there were enough blue dogs to get him elected..
I remember thinking that maybe things need to get really bad to wake up the voters, then bush2 came along and made things really, really bad. But it did not wake up the voters (senile mccain nearly won over obama).. Obviously because of FAUX news.. I ponder what it would take to wake up voters, because look how far Nazi Germany went before people turned against that regime.
When election time comes I may hold my nose and vote for him though, because thom says the judge appointments are important.. I wonder who Obama would appoint though?
bobbler
Obama should talk to Al Franken about fixing Social Security. Besides from just raising the cap, Al always spoke about a "donut hole" fix. In other words, after a person's pay reaches the current cap, no more SS withholding. Between the current cap and a to-be-determined higher cap, again no withholding. But all those who earn beyond the higher cap would begin to be taxed again. To me, this seems a good compromise. I'm not sure if Senator Franken still advocates this idea, but I think it sounds very reasonable.
If Americans have anything left, cut Social Security while giving the fat cats a boost will cause riots in the streets. I wonder if any Americans have it in them?
If Obama even so much as suggests cuts to Social Security, he will accomplish Mitch McConnell's stated goal of making himself a one-term president, because proposing said cuts will alienate the liberal base more than he already has. And we're the ones he needs, because there's no way on Earth that the Republican leadership will rally for him. Even if he switched parties, I bet they'd still call him a socialist and leave him on the sidelines.
I understand the need for compromise, but I am damn tired of seeing Democrats—especially presidents—drift to the right in an effort to please a party that has no intention of being pleased by anyone outisde its own ranks. We saw Clinton do that, and it didn't save him from impeachment.
Obama has been doing the same thing almost since his inauguration. In his press conference regarding the tax cut deal he spoke about compromise, noting that each side gives up something it doesn't want. He's right about that (though I'd have preferred less condescending language) but I'm still waiting to hear exactly what the Republicans gave up in that negotiation. And now comes word that he's preparing to propose cuts to Social Security before negotiation even starts (shades of single-payer and the public option) even though, as noted, Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit.
I had no illusions about Obama when he was elected, but I never thought he'd be such a weak leader. But I've had it, and I hope a real Democrat steps forward to challenge him in 2012.
Sadly, nothing, Thom.
Why don't you give a good deal to the local PACIFICA radio station, WPFW, 89.3 FM (which airs Democracy Now every morning at 8 a.m.), so you can be heard in Washington, D.C., your new home? Perhaps, then, some of our lawmakers, and their aides, would hear you on their way to "legislating" and hear good ideas. How about it?
We had Air America (and you) on a local AM station for a while. I heard you say there wasn't a progressive voice on the radio dial in the DC market. Here's your chance.
I'm done with Obama. I'm focusing my energy in other places, and if there's no primary opponent or third-party candidate...well, I'm willing to suffer the consequences. I know my stance is not popular, but six more years of conservative government is not okay. Voting for Obama again would be a betrayal of our values. This must end now. If it means destroying the Democratic party, so be it. The party is not representing us. We're losing when we think we're winning. If we're going to lose anyway, let's do it uncompromised.
Well, Thom, much like you I did everything I could to facilitate Obama's election. Signed more petitions than I thought I'd ever sign. Donated more money than I could afford, voted and encouraged many others to vote as had I, and then anxiously awaited the outcome of the election. I was thrilled, then confused (was he playing 3 dimensional chess???), then disheartened, disappointed, and now just downright angry. If he alters social security (one of the few things that hasn't been damaged by the repubs & their cronies, so far).......I will be enraged. I will do everything in my power to see to it that he does NOT have a second term!!! I wish Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer were sitting in his seat! Actually, Joe Biden wouldn't be a bad bet, either!!! There are ethical people out there who do give a damn about their fellow man; we just have to track them down and convince them to run for office.... Hmmmm, Bernie Sanders.....there are so many good men and women who would do a far better job than this turncoat!!!!!
I'm not suprised Obama is Cutting Social Security. I supported the election of Obama yet soon after the election I posted a cautionary warning about his vanity (or weakness) on my Facebook page and got
sacked for even suggesting the possibility. Some people were so angry they blocked me. Well, I've got to tell you the moment he Amped up the war in Afghanistan I suspected Obama sold out. Ha, I don't even believe
an elected president in the United States has any real power. I believe Obama is the most obvious puppet with the most obvious motive of any president we have ever had. I'll give him this...he is transparent. I'm not happy, patriotic , or proud to be an American if this is what it means. I believe I grew up in a liberated country where voting citizens made up the government. How could I have been so Naive.
