GOP Plans to Destroy Our Safety Net Will Also Kill Democracy

Newt Gingrich openly bragged recently at the Heritage Foundation that the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress were going to "break out of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt model." That "model," of course, created what we today refer to as "the middle class."

Ever since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been working overtime to kneecap institutions that support the American middle class. And, as any working-class family can tell you, the GOP has had some substantial successes, particularly in shifting both income and political power away from voters and towards billionaires and transnational corporations.

In July of last year, discussing SCOTUS's 5/4 conservative vote on Citizens United, President Jimmy Carter told me: "It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery..." He added: "[W]e've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors..."

As Princeton researchers Gilens and Page demonstrated in an exhaustive analysis of the difference between what most Americans want their politicians to do legislatively, versus what American politicians actually do, it's pretty clear that President Carter was right.

They found that while the legislative priorities of the top 10% of Americans are consistently made into law, things the bottom 90% want are ignored. In other words, today in America, democracy only "works" for the top 10% of Americans.

For thousands of years, economists and economic observers from Aristotle to Adam Smith to Thomas Picketty have told us that a "middle class" is not a normal by-product of raw, unregulated capitalism - what right-wing ideologues call "the free market."

Instead, unregulated markets - particularly markets not regulated by significant taxation on predatory incomes - invariably lead to the opposite of a healthy middle class: they produce extremes of inequality, which are as dangerous to democracy as cancer is to a living being.

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Comments

Kend's picture
Kend 6 years 12 weeks ago
#1

Enough with the Citizens United crap. Hillary spent 450 million to Trumps 238 million. Obama's last campaign was 630 million. It is the Democrats that benefit from citizens United. You have been whining about this for ten years. The last election shows it doesn't matter how much you spend, Americans will vote in who they believe is the best for the country at the time. The whole campaign I heard over and over that the middle class is gone. News flash the middle class is alive and well and just voted the Democrat elites out of the white house, senate and congress and now soon the supreme court. It is the left that has forgotten about the middle class. Hopefully Trump will prove it.

cccccttttt 6 years 12 weeks ago
#2

US needs a jobs program.

Obama had 8 years and got nowhere.

Lets give Trump a chance.

ct

Riverplunge's picture
Riverplunge 6 years 12 weeks ago
#3

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Ronald Reagan harmless?? Let us start with him as Gov. of California in 1978, as he kicked out the helpless mentally ill to the streets with little more than some medicine. This predicted what a monster he was going to be in the future. In the '80's your writings are spot on Thom!! He set the platform for this country to die from greed, lack of empathy, and 'every man/woman for himself. I wonder if the 1% will ever figure out that the tax base IS the middle class?? Or will Narcissism continue to rule their minds?

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 12 weeks ago
#4

@ all Trumpists:

Meanwhile in the real universe ... It is impossible to have constructive conversations with gullible people whose arguments are predicated on demonstrable falsehoods, cherry-picked statistics, wishful thinking, and intellectually dishonest political ideologies, as if repeating endless loops of programmed lies will somehow convince the historically vast, vast majority of sober-minded people, who did not vote for Trump, do not support him, and never will.

If they're trying to divine the future, thinking any good will come out of a Trump administration, I'd love to play poker with them.

Hephaestus's picture
Hephaestus 6 years 12 weeks ago
#5

#1 - Kend

Sorry! I can't make a connection in my mind between Citizens United and the subject

Kindly elucidate

k. allen's picture
k. allen 6 years 12 weeks ago
#6

"GOP Plans to Destroy Our Safety Net Will Also Kill Democracy"

..., chances are, that is not all it will kill ....

Willie W's picture
Willie W 6 years 12 weeks ago
#7

Slow and steady wins the race. Trump is not going to throw granny off the proverbial cliff. No. Instead, she will be lowered gently step by step to the bottom. All the while being told over and over again how much better off she is now.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#8

"Let's give Trump a chance." Would you give a pedophile a chance to babysit your children?

Only in the opposite world of rightwing ideology is a delusional, greedy, bankrupting, pathologically lying, sexual abusing, bigot fit to be president of anything, let alone, president of the United States.

If you don't think that Obama did anything, then you must not have been alive 8 years ago when the County was falling apart at the seams, when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, when the stock market had lost half it's value, when we were lied into a needless, endless war that to this day drains our economy and resources, when millions were being evicted from their homes, when thousands upon thousands of pensions were literally stolen from the workers that had spent their life earning them. Yeah, I guess we need more of that again?

But what do you expect from a group of people that think a" landslide victory" is losing the popular vote by almost three million votes and only able to claim victory because an antiquated system, the Electoral College, allowed a few corrupt Republican governors to suppress enough votes or otherwise jerry-rig the outcomes. Why do you think they were so adamant about stopping the recounts.

"Think" what am I talking about? Republican voters don't think. They are like pet dogs that for a few strokes and an occasional treat, will eagerly wag their tails and bark out their rightwing talking points. And if anyone tries to threaten the credibility of their masters, they will turn on them like mindless pit bulls.

And by the way. If those jobs are brought back by Trump and his cabinet of billionaire conmen, they will also bring the slave wages they now pay with them.

