Treasury Tim Geithner leaving...are the rats fleeing the sinking ship or will there be change we can believe in?
By louisehartmann
Is Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner on his way out? According to senior White House officials – Geithner is considering leaving his post after the debt-limit fiasco is resolved. Geithner denied the reports, saying he plans to stay in his job for the “foreseeable future” – but a source at the White House says that Geithner has been discussing plans to leave since early this year. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates left yesterday – and a handful of other top officials have left the White House this year including Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Economic adviser Larry Summers.
Which makes me wonder – are the rats fleeing the sinking ship?
Or is President Obama finally coming to his senses and will soon be putting some real progressives on his staff instead of the same old corporate suits.
Comments
#2
Here's a thought: Since Obama doesn't have to run against Clinton this time, he won't be obliged to appoint Clintonites in his second term. Maybe he'll be more progressive starting in 2013.
#3
http://salon.com/a/sFDwfAA They're betting against US!
#4
Re: the National Debt Ceiling
If Obama can disregard congress regarding his war in Syria, can't he also disregard congress regarding the debt ceiling?
#5
Please enjoy your weekend holiday! Here are some thoughts and words that may help your weekend.
Advanced Farts
Different Types of GOP/Taliban Farts
Beefy Fart
Sounds loud, and will smell a bit like the rotting offspring of an infected cow and a dog turd.
Brewer Fart
You try to push the Brewer Fart out, but it stays firmly lodged deep within your bowels. You come to the conclusion that it is some form of gaseous landmark.
Bunbuster Fart
Sounds like a Beefy Fart, except much more sudden and much much more powerful. Generally smells eggy or beefy. Leaves your asshole smarting. You really feel these babies.
GNL Fart
Gambled ‘n’ Lost. You make a gamble that it’s going to be a fart and you stay where you are, but realize tragically that this is much more than a fart.
Hydrated Flatulation (aka Wet Fart)
The original Wet Fart, that leaves a mark on your pants, and gives you a cold wet sticky sensation when you walk. You may not like this little bugger, but the GOP/Taliban feel right at home with it.
Prelude to a Poopie
You feel like you have got a large beefy one, but out comes a tiny squeaker fart, and the head of something massive. You tense your buttocks fast, lest you give birth to the brown equivalent of a zeppelin.
Sphinctal Napalm
Tends to occur a few hours after a hot curry! Never mind the smell, worry about the burning sensation and the nasty stain you know it must have left.
Trouser Ripping Special
Sends seismic ripples to the next city! Rips the back of your pants. This fart genuinely hurts, and you can still feel it 20 minutes later. Anyone sitting nearby at the time will suffer hearing loss.
#6
Here are more thoughts and words to lead your weekend!
GOP/Taliban Farts
Democrats are not perfect but they do not have an air about them.
Here are some laughing points regarding the GOP and the Taliban!
GOP/Taliban have an air about them. They really do have an air about them.
GOP/Taliban are synonymous with the fundamentalists, the neocons, and the kkkristian evangelicals.
Their farts remind me of their attitudes and policies. Here are some examples.
1. Vain fart – GOP/Taliban love the smell of their farts.
2. Proud fart – GOP/Taliban think their farts are exceptionally fine.
3. Impudent fart – GOP/Taliban boldly fart out loud and then laugh.
4. Strategic fart – GOP/Taliban fart and then conceal it with loud coughing.
5. Sadistic fart – GOP/Taliban fart in bed and then pull the cover up over their partner’s head.
6. Unfortunate fart – GOP/Taliban try really hard to fart, but they poop instead.
7. Honest fart – GOP/Taliban admit they farted but offer good medical reasons.
8. Dishonest fart – GOP/Taliban fart and then blame the dog.
9. Thrifty fart – GOP/Taliban always keep a couple good farts in reserve.
#7
I just hope we get another former CEO to help regulate banks. They are always willing to help create larger and larger to big to fail companies.
#8
Fleeing the sinking ship .... where to go before it all comes crashing down?
#9
I just don't see Obama appointing more progressive ( left) advisers after what he did when so many left after '10. What did he do? he appointed lobbyists from the banks and big corporations to "advise him".
