If you are in the 1% I understand why you vote Republican. If you are not, why do you vote Republican? Name one good thing that the Republican Party has done for the Middle Class.

I'll bet the Republicans are in a hurry to crash the economy - as soon as possible - so they can blame it on Obama and get the attention off of Trump. It is imperative for them to finish destroying both the Democratic Party and the government services Americans want to keep, so they are desperate to retain their majorities in Congress. Since any wins the Democratic Party gets in the 2018 elections are a threat to their agenda, being able to vilify the Democrats as ruiners of the economy is another big propaganda hammer. Dems need to understand that they are NOT going to get back control of any branch of government very easily. (Remember how GWB actually made gains in Congress in the 2002 midterms?One of the very few times in history! That was no coincidence. Republicans have been playing a long game of making America a one-party state, and all their other moves - the judiciary, corporations, right-wing media, the economy - you name it - have been geared to that end.

Also don't forget the research Greg Palast and others have done into our voting apparatus being controlled largely by big businesses that favor Republicans. I don't think people understand just how much work the GOP puts into suppressing the Democratic vote in this country (see HAVA and voter suppression tactics). And the Dems say nothing about it because they think that with enough money, the people behind the machines will sway their way. It was the machinery, not James Comey, that took away Hillary's chances, and the machines just might want to give the Republicans more wins in the midterms. Remember the results in 2002 favoring GWB and being a dissappointment for the Dems? That was no coincidence. You're looking at people who want total control. And they're getting closer and closer to it.

Thom, why have you stopped including links to share these posts? The Facebook link at the top of the page is to your page, not for sharing & not to the specific posts.

Thom asks the rhetorical question: "Do Republicans just not read their history or they so fanatically committed to helping out their oligarch backers that they just don't care that every attempt at deregulation in modern history has been followed by a crash?"

The answer is: They don't know, and they don't care AND they don't care that they don't know.

Here's another quote: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Everybody seems to miss the larger picture: A crash is what the people at the very top actually want.

Why? Volatility creates profits for the Wall Street 'casino' investors, and it always comes out of the pockets of those who in relative terms don't own a controlling stake in anything.

The market goes up, they profit.

The market goes down, they profit. (Or get bailed out if they screwed that up.)

Either way, because they hold all of the cards and influence the people who make the laws and approve the bailouts, the very wealthiest still win. And the more of it that comes from you and I, the better it is for them.

I think the bottom line is that it's out of our hands. We can sign truckloads of petitions, but we might just as well sign our names in the fog on our bathroom mirrors. I guess we could wage a revolution, as long as we make sure to punch back in at work on time. That we have single party government now is a fact. After all these years, the "masses" are too deeply divided and subdivided to do a whole lot about it.

No, much has changed in recent decades. We appear to now be at the point where the rich do to the middle class what the middle class already did to the poor. The US itself has slowly been transitioning into just another third world labor state that discards those who aren't of current use. Our more just just didn't notice yet.

1) The American public, for all of its rallies and marches, is still asleep at the switch. They really don't get what is going on (too complicated) and it hasn't hit deep enough... yet.

2) The biggest transfer of wealth has also been the biggest heist the world has ever seen and they are setting us up for it to go again. Why not? It has worked so well for them thus far.

3) There is a formula to this just like what they have been doing to innocent countries, like Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, etc., for quite some time: Take a country, bomb the heck out of it (9/11) to frighten the populace and legitimize a regime, create total chaos (be afraid, be very afraid,) because in chaos they can steal all they want; it is the quintessential dust storm that hides what they are doing and covers their tracks afterwards. And because they control the MSM, they get to blame anybody else (Russia, people of color, US citizens who do subversive things like form unions,) etc..

All of this is just the 99th re-run of Wagon Train coming at us one more time. But people are so resolved to be comitose where all this is concerned. It's imperialism turned on America, but no one wants to come out of denial and deal with it. We are just going to get our teeth kicked down our throats again; one more time. It's like the nerd in the schoolyard who is too afraid to fight being had by the schoolyard bully once again. Being afraid is the excuse people give themselves so they don't have to do anything. MAYBE one of these times; cycles of abuse, people will find their backbone and finally eject the evil doers out of office and rip the face of decency off of the industrialists (Koch brothers, Waltons, Bushes,) and banksters (Rothschilds) who finance this insanity.