It really doesn't surprise me in a nation where the best defense against terrorism is in intelligence and divergence at home we continue to exhaust our resources abroad. Pretty much a no brainer.
We didn't even benefit from any oil for our sins. I thought that was what it was all about.
How can so few comments be posted? The first thought that comes to mind is trojan horse. I hope President Obama at some point proves that theory incorrect. If not then the next words that come to mind are Primary and then Fiengold/Grayson. What this country needs is a president who will cherish the hatred of the people Obama compromises with. We need someone who will use the pulpit to discrace the war profiteers. Someone who will fight tooth and nail for a national healthcare plan,which all CIVILIZED counties have. Someone who might even have the courage to defend the publics right to know the truth instead of jumping on the kill the messenger bandwagon. Maybe President Obama is trying to... sorry, I couldn't think of anything there. I'll keep listening every time you're on the XM maybe you'll think of what that something may be.
I'm not quite sure of what the President is thinking but, he needs to reread his history lesson on concessions to republicans from 1936 on to the present.
I understand that the President is under enourmous pressure since the republicans now own the media and have full control over the national message but, if we don't dig in and use the power of the FCC and the White House to correct the propaganda in the media, America as a democracy is sunk.
I marched with brother Martin.
He's dead
My wife's best friend was shot dead at Kent state.
(He is dead too)
Bobby is dead.
Both Johns asre dead.
I saw the Dems at Chicago thru Pa Dailey's batons and had my hands plastic wrapped at no nukes rallys.
And...hell no I will not fightn in a foreign country for a corporation,,, but the gaylestrans??? they just fought for the right to be signed up ??? and now they think they have landed a victory ( read Niccolò Machiavelli.)
I wonder, did they read "The Prince "?
The corporation will put them in the front lines ,, or drop them out of the planes,, or give them the blue helmets with orders to shoot the insurgents (in their homeland).
The corporations brought down the towers.
They will keep their puppets in power as long as they are useful.
Cold Beer.
NBA .
USA.
What is the score,who won today?
Transnational corporations go all the way.
Barak, smiling, just got the hostages pizza and bottled water, and for that he had to sign away their first born and their first born. Atlas Shrugged !
Should we be sending a corporate sock puppet to negotiate for our hostages?
I listen to the pundits and some say it is as good as it gets, some differ .
I marched, was tied, shot at, and I keep reading.
Humidify your environment.
Eat only nutritious food.
Have you seen the leaders of the GOOP ? (intentional miss-spelling)
They won't last till 2012
A Democracy is the most difficult entity to overcome politically.
A Democracy is the most easily compromised commercially.
I said that
The Saint
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Made his own thread.
wove his own cloth,
grew his own food,
made his own salt,
Brought down the British Empire,
Got shot dead by a ????
He will be a one-term president. Republicans won't vote fom no matter what he does. This way neither will I!
The more he caves-in to the Republican agenda the less we Progressives can be held hostage of the argument that 'if we (progressives) don't support Obama we're aiding the Rebublicans'. That threat is dissolving as we watch his inept attempt at Politics. He is truly a novice politician. Hillary was right.
But your question,'What will we do?', leaves us with several alternatives: do nothing-NO; continue to support him-why?; launch a primary assault and/or support a 3rd party candidate and in both cases we will watch as he becomes a 1 term president as well as having to watch as history devalues his Presidency. That I believe is already happening. AT the least if he stands up for the 98%ers who aren't rich, the republicans will "own" the damage to SS. His way is the circular firing squad again. Sad indeed but he will have his feelings hurt while we, the 98% ers, will watch our future's dissolve.
Regretfully,
Lee Dodge
gomer gomer .,, brother,
slow down,
first ,,,,write your thoughts down on paper,
transcribe to the screen,
conserve your passion.
we need all input to understand the true heart.
This is the power.
Hillary is.
Hillary is.
C F R
C F R
C F R
C F R CFR CFR CFR CFR CFR
so is Bill !!!!!!
Is BARAK a member of the Council of Foreign Relations?