Obama isn't progressive. He's even siad he's a "New Democrat" which mean Neo-liberal.
I DO hope he holds the line on the debt ceiling, but his hiostory fo caving over everything that could help US get out of this economic disaster doesn't give me much "hope".
A leopard doen't change his spots
#10
@Kassandra, same is true for a zebra!!!
#11
It'll be interesting to find out who replaces Timmy Geithner. Another Goldman Sax tool?
Democracy Now today had a fascinating piece on the subject of "debt" as a driver of world strife. That has recently been my "beef". Who appointed private BANKERS and "Rating Agencies" (Moody's , S&P, Fitch, etc.) masters of our little planet? Time we took them down a notch, and then some.
Thom should interview the author of "Debt: the first 5000 years", David Graeber. Paul Mason of BBC Newsnight was a light in the tunnel, too.
Peace, all.
#12
The persons who are leaving the administration have done great damage to the presidency. The people who are leaving will be rewarded handsomely by the rich and transnational corporations. There are excellent replacements but Obama must want and seek out these replacements to be part of his administration. Hopefully, the people who are leaving are taking their stench with them.
As a person grows older, here is a problem.
What I cannot understand why people who have been married for thirty or forty years are divorcing. As a person grows older, his body does not function normally. Here is an example. When I eat, my internal plumbing does not digest the food as easily as it did at a younger age. This slow digestive process develops more air pockets in the colon. With more air pockets there is more expelling gas. Some women tire of the continuous stench in the air. What I try to do with more air pockets in my colon, I go into the basement or outside the home. At times I cannot hold back the expelling gas. To date my wife has not complained about my discombobulated internal plumbing but a man never knows what is going through a woman’s mind. I share these words with you so you can use extreme caution with the frequency in expelling gas as you grow older in the presence of your wife.
I have been chewing my food longer and I have found that I am expelling less gas.
#13
Unfortunately, there is no way to tell whether Obama has come to his senses or not, because although he- like every other politician- talks a good game, the one thing he fears above all else, is keeping his campaign promises. It makes me wonder whether he tells his children it's ok to promise to do things and then not do them, as a lifestyle choice. And if it is not ok for his children to adopt a hypocritical lifestyle, why is it ok for him to behave that way when his unkept promises have directly resulted in thousands upon thousands of pointless deaths and even more injuries, illegal imprisonments, torture, and the bankrupting of America. Why, if I didn't know better, I would think Obama just doesn't have the courage to do the job he talked us into electing him to do or the honesty to admit it.
#14
I agree with you one hundred percent. Will he call the republicans bluff on the debit limit? I hope so or we are doomed.
#15
Obama is a closet neocon! Why should he appoint any progressives?
#16
We elected the President because he promised hope and change. He has been a Great Dissapointment, bowing to the Republicrooks in everything. Was he working for the Dark Side the entire time? Has he been bought off, or blackmailed into submission? It appears that Our Nation has been destroyed by the forces of EVIL, to be replaced by a return to the Feudal System!!!
#17
So, who could replace Tim Geithner and do a better job? Well, let's make a list:
1) A hyena.
2) A melanogaster drosophilia.
3) A monkey- it doesn't really matter what kind or which one, or even whether it's alive.
4) A clod of dirt.
5) A rhododendron.
6) A beer keg.
7) A garbage can.
8) Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, or- better yet- Goofy.
9) A crumpled-up piece of paper on which a bunch of lies are written.
#18
Rats leaving a sinking ship? I wouldn't be surprised if they have bought French Villas or Argentina Haciendas by now. Our only hope is that their country of refuge sees them as criminals too and throws them in their dungeons for the rest of their lives. As the banksters, and their minions, scatter about like any evil Nazi did after the end of WWII, they might find it hard to find a place that has not been disastrously ruined by their neo-liberal crimes. Remember, neo-liberal has nothing to do with liberalism...it is just the opposite...they are definitely not progressive or liberal. Remember, Phil Gramm?
#19
A. Yes and no. Q. Treasury Tim Geithner leaving...are the rats fleeing the sinking ship or will there be change we can believe in?
