92% are SOCIALISTS
By louisehartmann
Today – America has wealth inequality levels higher than at any other time since right before the Great Depression. In other words – the rich have a lot more money than everyone else. The problem is – most Americans have no idea just how unequal this nation is. Looking at a new study out of Duke and Harvard Universities – the vast majority of Americans incorrectly guessed that the top 20% of richest Americans own roughly 60% of the wealth – the real figure is that they own more like 84% of the wealth.
And when respondents were asked how much wealth the top 20% SHOULD own – 92% of respondents turned out to be complete SOCIALISTS – preferring a wealth distribution like Sweden where the top 20% only own 36% of the wealth. Again, that’s 92% of respondents preferring a Swedish economic model to the American model. So why is it that Republicans refuse to budge on raising taxes for millionaires and billionaires just a few points to 38% - whereas in Sweden – the top income tax rate is 56%?
Americans have been duped for too long by the Republican Party – and today – the truth about wealth inequality in America is becoming so glaringly painful that it can’t be ignored any longer.
Comments
#2
It seems that it easier to hide a Jack Ass than it is to hide an Elephant.
#3
The pundits are predicting that China’s standard of living will reach or even surpass the standard of living for the United States of Mortal Sin.
OUR ANTI-CHRIST NATION HAS AN IMMORAL ETHOS MENTALITY. AMERICAN VALUES CONTINUOUSLY EMBRACE IMMORAL VALUES AS THEIR WAY TO SALVATION.
The United States of Mortal Sin is a damned nation.
#4
The problem is that the voting machines can be hacked and an election can be rigged without a way to check. The voters’ printouts are also changed and the voters and an individual’s vote can actually be subtracted from his candidate and added to the candidate that he did not vote for. It’s simply a matter of who gets the most votes. These easily hackable machines should be outlawed and replaced. “Carefully Monitored Paper Ballots” (although also open to rigging, but more detectable rigging, easily monitored especially with great effort in vigilance) appears to be the best way to have your vote and everyone’s vote count.
You may also want to research the shenanigans of the last elections in Pahrump NV.
Check out the URL below and see how easily, in just 7 minutes, these machines can be made to throw an election. The People need to know that this is the probable way of future elections or it may never change. The People need to get behind the change. The URL will discuss and link you to Princeton and UCSB studies on the nasty machines.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/10/daily-topics-friday-october-15th-2010
#5
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Prioritieswe have now hit the biggest disparity of wealth the U.S. has ever seen a study that fails to include capital gains, so, double that, at least.
Most major corporations (about 57%) pay zero federal income taxes according to a 2008 Government Accountability Office study, and the wealthiest 1%, on average, pay a much lower percentage - between 16 and 18% of their income for the top 1% of households and 8% of income for the top .01 according to the CBO - than majority of the U.S. But these are the same people that are extinguishing unemployment benefits while ignoring the absence of job opportunities, and attempting to cut social programs because they "don't want to give their tax money to people who don't work for it"? What tax money could they be referring to? Have they started paying their fair share?
In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned approximately $45 for every dollar earned by the average worker. By last year, it was $1,081 to one. There is no justifiable economic theory that can explain this gap.
We are told the rich "create the jobs", maybe, but then they are shipped out of the country for cheaper labor. We give them tax break after tax break, even during these troubled times, they still make a profit. Why aren't we holding them responsible? The CEO's took most of the money; they didn't expand, nor did they hire. That's what it was intended for, was it not?
Corporations could just as easily provide jobs and not ship them over seas at slightly less profit, is this really that much more of a sacrifice than you would ask any sovereign individual for their country? If the courts are going to give corporate interests more rights than actual citizens, shouldn't those corporations be forced to accept the responsibilities that come with joining a society? They can buy and sell policy more openly than ever, by doing it anonymously. They constantly benefit from a national "insurance"/subsidy plan that they have never paid into. And they are still given passes? The are still being allowed to ignore their contibution into the system that supports them?
Talk about redistribution! Talk about a FREE RIDE! Talk about welfare Queens! The redistribution and "stealing my money" doesn't get much worse than taking it away from public infrastructure, programs, and jobs; and then giving it to multi-billion dollar corporations that got off the hook for paying into the pot at all!