ErinRose's picture
ErinRose 6 years 12 weeks ago
#9

I can only surmise that there must be something radically wrong with me to end up in the global minority while so many countries, including the US, have gone so utterly neo-conservative. I can't stand today's conservatives and people like Newt Gingrich disgust and infuriate me. All I wish for is that they would be drowned in Grover Norquist's bathtub. What in the name of heaven do working people see in these reprobates... unless it is that the average person is a reprobate themselves and identify with this scumbag element. I support getting rid of the IMF, the Federal Reserve, and the Council On Foreign Relations, while razing K Street, and jailing all of Wall Street as well as the rest of the criminal banking community. And I'm sorry to say that the Neo-Liberals aren't much better.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 12 weeks ago
#10

Let's all run around with our hair on fire before Trump even gets in office.

Surely self promoting scholars constantly preaching and predicting negativity promotes mental health among progressive/socialists that already live in a dark world filled with therapy sessions and tin foil hat conspiracies.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#11

ErinRose, I hope you realize that neo-liberalism is one of those unfortunately oxymoronic terms that actually descirbes the Regan doctrines and their followers. Neo-conservatives and neo-liberals are actually one and the same. Neo-liberal has nothing to do with being a liberal.

For my money, libertarians are actually the worst of all. They are generally smart enough to know better, but are compelled by their selfishness and greed to turn their back on their fellow man in promoting their agenda of "I've got mine and the hell with the rest of you."

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#12

Dear Dianereynolds, Trump has already tipped his hand by showing us his cabinet choices. I'm not stupid. I know who these people are and i can easily research their histories.

Sixteen years ago, George W. Bush gave us a frightening preview of what we can expect for the next four years. That is if you actually believe that this mob of banksters, polluters and conmen will ever permit another meaningful election. After all, they will soon control all branches of government and the supreme court. I'm glad you are so enamored with them. Because, they are here to stay... 'till the bitter end.

Feel free to relax on your Barca lounger with your remote flipping from Fox to Newsmax, taking in all the good positive news that will surely be trumpeted daily. Or feel free to stick your head in the sand and pretend that you are invisible.

Personally, I've profited nicely by betting against Republicans. When Bush was elected, I dumped my equities and bought gold. When Obama was elected, I sold my gold and bought equities. Worked like a charm.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#13

Oh, pardon me. I forgot to say Happy New Year!!!!

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 12 weeks ago
#14

Whenever Republican apologists grind their teeth and spit out what they think is their best argument-ending epithet -- "socialist!" -- they reveal the true core of their misperception of, not only the widely diverse abstract meanings, but how varying degrees of socialism has always been a functioning, concrete reality of every single form of government that has ever existed from the beginning of civilization.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#15

In fact, I would argue that money itself, is a form of socialism.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 12 weeks ago
#16

The primary generator of right-wing talking points comes from so-called "scholars" at so-called "think" tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and the numerous other propaganda machines put together and funded by the billionaire class, led primarily by the predacious Koch brothers. For the consumption of a dumbed-down, over-stimulated, willfully ignorant audience of passive spectators of artificial life (Think Fox "News," hate radio, right-wing blogosphere, et al.), the debate has been reduced to some ridiculous, cartoonish battle that pits pure capitalism against pure socialism.

Purity in anything is a fantasy. The reality is that functioning economies are a blend of both, where roughly ten percent are actual capitalists -- those who make money on money, thereby infusing capital into the system -- and are no more or no less important or worthy as the bottom ninety percent who provide all of the productivity and therefore all of the demand (read jobs).

Historically, societies and economies became hopelessly dysfunctional when the greed-mongers at the top sucked too much wealth out of everyone else. Invariably, this led to massive wealth inequality, depression, rebellion, and war.

Abraham Lincoln, the founder of the Republican Party (My, how far it has strayed!), summed up beautifully what the Framers of our Constitution understood about history and human nature and how they intended to mitigate the insatiable thirst for wealth and power by ruling elites: "... government of the people, by the people, for the people ..."

Socialism is not an abstract concept reserved only for ideological discussion; it is a hard, on-the-ground fact of how every single human society has always been organized into a civilization, based on the collective resources of all the people. There are many degrees of socialism.

Mainstream liberals (Yes, the mainstream is liberal.) are not asking for pure socialism, where the government controls all the means of production and distribution. Neither are they asking for pure capitalism, where the rich own everything and have all the power. Nobody in America wants the government to manufacture cars, TV's, shoes, or any other commercial product that is in the purview of private enterprise.

What they are asking, however, is that the government protect and nourish what our Founders called "the Commons" -- all those things that we collectively own, such as the air, water, infrastructure, public lands, educational systems, our health and general welfare, etc. The commons are the true wealth of a nation and what our Founders absolutely understood as a balanced model society. Private enterprise and the morality of healthy socialism can and should exist together in harmony. Or, as the late Paul Wellstone put it, "Everyone does better when everyone does better!"

Alas, unfettered greed always seeks to upset that delicate balance, for which the Founders spilled their blood. The question becomes who benefits from socialism. Should the sweet fruits of an economy accrue mostly at the top -- as is happening right now in our nation in real time -- while the bitter fruits of runaway capitalism are heaped onto the meager plates of the working poor, which is fast becoming all the rest of us? (A large middle class is, unfortunately, a historic aberration.)

