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Spoken like a true Tea Partier Thom! We were screaming about this in 2007 at the top of our lungs, before we even came together under the Tea Party label. Also the reason why the present ruling class must be sent packing on a vacation with Ghadaffi, regardless of party affiliation.
Mark Williams
Why would Obama start acting in accord with his words now? Why start on jobs now, instead of when he really had a much better chance of getting legislation through. No, I think he knows there is no chance, so it sounds good for his re-election campaign.
The only campaign promise he kept was sending more troops to Afghanistan. Everything else was a lie. It is giving me a modicum of respect of GWB - at least his legislative actions were exactly in accord with his words - awful as it all was. As I keep saying "half white man speak with forked tongue." Obama is a DINO.
It really would be nice if Obama acted like a democrat, instead of just talking like one.
Really excellent idea, although it appears their history needs some refreshing. From he time of Jackson, with his "pet banks" and Van Burens "sub treasure" there was no central bank, that is until 1913. All those recessions, starting with 1837, were the result of the federal governments inability to exercise monetary policy. But I do like the idea of congress taking control, and then politically allocating investment capital to their chosen beneficiary.
The republicans- even poor republicans!- are welded to the idea of trickle-up economics, where the corporations and wealthy people get all of the government handouts, subsidies, tax breaks, and so on, and then- and this is where you see their total disconnect from reality- in their fantasy version of tricke-down economics, the corporations and wealthy people say, "Oh here, let's all help the middle class and the poor."
The only problem with that fantasy is just that: it's a fantasy. No matter how many handouts, subsidies, and tax breaks the corporations and the wealthy get, they have NEVER helped the middle class or the poor. They stockpile the money they are given, and use it to fuel their mergers and acquisitions, and they raise interest rates on the middle class and poor people. This is how it's worked every time, for decades.
The cure? Well, the cure is obvious: TRICKLE-UP economics. Give none of the money- not one penny- to the corporations and wealthy people. Give all of the handouts, subsidies, and tax breaks to the middle class and the poor people, and raise taxes on the corporations and the wealthy people- especially capital gains. The reason this works is obvious: when the middle class and poor people have more money, they spend most of it, because they HAVE to, in order to eat and pay the rent, and the corporations that own the food stores and apartment complexes and houses still end up with the money. And if the middle class and poor people have a little money left over, they go on vacations and again the corporations that own the hotels, motels, cruise ships, and airlinesg get most of that money, too. But with trickle-up economics, the corporations and wealthy people have to DO something to get almost all of everyone's money- they have to provide consumer goods or services to get the money.
I repeat: THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT WITH TRICKLE-UP ECONOMICS, THE CORPORATIONS AND THE WEALTHY HAVE TO PROVIDE GOODS AND SERVICES BEFORE THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON MOST OF EVERYONE'S MONEY.
Republicans are always talking about how wonderful capitalism and the free market are, but what they're really talking about is legalized theft. They are talking about stealing money from the middle class and the poor, cheating them, defrauding them, and forcing them to carry the entire tax burden and get none of the benefits. And that is not capitalism, it is bribery, theft, fraud, and malfeasance.
And I'm going to make a prediction: when the southerners and the midwesterners finally figure out that the republicans have been bull___ing them, they're not going to be happy about it. So, how have the republicans trained their supporters to behave when they are not happy with someone? I'll give you a hint: it's all Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye stuff.
Uh-oh. Doesn't look good for the corporations and the wealthy...
What should be done is to pass The Glass Stegall Act and get rid of the Banksters. However Obama says he will veto Glass Stegall so Americans have to push their Congresspeople to pass it. Right now some Democrats and some Republicans have signed on to it....We need more to do it...and push Obama to stand down against Glass Stegall
Make tobaco illegal and instead, grow industrial hemp. Most beneficial plant there is. You really can't smoke it, and you won't have millions dying horribly every year from tobacco!
