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Tensions between the U.S. and the Iranian People have been strong not just since the 1979 Islamic Revolution but rather since the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, orchestrated by the United States and England to prevent the Iranian Prime Minister from nationalizing "our" oil.
Additionally, it is curious that " Israel still questions Iran's motives" as far as nuclear energy development goes since Israel itself secretly developed nuclear weapons and still has never officially admitted to having them.
When there are hypocrites at the table, negotiations will stall.
Sandlewould: Thanks for all those examples of bills passed with the help of, or proposal of them by, Democrats and the Clinton administration that benefited the wealthy and hurt the rest of us:
Loren Bliss: I like your alliteration: Obama the Orator to Barack the Betrayer! So true! And it is particularly astute to differentiate between USians and Americans. The rest of the Americas are, more often than not, setting a good example for the rest of us "Americans" (ie: USians) in rebelling against their crooked leaders.
Sandlewould: Thank you, Sandlewould! But you know, the government had plenty of munitions...in fact they eventually fought the Germans and the Japanese so they had plenty of firepower and man power. What they didn't have was the will and resolve of the masses. Would US troops have slaughtered masses of Americans?
Yes, there were some isolated incidents but would all of the US military have resorted to large scale massacres?
Yes, there were smaller scale massacres largely by hired guns by the various powerful companies when people dared rebel. But still no large scale military movements against the people.
I believe that military personnel would be repulsed if they were ever given orders to massacre their own citizens, perhaps their own families, to support those that they all know are exploiting them to begin with.
True, outside forces, mercenaries could be brought in to do the dirty work. But I believe that once it is realized by the ruling elite that the masses could very well overwhelm the few with high tech weapons and the outcome would be to lose everything they have including being tried for atrocities against the people...not to mention that they could all be swinging from the end of a noose..or worse...ripped to shreds in their bunkers by enraged citizens...they would have to, as in FDR's day, stop their economic war against us and stop being so selfish and greedy.
I, for one, hope that American citizens will never have to resort to this kind of rebellion...that the greedsters will come to their senses and reverse their actions since Reagan, at least.
But I believe all out rebellion and violence is inevitable for our future. It will be citizens against the real terrorists of this world...the ones that have already massacred many civilians many times over. They've got to be stopped!
Apropos my #23 above, I should have explained why Obama would work toward "cleverly discrediting or rather nullifying" the aspirations of African-Americans. If I am reading the evidence correctly, Obama's effort is an exceptionally diabolical application of the classic capitalist/fascist strategy of neutralizing revolutionary leadership. Particularly since the U.S. Civil War, African-Americans have been a key part of what little genuinely revolutionary leadership the USian people have managed to produce, and in the era of the Civil Rights/Anti-Poverty/Anti-Vietnam War movements, they were the only such leadership that seemed capable of uniting the 99 Percent to the point of building solidarity across racial boundaries. Indeed, no other USian minority has ever demonstrated that capability. Fearing the emergence of another generation of effective African-American leadership, the One Percent will use any means possible to ensure it does not happen.
(The commercial co-optation of hip-hop is perhaps the most obvious part of the One Percent's effort to strangle at birth, as it were, any resurrection of black revolutionary leadership in this savagely oppressed nation. The re-segregation of public schools and the emergence of the prison-industrial complex should be viewed as identically motivated: literally, modes of oppression that generate obscenely huge profits. Thus there is no question the anti-African-American effort is already underway. Thus too the role now being played by the president in his transformation from Obama the Orator to Barack the Betrayer would, in this context, be nothing more than a logical expansion of the One Percent's offensive.)
http://normangoldman.com/uploads/ringTones/44/are-we-gonna-lose-our-country-to-these-nutbags.mp3
Sorce of above ring tone click here
To those who would persist that it is better to vote Democrat so as to not risk losing out to the Republicans....would you vote for say...Bernie Sanders..who is an Independent and not a Democrat? I sure would..without a doubt!
Palindromedary
I do. (red long posts) Well said. The Gov. didn't have the resources to deal with the unrest had it occurred en mass durring FDR. Now, the governments destructive power is unlimited and as you say, our bargaining power, short of going completely off the grid, raising/growing all our own food, etc, we have no recourse..."they will not be able to buy or sell w/out the mark of the beast'.
Loren Bliss,
Sadly, I agree. You were ery eloquent. We can't prove it, but with a little common sense and intuition, what other conclusions can we draw? See posts #s 4 & 33 and my reply to Thom's editorial w/ regard to Pope's remarks.
