Contributions aside, the whole of Congress gets veiled lease royalties and they have to hide it from us.
I think oil is the top holder under the general title of North American Exploitation (of all mineral, gas, timber, and geological resources). What went wrong is that oil has been allowed to acquire control of transportation, defense, and the clothing, food and drug supply.
I am an independent voter and a California resident, so I have seen firsthand what illegal immigration does to a state. But I will not rant on about the costs involved in supporting illegal immigration or the companies that benefit from it at the cost to the American workers. What I will say is the President of the United States should be the first person in our country to uphold the full law, not pick and choose which law he will direct the departments under him to enforce. I could not care less whether he is choosing which laws to enforce, because it may or may not help him to be reelected for a second term. I just want an honest president to enforce all the laws, not just the laws that benefit his agenda. So far Mr. Obama has not done this and I personally am fed up with the whole game. No I will not vote for this man again, as I did in the last election. Nor will I vote for Mr. Romney for president, he has shown even less ability to stick to any statements he has made during the debates with other Republicans. I will vote for the Green Party candidate, as a protest vote. As a nation we are Screwed as Thom would say, in either choice. What happened to honesty in our nation? Excuse me I need to go vomit at the thought of who we have to choose from for our next president.....
Impeachment?.......Yeah right......easy there big boy, don't hurt yourself!
Kyl and Republican Senate pals fail to recognize many things, including this........ REMOVING GOVERNMENT FROM THE HANDS OF "WE THE PEOPLE," by abusing the filibuster rule, REALLY IS DERELICTION OF DUTY.
How about we just throw em all into the harbor when nothing more can be done to save this country?
What will the repercussions will be, when a Republican becomes president. Will the Democrats go after Him/Her of much as Republicans did go after Pres. Obama, somebody will have to show some maturity really soon. I really would like to know what other countries think about our government and how they are running their internal arguments. It is embarrassing that this country supposed to show some leadership in the world and we can’t even show leadership in our own government. Yes, it is true that the far unstable right wing of the Republican Party is trying to destroy and crash this government all because of greed. And it’s shameful.
The Republi-con's will do anything but pass any jobs bill or related to recovery so,I would not put it past them.They have made it painfully obvious to anyone who's interested in what"s going on in today's political agenda driven by Wealthy investor"s.Corporate America sold out the American workers moving operations and profits offshore,and those jobs are gone for good.We need to re-create American based know-how,with new Green technologies and jobs with Living wage's.Corp.America greed,profits before people and profit at all cost mentality needs to go away,& fast !
it doesnt surprise me thatthese right wing bigots wont layoff this kindof crap and do their jobs in accordance with their swarn duty.treres no other way to classify their ignorance except for racist hiding behind the legal curtain.
An FYI - Tribal nations in the US receive raparation for lands forcefully taken or land that was given to the US Government as part of treaties. It is not free health care or free educational assistance, it is paid for in millions of native americans' blood and in millions of acres forcefully taken or relinquished through treaties.
Republicans have been seeking revenge for the Nixon impeachment for 45+ years. They are going to keep tring until they nail a Democrat and coonvict or force resignation in disgrace. However, I don't think they will try to impeach Obama unless Obama wins re-election while they win a substantial majority in the senate and keep control of the House with an increased majority.
The GOP is on it's inevitable way out and what you see is a desperate scrambling to regain control before "Republican" will never again be asscociated with a POTUS. Non-white population is growing and in one generation "whites" will be a minority. Since there are really only about 1 million US citizens who really benefit from Republican policies, it is clear to those few sane republicans that they can only "buy" popular support for so long - then even Billy-Bob will see through their ruse. If it costs them 100 billion$ to buy this election, it will cost 1 trillion$ for them to buy 2016. They cannot win in the long run.
So what to do? Impeach the President? Then VP?. Then Mr Boner will be POTUS.
The rich are getting as much out of the system (bonuses, avoided taxes, etc) as quickly as possible and will most likely bail before they are brought to justice. Hopefully there will be a viable country left for the rest of us after they do that.
Thom, do you really think it matters anymore? The "Game" IS over!! They know It and everyday, more & more of us know it. I am not talking about Democrats vs. Republicans here. I am talking about unity consciousness trumping separation consciousness. I am talking about abundance mentality trumping scarcity mentality. Their whole charade is becoming wide open. Many refuse to believe what their eyes are telling them. Denial will get them nowhere. It IS time for All of Us to come together, weed out the balance of service to self only types, clean up Mother Earth, unleash all the free, clean energy technologies under lock & key and co-create the paradise on earth that we should have had over 2,000 years ago. Coulove
The Constitution does say that the president "shall take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed". I actually heard a Fox commentator mention this. President's can't enforce every single law but he is enforcing immigration laws. He's deported more immigrants than Bush.
