Is the demise of the Tea Party near?
By louisehartmann
Watch the TRUE Story of the Tea Party here! Is the demise of the Tea Party near? According to a new CNN poll – the Tea Party’s favorability rating has sunk to an all-time low – just 32%. And 47% of respondents view Tea Partiers negatively. The poll is on the heels of nearly three months of Tea Party rule in the House of Representatives that’s seen nothing accomplished on jobs or getting our economy moving again. And this week – there are reports that Tea Party Republicans are threatening to shut the government down unless they get everything they want in budget negotiations.
Maybe people are finally starting to see the Tea Party for what it really is – a large group of politically naïve white voters who are being manipulated to vote against their best interests by radical millionaires and billionaires like the Koch brothers and Dick Armey.
Comments
#2
Yep the Globalists have infested it real good and it is well on its way to implosion.
When they never talked about actual ballot access like the Constitution Party does I knew right then that the end was near.
http://www.believeinamerica.com/index.php
http://www.constitutionparty.org
[Constitution Party Promotional Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_SobkISNrY
America's real Globalist-free party.
#3
I agree Amen! Restore the rule of law and the constitution now! Stop serving the foreign masters , Bring back these protections of our freedoms here in America and not corporations. And to say ~ These dictatorship tea party people do need to go now if not sooner. Their demise will not come fast enough. They have all seem to come from the same charm school. They should stay out of those places and go back to a human school and learn how to work together with your fellow humans! Perhaps a national strike could be in order if this destruction of the U.S continues.
#4
Their favorability rating may soar again near election voting time as a republican vote. Republican middle class citizens have been shattered by the party since Geo. Bush's "eminent domain" on their home. They searched for other names to call themselves...conservative; tea party, for example. Another name for Republicans may arise.
Thom, any suggestions on how to help long term unemployed get rehired?
#5
I'm sad that it has taken this long. As far back as I can remember it's always been the repukes claiming the Democrats were making a mockery of the Constitution, guess there is no hiding who the culprits are now! Remember; "Teabaggers: Corporate Tools American Fools"!!
#6
Never stop trying and hold on to Hope. I was unemployed for over three years, partly my fault, I went on strike against Northworst. Delta has since bought out NWA and they recognize the talent the old airlines through on the street and are slowly bringing us back to Delta. I truly thought my time as an Aircraft Mechanic was through, my old Union is the main reason myself and a few others got our seniority back. Unfortunatly, those who come back now come back as new hires, but no one is complaining. Glad to be back to work...
#7
More light is shining on their hypocrisy and those with any working grey matter are starting to connect the dots. We need to continue to showcase the shortcomings of the extremists and their war on the working people. Now, with the latest revelations that a number of tea party congress people have been receiving government subsidies for their farms and family agricultural businesses, maybe people will realize the fraud thats being perpetrated by the t.p. and adjust their attitude toward government handouts on which rural America is heavily dependent. Perhaps, we need to take the $16.5 billion yearly in farm subsidies and scale back, a lot.(Divide it among the public schools!) When the tea partiers start to realize they are but lapdogs for the rich always there to fetch a paper or growl at a stranger, especially, that socialist postal carrier, ... well, then maybe the party will start its rapid descent into marginal status and irrelevancy. Hopefully, the backlash will get us closer to Bernie Sanders ( my personal hope.) Till then, lets keep the light on, Thom.
#8
I hope they get bagged.
#9
Something concerns me that should concern you and your union. That is, down in San Antonio, there is an aircraft company, a big one that does a lot of major repairs for almost all airlines at some point and they have laid off 80% of the long time workers and replaced them with Hondurans and El Salvadorans that have few requirements for an A&P license in their home country and can pay them much less. They are bringing them here. To fix our planes. They dont speak or read english and so a few Americans were kept to instruct them on how to do things. Even if the union doesnt have representation there since Texas isnt a big union state, it should still be a concern for all working in that industry. Get rid of them and employ well trained Americans for a living wage should be the goal.