I do not know!!
This is more importnat than where he was born.
The United States Chamber of Commerce is the First born of The Council of Foreign Relations
Maybe he is a Manchurian candidate, for the Rupugs, the Democrats wil be done as a party
Obama is an Eisenhower Republican, and basically ran on the 1956 Republican platform, and while he is the best available choice currently around, it is good to remember that. I wonder how he feels about bread lines.
To What End will Thom Support Obama?
You are delusional if you think that we "Have to Have" Obama in office for the SCOTUS appointments. There will be no democracy left by then! So who cares?
There is no "Circular Firing Squad" Obama is a McCain/Clinton Corporatist. He's Harvard Elitist! No one gets to where he did without owing people favors. And those people are the Wealthy 1%. He is not one of us, so stop “Hoping” he will be and Start Fighting Him. Obama Sold His Soul to be President. The community organizer in him is dead.
It’s Time for Thom to advocate civil disobedience. Embrace your inner SDS, Thom. PLEASE!
This observation/opinion has already been put forth.
you may have come to this conclusion independently.
you are tuned in
you are turned on
stay connected
Hey,,, Oh
My father thought Eisenhower spent too much time on the links/lynks
I was a baby only interested in breasts,
where have I been for the last 22 minutes ??
The SDS only got you infiltrated.
There was no internet then.
coffeehouses,folkclubs,potdealers,better,worse...
A limited network.Two drink minimum...
It has grown....
We are now the leaves on a tree whichnone can see the rootball.
Celebrate diversity and anonymity...
Can you say anon...
Lee,
In your post, "futures" is the plural and needs no apostrophe, please proof read your posts.
Please don't Sarah out on us.
Yur teacher.
I'm afraid Wall St. has found its perfect spokesmodel. Talks Prog-like (D), lays on the golden rhetoric, but acts GOP, just to the right of Reagan. The clueless middle like him, as does anyone with only a passing shallow understanding of how things work.
It's just a good cop/bad cop act. You have to judge by the results, and he has done more to benefit millionaires and billionaires, in particular, the big banks, than anyone else. His bread is buttered, and he knows exactly from which side.
Politics is the subtle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich while promising each to protect them from the other. (Or something like that, I forget the exact quote.)
Unfortunately in our society, the wealth extraction scheme being run by the 2% on the 98% of the rest of us isn't even understood by most people, they haven't caught on yet. Because of the ever accelerating flow of wealth to the very most economically advantaged, the rest of us can't really afford to hire or intimidate our very own personal government to allow us to write laws to enshrine any crimes we want to commit on the sheeple as standard operating procedure.
But the 2% has plenty of funds to throw at influencing politicians and the gullible masses due to the massive return on investment they get back, in terms of sweetheart deals, tax breaks, subsidies, loopholes, etc.
The political party (there is really only one, with two faces: good cop/bad cop) just operates as a business. If in minority, they must collect funds to campaign, to get elected, gain power, and receive the spray from the cash firehose. Both parties are just fighting with each other over who gets to be the lead whore to Wall St. and the big banks, and facilitate their ever increasing wealth extraction from our real economy. Lather, rinse, repeat, infinite loop.
Obama is Wall Street's perfect bitch.
The left can't run anyone against him, and he can implement as much GOP policy as they want him to, under the guise of "compromise", "moderation", and "bipartisanship."
Just look where his money came from, and where it is coming from for 2012. He'll probably spend close to a billion dollars to get re-elected, pretty much mandating his day job as Wall St. shill, and night shift as big bank whore. We the people can't get him where the powers that be want him to be. Only their money can do it. He knows it, and they know it. We should know it too.
Judge the tree by the fruit it bears. He'll toss just enough sop to the left base to keep them from fielding a contender, and keep stringing them along for money and votes. The right could never achieve the level of gutting of the social net with a GOP pres, but don't worry. THe Status Quo powers have the solution. The latest, greatest spokesmodel/whore/flim-flam man. We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania. We will always be at war with Oceania.
I think that 90% of us would be willing to make great sacrifices to solve the country's problems, as long as we knew for actual fact that EVERYONE had to sacrifice PROPORTIONALLY.
That doesn't mean cutting SS recipients' benefits by 20% to pay for rewarding the wealthiest among us for being born into a position of economic advantage and opportunity.
