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Thom, yesterday a listener called in and was like, "Did Lenin and Stalin define themselves socialists?"
They did, and this pretty much messes up our progressive communication.
These of course were both communistic dictatorships and not democratic at all.
Ideas like socialism come from 19th century Germany. So if we need to be precise, we have to go into that era of German history. German democrats and socialists were suppressed by the Prussian monarchy at that thime. But the German socialists were divided: Communists claimed only violent revolution was the right way -- social democrats wanted social and democratic reforms. During the 20th century communists still persecuted social democrats, they really hated them.
The United States is not another planet. There is no such thing as "American exceptionalism". We DO depend on that European history indeed.
it was a good read
nicely done keep it up
today is 26th sorry m little late in this discussion
nice video, really good work
yeah Tinkerin really very good piont
i never noticed that :-P
i was not at all convinced with his speech
i was not sattisfied with his speech
Palindromedary you're burrying your thoughts in extreme masses of words and this makes you almost unreadable. Basically I find your ACTA critic interesting, but don't find any precise points.
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As I got president Obama, we won't tax millionaires generally with 30% just because they're millionaires: No, we tax their income if over a million per year. That means, if they use 999,999.99 bucks to finance their private luxury and invest the rest in constructive business projects (which are good for the U.S. economy), they pay less than 30%.
As the GOP points out, humans are sinful and lazy -- not only some of the poor welfare queens: >>Wealthy Welfare Queens<< like Mitt Romney tend to laziness too! We help them to find back to American kind of business. We help the Mitts and Newts to feel human again -- like decent Americans and honest Christans.
Got it Republicans?
Thanks for the link...of course, the answer to the question in that song is.....doesn't look like they ever will! But the important thing is that many of us have.
I heard some things I like and some that I didn't like. On the things I liked, we need to remember that the devil is in the details. We need to see what he really proposes to accomplish his policies.
Apparently my party was not satisfied with turning it's back on me and my country. They have become the fascists my father fought in WWII. So far as I'm concerned they should be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Just ran across something I'd clipped from my local newspaper a few weeks ago, or maybe longer? Anyway, it was showing how our rept voted on issues and there was a comment from Rep Charles Schumer D-NY who said "Republican leader Mitch McConnell R-KY, has barred anyone on his side from voting for any proposal offered by the president to improve the economy." And these are people who want to run this country? Thom has mentioned the mind of the conservative, and apparently among other things they lack empathy for anyone other then themselves. Money and power is all important to them and to hell with the rest of the people. After all they aren't the privileged.
Isn't it strange that with all the favorable conditions that have existed for the past 10 years the private enterprise entrepreneurs haven't created the jobs that would maintain conditions that would allow all of our citizens to share in the American Dream?
Instead, with low tax rates, and working with unregulated zeal, the "job creators" greed somehow got in the way; so much so that, by backing Wall Street to the hilt and hoping for "payback" with insider trading and outright stealing of investors money, the Republicans forced the American and European Union's economies to crash back to earth. It has been like the movie where you have to come back from the future to correct basic errors in actions, thought and judgment. Even so it isn't so easy to correct crashed world economies. The Republicons only hope is to try to blame Obama for their failed leadership. Now, if only the people can be lead to believe their sorry story they are hoping to regain the Presidency, put Attorneys General and Governors in to promulgate their failed policies. Oh, yes, and to appoint future Supreme Court Justices like they have in place now.
I hope so, they should go back to the "Ike" years, that includes corporations. Then tax heavily those who export jobs out of the country.
No mention of not "hitting" social security, medicare or medicaid. This means he is up to transfering wealth from ordinary Americans to the wealthy, What a rat!