My opinion.
#10
one can only hope! below is my letter to our our paper on their editorial on Wisconsin
Today's editorial on the situation in Wisconsin is excellent!It IS about union-busting and giving more power to corporations. This follows on the heels of last year's Supreme court decision "Citizens United" which gave "personhood" to corporations. It is a sad time for the American worker. Recently I joked "first Tunisia, then Egypt, now Wisconsin" but it is no joke:democracy is being threatened here.Gov Walker's phone call with someone pretending to be one of the billionaire Koch brothers shows clearly whose side he is on.I wonder how "tea partiers" (especially union members) feel learning that their "grassroots" effort was funded by the Koch brothers for their own agenda and used unsuspecting, sincere individuals to further their own plans, which is not in the best interests of the average American.
#11
Spot on Thom, spot on!
#12
Your Conversation with Mark Williams.
I like the approach you took with the Tea Party today.
I do think we have a lot of areas of agreement. I believe there are a lot of them who are Union Members for example, or were. I would also bet there are a lot of working class, middle class tea party members. And of course we share the same interests, like clean water, air, education etc.
I like conversations like this I leave happy I think this is brilliant!
Love the Show!
#13
Stupid is as stupid does...
as long as the middle (class, geographic) of our great country continues to let itself be dumbed down by billionaire "chess players" there will always be a "tea party"... until the whole country collapses and the rich "folks" move to Dubai.
#14
Sadly all Tea Party members I have spoken with, including a sister, and brother-in-law, swear their strictly a grass roots movement. Presenting the facts related to the Koch brothers, and Dick Armey, only creates cognitive dissonance for them . I can without any reservations pinpoint the source of the manipulative seeds planted in their distracted minds. It's almost exclusively Fox/ Murdoch, Becker-headed based.The deception of the cross in one hand , don't tread on me flag in the other, while the Koch's pick their pockets ,is the ugly reality here. The Tea Party's demise is that they have created a sterile political breeding ground for themselves. Thus I submit their fate will not be unlike that of the 18th century Shaker movements self -destructive celibacy.
#15
But let's not forget that the masses are also being exploited by many Democrats as well. Anyone who sees the Democrats as the answer wasn't paying attention all along when Obama preached one thing then acted another. He who has the gold, rules! And they will use some of that gold to keep us stupidly choosing Republicans or Democrats to carry out the grand histrionics that keep those few with the gold in power. Republicans who brazenly shove through their gains; or, Democrats when they need a smoke and mirrors cushioning from the possibility of a complete breakdown in their power over us. They will keep us falsely believing that Democrats will fight for the little guys (mainstream American workers and retirees) in order to keep the masses of little guys hopeful and submissive. Misplaced hope and a willingness to believe that "this just can't be" or "it just can't happen here" is what makes it so easy to keep people from rising up. There is supposed to be "power in numbers" but the rich have found a way to keep those numbers in a psychological prison.
Many of us, or our loved ones, will soon die of very treatable diseases or starvation. The "death panels" that the right-wingers loved to falsely threaten us with should the government set up a single payer system, or even a public option, had already been instituted by the HealthScare insurance companies. They were, and still are, the real "death panels". They are the ones who have been, and are, deciding the fate of granny or other family members...whether they live or die...based on maximizing profit for themselves and their shareholders.
And now we have a massive nuclear catastrophe that Japan's government, also bought out by corporate greed, "assured" their people that an accident would never happen because they had learned from past failures of 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl. Does that sound a lot like what Obama said? That we will learn from the mistakes of past errors? He didn't say that we should be shelving nuclear power because it is just too dangerous and expensive and that we should be concentrating on solar, geothermal, or wind power. Fact is that when profit is involved, and when the government is bought off, greedy corporatists will cut corners on safety in order to maximize profit. Cutting safety on nuclear power plants is too dangerous and will result in eventual accidents. Governments, who have a running record of being bought off and controlled by monied interests will not keep us safe. They lie, and they are the enemy of the safety of the people.