Thanks Thom. For helping us speak truth to power
#6
I don't understand why everyone is so upset or why they think there's inequality. I mean if there was inequality in America, Americans would be doing something instead of talking about it wouldn't they? Sure they would! That's why there is no inequality. I'm also hearing about a lot of Republicans changing parties. Why would they do that when their vote is just about to count for them and they will be able to live that American dream they've been promised? Oh well, I'm just sittin' here waiting for that new money we will all be getting soon and trying to figure out which religion I'm going to choose since Christianity isn't on the list. I wish I could stick around and try to answer this question a little better, but I found a couple of empty coke cans today and I'm on my way to the recycling company. I hope you all get it figured out.
#7
Why couldn't everyone be taxed the same percent? Seems to me that would be more fair.
#8
If the wealthiest people in the country and all corporations that do business in this country, paid at least as much income tax, social security tax, and other taxes as the middle class and poor people pay, we would have enough money to pay for free health care, free education through the university level, and other absolutely necessary social services. And we can rebuild our manufacturing base and thereby rebuild our economy, simply by putting tariffs on all imported goods- especially from countries that use prison labor, slave labor, and serf labor, and that have no environmental laws, worker's rights laws, unemployment, and so on.
And sooner or later, pretty much all poor and middle class people will realize that the republicans have been spoon-feeding them bull___, and they'll demand the above measures, and any politician who doesn't deliver will get voted out. And if the republicans persist with their election frauds, we will surely return to paper ballots and then they will be forced to quit engaging in election fraud.
We need to nationalize all American banks, as well as all banks that have facilities in America and whose main source of income is from America, and half of the profits from all oil that is taken from American land or American waters should be given to the American government or confiscated by it. All American insurance companies should be nationalized. Foreign insurance companies that do business in America should pay taxes on every penny of income- not gross income, not net profit, not adjusted income, not income after loopholes, but ALL income; if they can't afford to do that, well, they can go lie to and cheat people in other countries.
All individual income in excess of $500,000 a year (including perks, benefits, options, and ALL other forms of income, potential income, contingent income, and deferred income, should be immediately taxed at 65% as soon as the individual is paid, and if they don't like it, they can go do business in and own, lease, rent, or be given residence in houses in some other country; for instance, they could live and do business in China or Russia, if they feel "taken advantage of" in America.
#9
But it is not just the Republican Party that is telling the lies and playing the citizens for dupes and idiots...the Democratic Party does a great job of doing the same thing. Granted, there are more Democrats than Republicans that appear to be supportive of their constituents but most are still bought off by the cold hard reality that "he who has the gold...rules". We will not make any improvements to our condition by playing politics as usual. Reelecting Obama is just complicating the situation. We need to break the two party system and reject voting for anyone who is supported by the monied interests. In California, Jerry Brown beat out the wealthy competition and we need to repeat that in the Presidency. Obama is just about as much a liar as Bush was. If it were not for the blatantly obvious (to most Americans now...largely due to the internet) lies that stank up America with the WMD and mushroom clouds scare tactics that the Bush regime brazenly lied to the people with, Obama may have also had a chance to lie us into invading Iran.
There is a very interesting video...a lecture..on youtube from John Mearsheimer at the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) on lying in international politics. He also has a book out on the subject.
#10
Gerald Please get some help Go to church do something This anti Christ stuff is getting old and sounds so nutty
#11
Thom You betcha R & D alike have been Duped - swindled- manipulated by fear tactics Lied to Led to 2008 Bush Paulson global crash / edge of depression / 700 billion TARP with NO rules to protect taxpayers. NOW RYAN / GOP demands even more corp & billionaire tax cuts in this economy ! That's not only greedy but totally irresponsible Its a shame the GOP / cons / baggers have not figured that out....yet
#12
Ryan's plan to lower the top tax rate by 10% is wrong. Instead he should lower the middle tax rate by 10%.
