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Everyone be aware the there will be be a new Facebook agreement starting 2015 which will legally allow government agencies to spy on you with your consent. I have been posting the address to the site that explains this but now every time I post it facebook blocks it as inappropriate. It looks like this Oligarchy is becoming a Fascist state!
We cannot use the term democracy for our current government. Our precious democracy was based on an informed and engage citizenry, and we chose our elected officials through primaries and elections. Now we have a rich people own all coporate oligarchy. I am afraid that things will have to get much worse (and they can) before we have critical mass tochange the system.
We need everyone to become citizen reporters to help spread real news.....like Thom discusses. Since our corporate monoply propagandist media will never show real factual news.....WE have to do it ourselves
Obamacare has already been upheld once...a tax; not a healthcare law. A tax, and the government beleives it has the "right" to tax when and how it wants...even as a tool to enforce complyment. Sort of like Capone's famous remark about a gun and kind word will get you further than just a kind word. Besides, too much damage has already been done.
People on both the Left, Right, and the Middle as well as people of all skins are sick and tired of being sick and tired with a government which has long sense failed the American People. Blame either party you want. Both are just as guilty as the other. It's too far gone; too corrupted for reform. It's time to start over.
Absolutely, and there should still be a independent police advisory and review board.
If the crime is a felony, then no. Keep the manditory sentencing.
Bravo Kend, I agree that the length of the elections in the US are too long. That would help, but add public finance of elections, that would seal the deal--we'd get better candiates and better ideas--and a much better democracy.
"We've seen the damage that massive campaign spending has done to our political system".......in the sense that representation of those without $billions$ no longer exists, very true! But first it takes vulnerable citizens willing to listen and believe the lies that campaign spending generates. For a non billionaire to vote Teapublican believing the party will legislate in their best interest requires a massive cover up of truth/reality.
Until I'm blue in the face I keep repeating my outrage and frustration over Obama and the Democrats unwillingness to call the Teapublicans out on their blatant policy intended to undermine the working class by concentrating wealth. Senator Sanders and Warren are going hoarse speaking truth to power....why the silence from most everyone else? We pay for representation which includes speaking out loudly for truth and social justice.
"So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read that Richard Cory went home last night and put a bullet through his head."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/03/1348957/-Bankers-Want-Your-Savings-As-Part-of-Their-Next-Bail-Out?detail=email#
An acquaintence told me he was taking a job in a new industry - sellin private prisons.! I got a chill. he got a glare and looked guilty. Never talked to him again. I am 80 he is 60. Saw h im on street one day and he looked wealthy and empty.
Yes. Kend's Suggestion makes sense, but the networks would raise holy hell over lost advertising revenues. The argument would go round and round and spawn more commercials.
One wonders after seeing what is happening, whether those who seem to be in control (or out of control) understand the will of the people. The fact is that the people (especially the young) are speaking as they march, and they have crossed color lines to unite on the issue of justice: NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!
For too long, many members of the police have acted as judge, jury, and executioner, and the excessive use of deadly force, especially against people of color, is totally unjustified. Not only do the rules of engagement need to be changed, but the mindset of the police as well. A predominantly white police force in a black neighborhood acts as an occupying force, that looks down on the inhabitants of that community as being less than human, and deserving of their brutality and disrespect. What we have is a form of Apartied, due to economics and racial prejudice.
But there is also another force at work here. It is one that has created the disenfranchisement of a whole segment of our population and created ghettos where enclaves of those who are to be kept hidden from society are kept at a distance by a militarized police force using "stop and frisk" and other forms of racial profiling to create a two tiered justice system. More people of color are incarcerated because they lack the economic opportunities given to those who are fortunate enough to be born into the race of the ruling elite.
However, economics does not play favorites, when the youth (no matter what color) have their future stripped by globalist policies that export jobs overseas, and destroy the middle class infrastructure that has made this country such an economic power house since the end of WWII.
So I am proud to see these young (with a few old die hards) marching in common cause against the most obvious and flagrant indication of what is wrong with our society. What will be the inevitable outcome is anyone’s guess, but one can only hope that it won't be Marshall Law and a more fascist and repressive system.
Gator Girl, I like your comments about additional tweaks to our broken election system. However, as for your mention of making "all donor lists public and cap the amount each can donate", I truly meant ONLY public funding from a small tax we all pay each year, earmarked for that purpose, with each candidate receiving an equal share. NO other money of any kind allowed. And strict laws with teeth enforcing that for both the average citizen and powerfully wealthy alike. As soon as additional donated funds of some sort are allowed, the rot sets in, with one candidate leveraging an advantage because he/she has friends with deep pockets. And with no way allowed to glom on to other outside funds, that would eliminate the constant need for our elected officials to immediately begin "dialing for dollars" for the next election on down the line. Instead, they could expend their time actually working to represent us and accomplish something useful for the common good!
I also like Canadian Kend's suggestion for greatly shortening the duration of the process, like in his country. It becomes VERY tiresome listening to all of that mostly disingenuous blowhard rhetoric for months on end!