Our major media propandists are going to great lengths to keep the horror genie in the bottle by giving demonstrations on Dr. Oz, with Michiu Kaku, showing a drop of dye in a small container of water compared to a large fish tank. See how the color is so diluted in the large fish tank? Now aren't you convinced not to worry? It doesn't take but a miniscule speck of plutonium (potassium iodine won't help you there...nothing will) in your lungs or stomach to cause cancer. There are a lot of radioactive isotopes, of course, plutonium being, probably, the most dangerous as it's half life is so much longer than generations of human's lives. So who are you going to believe? Obama, or any of the others who have a vested interest (the revolving door to a cushy corporate job after public service)? Remember the mayor in Jaws? Didn't want to freak out potential tourists or business in general. Just breath in deeply and keep drinking that radioactive strontium-90 polluted milk...it'll all be over soon. Could it be that the Aztecs were right all along? Their calender runs out in 2012. I'm not a believer in such non-sense, of course, but things like global warming spawning extremely violent hurricanes, melting of the poles, terrible oil spills (BP wasn't the first or, probably, the last), and now 4 nuclear reactors about to melt down...4 in one place...that's what I call concentration...maybe Michiu Kaku should have dumped in the whole bottle of dye. All we need now is a mile wide comet or asteroid crashing into the earth...At least we wouldn't all suffer from agonizing plutonium-caused cancer.
#16
I hope all of those who voted for "The Ignorant Ones" get exactly what they voted for. I would have personally thrown the tea party in the sea and held them under, but not all of us are that intelligent.
#17
Daniel Ellsberg said:
Concerning Wikileaks...
"..most U.S. Government decisions to keep information secret are directed at keeping secrets not from other nations but from Congress, public courts, and citizens—“the ones who have the votes and vote the budgets, and might possibly prosecute, and the ones whose blame is to be feared.”
US involvement in Pakistan...
“We’re destabilizing a government now that could put nuclear weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda...” he said. “This is the most reckless, irresponsible policy I can imagine.” --just one step nearer to the prospect of a terrorist nuke in an American city one day---way to go Obama!
"Ellsberg warned that there now exists in the US the infrastructure of a police state, which threatens to diminish the sovereignty of the public and renders it easier to get into “irresponsible wars” like Vietnam and Iraq."
“The challenge cannot be greater. So as lawyers, I hope you will stand up for the principles of a country that didn’t make it illegal up to now to tell secrets of state that the public needed to hear.”
http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2011/03/pentagon-papers_wikileaks.html
We have a government that, on one hand, praises freedom of speech and openness for citizens in other countries like Libya, Egypt, etc. against their oppressive governments yet they consider Julian Assange and Wikileaks as a criminal or a criminal organization. That same hypocrisy can be read into everything else Obama or any politician towing the prevailing foreign policy, Republican or Democrat, says.
#18
I have converted a few Tea Party-type people from fanatical views to common sense. In each case it has taken years of repetition of very simple, self-evident truths.
One republican told me he was looking forward to the time when they will issue hunting permits for white people to hunt black people and he said, "When that day comes, I'm gonna get out there with my gun and do my part to save America."
When I recovered from the shock of hearing him say that, I said, "Well, let's look at a few facts. Your health insurance premiums and copays were raised by the white republicans who run the corporation that controls your health care. Then you got laid off by your white republican boss, who outsourced your job to China. And when you tried to get unemployment, the white republicans in Congress fought tooth and nail to try to prevent you from getting the unemployment that you paid for. And the social security taxes that you have paid for all of your working life? The white republicans in congress are trying to steal that money and give it to the white republicans who run Wall Street. And then there's the white republican bankers who are going to foreclose on your house and kick you out onto the street if you don't find another job and start making house payments real fast. And that's kind of interesting, because those white bankers loaned you $97,000 to buy your house, and you have made over $200,000 in payments and yet they can still legally take your hard-earned house from you at gunpoint and kick you out onto the street. And once you're living on the street, the white republicans in congress will keep taking bribes from all the white republican bosses including the guy who laid you off and outsourced your job, and if those republicans get their way the white republicans in congress will vote to defund homeless shelters, which means you'll be living in a cardboard box in an alley somewhere, until the white republican mayor tells the white republican police to solve the homeless problem by kicking all of the homeless people out of town."