#13
Palendrom No one said Dems were without flaws Obama has done a decent job against all odds- having taken on 28 yrs of Reagan Bush GOP wealth favoring policies - 3 huge tax cuts and 2 wars - ALL dumped in his lap just 2 + years ago. I give him credit for trying - working hard every day while Fox GOP & pals demonize him- calling him most vile names. Fact is : US has lived lived under Reaganomics deregulation- debt- unfunded tax cuts- Bush 1-2 Cheney / Goldman FED 's fat cat policies- con courts- 3 huge unfunded GOP tax cuts and long wars- one based on lies & war profits ..incurring massive debt from Reagan 1981 .- Bush Paulson 2008 global crash TARP GOP has no candidate to offer that can compete on any issue. Obama has a record Like it or not We know who- what he stands for. He has my vote
#14
It is not wealth for wealths sake alone. It is for power and influence. These people are new age bigots separating themselves from the rest with a social cast system, private schools for their children,
and exclusive residents. They influence and bribe public officials, senators , representatives , local government officials and media. We have set up a system of public admiration for them as the movers and shakers of the world while we ignore the independent thinkers and stewards or ethics. Even churches and religions bend to the wealthy for concessions. I heard a quote by the leader of Nepal some years ago saying that he did not measure his country by gross national product but by gross national happiness of it's citizens. We have forgotten humility in this nation and the joy of what it means to be satisfied with independence. Our current economy can only be described as cannibalism.
I believe the future of a stable economy is in equitable wealth based on caring for others. When we provide stewardship for feeding our hungry, education our work force, and inspiring a society where the common good is recognized by free democratic choice can we avert the current disaster we now live in. There certainly is a solution for the future. It is all a matter of how each individual manages greed and how we manage our resources. Currently we as a nation do much in distributing chaos by encouraging violence and even selling the instruments of war through out the world. It may be see as a cliche' but I believe we will reap what we sow. On the other hand we have a choice. We can instead distribute hope , peace and justice more fiscally productive with more positive return.
#15
An Alternative to Capitalism (which will end wealth inequality) Several decades ago, Margaret Thatcher claimed: "There is no alternative". She was referring to capitalism. Today, this negative attitude still persists. I would like to offer an alternative to capitalism for the American people to consider. Please click on the following link. It will take you to an essay titled: "Home of the Brave?" which was published by the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy: http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/steinsvold.htm John Steinsvold Perhaps in time the so-called dark ages will be thought of as including our own.--Georg C. Lichtenberg
#16
I'm sorry, you make no sense to me. China is going to surpass us because they HAVE moral values? As a Navy Vietnam Vet, I'm fairly well traveled. I don't recall ever being in a country where moral values were exemplary, compared to the United States. I would submit that even the Vatican could use a refresher course on moral values.
#17
"As president, Obama has maintained the occupation of Iraq and escalated the war in Afghanistan," said Heaney, U-M assistant professor of organizational studies and political science. "The antiwar movement should have been furious at Obama's 'betrayal' and reinvigorated its protest activity.
"Instead, attendance at antiwar rallies declined precipitously and financial resources available to the movement have dissipated. The election of Obama appeared to be a demobilizing force on the antiwar movement, even in the face of his pro-war decisions."
--http://counterpunch.org/umich04252011.html
Evidently some of those antiwar movement people were not really bothered by all of the criminal butchery we did in Iraq and Afghanistan...they were just, superficially, against Republicans. But they turned out to play right into their hands anyway.
Now tell me again how President Obama wasn't part of the diversion by the neocons/neoliberals and will not continue to do their bidding for them. Obama's smoke and mirrors trinkets essentially continue the policies of the Bush regime. I foolishly fell for Obama's promises of real change but how stupid do you have to be to continue believing he is still on "our" side. What the right wing idiots on Fox News says is not relevant anyway. It is a complete waste of time to continue participating in a corrupt system where your vote only puts puppets into the Presidency. It is worse than that because it helps to prop up the lie that we have a fair system. There is only one thing that will make real change...when the corporate fascists realize that they could face that same kind of violence, or other discomfort to them, like what the Egyptians showed their corrupt President and ruling elite.
I will not be repeating the same mistake I made before...I will not be voting for Obama this time around...unless he starts making some really about face actions...like really fighting for a 'single payer health system' or at least a 'public option' and not the disgusting give-away to the healthscare system of forcing people to pay into a corrupt corporate criminal system. Unless he does an about face on Bradley Manning, and lays off of Wikileaks. Unless he pulls our troops totally out of the middle east. Unless he stops his support of the war crimes of the Bush regime and works for prosecution of the war criminals...like Bush and Cheney, etal. And the list goes on...and on.