2950-10K,
On the one hand, you make a good point. On the other, while congress was largely controlled by Repugs during the Clinton years, Clinton could at least have vetoed the legislation that lead to some of the most disastrous consequences in our nation’s history; for example the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed for media monopolies, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which restricts habeas corpus, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which forced down wages by making those needing public assistance take low-paying jobs. In one sense, this could be described as taking money from poor welfare recipients and giving it to the rich, creating a new source of corp. welfare. Other laws passed during the Clinton years with lots of support from fellow Dems; the infamous Defense of Marriage Act, the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which replaced the Job Training Partnership Act, in effect making funds available to corporations for training of workforce instead of local governments, the Iraq Liberation Act...we all know what that lead to, the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act which made it illegal to file class action suits for securities fraud in federal court. And of course, lets not forget the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 which gutted protections in and regulation of the financial industry. Clinton did not veto ANY of these bills, and Democrats gladly participated and in some cases sponsored them.
Last but not least, the National Free Trade Agreement, which congress was not even involved in which effectively destroyed manufacturing, unions and descent wages in the US paving the way for subversion of our Constitution and the coming TPP and TTIP agreements that Obama will ram through without Congress if necessary as his final legacy.
When Obama went dark first on BP after the spill, then on single payer healthcare, then refused to simply do nothing in '10 AND '12 w/ regard to the Bush tax cuts I finally woke up. Obama could have let them expire then pushed for reinstatement of them for the middle class. Instead, he extended them in ’10, and in ’12 signed legislation that tied corporate subsidies which actually resulted in an INCREASE in corp. welfare and tax breaks for the richest, to keeping the Bush cuts for the middle class. Why didn’t Pres. Obama and the Dems hammer how important it was to get out and vote in ’10, not just for him, but for Democrats in the HOUSE? They fell silent. Why did Harry Reid refuse to reform the filibuster...TWICE, instead, trading away court appointments AND leaving filibuster intact? Dem elites want the same thing as Repug elites. What will it take for Dems to wake up and realize that the only difference between Dems and Repugs is that almost all Dems just PRETEND to care, where at least w/ Repugs, what you see is what you get?
But sometimes you have to hit bottom before you realize you have to really fight back. When you are cornered, you have no other choice but to fight back or die a sniveling victim. So it is with drug addiction, for example...a rationale of "just a little taste" and "oh, I can quit anytime I want" and eventually, you are so whacked out you don't have any control at all... and never will.
Continually voting for the least evil choice out of fear of the worst evil choice will always keep us imprisoned, addicted, in the rigged game and we will all die slow agonizing deaths...as we are all enslaved, shamed and abused by the wealthy elite. We will be nothing but pathetic junkies riding the temporary highs of false hopes just to always be left with disappointing lows.
Yes, of course, that might be true...it may swing the political puppets back to Republicans instead of Democrats...but the real powers OWN both parties. The Democrats will always take the air out of the sails of real change because they pander false hope and always let us down by giving in to the hardliner Republicans.
If Republicans were elected, that would bring us that much closer to real change because the people would have no other choice but to cower in the corner or fight back in the streets. And fighting back in the streets is the only realistic way of real change. Sad, but true! History has proven this to be true and what is happening now in the streets of other countries is proving this to be true.
The Democrats under a Republican regime, wanting to get back into power, would do pretty much what the Republicans do now... obstruct everything the Republicans do...to a point..because they are still owned by the ruling elite.
And if the Democrats would then ever get back into power again, they would do exactly the same thing that they do now...shift their actions to favoring those that own them...the ruling elite. They would continue to pretend they are for the people and then continue to let the ruling elite get their way while blaming Republicans.
It wasn't just FDR who made big changes....he had a lot of help. The specter of mass rebellion made some, like FDR, realize that the ruling elite could not continue their full force attack on the majority of people...the workers. The ruling elite, only then knew that they went too far and had to back off or risk losing everything (to... maybe ...communism? ...like in Russia when those ruling elite lost everything to the masses! Have you never seen Dr. Zhivago where the wealthy had to share their mansions with multiple families?) Without the fear of Communism, the Capitalists could run roughshod over the people..and that is just what has happened since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And what we are seeing is the natural course of Capitalism destroying itself...as Marx had predicted. In order for Capitalism to thrive it needs ever more markets and slaves..and it needs to kill people...lots of people. And that's the economic system that is glued to a political system of Democracy. But both systems are massively corrupt as much as any two-bit dictatorship in any banana republic who tries to come off as a Democracy with a valid capitalist economic system. Those empires are falling all over the world and they are setting good examples for those of us in the US.