So, is the reinterpretation of our Constitution and the plutocratic model of society by the Republican Party nothing but socialism for the rich and the harsh consequences of unregulated, dog-eat-dog, Darwinian capitalism for the people? It seems so. We have seen this before, far too often; it is nothing new.

And, it is immoral.

k. allen's picture
k. allen 6 years 12 weeks ago
#17

(Dianereynolds):
"Let's all run around with our hair on fire before Trump even gets in office.
Surely self promoting scholars constantly preaching and predicting negativity promotes mental health among progressive/socialists that already live in a dark world filled with therapy sessions and tin foil hat conspiracies."

Surely, it would be more entertaining to go out and watch people pee on themselves ... taunt and ridicule those who challenge our views ... now, doesn't that sound like good, healthy fun for everyone ... (!?!)

Preaching and predicting positivity while nurturing negativity only promotes more hypocritical static quo ... on all sides ... not much fun for anyone.

Would it serve whole health to communicate with open mind/heart, respect, optimistic attitude ... and willingness to acknowledge nobody knows it all ... so, maybe we all have more to learn, and room to grow?

Possibly ... more so, the more of US who do.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 12 weeks ago
#18

@k. allen

"Surely, it would be more entertaining to go out and watch people pee on themselves ... taunt and ridicule those who challenge our views ... now, doesn't that sound like good, healthy fun for everyone ... (!?!)
Preaching and predicting positivity while nurturing negativity only promotes more hypocritical static quo ... on all sides ... not much fun for anyone."

I don't look at it as taunting (although progressives are very good at peeing down their own leg) as much as pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of so many here and especially the likes of Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Rachel Maddow, etc. They complained for eight solid years that the "Republicans blocked everything Obama attempted to do". Well guess what? Obama never figured out how to deal with the opposition. That is the mark of a leader. Instead we got a petulant child in office. Now that America has selected a different model, the shoe is on the other foot and the mantra being delivered from all those who complained for eight years, plan on doing exactly the same thing. My god, the day after the election I heard stammering and sputtering about "block every move" , "march in the streets", resist, resist, resist. I thought I was listening to a right wing hate group. The negativity and disrespect of Trumps family was disgusting and if ANY individual had even hinted similar comments on Thom's show referencing Obama's children there would have been hell to pay. My god if there was even a negative Hillary thought started from a caller, that individual was over talked and quickly cut off. All the while blaming it on paid callers. Come on, paid callers? Give me a break.

I still laugh out loud at the constant stream of excuses especially the 3 million vote"win" by Hillary. Get real. We all know why there is an Electoral College and who it protects.

When I start to see or hear anything resembling Trump support from one of the talking heads I will moderate my views but I doubt that will be happening anytime in the near future.

So here is our reality. Trump will be president and you have a choice. Run around complaining, whining about Reagan, blame the loss on anything but what it really was, (a horseshit candidate that could not motivate her voter base), or the high road and give him a chance before prematurely announcing that Trump WILL do when in office. And yes, I am referring to all the "he will kill Medicare, Medicaid, cancel social security, kill all babies, stop the moon from circling the earth, etc." Thom should be ashamed of himself for putting out this crap but do I realize he is the doing the exact same thing he accuses Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. of doing.

Infotainment using scare tactics.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 12 weeks ago
#19

Dianereynolds, Perhaps the reason you keep laughing you ass off, is because you're a delusional rightwing puppet.

Could you please give us some specific examples of how progressives "keep peeing down their own leg?" And please, do explain, why exactly, there is an Electoral College and WHO exactly, it protects? But with specifics, not rightwing talking points and generalities.

And please explain exactly, how if Hillary was a "horseshit" candidate. How did she get about 3 million more votes than Trump? Wouldn't that also make Trump a "horseshit" candidate too?

I do agree with you about one thing though. Obama did not know how to "deal with the opposition." Had he rightly fulfilled his oath when he took office, Bush, Cheney and their entire cabinet and most of his fellow Republicans would have been tried, convicted of treason, war crimes, election fraud and dereliction of duty by allowing 9/11 to happen on their watch, and then shipped off to Guantonomo Bay. Had he honored his oath to protect Americans from enemies "Domestic" and foreign and chosen an effective attorney general, there would have been a wholesale cleaning out of corrupt Republican politicians to the point that the remaining few would have been quaking in their boots and kissing his ass. And unlike the phoney endless Republican Benghazi hearings and the Email hearings, these would have been hearings about real matters of national defense, real abuses of public offices and real treasons. Not just sham hearings for the purpose of pandering to their extremist base and campaigning on the public dime.

But the thing that interests me most is, if you are so put off and offended by what progressives have to say? Why do you keep coming back to this site. You surely must realize that you have as much chance changing our views as I would have of making you "moderate" your views. Bottom line…not gonna happen!! You're not gonna convince me that their is a Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus either.

