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When I was young, I was taught that if a person witnesses another person committing a crime, the witness must report it or they would be as guilty of the crime as the person who committed the crime; and it didn't matter if the criminal was an ordinary citizen, a police officer, a goverment employee, or whetever - the crime must be reported...to someone.
Apparently, that has all changed now...if you witness a crime you should keep silent or risk being arrested or forced to flee the country. Humanity sinks to a new low.
Well, I need a new car, so, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go mug a billionaire; I'm sure none of the witnesses will say anything...if they know what's good for them. 8-)
This governmental drama, which is only one of so, so many, makes sense only in a nation that literally has lost the ability to discern right from wrong. Here we have a person that has exposed major criminals and their criminal activites, domestically and world wide. And it is these same governmental criminals that twist and turn and use the so called law, to hunt this 'hero' who has exposed them, screaming in their forked toungue rhetoric: "treason".
These governmental criminals should have been taken from their elected and appointed offices and put on trial for their major malfeasance. But instead they utilize the 'law' to attempt to punish a man who's outstanding courage has informed this nation of how their so called government has now become a credible Police State. Up is down, right is wrong and this nation has lost it's soul.
As I have said so many times in the past 20 years,.."Where's The Outrage"?
Flopot -- I do not disagree with your's and other's descriptions of the problems with Obama and the Dems. However, based on the policies and actions of the dems while they were in power, I think the best way to bring power to the 99% is to vote democratic.My favorite examples of what the dems would do if they were in power were the bills Nancy Pelosi and the house passed but were filibustered.In 2009-10 when Obama lost his filibuster proof senate, the senate had a record number of filibusters (380 or so); during LBJ's 6 year reign as senate majority leader there was one.The bills that were filibustered would have helped our economy for both the long and short term. My favorites were the card check bill, the Disclose Act, stopping waivers for the Buy American Act of 1936 and the credits for bringing jobs back (no credits for tearing down factories to send jobs overseas.Other actions by the dems, they wanted to change depreciation of corporate jet from 3 years to 7; Eric Cantor walked out of the meeting. Actual depreciation is 30 years. Incidentally, I think accelerated depreciation is the biggest loophole around.Also, when the congress was adding Part D to medicare (the prescription drug assist; I think it was in 2004) the democrats tried to pass an amendent to help fund it by a 1% income tax on incomes over 1 million.Per Thom, for the 11 weeks that had a veto proof senate, Obama and the dems passed a bunch of help for the 99%.Within 24 hours of his inaugration in 2009, he ordered that the financial statistics of the top 400 families should be treated like everyone else's; that is, they should not be state secrets (i.e. classified).Chrysler SavedGM SavedAHCA passed (AKA Obamacare); (because of blue dogs like Max Baucus it was not a single player plan; to get Sen Baucus to sign it, Max's county got single payer.)Middle class tax cutWent from losing 750,000 per month to 30 straight months of job gains (in spite of Republican governors cutting 4.5 million jobs)Education spending increasedLaws against hate crimes strengthenedCHIPS expanded (Childrens Health Insurance Program)Forced through Child Labor Lawsconsumer protestion agency formedCredit card reformPredatory lending to soldiers restrictedTroops paid for stop loss timeTorture stoppedVA spending increasedWomen allowed to serve on subsEqual pay for womenNuclear arms reduction proposalBP cleanup fundEPA strengthenedFDA powers broadenedHealthcare for 9-11 responders funded (during Bush Term it was ignored)DADT was repealedWithin 24 hours of his inaugration in 2009, he ordered that the financial statistics of the top 400 families should be treated like everyone else's; that is, they should not be state secrets (i.e. classified). Republicans supported the Reinhart-Rogoff Study used to push austerity throughout the world; The study was a total scam supported by Pete Peterson who wants all the social security money invested on wall street. It was easy to suck in democrats and the general public because too much debt being a bad thing makes intuitive sense.
There it is!!!
Finally someone who pays attention and realizes whats really going on...The past 30+ years has been nothing more then a transfering of wealth to the top...Not the 1%...I said The Top; Those Captains Of Industry...The Corporate Capitalist & Robber Barron Opportunist, who wheel and deal, write and pass policy, and live by the ideology of profit by any means necessary.
Now that we have identified the "enemy"...That's the easy part...Now we have to clean house, however something tells me it's going to take more than everyone casting a vote.
