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Well Thom, in regards to your question about why won't any democrats speak up about how the Republicans ran up the debt that they're currently sqwaking about; I can only hope that we're closing in on the moment in which a single voice states that the emperor has no clothes, and that the surrounding crowd of citizens are not deaf. I think we are nearing the time where the citizens can no longer put up with their willing blindness to the situation they're in, but who knows.
N
@dianhow They are paid right wing trolls who visit progressive sites and attempt to show that there is a contingency of average income Americans who actually believe right wing mumbo jumbo. Thom's boards are chalked full of these shills.
Thom's credibility is at stake here. Hespews ideological intolerance and takes on a mantle of oppression when he insists that no one can disagree with him over matters of "spirituality." He seems to think that there are no areas of legitimate disagreement - that's intolerance and unacceptable in a professed progressive.
Is the reality that the United States has now become a naked Oligarchy leading us towards Civil Unrest? Only a fool who has been robbed blind and who plays by the rules only to find that playing by rules means nothing when the game is rigged would NOT engage in civil unrest. I don't think the question is whether or not we are headed for civil unrest...that's a given...the better question would be are we heading towards a full-blown violent revolution. And to that question I would guess that we are.
"Hurtling". The root word is "hurtle", not "hurdle". "Hurdle" means to jump over, as in the "100 meter hurdles". "Hurtle" means to rush forward, oblivious to all obstacles.
Kassandra (#14) has posted the most observant reply. For years, the numbers of police, and the role of police, has been prepped for federalization -- to suppress public uprising. The military itself is composed of two layers: an elite officer corps of officers above O-5, and an large core of foot-soldiers being trained primarily in urban warfare and population control (Really, what do you THINK the true role of Iraq/Afghanistan operations is? To get something, resources perhaps? What resources are being obtained?). Above all the visible armed thuggery of police and military is the secret police, the FBI and CIA, whose primary roles are no longer crime prevention, but citizen surveillance and control.)
Remember the structure of the Nazi dictatorship? Gestapo, SS, Wehrmacht? Can you not see the same structure appearing in the shadowy development of the American dictatorship? The operational basis for the police state has morphed into one where the titular leader is irrelevant. It now makes no difference who is President -- he or she does what the plutocracy demands.
It isn't simply the "inequality", but the MASSIVE inequality. We struggled along with less pay, longer hours, fewer & more costly benefits...our children moved home, our parents as well. The financial debacle in 2008 & lack of prosecution under Obama's administration is the final straw. Nearly every family in this country is struggling in one way or another, some more than others dependent on race, locality etc. We're on the razor's edge as it is; the new jobs report is abysmal. One more natural disaster could literally break the bank. History has proven that when there is no legal or legislative recourse to correct abuses, there will be unrest if not outright revolution. People never seem to starve gracefully & quietly, go figure. July 14th is Bastille Day, coincidentally.
Mr. Hartmann,
I have a book suggestion for you. It is called "Secrets of the Temple" by William Greider.
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Temple-Federal-Reserve-Country/dp/0671675567
In essence, it discusses the economics during the Voelker era from a Federal Reserve perspective. It interviews all the key players in both administrations, Voelker, as well as Fed Governors. Because honestly, the Peter Ferrara's of the world, yesterday's debate with Stephen Moore, they are getting the edge on the debate, and I believe this book will give you the upper hand.
It's lengthy, and sometimes redundant; however, it will clearly illustrate the internal chaos in the Reagan administration regarding advocation of the monetarist policies in which Carter initiated through his appointment of Voelker, particularily from non-monetarists in Reagan's administration as well as all of Reagan's people during election years.
Simply put, Reagan obviously was a monetarist, but only when it suited his political ambitions. Not only does it include quotes from Reagan and his administration of this political fact, but it also includes rich economic statistics that dispel, among many things, the fact that Reagan created 20 million jobs.
Peace Mr. Hartmann,
DW
Founding Fathers? Perhaps you should read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". The founding fathers are exactly like the liars we have in government right now. Nothing has changed.
The Republicans are "INTENTIONALLY" collapsing America, and it should be obvious to anyone willing to open their eyes. They were 100% responsible for the criminal financial partial collapse of America in 2008, and they are now attacking everything that matters to the people, as they give tax cuts to the rich and corporations. If they win the election in 2012, they will quickly finish america off.
