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I feel totally helpless in trying to help the poor and the working class Americans!!! We have massive problems in our country and greed is winning in providing tens of millions of Americans with misery, pain, and suffering. I believe we are seeing crimes, sins, and treason on a daily basis.
@Palindromedary, Thank you for giving Robert Reich the credit for the article! For some reason I slipped on that article.@2950-10K, I try to put meself in the shoes of the poor and the working class Americans. It is obvious to me that these people are suffering. My concern is that there is deep and widespread hatred in this country. Why is the "Golden Rule" dead in our country???
How do I think the economy looks? GE is a good reflection of whats happening. Job creator.."over there," "killer here", Jeff Emmelt, and others like him are peeing their pants with excitement as they tap the slave markets. Our trade laws and Emmelt's short sighted greed, is heading the country quickly toward total financial ruin. It's all about shareholders and WEALTH WITHOUT WORK, a formula for disaster for most of us that work our butts off and pay our fair share of taxes in addition to actually spending the money we earn.
I wonder what % of the elite class understands that even they will eventually succumb to this economic black death. A country without industry is like the Titanic without life boats...it's just a matter of time for everyone.
Thom, the English Longbows, a new weapon used at the battle of Crecy, and later at Agincourt, also played an important role in defeating the mounted french knights in their heavy armor. It's great hearing history snippets like that!
Gerald, You're right, it's a working/middle class depression and job creation should have been the political priority all along. This however does'nt fit in with the republican's number one priority, that of creating even more misery for the working class, knowing fox will blame it on Obama and open the way for one of the corp. shill, rightwing theocrats to become President.
Good job, BusGreg!.... Fight on brother!
Palindromedary, LOL, we can only hope the facist's think we're dangerous. As for "psychos", can you imagine how Becker-head, Limpbaugh, Bachman, and "ole crosshairs Palin" would profile?....... Don't get faint of heart now, the fight has just begun!
Here's a "funny" parody of how Congress intends to "Serve the People"
To Serve the People: Congress Agrees on New Debt Plan
by: Jason van Boom on July 30th, 2011 | 3 Comments »
BREAKING: Congress has agreed on a new debt ceiling plan! Huge savings will come through a Social Security and Medicare reform program that’s also eco-friendly. It’s called “Soylent Green.” Obama: “We’ve always known that the solution to these problems lies in the American people themselves.”
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/07/30/to-serve-the-people-congres...
It might be a good idea if we all watched the 1973 movie Soylent Green...with Charlton Heston, Joseph Cotton, and Edward G. Robinson once again because it is science fiction coming true...and maybe even before the year 2022 which is what year the movie was set in.
Gerald: Thanks for that "quote" you posted from Robert Reich...#34. You did post the souce...sort of...which gives the home page of Tikkun.org but you gave no indication that this was a quote from Robert Reich. I initially thought that these were your words. If anyone goes to the following website to read Robert Reich's message:
http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/dont-fall-for-the-gop-and-obama-lie-about-...
Robert Reich's message comes right after the introductory comment by Rabbi Michael Lerner.
Anyway, that is a great web site. And this is a very revealing message from Robert Reich. Incidentally, I just watched Robert Reich's 1 hour speech on FSTV.
On a CNBC talking head show I hear these right-wing lying heads try to refute the "popular message going around that the debt crisis is only a trick by Republicans to destroy social security". These Fascist slanted major media talking head shows are, of course, a feeble efforts at telling their own lies.
He was truly a wise grandpa!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Republicans-The-People-Gr-by-Bob-Burnett-110729-703.html
Repeat after me: The federal deficit is not the nation's biggest problem. The anemic recovery, huge unemployment, falling wages, and declining home prices are bigger problems. We don't have a budget crisis. We have a jobs and growth crisis. The GOP has manufactured a budget crisis out of the Republicans' extortionate demands over raising the debt limit. They have succeeded in hoodwinking the public, including my friend.
I wonder how many human lives have been killed in our spreading of Christianity since recorded history??? Human efforts to link Jesus Christ (Christianity) to the killing of non-Christians is blasphemy, the unpardonable sin. Jesus Christ did not wish for human beings to be killed in His name. Do you sense that more Americans are reaching the insanity level?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Fingerprints-of-US-Rig-by-Thom-Hartmann-110728-363.html
Christian terrorism is spreading beyond America to all corners of our planet.