Telling these psyco's to stop loving money and to relinquish their hard-on for power and control, will be like trying to take a side of beef from a seething pit-bull.
The Corporate Terrorist OWN the police, the Military, and once they unlish the devils dogs it will get bloody ugly...A 21st century American Civil War!?It's not if...but when?
NSA efforts get snowed in by Snowden once again! I'm optimistic that this current episode of our specie's ever going 'evolution of sophistication' reveals a naturally occuring check and balance: No matter how big any government or agency gets, it is still dependent upon living creatures containing a conscious as well as a soul. Hear hear this particular democrat's rare two word confession, "Thank God!" Now if only corporation execs would sprout a conscious and soul we'd really be getting somewhere!
No more Red v Blue distractions please. We have moved on. They are ALL corporatists.
I'd do almost anything to bury the evil, disingenuous republicans. I'd trust a live scorpion in a dark room before I'd trust any of these sons of bushes. Increasingly I've come to despise each and everyone of them. I am no longer buying the bull that someone believes in financial conservatism. Anyone who identifies with the Republican Party to day cannot and should not be trusted. That includes gay log cabin members, stupid women who allow republicans to pay them 77 cents on the dollar compared to men and any person of color which the party inherently resents as they desperately try to hold onto a welcome changing America to the melting pot it has always meant to become.
PS I would flag the article as offensive if I could
I think it is all Kabuki theatre. For example, how can you find money for infrastructure spending and simultaneously cut even more corporate taxes? None of this makes sense until you realise it is meaningless theatre like, say, the Israel-Palestinian peace talks.
I admire Thom Hartmann's progressive ideals but I despair at how quickly he conjures up the "Red Team vs Blue Team" mirage. Firstly, the collapse of the US economy and the US middle classes is precisely because successive US administrations (both Democrat and Republican) are moving the tax burden from the corporations to ordinary US taxpayers. Obama is continuing this trend by offering even more corporate tax breaks. I assume the so-called infrastructure spending is really another state gift to some corporation?
Secondly, Obama is steeped in corporate backing. He swims in the stuff. Just look at his connections with the known thief, John Corzine, the man who stole 1.5 billion from MFGlobal customer accounts. Consider all the "banksters" floating in Obama's cabinet. Consider his wars. His anti-whistle blower antics. His surveillance state.
Time to wake up Mr Hartmann and enough of these lame Red v Blue analyses.
DAnneMarc: Wow! very interesting! And here I always thought it was the Magic Mushroom (aka: The Sacred Mushroom) that set everyone to hallucinating in the Levant 2000+ years ago. In fact author John Allegro wrote a book on this topic..
"The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (subtitled "A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East") is a 1970 book about the linguistics of early Christianity and fertility cults in the Ancient Near East. It was written by John Marco Allegro (1923–1988)." **see notes below
"Pot? Mary Jane? I don't have a lot of experience with either Shrooms (no experience at all) or Marijuana ( many, many years ago...only a few times...that Thai Stick was some potent shit)...in fact, I remember (just barely) hallucinating that golden notes were floating in an out of my body as the loud music blared on. I also hallucinated that someone was loudly banging on my front door as I lay on the living room floor marveling at those floating notes above, and floating through me. I thought (just barely) then that it might have been the cops but I was too wasted to care. They didn't break down my door so, I surmise it wasn't the cops...just ticked off neighbors, perhaps. I can't really say that I saw God because my mind was not predisposed to such an idea..being a lifelong atheist and all. Sawadee krap, and kob kun krap, very much all you Thais out their for producing such a marvelous recreational drug.
Funny, years later, when I traveled in Thailand (a couple of trips) I never even imbibed...even though I had the chance when visiting a Hill Person in his mud hut in the hills outside of Chang Mai. I just watched the Thai guy light up (it wasn't Thai Stick he was sucking on either...something more potent I'd say..I was told it was heroin--I didn't stay long).
**Allegro believed he could prove, through etymology, that the roots of Christianity, as of many other religions, lay in fertility cults, and that cult practices, such as ingesting visionary plants (or "psychedelics") to perceive the mind of God, persisted into the early Christian era, and to some unspecified extent into the 13th century with reoccurrences in the 18th century and mid-20th century, as he interprets the Plaincourault chapel's fresco to be an accurate depiction of the ritual ingestion of Amanita muscaria as the Eucharist. Allegro argued that Jesus never existed and was a mythological creation of early Christians under the influence of psychoactive mushroom extracts such as psilocybin.