As long as the ruling elite can keep the people believing that their only options are voting for one of the two parties in the rigged system of so-called "democracy", then things will never change. The massive strikes and violence in the streets...are the only things that knocked some sense into the ruling elite back then. The Occupy Wall Street was a start...and it did scare the ruling elite. Instead of worrying about some stupid debt ceiling manipulation by the puppets of the ruling elite, the Republicans and Democrats designed to be a means by which they further push us all into our death beds, the people need to do some of their own manipulations by rebelling against the corrupt two party system.
Voting for a third party candidate is only the least that can be done...but not the last. Working within a corrupt system is throwing away any chance of real change.
This bought us some concessions for a time but now they have again turned their mega-greed against us. Back then, of course, they didn't have the massive outflow of American jobs to overseas wage slaves like they do now. So, strikes are pretty much out of the question now...unless it happened in the financial sector, perhaps.
When there was massive unemployment back then, nothing was manufactured and no one could afford to buy anything. Now that they have their very cheap slaves overseas the workers in the US don't have much bargaining power anymore.
The only things we can do is massively boycott everything produced abroad...which is just about everything...and/or massive unrest in the streets of the US. These things won't happen with a Democrat President constantly taking the pressure off by fooling people with false hope. It will be a slow death of the American masses unless they stop falling for the lie that the only thing they can do is work within a crooked system. You've got to get your heads out of the sand, quit fooling yourselves, get out of the box! You've got to rebel against it!
Does anyone ever read these long, rambling diatribes? ;~0
And the GOP would say "pay no attention to four of the nine of them hidden behind the curtain(s)"
It's simple really. Just start voting OUT every Republicain incumbant there is. They want to play hard-ball? I'll certainly play along. They want to play with my income? Well, it's time to play 'Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey'! As far as I'm comcerned John Boner and his wealthy buddies can start looking for another JOB!
Thom wrote: "The people of Iran are suffering under those sanctions, and it would be monumental for them – and for the world – if we were finally able to resolve these long-standing international tensions."
I second that
RACadmin ~ Thanks for that heads up. It's smoke and mirrors again. Look at the Wizard stop the government, and pay no attention to the nine Justices behind the black gowns.
2950-10K ~ Sorry I missed your point buddy. You make perfect sense. I too worry about my decision to pull out of the Democratic party. There are still some members that I would reelect; however, only about half of the ones that are in my voting district. As far as the President is concerned, we will have to see who is nominated. Maybe the Democratic party will surprise everyone the way the Vatican has and nominate another FDR. I'm not going to hold my breath.
I understand your fears of letting a Republican back into the White House. That could be a disaster. However, the way things are going a disaster will happen anyway. We need progressive leadership in Government. The way the billionaires have both parties and the media under their thumb I don't see how any modern status quo election is going to resolve this problem. Of course there is nothing wrong with trying. After all, what else is there to do on election day than vote?
Infiltrating the Democratic party is a great idea. However, infiltrating it by We the People without BIG money I doubt is going to happen. That is the problem the way I see it. The only solution is to get the money out of politics first. Then it can be infiltrated successfully on a level playing field. We the People have to demand Campaign Finance Reform and Move to Amend and we have to demand it at a grass roots level on a grand scale. I believe that until these measures are implemented in Government there will be no infiltration by We the People on any level of government that will have any success.
Campaign Finance Reform and Move to Amend is the biggest enemy of the billionaires right now. You can tell by the way their pundits consistantly dismiss such notions as being "dead in the water." Any such movement to pass that legislation is going to be met with the best opposition money can buy and we have to be ready to persevere over that opposition. Anything else is a waste of time and resources. We can't afford to waste any more of our time or any more of our resources. We must take the fight to the heart of the problem--Big Money! We must dio it now--before we get any weaker!
DAnneMarc wrote
Infiltrating the Democratic party is a great idea. However, infiltrating it by We the People without BIG money I doubt is going to happen. That is the problem the way I see it. The only solution is to get the money out of politics first. Then it can be infiltrated successfully on a level playing field. We the People have to demand Campaign Finance Reform and Move to Amend and we have to demand it at a grass roots level on a grand scale. I believe that until these measures are implemented in Government there will be no infiltration by We the People on any level of government that will have any success.
