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Thom, I have not heard anyone say this. Pundits are claiming that the election was a National Vote, all politics is now national they say; people voted against Congress, against Nancy Pelosi and against Obama. I DO NOT believe that is the whole, or main, story. People voted based on their LOCAL TAXES and blamed the Democrats. Russ Feingold lost because he did not explain why local taxes are ballooning. They sold the voters the explanation that their taxes are going up because Russ Feingold voted 90% of the time with the Democrats. Illogical, I know, but it worked! Lawyers know that to win you have to assign blame to win; that's what they did! All Politics Is Local! People voted AGAINST Dems because their local property taxes, sales taxes and requests for education bonds keep going up! But they dont understand that this happened because Bush's budgets slashed education, infrastructure & social services, the Rebs Senate refused to fund education, infrastructure & social services, ie, the money going to the states. The states cut the same as a result. This passed the costs to the local govts. This hits home! The effects are felt here when our family members and friends are the ones who are on unemployment and Medicaid, losing their houses, losing their construction & transportation jobs, our students are losing their classes and extracurriculars and our schools are collapsing! WE won't let that happen. So LOCAL property taxes, sales taxes. utility taxes, phone taxes, tolls, gasoline taxes, school bond requests go up and so on. These are what hit us. These are what show up on every bill every month! They don't understand the lag time. Dems are in power, so they get blamed. Obama's tax cuts via payroll didn't make a dent because the insurance companies saw an opportunity and gobbled it up by increasing our employer-based insurance premiums and the middle class never saw the tax cut! DID YOU KNOW that the insurance companies and employers are telling employees that this premium increase is because of Health Care Reform, ie, "Obamacare?" Unbelievable! I just hope they keep raising premiums and deductibles. In 2012, we MUST villianize the insurance companies and their exploitation of the loopholes. The got it all along; that's why they agreed to obamacare... and requiring people to buy health care. Btw, why are we fighting that so hard? I know we need everyone covered to make it work and bring down the healthcare costs...I get that. But it would still be a loss to the insurers. And why are they supporting the lawsuits?
Imports Subsidize Exports
The solution to jobs in the USA is to to have imports subsidize exports. Its the most cost-effective job stimulus program.
10 million jobs can be created at the cost of $100 million dollars. Unemployment would drop to 4%. Taxes for the federal and state govenments would go up about $60 billion a year.
Talk about leverage!
See
http://www.lazardev.com/Solutions/Create_Millions_of_Jobs_2010-10-15.htm
Trickle-down economics still "works" because now the threat of losing jobs to outsourcing hangs over every workers head.
What do we make here? Well, we still make cars that we are restricted from selling in countries that protect domestic production.
I just called and waited on hold for about 25 minutes before getting the ability to make the point I wanted to make on air. First of all I wish we had more Thom Hartmanns out there as Americans are severely misinformed. Sadly I think many of us Liberals must accept responsibility for this as we have not been willing to frame the message in a way that make the middleclass feel they have a vested interest in the policies advocated by Liberals.
Republicans are excellent however disingenuous in making their policies which are generally anti-middleclass, palatable inasmuch as they are actually voting against their own financial interest. We lost the House of Representatives and instead of redoubling our efforts to educate Americans, many are already talking about adopting tax policies and programs closer to that of the Republicans.
What I think is important is that we frame the message as class warfare. The upper class, the top 2% have been pilfering the middleclass for the last 30 years. This can be shown in a manner that does not bore Americans but will get them fired up to support policies that stops this transfer of wealth upward. This summer I wrote a book called “As I See It – Class Warfare the Only Resort to Right Wing Doom”. The book provides the real narrative that should be the balance between the corporation, the government, and the individual citizen. It dispels the notion of the corporation being inherently more benevolent than the government.
Ross Perot is considered a liberal . . . Now:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Ross_Perot.htm
I'm not going to knock GM, Chrysler and Ford making cars in Canada. At least Canada has comparable wages and public healthcare.
Tom Pauken, a Republican making sense, probably explains why he is the "former" head of the Texas Republicans.
We have watched year by year Wall Street take over our country the past 30 years and all we need to do is look at the Republican snide arrogant lies year after year and now watch big corporatism and its relation to dems and Obama and his capitulating to the ruling class aka: PRIVATE FISCAL FEDERAL RESERVE, BIG BANKS, OIL, HEALTH INSURANCE, BIG PHARMA....THE PENTAGON, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT, INTELLIGENCE. When Obama says the people do not know how things progress on capital hill he is saying our elected government does not run the show anymore has not been running the show for sometime.