#18
"So, it's all baloney. The economy isn't growing. How could it be? Wages are flat, credit is still shrinking, (excluding student loans) and the only reason the unemployment numbers keep dropping is because more and more people are falling off the unemployment rolls."
"Americans are more pessimistic about the nation's economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama's first two months in office when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession."
"People have lost faith in Obama, the congress, and the political process itself. They can see that the system is broken and no longer responds to the will of the people, which is why they're throwing up their hands and giving up. It's obvious."
"Americans are practical people. They know they're getting screwed by both parties which is why their support for capitalism has eroded even faster under Obama. It fell "15 points in a year" since 2009."
"But that doesn't mean Wall Street will suffer. Hell, no. The markets will continue to bubble ever-higher fueled by lavish injections of monetary stimulus from the Fed just as they have for the last 3 years."
"Looking ahead, it will be more of the same. Stocks will continue to rally, the red ink on the Fed's balance sheet will continue to build, and the dollar will continue its agonizing descent into oblivion.
The Fed is running the whole shooting match now and the rest of us are just bystanders with no say-so.
Welcome to Banktopia."
--Welcome to Banktopia--by Mike Whitney--An Article in Counter Punch--http://counterpunch.org/whitney04222011.html
#19
Although the way Gerald's opinions are expressed can sound rather "nutty" - I would agree with his general thrust.
Look at it from a biblical point of view - the warning against idolatory.
Since WW2 more lives (9 million+) have been sacrificed on the alter of US supremacy than were ever sacrificed to Moloch or any of the Aztec Inca or Mayan gods.
The idea of a USA ( or any other state or corporation for that matter) whose security can be bought by fomenting war in 3rd world countries is a fundamentally inhuman and evil one.
The means and the ends are fundamentally indistinguishable in a quantum universe. It is time we all just grew up and accepted this.
#20
My hope is that we are headed for a planetary society that has more liberty, more justice, and is ecologically sustainable. It could be that we are headed in that direction but we can't really see the forest due to the trees. I see this movement to a more free, fair, and sustainable world in the work of Dr. Paul Raskin at the Tellus Institute for a Great Transition. http://www.tellus.org/index.php
I believe that if we comprehend how we as individuals are working toward the Great Transition we wouldn't feel so frustrated or alone. Part of our work must focus on reforming the tax code. I suggest that we start by reviewing the work of Henry George who called for the removal of taxes on honest work and would, instead, charge user fees on the use, monopoly, or destruction of our Earth's natural resources.
Check out http://www.cgocouncil.org/cwho.html
#21
Thom Hartmann has had Michael W. Hudson, the reporter, on his show a couple of times but I don't think he has had Michael Hudson, the economist, on his show. Check out Michael Hudson's, the eocnomist, web site at www.michael-hudson.com
Michael W. Hudson, reporter, and author of "The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America, and Spawned a Global Crisis.":
“Getting people to load up on debt required not only crooked tactics, but also changing their attitudes about debt. First, the finance industry stopped calling it debt. Debt meant you were in the hole. You owed. Calling it credit removed the stigma of going into deficit and instead replaced it with a sense that you were being conferred an admirable distinction.”
Michael Hudson, (veteran) economist and author of SuperImperialism-The Origin and Fundamentals fo US World Dominance":
“Your articles showed how the mortgage brokers and other pilot fish for Wall Street increased debt pyramiding by outright fraud. These sleight-of-hand lending practices at the local level were enabled by junk economics at the highest level.
This wealth creation really was debt creation. That’s what was bidding up real estate prices — just as was the case with leveraged buyouts bidding up stock prices during the takeover wave. And a rising proportion of this debt was ‘empty’ debt, without any corresponding real value.”
--Hudson to Hudson--
http://michael-hudson.com/2010/11/hudson-to-hudson/
Obama's erroneous strategy has been to go along with the neoliberals in pumping more money into the banking system but instead of the banks making normal loans to US industry and people they use it to gamble on foreign assets and capital. They try to create yet another bubble built on lies with the result of a huge sucking sound of what little capital working and retired people have left. Go ahead and believe that Obama is your friend, vote for him, and you will just be aiding those who will put us all into early graves.