I let that settle in for a few very uncomfortable minutes, then I said, "Do you disagree with anything that I have said?"
He slowly said, "No, I guess it's all true."
I said, "So how exactly are you figuring that black people are responsible for your problems?"
He said, "Well, Glen Beck, Michael Savage, and Saun Hannity say it's all the fault of the blacks and the Mexicans..."
I said, "But you just admitted that all of the problems we have talked about were caused by very rich white people who are selling you down the river. I would like you to tell me how Beck, Savage, and Hannity helped keep your health insurance rates from being raised. Did they help you keep the job that you worked so hard at for all those years? Did they help you get the unemployment that you paid for? Are they helping protect your decades of social security payments? Are they doing anything for you, other than saying you should hate people who had nothing to do with any of your problems?"
Another long pause, then he said, "Well, I guess they haven't done anything for me."
I said, "Other than telling you who they want you to hate and fear. So, if you go out there and start shooting black people, do you think you'll get your health insurance back? Will you get your job back if you murder black people? Will you get unemployment and social security? Explain to me how shooting black people will make your life any better."
It took awhile, but I finally got him to admit the truth: black people are not his enemies and in fact no black person has ever harmed him in any way. I explained to him that he has a lot in common with black people in the poor and middle classes because they are also being sold out by rich white republicans. He didn't really like hearing that, but he had to admit that it was true. I encouraged him to cool off, forget about doing things that would get him into a lot of trouble, and get in touch with the democrat and progressive parties on the White House, congress, state, county, and city levels, and see how he can help us reclaim our country from the wealthy sociopaths who have hijacked it.
So here's my prediction: eventually, most of the Tea Party and middle class and poor republicans will realize they are being lied to and taken advantage of. Either someone will explain it to them or they will figure it out on their own. I guess the challenge facing the republican party is that they need to make an accurate assessment of just how far they can push things before their plans backfire on them and they get removed from power. I think the republican party leaders' mental condition is preventing them from acting in their own best interests.
#19
Yes, their demise is imminent. Had a wider shot of today's DC Tea Party rally been provided, (which ABC referred to as the group showing up en masse), one might see that there were perhaps one to two hundred people there. Their entire movement doesn't even deserve the 'Astro-Turf' moniker ascribed it, as evinced today at their 'huge' rally.
The ideology espoused by the billionaire backers of the Tea Party are parroted by these so-called party members, who appear to be no different than the Republican staffers chartered in to Florida in 2000 to stop the recount in the presidential election. The same tactics were employed then as now. Loud, boorish and abusive behavior, excessive anger and aggressive, intimidating tactics. All of these clandestine Republican operatives - and the well off, bigoted Americans following them who either already 'have theirs' or are blissfully ignorant, drown out any attempts at civility, lost in a cacophony of the rehearsed rhetoric of the right wing.
To consider the Tea Party's evident size, being an Astro-turfed organization almost appears implausible. A more appropriate description of these people would be the Teeny Party. This so called 'movement' is but an artifice of the propagandistic corporate media, who would have us believe their numbers are overwhelming. Left unnoticed in this charade is the fact that their practiced plutocratic opinions are amorphous, whereas facts are entirely tangible. Witness media coverage and the resultant punditry vs. reality in Wisconsin, where We the People took our greivances to our elected officials for redress. Contrast the nearly one hundred thousand protesting in Madison with today's DC Tea Party 'Focus group'. (What politician in the last administration used that term when hundreds of thousands marched across this country in protest of O.I.L.(Operation Iraqi Liberation), the original tongue in cheek name for the invasion of Iraq)?The Faustian fabrications of all Astro-Turfed organizations are revealed for what they are with careful scrutiny. This 'Tea Party' is quite obviously a much smaller segment of our country's population than we've been led to believe. Astro-Turf is found only on playing fields, and as such is limited in size and scope. True grass roots grow throughout all of America, and the facts are that the grass that springs forth from them may not be manicured much in the coming years.