I've been racking my brain to account for this, what? Lazy behavior? No, I think it is very well planned and implement cultural norms that plays a big part in all of this. What I'm talking about are social values; particularly held by the English (descendants) in this country, and obvious among Southerners. They have been line-bred not to say anything or do anything against "their betters". I've heard this from childhood. Anyone with roots in Great Britain is familiar with this. You pull the forelock and bow to the better judgment of those in higher stations unquestioningly. Remember "question authority" back in the 1960's, and the Flower Children? IMHO the CIA is the culprit that introduced drugs into that movement to kill off "peace and prosperity" and the questioning of authority and they did it with force back then, too, (Kent State and the New Paltz Student Union). The CIA did the same thing down in East L.A., by introducing drugs down there and derailing that citizen effort, also.

English society still operates off of the notion that wealthy (landed) people are better than everyone else and that ordinary people, "commoners" must "do their duty" and be "obedient". The English who settled this country brought this zeitgeist with them and it's still operating in present days society. I live in the Deep South and I see it all around me all the time. The Republicans came into the South and took it over because the populace were already programmed with an agenda that lends itself to being subjugated. The flag waving and religous fervors are just the hooks that simple minds can latch onto; the flying buttresses to the walls between the classes and the servitude it represents.

So, for me, this is what is causing America to stand still and take the raping. Somewhere in our fundamental psyche it is programmed in that the rich are better than the rest of us, that they have the right-of-rule no matter how awful that shakes out for the citizenry, and that we owe our duty, loyalty, and servitude to our betters, unquestioningly and under any and all circumstances. Aren't these the very same things Trump was demanding out of Comey before he fired him? Aren't these the very things the corporate community (modern nobility) are demanding out of us (Standing Rock)?

And realize, education that teaches critical thinking has been judiciously excised from America in a pre-emptive strike against us that insures going into battle half witted. So, put together dumbed down, religious subjugation, a bigoted patriotism that requires a heavy hand and the loss of civil rights, fear and chaos (9/11), together with a monied uber class of corporate nobility, and you have one group (A) raping group (B), and group (B) programmed (by media, church, and culture) to think that this is the way things are supposed to be; so they take it without question.

I see this in the South particularly. Any time I try to talk about going against the Established Order, they treat me like I am a pariah, they walk away and sever all ties. Pre-programming of the societal kind.

People don't realize how Medieval this thinking is, why it was put in place, and who it best and only serves. Like I keep saying, have done all along: It won't be until people wake up, shake off their brain fog and get on with what must be done will anything be different. "Nothing changes if nothing changes," and people are too wilfully uninformed, misinformed (MSM), and afraid of change to elicit those things that would radically change what is, has, and will be going on here.

All this being said, I see a glimmer of hope after seeing what happened in GB with the Labor Party recently. Maybe if England can wake up, America can, too. Here's hoping...

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The largest brothel on teh planet is the US Congress. Elected officals are "pimped out" by thier money backers.. we know that.. but gets lost in the opposing discourse is that prostitution a more honest profession.. at least in the pay for sex trade... the "cunsimer" gest a "happy ending" in politics, dealing with Republicans is like going to a wife swapping party and coming home alone. As life-long democraft.. now in my 70's... I despsie elected officials like Al Franken.. he is Jeff Sessions "Biothch" and thinks it's funny... I don't. Our Congress.. like the President.. needs a "high colonic." That will make "America (feel) great again"

Dear ErinRose : Thank You for your incredibly accurate comments on how people are taught not to Question their bettors. This is one of the tenants of our Ayn Rand Moussolini Fascist run society. I would make some adjustments but your comments are right on the money. i reccomend listening to Chris Hedges whenever you can on Rt network 4.30 pm pacific time. Tuesdays.