Don't fall for the GOP lie: There is no budget crisis. There's a job and growth crisis.
friend who's been watching the absurd machinations in Congress asked me "what happens if we don't solve the budget crisis and we run out of money to pay the nation's bills?" It was only then I realized how effective Republicans lies have been. That we're calling it a "budget crisis" and worrying that if we don't "solve" it we can't pay our nation's bills is testament to how successful Republicans have been distorting the truth. The federal budget deficit has no economic relationship to the debt limit. Republicans have linked the two, and the Administration has played along, but they are entirely separate. Republicans are using what would otherwise be a routine, legally technical vote to raise the debt limit as a means of holding the nation hostage to their own political goal of shrinking the size of the federal government. In economic terms, we will not "run out of money" next week. We're still the richest nation in the world, and the Federal Reserve has unlimited capacity to print money.Nor is there any economic imperative to reach an agreement on how to fix the budget deficit by Tuesday. It's not even clear the federal budget needs that much fixing anyway.Yes, the ratio of the national debt to the total economy is high relative to what it's been. But it's not nearly as high as it was after World War II - when it reached 120 percent of the economy's total output. If and when the economy begins to grow faster - if more Americans get jobs, and we move toward a full recovery - the debt/GDP ratio will fall, as it did in the 1950s, and as it does in every solid recovery. Revenues will pour into the Treasury, and much of the current "budget crisis" will be evaporate. Get it? We're really in a "jobs and growth" crisis - not a budget crisis. And the best way to get jobs and growth back is for the federal government to spend more right now, not less - for example, by exempting the first $20,000 of income from payroll taxes this year and next, recreating a WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps, creating an infrastructure bank, providing tax incentives for small businesses to hire, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, and so on. But what happens next week if Congress can't or won't deliver the President a bill to raise the debt ceiling? Remember: This is all politics, mixed in with legal technicalities. Economics has nothing to do with it. One possibility, therefore, is for the Treasury to keep paying the nation's bills regardless. It would continue to issue Treasury bills, which are our nation's IOUs. When those IOUs are cashed at the Federal Reserve Board, the Fed would do what it has always done: Honor them. How long could this go on without the debt ceiling being lifted? That's a legal question. Republicans in Congress could mount a legal challenge, but no court in its right mind would stop the Fed from honoring the full faith and credit of the United States. The wild card is what the three big credit-rating agencies will do. As long as the Fed keeps honoring the nation's IOUs, America's credit should be deemed sound. We're not Greece or Portugal, after all. We'll still be the richest nation in the world, whose currency is the basis for most business transactions in the world. Standard & Poor's has warned it will downgrade the nation's debt from a triple-A to a double-A rating if we don't tend to the long-term deficit. But, as I've noted, S&P has no business meddling in American politics - especially since its own non-feasance was partly responsible for the current size of the federal debt (had it done its job the debt and housing bubbles wouldn't have precipitated the terrible recession, and the federal outlays it required). As long as we pay our debts on time, our global creditors should be satisfied. And if they're satisfied, S&P, Moody's, and Fitch should be, too. Repeat after me: The federal deficit is not the nation's biggest problem. The anemic recovery, huge unemployment, falling wages, and declining home prices are bigger problems. We don't have a budget crisis. We have a jobs and growth crisis. The GOP has manufactured a budget crisis out of the Republicans' extortionate demands over raising the debt limit. They have succeeded in hoodwinking the public, including my friend.
web: www.tikkun.org
email: info@spiritualprogressives.org
Thom, why are you talking about economic growth, and avoiding the issue of PEAK OIL? Are we not on a world oil production plateau? Will economic growth not result in rising oil and other energy prices, followed by another economic collapse? Do you dismiss the ideas of Richard Heinberg in his new book "End of Growth"? Are you sure the US economy hasn't entered a period of long-term contraction?
Are you not the author of "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"? Can we expect a little more intellectual honesty from you?
Leading US Progressive organizations:
http://www.startguide.org/orgs/orgs00.html
Progressive Political Parties:
(note: Democratic Party is not listed...and I pretty much concur):
http://www.startguide.org/orgs/orgs01.html#cat1
Let's really make a change we can believe in this time...let's break the chains of tyranny of the Republican and Democratic Parties...vote Green. It's either that or it's the streets!