#20
I think the Tea Party was doomed the minute it was hijacked by the Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck types from Ron Paul and the Libertarian Constitutionalists who were as much opposed to the policies of George W. Bush as they are to the policies of "Bush-Lite" Barrack Obama.
On foreign policy the Tea Party seems to be ambiguous at best and taking the line of the neo-con hawks at the worst. I wonder how many Tea Partiers are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our expansion of military operations into Pakistan, Yemen and now Libya? There's some in this group of the Paul/Buchanan school of thought who oppose the wars and interventions on traditional conservative and constitutional principles but then there are just as many people if not more so in the Tea Party who believe any war against Muslims is a "good war".
As for domestic policy. Where's the anti-free trade movement in the Tea Party? Does it even exist outside of the handful of Paul and Buchanan Tea Partiers? It seems to me that the Tea Party has taken the pro-multinational corporate line of cutting taxes across the board (especially for the rich who pay next to zero taxes all ready), anti-collective bargaining (being sold just as being for public sector workers but as the "right to work" bills are working their ways through Republican controlled state legislatures across the USA it is becoming clear that collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors are under attack"), and the privatization of everything especially Medicare, Social Security and Public Utilities (which doesn't mean more competition just that big corporate monopolies are taking over these government services making them for profit which they were never intended to be).
This is a domestic policy that will lead to the privatization of municipal, county, state and eventually the Federal Government as well. That will complete the corporate takeover of America and the Big Multinationals might even appear to be the "saviors" of the USA if we have a major economic collapse and hyper-inflation. I guess I got sidetracked but the point is that the Tea Party was hijacked from its roots (by the corporations and their neo-con cheerleaders) and now (hopefully) people are starting to see it for what it has become.
The real Tea Party was born in traditional conservative opposition to the policies of George W. Bush.
#21
"Give a calf enough rope and he'll hang himself," is what Dr. Lawhon wrote in his diary.
#22
Great post - Thank you
#23
I fear that people still need to experience more of what the perpetrators of the right are inflicting on them before they understand how they are voting against their own best interests. I wish it were enough already, but I fear it hasn't gotten bad enough yet. Amazing to me, that it isn't clear.
I was astonished at the re-election of Bush in 04. I shook my head in amazement at the Hummer sales as we reached peak oil.
I was excited and encourage by the election of Obama
I was disgusted by my fellow Wisconsinites voting as they did in 2010.
So the trajectory, other than the bright moment of 2008, has not been promising so far.
I believe they will figure it out eventually. But how can it not already be clear?
We need a trust buster like TR, only a democrat this time please. :)
#24
I don't have the energy to think about what will happen when the baggers fall. My head is way too busy spinning from the enormous damage they have done to our government and our society already. How many years will the purge take in the State houses and legislative bodies when we finally get rid of their ilk? Their demands are bringing down the middle class and treating the poor with massive indifference. Call me a pessimist but the damage is done.
#25
Remember, everyone, you only USE a teabag once!
Teabagger are weak for the 2012 election. Getting weaker everyday.
One lumps or two for 2012? LOL
#26
Leave the tea in the cup too long and it gets to bitter, then you have to dilute it and sugar it up but the tea party doesn't get the message. They have a billboard near here that warns that (like Big Brother) they are watching Washington and Harrisburg through binoculars. The binocular metaphor is fitting. If they didn't watch "from a distance" they would have to get involved and find out how wrong they are!
#27
This is the same political argument we have been having since the founding of the country; Hamilton's big government versus Jefferson's small government. That was the big argument at the constitutional ratification connventions, how much liberty would be lost with a big central government.
