AIW -- How many people do you think are reading blogs this old? I would like to put a finer point on what you said. I would say we could eliminate the need for welfare if our society had no super-rich or peolple in poverty. It seems the less inspirational for anyone to reply to any blog when one says things like "a 30 to 1 ratio of CEO to median worker is okay, but a 300 to 1 ratio will destroy an economy". I, however, was inspired to write this comment by something Richard Sullivan (ich denke) said on the Bill Maher show. Richard Sullivan is a gay repug that Bill often has on his show. Richard Sullivan said that liberals did not want equal opportunity they wanted equal outcomes.

Also, there is a non-linearity in what you say about taxes. The way the data seems to stack up is to have tax rates (like 92%) on the rich so that the lower incomes pay more in taxes (happily). Also, incidentally, the rich pay less in taxes. My explanation for this phenomenon is as follows. The rich see that 91% tax rate and look vigourously for a way to avoid it. The govt says I have a loophole for you; build a factory in the US and/or pay your workers more. In this scenario, long term greed starts to look better.

Matt, your generation and the younger generation are simply brainwashed by the corporate media. Their myopic, one-dimensional view of the Boomer generation is no surprise. Until people learn to think independently, I don't see much hope for any meaningful progress towards a better world for everyone.

By the way, the music of the sixties was very diverse: folk, blues, jazz, soft rock, hard rock, country rock, bluegrass…

I hate to break it to ya Matt, but thanks to media consolidation, your "news" all comes from the same source: corporate fascists, spoon-feeding y'all the same old corporate BS. If you feel no connection with the majority of your "countrymen", their mission of divide-and-conquer has been a stellar success. - Aliceinwonderland

The stupidity of the right winger militia and supporters is the same as that which causes Americans to vote against their own well being. The exact things they complain about are the ones they support. It's the corporations that started the anti government movement and it's the removal of government that caused the corporate rise in our society and did the working people. Removing government only removes the democracy from society and gives corporations autocratic control of it.

An essential componant of the corporations' anti government campaign is the divisive strategy of fomenting racial, ethnic and other animosities and mongering fear of those groups. This is what causes Americans to vote against their well being and to oppose democratic government. Some years past, on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City, Murrah Federal Building bombing, a prominent Jewish organization issued a statement saying that the right wing militia groups are against the Federal Government because it protects the rights of all people and not just white, protestant heterosexuals.

Shocking!

Simply shocking, we have racists in America. This is news?

No Bundy's family never did have any deal with the state of Nevada. When Nevada was admitted as a state those territorial lands were relinquished to the federal government. So his family could have never had any kind of pact with the state of Neveda.

And if he thinks he wants to stand on ancestrial rights I think it's grand he willing to fight for those lands to be returned to the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes.

I had previously made mention of that conservative Breitbart quote that snopes.com used to dispel a conspiracy on the part of solar companies and now I see that this part of the quote: "While it would be fair to claim that such activity was in Bundy's relative neighborhood, the federal lands once leased by the family were more than 20 miles away, east of Overton, Nevada." is itself inaccurate. The area east of Overton, which is in the Moapa Valley, is the Mormon Mesa. The Breitbart statement confirms that the area east of Overton, ie: the Mormon Mesa, the place where the Solar companies want to put the solar tower and mirrors, is the place where Bundy grazed his cows. Google Earth shows that Overton is only 18 miles from Bundy's ranch and the Mormon Mesa, farthest rim in line with Overton, is only about 15 miles from Bundy's ranch. So, Bundy's cows did graze in that area and that is the area where those companies want to put the solar arrays that will take 10,000 sq acres which is 4 sq. miles. And because you can't fit an actual 4 sq. miles in an irregular area of the mesa, it has to either be an irregular 4 sq. miles or the whole thing has to move toward Bundy's ranch. I think it will be as close as 8 to 10 miles from Bundy's ranch.