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2010/08/11/62-green-candidates-endorse-gr...
Trickle Down Economics has turned into Trickle On Economics. The GOP sold us on tax cuts for the rich by claiming that the rich would hire more Americans. Labor statistics from the beginning of the Tax Cuts until now indicate that jobs have left America and gone to China. Obviously the wealthy took their tax savings and used them to shut down factories here and move them to China. The middle class better check that wet feeling on the back of their shirts. It's not rain.
There is a very good explanation. Just read the article in The Nation Magazine's latest edition which is titled "ALEC Exposed". The Nation was able to get about 800 pages outlining this organization's game plan to allow corporate America to take over our government and dole out functions to member organizations by privitizing such functions such as education, protection of the environment and health care, among others. Think tanks have been set up in every state which actually have written the bills in both state legislatures and Congress been proposed by their representatives. By taking over state governments in at least 30 states, they are aggressively working their will at the direction of people like the Koch Brothers. They all have taken steps to rig elections by making it harder to vote taking such steps as requiring voter i.d. ALEC was founded in 1973. Their long term goals are: down sizing government, removing regulations on corporations and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account. The Republicans are faithfully following their marching orders from ALEC and systematically following the blue print. It's obvious most of our fellow citizens don't have a clue they are cutting their own throats every time they vote for the Republicans. They are easily lead to believe voting for Republicans is the way to keep Democrats from taking away from them and giving it to the people of color. They also don't understand that what Republicans mean by smaller government is to allow big business to do whatever they please without consequences so long as they fund Republicans running for office. The news coverage of the current debt ceiling debate is indicative of how worthless the national news media, especially the t.v. pundits, in providing a truthful picture of what is fact and what is B.S. Democrats appear to be unable to stand up and fight for the average citizen. In Texas we have a simple rule in dealing with antagonists. If someone wee wees on your leg, you do everything in your power to alter the anatomy of the guilty party. This is what we need to see from the Democrats. When most people wake up and realize what the REpublicans will do to us, it will be too late. If we don't vote in the Democrats, and I mean real Democrats in the House, Senate, and Presidency, what is going to stop the Republicans and ALEC from completing their mission. By the way, ACLE means the American Legislative EXchange Council. Read this article and understand the degree to which the Republicans have totally sold out to Corporate America.
Great letter to Boehner, Greg! I would have added many expletives to that old cry baby. Anyway good on you, Greg.
The thing is that if they don't pay up to their own citizens on social payments, especially social security and medicare/medicaid then they are defaulting on the debt anyway. They may not be defaulting on China, Saudi Arabia, the rich, or others but they sure are defaulting on the American people.
Good idea, Renaldo, we should be demanding that Congress and the President take a huge pay cut for not doing their jobs of keeping the country from defaulting on it's debt...especially the debt that every Republican is claiming is part of the National Debt....the social programs. Since they see it as "debt" then they would be defaulting on that part of the "debt" that is absolutely necessary to keep many masses of people from starvation. They would rather be killing people in the Middle East, and now Africa and killing their own people than cut out that huge piece of the pie that funds the killing machine. There's only one way to climb out of debt...same as after WWII....make those who mostly benefited from the riches gleaned from killing people and screwing their own people...by making them pay the same level of taxes as they did after WWII..during the Eisenhower years...well over 50%.
So what would happen if we defaulted on the debt? It has been claimed that interest rates would go up. And if interest rates go up then the banks, and other megafinancial institutions, would not be able to borrow at the current 1/4% (.25%) interest rates and then funnel that money to the BRIC countries to get 5-3/4%(5.75%) interest...a 5-1/2% (5.50%) profit. So if interest rates go up then these rich institutions will lose. Many Republican businessmen will be losing as well because people have to have money to spend it...and they will lose most of their business. So why would they let the default happen? They would be hurting themselves. They are just using the debt ceiling and threat of default to scare us into letting go of the social programs. Just what the Republicans have been wanting all along. We should call their bluff on this and demand that they don't touch social programs.
Good to hear Peter is back to his old screaming, insulting the host ways. The man seems to forget that it's Thom's show and not his. I applaud Thom's patience in putting up with comments like "I'm not having a conversation with you, I'm teaching you", and being told twice to shut up. Every time Thom interrupts Peter's rants with an inconvenient fact, Peter gets angrier and louder, but I guess that's what facts do to right wing ideologues. I think Peter screamed himself hoarse this time - notice his voice change about 2/3 of the way through.