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacred_Mushroom_and_the_Cross
Perhaps your local news is trying to keep it under wraps...but here are a number of quotes by news sources including several from Canada:
"Alberta oil spills cause concern over Canada's approval of tar sands project
Spillages creating toxic ponds harming forests, killing wildlife and contaminating ground water.."
-- http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/29/alberta-oil-spills-ta...
"For weeks now, bitumen has been oozing to the surface at an oilsands project owned by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range. The leak has so far released almost a million litres of bitumen and has fouled about 20 hectares of land."
-- http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/30/cnrl-cold-lake-spill-alberta-ene...
Underground oil spills at an Alberta oilsands operation have been going on much longer than previously thought, according to new documents. Files released to the Toronto Star show the spills were discovered nine weeks ago, but new documents show that bitumen has been leaking since the winter.
"Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. operates the Primrose oilsands facility three hours northeast of Edmonton where four ongoing underground oil blowouts have contaminated forest, muskeg, a lake and have already killed dozens animals including beavers, ducks and birds. According to a government scientist who has been to the site, neither government or industry are able to stop the spills."
-- http://o.canada.com/2013/07/25/oil-spill-alberta-underground/
"Oil spills at a major oil sands operation in Alberta have been ongoing for at least six weeks and have cast doubts on the safety of underground extraction methods, according to documents obtained by the Star and a government scientist who has been on site.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has been unable to stop an underground oil blowout that has killed numerous animals and contaminated a lake, forest, and muskeg at its operations in Cold Lake, Alta.
The documents indicate that, since cleanup started in May, some 26,000 barrels of bitumen mixed with surface water have been removed, including more than 4,500 barrels of bitumen.
The scientist said Canadian Natural Resources is not disclosing the scope of spills in four separate sites, which have been off bounds to media and the public because the operations are on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range, where there is active weapons testing by the Canadian military."
-- http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/19/nobody_understands_ongoing...
And you must have read the Edmonton Sun newspaper article:
"Edmonton-area wildlife society busy treating oil-covered animals --- Team of wildlife specialists dealing with CNRL spill --- For more than a month, Bitumen has been bubbling to the surface at several CNRL sites in the Cold Lake Area, and so far a cause is still unknown."
By Allison Salz ,Edmonton Sun
First posted: Tuesday, July 30, 2013 "
-- http://www.edmontonsun.com/2013/07/30/edmonton-area-wildlife-society-bus...
By the way, has anyone noticed how Mercedes-Benz has been saturating the airwaves with C250 commercials? They don't mention Michael Hasting's crash into a tree...or why the engine and transmission was flung 200 feet down the road and ended up on the sidewalk...or why the car exploded and incinerated Michael Hastings. Sure glad I wasn't walking down that sidewalk that early morning hour.
Pointofgrille: I am a progressive that knows when the Democrat party is no longer even remotely progressive. My contention is that if you vote for Republicans or Democrats...your vote just doesn't matter because the Democrats are just not on our side. If you vote for a third party candidate, if we all vote for third party candidates, we just might have a chance at turning things around. It's either that or mass rioting in the streets...voting for the same old rigged game will not change things...but massive violence will...unless we all try breaking the stranglehold these criminals have over us and refuse to vote for the same old ruling elite puppets.
Progressives have to stop their mindset that unless you vote for a Democrat, we'll have a Republican. The Democrats are counting on your gullibility. Once they win you over, they screw you! With that kind of scaredy cat mentality, you'll keep playing the rigged game that the ruling elite has created, and you'll keep getting either a Republican or a fake-turncoat Democrat (don't you all know by now that the Democrat party is also owned and controlled by the ruling elite?!). They are both playing us all like a fiddle. I say fiddle-faddle and lets break our chains for a change. Let's all vote Green this time! Let's send a shock wave through these entrenched criminal elite parties. Vote Green!
It's better to tax and spend in accordance with the vast majoritys wants and needs than to go along with Turtlemans method of very low effective tax rates for the super rich, then turn around and spend far more than you collect, and in the end, blame the Democrats. If he bothered to take a break from his pathological hatred for President Obama and looked up the facts, he would see it's his Republicans that have done by far most of the spending the last 30 years.