A depresion is what the Super-Rich want. They will still be rich, but they will have more power. People will have to work for table scraps instead of money. And the religious extremists will look at it as a punishment from God and accept the temporary suffering for "Eternal salvation".
A new stimulus package indirectly helps solve our growth problem because deficit spending forces the monetary system/Federal Reserve to create money and infuse it into the economy. But the real answer is complete monetary reform. Please review the Monetary Reform section of our website at www.progressive-economics.com of the Center for Progressive Economics. We feel that we have a similar but more complete and political answer for monetary reform than the American Monetary Insititute.
Mark Pash, CFP - Center for Progressive Economics
We are collateral damage and they just see it as a cost of doing business.
USS Liberty 1967 "incident".
An earlier caller had mentioned this, and I called to supplement that conversation, but was told to post here. It took me a while to find this spot.
I am familiar with these 900+ pages because I downloaded them and printed them out a while ago, because I like to base my decisions on facts not innuendo, propaganda or spin.
The original (truly) Top Secret report resulting from the June 10, 1967 order of Admiral John S. McCain, Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Europe - was declassified quite awhile ago.
In October 2003, Congress was once again attempting to look into the "incident" where 34 American Sailors were killed and 172 were wounded.
According to an Israeli Embassy statement [in Oct 2003], it was "a terrible accident".
This is somewhat at odds with the now declassified reports which include, electronic signal jamming preceeding and during the more than one hour attack by Israeli jets and torpedo boats on the USS Liberty.
I believe the caller meant to remind us of how incapable some of our so-called allies are of taking responsibility for their actions or even being remorseful of them.
That the facts of this are still not common knowledge in America speaks volumes.
Your Tea Party guest who suggests that he or his party should be making all decisions for citizens who are on the "public dole" is hilarious as usual due to his blatant hypocracy. Why? Because as a typical right winger he believes that only the poor and out of work are on the "public dole." However the truth is, as has been shown time and time again, there is not a millionaire, billionaire, or corporation in existence who isn't now or hasn't been in the past on the "public dole." In fact, many of these privlidged individuals and corporations wouldn't be where they are now if they hadn't have received HUGE amounts of public funds and which, incidentely, in most cases they are still receiving. Of course most of us are familiar with the Oil & Gas subsidies, but there are dozens of subsidies fo dozens of corporations. Additionally there are the dozens and dozens of tax loopholes that allow these millionaires and corporations to avoid paying taxes, in many cases all together. Then there are the tax breaks they have "bribed" the politicians into giving them for shipping American jobs over seas. Also there are strong arm policies that millionaires & billionaires use like when they tell the citizens of a particular state to either build them (the millionaire) a sports stadium using their (the citizens) taxes after which they (the millionaire) will charge excessive ticket prices which the average citizen will never be able to afford but which the millionaire will reap HUGE profits from and if the citizens don't Ithe millionaire will move his team to another city or state.
So using the logic of this Tea Party person shouldn't we as citizens also be able to decide how to run the lives of these millionaires, billinaires and corporations who are taking MUCH more from public funds individually than any other single citizen who takes a miniscule fraction compared to them? Of course it would, but these opinions are not about logic they are all about repression of the poor and disenfranchised. Remember to stay awake, look at the big picture and try not to get caught up in these small quibbles when they are argued cut off from the whole of the truth.
Gene
Libya also has 143.8 tons of gold ... and some speculate that is the real reason for the invasion.
Re: Those who abuse the "system"
A question for the gentleman who called in complaining about those who abuse the "system"; Because there are those who abuse capitalism, should that system be done away with as well?
What about corporate welfare?
Mark Williams said that if the government provides money, they should have some say into what is done with the money. I would have liked to hear whether he would apply the same principle to corporate welfare.
Dan in San Diego.
I'd be interested in seeing what Mark has to say about corporations that are "on the dole."
I gave up on the Grand Old Plutocracy Party way before it was popular to give up on them. If it walks like an america-hating duck and talks like an america-hating duck..it's a Republican politician.