#20
Quotes from Michael Hudson, the economist in his interview by Bonnie Falkner on Guns and Butter of March 16, 2011. Show titled: "The view from Europe"
“The bankers want the economy to fail so that they can get governments to privatize in order to get out of debt. This is essentially, a grab for the assets...so there won't be a government anymore...the bankers will be the government. That's basically, what free-market economics is all about...it's centralized planning in the hands of Wall Street and the banks. The banker's eye-view of the world is to lower living standards until you have what happened in Russia where Vladmir Putin said that the neo-liberalization there had killed more Russians than WWII. It has shortened the life spans, reduced public health, led to lower birth rates, lower marriage rates, and increased immigration, and the effective neo-liberal economics is just as devastating as war. So essentially, finance is a new form of warfare in a non-military sense. It's cheaper, it makes money, and people don't even seem to realize that they are under attack.”
“Social Democracy is supposed to be based on democracy and people are supposed to vote. But the financial sector wants to make central banks, as they are in the United States, outside of the voting processes. It has been the hallmark of democracy as an independent central bank meaning: we will screw you no matter what you vote...no matter who you vote in....you can't stop us....you can't do anything because we are appointed by politicians, for long periods of time. There is nothing you can do to bring us under control...and we can kill you if we want....and that's just exactly what we intend to do. Just try to stop us! That's why democracy and finance are anti-thetical.”
The 1990s in Russia, when it was carved up and they experimented in capitalism, with “junk economics” with “the Harvard Boys” very much like “The Chicago Boys” did in Pinochet's Chile where in 1973 there was a military coup there....and the western capitalists got rich exploiting them. A few in Russia got extremely wealthy but most people were driven into destitution and many died as a result. They are doing pretty much the same thing now around the world in other countries and here in the US as well.
#21
More quotes from the same show:
“The grip of state control is to be replaced by the grip of financial control. In other words, the grip of control by a western democracy is replaced by the grip of bankers and creditors who are immune from people's voting and can do whatever they want. So, what do you think is the tighter grip? That of the elected government representative or that of unelected bankers and Wall Street? Saying we will take whatever you have...pay us...or else..your money or your life. That's the choice that they are given and that's what they are told to do by World Bank and IMF as arms of the US treasury.” And that's the program all over Europe...and the world.
Money managers in Europe and America are engaging in a capital flight out of their own economy. They are putting their money into the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, S. Africa, Singapore)...countries that don't bend to this non-sense. So it's a capital flight out of Europe, out of N. America at the same time this is happening. So the financial managers, themselves, know that this won't work, but they say “Well, but we will grab as much as we can, for as long as we can...why not?”
So Governor Walker in Wisconsin is trying to do what they did in Russia....not only is he trying to bust unions but he is trying to privatize everything. Resulting in the biggest land or asset grab since the 19th century.
#22
More quotes:
Bonnie Falkner: "The three major outbreaks of North African unrest, Tunesia, Egypt, and Libya...toppling two dictators and threatening a third, was singled out by the IMF for praise as success stories of free-market restructuring....including large-scale privatization....scaling back national economic and financial regulation...and massive job and social spending cuts. Do you agree that the revolts in N. Africa were fundamentally uprisings against the neo-liberal, free-markets pushed globally by the US and allied financial powers?"
Michael Hudson: "Certainly the labor unions have taken a much stronger role, especially in Tunesia, than has been talked about in most of the cases. The problem is that these countries were educating a lot of people....are basically....this is a (social out**) revolution...not a lower class revolution. A lot of people were educated..sent to college...and then there is no work for them because the economies have been neoliberalized....and there is not much work in neoliberalized economies. So, needless to say, there was a lot of anger toward the government. But it was also just a reaction against the dictatorship that the Americans have been putting in power.
The IMF, the World Bank, and the US State Department praised these countries, basically, because they followed US policies. And US policies let foreigners take as much of your the raw materials as possible and dictators are good at controlling populations keeping the people quiet. So, they did keep their populations quiet for decades. In tunesia, for example, the families suffered quietly and were afraid to talk to each other about how bad things were. And once, all of a sudden, there was a spontaneous uprising against the dictator there.”