Problem is they want to be deadbeats when it comes to taxing the rich to pay the bills their wars and military industrial complex has created. You can bet Cantor wants those big Government bucks to keep rolling into Norfolk! That Socialism works really good for Eric and his constituents.
President Obama is pathetic! Why back off on every initiative? As if he hasn't learned already what response he is going to get no matter how much he waters down his plans, cuts his objectives, and sacrifices his base. If he really thinks any compromise will work with this Republican party he truly has his head up his a$$.
If I were in his shoes this is what I would do: Ask for the Moon! Why not? Kennedy did; and, he got it! Lay out a final plan that includes repealing of Free Trade and re-institution of import tariffs: repealing of corporate tax loopholes, subsidies, and off shore tax havens; reinstating of pre Reagan tax rates on the wealthy; federal prosecution for Wall Street criminals; enforcement of the Glass Steagall act; increases in spending on our social safety net, Medicaid and Medicare; push for Medicare for everyone; and demand huge defense cuts. Lay out the plan and then stick with it like Theodore Roosevelt--The Bull Moose--did. No favors, no compromises whatsoever! He should know very well that they will do everything they can to kill any initiative he comes up with anyway. So why not ask for everything we need? They can't kill that anymore than they are going to kill this. There is literally nothing to lose! At least it puts our needs on the table and allows the American people to rally around it and force Congress to take it seriously.
By publicizing the real needs of the country the President can do far more good for We the People than any puny, pathetic compromise ever will--even if it succeeds!
Personally, I think two wrongs don't make a right. My father who was a devoted PBS Newshour watcher once said me. The greatest threat to America is from within. Boy was he ever right.
Owning a business is not a private, personal thing, that's just where you always fail, Kend. Owmning a business is a very public thing that involves and affects MANY people. In fact, from the angle of the business owner, the more the better. Your transactions - and deals and monetary interactions with and concerning your employees are such - are fulfillments of obligation NOT something conducted by and at your pleasure. To make a fair transaction you might have to fulfill an obligation you don't like. You are, in effect, dictating your employees' religious choices by refusing to pay for abortion.
But I know you, you're just cheap, you don't want to pay for ANYTHING.
funny how many different radio programs and articles i've read over 5 years how i've yet to read or hear anything on how the repubicans would fix the mess they made. just a lot of bad mouthing the brother and one obstruction after the other. pretty pathetic. hu, and it was their daddies daddies that built the once mighty now petty U S of anal.Sad days comin. but dumber yet is the kool aide so many people drink mainly because they don't bother to check more then one source...while recently my views of obama have changed for the worst its still not as loathing as my contempt for the repubs. I'm still waiting for someone to kick us working class stiffs down a nice break of some sort instead of continuing to make us fund it all!! hey i just spent some of my tax $$$s on some russian helicopters at extorted prices to give them to afganistan and someone voted in a bond bill that will give 40 million $$$ to cochella valley schools to buy i pads for the kids to play (supposedly learn) with????? so much money and so many stupid people spending it all. cut the pentagon budget and make kids learn from good old school books, pencils and rulers. oh by the way? take one guess how many young people i've met in the last say 7 years that don't know how to read a ruler? the new level of stupid has arrived and now i can't even use retard because it's not politically correct! sheez!
Every time we discuss oil we need to mention the huge subsidies the govt gives them and I am not talking about the tax breaks. The subsidies we should not forget are the part (10%) of our defense budget that goes into protecting the shipping lanes (not needed for hemp), the high cost for treating the cancers that oil causes and the climate change damages.
I really think the motivation for Republican opposition to anything proposed by progressives or President Obama is the VERY REAL FEAR they have that, if this administration is successful, it will be the beginning of the end of control by wealthy, powerful white males. They are right about that. Let's make it so beginning in 2014 elections. We need to stop reciting the propaganda-that nothing can be done in midterm elections-and begin registering, educating and setting up locally savvy organizations that gets progressives into office locally, statewide and nationally. If we, as progressives, cannot get this done the old, rich,white, male power structure will remain in place. We must stop accepting the explanation that many claiming to be progressive use: "I just don't vote because it makes no difference" aself fulfilling prophesy that dooms this nation while those who holler the loudest make excuses for inaction. That is an extreme problem with many who express otherwise progressive ideas. Let's learn to follow those ideas with action agitation and education. We can no longer say bothparty's are bad so stay away from politics. That is a losing plan of action. The Democrats are not wonderful, but they are the steam we must row our boat in,for this upcoming election.
