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Hey Palin- For what it's worth, here's one thought that occurred to me is just now. Perhaps these reich-wing dramas featuring mobs of idiots parading around with their stupid guns is nothing more than a phony ploy to get the rest of us up in arms, giving those fascists the perfect excuse to mow us all down! How 'bout that?! - AIW
Palin, I disagree with your dismissive comment regarding campaign finance reform and Move To Amend. Money as "speech" is what got us into this mess; reversing that corrosive precedent will help us begin to reverse the damage to our democracy and reclaim what we have lost. If you think not, then what is your solution? Got any better ideas?! Like I've said, bitching and complaining serves its purpose, but what we really need are concrete solutions. - AIW
So the solutions or changes are what?
For me that is the billion dollar question?
What I would propose as one step is settng limits on stock purchases. That is, you can only buy some much of a particular stock at a given time. This would allow a more distributed investment landscape. It would stop someone who can buy a 100,000s shares at a time, as opposed to someone else who can only buy 50 shares or even less.
Another change would be to increase the federal tax on captial gains. 15% or less is stupid. It should be 30-40% since money making money has no real value in creating jobs or advancing the overall economy.
There could be some endangered turtles that deserve our protection.
Palindromedary, if gun ownership will result in revolution why then do the right wing oligarchs who rule us want everybody to have one? Seems in parts of the world where the gun manufacturers have succeeded in pushing their product on everyone despots still prevail but their divisive political strategies have genocidally deadly outcomes as do their local factional rivalries.
I, personally, am afraid of the mass of American yayhoos getting emboldened by gun posession.
What a great show Thom .Thanks for the information .Sometimes it can get a little overwhelming from all the chemicals in our bodies to all the plastic in the sea,but it's all connected !
The question must be who are we and what are we doing here .What is message that we get from this ?
As a collective called Humanity what now do we choose ?
Can,t thank you enough for your wonderfull show but how do you do it ? knowing what you know ,does it not feel overwhelming at times ?
I see you as a kind of elder statesman for humanity full of wisdom and clarity here to guide us through our birthing process .So we can evolve and make that jump in our evolutionary journey .
Magical blessings
Stephen mills
As Thom has pointed out too infrequently, buying/owning stock in a corporation does not benefit the corporation. Except for the IPO, sale of a stock benefits the seller only. Dividends are the equivalent of Count Dracula draining his victim's blood. The stock holder benefits but the company and it's employees do not. I suggest that the in perpetuity pay-out character of a stock be altered to a defined number of years or to a steadily decreasing percentage of the profits. Such a strategy could be used to systematically develop co-ops that distribute the wealth the corporation generates to the people who create it. This would be a way to support/redevelop a middle class and reduce our society's burgeoning inequality. It could also make a lot of people happy and cause the stock market to disappear in its current form. (And a few crooks with it?) C. Krob
I've probably already told my story here, so sorry if I bore anyone.
I am an estrogen breast cancer survivor who got cancer WITHOUT risk factors. All my health numbers are excellent; I've lived a life of health, exercise, and prevention; my Vitamin D levels are excellent; no family history, etc. I missed only one year of mammograms because we were switching insurance. Hell, my oncologist can't figure out why or how I got cancer.
I laugh everytime the risk factors are trotted out, because, according to the figures I've seen, 70 percent of new breast cancer cases are like me and have NO risk factors.
I can only point to chemicals in food and water. Soy and its many dirivatives which are found in almost ALL food in the grocery. Soy acts as a plant estrogen. Not to mention all the hormones in meat and dairy products.
Plus living in grain farm country with all the Round-Up floating around. So I support ONLY the cancer organizations that are going after the chemicals in our environment: Breast Cancer Action. And that's why my avatar is what it is.
The Cleveland Clinic recently purchased our independent regional cancer clinic. This is great news for patient care, except for the excessively high bills we now see ($329 for a 5 minute office visit to discuss drug side-effects), but scary that there must be enough cancer here to make the Clinic's purchase worthwhile. (But if the Clinic continues charge more pennies than people around here can afford [charging the consumer for their purchase, no doubt], people will take their pennies to another facility and they'll be left with Medicare patients and much less profit--not so smart.)
And, everyday, someone in the small towns and surrounding farm community are diagnosed with cancer or have died from cancer--or classmates from the town are in far-off cities dying from cancer as well.
