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I most wholeheartedly agree that we need a lot more progressive Democrats...if they REALLY ARE progressive Democrats.
Don't vote for Republicans.
Elect progressive Democrats until there are so few Republicans in Congress that they can do nothing. Give money to progressive Democrats. Help to support the campaigns of progressive Democrats. If you can find a Republican who does not kiss the ring of Grover Norquist, consider supporting the Republican.
Which one of the Tweedle-dummies do you think will be ultimately picked to run against Tweedle-Obama?
Tweedle- Romney or Tweedle-Trump? Tweedle-Cain is out...for now. I wonder how Tweedle-Paul would be? He says a lot of pleasant things..but then so did Tweedle-Obama when he was trying to get votes.
But, just like Tweedle-Obama, it really doesn't matter at all because they are all owned by Wall Street. They all blatantly lie their way into office, and have nice revolving doors to untold riches in the private sectors if they are good boys and do the bidding of their Wall Street masters.
All of those Tweedles in Congress are all owned by Wall Street...with the exception, maybe, of a few who have actually held their own against the wide-spread corruption.
The Greenies are looking promising!
Elizabeth will win because she cannot be bought out like the others and the majority know this who will be voting for her!! She has more intelligence and integrity in her little finger than anyone who would appose her. She only believes in one thing ---protect the people unfortunate who are being wronged big time.
The problem with "writing or phoning your 'elected' officials" is that they don't read or listen to your letters and phone calls. Aides, and perhaps even only machines scan for key words that inform them of the general mood of their constituents. And even then, the general mood of their constituents doesn't even really matter. It may make them worry a little more about being re-elected next time. But they mostly count on whomever is shelling out the big bucks to get them re-elected. So, they are, in effect, working for the ruing elite and not for those who vote for them...they believe that the campaign funds they receive will buy enough psychological influence of potential voters through a PR company that will keep us hypnotized with flashy commercials and lots of campaign promises (lies).
I believe that it has gotten to the point where what you write or say to your political representatives really does not matter because, in the end, the only thing that really matters to them are what the ruling elite, who bribes these politicians, want. It has gotten to the point where only one thing will change the outcome and that is not by writing letters, making phone calls, or voting.
As they have come to realize in so many other countries, where the people massively revolted against the ruling elite, it's the only thing that really works.
The massive uprisings of the OWS movement in many cities and towns in the US was enough to send a message. And if they don't get it...if they continue to believe that the people will just get back into the futile groove of voting for corporate-owned tweedle dee or tweedle dum..then they will have played us all for the suckers that we are.
But if the OWS movement grows and intensifies the ruling elite will eventually have to give in. It sure has worked more than voting has in the few weeks it has been in existence. The ruling elite is hoping they will all get tired and discouraged. I hope not!
Even if you had all Democrats in power...they would still not turn things around in favor of the 99%. Obama had the edge when he first took office. But not only did Obama not act like a Democrat but many Democrats did not act like Democrats. Many have already been bought off and are likely culpable for financial crimes themselves...insider trading by congressional members..both Republicans and Democrats.
The system has been corrupted and it is too late to expect a few honest politicians to turn things around. We have to learn from history that the only thing that will make the wealthy see that they had better quit being so greedy and hateful is to massively rebel against them...and not play their rigged game of Democrat/Republican politics. No "pressure" will come from voting the right person, or persons into office....the pressure will come from a nation on the edge of revolution.
David
What a terrible idea--declaring martial law. Apart from its lack of practicality, you cannot fight one stupidity with another stupidity, or one act of "violence"--so I consider it--with another act of violence.
Write to your representatives. Write to newspapers. Go to your caucuses and vote on this issue. Go out and work for the Democrats who refuse to vote for anything this insane.
We do not need to throw military force at every objectionable thing our Congress does. We would be (and maybe are) an armed state.
I think it is important to get money out of politics. Campaigns should be publicly financed. Debate should be limited to real debate on the issues, point counter point, not grandstanding, and all networks would be obliged to broadcast them. Any untruths should be called such during the broadcast by the moderator based on the facts of the issues scheduled to be discussed.
I also think it equally important to get politics out of governing. Contrary to popular mis-conception, good government does not follow from "the art of compromise", and compromise has been scarce for several years now anyway. What is good for the country and it's peoples and lands should be the rule; not half or three quarters of the good. We deserve the whole good and nothing but the good, and that is what our government should provide...not compromise. Politics is all money and compromise and has become totally dysfunctional because there is no longer any compromise allowed, just a lot of money.
I believe it was Plato who said the only leader you should elect is one who does not want the job.
Here is a quote from the book "Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough Riders/An Autobiography:
To quote Theodore Roosevelt,"... his labor - was a perishable commodity; the labor of to-day - if not sold was a perishable commodity; the labor of to-day - if not sold to-day - was lost forever. Moreover, his labor was not like most commodities - a mere thing; it was part of a living, breathing human being."