But FINALLY republicans begin rejecting their own spokesmen! Go McCain, keep em barking baby!
It is about time that someone stood up for the PEOPLE instead of the corporations. They have no problems taking profits from the PEOPLE and their employees are, indeed, entitled to those rights that should be afforded all human beings. That said, I fear what the supreme 5 of 9 hoods will do to this ruling. This court is an embarrassment to our country and makes a mockery of what they are supposed to do. Scalia, specifically, with his big mouth and egotistical attitudes believes HE is god and is sending down word from on high in accordance with his cult of a religion. Because of his mouth there are many rulings which have been handed down where he should have recused himself because of his already avowed viewpoints. Arrogant idiot.
Oh KEND you poor dumb animale! You can ignor the truth all you want...However, you cannot ignor the consequences of reality.
The reality of the ideology you "believe in" and live by, aggressively compromises the enviroment, keeps the basic cost of living inflated well beyond what minimum wage supports, which inturn costs the governement billions of dollars in wellfare, and kills thousands of innocent lives every year on a global level.
I agree with you that much of "the world" is hooked on oil...not just for energy/fuel purposes, but like you point out; most of the products we buy are a patrolium by-products. That being said and true, its time to break the junky! We may never be "petrolium free" but we can sure cut back in areas where decades of tests have proven tried and true alternatives...Solar, Wind, Wave, etc.
The reality regarding Green Energy here in the U.S. is that those invested in Big Oil are the biggest junkies, however their drug of choice is not oil...its $$$$ lots and lots of $$$$! And they, like all junkies, will do whatever it takes to get their fix; including lie, cheat, steal, and even kill! That's the ideology you support KEND! Care to sacrafice your children Kend!?!?The board memebers got the itch and need a fix!
Simmilar to how China and several countries in Europe and I believe even parts of S.America have written policy to encourage the expansion and use of Green Energy Alternatives, and have proven successful; The U.S. government should be focusing on doing the same here. A Pro Green Energy policy will not only make alternative energy like PV for the home more affordable for the average American, it can and will spark a multi billion dolar a year industry that will create several thousands new jobs, and new buisnesses (big and small) within the Green Energy Industry. The U.S. could become competitors in Green Energy on a global scale.
Kend I hope you know that though I am pro Green Energy I am not so sophmoric to think that such alternatives will 100% replace oil...More so it will cut waaaaaaay down on waste that comes from drilling, processing and burning of oil. More so Solar Wind, Wave and Hydro energy will replace coal power and nuclear power...In some countries, those that have been expanding the use of these alternatives for 25 years have already started to do so. Germany originally was aimming to be nuclear free by 2050...Now, since they have aggressively been supportive of Green Energy Policy, they are looking at being nuclear free by 2030...Now that's progress.
Oh and save your rant about how they (Germany) has to buy energy from other countries...That is not because of their Green Energy policy...They have done this all along and as they continue to expand the use of Green Energy Alternatives they will no longer be reliant on other countries for energy.
You are wondering how I know this, right? Well for starters i don't allow the smoke and mirrors that the Big Oil Industry uses to recruit ingnorant boobs and keep consumers hooked on this junk. Secondly, my wife has worked in the Solar Energy Industry for over 20 years, and I have several friends here in the U.S. and abroad that work in Green Energy. Two of the seven use to work in Oil. And lastly my information about Germany comes from my extended familey that has lived in Germany for 58 years, as well I lived in Germany for a few years back in the mid 90's and was witness to the trials and tributes of their Green Energy Policy.
Move over Big oil...Now there's something cleaner...and just as effective...It's Solar, Wind, and Wave!
Between the corporate tax cuts AND cuts to Medicare, I do believe the GOP will approve Obama's "Grand Bargain." However, I find the president speaks with forked tongue......too many times has he affirmed he will never ever cut Social Security payments and Medicare and yet, according to the Wall Street Journal, his staff is meeting behind closed doors negotiating with the GOP to do just that.
Kend ~ I'm sorry! I thought you understood English! Got a problem? Let's take it up tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow and this is my USA bed time. I will respond to any serious inquiries then. Good night!
http://thehempsolution.blogspot.com/