Revolutions occur because, all of a sudden, the people get so tired of being afraid and living in abject poverty and decide that “there's nothing more to lose” so “we might as well fight back”. Part of the problem is that many people don't realize that they are not alone and that even all of their neighbors are in the same boat and have the same frustrations and feelings. When they eventually talk and find out that they are all in great numbers being exploited unfairly then revolutions and uprisings happen....and they begin to fight back.
“There was such an anger throughout the country to what the US State Department, Hillary, her right-wing gang, thought was (accessing**) Mubarak, in keeping people quiet, actually was just suppressing an enormous pressure that simply exploded.”
**Note: I could not find a transcript for this show so I partially transcribed it myself...I could not understand a couple of words and noted them.
#23
more quotes from the same show:
Bonnie Falkner: "Criminals like Angello Mozillo, of Coutrywide Financial, are getting off scott-free. The justice department has dropped it's investigation of Mozillo saying that his activities did not amount to criminal wrongdoing. All he did was pocket over $500 million between 2000 and 2008 off the issue of sub-prime loans to low income borrowers and the sale of the securities to Wall Street Banks which sold them on as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). He also sold over $10 million of his own stocks in Countrywide just before the company collapsed while telling other company shareholders that the company was healthy. The Justice Department says that this is not criminal. Isn't the word “criminal” being redefined here? Who is in charge the financial sector, or the government?"
Michael Hudson: "Well, financial crime has been decriminalized...for two reasons...in order for the prosecutor to prosecute a crime, there not only has to be a crime but you need prosecutors and you need investigators. Under Bush and Obama, the staffing of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FBI, and other criminal agencies has been cut so much that there are no lawyers, no investigators to actually do the research to prosecute. And essentially, the only person that has been arrested is Bernie Maddoff who walked into the police headquarters and (surrendered**). Nobody else has been sent to jail and my University of Missouri college William Black has written very extensively on this."
“Even all of the settlements by the SEC has been made without acknowledging any criminal wrongdoing. Just to make sure that in similar trials the victims are not able to recover from the fraudsters. The real aim of not prosecuting is not to let any criminal prosecution beginning from a civil case to make (people from above**) pay back the money that they got. They can say “look, we didn't (?????**)...then it would be much harder for a class action suit for the victims of their crimes to make any claim because the government is simply not supportive.”
#24
I'm wishing President Obama appoints someone with a fresh,progressive vision for the nation's finances.3 years have been squandered holding on to the past.Now the president is more comfortable in his position.Will he be able to focus on our financial house;or will re-election become too distracting?
I believe he "can walk & chew gum" at the same time.All the surrounding(supporting?) players will be the key element.
#25
I've been wondering if Obama was going to morph into a Teddy Roosevelt (either Roosevelt, really) in his lame-duck term. Right now, he has to beg for corporate money to stay in business, and you can't bite the hand that feeds you. So he may start fighting back for real when he no longer needs the corporate cash to survive. I'm probably dreaming.
But even if he became a fire-breathing progressive, he cannot, alone, do what really needs to be done in America, and that is to separate business from government. To get that monumental job done (Oh, if we'd only listened to Jefferson) would take a populist revolt that transcended ideologies. That is, the now-raped middle class would all have to call government to account and demand an end to the monopoly-driven culture in Washington. That is, we need a real Boston Tea Party, not this phony one we have now.
#26
I vote he's replaced with Elliott Spitzer. Yes, seriously.
==JJS==
http://www.cafepress.com/CommonSensePress <- Get your Bernie Sanders for President T-shirt!
#27
Bernie Sanders, Yes!!! But Cuomo for Vice Prez???...I don't think so!!! Despite Cuomo's popularity....he looks to be yet another Obama....giving in to the rich and powerful.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/nyregion/cuomo-will-seek-to-lift-drill...
Not many people, especially environmentalists, are happy with HydroFracturing....especially if they have to drink the water! But, I guess on those cold New York nights in the wintertime all they would have to do to keep warm is to light the water...ever seen those videos where people ignite their water because of the petroleum pollution of the water due to hydrofracking?