Regarding wealth accumulation:
As Thom has pointed out too infrequently, buying/owning stock in a corporation does not benefit the corporation. Except for the IPO, sale of a stock benefits the seller only. Dividends are the equivalent of Count Dracula draining his victim's blood. The stock holder benefits but the company and it's employees do not. I suggest that the in perpetuity pay-out character of a stock be altered to a defined number of years or to a steadily decreasing percentage of the profits. Such a strategy could be used to systematically develop co-ops that distribute the wealth the corporation generates to the people who create it. This would be a way to support/redevelop a middle class and reduce our society's burgeoning inequality. It could also make a lot of people happy and cause the stock market to disappear in its current form. (And a few crooks with it?)
Perhaps you are correct. I probably should drop this subject. I sure wouldn't want to be labeled an "enemy combatant" even though I am in no way an "enemy" or a "combatant". It is very dangerous, now a days, to actually exercise "free speech". I wouldn't want to risk being thrown into GITMO and tortured. Although, I'm sure we are all considered "enemies" by some people on the right....maybe even on the left. I suppose those people on the left, who fear to look out from under the covers of their cozy little meme composed of false beliefs of schemes like "Move to Amend" and "Campaign Finance Reform" is going to make any difference, may consider me an "enemy" because I am not falling for their blather.
That video, I just watched, again, "911-Explosive Evidence" had some psychologists talking about "cognitive dissonance" where people who earned that label said things like: "even if it were true, I wouldn't believe it!" (referring to 9/11 being an inside job). I believe that there are many people on the left who are going through a sort of cognitive dissonance when they think that they can still change a corrupt system by playing the same corrupt games by trying to convince politicians to actually represent them instead of the ruling elite. They do this over and over again without any good sense to do so. Isn't that one of the signs of insanity?
DAnnemarc: I agree that they are puppets of the ruling elite. That is, perhaps, why they have gotten away with their little stunt. That is probably why Obama didn't call out a more compelling force to enforce the law. But, what do you expect of a sellout? He's got no balls to go against the reich wingers. If they showed that they could enforce the law, they would piss off a lot of people like the Koch brothers who get wealthy off of things like that rancher is doing. Why, they might have to pay their taxes as well! It might set a bad precedent...a bad example...to actually collect taxes from rich people.
On the other hand, this rancher's family has been there for 150 years and they have used that land to graze their cattle all these years. Then one day, someone decides that some turtle, that is in no way even threatened with extinction, also likes to live in that area. And someone thinks that those turtles in that area may be threatened by grazing cattle. Never mind that those cattle have been grazing there all these years. All of a sudden this one turtle lover sicks the BLM cops on the Rancher and they round up all his cattle.
Seems rather unfair if we are talking turtles but maybe not so unfair if we are talking about back taxes. Turtle soup, anyone?
You mistake me for someone who wants to see an armed revolution. I am merely saying that the level of dissatisfaction of the people, when it reaches such levels, is the only thing that will change the thinking in Washington. History has proven this to be true. The only time the US government came out with social programs, of such magnitude, was when there was a threat of a revolution. People in America, seeing what happened in Russia when their people overthrew the Czar and went Communist, started to think that that might have to happen here because what was happening in the early part of the 20th century is a lot like what is happening today. The result was that it sent shivers down the backs of the capitalists who saw that they had better change things. So social programs were instituted which made life for Americans much better over the many decades since....until the 1980's.
And I am using the example of those people in Nevada as an example of how the government has obviously shown that it respects people with guns much more than they do when people don't have them...especially if they are outgunned at the moment. Maybe the government will come back later with reinforcements but I haven't heard that they have done that. My only conclusion has to be that guns appear to make a difference especially if the government is outnumbered at the time. I don't especially believe that that rancher should have gotten away with it. He owes back taxes and should pay up. But a lot of corporations owe lots of taxes and should pay up as well. But the way things are now, they'll keep getting away with it. They have guns, whether it is actual guns as in Nevada, or financial weapons. We're all out gunned. And if any revolution or insurrection takes place it will be by those who have guns...by right wingers and militia. It won't come from us. We don't have guns. Nor do we have financial weapons. Hence, no revolution will come from us. That's for sure. So, no, I am not trying to foster a revolution..not one with weapons of any sort. But, perhaps, by convincing people that voting for just another crooked politician either Democrat or Republican isn't going to make any difference at all, maybe we can all start voting "outside the box".