#22
How can inequality be reduced? We need a political system representing the best interests of the vast majority, instead of the current model which caters to the selfish interests of a few. This could be achieved with a political system known as Democratic Socialism. One good definition of this is posted in Sunday’s member blog for anyone wanting more info. It's basically functional Democracy "rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern". ~Thomas Paine
Many things need to happen for this inequality reducing form of Government to become a reality. The first and most important is for progressives to get organized and get control of the message. The one America is hearing, is manipulative and deceitful, especially to low information citizens. The destructive results of this message have been reflected in the election of radical tea party individuals to positions of significant political power. Their wreckless and disrespectful conduct is an insult to our founders and a bastardization of democracy. It's a full blown Republican freak show.
We need to boom out a message filled with truth and economic hope, one as strong as the megalithic lie of trickle down, deregulation, and free trade which has destroyed the working class. Go to town hall meetings, call your elected reps, use your computer, phones, local newspaper opinion columns, talk to everyone you know, march in the streets...."We The People" might not own Fox, but with the same ardent spirit our founders had, we can succeed in the restoration of our democracy.
#23
Hello Gerald, In regard to #2 on Monday's blog, I tell teabaggers all the time , I at least with Govt. control there is hope for the type that respects the best interests of the people. With Corp control it's all about money and power usually at the expense of our best interests. So I agree with your sentiment. Hey when all this crap gets you down , do what I do, go for a run, walk in the woods, eat right, whatever it takes! Keep the faith, fight on brother!
#24
@dianhow, Barilman, and 2950-10k, let me first say thank you for your comments!!! I would also like to say that there are times when I dislike saying somethings but I believe ideas, thoughts, and words need to be expressed. We are in battles against Satan's disciples who talk about family values and all the time these devils are laughing at family values. Here is one example. Let us eliminate child labor laws and have children work and not pursue an education. If you want to lose freedom, you must put a blanket over education. I say horse pucky to that Nazi idea. I truly BELIEVE THAT THE UNITED STATES OF MORTAL SIN IS THE ANTI-CHRIST!!!!! Please read the words below!
We are now hearing about Obama and whether or not he attended Harvard and there is also talk about his grades. No Nazi or Satan’s disciples are willing to talk about real issues, such as the impoverishment and slavery for the poor and the working classes. Hypocrisy reigns supreme among Satan’s disciples. The devils are winning in our Anti-Christ nation.
Florida has passed a bill that would curtail voter registrations and making it next to impossible for low-income persons, students, and racial minorities from voting. Florida is definitely a Nazi-controlled state where Satan’s disciples prevail over the citizens. There should be minimal doubt that Nazi America has more disciples wearing brown shirts and jackboots. These devils are truly Nazis who prowl the fifty states seeking the ruin of souls.
#25
@Palindromedary, I want to apologize for missing your words on April 25, 2011. I try to respond to comments directed to me. There are times when I am very tired and I will miss comments. I hope that no one will take my missing of some comments personal. I enjoy debate and dialogue.
"@Gerald:
I watched the same program and had exactly the same thought about the 4th Reich right here in the US."
Palindromedary, the parallels between Naxi Germany and Nazi America are truly frightening. George W. had a grandfather who would tell W. about Hitler's great leadership qualities. W. tried to emulate Hitler in every way as a mass murderer and a war criminal. This is my perceptual opinion on W.
There can be little doubt that our Anti-Christ nation is evil, vile, and wicked.
#26
To close the income gap: 1) Close ALL corporate loopholes and corporate welfare. 2) Raise the taxes on investment income on people making over $250K to 35% - No exceptions. 3) Reinstate the inheritance tax to 50% over $1.5MM. 4) Raise taxes on people making over $250K to 40%. 5) Demand that all military contractors being audited, if there was any money that cannot be accounted for, the U.S. should get it back. 6) Every offshore account, business & personal should be audited - no deals these people need to pay their taxes and penalties. None of this $.12 on the dollar stuff. 7) There needs to be business laws that keep CEO pay as a multiplier of the median income of employees of that corporation. 8) The middle class should not pay any taxes for 5 years, and banks, investment firms/Wall Street and any/all companies involved with the housing crisis, needs to pay an extra 20% for the next 50 years. This will give the middle class a well deserved break and puts some of the pain where it belongs
#27
I'm sorry that these super rich are suffering from such greed! The more they have the more they covet! Truly they do. Their fear is they won't be able to buy that next property they someday may covet. It's so bad, even our politicians can't remember how many houses they own!