#28
Thomas Jefferson said > If a Nation Expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization , it expects what never was and never will be.....
#29
1. GET RID OF LOBBYISTS - WHY IS IT ' LEGAL ' FOR THEM TO ' BRIBE' OUR REPS ?
2. GET RID OF THE CITIZENS UNITED RULING ITS A POX ON OUR COUNTRY SHAME ON THE 5 SUPREME COURT CON JUDGES WHO MADE THAT POSSIBLE SPECIAL THANKS JUSTICE ROBERTS.
3. GET RID OF FILIBUSTERS / OR MAKE THEM STAND THERE FOR HOURS ON END TALKING
AS USED TO BE THE CASE
4. GET RID OF THE 2/3 VOTE RULE
5. ELIMINATE SOCIAL SECURITY TAX CAP NOW @ 106 K
6. GET RID OF BIG OIL, AGRI FARMS, & CORP SUBSIDES
6 b CUT BLOATED DEFENSE BUDGET BLACKWATER / HALLIBURTON OTHER
DEATH / WAR CLING ONS
7. CUT US REPS PAY CHECKS 15 % . CUT THEIR HEALTH BENEFITS TOO
SO THEY ' SACRIFICE' WITH US
#30
GOV'T WORKED TILL 1981 REGANOMICS BUSH 1-2 CHENEY 2008 CRASH / WITH PUSHING BY THE GOLDMAN FED TEAM BUTCHERED IT- PASSED WEALTH FAVORING POLICIES- CON LAWS- CON COURTS- WAGED UNFUNDED WARS - GAVE UNFUNDED TAX CUTS TO THE ROBBER BARONS WHO TAKE AND NOT GIVE BACK REAGAN DEREGULATED ALL HE COUD THEN HE LOWERED TOP RATE FROM 74 % TO 28 % WHO DO YOU THINK MADE UP THE DIFF ? WE DID MIDDLE CLASS WORKING FAMILIES WHO BUILT AMERICA
#31
Who best represents the spirit of the Tea Party? Well, if you're talking about the original Tea Party back in the colonial times, then Thom Hartmann best represents them, because the original Tea Party was against the corporations- specifically at that time the East India Tea Compay- ruling the entire known universe, cheating the average citizens out of their right to make a decent living, and running it into the ground, and Thom has done his homework and puts these things in their proper historical perspective. Our situation now is far more serious than it was back then, because we have far more sociopaths running far more and far bigger corporations, all of which share one common goal: to prevent regular people from living good lives, so now more than ever we need courageous, informed people taking a stand.
I spoke with one of Senator Patty Murray's people awhile ago and said I was against the Iraq war. He said, "Sure you are. Lots of us are. But you support our troops, though, right?"
I said, "No. I do not support our troops. They are committing crimes against humanity in an illegal war that was started on the basis of a lie."
He said, "But they are only following orders, and they are over there laying their safety and their lives on the line for our freedom and our safety. They deserve our respect."
I said, "The courts at the Hague convicted Nazi soldiers who tried to use the excuse that they were only following orders. And yes, they are laying their lives on the line, which is a horrible thing when you consider that the purpose of that war has nothing to do with our freedom, nothing to do with our safety, and nothing to do with patriotism. They are fighting for a lie, they are fighting so international war profiteers can make money selling weapons and ammunition. They are fighting so international corporations can manipulate the course of human history. They are finishing off the country of Iraq, making absolutely certain that it will be a very, very long time before the culture of Iraq recovers from what we are doing to it. I know, many of our soldiers can't find any other work, but that, too, is entirely the fault of those corporations, which have run America's economy into the ground, and the fact that there is no other work does not justify a person taking to a life of international crime and there is no way to put a pretty face on it. There is nothing honorable about that entire situation. Well, actually this situation is not entirely the fault of the corporations that started and are running the war. It is also the fault of every American soldier who goes to Iraq, because without the willing cooperation and participation of our soldiers, the rich old sociopaths who own the war in Iraq would not have a war. That is why I do not support our troops."