It's the "interest-free" aspect which is especially nauseating. Regular people are paying 29% interest and late fees and/or towing and impound fees on car title loans just to keep their lights on.
Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Trump have publicly advocated plunder, which is a war crime.
I-N-S-O-L-V-E-N-T: Citigroup Was In Debt To The Fed 7 Out Of Every 10 Days From August 2007 Through April 2010
Bloomberg notes, in an article entitled "Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2T in Loans":
Citigroup was in debt to the Fed on seven out of every 10 days from August 2007 through April 2010, the most frequent U.S. borrower among the 100 biggest publicly traded firms by pre- crisis market valuation. On average, the bank had a daily balance at the Fed of almost $20 billion.
“Citibank basically was sustained by the Fed for a very long time,” said Richard Herring, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who has studied financial crises.
In other words, Citi was wholly insolvent, but the Fed decided to keep it moving, at least as a zombie.
The Bloomberg article includes a great quote:
“Why in hell does the Federal Reserve seem to be able to find the way to help these entities that are gigantic?” U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, said at a June 1 congressional hearing in Washington on Fed lending disclosure. “They get help when the average businessperson down in eastern North Carolina, and probably across America, they can’t even go to a bank they’ve been banking with for 15 or 20 years and get a loan.”http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/
I want to share the following petition circulated by Tucson United and send kudos to Benjamin Bosley for his efforts:
The eternal struggle between right and wrong. The common right of humanity set against the divine right of kings. It is the same spirit that says, " you work and toil and earn bread and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, or from massive organized wealth organized in corrupting a democratic republic and dictating to a once free society; it is all the same tyrannical principle of despotism.
“Be it resolved that the City of Tucson hereby joins the people of Tucson, Arizona in their 'Tucsonans United For Honest Leadership' campaign for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the fictions of corporate personhood and 'money equals speech' and return our democracy, our elections, and our communities back to America's human persons and thus reclaim our sovereign right to self-governance.”
For more information, or to sign the petition, visit:
http://signon.org/sign/tucsonans-united-for?source=s.em.cr&r_by=51029&ma...
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The question at hand is, will the lawmakers do what we the people want, or bow to the corupt rich people. There was a time when I would have laughed at such a question. Of course they will do as we ask them to do. However, from the elections I have seen stolen the the resent past, they don't need our votes to get elected. They simply alter the voting machines, or suddenly find a huge amount of lost votes. And when it ends up in front of a judge, he to bows to the rich corupt ones. Man oh man, this situation is seriously starting to scare me for the future of this nation. I can no longer say what should happen, WILL.
Our government is hopelessly corrupt because it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to "management." Until we ban money from politics, we are subject to this abuse in our inverted totalitarian system. We think we are participating in democracy but we're not. We are being manipulated continually on the road to serfdom. See you there.
I wish I had a good answer to this. I don't believe in planning for failure: failure is not an option and if all else fails most of us will be more worried about starting whatever the next life turns out to be (and I will not argue about that) than our supplies of gold bars/k rations/bullets. All that reminds me of George Carlin's rant on Saving the Earth: no, we can't Destroy the earth, just its capability to support our kinds of life. Once we've killed ourselves off, the earth will continue and make a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. Can't say I'm all that interested in what happens after my whole species dies.
If we let it come to that we have only ourselves to blame. Someone on this board put up links to videos calling for a new Bonus Army to do in DC what progressives have done in Wisconsin. It's called the October 2011 Coalition (www {dot} October2011 {dot} org) and on youtube: /watch?v=KjXARZDKdHk&feature=related.
If I can't get anyone to give me a ride out of the Tampa area, I see that the Big Grey Dog is only $90. I am seriously considering just packing a bag and leaving the rest of my junk behind. If we don't shake loose of the deathgrip the oligarchs have on our throats, nobody will do it for us. If I had a choice I'd rather use the $90 for gas and food, than give it to a corporation, but...