He should be impeached but I'm not in favor of it. He has failed to see the laws are enforced when he failed to prosecute Bush officials for torture, warrantless wiretapping and the illegal invasion of Iraq and, probably, Afghanistan. Of course, he could also be impeached for his own war crimes and violations of the Constitution--continuing warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, treatment of Bradley Manning and targeted assassinations, with drones and otherwise.
Can't we just deport the GOP? i am going bonkers watching the decline of our once great nation. The biggest tragedy of all is how so many have allowed themselves to be brainwashed. America the land of the free, home of the scared and so many minions sucumbing to dumb. Sad, sad, sad....
I agree that, short of impeaching Alito and Roberts, utilizing Article V of the Constitution is the best way to proceed to overturn Citizen's United. As to your surmise that it "will probably take a second Civil War to ever get achieved", that is one of the reasons that our Founders gave the People a way to implement change in our republic without the need for bloodshed.
Please see www.foav.orgfor more information on how we can amend the Constitution.
If Congress & the Supremes keep up the shenanigans they've been pulling since 2008. it may be time for another French Revolution,( which was a lot nastier than our own). Citizens United was a blatant bow to corruption, which I think has been rampant in the court since they over-ruled the peoples' vote & proclaimed W king in 2000. Yup, it was an actual coup & we fell for it because they bludgeoned us with words rather than guns.
These activist judges of the Roberts court are destroying 236 years of American Democracy in a very short time. Changing Citizens United will take nothing less than a Constitutional Amendment, which will probably take a second Civil War to ever get achieved.
With the citizens split 50-50, withdrawn, "independent," or generally uninvolved and living in their own imaginary realities, I don't see strong enough popular support to overcome the coalition of: Supra-Rich, Supra-National-Corporations and their sold-out minions in Government and Both Political Parties.
As for the "activist SCOTUS" -- it wasn't that long ago (Civil Rights Movemrnt of the '60s and Viet-Nam War era) that the Right was singing that tune. As such that's a warning we don't need that this is just a swing of the political pendulum. From my Leftish perspective, I do think it's more. Consider that after 2 almost 3-years, Democrats have done almost nothing to reverse Citizens United (other than increasing solicitation of monies from their tapped-out political base).
We have a government and political system run by a class of professional political workers (who serve either side, depending upon who writes the checks, irrespective of who wins). We have a social-media devoted to serving up entertainment, masqurading as "news" or "information" -- that has brought our nation into two or three tribal-camps, living in non-intersecting pseudo-realities.We don't (can't) communicate accross the political divide, even though we feel identical pain.
No, folks. It don't look good. My slim hope is that (while I continue to do my best) it will get worse before better -- while there is still time for activists on Left, Center and Right to see their commonality, and resist the Corporatist take-over of the US, Europe and from that the World. -- But then, what else is new; it's been that way for a very long time.
Our greatest weakness is the "Arrogant Naivety" (or is it "Naive Arrogance") of the Left. We have the generally correct awareness; however we are woefully ignorant about how to get where we want to be. We are sheep, being slaughtered by wolves. We are constantly on the defensive, playing "Wha-happened?", "How can they do that?" and "Woe is we." We can't conceive of running a big and sophisticated enough operation to counter world-class Corporatist operations. Somehow, we must find the ways to work smarter, with less resources.
What to do? Continue to spread our interpretations, as slowly the evidence of take-over adds-up. If we have the best interpretation more Citizens may agree. Support our precious few Leaders who stand and are effective. Educate ourselves in the fundamentals of EFFECTIVE conflict. Continue to mobilize public opinion. Seize every opportunity to regain Citizen control while we still have "the vote." Ideas and votes cost nothing, it's getting them out and harvesting them that requires innovative new ways to counter the overwhelming influence of humungous money. Tough times ahead.
It’s beginning to look like the Democrats are going to be out-spent by no small margin and the resulting setback may last for many years. However, we could easily force the Republicans into an indefensible position and generate tremendous buzz by promoting a national voting holiday for 2014 and an upgrade to our voting system to something more democratic like Borda or IRV. This would also re-energize the disillusioned and draw many alternative party voters. Yes, this would mean sharing some power with other people oriented parties, but the pie-chart would be enlarged from increased participation because many who are cynical about politics would see the value of their vote and the Republicans could no longer play the divide and conquer game. The calculation is simple: either do this and sacrifice some power but restore your ideals, or continue business as usual and lose both for a long time to come because the Citizens United decision will have transformed politics in ways that are unthinkable. If you are unconvinced, consider that we are at the tipping point for greenhouse gasses and this is our best hope for building effective coalitions. Do you really want to tell your grandchildren that you didn’t have the courage to put country and humanity above your party? You cannot lose by offering more power and freedom of choice to We the people.