I feel those who are blessed to be in this top one percent, fail to appreciate and thus compensate our country for their blessings. Surely they rely on our government to protect their financial needs through our financial institutions, and their foreign investments requiring our world class military budget. Our schools, roads, and bridges were all used to produce that wealth. They should pay exponentially more taxes than others.
Sensibly now, after a couple of million in earnings, a tax code should tax eighty-nine percent of each extra dollar to prevent this greed. Heck, I wouldn't mind knowing that ball player was earning twenty million a year, knowing our schools, roads, bridges, national parks, and veterans were getting about seventeen of it.
A greed based tax code is what we need.
#28
Could I spend 1 million a year on me? This is the Reality Show we need- "How Much Do I need?" How many bathrooms do I need? Seven! I need authentic pink grout from Firenze between my tile and bottles of champagne to smash upon my pleasure yacht. I need acrylic nails, a hundred shoes, frocks and the remains of birds to wear on my head. Have I reached a million a year yet?
My opponent has a cousin whose only book was eaten by a rat. However, I have to guess, "How Much Do They Need?" How about two bathrooms vs seven. Sheets for beds that are on box springs and frames, and one bed for everyone in the house. You know, a clean man for every house for every man a clean bed. Food is nice to have on a regular basis, and perhaps a bookcase with some books, and a computer.
After so many shows we would find taking care of the needs of mankind and cleaning up our social illnesses is much less expensive than the More Fortunate probably realize.
Most of the Less Fortunate would be satisfied with a cute house, a nice yard, and recent model economy car, and are not anxious to acquire more than they can take care of themsleves. Naturally, The More Fortunate need More Servants, but the Less Fortunate need Less. They need smaller houses, but they need them just the same. There is, therefore, no excuse for anyone to be without a pleasant place to live and food to eat when there is so much abundance on the earth.
Why force socialism or redistributions? Shame ought to do it. We need a public exhibition of the daily and monthly Needs of The More Fortunate and The Less Fortunate, each opponent reading their list facing the other.
XXXXX
#29
Here, in Berkshire County, MA, the Berkshire Eagle is the regional daily newspaper. I was astounded, and grateful, to find that a long letter to the editor, signed by a resident of Williamstown, MA, extolled the extravagant wonders of Ayn Rand ! The sly incursion of beliefs of Ayn into American political thought and action is now, at least here in the front yard of Williams College, on the record.
The letter's author trumpeted the wonderfulness of Alan Greenspan's adherence to Ayn Rand's line, and quoted the fictional words of protagonists in "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" as statements of proper freedom while condemning "compassion" as the feeling one has when a caterpillar is squashed.
The culture war is underway, and the generals on the right are denying their attacks on the rest of us while they condemn all references to income inequity in public debate as, "divisiveness" by the radical lefties.
I say, "radical lefties, unite!! The only things we have to lose are the destructive silliness of the folks who haven't bought into the Christianity of Jesus while they promote anti-Muslim panic among the struggling middle class and unemployed to distract us from the ghastly truth about how much our beloved country is about to pay for the self-indulgence of the stinkin' rich!
The campaign of the Ayn Rand-ers is the real culture war, folks! Watch out!
#30
“He broke the law,” President Barack Obama (a constitutional-law-professor-turned-president who has already presumed Manning guilty of crimes for which he is not even formally charged) said of Manning by way of countering his own supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser who dared question the conditions of Manning’s imprisonment. Conditions that Human Rights Watch challenged as “extremely restrictive and possibly punitive and degrading.”
“If I was to release stuff, information that I’m not authorized to release, I’m breaking the law. … We’re a nation of laws. We don’t individually make our own decisions about how the laws operate. … He [Manning] broke the law.”
-from an article by Robert Scheer--Truthdig.com
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/all_the_wikileaks_fit_to_print_20110...
What a hypocrite President Obama is after supporting, or at least being pushed around by, elements in our own government that have grossly skirted the law, or even broke the law to the extent that they committed war crimes and others have wrecked our Nation's economy. He doesn't say much about banks and corporations that get away with bribing politicians and avoids confronting the issue of war crimes by his predecessor...even continues the same criminal policies of his predecessor. Just who the hell is President Obama think he is anyway, the President of the US? Technically yes. But in my book never again. Obama is just another hypocrite politician full of lies. As Mr. Scheer said in his article "Why indeed is Manning the one behind bars and not the government officials who kept hidden unpleasant truths about this nation’s policies that the public has a right to know?" "It is obvious that Manning is being punished because government officials don’t like to be shown to be so deeply in the wrong."