Alfred Al, you are on the right track. And here I will include the next comment after yours. We should first, STOP the electioneering immediately after each election for the next one - hell, they don't even wait for that now. And, yes, allow ONLY public funding with all donor lists public and cap the amount each can donate, the candidates cannot use their own funds no matter how rich they are, Candidates should announce 90 days before the elections and that will be the ONLY time campaigning will be allowed and election day should be a MANDATORY holiday for EVERYONE with polls easy to access, increased in numbers and times open. NO exceptions. And term limits. Take the incentive out of this to have someone come in, build up their fortunes from political allies because they will no longer have that power and then OUT!! This would help take the big money out - oh, before I forget, the money to get a person on the ballot shold be negligable in order that AVERAGE people could qualify. Advertising should be REQUIRED ON ALL GOVERNMENT SPONSORED NETWORKS - ABC, CBS, NBC - at no cost with ads being very strick on content and not slamming others - and very strick numbers and time limits. This, I believe would go a long way in solving our total election problems. I notice now that NONE of the major networks - ABC,CBS AND NBC - carry the President's messages anymore. This would be REQUIRED in the future.
mathboy, you are correct and even IF he could not speak the video spoke loudly and we not only heard the pitiful plea of Eric Garner, we SAW that choke hold in full view. The very idea that the police departments are abdicating their responsibility or allowing a grand jury to do what they were intended to do - decide IF there is enough evidence to bring a true bill for the case to go to court - they are now using the grand jury in place of this. Allowing Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO and the same in NYC with the defendant being allowed to testify - they usually are NOT even present - without REAL cross-examination is total perversion of our law. BOTH of these cases deserve and should have been bound over to the court to allow a jury to hear ALL of the evidence and subject the defendant to the SAME cross-examination as were the witnesses in each of these cases thereby allowing a jury to make the decisions.
I hope both of these families sue not ony the police departments but also, all of the officers involved, the city, the state, the families of those jerks - anyone and everyone they can reach out and touchl. A few of these successfully brought to bear and WON - by having a really GOOD attorney step up and take the case pro bono - would stop this.
Total injustice for sure
Although it is none of my business as I am Canadian but if you want yo clean up your elections reduce the length of the campaign. Here politicions only get two to three months to lie to us before the election. A lot less money gets spent. It equals the playing field a lot.
I just read your blog commentary about McConnell's proposed campaign finance loophole. To squelch this sort of thing once in for all, why aren't a coalition of progressive activist organizations sending out petitions urging a constitutional ammendment making it the law of the land that ONLY public funds can be used for public elections? NO outside money allowed. With all funding coming from a small obligatory yearly tax chipped in by all citizens, each candidate would receive the same amount of money and the same amount of time on public radio and television, effectively leveling the playing field. In one fell swoop, that would take care of the problem of corrupting money flowing into our election system. Then we'll choose candidates on their personal merits and innovative ideas as potential leaders----not on who raises the most Big Bucks.
I still miss the Sachmo theme (in memory of your father) at the end of each Friday show.
The New York police department is claiming that if you can talk you can breathe. That's not quite true. I once had my chest crushed by a steel pipe frame. I couldn't breathe at all for about a minute afterward, but I was able to tell my friend that I couldn't breathe by pumping the air in my mouth to enunciate.
Aside from that, being able to talk doesn't mean that the person is getting enough air to survive. Talking only requires letting air out. Pantaleo wasn't letting Garner get air back in.
It's not exactly true that if you can talk you can breathe, as the New York police department is claiming.
I once had my chest crushed by a steel pipe frame. I couldn't breathe at all for about a minute afterward, but I was able to tell my friend that I couldn't breathe by use the air in my mouth to enunciate.
Aside from that, being able to talk doesn't mean that the person is getting enough air to survive. Talking requires letting air out. Pantaleo wasn't letting Garner get air back in.
Getting US corporations to pay their fair share of taxes is not going to be easy. Corperations that make huge profits in the USA should be saying "thank you" to the US government and the people of the USA for allowing and helping them to make those hugh profits by paying back a huge amount in taxes that will, in turn, help the people that helped them make those huge profits. "The government" is the people, all of the people, as is says in The Declaration of Independance, " government , OF THE PEOPLE, by the people, and for the people". Corporations are not people because corporations do not show sorrow, joy, pain, or gratitude, nor does a corporation laugh or cry. That's what people do. There is nothing that says we have a government "for the corperations". The idea that corperations are people and money is speech is absurd and as law it's dangerous and destructive. As law, it allows wealthy corperations and wealthy people to buy our government so that they can keep gaining great wealth at the exspense of everyone else. This activity can not endure for a very long time. Something has got to give. Either the people will get wise about what is going on and elect people that will change the laws or the economy will crash again but much, much worse than it did in 1929. The only thing that can prevent the crash is a well informed puplic that will elect the right people. I'm afraid that even if everyone in the country is given the truth about what's going on, more than half will not believe the truth and keep electing the same God loving, gun loving, corperation loving politicians. Then there will be a great crash and after the crash the people will wake up and say " what happened???".
A government where representation goes only to the highest bidder puts the entire population at the mercy of the mental stability of that highest bidder. Let's face reality here, the Factionists are looking for unending wealth and power, and history has shown extreme concentration of wealth and power never ends well for the vast majority. In fact history shows violent upheavals are the norm for correction.
That said, the Factionists still have to invest huge sums of money on disinformation/lies for their Shills to be placed in office, which of course gets us back to the necessity of Move to Amend. Despite the money being spent, it still takes a slight majority of the few citizens who vote, combined with some voter suppression, and election fraud to place the Teapublican clowns in office. Roughly half of the only 30% of eligible voters who showed up to vote in the midterms, voted against the Factionists, meaning the expensive propaganda didn't work on them. So if we can't get money out of politics then we need to work on getting more heads out of asses. Considering the voter turnout we just had, it won't take many.
If the reserves of fossil fuels are only supposed to last for 50 or so more years, why is it that even climate deniers are not panic stricken and looking for alternative energy sources?
When corporations take over a whole country, what other outcome do you expect besides total corruption, Thom?