What it means, is that if you cut 20% of the income for the LEAST advantaged among us, you would have to cut all revenue streams of income for the MOST advantaged by the same percent. Except that wouldn't even begin to address the inherent difference that the 20% of the poor's income comes out of what they need to survive, just to get by, just to live on. In the case of the most well off, they may well make 10, 100, or 1000 times that more than what they need to maintain life.
Even a proportional sacrifice by all doesn't address the existing structural inequalities and inefficiencies that already exist. It isn't like we all start out at the same place on the playing field, with the same training and support, etc. I don't believe in legislating outcome, in no way. But I do firmly believe all should have relatively equal access to the same opportunities, resources, and the chance to make something of it.
In all fairness, those entities and/or individuals who profited so greatly (made out like bandits) from selling our manufacturing base and our jobs overseas should foot the bill to re-create good living wage jobs to replace the ones they whored out.
Yeah, like that could happen.
If Obama advocates cutting any part of Social Security then I think it is high time for us, his base, to impeach him. I certainly will not vote for him again...that's for sure. Even if it means another Republican President. I think it is high time for a revolution in this country and if the people can find no one to really represent their interests then a revolution may be closer than anyone imagines....and it won't be just an internet rebellion. People could get hurt...hopefully, they will all be the scumbag Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats and their puppet-masters...the rich. Something needs to scare the BeJesus out of these wealthy-elite like what was done in the 20s and 30s...which is what was needed back then...and what is needed now...for any meaningful change to better the lives of most Americans.
If Obama loses the next election...
Republicans win! If Obama wins the next election...Republicans wins! The Republicans, of course, would still like to have their explicitly Republican holding the reigns but they would settle for another Obama Presidency as he is also their man. Republican or Democrat...doesn't matter...but if Americans really wanted to shake the tree they need to dump both Republicans and Democrats...unless those Democrats are really Progressive Democrats and not traitor-to-their-party Blue Dog Democrats. There are some Democrats who are worthy of the name and we know who they are! We praise them! We scorn the others! We need to knock Obama off his pedestal and get Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich or even Ralph Nader. I'd love to see Dennis Kucinich along with financial advisor Michael Hudson, economist steering this ship of state before it sinks to the bottom.
If Obama is NOT a Republican mole, he is giving a very good imitation of one! He is attacking the middle-class and doing Republican dirty work for them. Most of the voters will then vote Republican to "punish" Obama and the Democrats (as they did last November), unaware of the fact that they are like Jews voting for Nazis. They are putting their executioners in power.
We are in a Weimar moment. Our "democracy" no longer works - the GOP makes sure of that. The corporate elite see a chance to achieve their dream of destroying both the New Deal and Great Society legacies, destroying unions once and for all and reducing the once proud American middle class to the level of serfs. The GOP is literally robbing the public treasury and dispensing hard-earned tax money to their wealthy friends and patrons, yet the media will not challenge their lie of being the "fiscally responsible" party. To divert attention from this robbery, the GOP arouses the most ignorant and backward segments of the population as its "black shirts," busy fighting phantom enemies such as liberals, gays, minorities, etc. The most right-wing of our churches (including the Catholic Church) look forward to a regime where the state will enforce their religious doctrines. And there is NO OPPOSITION powerful enough to stop it. The Democrats could, but they are divided and following a president who may be on the other side.
If the President does obey the Republicans and cuts Social Security payments, it just might be the catylist The People need to impeach him, or otherwise rise up to battle the new world order wealth and power boys in Washington.
They might not have any fear of Us old ones. They might by the time We are finished.
Maybe not.
We shall see.
The real prisoners, are the ones who blindly serve systems of power and force. They are the mandarins inside the White House, the Congress, and the Pentagon. The masters of war are slaves to the idols of empire, power and greed, to the idols of careers, to the dead language of interests, national security, politics and propaganda. They kill and do not know what killing is. In the rise to power, they became smaller. Power consumes them. Once power is obtained they become its pawn. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, politicians such as Barack Obama fall prey to the forces they thought they had harnessed. The capacity to love, to cherish and protect life, may not always triumph, but it saves us. It keeps us human. It offers the only chance to escape from the contagion of war. Perhaps it is the only antidote. There are times when remaining human is the only victory possible. - Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/bitter_memories_of_war_on_the_way_to_jail_20101220/
Chris Hedges should be required weekly reading for the THP. I was saddened last Wednesday when Thom mentioned that he hadn't read his recent article. Every Monday, Read it, and change your opinion of Obama and the Democratic Party. Progressives are Not served by the Democratic Party. More Bernie Sanders' please.