So rich people and/or corporations spend lots of money trying to buy politicians....and the politicians know that money is what it takes to get re-elected....because they can spend lots of that money on stupid political propaganda leaflets and TV spots. So if people are so stupid to believe in all of this political idiocy then maybe they need, or deserve, what they get.
But, at least, in California we showed those rich people that not everyone can be bought and we made a lot of rich people waste their money on idiot rich candidates that ended up losing. Now, if the rest of the country can waste a lot of rich people's money by kicking the Republicans and the Democrats out of office and vote in someone who couldn't possibly have raised even a fraction of what the two major parties did then there may be hope for this country.
Unless we totally embarrass Romney, Obama, and the rest of the good-ole-boy network of entrenched politicians, there will be no hope...only a waste of time and money and hasten our suffering and deaths under a repressive oligarchical regime. Americans will continue to look absolutely stupid and inane if either Romney or Obama wins the Presidency.
Or maybe "Obama Healthcare" is really "McCain or Romney Healthcare". Whatever you call it...it certainly is not what most Americans wanted in a HealthCare Bill and was what most HealthCare Providers wanted. By forcing everyone to participate it made the Government the strong-arm enforcer agents for the criminals who ran these scam rackets. Without at least a Public Option it was a total giveaway to the corporate hoods...with no incentive to keep their prices down. It should have been a Single Payer System but the corporate scamsters stopped that dead. These people can "squeeze sh!t out of wooden nickels" and "nickel and dime us to death"...except it wouldn't be wooden nickels or even dimes they would be getting...but a large percentage of whatever little we earn or have saved. Stick em up!! Your money or your life!!!
Not sure if this was mentioned but it looks like there is a petition to congress to begin impeachment proceedings against Scalia
http://www.petitiononline.com/1776imp/petition.html
That's what they'll say the reason is. They'll really try to impeach him for Presidenting while Black.
Contributions aside, the whole of Congress gets veiled lease royalties and they have to hide it from us.
I think oil is the top holder under the general title of North American Exploitation (of all mineral, gas, timber, and geological resources). What went wrong is that oil has been allowed to acquire control of transportation, defense, and the clothing, food and drug supply.
Nice post. I like the way you start and then conclude your thoughts. Thanks for this information .I really appreciate your work, keep it up
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I am an independent voter and a California resident, so I have seen firsthand what illegal immigration does to a state. But I will not rant on about the costs involved in supporting illegal immigration or the companies that benefit from it at the cost to the American workers. What I will say is the President of the United States should be the first person in our country to uphold the full law, not pick and choose which law he will direct the departments under him to enforce. I could not care less whether he is choosing which laws to enforce, because it may or may not help him to be reelected for a second term. I just want an honest president to enforce all the laws, not just the laws that benefit his agenda. So far Mr. Obama has not done this and I personally am fed up with the whole game. No I will not vote for this man again, as I did in the last election. Nor will I vote for Mr. Romney for president, he has shown even less ability to stick to any statements he has made during the debates with other Republicans. I will vote for the Green Party candidate, as a protest vote. As a nation we are Screwed as Thom would say, in either choice. What happened to honesty in our nation? Excuse me I need to go vomit at the thought of who we have to choose from for our next president.....
Impeachment?.......Yeah right......easy there big boy, don't hurt yourself!
Kyl and Republican Senate pals fail to recognize many things, including this........ REMOVING GOVERNMENT FROM THE HANDS OF "WE THE PEOPLE," by abusing the filibuster rule, REALLY IS DERELICTION OF DUTY.
How about we just throw em all into the harbor when nothing more can be done to save this country?
What will the repercussions will be, when a Republican becomes president. Will the Democrats go after Him/Her of much as Republicans did go after Pres. Obama, somebody will have to show some maturity really soon. I really would like to know what other countries think about our government and how they are running their internal arguments. It is embarrassing that this country supposed to show some leadership in the world and we can’t even show leadership in our own government. Yes, it is true that the far unstable right wing of the Republican Party is trying to destroy and crash this government all because of greed. And it’s shameful.