After all, I don't go on rightwing sites. If I want to know what they are thinking, I can just turn on the television or the radio about any time.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#20

Here's a compendium of right-wing spinmeisters: "Democrats should just sit down, shut up, and let our bigoted, lying, fascistic, serial sexual predator [who did not win the election by the people] do whatever he wants to whomever he wants. Trust us. And, we have a wall to sell you, too."

Does everyone see the irony here -- the false equivalency, the brash hypocrisy -- or do some of us still need some more "white-‘splaining?" Okay, gather around children; this is a true story:

First, a powerful faction of unapologetic racists are alive and well in the Republican Party. Then, a black man "from Kenya" dared to climb to the top. A damn Democrat too! Naturally, the mortified party of rich white guys couldn’t handle it, ain't in their DNA.

Thus, rather than go dancing, this clan of extremist Republican legislators held a grim meeting with two of their favorite ideologues, Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz, in the Caucus Room restaurant on Inaugural Ball night, January 20, 2009. ("When the Tea Party Came to Town" by Robert Draper) In effect, they swore a borderline treasonous blood oath to block absolutely everything this uppity boy might try to accomplish, while cleaning up the horrific mess left after the last Republican binge, with frat-boy Bush. No matter what good he offered the people, they were committed to make the "n----r" a one term President and erase him from the history books of their "Ameerkkka."

For example, before the Affordable Care Act was enacted, according to a 2009 study by Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, nearly 45,000 fellow Americans every year were dying from lack of access to healthcare -- more piles of bodies than "radical Islamic terrorists" could imagine in their wildest dreams! Obama chose this particular plan because it was the preferred Republican Frankenstein, created in the lower laboratory of the Heritage Foundation. How could they possibly object to their own idea? Obviously, he underestimated their depravity.

The double-dealing double-crossers tarred it with his name and diluted it with every possible legislative poison pill and booby trap imaginable, so that it would blow up in his face, which it finally did right before this last election. Meanwhile, in the run-up to the 2012 election, they slammed Obamacare mercilessly for their own original sins. Dammit, the people reelected the black guy from Kenya anyway!

And never forget, these fleas on the body politic also pulled out all stops in 2011 and tried to shut down the government, resulting in the infamous "budget sequestration" of the Kenyan's second term. This meat-axe approach was the dumbest way imaginable to run a complex budget for a nation of 350 million hapless citizens. Again -- Obama’s fault!

Ultimately, the ne'er-do-wells triumphed, exceeding all expectation! They knew that the over-stimulated public doesn’t pay much attention to the deceitful Republican choreography at the second level of government. After eight years on the job, an incumbent party always gets the blame for gridlock. It was the long game. The cons now own all that they broke: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judiciary (and the corporate media).

"So, all you loser 'Dumbocrats,' can you please just play nice now, try to ignore our smelly soiled underwear, and let us get on with the business of destroying the last remnants of democracy in America? It'll all be good. No, really!"

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 11 weeks ago
#21

@ 19 & 20

good examples of why I come here. It has become entertaining listening to the same old excuses and declaring you will do what you preached against Republicans doing for the last eight years. How would you expect me to respond? I am now reevaluating my thoughts toward Obama. Aside from being the greatest gun salesman in history, he cost the Democrat party just over 1000 legislative seats in his terms as PTOUS. What's not to love if you are a conservative?

I understand not everything Trump does do will fit in my bucket but I damn well know much of it will. Like today when I finished up the year with my deplorable children and grandchildren all shooting AR's whose ownership will not be in jeopardy in the foreseeable future thanks to a few million firearm owners that voted Trump & CO.

Here's to an interesting upcoming 8 years.

If it is too not politically incorrect,

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#22

Gloat while you still can. I do agree with you, though, that it will be, to say the least, interesting times -- but for only four years, not eight... ;-)

Happy New Year!

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#23

What you define as excuses, are actually FACTS. That is one of the favorite Republican ploys, creating their own definitions to suite their delusional, extremist views. No matter how many facts are presented to them, they will either ignore them outright or alter the definitions to accommodate their own understanding. In fact, they are apparently genetically incapable of processing facts other than to suite their own favorite beliefs, no matter how wrong or destructive they may be.

What could be more reassuring, than knowing that young believers and supporters of a sadistic, racist, KKK supported, pathological lying, misogynistic, serial sexual abusing peeping-tom predator and bomb happy, revenge obsessed paranoid, are out shooting their AR's. Whatever they are? I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel.

But since I suspect you don't really read the comments that you reply to. You are merely content to just throw out a bunch of rightwing talking points, no matter how inaccurate or out of context they are…or else, you would have seen that I already wished you a Happy New Year.

Ou812's picture
Ou812 6 years 11 weeks ago
#24

Here is a new year wish from a lefty:
A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2017, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make the America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "America" in the western hemisphere,) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.

(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferrable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to
replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)

A new year wish from the rest of us:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#25

... In other words, new year same as old year -- insults, sarcasm, false portrayals, and deluded judgments.