What I am talking about is that link that Jimspy posted...the T-shirt is advocating that there be a Sanders/Cuomo ticket in 2012. But, I agree, that I would like to see Spitzer in there.... instead of Cuomo.
#28
@merf, people who read Thom's blog will agree with you. Please share some names for Obama to consider. Thank you!
#29
August 10, 2007
WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?
by Jack at Liberty Underground
http://www.opednews.com
This week, a woman shot and killed a homeless man in Cincinnati because he asked her for a quarter. This story was in our local, corporate-viewpoint monopoly newspaper this morning. "He asked her for a quarter," Police Chief Tom Streicher said. "That's apparently all there was to it."
One may, at first, shrug this story off by thinking Geraldine Beasley must be insane for murdering Donald Francis.
But, because of the massive bias by corporate media, homelessness and hunger are buried here in the Land of the Free, where most Americans are not aware that we have the most homeless and hungry among all major industrialized nations, by any measure. As a consequence of this, many citizens are angry at homeless people.
We have seen a great many articles in the mass media saying that these are lazy people who should go find jobs. What is never allowed is the facts on unemployment. Headlines everywhere echo the deceptive line that unemployment is low.
But the untold truth is that unemployment is quite high.
Not counted in official statistics are those who have given up trying to find work because they've had so many doors slammed in their face, and we have no idea how many millions are in this category because there is no official data, apparently by design.
Not counted are the tens of millions working part time because they cannot find full-time jobs. The government counts those working as little as one hour per month as employed.
Not counted are those making minimum wage and unable to provide for basic needs. There have never been as many Americans making minimum wage as there are today. All are counted as employed in government statistics.
Not counted are the millions in our record-sized prison system, there largely because the US economy works as it does to provide profit for transnational investors at any cost to the rest of us.
As a consequence, the propaganda blasted in corporate media has convinced citizens that there is a great deal of work available for those who want it. And, of course, you can pick strawberries for $20 a day if you are a person with other resources for survival.
But even where there is work, employers don't want people who are mentally slow or on drugs/alcohol. There is little pity for those hopeless people who try to escape with cheap wine. They are not seen as human beings. Even the good Christians who run the country, led by George Bush, ignore their own Jesus' "What you do to the least of them, you do to me."
Because of the way in which Americans are indoctrinated in capitalist rhetoric to the point of becoming zombies, we do not find it strange that a man was murdered for asking for a quarter.
#30
But the question is.....how did he ask for the quarter? Some of these people can get really scary and may not just be "asking". Did he even say "please?" There is a lot of nuances that often are not mentioned because of the slant that can be elicited, and making a good story that freaks people out. At least she didn't pump him full of lead like the police often do, did she?
I remember one story (I think it was in LA a couple of years ago) where this woman had locked herself up in her car and was not thinking very clearly, had been doing drugs the previous night, and was scared that someone was going to break into her car, and because she had a gun...the police surrounded the car and blasted her with nearly a hundred rounds. Then again, this might be yet another case where the news people don't tell everything in order to get a good story that will freak people out.
#31
The police state culture has a killer mentality. For each human being killed will draw us closer to Leo Strauss and his PROJECT FOR A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY theory and that our planet can only sustain 500 million human beings. It is America's goal to lead the world in the killing of human beings. That is one reason why we carry out endless wars. The killing of human beings means the glorification of the USA.
#32
Since America and Americans are embracing Satan and his disciples, here is how we can counter Satan and his disciples complete takeover of America and Americans' mind, body, and soul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTUBI_WFORY&NR=1
We must let Jesus take the wheel of our nation and of our lives!
#33
Well, Obama has tried doing things the "Bush" way and to appease the Republicans for almost 3 years now--I hope to hell that he is going to start doing things, if not more Progressively, at least more like the Democrat we thought we elected.
#34
You said it, brother!
#35
I think all of us, who still have "hope," are hoping that Obama is going to pull off the gloves in the next four years. After all, he'll have nothing to lose.
#36
Tom, here is a letter that I hope to have in the mail during the next few days.