The Republi-con's will do anything but pass any jobs bill or related to recovery so,I would not put it past them.They have made it painfully obvious to anyone who's interested in what"s going on in today's political agenda driven by Wealthy investor"s.Corporate America sold out the American workers moving operations and profits offshore,and those jobs are gone for good.We need to re-create American based know-how,with new Green technologies and jobs with Living wage's.Corp.America greed,profits before people and profit at all cost mentality needs to go away,& fast !
it doesnt surprise me thatthese right wing bigots wont layoff this kindof crap and do their jobs in accordance with their swarn duty.treres no other way to classify their ignorance except for racist hiding behind the legal curtain.
Arrest Bush- lying to start a war for the defense contractors and oil men is much more disgusting than selective deportation.
An FYI - Tribal nations in the US receive raparation for lands forcefully taken or land that was given to the US Government as part of treaties. It is not free health care or free educational assistance, it is paid for in millions of native americans' blood and in millions of acres forcefully taken or relinquished through treaties.
Republicans have been seeking revenge for the Nixon impeachment for 45+ years. They are going to keep tring until they nail a Democrat and coonvict or force resignation in disgrace. However, I don't think they will try to impeach Obama unless Obama wins re-election while they win a substantial majority in the senate and keep control of the House with an increased majority.
The GOP is on it's inevitable way out and what you see is a desperate scrambling to regain control before "Republican" will never again be asscociated with a POTUS. Non-white population is growing and in one generation "whites" will be a minority. Since there are really only about 1 million US citizens who really benefit from Republican policies, it is clear to those few sane republicans that they can only "buy" popular support for so long - then even Billy-Bob will see through their ruse. If it costs them 100 billion$ to buy this election, it will cost 1 trillion$ for them to buy 2016. They cannot win in the long run.
So what to do? Impeach the President? Then VP?. Then Mr Boner will be POTUS.
The rich are getting as much out of the system (bonuses, avoided taxes, etc) as quickly as possible and will most likely bail before they are brought to justice. Hopefully there will be a viable country left for the rest of us after they do that.
Thom, do you really think it matters anymore? The "Game" IS over!! They know It and everyday, more & more of us know it. I am not talking about Democrats vs. Republicans here. I am talking about unity consciousness trumping separation consciousness. I am talking about abundance mentality trumping scarcity mentality. Their whole charade is becoming wide open. Many refuse to believe what their eyes are telling them. Denial will get them nowhere. It IS time for All of Us to come together, weed out the balance of service to self only types, clean up Mother Earth, unleash all the free, clean energy technologies under lock & key and co-create the paradise on earth that we should have had over 2,000 years ago. Coulove
The Constitution does say that the president "shall take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed". I actually heard a Fox commentator mention this. President's can't enforce every single law but he is enforcing immigration laws. He's deported more immigrants than Bush.
He should be impeached but I'm not in favor of it. He has failed to see the laws are enforced when he failed to prosecute Bush officials for torture, warrantless wiretapping and the illegal invasion of Iraq and, probably, Afghanistan. Of course, he could also be impeached for his own war crimes and violations of the Constitution--continuing warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, treatment of Bradley Manning and targeted assassinations, with drones and otherwise.
Can't we just deport the GOP? i am going bonkers watching the decline of our once great nation. The biggest tragedy of all is how so many have allowed themselves to be brainwashed. America the land of the free, home of the scared and so many minions sucumbing to dumb. Sad, sad, sad....
The GOP will do ANYTHING to get President Obama out of office - if that means impeachment, why not?
YES Bagger run GOP congress are devious and relentless Sickening group of greedy lying corp suck ups Yet corp run media will not challenge the LIES
I agree that, short of impeaching Alito and Roberts, utilizing Article V of the Constitution is the best way to proceed to overturn Citizen's United. As to your surmise that it "will probably take a second Civil War to ever get achieved", that is one of the reasons that our Founders gave the People a way to implement change in our republic without the need for bloodshed.
Please see
for more information on how we can amend the Constitution.
www.
foav.org
If Congress & the Supremes keep up the shenanigans they've been pulling since 2008. it may be time for another French Revolution,( which was a lot nastier than our own). Citizens United was a blatant bow to corruption, which I think has been rampant in the court since they over-ruled the peoples' vote & proclaimed W king in 2000. Yup, it was an actual coup & we fell for it because they bludgeoned us with words rather than guns.
These activist judges of the Roberts court are destroying 236 years of American Democracy in a very short time. Changing Citizens United will take nothing less than a Constitutional Amendment, which will probably take a second Civil War to ever get achieved.
With the citizens split 50-50, withdrawn, "independent," or generally uninvolved and living in their own imaginary realities, I don't see strong enough popular support to overcome the coalition of: Supra-Rich, Supra-National-Corporations and their sold-out minions in Government and Both Political Parties.