Your happy is like the happy at a happy farm... :)))

But here's a truly happy thought gift for you to ponder this new year, while Trump utterly fails your Pollyannaish expectations:

If certain theoretical physicists' theories are correct about an infinite number of universes, somewhere we are all living in a clean environment, an equal society, a fair economy, and a true democratic republic. It's a world with clean energy, with no wars over oil, where Al Gore won in 2000. (He was the people's choice in this universe too, before the right-wing Supreme Court installed the village idiot.) The selfish, one-party-rule, corporate-owned Republican Party went the way of the Whigs, and a new conservative party emerged, which actually follows the principles that Abraham Lincoln laid forth. Politicians from both sides of the aisle sincerely work together to achieve what is best for the People rather than to further the profits of the already obscenely wealthy elites.

It's a universe far, far away from this one.

... Here, we can only dream of what woulda coulda shoulda happened.

Kend's picture
Kend 6 years 11 weeks ago
#26

In July of last year, discussing SCOTUS's 5/4 conservative vote on Citizens United, President Jimmy Carter told me: "It violates the essence of what made America a great

heph it is is the peace. Thom brings it up all the time

TomDorr's picture
TomDorr 6 years 11 weeks ago
#27

Diane Reynolds: The left's greatest fear is not that the next four years will be a disaster for the American people. They are terrified that the next four years will be successful. (Good for the mainstream, middle class, good for American Exceptionalism, bad for terrorists, bad for the liberal "intelligensia" trying to social engineer our country into a hyper-diverse "mediocracy", bad for illegal aliens, and good for law abiding citizens and the laws and police that protect them.)

The left was so smug in their assurance they would prevail, they were ready to coronate Hillary, break that big glass ceiling they had readied in Hillary's "victory" hall, and prance around the "diversity tree" while gleefully throwing (environmentally acceptable) wood on the funeral pyre of the "old white men" whom they despise so much.

Now that things didn't go their way, they are hysterically screaming that the "sky is going to fall".

Too bad. (Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle!).

Out with the old, (including illegals), and in with the new. A good thing for this country, Very good.

By the way: I don't see too many people, promised or otherwise, who are leaving for Canada. I guess this nation is not really as bad for them as their hyperbole.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#28

Hooray for bigots!

... sooo Amerikkkan!

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#29

I'm thinking that it's their steady diet of fast food or processed food products, that makes these trolls think that opening the the gate to let the wolves guard the henhouse, will somehow bring them the aryan utopia the dream of.

Gee! It worked so well with Dubya. Why not bet the farm?

Have another Ding Dong, Big Mac and Twinkie. That's what will make America Great Again! Yum, Yum, Yum...dumb, dumb, dumb. I'm lovin' it!

To quote Steinbeck..."the flies have conquered the flypaper."

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#30

And, God forbid, when their arteries finally clog up, their hearts explode, their brains suffer strokes, or their overweight bodies get cancer, I sure hope they still have access to affordable healthcare and don't fall victim to what Rep. Alan Grayson (D. Florida) once described on the House floor as the Republican two-part healthcare plan:

#1. Don't get sick.

#2. If you do get sick, die quickly.

Mmm ... maybe that's what their junk-food king in chief had in mind with his patronizing slogan, "Make America Great Again."

Laissez-faire natural selection ... it might just work.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#31

Actually he meant: Make America Grate Again. And no doubt with Trump, it will become grating beyond our wildest dreams.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#32

Hah! Yeah, the flying monkeys really outdid themselves with this orange orangutan human imposter.

Notice that they no longer brag on their last knuckle-dragger -- the Bush half-man/half-ape war criminal who blew up the Middle East and tanked the world economy. All their boisterous swaggering sure turned quickly into deafening silence and crickets in the night, once they realized their "ex" alcoholic, cocaine-addled "decider" didn't really have much of a brain left with which to decide.

And Trump the pussy-grabber, who doesn't even know how to open a door on a bus, makes Bush look like a Mensa member. But trust him; it'll be so great!

At least Alec Baldwin will be gainfully employed on SNL.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 11 weeks ago
#33

Good morning Tom @#27

You are preaching to the choir. I think the excuse thing has reach it's century mark so now it is just down to calling Trump and family derogatory names. I guess that's all that is left for classy leftie/socialists to do. The election is over. I do find it funny they only concentrate on the presidential election. The real ass kicking was everywhere else. That should really give them something to bitch about. Anyway, they have eight years to regather for Chelsea's coronation.

Save the dress Monica.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#34

Now you really can't fault us for resorting to name-calling. After all, facts don't seem to work and based on what we've seen from right-wingers that post on this site and the fact that it worked so well for Trump, we just assumed that this was your preferred method of communication.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 11 weeks ago
#35

#34.

And communicate well you do.

I don't fault you for name calling, I think if points out how desperate and helpless the left has become. Let your hypocrisy continue to run full tilt.

As I have stated, you will make it Christmas every day for the next eight years, three Supreme Court justices, and 107 other appeals court and federal judge appointments.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#36

Again, conservatives creating their own definitions to words, I think you had better look up the definition of the word "Hypocrisy."

And if those justices are consistent with Trump's morals, we can look forward to Pussy Grabbing as soon being legal as well as peeping in on naked teenage girls.

Yes, it will truly be Christmas in hell. And to all a good blight!