Obama hasn’t changed since 2006. This long painful read will tell you all you ever wanted to know about what type of person he is. Basically, He’s just another Washington Power Player.
Barack Obama Inc.: The birth of a Washington machine
By Ken Silverstein 2006
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/11/0081275
We have to make the banks become invested in our survival? – Matt Taibbi
If all of us go bankrupt then the banks fail. So we should have power over them.
Not surprised that now Obama and his administration is going down the Republican path to cut and dismantle Social Security. What do we do about? Hoping the Democratic Party at least in the Senate has some Senators willing to fight all the way via filibusters etc. Things seem very hopeless now as we move into the plutocratic rule of the corporate oligarchy. The only way to get attention will be to restore the civil disobedience actions like in the 1960s and 1970s.
How long do we have before America is a failed Empire? Would another world banking disaster precipitate anarchy? As Republicans dismantle the New Deal we spend a trillion dollars yearly on defense. This is a recipe for disaster and it will not last. The lyrics of Don Henley's song "Working It" are prophetic. Welcome to the U.S.A. We are partying fools in the autumn of our hay day. We are running out of everything but we just can't quit.
As to Obama cutting social security, what we will end up with is "chaos". Just what the fascists/corporatists/neocons want to see happen in America.
What I hope would happen is that America wake up to the fact that Obama deserves to be impeached for his failure to defend the Constitution. He is a vindictive narciscist that is mentally unfit to hold the office of President. Just ask Charles Rangel and the other Democrats in Congress that Obama has turned his back on.
Look at what George Soros is up to. His misnamed Center for American Progress (CAP) put out a 54 pag document last month putting pressure on Obama to rule through unitary executive methods, using Executive Orders, Federal regulations and any other trick he can think of to violate the Constitution and bypass Congress altogether. This document also goes on to state that if he can't bypass Congress then cut a backroom deal with the Senate Republicans and shove it down the throats of the Democrats (sound familiar?). Remember Charlie Rangel's words last week that the House takes up all legislation related to taxes and budgeting. It is in Article I, Section VII of the Constitution which Obama knowlingly violated. Obama committed an impeachable offense!
Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit since it is separately funded. It is criminal to maintain otherwise and any government official who does so should be impeached.
It helps to know. For anyone interested, this is point-for-point what the journalist Naomi Klein predicted in her book Shock Doctrine. In that book, she explored, diagrammed and provided case analysis for how the power brokers of our time use one crisis after another to justify cutbacks and reductions in our standards of living so that the rich (the top 2% who own 80-90 percent of the worlds wealth) can take more for themselves. Social Security represents trillions of dollars that the rich want to get their hands on. It's as simple as that.
Thom does such a great job educating us and making us aware of how all this works. I wonder if some of the posters to this blog are paying attention. Social Security is not in trouble. It is doing just fine financially. It has no connection to the "financial ills" of the United States, and it is independently financed, so it has no connection to any deficit. The financial deficits are not a problem. They were never a problem in the past either. If we want to fix the so-called deficits, all we have to do is: 1). Re-engage 'progressive taxation' so that the rich pay their proper share of taxes, and 2). re-engage trade tarriffs back up to 1950s levels. These two things alone will get rid of the so-called deficits.
By the way, re-engaging the trade tarriffs will also bring back our jobs because it will simply be too expensive to make stuff in overseas sweat shops. Alan Greenspan and his clan can try to make economics sound scary and complicated, but, as a business owner myself, I can tell you that economics is not complicated.
The biggest problem we (the public) has is, we are vastly under-educated. Thom works every day to rectify that. He spends hours explaining how this stuff works and why the rich are doing what they are doing. All of us need to pay attention to the teacher. Thank you Thom for the incredibly amazing and courageous work you do for all of us. Keep it up. For us students, I have one piece of advice--turn on your ears and bring your pencils to class next time.
. . .