As for the "activist SCOTUS" -- it wasn't that long ago (Civil Rights Movemrnt of the '60s and Viet-Nam War era) that the Right was singing that tune. As such that's a warning we don't need that this is just a swing of the political pendulum. From my Leftish perspective, I do think it's more. Consider that after 2 almost 3-years, Democrats have done almost nothing to reverse Citizens United (other than increasing solicitation of monies from their tapped-out political base).
We have a government and political system run by a class of professional political workers (who serve either side, depending upon who writes the checks, irrespective of who wins). We have a social-media devoted to serving up entertainment, masqurading as "news" or "information" -- that has brought our nation into two or three tribal-camps, living in non-intersecting pseudo-realities.We don't (can't) communicate accross the political divide, even though we feel identical pain.
No, folks. It don't look good. My slim hope is that (while I continue to do my best) it will get worse before better -- while there is still time for activists on Left, Center and Right to see their commonality, and resist the Corporatist take-over of the US, Europe and from that the World. -- But then, what else is new; it's been that way for a very long time.
Our greatest weakness is the "Arrogant Naivety" (or is it "Naive Arrogance") of the Left. We have the generally correct awareness; however we are woefully ignorant about how to get where we want to be. We are sheep, being slaughtered by wolves. We are constantly on the defensive, playing "Wha-happened?", "How can they do that?" and "Woe is we." We can't conceive of running a big and sophisticated enough operation to counter world-class Corporatist operations. Somehow, we must find the ways to work smarter, with less resources.
What to do? Continue to spread our interpretations, as slowly the evidence of take-over adds-up. If we have the best interpretation more Citizens may agree. Support our precious few Leaders who stand and are effective. Educate ourselves in the fundamentals of EFFECTIVE conflict. Continue to mobilize public opinion. Seize every opportunity to regain Citizen control while we still have "the vote." Ideas and votes cost nothing, it's getting them out and harvesting them that requires innovative new ways to counter the overwhelming influence of humungous money. Tough times ahead.
THE CLOSEST THING WE HAVE TO A SILVER BULLET
It’s beginning to look like the Democrats are going to be out-spent by no small margin and the resulting setback may last for many years. However, we could easily force the Republicans into an indefensible position and generate tremendous buzz by promoting a national voting holiday for 2014 and an upgrade to our voting system to something more democratic like Borda or IRV. This would also re-energize the disillusioned and draw many alternative party voters.
Yes, this would mean sharing some power with other people oriented parties, but the pie-chart would be enlarged from increased participation because many who are cynical about politics would see the value of their vote and the Republicans could no longer play the divide and conquer game.
The calculation is simple: either do this and sacrifice some power but restore your ideals, or continue business as usual and lose both for a long time to come because the Citizens United decision will have transformed politics in ways that are unthinkable.
If you are unconvinced, consider that we are at the tipping point for greenhouse gasses and this is our best hope for building effective coalitions. Do you really want to tell your grandchildren that you didn’t have the courage to put country and humanity above your party?
You cannot lose by offering more power and freedom of choice to We the people.
So rich people and/or corporations spend lots of money trying to buy politicians....and the politicians know that money is what it takes to get re-elected....because they can spend lots of that money on stupid political propaganda leaflets and TV spots. So if people are so stupid to believe in all of this political idiocy then maybe they need, or deserve, what they get.
But, at least, in California we showed those rich people that not everyone can be bought and we made a lot of rich people waste their money on idiot rich candidates that ended up losing. Now, if the rest of the country can waste a lot of rich people's money by kicking the Republicans and the Democrats out of office and vote in someone who couldn't possibly have raised even a fraction of what the two major parties did then there may be hope for this country.
Unless we totally embarrass Romney, Obama, and the rest of the good-ole-boy network of entrenched politicians, there will be no hope...only a waste of time and money and hasten our suffering and deaths under a repressive oligarchical regime. Americans will continue to look absolutely stupid and inane if either Romney or Obama wins the Presidency.
Or maybe "Obama Healthcare" is really "McCain or Romney Healthcare". Whatever you call it...it certainly is not what most Americans wanted in a HealthCare Bill and was what most HealthCare Providers wanted. By forcing everyone to participate it made the Government the strong-arm enforcer agents for the criminals who ran these scam rackets. Without at least a Public Option it was a total giveaway to the corporate hoods...with no incentive to keep their prices down. It should have been a Single Payer System but the corporate scamsters stopped that dead. These people can "squeeze sh!t out of wooden nickels" and "nickel and dime us to death"...except it wouldn't be wooden nickels or even dimes they would be getting...but a large percentage of whatever little we earn or have saved. Stick em up!! Your money or your life!!!