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#37

Republicans have to lie, cheat, and steal to "win" elections, because they are a minority party and always have been. Their chief strategists know that reality fully well, even if their dumb-downed base is totally oblivious to the facts of their own party's history. If everyone was required to vote by law (which they should be), Republicans would never be able to claw their way into power at the national level or in most states and municipalities. They would cease to exist as anything more than a regional party of southern white bigots, greedy corporatists, and easily brainwashed, uneducated toadies.

They lost the people's vote but retained their House majority because of gerrymandering, the Senate because of the two-senator law, and won the White House because of the Electoral College. If we leave the Senate law in place (of course) but reform gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and require everyone to vote, Republicans would either have to moderate their clearly out-of-step, extremist positions to garner more popular support, or they would have to accept their diminished role as a regional, ineffectual party of fools.

Meanwhile, they cannot brag -- without inviting ridicule -- about winning a mandate from the people. That is a lie, no matter how often trolls repeat it!

As far as lying, cheating, and stealing to "win," I would strongly urge the trolls who post on this blog to read or watch "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" by Greg Palast. Of course, they won't; they're scared to death of any outside facts that upset their false narrative and skewed worldview.

Again, ignorance is not necessarily stupidity, but willful ignorance certainly is. Nowadays, at this critical juncture in history, anyone who deliberately spreads lies absolutely deserves all the scorn, ridicule, and name-calling that can be heaped upon them. They are traitors to the founding principles of our nation, plain and simple!

Ou812's picture
Ou812 6 years 11 weeks ago
#38

Deepspace:

I find it amazing that us "knuckle draggers" are always able to beat you ever so smart, lefties. And all we have to do to win is follow the law.

All the if's you have in your essay reminds me of the old saying, "If your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle". Cheers!! Only 18 more days left.:).....

BTW, I cannot understand all the anger at Trump. It was Hillary and Democrats who destroyed Bernie, not Trump. He just took advantage of Democratic ineptitude.......

Knuckle Draggers Rule :))

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#39

If everything Republicans do, is to follow the law, then why were they so afraid of the recounts? If everything they do is so legal, then why is Trump so afraid to show his taxes? If everything they do is so legal, why have some Republicans been hauled off to jail for election fraud?

Actually, were not that mad at Trump, it's the geniuses that are so blinded by their bigotry and hatred for the Clintons and Obama that they cannot even see through the most blatantly transparently despicable, greedy, immoral, lying, delusional, fascist scumbag that ever called himself a Republican.

BTW, this coronation of Hillary that conservatives go on and on about, has been, thanks to endless Republican slimy dirty tricks, what would have been called in old Salem, a trial by fire.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#40

@#38:

Friendly advice: If you feel the need to respond to what somebody writes, work on your reading comprehension skills to better absorb the essential points, so that you don't wander off into irrelevancy.

To your deflecting points:

The "if's" are what change history; otherwise, there never would have been an American Revolution against British tyranny. The unfair and immoral laws that were implemented and then manipulated by self-serving power/greed mongers need to be changed to allow fair and transparent elections, if we still want to be considered a respected democratic republic and not some third-world hybrid plutocracy.

It is not so much simple "anger" at Trump as it is total disgust and moral outrage at all that he represents, which are legitimate, viable emotions that can spur corrective action.

So, are you now a Bernie supporter? If not, then your words are disingenuous and hypocritical. He, and the points he still makes, rather loudly, are not "destroyed," and remain true as ever.

Ou812's picture
Ou812 6 years 11 weeks ago
#41

Stopgap:

If opposing recounts is illegal, why weren't Republicans prosecuted?

If Trump not releasing his tax returns is illegal, why wasn't he prosecuted?

Please provide the names and sources of Republicans "hauled off to jail" for election fraud.

I will take your no response as your admission that you made up these scenarios out of desperation.

Admit it Stopgap, I'm calling your bluff. All you and Deepspace have is name calling. Remember from elementary school "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me".

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#42

OK Ou812, Nobody said that opposing recounts was illegal. Nobody said that not releasing tax returns was illegal. Nor would anybody say that opposing the gathering of evidence in any crime is illegal. However, if you haven't committed any crimes or done anything illegal. What do you have to hide? Probably something illegal. At least that's what law enforcement officers would tell you.

Brandon Hall, a Republican, was indicted on several counts of Election Fraud. Republicans are also the most likely to commit Voter Fraud. Just google it.

Sticks and stones may never hurt you , but facts obviously will. So will Donald Trump. Just give him time. Just ask those that attended Trump University. They too thought that Donald Trump would be the answer to all their dreams.

But as the old saying goes: "It's your funeral." I'm just can't understand why you are so smug and gleeful about driving off the cliff. Maybe it's the guilt from abetting the last Republican president that was responsible for the murder of 1000s of American Troops and maiming of tens of thousands of other American Troops, al least according to Vince Bugliosi, the man that prosecuted Manson. Or maybe it's the guilt of abetting Bush, the president that served while hundreds of thousands were evicted from their homes during the last Republican administration mortgage crisis and the 800,000 a month that were losing there jobs and the tens of thousands of factories that relocated out of the country during the last Republican administration.