If it weren't for "whistleblowers" we would all be even more so at the mercy of the criminals yet Obama has spent much of his time trying to indict "whistleblowers".
#31
@Gerald: No problem, Gerald. Thanks for replying. I do agree with much of what you say..yet not exactly with the religious overtones...but that's ok...I sure feel the same way and can see the "evil" and hypocrisy that has taken over our country. We all have to unite, despite any distracting differences, to fight the powers that are destroying lives. The one thing we all have in common is we all need to eat..have a shelter..and had good health care. And it looks like the powerful few in the world believe that we are all peons that get in the way of their delusions of grandeur. Well, the Arabs, at least are showing the world, and setting a good example, of kicking those greedy bastards from their thrones...and we need to do the same thing. We need to kick the bums out of office who we have voted for and who have not made good on their campaign rhetoric...change we can believe in...instead of more of the same. We need to grab the reigns of the unpatriotic corporations who are outsourcing our jobs. We need to throw out the bums who have our health system in shackles...the insurance companies. We need to break the backs of the FIRE (Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) economy to once again restore a production/manufacturing economy. We need to kick some Wall Street and Banker's butts and restore their ill-gotten gains back to the people. Revolution? YES!!!
#32
@JayKayGee43: You are right in that we need to unify against the greedy and selfish powers that have been waging war against us all for at least 40 years now. It is a class war that we didn't start...but we must finish with a victory for the people..otherwise many of us, and our children, will die in poverty, sickness, and starvation. One thing we have to be very cautious of is that we don't want to be "taken over" by forces that really are not going to act in our best interests. One example is when the Koch brothers fund the Tea Party and they get distracted by things that are really sideline issues...the rich know that all they have to do is "divide and conquer" by using emotional issues that distract from our main goals of food and shelter which comes about when people have good paying jobs, good affordable health services, and decent shelters...none of which we will have in the future unless we do something really drastic. I am in the same boat as everyone else...I don't know exactly what that something "really drastic" is nor would I want to do something stupid and be a martyr for a bunch of hypocrite and ungrateful sheep who bleat out nasty names about you for having acted on conviction. We need to act in unison or not at all and the first stirrings can only happen when we communicate. When no one speaks up about their plight we will continue to spiral down the black hole of oblivion until it is too late for a reversal of the situation. At first, they came for the Jews...and I said nothing because I wasn't a Jew....then they came for.......Who's knocking at your door?
#33
It might interest you to know that I am formally a Buddhist but I do know my Bible tolerably well and it is vey clear that at Aldous Huxley pointed out in "The Perennial Philospphy" that the mystical cores of all the world religions is driving towards the same end point no matter how the different the exoteric aspects of these traditions seem.
Equally Thom's mentor Herr Muller would have uterly disapproved of the clearly immmoral behaviur of the US government and the people it works for ( the ultrawealthy).
I do think that all these "The U.S.is antichrist " type statements obscure as much as they reveal. Everybody I know comments on how courteous and kind Americans are on a one to one basis- and most of my cultural heroes originate from the US. It pays to be very clear that the Cabal who has hijacked government in the US and hypnotised the mass of people into immobility is not to be confused with the people of the US itself. The samevery much applied to Nazi Germany but I am afraid that the powerbrokers in the US are every bit as dangerous to liberty and decwency as the Nazi Party was.
We are all hoping for the day when the US people will wake up and shrug off the current power structure.
#34
The solution to all these problems is found in Nader's new book Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us. More info at nader.org
#35
I have not seen or heard of any lies that President Obama has engaged in. Exactly what lies did he make? I doubt that you can come up with any.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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I live in Nevada and it's here too. Schools are slashed I've worked 30years in this area and have been unemployed for a year and a half. But that is not why I'm writing. I don't know who to ask to find out about the election fraud I suspect is happening here since Dean Heller bought the new voting machines while he was secretary of state. It's odd because he hasn't seemed to campaign at all in the last two elections he was in, and yet he won them both. How do we check that there isn't some % transfer of votes on these machines. I hope you get this message.
Thanks Scott Riggs