We can't win through a crooked system. You can't even use "movements" to influence politicians who are owned by the ruling elite. They'll continue to play their games making you think change will come but there will always be something, some excuse, that prevents it...they'll blame some sneaky thing that the Republicans have done....or some blue dog democrat...or claim that they were short on votes by just one or two Democratic votes. Sorry to burst your bubble, old boy, but we're sunk!
The failure of Move to Amend and Campaign Finance Reform will do nothing more than the failure of Obama in his second term to finally represent his constituents. People who voted for Obama for his first term held out hope that he would change in his second term. But he didn't. He cracked down on Whistle Blowers, increased secrecy, increased surveillance of us all, continued the violence around the world, overthrowing regimes by fostering internal dissent and assistance, continued torture at GITMO (continued force feeding..especially in the rough way they did it..is torture), and now they have put us on the brink of yet another cold war that could go hot (like nuclear).
The US has not been a good player in Global Warming and has continued to poison us with their chemicals. We are all still being held hostage to the Medical/Pharma/Insurance scammers. And the bastards that did 9/11 are still running around free...the Obama administration changed it's tune about this...too chicken or maybe even complicit to reopen another truly unbiased investigation. Too chicken to call the previous administration traitors who murdered 3000 citizens for political, economic, and unchallenged oppression of over 300 million US citizens many of whom still don't know that 9/11 was an inside job.
And in the end, it will still come down to getting those politicians to change laws and if they are owned by a ruling elite that will use tactics like 9/11 and assassinate Presidents like JFK what chance do we really have of playing their games of crooked democracy? Just as Mark pointed out...it took a threat of a revolution before it got those ruling elite following 1929 to change things for the betterment of the majority of the people.
Now, if everyone that went to the ballot box voted for the Communist Party candidate maybe we won't need guns to have a revolution. But, I bet if that happened, the ruling elite would do a JFK on him/her really fast. But it might shake them up like it did back after the 1929 crash when the government started instituting all those social programs.
But, again, it won't be leftists fomenting a revolution...the rightists have all the guns. So get used to bending over for the man.
doc wilmot: I'm with you on most of that...for sure! 911 was an inside job! I have watched 911-Explosive Evidence a couple of times and just watched it again. When people watch this movie and still have reservations that it was an inside job...they are...like the movie showed...just not able to handle the truth...cognitive dissonance. And when people realize that it was an inside job they then can recognize just how ridiculous it is to even entertain the idea of trying to change things through the corrupt ballot box..the selection of one of two parties that are owned by the people who were behind the inside job.
I suspect that one of the reasons why the US has re-ignited the potential nuclear confrontation with Russia is because more and more people just don't believe that we have a chance to change things here in the US without a full scale revolution. And the wolves and jackals ruling elite are getting nervous. They need something to keep USians very afraid and distracted. Perhaps they will even engineer another 9/11 if they can't succeed with their hegemonic theatrics over Ukraine.
They tried to foment the overthrow of Syria through their proxy Al Qaeda terrorists...even resorting to providing Al Qaeda with chemical weapons to frame Al Assad. Then they tried to bully Assad to step down on the premise that he used chemical weapons against his people. That didn't work out so well...so they moved on to undermining Ukraine and re-igniting the cold war with Russia. They want us all to be afraid...very afraid...so it takes our minds off of things like... who really did 9/11 and our failing economy and our lost jobs. They want us to believe that we would not have a chance of revolution in this country. But, as it is, since only the right wingers have guns, revolution won't come down in favor of kumabya circle jerkers, they don't have guns. They have what they like to believe are "movements"....like it is really going to make a difference among already owned politicians. Movements are never going to influence crooked politicians, or politicians who are owned by the corporations. They have all the money and power now. We don't!
It is quite obvious to me that these so called "well armed Reich Wingers" are nothing more than accessories after the fact. They are puppets in a grand masquerade. Nothing more, nothing less. They simply exist to give credence, and to mislead.
Palindromedary ~ Seriously, Seriously?!! You are using the example of right wingers to suggest how to proceed? Are you completely oblivious to the fact the the Reich Wing is completely compromised and controlled by the 1%? Are you completely oblivious to what can happen to anyone identified as an "enemy combatant?" What exactly are you suggesting? Please be specific!