It's time the H1B work visa be revisited. There is no shortage of qualified engineers in the US, there is a shortage of qualified engineers, saddled with debt, willing to work for a meager salary.
As long as we keep arming the rest of the world, we will always have a bogeyman around the corner.
This is something I have been preaching for over a year. I watched the President try to compromise with the GOP and thought he might have a good idea. I was willing to see if his way was good.
What I saw was disasterous. Everything points to the fact that the Republicans don't respect him, don't like, and want to dump him. It is in his own best political interest to toughen up. But it is also in the best interest of the country for him to go out there and give them h...L. He seems to feel that somehow they will compromise and work with him if he only waits long enough.
Wrong!!!
I felt the tenor of his leadership when Joe Barton made a fool of him at a joint session of Congress. It felt like a nation waiting to see the reaction ( as a class waits to see the teacher's reaction when a student tests the teacher) and what we got was nothing. He is now giving the impression that he is empty suit.
As far as getting the message out...he needs to learn to speak the audience's language and talk the level of 8th graders. Anything more elegant gets past this audience of high school dropouts.
Sink or Swim....but the problem is that we are all in the same boat.
We have to bring back Alan Grayson. All that you say about the Democrats being weak and needing an approach like the one Harry Truman used is totally true. Nothing seems to work like strength. They don't like President Obama and probably never will. What does he have to lose to have the GOP respect and fear him. He has the power now and in two years it will go to the next person. If he uses it wisely the country will rally behind him and he will be that next person. If he doesn't he will not be able to energize his base.
Kindness is for kids. Using the office of the Presidency is for adults.
I see a lot of people hitting on the topic of We The People being so terribly mis/dis-informed, but I don't see many saying we need to fix that problem. Faux news, Rush Limpballs, and their ilk should be dragged out into the daylight, and flogged for their shameful deeds.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be..."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Free and responsible government by popular consent just can't exist without an informed public."
-- Bill Moyers
We the people are the ones getting screwed and no one even gave me a kiss. Anne
There is way to much disinformation on the right! To fix this country, stop lobbying, fix the supreme courts idea that Corperations are people & have the guts to reregulate everything!
We Are Tied
This comment is from a tearfrul Gerald, a Christian, a liberal, a pacifist, a progressive, and a socialist. He is sharing this information with you from his hideaway bunker deep inside enemy territory, the United States of Mortal Sin.
His perceptual opinion believes that the United States of Mortal Sin is an evil, vile, and wicked nation and she is one of the triad of nations who is doing Satan’s work in the killing of God’s children.
Here is my mission statement from the words of St. Ambrose.
I SHALL PASS THIS WAY BUT ONCE. ANY GOOD THAT I CAN DO LET ME DO IT NOW BECAUSE I SHALL NOT PASS THIS WAY AGAIN.
The title of my comment is “We Are Tied.” I did it; I finally did it! I have finally tied Thom Hartmann with four terrorist files in an office complex between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. My friends in the Republican Party who had worked with me as a deep undercover operative for the party have shared with me that the American government has added me to two more terrorist files. As a deep undercover operative for the party we would go on search and destroy missions to discredit the progressive persons. I was a deep undercover operative until 1984. In 1984 God spoke to me. His words were all I needed to change my wrongful ways.
You know by now that I had two terrorist files in the office complex under the names of “Stinging Words” and another file with the title of “Breaking Wind Exploits.” Stinging words is a file that rants against our nation and the killing of God’s children in immoral and wrong wars. Breaking wind exploits is a file about a marinated four bean salad with marinated Brussels sprouts and broccoli added to the salad. The other two terrorist files are on the information that I have shared with you on the benefits of adding Kim Chee to your diet and the fourth terrorist file is a Lay Minister file.
Kim Chee in your diet is important because most Americans live in a constant state of constipation. With long periods of constipation the toxicity that is lodged in the bowels will rise to the brain and Americans will be inflicted with “sinking thinking.” Kim Chee flushes out the toxicity that is lodged in your bowels. The fourth terrorist file is about a lay minister terrorist file. This terrorist file has been in the office complex for many years but it was through my lay ministering to you on the Holy Bible, especially with emphasis on the New Testament and Jesus’ words that forced the American Shadow Government to dust off this terrorist file and make it an active file. The conservative crazies have preached for years on God in the Old Testament. They believe in a punitive and vengeful God in order to justify their evil, vile, and wicked sinful ways. In the New Testament God is revealed as a loving, merciful, and forgiving God. The conservative crazies with their Ponzi schemes and shell games cannot have God as a loving, merciful, and forgiving God. They seek to keep the poor the working poor, and the middle class Americans in constant fear from some outside source and from God.
