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Did Obama just tell the UN nations to back US imperialist goals one hundred percent without question?
Kend: Perhaps, It would have been better to have used Raid..."It knocks them dead...before they spread!" We don't want those vermin escaping to other nests. They'll just suck dry the life's blood out of the working population wherever they go. Read Matt Taibi's recent article in Rolling Stone about how those parasitic Hedge Fund Managers worked in collusion with the top executives of companies, in the private sector, and with government to bilk millions of workers out of their pensions. He was also just on with Amy Goodman on Free Speech TV talking about it as well. There is even a transcript.
Loren Bliss ~ A very good question. Thom is a very compassionate person; and, as such, he tends to give most people the benefit of the doubt. He assumes the highest level of character in most of our Democratic leadership. I would suppose that the answer to your question will depend on how The President handles this latest repeat of this debt ceiling two step tango. The American people are getting tired of seeing the same old rerun. The President really has no choice but to defend his own health care plan and the social safety net. Closing the Government will do far more harm to the Republicans than anyone else. He also has his Executive order privileges available to prevent any real damage. The President holds all the cards here. He can only lose if he wants to lose.
If, as you suspect and I agree, he folds like a poorly constructed house of cards and gives in to the demands of the Right like a powerless victim trying to save the families of the military and federal employees over the needs of everyone else than Thom will have no choice but to call it what it is, a meaningless charade designed to inflict genocide on the poor. Imagine them withholding the one bone that this Administration has been able to produce in 5 years and causing greater erosion to the social safety net at the same time. Unthinkable! Yet obviously predictable. Like holding an Apple on a stick in front of a horse to make it move. It would prove that Obama-care--or any form of national health care--was a corporately funded illusion to begin with--designed solely to help dismantle the social safety net.
In any event, even a victory may turn into the same outcome. After all, we are not fighting for Medicare for all, are we? That is the real "bone" we asked for in the first place isn't it?
In many ways this choreographed struggle in government resembles a Mexican wrestling match. Both sides masked to hide who and what they really are. One side pretending to be "good" and the other "evil". And the audience buying every bit of it. In the end, the outcome really means nothing; but the audience leaves believing it got it's moneys worth. "Lucha!" "Libre!"
I sincerely hope we are wrong in our assessment of the character of our leaders and Thom is right! Perhaps I'm just being too desperately optimistic as well.
The treasury has the constitutional authority to mint couns and print currency. There is no limit to the amount. The Treasukry should mint single one Trillion dollare coin, deposit it at the Federal Reserve Bank and continue business.
Kend ~ If they want to leave town, fine. Adios! Just make sure that it costs double to sell their goods back into town if manufactured somewhere else. This isn't rocket science. The tax system is allowing this disaster to happen because it protects corporate profits instead of workers. That's what happens when the corporations write the tax code; and, not We The People.
DAnne. You mean raise taxes like they did in Detroit. That worked great. They chased the money right out of town.
When oh when will Mr. Hartmann and the other pundits of the mainstream (pseudo) Left end the charade of a two-party nation and start reporting what is really happening: that the Ruling Class* has decided to exterminate more lower-income people by eliminating food stamps, slashing Social Security, looting Medicare to fund Obamacare, etc. ad nauseam -- and disguising it all as "democracy in action."
Come on, Mr. Hartmann, surely you can see past the Big Lie. Or are you still too beholden to the Democrats to dare report they are as much to blame as the Republicans?
_________
*The One Percent, their politicians and their institutional servants (bureaucrats, lawyers, academics, stenographic journalists, police and military officers, etc.).
Kend ~ The only way to convince the wealthy to invest their money HERE is to repeal free trade and raise tax rates. The wealthy have no problems investing money overseas because is doesn't cost anything. We have to make it expensive for them. Low risk stocks are a middle class investment. The super wealthy want a bigger bang for their buck. Only overseas can they get that; and, avoid the high taxation rate here as well. You are right Kend, changing our tax policy is the solution to this problem. However taxes have to go up, not down. Import tariffs have to go way up. So does high end individual and corporate tax rates. There has to be a maximum income over which the tax rate is 95%. That way the wealthy have no choice but to hire more people, raise wages and reinvest in their companies to avoid the higher tax rates. The money that is distributed amongst the workers is recirculated back into the economy and into the profits of the corporations. Come on Kend, this is Economics 101.
Mark you are way off About me. I like your president I think his intensions are good, I just don't think he knows business. i guess I forgot about the wars. My country has been in Afganistan for twelve years and we aren't spending near what you are per capita.
RAC, I think the problem down there is you need to somehow convince the wealthy to invest there money. There is trillions of dollars down there sitting in low risk stocks because there is no confidence in this government. I for example was investing down there until they changed the non resident rules And are threading to tax us more. With the constant threat of increasing taxes and a completly new health care system, no wonder people are sitting on their money.