My question is, why are the American people not rebelling against this Republican attack on the people including the seniors. Is no one going to stop these "EVIL" people. Are the American people really going to give the power back to the people who are intentionally collapsing America? I just cant believe my eyes.
I agree with all said! Indeed we have once again reverted to an extremely unjust society, with massive ill gotten wealth being created at the expense of the working class. This transfer of wealth is an ideology promoted and embraced by the republicans, and until the average voter realizes this we will continue our slide towards the needless repeating of history, which is violent revolution.
Gerald, take care of yourself dude, stress is a killer. This is the last official day of my vacation, and I have had some fantastic carefree days, including visiting Fort Niagara yesterday. Carefree is the medicine I recommend.
I express my point of view and you resort to personal attack, which is not allowed on this board, and quote George W. Bush, for whose opinion I have zero respect. Religion is an emotional subject, there is no science, objectivity to it. Why are you evangelising atheism?
I am glad to read that so many people are finally waking up to who Obama really is!
And to those who fear what is likely to happen next...massive social upheaval.. of the might of the US military....(who are mostly all stretched very thin in the MIddle East and around the world)...and with the recent laying off of much of the police forces in many cities (I suspect that this will result in many bank robberies and overall robberies and thuggery)....and that of those in military or law enforcement who are left are also very likely in the same boat as most of us and may have a very unenthusiastic regard to follow orders from the ones who are exploiting them as well...after all, remember Vietnam?...Fragging officers?.....The troops rebelled against their commanding officers.....our numbers may be enough to call their bluff.
Rich people, Republicans, may very well change their tune when they realize that they will not be able to take their riches to where they might be going if things got rough enough. The only thing that will change things is something that is rarely necessary...... and we vote all the time to no avail. When democracy fails us, even as it is spelled out in the constitution (just a quaint piece of paper according to people like GWB...did he not even say as much when he was President?), then there are other means at our disposal to right things once more. We have seen it in our past...and it did require going beyond the ballot box...to bring some sense to those with all the gold.
When selfish and greedy rich people, who can more than afford the little extra taxation, and who have been given special favored tax status all these years, refuse to budge and would rather people lose their social security, or other social benefits, and let them starve or die of treatable diseases they cannot afford to pay for medical care, then those wealthy people deserve to be dealt with in a very severe fashion by the very mobs who they would let starve and/or die.
Our pretentious and hypocrite politicians point out how a lone pro-democratic hero in Tianamen Square is brave enough to stand in front of a tank...and the deaths of over a hundred others who stood up against tyranny and other such stories. And then they turn around and do what they are now trying to do here in the US and expect us all to just roll over and keep quiet. This would be another reason why I think the ruling elite just might back down if enough of the population rises up. The US government could no longer strut themselves as a bastion of freedom and democracy. Maybe we are way past that anyway...
Governor Don Siegelman was restricted for travelling because of the non voilent offender. As he has been deemed for the flight risk. It shouldnt happen such kind of issues.
http://www.traveladda.com/north_india/rajasthan.html
Gerald: Sorry to hear that you have been having so many medical problems. I wish you well and I hope you get better. Take it easy if you can....I know that stress is very bad and medical problems can result from it. I am not a medical doctor, or any other kind of professional related to stress, but some people find that meditation (especially when using "healing music"...like "hemi-sync" helps relaxation and stress reduction). Every means of reducing stress should not be overlooked. Good luck and I hope you succeed. If you really want to go all out there is also "floatation". I know it all sounds new-agey.
For as long as we have distractions like American Idol and the Anthony trial and who is sleeping with whom, I doubt if there will be anyone in the streets fighting for freedom, food, shelter or much of anything else. There is a reason why this is known as the United States of Amnesia. No one person can remember what took place beyond three days ago. We used to be number one in everything, now we are lucky to be number 57th and a third world country!! God HELP America!!
Hi Thom, I am a podcast listener and so do not have a chance to call into the show. However you say you read this blog every day so I will post my comment here.
Every once in a while you have some rightwing ideologue on who makes the statement that Ronald Regan ushered in the greatest period of wealth creation in US history. The last time I heard someone say that was last week I think, and it occurred to me that Wealth Creation is not what America is about. Yes in the last 30 years fabulous wealth has been created. Huge massive fortunes larger than most people can comprehend. Imagine making 5 Thousand Million dollars a year. Personally if I had 1 million I would never have to work another day in my life. At 5 billion a year that person made my million in less than an hour.