I guess if I were bearing that cross, I would probably double down on my ideology, hoping that history would somehow prove the facts wrong. Or maybe I would go out and hire a snake oil salesman to over see the fate of my children and grand children.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#43

Ou812, A few more nominees for the Republican Election/Voter Fraud Hall of Shame:

Enrico Jack Villamaino
Tina Marie Parks
Robert Monroe
Colin Small
Charles White
Paul Seewald
Oliver Lee Reynolds
James O'Keffe
Todd Aikin
Staff of Thaddeus McCotter (Don Yowchung and three others)

k. allen's picture
k. allen 6 years 11 weeks ago
#44

(Dianereynolds):
"... pointing out the absolute hypocrisy of so many here ... it has become entertaining listening to the same old excuses and declaring you will do what you preached against Republicans doing for the last eight years."

"How would you expect me to respond?"

"Obama never figured out how to deal with the opposition. That is the mark of a leader."

Well, if you can do better, maybe you can set the pace and show us the way. You don't exactly come across as a follower. So far, I don't see anything other than more of the same under another name.

I'm amazed at how individual people are targeted with blame for dynamics that are generated through complex webs of interaction between many different people over time ... not to mention, I'm not convinced anyone really knows what anyone else is facing - especially those who are called to govern.

I do feel it might be nigh unto impossible to work in these industries without being caught up in conflicts between your own feelings/beliefs and those required to keep the job ... or starting out advocating for one issue, only to find the tables turning so you wind up opposing what you really support, and supporting what you oppose.

I say, be true to what is true for you, and carry on.

We all have a part to play in this process, or we would not be here.

I can see how Trump would want to be known as the best president America ever had ... to be heroic, in the most exceptional sense of the word ... I'm not sure how that would play out, or how it would work for the people of America ... or the world at large ... give it a chance ...?

..., uhm, ... do I have a choice ...?

I would love to see positive outcomes. I doubt that looks the same to different interest groups ... if you challenge his policies, and Trump perceives you as opposing him, how will he deal with the obstacle?

Nuke it?

Here's the good news:

Nukes generate more toxic waste. They, along with fossil fuels, will be yesterday's news in the coming era of enlightenment. We are about to find out what kind of government in this country - if any - will prevail.

... maybe conflict and resistance generate stress and tension that compel movement in the political sphere ... a deeply ingrained part of the process ... keeps the wheels turning ... clearly, some people are moved to reach beyond conflict to seek consensus ... others, not.

Word is, it all comes out in the wash.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#45

@Ou812:

I'll respect that you addressed post #41 primarily to Stopgap, but since you threw my moniker into the last paragraph (Your bad!), I will address your false characterization that all we "have is name calling." This won't be pithy, so feel free to skip through and gloss over, as usual.

First: You seem a little touchy for someone who continuously name-calls, insults, and denigrates "lefties" in the bulk of your posts. Need we check the record? As I've explained to you before, ad nauseam, I'm totally okay with that. This is a war of ideas, "cons" have made ''lefties" their blood enemies, and wars of any sort are not always kind. So, here's a few quotes for you: "How does it feel when the shoe is on the other foot?" "You can dish it out, but you can't take it." "Blah, blah, blah -- grow up!"

Second: As far as the evidence, it is ample and has been provided throughout many of these threads, and it is also in abundant supply on Thom's radio and TV programs, in addition to the many other outlets that truth tellers utilize to be heard. You obviously don't dig into much of it or any of it, because you don't really seem to give a shit and apparently don't like to be drawn out of your narrow-minded comfort zone, instead relying only on the programmed lies that flood right-wing media, drowning out all other countervailing voices.

Third: Laws have been broken, "big league," and then massively covered up. What f---ing rock have you been hiding under?! Certain despicable behavior dealing with taxes and campaign laws used to be -- once upon a time -- very illegal but are now legal, disastrously, thanks to rapacious Republican lawmakers and corporate-slanted Supreme Court Justices -- all designed to weaken the power of the People and strengthen the power of wealthy elites and their cash-cow corporations. The People absolutely need to revisit those laws and change them, or we're done as a democracy.

My God, Ou812, even in this thread, Thom provided you with a link to an important Princeton study that would open your eyes to many of the key points we've been trying to make repeatedly. What good would it do to retype it all here, if you're going to ignore everything anyway?

Fourth: If you want hard evidence of monumental Republican election fraud over the last several decades, I'll challenge you (yet again) to study what Greg Palast has uncovered, going all the way back to 2000. He has produced a large body of work, but a very well done (and rather entertaining) introduction is, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." (Note, he is a well educated, long-experienced, and highly qualified former FBI investigator, who was a primary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and who doesn't cut any slack for Democrats either.)

By no means, however, is he the only serious source investigating election fraud. Brad Friedman, John F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio, and many other capable journalists, writers, and lawyers have built a mountain of evidence that the Justice Departments -- under both Republicans and Democrats alike -- were and are afraid to touch for varied and obvious reasons. But the facts are, nonetheless, slowly, painfully coming out.

I also highly recommend "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer, who exposes the power behind the throne. Likewise, she is just one of the many truth tellers out there who is contributing to an accurate historical record, but her work is especially exceptional.