Fire service only available to those who pay no taxes. This is the big privatization scam of our time. Our government is becoming like that of Nairobi where there is no fire department. That government is utterly corrupt and when something burns down, oh well, oh well, oh well. If your goods are destroyed, what little you have, you just move to the Kibera slum. And if that burns down (1 million people), problem solved.
If Elizabeth Warren was real she wouldn't be running as a the corporate party's Democrat (bankster owned faction) candidate; she'd be standing in opposition to the corporate (R) & (D) party as an independent, a Green, or some other people's party candidate.
What "progressives" have proven is that nothing moves America further far Right faster than getting more Democrats elected does.
If "progressives" were actually progressive they wouldn't be corporate party Democrats.
Jill Stein for President:
http://www.jillstein.org
Voter Consent Wastes Dissent:
http://chenangogreens.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id...
In regards to the senate & congress being able to over rule the white house, If I were president, I would declare martial law and order the military to shut down the entire capital (except for social security & medicare). Hold trials and try the perpertrators of these actions as traitors against the U.S., and put them where they will never see the light of day again, no matter how long it takes. Anyone who tried to violate martial law would be shot on the spot. Despirate times created by these criminals require despirate measures.
Fire every last one of them. It's not necessary to have a Republican President as long as they have power over anything the President does... as long as they have the filibuster... as long as they own th media.
Speaking of media - there's not a word about this - anywhere!!!!
We need to get an overwhelming "liberal" Democratic majority in both houses of Congress in order to accomplish anything for the people. The 99% are only beginning.
Under Republican Bush2 we saw exectutive power on steroids. Now we see Republicans taking away executive power (should Obama have a second term). Our government is not ours any more. We're the riff-raff. Neither the owners of the GOP (Government Occupation Plutocracy) nor the Republicans themselves have a conscience or any sense of real allegiance to the spirit of the Constitution. It's all a game now. And what a heinous game it is. Built on the blood of the fading middle class.
I'm of two minds about this and the "payroll tax holiday". Bush/Cheney set up SO MUCH Executive branch overreach that the Congress could be well within their rights.....IF this was applied to things other than regualtions, to "rein" it in.
Remember, it won't always be Obama ( thank the gods!) or a Tea bagger Congress (hopefully). The executive branch DOES need more checks.....and not fewer into the Social Security Trust fund via the "payroll tax holiday" that's a razzle-dazzle" anmd worded so that it sounds like it's WITH-HOLDING that's being cut. Instead, it will keep bleed ding SS until they can honestly say...."IT'S BROKE!"
I don't trust any of 'em at this point.
Ms Warren will win She is one determined woman . Voters beat Kochs millions in Ohio / union hating GOP Gov Kasich Even con Mississippi voted NO on personhood. Walker may be recalled. soon. Fla Gov Scott is not liked either Looking good .
Well, there are certainly a lot of executives in need of scrutiny...including Obama...but not in the frame that those who are trying to push this bill mean. Obama has been the ruling elite's best friend...after all, they paid him the most to win in 2008 and are doing so again for 2012. The Republican politicians would sure like to see Obama lose so they could take over....but, for the ruling elite?
The ruling elite doesn't mind seeing the funny little game that is being played, the Democrats against the Republicans, because they know that they have them both under their thumb. It's all theater! Smoke and mirrors. Bait and switch. Good cop, bad cop. Our real enemy is the ruling elite and they are the "gods" sitting in the clouds playing one "owned" party off against the other "owned" party and laughing their heads off at the calamity and p1$$!ng down on the heads of all of us little people...that's the real "trickle down" theory.
I've been to places where the ruling elite owned factories, with no enforceable laws to regulate air pollution, that belch forth filth in the air so thick that one had a very difficult time in breathing and the eyes constantly watered. My throat, nose, and lungs actually hurt...like I was slowly suffocating.
I felt sorry for the poor people that had to live in such an environment all the time. Most of the worst places were outside of the US, but a few within. The ones outside of the US were much worse. My stay in these places were only from days to several weeks at a time but they were quite unbearable. I do hope that it ever gets that bad in the US.
Scott Brown got elected bc Coakley took the election for granted and stopped campaigning to go on vacation. Warren will win by a landslide bc she knows she has to fight until the last minute ofelection day.
I missed what the ugly word was, but "horny around the nose" has me laughing so hard.
Giving FDR the benefit of the doubt that he and for that matter any American in the administration can say they had no idea that a country could do what the German government did during the Holocaust is to say that none of these people ever heard of the reports of the Armenian Genocide. I don't buy it. BTW the holocaust apparently was not the first genocide committed by the German government in the 20th century... look up the Herero and Namaqua Genocide. German officials involved in that fiasco, also were later to be involved in the Holocaust.