SSA is just a whipping boy for the real issues. We should recognize that what was at stake over the last 6 months, in the last election, and what republicants characterized as the "uncertainty" hanging over the economy [purportedly stifling investment], was in fact "cap and trade", not social security, not bailouts, and certainly not tax policy. Gas is still king.
Now that cap and trade is dead, the economy will suddenly heal; it will be a jobless recovery, but a recovery nonetheless. Yet politicians will demand other sacrifices from the people, social security may indeed be gutted, and all will be futile. There will be no new jobs. Any stimulus to business will be spent overseas. Obama will be defeated in 2012 for not having cut taxes enough. And yet the real issue will never be addressed, unless we take the law into our own hands, which is what Democracy is all about. How so, you ask?
The so-called crisis of unemployment has been a charade and a smoke screen for passing those changes to tax policy, estate taxes, and now, changes to social security. Surrounded by economic advisors for whom the revolving door of Washington politics was a way to polish up personal career success on Wall Street, Obama is trapped in a bubble, and only a severe defeat or a million people on Pennsylvania avenue, will awaken him to the lies. While well intentioned, he simply has been deluded by his advisors, and a mass demonstration of people power is needed to awaken him.
The real issue is the Malthusian dilemma, 100,000 new jobs per month are needed just to stay even with population growth. No one should doubt that this is only going to get worse. Iran, India, and China are all caught on the horns of this dilemma, and the US too.
One solution to the stranglehold of the banks on money is to develop a second economy, where the govt pays $30 cash per student per hour for credits earned in teaching unemployed workers new skills at community colleges, and those hour credits can also optionally be used to exchange for other hourly services, without taxation. Once launched, credits can also be generated by individuals who receive other services, a sort of work IOU, but having the federal govt involved, or a state municipality, will quickly build the needed critical mass to have liquid credits circulate and be honored by participating individuals and businesses. Others have demonstrated this "hour credit" can work, what is needed is a municipality or state to prime the pump by recognizing the credits as legal tender for certain kinds of debts and put a dollar equivalent value by making them exchangeable for cash.
We should recognize that sustained pressure on politicians can bring about good results, and that sustained apathy only generates more apathy. Can anyone suggest a means to get mass demonstrations on the nightly news, every night? An army on the shores of the Potomac! That's the one sure way to burst the Washington bubble effect.
KL
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
Week of December 20 – 26, 2010
A Joyous Season
As the days dwindle down to the birth of our Lord and Savior, let us reflect on why Christmas is a joyous season in our country. We are the leader in the sales of weaponry and mass destruction that will kill God’s children; we are the leader in corruption, hatred, and lies; and we are the leader in mass murders and war crimes. Yes, Americans are very joyous for the coming Christmas season. We are ten years into a one hundred year war in the Middle East with a goal to annihilate 6.3 billion people and have Leo Strauss’ dream come true with a planet of five hundred people. America’s manifest destiny will then be completed.
Information is power. Our American government wants to destroy sources of information, such as Wilkileaks, Julian Assange, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Rob Kall, Arianna Huffington, Justin Raimondo, Ray McGovern, Richard Clark, and PD America to name some sources of many sources. The ending of Internet access will delight the conservative crazies and many Blue Dog Democrats.
http://original.antiwar.com/kevin-zeese/2010/12/19/deceit-and-truth-are-feeding-resistance-to-us-militarism/
A love affair with dishonesty!
http://www.stripes.com/blogs/ombudsman/ombudsman-1.8931/now-comes-don-t-read-don-t-tell-1.129107
Just remain stupid is the goal of our federal government.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/U-S-Taxpayer-Dollars-Kill-by-Ralph-Lopez-101217-967.html
Americans are killing Americans!!!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Obama-s-Afghan-Strategy--by-Allen-L-Roland-101218-965.html
The sell out of our troops!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Corporate-America-s-New-Pl-by-Richard-Clark-101218-621.html
Screwed again!!!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Corruption-is-slowly-killi-by-Adnan-Al-Daini-101217-897.html
Democracy’s death!
“It's sad to look toward the next two years as a series of "cave-ins" by Obama, which is what I expect will happen as he inflicts his deranged bi-partisan proclivities upon Americans who had no clue that it would mean giving in more than Republicans expected, like his sabotaging the future of Social Security by defunding it.” - Rob Kall
“We are facing the end of safety nets in the United States of Mortal Sin.” - Gerald