July 4, 2011
Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland
Second District
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. Huizenga:
I read your article in a Detroit newspaper rag. The article is dated, July 3, 2011. The title is “U.S. House has modern answer on Medicare.” Although your article highlighted Medicare, I am concerned that the Guardians of Privilege (GOP) will gut all social safety programs for Americans.
There are answers for our difficult time. Let me share with you how we can resolve problems that you claim are unsustainable. Do not bailout banks and Wall Street for incompetence! Gambling with the taxpayers’ money is a crime and these crooks and robbers must be prosecuted. Rollback the W. and Reagan tax cuts! Investment income should be taxed at 25 to 35%, like most Americans, who are paying in taxes. The investment income is taxed at 15% maximum but with tax loopholes the tax is more like 7%. Income, whether payroll or investment, up to $5 million should be taxed for the social security trust fund and not the $108,000 current limit on income. Eliminate the shell game of American companies off shoring jobs to foreign countries and not paying a tariff! All products entering our country must pay a tariff and not the 2% limit. Since corporations are considered persons, these corporations must be taxed as a person. A 25 to 35% tax is similar to persons paying current taxes. Off shore tax loopholes for politicians, the rich, and corporations is a crime and these persons need to be prosecuted for criminal behavior. Perks for politicians should be eliminated, such as free jet rides! Shared sacrifice, or I like to say Guarantor Responsibility, means that everyone pays taxes. There are many more tax loopholes, Ponzi schemes, and shell games that are in our corrupt political system but I cannot remember all of them.
The United States of Mortal Sin, aka the Anti-Christ, is not above the law. Our nation needs to join the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands. Commencing immoral and wrong wars is a criminal act and the perpetrators of these actions must be prosecuted. The killing of God’s children resolves nothing and it creates more problems. Our country needs to practice the “Golden Rule.”
What concerns me about politicians is that when brains were being passed out birth, they thought it was trains and they started looking for the caboose. The caboose is at the rear end of the train. It seems to me that our politicians have their brains in their rear ends.
Persons who are familiar with the State of Michigan know that the west side of our state is a Guardians of Privilege (GOP) stronghold and a stranglehold. Persons who know the state realize that the west side is also a massive, notorious “Red Light District.”
The use of brains in our heads and not in our rear ends can resolve our differences and problems.
Sincerely,
Gerald Socha
A progressive, a Democratic Socialist, and a Jesus Liberal
cc: Persona File
President Barack Obama
Congressman Gary Peters
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Carl Levin
Thom Hartmann’s blog
#37
http://www.opednews.com/articles/From-Democracy-to-Kleptocr-by-Richard-Clark-110702-88.html
The stealing of our money and rights as Americans!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/July-4-infamy-Republicans-by-Brent-Budowsky-110702-169.html
The GOP is destroying the American economy!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Neocons-Want-War-and-More-by-Robert-Parry-110702-770.html
The Neocons want more wars!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Put-Away-The-Flags--There-by-Allen-L-Roland-110702-644.html
Put away your flags!
#38
Keep hoping...after all, the criminals are counting on it...it buys them more time and advantage. You saw what "hope we can believe in" bought us. If Obama is reelected...we'll get more of the same. Obama will come and go and progressives will be lamenting on how they were, once again, fooled. Obama doesn't really give a hoot about the working man. He sees himself among those that have risen above everyone else...in stature, importance, and opulence...dare I say...uppity...despite the fact that he will never fit in among those upper circles that seeks to destroy him and especially all the rest of us lowly peons. It's really sad because Obama could have been a great man who worked to save America from the banksters and Wall Street. But, he turned out to be their useful idiot...as did we all when we voted for "hope we can believe in". It was all a ruse...the old
"release the political pressure trick"...by putting in someone who people thought was going to work for them and not the rich...for a change. It's kind of like the Nazi's forcing Jewish musicians to play chamber music as the others are loaded off the box cars. It's like signs above the "work" camps proclaiming "work will make you free"!
#39
Here are some words to follow up on Howard Zinn's video!
War is a narcotic. War gives certain people a high. Bush is a drug addict who says he has recovered but the Iraq war is an addictive narcotic that gives Bush his daily high. He says that he has recovered but you never recover from an addictive personality. The longer a war lasts the more power goes to the government.