I'm sorry, as much as I respect FDR, I have little doubt that he had more information on what was going on in Germany then he ever let on, and there is no way I can be convinced that he couldn't have imagined it.
N
What if we should all tell our capitalist privateers that if they can play that game (like pre-paid fees some fire departments are demanding) then so can we. Unless the privateers pay each of us citizens a fee (maybe in the form of increasing taxes for the wealthy and decreasing taxes for the non-wealthy), we will not be willing to be good, responsible citizens and be willing to be witnesses or to testify on their behalf in the event of some "crime" committed against them.
If a bank is robbed, no one, except those receiving a pre-paid fee from the bank, will be willing to be witnesses and/or to testify on behalf of the bank. This would be taking the libertarian ideals to it's max...Oh! So you thought it was fair for you rich business owners to squeeze the little guy? So, why doesn't the little guy squeeze back? If the businesses can't be "good citizens" doing their part...then neither can the citizens. To hell with these greedy hypocrite capitalist pigs! We can play their game too! Oh, you rich bankster did not pay me a fee? Then I know nothing and saw nothing about the men (or was it women?) that robbed your bank and beat up the bank managers.
I hate to agree with Sen. Mitch McConnell, but I would also worry about having a strict popular vote for President. The states all run their elections differently, and they vary in what proportion of the population is eligible to vote. Laws about ex-cons not voting and accidental variations in age distribution (looking at you, Florida) affect this.
The electoral college determines beforehand how much sway each state has in the presidential election. A state can not cheat and inflate it's number of votes.
The electoral college should be altered to get rid of the 2 extra votes (I'd also like to see the population-based vote total increased to make rounding less unfair), stop appointing individuals to cast votes and just do it by a rule, and eliminate the unit rule, but I want the states to be unable to use election fraud to increase their influence.
If people were still inside a burning home...would the fire departments still not try to rescue those inside because the homeowner did not pre-pay for these fire department fees?
Would we not be able to indict the Fire Chiefs for negligible homicide?
It used to be that of all professions, fire fighters were looked up to and viewed as heroes...someone we most trusted. Obviously, politicians, lawyers, banksters, and then the police were usually the worst in this category.
Looks like fire departments, in Tennessee anyway, are starting to earn their way into the most hated and untrusted category. It is unfortunate that the actual firemen, who have their orders to just stand there, are dragged into the mire. But didn't the Nuremberg Trials establish that "just taking orders" is not an excuse. Like law enforcement says "ignorance of the law is no excuse"? Maybe the police chiefs know that it is more profitable to be privatized and a CEO rather than a public employee so they are doing everything they can to wreck the "government" institutional image so that they can create a totally privatized organization that they control as a highly compensated CEO. The "protection racket" is alive and well in the US. Won't be long until the fire chiefs will be going out and committing arson on those properties that don't pay up.
The US is becoming just like Russia, that listened to the capitalists, like Goldman Sachs, making a few lucky and conniving devils, formally in the public sectors, very, very wealthy and all the rest of the population extremely destitute. Many Russians believe that they were much better off under Communism.
Maybe we should all tell our capitalist privateers that if they can play that game then so can we. Unless the privateers pay each of us citizens a fee, we will not be willing to be witnesses or to testify on their behalf in the event of some "crime" committed against them. If a bank is robbed, no one, except those receiving a pre-paid fee by the bank, will be willing to be witnesses and/or to testify on behalf of the bank. This would be taking the libertarian ideals to it's max...Oh! So you thought it was fair for you rich business owners to squeeze the little guy? So, why doesn't the little guy squeeze back? If the businesses can't be "good citizens" doing their part...then neither can the citizens. To hell with these greedy hypocrite capitalist pigs! We can play their game too!
"Pareidolia" /pair-eye-DOLE-ee-ah/ is a good word to know. Human brains aren't just overactive in finding patterns (where perhaps there are none), they are especially prone to seeing faces. There was a woman that prayed before her bathroom door because the symmetrical knots in the wood looked like "Jesus's" eyes. I don't know why these people don't realize that no one actually knows what Jesus or Mary looked like. Every painting and sculpture is a guess.
Pareidolia is one big reason we need science. As physicist Richard Feynman said, "Science is a way for us not to fool ourselves."
I am wondering if the local businesses, like banks, factories, apartment buildings, hotels, office buildings, etc.....pay the fire departments for their services. Do they pay in advance like they demand of homeowners...or do they get a free ride? If Bank of America had not paid the fire department fees...would the fire department let Bank of America burn to the ground? It would be fantastic if anyone knows if these businesses have to pay and if there were even any cases where the fire department put out a fire for a business even though they did not pre-pay the fire department.