I have learned so much about history and current politics from Thom, so he's got my vote. Him, Noam Chomsky, and a very few other informed people who speak up.
#32
Well said, David Abbot. I certainly agree with you. The right wingers have worked to psych us out over that "support our troops" crap ever since America's Vietnam war gave America such a bad name. The real baby killers were the politicians, generals, and blood-money corporations who used fellow Americans as dupes to carry out the actual killings. We have become what we condemned during the Nuremberg trials. Hitler had Goebbels, minister of propaganda, to convince the German people to applaud the Nazi's actions and we have CBS, NBC, CNBC, CNN, and worst of all ...Fox to harp the lies that will condemn Americans to hell for what they have done. (I don't believe in hell but it's a great metaphor)
Baby killers are Baby killers no matter how you dress it up in the tatters of a bloody red, white, and blue flag. Patriotism is treason when it has been abused to the point that it is used to slaughter innocents for reasons that boil down to greed and power. Innocuous words such as "collateral damage" are the kind of words used to deceive and cover up the culpability of insidious lechers and butchers who have committed, and continue to commit, war crimes against humanity. Keep saluting the flag, boys, your government has nothing but your best interests at heart....keep believing that and you probably don't mind a bit that the rest of the world sees you as duplicitous, cool-aid drinking (Jim Jones flavor), useful idiots of the lecherous wealthy banksters and MIC corporatists.
There are many reasons why people join the military. Some do it because their fathers did and want to carry on that tradition. Others because they fell for the hype from a recruiter and saw an adventure. Others may be looking forward to seeing action...thinking it exciting or adventurous to be able to kill someone else and not get prosecuted for it. Others, probably now the great majority join because of the bad economy....what a great way to avoid having to institute a draft (political nightmare). Some people may actually believe the crap that they are doing their patriotic duty and defending their country. But many are turned into brutal killers who may very well have murdered innocent civilians or children. A baby killer is a baby killer! You may not have done it on purpose but you made the decision to join an organization that made it possible. If you join a group of bank robbers and you kill a bank teller, or even if someone else of your group does so, you are a killer and, if caught, will pay the price. Many troops return, as trained murderers, having to readjust and return to less violent, and less exciting, existence. Many have a big problem dealing with what they have done. What we need to do is to dissuade people from even thinking about joining such a murderous and distasteful, as it has come to be, group and so we need to continue our calling baby killers....baby killers. We need the truthful language back on our side...the side of the ideals that we claim are ours.
#33
The biggest gang of war criminals and terrorists is the US military. US Marine Corp Major General Smedley Butler said that "war is a racket"...and that the US military were like gangsters who went around the world extorting and enforcing their will over others. The crime lords are the politicians and military industrial (but not much anymore..it's smoke and mirrors Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) complex. We have a FIRE economy where everyone's wealth is ephemeral and vapid except for those who hold most of it. Many of us have been sold the lie of credit, and buy now! Actually, I think that the politicians are more like the useful idiots of the wealthy who are being jerked around like puppets. There are some exceptions...Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich, and others. Obama was the great hope that fizzled. Instead of Hope you can believe in ...it was hope you can piss on. That's what our trickle down lies are...the trickle down is really piss....the rich are pissing on all of us.
#34
Brunch with Bernie, the national Town Hall meeting, easily wins the most-like–the- original Tea Party contest. After all, it was a town meeting at which folks were informed the Governor of Massachusetts had refused to send away the East India tea ships. At that moment a shout from the gallery went as follows, “Boston Harbor a teapot tonight"! In short order a number of men hurried towards Griffin's Wharf, you know the rest of the story…
Anyway, the idea is that the flow of facts and information from honest and dedicated individuals to those who would act in a like manner, most often has a positive outcome. The exact reverse of the last statement has occurred with the Koch's greedy manipulation of unsuspecting working class citizens. It was Thomas Jefferson who said, "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest". At the time of the Tea Party event, he had advice for George III, "open your breast, sire, to liberal and expanded thought". Thom and Bernie type advice, not taken of course, much like today.