Campaign Finance Reform and Move to Amend is the biggest enemy of the billionaires right now. You can tell by the way their pundits consistantly dismiss such a notion as being "dead in the water." Any such movement to pass that legislation is going to be met with the best opposition money can buy and we have to be ready to persevere over that opposition. Anything else is a waste of time and resources. We can't afford to waste any more of our time or any more of our resources. We must take the fight to the heart of the problem--Big Money! We must dio it now--before we get any weaker!
RACadmin reply:
I just got this email from Calvin Sloan to help with Move to amend's efforts... I'm not on top of all of Move to Amends efforts to date to overturn Citizens United and am throwing this out there for those that are to see if this is a part of it... I myself do not see how Citizens United ruling can nullify or overturn campaign finace laws already on the books... I thought the law was that no new law shall be written that causes a conflict with the intent of previous laws written... it is not the courts athority or position to legislate or write laws from the bench nor are any of their rulings in cases to result in missinterpretaions of the law... and when that happens, they should be challenged in court not just accepted and then look for ways to amend the law, rather look for ways to enforce the laws already on the books... say campaign finace laws which set the limits one be he one individual or one corporation as now defined ( aside from corporate law definition) as in websters, the plural, as in corporation(s) being people... people as in the plural of person... thus also setting the limits any one corporation as a person being one of a people can contribute... Why not run that up the flag pole and see if it flys?
below is that letter...
On October 8, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in a case that some are calling “the next Citizens United” and, once again, the Court’s ultraconservative five-justice majority could take steps to seriously undermine democratic principles and open the door for more big money in elections.
At issue in McCutcheon v. FEC are “aggregate contribution limits” -- the overall limits on the total amount a person can give directly to candidates, PACs and parties in each election cycle. The Supreme Court has upheld these limits as constitutional for nearly four decades. However, the Roberts Court has decided, for no justifiable reason other than possibly to tilt the scales of justice towards the powerful, to hear McCutcheon and potentially gut those important limits.
We’ve assembled a toolkit to help activists raise awareness of McCutcheon and rally for reforms that can solve our growing money-in-politics problem.
Check it out now at www.pfaw.org/McCutcheon.
Use the toolkit to:
Click here to read and use the toolkit now!
As always, we’re here to help. Please reach out to us at amendment@pfaw.org if you need help with your Letter To the Editor submission or any other issues regarding McCutcheon or other “Money Out” reform and activism.
Thank you for fighting back against the corrupting influence of big money in our elections and the pro-corporate activism of the Roberts Court in order to restore Government By the PEOPLE.
Sincerely,
Calvin Sloan, Legislative Representative
And the money the insiders (as investers goes) are sitting on in this state is debt owed to the poor that have funded their ass, including walkers ass and his healthcare that comes with his so called job... and, Tammy Baldwin was exactly right in her letter addressing Scott Walkers latest actions... but for you to understand more of what is going on down here as well as everywhere else, including my post addressing this issue and the reason Tammy wrote, you would need to read that thread... I provide it here. http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/racadmin/blog/2013/09/gov-scott-walker-two-faced-jackass-refused-federal-grant-money-help-fund#comment-232943
Loren Bliss ~ Thank you for that eloquent, provocative, and most disturbing theory. I too hope you are wrong. However, the theory does make perfect sense and explain a lot of peculiar behaviors that otherwise remain a mystery. The President's overwhelming use of deadly military force and prolonging the unconstitutional policies of the Bush administration for instance. I will keep you theory in the back of my mind and pray it stays there. However, in searching for reason in these troubling times we face I will no doubt call upon it in the future; though, with great reluctance. Thanks again!
DAnneMarc: You missed my point, maybe my fault......I was pointing out the absurdity and arrogance of Tea-billionaire minority rule. The threat to shut down government if the billionaire agenda doesn't get advanced is anathemna to representative/majority rule government. I don't think for one moment we progressives would ever turn into a pack of brats and throw a tantrum.....a threat to shut down government ....... if we can't get our way. That approach is for spoiled rich people directing their goof-balls in the House. I also pointed out that the corp. media owns some of the blame here due to putting profit before truth in reporting.
What I do think is the anti-democratic party sentiment being constantly echoed on this blog, although deserved, is also misguided. A third party will tilt the power, due to pulling votes from the Dems, and totally give all control to the billionaires. The only way we would ever get it back would be via violent revolution. I'd much rather we infiltrate the Democratic Party with a progressive majority and become a truly representative democracy peacefully.