We start hating through language and from language we start to want to kill people. War gives the addictive personality meaning. Bush cannot exist without war. The state begins to define our being. The state must control us in order for us to kill. We cannot look at another person as part of humanity. Friends do not want war. You must, in war, want to kill and a person cannot be a friend to a person whom he is out to kill. People become intoxicated in war toward killing. You lose yourself and your identity as a human person in war.
If you oppose war, you court physical violence to yourself by the nationalists who desire and crave killing and war. You need moral courage to oppose war in America, a land that is overrun by nationalists who want killing and war.
Human beings do not want to kill other human beings. Bush and Cheney are not human beings because they want to kill human beings. Bush and Cheney turned away from people who had empathy for us after 9/11. We had an opportunity to build friendships but we became racists.
The Republican Party possesses extremists who are doing great damage to our relations in the world. Once you become violent, you hang onto and remain violent because you cannot behave any other way. Violence comes back to haunt a country. Our violence to other countries will come back to haunt us. We do not have the right to control other people.
#40
Please bypass #42! I tried to copy only Jim Hightower's words but all the nonsense below his words were included. I also tried to cut or deleted the nonsense to no avail. I apologize.
#41
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=134064
Republicans love socialism!!!
Please bypass #42! I tried to copy only Jim Hightower's words but all the nonsense below his words were included. I also tried to cut or deleted the nonsense to no avail. I apologize.
#42
Whew!! I'm glad you explained that...I was beginning to think someone forgot to take their meds!!! Very interesting stuff though...thanks. But you should be able to edit that if you have an edit button below your comment. Just click on Edit and the delete all the stuff you don't want displayed.
#43
I'm giving President Obama the beneifit of the doubt, and think he is in fact heading in a progressive staffing direction. He certainly knows by now that compromise , concessions, and the illusion of bipartisan possibilities only equates to conservative victory
Just a friendly reminder,"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness-THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, Governments are instituted among men and women, DERIVING THEIR POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED." Happy 4th to everyone!
What a fantastic day for the 4th here in upstste N.Y..... had a great trail race Sat. morning, mile 14 was a killer, all uphill , but still ran tough with the spirit of the weekend in mind. I got to talk with a few like minded progressive runners post race and found it encouraging that these guys are aware and on the same page politically. The Vermont Draft Cider also eased the post race pain.
Get out to those bonfires tonight!
#44
Our son is visiting us for a week. He tries to stay over whenever he can from a European trip. He showed me a Japanese newspaper that he receives to keep up with the news from Japan. The article discusses the nuclear plant problems and how much radiation is in the air. Of course, Americans would never receive such information from our nuclear plants’ problems. Yet, we call our nation, “A free and open society.” Every time I hear how free and open we are, I experience a torrential puke.
#45
#42 is a disgusting post and I again apologize for it!!!
#46
@Palindromedary, thank you for the help! I did try what I knew and for some reason I was unable to delete the non-essential part of the scroll. I was at the computer at about 4:30 AM and I was extremely tired. It would have been better for me to say that the last three paragraphs of the article were pertinent readings.
#47
Wow! 4:30am? Hard to sleep when we are having so much fun, eh?...I had to pack it in at about 3:00am myself.
Anyway, Chris Hedges had a good article at Truthdig.com with an interview of Ralph Nader...who is "tired of running for President".
Ralph Nader to Chris Hedges when asked if he would run for President agains:
(he ran in 2000, 2004, and 2008)
“You have millions of people who say run, run, run,” he said. “Then you put yourself out there and find they are voting for Obama. Until they become mature, until they realize that if they generate 5 to 8 million votes behind a progressive third-party candidate for leverage, what is the point? Why should people try four or five times? Let someone else do it."
“The people who go out there with some credibility and record, go into 50 states, sweat it out month after month, beating back ballot access obstacles, fighting the Democrats who are trying to suppress free speech and candidate choices for the voters, and then you still can’t get on the air to discuss civil liberties,” he said. “Never mind that they do not want to upset dear Obama or dear [John] Kerry. They don’t give you airtime to discuss the simple issue of the denial of civil liberties and the crushing of third parties.”