2950-10K ~ I can't help but think back to when The President was first elected and the Dems controlled Congress and The White House. You remember those first few uncomfortable months, when the President suddenly realized that Single-Payer was too "disruptive" to even discuss publicly. Don't you remember? We all had to settle for this monstrosity called Obama-care. The Affordable Care Act. That was the best we could get with the dice loaded.
Now you think we can do better with some Tea-Party wanna bees composed solely of an extreme faction of Democrats? Very imaginative my friend. It sure does look good on paper. It might just even work. However, the last time I checked, "extreme" is a flavor that doesn't come in Democrat.
I'll settle for Campaign Finance Reform and Move to Amend. The result of those radical changes will lead naturally to the demands of which you speak.
What if the Democrats had a majority in the house with an extreme faction of their own known as the Sons of Liberty? Imagine that this group unlike the Tea-billionaire Party is fighting for the best interests of the vast majority of citizens and decides to create its own list of demands before raising the debt ceiling. Demands that include...... reinstatement of pre-Reagan tax rates, single payer like the rest of the world has, repeal of free trade laws, reinstatement of Glass-Steagal, and a massive expansion of the the Social Security Program.......and it doesn't matter one bit that in this reverse world the Senate majority and President are Republican.
Just imagine how the Corpse media would explode with outrage about the anti-government terrorism by this extreme group of left wing rebels known as the Sons of Liberty......
Oh Kend! Isn't it easy to take cheap shots when you don't know (or pretend you don't know) what you're talking about? Are you accusing the president of pulling a fast one and pocketing the money, Kend?
We're still fighting one of the TWO wars that Bush kept OFF THE BOOKS and Obama put on the books that gave him a massive debt to start with. The deficit, by the way, has been HALVED in Obama's time.
I haven't researched all the aspects of this but I do know that the debt ceiling is ROUTINELY raised, by Republicans and Democrats (even in the Bush years when Republicans also controlled BOTH houses of Congress for 6 of the 8 years), and that it's nothing so innocently simplistic as "a warning that you're spending too much". This is simply another way for the Republicans to sabotage the functioning of the United States for the profit of their little cabal at the expense of all other Americans.
What's you're idea of "prosperity" anyway, Kend? Is it mass poverty with exception of a tiny, wealthy elite (with practically no upward mobility)?
Don't you know, Kend, that if your clients succeed they're not going to bring you into their fold. They're gonna give you your last $20 after their successful putsch and it'll be, "You're fired; so long sucker; go dig around in the dirt of the shanty town for your living like all the rest of the loyal, hard working dupes! Ha!"
Or are you sucking up in advance hoping that they might let you sleep on their floor at night as long as you bring them their newspaper and bring them their slippers everyday?
I hope nobody puts anything in this guy's tea to make him go sleepy time PERMANENTLY like liberal Catholics believe was done to Pope John Paul I.
steffb503- thanks for the good link & I think you hit the nail (Pubs) on the head. Their zeal for redistricting and their ID demands show their hand. They certainly don't want the masses to rush to the poles.
Running a Government is not very simple... it is more complex than tax more spend less or barrow... spending is required on a continual basis to pay peoples wages... How does Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin plan on fullfilling his promise to create 250,000 jobs in the state without spending any money? who's going to pay the wages of those 250,000 workers when the private sector is not hiring and government is not spending on job creation for the average individual?
An employer spends money everytime he makes out a pay check... some peoples wages come from tax dollars paid (the public sector or government workers) and some peoples wages come from the private sector (private business)... private business in order to pay its workers must be able to sell enough products or services on a continual basis and in sufficient quantites to be able to continue to afford to pay its workers wages...
If you're Wal-mart, you have an advantage... you have over 3000 stores people will flock to instead of the small business down the street facing bankruptcy... If the owners of those companies are becoming billionairs then they are charging too much for their product and or are not paying their workers enough to enable them to go out and stimulate the econemey by shopping at the store down the street going out of business that would otherwise prevent that from happening...
To have something left over after paying for food clothing and shelter along with utilities insurances and car payment if they have one and gas to put in it to get to work, one has to be making at least $20 an hour... so if living in poverty is living on $10 or less an hour, and a majority do, how the hell can they afford health care when inflation hits them the hardest at which the rich claim there is none... small business cannot increase their profits by rasing prices when sales are down due to lost sales to say wal-mart... and if they are a small company, cannot create jobs unless their profits enable them and demand is required for that to happen,That is, demand being an increase in sales at their store or for their service, not just wal-mart's stores or a bigger corporate competitor...