Plus, I have shared with you some homilies from Saturday evening Masses. From the Gospel these homilies have attempted to bring God’s words into our present daily lives.
The four terrorist files on me are files on my stinging words against our nation in the killing of God’s children in immoral and wrong wars, my breaking wind exploits from a marinated four bean salad with marinated Brussels sprouts and broccoli added, my praise of Kim Chee as part of our diet to eliminate Americans’ constant state of constipation that will release an obstructionist mentality with stinking thinking. With Americans being free of obstructionism we will feel better and we will have more energy to love all of God’s children. And finally the last terrorist file is me as a lay person ministering to you on the New Testament of the Holy Bible that reveals to you a loving, a merciful, and a forgiving God.
I am presently doing research on a super secretive weapon. I do not mind people fainting from my breaking wind exploits with only a marinated four bean salad but my hope is to develop a super secretive weapon that will give a knockout punch with one smell. I am doing research on the perfect recipe for such a knockout punch. I am willing to share with the ingredients for such a weapon. What is needed is the perfect blend for such a weapon!
Here are the ingredients. You are welcome to do some research as well. The ingredients for the recipe are to make a meal from a marinated four bean salad with marinated Brussls sprouts and broccoli added, from Kim Chee, from a homemade marinated red cabbage, and from a homemade lentil soup. What is important about the lentil soup is that the breaking wind exploits come out like the rattling of a machine gun. In about fifteen seconds two dozen farts can be released from the human body. Lentil soup farts are not as noisy as regular farts. Hopefully, a more silent fart will not draw as much attention to the culprit. Remember, what is needed in this recipe is a perfect blend of the ingredients!
My hope is also start a third party movement, known as the “Stench Party.” Hopefully, members of the Stench Party will piss off the conservative crazies and their bed partners, the lunatic politicians in Washington, D.C. Maybe at some point most Americans will come to realize how much the conservative crazies and the lunatic politicians have hurt America and Americans.
The Republicans I know want smaller government, less taxes, and a greater say in how they live their own lives. The religious ones also want to force a woman to stand by her own choice, when she has unprotected sex. If she happens to get pregnant, they want her to be legally forced to have her unwanted baby, should it naturally come to full term. Many of the non-religious Republican voters that I know also want no gun control. Somehow, they think that they are voting for their own self-interests when they cast that vote for the party of the corporate oligarchy. They think that because many of the poor, uneducated, unemployed, and unemployable people are living off the backs of the taxpayer, that this is an unnecessary burden upon the USA taxable wage earners. Yet, our continental and overseas military infrastructure of over 700 military installations, which costs more than the entire rest of the world spends on defense, annually, is an absolute necessity to my Republican friends. We have to protect our overseas corporate interests, afterall. Maybe, if we reduced the size of our military empire, pulled out of the third world, and let them live their lives in peace (and be as backwards towards technical advances as they want to be), then they would not find a need to become terrorists, which is about the only way they can possibly fight against an empire as powerful as the USA.
Maybe, as about 22% (gov't admits to 9.6%) of us are still looking for a decent paying job, that will keep us alive, while paying what we owe in rent, mortgage, transportation costs, food costs, energy costs, health-care, auto, life and property insurances and many, many other expenses besides what could be called entertainment costs, not to mention taxes, some of those Republicans will change their miniscule viewpoints and look at the bigger picture. It is us against them. Not Republicans against Democrats, though. Both parties are equally to blame for the downfall of the American middleclass lifestyle. Clinton did sign NAFTA, did he not? (After Bush I wrote it up.) And wasn't the Glass-Spiegel Act repealed on his watch, too?
The conflict is really the people against the corporate infrastructure. Whose side is the government on? Why are so many of us Americans currently unemployed? Because the corporations sent all our jobs overseas, so they can make a better profit margin. Who allowed the corporations to outsource all our jobs? The government did. Why did the government ignore what is in the best interests of the people? The lobbyists paid them to.