Maybe you want to help the elite fill up all those vacant concentration camp bunks with a bunch of scared and easily manipulated left wingers? That's what it sound like to me. You better cool off and maybe take a long walk in a park before you spew a lot of self defeating nonsense.
At least state--in detail--your case about how you're paranoid theories have a snowballs chance in hell of succeeding. I'm all ears!!! So far it sounds like you are advocating that a bunch of armed civilian vigilantes storm the bastions of our current social order. I'm so curious as to just how that is supposed to work and actually change public policy.
Palindromedary ~ The answer to your question is $. The show itself is BS. Pure BS.
Palindromedary ~ I never said that. You are twisting my words. Perhaps you need to reread my previous posts. I made a definite distinction between flashing a gun and using a gun. As Mark Saulys--and St. Thomas Aquinas--so eloquently stated, and you simply don't seem to get, is that only with the blessing of the masses can we ever hope to win any uprising. We will need guns to do that--for sure.
What I am talking about is the ridiculous recent overt Reich Wing public display of fire power with neither reason or public blessing to back it up. Additionally there is no USE of the fire arms to back up the gesture. Therefore, it is pure BS.
What I'm against is pure BS. I'm also against resorting to a methodology that hasn't yet been sanctioned by the masses. I have no problem with owning a gun. I might just buy one--or more--myself in the near future. However, I am not going to rely on it solely to obtain great social change. I also am not going to broadcast the fact that I own anything. That is going to be a surprise. A Big Surprise. That is precisely how to handle the situation at hand in a responsible way. Any thing else is the result of a serious lack of endowment, blatant and blind fear, foolishness, or, simply, the grand result of a Reich Wing conspiracy designed to disable the enemy by making them incriminate themselves... (ie cause someone to display the characteristics of an "enemy combatant.")
My dear friend, if you had the slightest sense you would drop this subject and focus on the real battle ground before us. (ie Move to Amend, and Campaign Finance Reform) Any potential Revolution will happen whenever the time is right. That timing is not for you or I to decide, it is for the enemy to decide. The only mechanism you, or I, should ever rely on for that is vast public opinion. Anything more is a failed policy.
Palindromedary ~ Precisely. That is exactly why we have no time and no resources whatsoever to waste. The level of corruption in Washington after Citizens United is not going to get any better any time soon. That is why we have to go full out on Move To Amend and Campaign Finance Reform right now. There will never be a better time.
Furthermore, any consideration of any ulterior methodology will only have a chance of succeeding after Move to Amend and Campaign Finance Reform have failed; and, public opinion and blessings are overwhelmingly on the side of the people.
N Z Sarah: Well good for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev!
It's about time the Russians put sanctions on the US for a change. Russians to US...take your filthy GMO...frankinfoods and stuff it! But the Russians had better make sure they shoot down those Monsanto drones that are spreading frankinseeds through their fields!
But doesn't Move To Amend or Campaign Finance Reform have to go through a crooked congress? Doesn't it all depend upon what our crooked politicians vote on? Doesn't it all come down to who has most of the money to bribe politicians into voting a certain way? If these "movements" are given lots of donations to pester and nag politicians to vote in a certain way...it still wouldn't amount to the pressure that the ruling elite can use. I'm afraid we're all screwed unless they see that another potential revolution is at hand.
☔
So, it will only be when "revolution actually seemed imminent" that we will once again, perhaps, see some more appeasement. It won't come through the corrupt ballot box, or the crooked Democrats or Republicans we elect. They have to be scared that there will be a revolution before things will change. And you can't have a decent revolution without weapons to back it up.
You know, there is another way of voting that might just work for us. If we all run out and buy weapons, "they" will certainly notice. Massively increased gun sales would send a strong message.The citizens would be casting their "votes" that WILL count for a change. We won't even have to actually do a real revolution..it'll just send a very strong message that the people are not going to take it anymore.
Obviously, the show of guns by civilians does work. The right-wingers have proved this several times. And the politicians are cowed by them...that's why "democracy" works for them and not us. We're to timid...too kumbaya. The wolves always go after the easiest prey.
An interview worth watching on Common Core. http://billmoyers.com/episode/public-schools-for-sale/
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently announced that Russia will no longer import GMO products, stating that the nation has enough space, and enough resources to produce organic food.