Breitbart: " the federal lands once leased by the family were more than 20 miles away, east of Overton"

... which isn't true because Overton isn't over 20 miles from Bundy's ranch it's only 18 miles from Bundy's ranch. And it is 3 miles from Overton to the rim of the mesa. The leased area couldn't have been more that 15 or 16 miles from Bundy's ranch because the mesa rim, in line with Overton, is only 15 miles from Bundy's ranch.

That the Mormon Mesa is where Bundy grazed his cattle and is the exact same place where they want to put solar arrays hardly dispels that idea. It proves it!

So, why would Brietbart, a conservative mouthpiece, want to discredit the idea that solar companies are the real reason why the government is now making problems for Bundy? Well, it should be obvious, shouldn't it? Conservatives side with big companies. And governments get bought off by them. And the little people get stepped on!

Everything I've said here is not a wild unsupported conspiracy theory...most all of these links I've provided are .gov...government documents...that prove what I say is true.
------
note: The application to the BLM for that solar site at Mormon Mesa was received on 1/28/2008 and hasn't yet been approved (as of Nov 1, 2013..the date of that document).

Quote ChicagoMatt:

Another thing I've noticed about my students and their "greed is good" desire to be rich even at their young age - they tend to make fun of poor people. Not all of them, but the majority of them. When we do creative writing exercises, there are a lot of homeless people in their stories, always the butt of jokes. They joke about their classmates growing up and living in cardboard boxes while they themselves live in mansions.

Actually, the "greed is good" youth culture was created by the Reagan/Bush neocon PR machine in the '80s. Lionizing robber baron wealth and greed while fomenting villification of and hatred for the poor and homeless was part of a Maoist styled "Cutural Revolution" - only from the Right - intended to dismantle the New Deal by first dismantling the '60s' and Great Depression Era culture of empathy for the poor and outrage at injustice. It resulted in the young adopting very superficial values and acquiring tremendous status insecurities. Before that, the young not only didn't hate the poor and homeless but even admired the Woody Guthrie or hippy road bum type and often tried to ape or emulate them.

I don't think body type determines political ideology. The athletic, "jock" types tend to be conservative and intolerant while some overweight people may be more lefty and more empathic toward the poor and racial minorities after having been rejected outsiders themselves.

Sometimes, though, that can cut both ways as people having felt spat upon and shat upon can sometimes look for someone else they can shit upon to get even with the world, as it were. Relatively powerless racial, ethnic, religious and other groups have traditionally served as scapegoats for that purpose. Thus, Jean Paul Sartre called Anti Semitism "the poor man's snobbery" and the KKK was started, not by rich Southern plantation owners but by poor Southern "white trash".

ChicagoMatt, you keep thinking about these things and keep trying to find ways to defeat your self centeredness and I think you might find you're not as self centered as you thought.

Who would be fighting whom? The rich have very successfully divided the "masses," pitting the middle class against the poor. In a country that shipped out a huge number of working class jobs, and then wiped out welfare, there are a whole lot of poor people. What the rich are now doing to the middle class is what the middle class already did to the poor -- often using the same "justifications." That's what makes this era unique and unpredictable.

Palin says, regarding those militia freaks stopping people on the highway: "These people aren't uniformed policemen... probably just normal clothes.... what would most people think if someone like that tries to stop you on the highway? That they are armed killer madmen who could kill you? So why wouldn't using your vehicle in self-defense be a good idea?" And PD, I think that's an excellent idea. Just mow the assholes down: splat-splat! I'm not into violence unless I'm threatened, at which point it's me versus the aggressor. And if it's me versus them, and they started it, that makes them game. Like PD, I say it with no apologies.

David in Vegas says: "Thom, just because you say it is so (about Conservatives) does not make it true. You do not understand the conservative way of thinking so you are a poor judge of the how/what/why of our thinkingness." So Dave, what exactly do you mean by "it", as in "it is so"? How about being more specific?