Finally: I'm sorry if that record sounds "liberal" and "lefty" to a "con's" ear and not worthy of consideration. So, just turn on your hate/lie radio programs, login to your favorite right-wing/lie websites, watch Fox/lie so-called "news," and enjoy blissful ignorance. You'll conveniently avoid anger and disillusionment and be much happier in La La Land. It's easier that way -- sad, but easier.

Therein, lies the primary problem of modern America and our lost democracy -- a political system corrupted by Big Money, a hollow mockery of the People's nation our Founders died for and entrusted succeeding generations to safeguard.

Thomas Jefferson went to the grave worried that the fourth leg of government -- a free and unfettered press -- would be undermined by lies. He earnestly maintained in his speeches and writings that if the People did not have steady and comprehensive access to the simple, factual truth of things, they couldn't make the right decisions, and, therefore, democracy and the Republic could not possibly survive. His greatest worry is now coming to pass.

Ou812's picture
Ou812 6 years 11 weeks ago
#46

Deepspace:

Since you want to tell me so much about me, let me tell you about me, I think I know me better then you know me.:)

I don't consider myself a conservative, nor do I consider myself a lefty. I don't like labels, they tend to pigeonhole people.

I find politics boring, but I do enjoy 'tweaking' those who take it so seriously.:)

I really don't care who is president. I'm too low on the totem pole for it too effect me. I'm actually a quite successful person, and I'm successful because of me, not because of who was president.

I don't listen to talk Radio. The only show on the radio I listen to other than music is 'Imus in the morning'. I like his irreverent personality, it's a lot like mine.

The only news I watch is local news. And I only watch that on an NBC affiliate out of Hagerstown MD. This station is so small, they don't carry national news.

My not watching news is my choice. I'm in the Baltimore/Washington market, so plenty is available.

They only newspaper I read is the Carroll County Times....mostly local.

I read lots of books, and spend lots of time at the gym. I'm a physical fitness enthusiast.

I'm a retired Sales/Marketing guy, who after retirement, went back to school to become a high school teacher. Now I'm pretty much retired from teaching to.

One last thing, I know how to get things done. I'm practical, not a theoretician.

Like me or not, I don't care.

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#47

Bottom line: If conservatives want to run out into a thunderstorm with a lightning rod stuck up there ass…that's their business. But why do they insist on dragging the rest of us with them?

stopgap's picture
stopgap 6 years 11 weeks ago
#48

Ou812, So you're to low on the totem pole to be affected by whose president. Then perhaps you never drove on a highway ,or flew in a plane, or signed a contract bound by law, or never planned to collect a pension or Medicare or Social Security, or took a drink out of tap water from a public utility, or took a breath of air in this country, or benefitted from a national defense, or received any public education. or took out a mortgage, or spent government issued money, or ever ate food inspected by the government, or bought products that crossed into our borders from a foreign country, or listened to a radio or television or had bank accounts insured by the government.

All of these things and virtually thousands of other things are affected by who is president. It is virtually impossible to not be effected by who is president.

But with Trump...all bets are off. The wolves are guarding the hen house and they control every branch of the government, military and law enforcement. You better hope they don't decide they want your property or savings or start a nuclear confrontation. Then you might suddenly care a lot.

But it doesn't surprise me that you don't care about the rest of us. Apparently, you think that you have yours, and you did the impossible of creating your whole world by yourself.

deepspace's picture
deepspace 6 years 11 weeks ago
#49

@Ou812 #46:

Whoa! Thanks for that (I think), but ... way too much information! This is not about you personally -- who cares. It is about the direction our country is heading.

As far as you and your posts are concerned, one can only surmise where you are coming from by what you write, which reveals your supposed inner thinking processes -- the shallow right-wing talking points, the snide labels, and the subtle insults that you constantly spew forth on this blog for others to suffer.

Hah! It was all fake! You have confirmed what I had suspected all along. Do you hear that everyone? Ou812 is faking it! By your own words, you have directly admitted that you are nothing but an insincere troll -- a fraud!

Notwithstanding your transparent attempt at backtracking, it is quite clear that you have absorbed and taken to heart many right-wing talking points. Where you actually get your misinformation to regurgitate so profusely, or how much of it you actually believe, is really none of my concern, nor do I care.

Nevertheless, your drivel is obviously not conjured up out of a vacuum. In spite of your disingenuous denials, you must listen, watch, and/or read enough of the right-wing lies to appear somewhat sincere as a troll. Please don't insult everyone's intelligence.

Like I said, ignorance is bliss. But, to the larger point: You live in a so-called democracy of, by, and for the people; yet, you don't care enough about it -- again, in your own words -- to participate in politics even at a minimal level, letting whichever politician do whatever to whomever, ah, because "It doesn't affect me, me, me." You take no meaningful positions but enjoy making fun of the people who do. How incredibly shallow is that?!

For someone so proud of being "a quite successful person" ("Hooray for me, me, me!") -- and, my God, a former teacher of malleable minds no less -- you seem to have failed rather spectacularly on this blog site.

Crawl back under your bridge, troll, and quit wasting everybody's time.

Dianereynolds's picture
Dianereynolds 6 years 11 weeks ago
#50

Are any of you forced to respond to those that have an opposite view from yours?

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