In general I liked the Obama speech but what does SS 'reform ' entail ? Congress has to do their part and won't GOP vowed to Break Obama ..deny him a 2nd term So things will happen after election. If voters look at the facts They will not vote GOP again after the last 2 yrs of stalling, blocking. lying , filibustering bills GOP used to support . Ronmey comments : ' Corps are people' 'Talk of tax code fairness should be done in 'quiet rooms' ' 375 K is ' not much money ' " Let US auto industry die' ' Let homes be foreclosed asap so investors can buy them and rent them out " Hell with the homeowners who got screwed by predatory lenders. What planet is Mitt from ? Is he human ? Puts his Dog in a cage on top of his car for a 12 hour road trip ? Then says " The dog enjoyed it ' After the poor dog pooped all over the car ?
The one true way to get dividends and interest into being taxed the way the middle class is taxed is to change the tax code on earned vs. unearned income. If dividends and interest are classified as earned income for fat cats it will mean their effective tax rate will increase. The Republican "vultures" will no longer be able to ask that their pay be in shares of stock of the corporation and expect to pay capital gains of only 15%. I'm in favor of a top Marginal Tax Rate of at least 50% on incomes over $2 million
Also, the tax code should be changed to have outsourced companies pay the top corporate tax rate in the year in which it is earned, minus the taxes paid to the country they are in. They can then put these profits to work, creating jobs. They would not be able to hold "untaxed" income overseas until they had favorable "political conditions."
That's why I'm saying we must save the language As an example, Capital referring to money, Social referring to how we relate. i.e. either you're focused on getting money and its individualized advantages or you're focused on the entirety of human existence and all that can mean. We are a multiplicity in One in reality. Only a little bit of ego is needed to create a diverse game. Intention is manifested in sounds and words (Let there be Light) and is obvious unless the intention is bent to gain some kind of competative advantage. Cunning is animal and an important attribute for a fox, but a questionable trait for a mental being I find. If we find competition a necessary part of our natures then let us compete for good. We need become people of our word, but it is hard to be a person of ones word if the words have no transparent and obvious meaning. When we use the language to obfuscate we are screwed. I'm just saying to be deliberate to what one means. Its an effort to get on track. When you've gone beyond the path of the animals then walk on the path of resolve.
Thanks~
Corporations are zombies, they are not people. Corporations have no blood, no heart, they only seek to suck the money out of our pocketbooks, they are zombies or vampires but they are not loving, caring human beings. Corporations are not people. The Republicans are the party of the corporations. They do not care about flesh and blood human beings. Their supporters believe the lies told to them and have closed their minds to the "lamestream" media. When I tell my Republican friends that global warming is real they think that I have been fed Left Wing garbage. They do not trust anything coming from anyone other than Faux News.
Well said! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qt57c7rnHM&feature=related
You'd think if they want to use alternative energy at sea, the concept of tidal engery might have promise. Basically you could put an input port at water level that could fill a water tank, then that water from the tank could have an outlet at the bottom of it that would power a turbine and dump into a secondary tank. Then you could use wind power to turn an Archimedian screw that would return the water to the top of the first tank until evaporation required you to refill the tank by opening the sea cock. It may be pie in the sky thinking, but heck, you'd always have fuel.
N
If the people who benefit from special interests are the same people who would vote on campaign finance reform, how can we ever get change enacted? Given that most Congressmen spend most of their time groveling for money, are we in a conundrum inserted into an enigma?
Ed, unfortunately many of those terms have various meanings and faces.
The "socialism" of the good old Social Democratic kind is constructive and good -- the communist "socialism" as defined by Lenin and Stalin is destructive.
"Capitalism" has several meaning to: It can be money, but it can be machinery ect. as well -- flat-out anything workers don't have, but their employers use for production, employing and making profits. "Capital" makes the capitalist more powerful than his workers and this is the reason why workers need to be protected. Social Democratic "socialism" want's to heal this problem -- communist "socialism" wants to destroy by violent revolution. So there's the difficulty: "capitalism" and "socialism" have more than one meaning and this makes discussions hard at times. The GOP doesn't want fair dialog: We talk about democratic social reform, they just answer, "You're communists!"
See, there are more words with multiple meanings, as LOVE: It can mean just sympathy, but also stand for sexual issues, and a third meaning is the Christian love of the neighbor -- ergo three different meanings.