It IS treason. Treason is what the rat party does. They care only for money and power.
Cheney is quilty of treason. Bush, Rumsfeld, Bill Krystal, Dick Army, Kock brothers, Altito, Roberts, the pubic hair judge and many more republicans but what has Eric Holder or Obama done? The population of real people would love some justice. The real people would love to see some sanity. This country has gone to shit all because of the republican party. Some party. Anyone who is not a bilionaire and votes republican has absolutely NO BRAIN. This is why the republicans are against education. They love those stupid people.
Would not the very first cut be to cut politician pay? Perhaps their pain might stimulate resolution.
Last minute issue has already hurt, so cut 2 month's pay of all politicians. No resolution by 8-2, cut an additional 6 months pay. If not resolved by 8-3, cut an entire year of politician pay.
Secondly, reduce all political pay to minimum wage since these are servants of the people and must identify with those people.
Thirdly, bust up the political party concept and replace it with all non-partisan politicians.
Fourthly, create term limits with politicians limited to one term and no pension following that one term.
Fifthly, make all political issues advisory only with their final determination made by popular vote.
HELLO DEMOCRACY, GOOD-BYE CORPORATOCRACY.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Sir,
I have watched with incredulity the circus in the House of Representatives. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Greg Williams, I will turn 59 years on August Xth and I am disabled. I have to get by on $ 923.00 each month and losing this would create incredible hard ship. Let me explain to you right here, that I and many of my compatriots will lay the full blame of default on you and the Republican Party.
I have written letters to my Representative Bob Filner, my two Democratic Senators Feinstein and Boxer as well as my President explaining this to them. I have also urged them to stand fast and NOT give in to your demands unless they include raising taxes on those earning one million dollars or more. I am not alone, as 19 studies recently confirmed that 81 percent of Americans demand this.
Again, Sir, it is you and the members of the Republican Party who are to blame for both the stale mate as well as the mess we are in in the first place. Republicans were handed both a balanced budget as well as a budget surplus by Democratic President William Jefferson Clinton. It was YOUR party the Republicans and YOUR President, George Walker Bush who squandered that wealth with unpaid tax cuts for the wealthy. It was YOUR side that entered a war on false pretenses and made up ‘facts’ in Iraq!
Your failure to lead is evident, Mr. Speaker. If you were a true leader, you would have put Country before your own interests. Your failure to put the petulant newbies from the TEA Party in their place and work on compromise demanded by the vast majority of the country, you Sir, pandered to the lunatic fringe in order to preserve your precious job as Speaker. You deserve the blame for the failure to lead as well as the imminent default.
Allow me to close with what I told My Democratic leaders. I asked them not to cave in to the demands of the Republicans. Defaulting will be far less harmful to the Nation than giving the Republicans Carte Blanche in giving the rest of the country to their corporate bosses.
You Sir, your party and its TEA Party fringe are the ones who are to blame for the mess we are in. From tax breaks for the rich to no meaningful regulation of banks, health insurance industry and the energy industry; it has been your side that has sold the Nation down the toilet for decades.
If you sir had any clue as to leadership or how to put country first, we would not be in this fix. Real leadership would have been for you to put your pride and vanity on the back burner, done what the vast majority of the Nation demands by raising taxes on the rich and worked on a real compromise with Democrats and crafted A Bill that is agreeable to the people, not your corporate bosses.
Your pathetic vanity, failure to even have a clue about leadership and utter failure to do the word Representative proud are what is to blame for the stalemate in Congress. You once proclaimed after regaining the House that the ‘adults’ are now in charge. If that is so, Sir, why do you and Mr. Cantor behave like petulant little twelve year old girls???
Greg Williams
cross-posted at www.busgreg.blogspot.com and here
Every night, countless Chinese mothers are telling their children to finish their rice, because millions of American children go to bed hungry.
They can't fix it, It's to broke to fix. Multinatioal Corportate conglomerates rule the roost , the hen that laid Humpty Dumpty got Bar B Qed by W and poor Humpty got scrambled in a pan full of pork fat.
Not only are the actions of some members of Congress treasonous, but their unwillingness to act in a responsible manner with respect to raising our nation's federal debt limit is an abdication of the very oath of office that they swore to.