DAnne...Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Though I twice voted for Obama as the less-evil alternative, I now believe the truth of his personhood is perfectly manifest in the slogan "change we can believe in," which has since been revealed as the biggest Big Lie in U.S. political history. I believe his sole purpose is to amass sufficient riches to protect his family from the horrors that are now our inevitable future, and I believe he is doing so with the conscious knowledge his race -- so useful in getting him elected -- will never allow him or his family entry to the One Percent or even the real Ruling Class. Hence -- and of course I cannot prove what I am about to say -- he governs from a position of absolute hatred. His psychological intent -- the personal motive behind his seemingly endless litany of betrayals -- is to reduce the entire U.S. 99 Percent to the fear, wretchedness and unrelenting despair that was formerly characteristic only of the African-American underclass. Thus he has allowed himself to become a genuine Manchurian candidate -- not, of course, from the real Manchuria but rather from the Manchuria known as Wall Street -- for which he is being handsomely rewarded in terms of the riches essential to buy long-range protection for his family. His more Machiavellian motives, no doubt dictated to him by his One Percent masters, seem to be twofold: One is totally discrediting the Democratic Party, thereby ensuring the Republican Party -- the real voice of the One Percent -- achieves unchallenged rule. The other is cleverly discrediting or rather nullifying all the aspirations of blacks: remember this nation remains so savagely racist the entire African-American community is always judged only by the most dishonorable or criminal conduct of its single individual members. Terrible as it is -- and I truly hope I am wrong -- this is the only rational conclusion Obama's record to-date allows. And the fact no mainstream journalist dares point out what is so overwhelmingly obvious tells us all we need to know about the state of media in this subtly but nevertheless relentlessly subjugated nation.
"""Republicans want President Obama to pretend he didn't win the last presidential election, and agree to nearly every major right-wing policy idea. """
Worse, Obama was not the change America voted for.. Obama-care is the perfect example, because its the same thing as Romney care, or even Hillary care 20 years ago. Change would be single payer that progressives, and the majority of Americans have wanted all along (simply to join the rest of the civilized world in providing healthcare for its citizens)..
Mark Saulys: I hope not as well! I actually saw Pope John II in South Korea in October of 1989 when he went through. I had gotten off at the wrong train stop in Seoul as I was trying to get to Itaewon Street. So I started hiking across Seoul when I came upon a large crowd of people lined up at a fence bordering a highway. There was a bridge across the highway with crowds of people up there as well. Many women were very colorfully dressed. And one very excited elderly woman came up to me with a big smile and kept saying something in Korean and repeatedly crossing herself. I suspected, at the time, that she must have immediately recognized just how magnanimous and great I was...lord of the underworld, and all, and that she was obviously into Satan worship ( I perceived that the cross she was making was actually a bit upside down..so it was obviously Satanic).
But the crowd got excited and kept staring down at the highway below. Then the Pope mobile flies by...just a whoosh...it came and went. I actually saw the Pope waving inside his bulletproof plexiglass shell for a brief couple of seconds as he flew by.
So I realized that the woman wasn't into Satanic worship after all. And so this little devil just kept hiking over the bridge and through the streets till I got to Itaewon street where everyone speaks English because all the shopkeepers and sidewalk vendors want to sell Americans their cheap suits and fake designer watches and other goods.
Stay tuned, kiddies, while old uncle Louis Cypher (gawd, I hate chickens) tells you about the air raid sirens that went off in South Korea one day that scared the bejesus out of me! But it was just a drill.
Obama has no more credibility than scam robocallers ...incidentally, I was happy with something I read today about several robocaller scammers who were fined several million dollars back in last half of 2012. And another one just got fined $25million. Several of those companies were from Florida.
I am so happy that I finally got caller ID and now I never even answer the phones when someone calls that I don't recognize the numbers. I look them up on the internet and find that they are all scammers that pester lots of people. I hope everyone gets caller ID and at least buys those little AT&T devices to hook up to their phone...or even buy phones with caller ID inside. That would eventually shut down these rackets.
It's about time they cracked down on these pests and criminals trying to steal from people.
http://www.law360.com/articles/470339/robocaller-to-pay-25m-to-settle-ft...
http://www.law360.com/articles/472607/ftc-closes-down-two-more-debt-reli...
And there are a lot of articles about how many other robocallers have been shut down by the FTC. Great news!
DAnneMarc: You welcome! Sounds an awful lot like "either you're with us, or you're against us" and "mushroom cloud" nonsense from the Bush administration.