These days we see, ther word PROGRESSIVE* has many faces too, since libertarians call themselves that way too. The terms "liberal" and "libertarian" are vague anyway, for in their original meaning they mean the same thing. The way we distinguish this is just our political U.S. slang, which frankly is pretty superficial and vague. All those terms base on European terms that are older than the United States and older than continental European democracies. We pretty much messed them up and can hardly use them without explaining.....
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* Just found a mistake here -- messed something up. :(
We are held hostage by the fictions of democratic delerium. Divide and conquer. The entire dialogue needs to be retooled and our language needs to saved. For example, "capitalism" means it's about the money doesn't it? It is a premis that only a few can afford to live with as only a few are so diabolical, so clever, so cunning, as to convince others of its neccessity, it requires a very aggressive disposition. It is animalism, social Darwinism. If we accept that we are subject to animal dominance then we subserviently say 'yup', and acquiese to quieting our Mental Being which is actually what we are, Created in the Creator's Image. The sublimating of our mental being is a manipulation of design by the lords of lucre, the lords of the lower regions of dumb nature.
"Socialism" means it is for the society doesn't it? It too has limitations, but at least it is a premis that is not focused on competing and eating each others lunch and inevitably each others person. To assume that humans are lazy, uncreative, unproductive without monetary incentive is wholey deteriotive to how we view ourselves and is a fiction well maintained by design and intent and threat.
The dialogue is held captive by intention, once that is made obvious the wake-up call will hasten the end our keepers usary existences, they just may kill themselves when they awake to their quandry that no one actually needs them, I hope they do it quietly. As long as we say it is OK to possess $billions and all the earthly essences we voluntarily submit to our owners fictions. We are far more capable of lovingly dealing with a planetary existence than is let known, but we will Know.
As a would be candidate running for president of the USA here is brief summary of my platform.
Since it is put forth that corporations are supposedly better at organizing and getting stuff done better than government I propose that we remove all corporate taxation. This relief from taxation would then be in return for a license to operate in the USA. The corporation(s) would then be obligated to lift the underfunctioning portions of our society without any excuse for failure to meet that contract or any strings attached to those whose material and social lives they have improved and brought up to a humane and comfortable condition. There would be a strict criteria with everyday oversight and monitoring with no exceptions or fiddling or fudging as to what was or is meant. Any corporation not meeting said criteria and success of implementation would lose their license to operate and all assets would be sold in a bidding process to corporations who are meeting the criteria. The areas of responsibility would include safe comfortable housing, good nutrition, health, education and training; in fact and indeed every and all aspects to promote a prosperous, happy population, not a tear in any eye. These services to society would be provided with no strings attached for future employment or pay-back; however all who would receive these services would be given every opportunity to work and produce for the providing corporations if they wish or on the other hand to enter into business or service of their own choosing with all help readily availabe. Should a corporation not meet the essentials required and lose their license they would be given on year to come up to snuff and there would be absolutely no appeals considered after that one year.
Next, I would negotiate with our neighbors both north and south on the North American Continent to remove the borders and to make North America one country so as allow people to move around freely and find their most appropriate place the the greater scheme of things.
Ed
That's right! Sneaky
Thanks for that link!
"First, mentioning John Boehner, Obama said he was still open to a grand compromise on Social Security and Medicare, which would make Americans have to work longer and get less benefits from Medicare and Medicaid. We don’t need a Democrat to hack away at these crucial social programs.
Second, he took a gratuitous swipe at universal single-payer health care. Sounding like Ronald Reagan, he said, “I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.” As an illustration, he said, “That’s why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program.” Huh? He used to say he was for single-payer universal health care. Then, when he was running for President the first time, he said, “If I were starting from scratch,” I’d be for single-payer universal health care. Now he disparages it to score cheap political points."
http://www.progressive.org/obama_state_of_the_union.html
Obama is just a Republican disguised as a Democrat.