How do we fix it?............................................................Good Freekin' Question
Doug
Agree 100% with "The only reason for this..." post above.
Additional food for thought:
A caller on (right-wing) Lars Larson's national show last night challenged him on the (lack of) necessity for the Oklahoma referendum -- the caller's arguments were fundamentally similar to those above:
* religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed, and, moreover
* any argument is moot because Sharia law does not have ANY significant foothold in the American legal/political landscape, meanwhile
*the motives for putting this on the ballot are obvious to anyone with even a modicum of understanding of Rove-ian demagouguery in the campaign sphere
OK, so Lars parries the assault by referring to Elena Kagan's (I think the phrase was) inviting (not an accurate description) Sharia law experts onto Harvard's campus during her term as Dean. Here is an article: http://www.mediaite.com/online/sen-jeff-sessions-why-does-elena-kagan-op... (I was unaware of any of this when listening to the show).
How do you even argue against something like this -- this is reminiscent of some water-cooler discussions that come up. I mean, do conservatives have access to some "rabbit hole" through which they all can become self-righteous to the point at which some data-mined fact which, technically true but containing not even an iota of actual relevance, magically becomes the point on which an entire societal argument hinges?
So, in following up, the host basically uses the bully pulpit at this point to paint the caller as one who has failed to remain vigilant with an "if you're not with us, you're against us" diatribe a la Rush or Beck. At that point, the caller has lost because it is awfully hard to combat a "bumper sticker" soundbite with a paragraph of reason, even on equal footing (and a broadcast expert/VO specialist with a finger on the "mute" button vs. a caller/layman is not exactly equal footing).
And yet, these kinds of conversations are the pitched battle (I prefer "proxy war") of political discourse in this country. Right vs. left is fine, but what do you do when it's moderate vs. nutcase?
George W. is trying to come across as human in making mistakes. He is trying to set the stage for another whack job from the Bush family to be the candidate for president and the next president in 2013. The name of this whack job is Jeb Bush.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101105/pl_yblog_upshot/former-president-bush-calls-katrina-photo-a-huge-mistake
A total setback!
http://www.thenation.com/article/155849/midterm-election-results-setback-peace
Great article Thom! I thought the best way would be to increase the minimum wage - to $10 or $12 or $20 and hour and the shorter work week. But this may be a better start since most voters tend to be at or near retirement rather than near minimum wage.
This sounds like a great new May Day and new New Deal platform!
*Reduce Retirement age to 55
*Paid Vacation for Every Job
*Three Day Weekends
*Card-Check
*Medicare For All
*Family Friendly Wages
Keep up the great work!!! Both Thom and Louise!
@PBSD - Post Bus..., What we are in is not just a fight! We are in a war that will enslave ninety percent of Americans.
Well, I think that the elections were pretty much unnecessary. President Obama has said repeatedly and has followed through with by-passing congress and signing "executive orders," making congress irrelevant. There is no reason to believe he will not continue to get his agendas through this way.
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We live in the Corporate Staes of America. That's it.
Human beings don't matter. Only greed and money matter. Only Corporate 'beings' matter.
I'm in an area with a radio channel that carries Thom, Norman, Stephanie, & Ed daily. After work last night Norm was explaining the situation (with KO on MSNBC) and the signal went dead until after he finished the scenario. It's not the first time I have noticed this type of dead air when an important subject was being explained. And that is on a progressive channel. I know the voice of truth and reason is totally squashed by the voice of lies and manipulation on the air waves. Example: $200,000,000 per day for Obamas current trip. The sheeple will be spouting that 'statistic' until they are on their deathbeds.
The voice of our smart, truthful, and caring progressive speakers can never sway the weak minded followers of the 'Pied Piper of Shamlet'(do I have to say who I mean?...doubt it)
There is no network of reason. I feel resistance IS futile. The President won't attack the repugnicans no matter how horrible they are to him, the Democratic party refuses to adopt the sound bite strategy that cleary works, and there is no network of information that can penetrate FOX's hold on the 'American mind'.
I'm sick to my stomach about what is coming and I'm sorry to sound negative. I did not think I could feel any worse than the day 'w" took the oath of office. I was negative and sick to my stomach then too( and I was completely underestimating the evil that would be done). I never thought it could be any worse than that. But we are a nation completely ruled by lies. These lying, human hating, fake crying people have just been elected on their way to the next step in 2012.
Then of course too there is the arrogance that we have to listen to on top of it all.