We certainly can't depend on Meet the Press or any corporate media to get the truth out today, it would not be in their “King’s” best interest. We all owe Thom and Bernie much thanks for Brunch with Bernie. It's like Radio Free America! Senator Sanders is one of few elected officials performing his job according to the Founders original intent. Thomas Paine said it best with the words "the elected might never form to themselves an interest separate from the electors". If our elected would all take this to heart we would have Democratic Socialism, Democracy in its most functional and purest form.
#35
I was completely enthralled by this! I consider myself an amateur historian, and I know what an amazing find that book was.
Thank you, Thom, for getting the truth out there. I will indeed "spread the word"!
#36
Well, I think I will just quote the Twain Report, which referred to the level of common sense that we see in Tea Partier Donald Trump:
The Twain Report
All The News that Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Was Alive Today
April 29, 2011, the White House
Two weeks ago, President Obama announced that Donald Trump was not born in America.
Trump responded by putting a certified copy of his birth certificate on his web site.
President Obama said, "Everyone knows that that trump's supposed birth certificate is a fake, and I am having Donald Trump deported back to Liberia, where he was born, because he is a card-carrying citizen of Turkey- everyone knows that. Trump is the son of an itinerant, malingering Albanian goat herder named Ibn Al Mustaffah Von
Burblunkensteinerschwieitzen- who was famous in a local way for his persistent problem with particularly unpleasant hangnails, and a drunken young 7/11 employee named Frannie Blatt who earned her living as an animal husbandry expert in Detriot, specializing in mating camels with gnats and putting the offspring into plastic Faberge egg knock-offs that she sold on the internet."
Then Obama paused for a moment and said, "Or, considering the fact that America has been lagging behind in the area of exports, maybe instead of deporting Trump, I will export him to his home country of Vulgaria."
Trump responded, "President Obama, you're fired."
Obama said, "I must say, you're demonstrating a very impressive command of the English language, considering that your native language is Laotian."
Trump said, "I'm not Laotian, I don't even look Oriental."
Obama said, "Everyone knows you had plastic surgery because you were ashamed of your vietnamese heritage. You just moved here- no one ever saw you in America before last week."
Trump said, "I thought you said I was Laotian. And I have lived in New York all my life."
Obama said, "I didn't say you were Laotian, I said you were Canadian, which is where you learned to hate freedom. And everyone knows that no one has ever seen you in New York, so you might as well admit it."
Trump said, "If I have a Canadian birth certificate, let's see it."
Obama said, "I already posted it on my web site, but then I got bored with it so I deleted it. But everyone saw it and you know it you Australian, so don't try to change the subject."
Trump said, "But you just said I was Canadian."
Obama said, "There you go again, changing the subject, you Frenchman. I have proof that you are from Croatia, you Balto-Slavic Irishman."
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
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
Mueller's favorite place to pray (written about in "Prophet's Way"), and the roof of the room where the Last Supper is reputed to have happened.
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Beneath the success and rise of American enterprise is an untold history that is antithetical to every value Americans hold dear. This is a seminal work, a godsend really, a clear message to every citizen about the need to reform our country, laws, and companies."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann channels the best of the American Founders with voice and pen. His deep attachment to a democratic civil society is just the medicine America needs."
Amen, Thom, Amen
The demise can't come fast enough. We still haven't recovered from the Damage that Bush did. Someone needs to set up suggestions for 2012 President.
1) Improved the budget situations by raising revunues
2) Improved the manufactoring base of the United States
3) Institute Fair Trade, raise the tarriff barriers as needed
4) make sure everyone American has access to safety social net, so all people can achieve their full potential
5) End the Bush Wars
6) Reserve Citizens United
7) Reform election funding - move it to public funding.
8) Protect Social Security, Medicare, and Health Care reform