"Bringing the Koch brothers in to the mix is simply absurd," says David in Vegas, "but you are trying to sling any possible situation, as mud, to try and tarnish the reputations of those gentlemen." Here's a news flash for ya, David. A fascist oligarch is no gentleman.

Frankly I can't stand listening to most talk radio because it is nothing but divisive, toxic garbage, by the same angry little white men described in my last post. Yet it is one of those rare progressives with a voice out there who you chastise for being "dishonest". To call this ironic would be an understatement. Republicans block everything that could benefit this country, along with 99% of its people, yet it's the Democrats you've accused of incompetence. After the mess Reagan and the Bushies left behind, it is Obama you blame for everything. President Obama probably inherited the biggest mess of any newly elected president since Lincoln.

I'm no fan of Obama or the Democrats either. But to my ears at least, you discredit yourself by omitting the "Party of No" from your rant about Congress, as if the Repugs' shit didn't stink. That party has been the bane of our existence. I'm talking about those who consistently vote in lockstep against our interests, who think depriving people of things like food stamps, Social Security, unemployment and the benefits of healthcare reform is okay, and who legislate accordingly. Those who think harassing, frisking and shooting at black people without provocation is okay, and legislate accordingly. Republicans also think women should be paid less for their work, that women should be deprived of birth control as well as abortion, and legislate accordingly. I've even heard Republicans suggest that jail is the appropriate destination for anyone suffering a miscarriage, that a miscarriage is tantamount to murder. They seem to think they can tell us what "legitimate rape" is, too. Just gets crazier and crazier on the Republican side of the isle. Racism, misogyny… two classic symptoms of encroaching fascism, so much of that filth poisoning our airwaves from the likes of Rush & Glenn. They also think it's okay for oil companies to contaminate our water supplies and subject us to earthquakes and explosions and massive oil spills- not to mention eminent domain and endless war- while they legislate accordingly. They've seen to it that we not be allowed to know what's in our food, or where it comes from. They've been in lockstep and on the wrong side of every goddam thing set before them to legislate on. At least the Dems get it right once in a while. The Republicans, never. And by the way, it's the Republican presidents who trashed this economy.

Even with pond scum like Rush & Beck out there on talk radio, and so many others like them, it is Thom you chastise. Hah! Save it, pal. - Alice IW

Palin the girls have English accents I wonder why they didn't go with the mother to London. They must have spent a lot of time here. She might of had to bale with out them. But how could she. She must of know he would do this.

Marc, I'm with you on this Bundy land-grab scenario. The broad strokes with which this nitwit Bundy generalizes about black men say more about Bundy than who he's dissing. I hate the thought of sharing even a microscopic smidgen of common ground with Bundy and his ilk. I don't care if we all happen to agree about who's hijacked our government. People like that make me sick. Sometimes when I hear their toxic rants I feel ashamed of my white skin and the tyranny it represents to some folks; those who just happen to be the targets of those ugly rants. Fascism thrives on that shit. Heeeere we go again.

I never cease to be astonished at the filth spewed from the lips of these angry white men whose sense of white male entitlement has been ruffled... so now they're waving their stupid guns around and having this big-ass hissy fit because they know they're not the top of the ole dung heap anymore. Wah. Just breaks m' heart. These guys have it in for everyone; that is, everyone who isn't anglo, white, gentile, heterosexual and male... which means, basically, most of humanity these guys hold in contempt. No matter how big or how awful this common enemy we share, it'll never make us allies. Nope, not even a teensie-weensie bit.

And I hear ya Loren, I too am glad I am old. However even as I head into my mid sixties, I could still have many years left. At the clinic today, I got the results of last week's blood test; numbers were pretty damn good: cholesterol 156, blood pressure 110/60... Shit, I might live to be over 100 like Great Granny! Uh-oh. Given the times, that could be a real mixed blessing. - Aliceinwonderland