It all boils down to supply and demand in the private sector and that can very greatly from county to county and state to state and thus to talk in terms of national percentages is meaningless when it comes to unemployment... and, to keep those balanced, you cannot have class warfare or discrimination in lending or discrimination in credit limits such has been that has caused such a gross disproportion of wealth in this country with some in debt up to their eye browes while others with very little debt but no credit without a pot to piss in ... Nor can you have discrimination in healthcare or the amount in premiums policy holders of health insurance pay regardless of the amount of claims filed by any individual... as the whole idea of insurance in the first place was to provide what could otherwise not be affordable to all in that all chipped into a pool of funds made available for those holders in their time of need... knowing that it wouold be a minority of claims being filed at any one time of all the policy holders such that there would be plenty of adaquate funds to cover expenses as claims were filed... which would be the case if all had Medicare and private insurrance companies and sales men were to receive a wage like unto a teacher instead of a commission... thus, become government workers as all should be considered who pay taxes to themselves... thus would nolonger speak of government as some entity other than themselves so as to eliminate the separation between we and they and them and us...
That is, the banks fault for not lending to those in need that would spend the money to satisfy that need and thereby stimulate the econemy... instead you have banks denying the poor of loans and lending only to the rich who should not be barrowing to put up another wal-mart store for example due to greed and never being satisfied... the rich get richer and got richer for having gotten more credit from the banks... The problem is that we have had a minimum wage for far too long without a maximum one... It is time to set a cap and a maximum corporations can earn in profits in which anything above is taxed and goes back to the people (the government) especially if they as a corporation get their revenues from selling resource energy elements from the earth... an econemy where in few are buying or spending any money or being conservative if they have money to spend and hord it is not going to stimulate the econemy or create jobs in the private sector or the public sector... prices can't be raised causing inflation and expect to sell more no more than government can simply raise taxes on the poor while giving the rich all the tax breaks for is it not the rich who want to sell more to the poor? and how can they do it if they raise prices or the poor are denied finacing?
It is part of a flawed system whrein credit bureaus are consulted by banks to determine ones credit worthyness rather than rasing their debt ceiling limit as congress does for itself so should it see that banks do not deny others lest others in the pivate sector are forced to shut down... That is my view on the subject.
http://normangoldman.com/uploads/ringTones/36/we-do-not-have-time-for-this-kind-of-silliness.mp3
The current radio show:
Your respondent needs to be better informed on what poverty level folks will have to pay. If you are below the poverty level and single as that caller from Arkansas was, he will be totally subsidized. Tom, you are right.
Your expert must clarify this. He has to know this basic stuff and has to provide simple direct response to these questions.
This is coming off as toooo complicated and "nuance". This is not what is needed.
Clarify with examples, please. Do not make this sound so complicated, please.
Thank you.
isn't a debt ceiling a warning that you are spending too much. Running a Government is very simple. When you run out of money you tax more, spend less or borrow. This government has must borrowed . I am not a American but I have to ask you all. Since Obama has been president your government has spend over 7 trillion dollars. Do you think it has been well spent. The economy hasn't improved at all. CO2 levels hhaven't dropped at all. Your roads and bridges are in horrible shape. Can someone tell me where it all went?
Bulls on parade...Only in an Evil Empire. Rage!!!
I second that notion...Leeeet iiiit Crrrraaaashhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Bulls On Parade...Only in an Evil Empire!
My understanding of national health care was some sort of medicare for all. We would pay for it at the pump with maybe 7 or 8 dollars a gallon for gas, plus other taxes.But, no medical bills, ever.
...and I completely disagree, Global! Cruz is just another Corporate Puppet tap dancing for the Board Members...Aproxametly 1/10th of the 1%...A far cry from representing the voice of We the People.
Now that being said, I am not a "fan" of Obama's Healthcare Plan. I support a Medicare-for-All System.
No U.S. Citizen (Working, Unemployed, Retired) should have to go without Healthcare Insurance.
This is the United States of America; A country were We the People represent the Equal Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. If one U.S. Citizen cannot afford to see a Doctor, or cannot afford treatment, do to being unisured, or under-insured then We the People failed our own fellow citizen and robbed them of their Right to Equal Opprotunity! In this case the opportunity to freely seek Life and Happiness.
They seem to be chomping at the bit to crash the system. in '08, the elites made a fortune betting against the system and crashing it. This time, they will crash it either way...either by forcing the US into insolvency or with inhumane policy that will devastate millions. Here comes the crash in Thom's new book. The same old consumerist, growth economy solutions won't work this time. There are simply too many of us and Mother Earth is tapped out. As Chris Hedges says, the jobs are gone and there not coming back. The elite's goal?..create instability by denying access to resources to justify increased erosion of civil liberties, passive genocide, etc. Trying to fix this corrupt and broken system within the system itself is like trying to drive a car that won't run to the garage to be fixed. It simply won't work. Time for a new paradigm. Maybe something like http://www.thevenusproject.com or http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com . Did anyone catch the awesome doc on FSTV before Thom 2day? Occupy Love...I'm sure it will repeat...and don't 4get to donate!! 1-877-378-8669. Thom, thanks so much for all you give us!