Chris Hedges:
"If elections were that effective, as the anti-war activist Phil Berrigan used to say, they would be illegal. We must follow the path Nader forged, attempting to sway enough people with conscience to sever themselves permanently and unequivocally from the mainstream and especially the Democratic Party. This defiance will again be dismissed as counterproductive and ineffectual. The sacrifices we are called to make will be real, uncomfortable and immediate, while the goals will be distant and uncertain. It will remain hard, for this reason, to jolt people awake. The expediency of the moment has a habit of subsuming the moral imperatives of the future. But time is not on our side. The impending disasters that await us, ecological and economic, are already visible on the horizon. If we do not sever ourselves from established systems of power, if we do not become in every action we undertake agents of rebellion, then the ecological, economic and, finally, human distortions that arise in times of confusion, suffering and collapse will overwhelm us."
http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/ralph_nader_is_tired_of_running_for...
One possible problem for anyone running against the Republican't gangsters in 2012 is the fascist-stacked Stupreme Court....they already unfairly, immorally, and illegally sided with Bush in 2000 in that rigged election...they'll do it again if given the chance. So what are the chances that a third party candidate will ever succeed? The Stupreme court would just rule it unconstitutional...despite their obvious contempt for the constitution. It's got to be either a Republican (what they prefer) or a Democrat (distasteful as it is to the Republicans...yet still useful idiots to the ruling elite...and the ruling elite get what they want anyway...while deluding the people that they have real representation).
The Democrat Party is no longer viable as a party of and for the people (with the exception of some). Obama has made it quite clear that he is not representing the people but has been controlled by the wealthy ruling elite banksters and Wall Streetsters...modern day "organized criminals".
#48
My wife said that she heard on the radio or saw on television that minorities are having ninety percent of the births and the whites have about ten percent. I said to her that I find it hard to believe but maybe the percent is sixty or seventy percent. That is why the white power structure must eliminate minorities, the aged, college students, and persons who cannot show at least five to ten pieces of proof that they are American citizens from voting. We no longer have free and open elections because our elections are rigged to keep the white power structure in control. Our nation is truly a damned nation!!!!!
#49
To my pleasant surprise #42 has been removed. The removal of the post must have taken place at Thom's end. I feel better because #42 was a disgusting post.
#50
Well, the 4th is over...hopefully no more noise...which drove my little doggies insane....poor things...didn't know what was happening. No bullets came through the walls or roof...at my place anyway. At least, this year I was able to be home for the 4th...although it came and went and I did nothing to celebrate...didn't even go out to check the skies for the flashy entertainment. Doesn't interest me anymore. I started losing interest many, many years ago when I went to a company school in Orange county, Ca and stayed in a company house just a couple of blocks from Disneyland. After weeks and weeks of nightly racket...it loses it's excitement. I really don't understand how those residents can stand it.
I remember one time I was flying in from someplace at the same time that everyone across the US was out sending fireworks into the evening skies. I could look down and watch the whole country setting off their fireworks clear across the nation....from the east coast to the west coast. And just as we were circling to land they were firing off their arsenals and I was really, really hoping that no one was firing their weapons into the air at that time....and accidentally shoot down our plane.
Despite the noise this evening...it seemed like it was a lot less this year than previous years....thank goodness!
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
With His Holiness The Dalai Lama, at His home in Dharamsala, India (Synthesis Dialogues - made into a movie narrated by Harrison Ford)
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"If you wonder why and when giant corporations got the power to reign supreme over us, here’s the story."
From Screwed:
"Once again, Thom Hartmann hits the bull’s eye with a much needed exposé of the so-called ‘free market.’ Anyone concerned about the future of our nation needs to read Screwed now."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Thom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him."
A good bit of information to remember is that Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature.
And there may be a correction in order. On the subject of the government-mandated nudity devices (a.k.a. porno scanners), Thom has said the TSA people are getting "cancer clusters". I don't have Thom's primary source for this, but normally "cancer cluster" doesn't refer to multiple cancers within one person, but a demographic group that has more instances of cancer than people outside that demographic, to the point that it cannot be random chance. In this case, that demographic is TSA employees--they are the cluster.