However every one of those fortunes have been made on the backs of the poor and middle class of this country. Every Tax break for the rich increases the tax burden on the average family. Every time an investor or CEO enriches him or herself beyond any reasonable level of compensation he does so at the expense of his company and its workers.
Yes we have witnessed massive wealth creation in the last 30 years but we have at the same time witnessed the largest increase of poverty and shrinkage of the middle class. Every dollar taken to enrich the fortunate few means a highly productive American worker who doesn't get a deserved raise, or a qualified American who doesn't find that needed job. Ultimately the frenzy of wealth creation of the last thirty years has destroyed the American Dream, for many millions of hard working honest Americans. Gordon Gecko was wrong greed is not good. Wealth in of itself is not bad but when it is obtained by picking the pockets of Government and the Average American it is obscene.
Our former National Security Advisor is warning us all that the economic corrosion caused by the implementation of reaganomics has resulted in the Republicans putting at risk our security, and disrupting the general welfare of "We The People". This is ECONOMIC TERRORISM, plain and simple.
The solution starts with "400 people" paying their fair share...eliminate loopholes, offshore banking, all manner of corporate welfare, needless wars, go back to pre Reagan tax rates. It's going to get ugly if the political will to enact measures like the above remains non existent. It's deeply unfortunate that we don't have more elected officials like Senator Sanders who truly believe in DEMOCRACY.
The Planet is being ravaged by policy devoted to the will of exacting corporate ( facist interests). As clearly as the case has been made Thom, what on a planetary scale is necessary is humanitarian priorities with even greater strength than a mistaken weakness created within the American supreme court. As far reaching as it seems, todays world is global and in order to bring equality truly back to humans a strategy much more grand than the one country solution will reverse the historical aggressivness of organized crime and the influence it projects via our courts across the planet.
I was horrified to hear this morning that Obama agreed to put Social Security and Medicare on the table.
I wonder what our taxes go FOR?
Just to pay the salaries of the politicians and pay for their nice tax-payer provided health care?
What about We the People.
I do not understand why Obama did this. He had said that he would not do that. The whole game in Washington is a waste of the taxpayer's money. We pay for what?
And then people like Bachmann say that nothing will happen if our country does not pay its debt. People believe her instead of economists. People love to have a hero to look up to.
I am thankful that we have Bernie Sanders, but it's not enough. It frightens me what is happening in this country, I did not think that this would ever happen.
The people currently in power are aware of what they wre doing and will continue the "bread an circuses" or "Walmart and cable" sufficiently to keep things from going that far.
And by the way did
Zbigniew Brezinski really misuse the word hurdling??? It should be hurtling, no?
I also feel a tipping point nearing. I think it is very, very important for us to consider what our response will be. Remember, the whole world will be watching. A bloody revolution will only cause the cycle to repeat. I had a vision that a day came, and people started walking, from wherever they were, in the direction of the nearest coast. They did not march on Washington. They had ceased to see Washington as responsive or rellevant. They just started to walk to the sea. People who could not walk, were out on the roads and highways, handing out water and food. Churches and lodges, in every town, opened their facilities in support of those who were walking. Very Gandhiesque. As the crowds gathered at the shore, they were told that the rest of the world had seen what they were doing, and also started walking away from their abusers. We all reached across the sea, hands seeking hands, and we remembered who we were. It was a very cool vision, actually rather a celebration of human sovereignty.
I have read the Spirit Level and understand that that many of the issues we have are symptoms of the Inequality that has been building for the last 30 years. Taxes have been rising on working people, while taxes on wealth decreased drastically. I grew up in poverty, but had mentors who encouraged me. The community college system was implemented making it affordable for me to get a college degree. With working, I graduated owing $1,000. I got a job with health care, vacation and a pension. Gradually they took away retirement health care, they decreased pay for new hires, then they changed our pension from a defined benefit to defined contribution. Last year I was downsized. Luckily I was old enough to draw my pension and my husband who is older had health care in retirement, so we are OK. I had the American Dream. I want that for the young people coming up. That is why I am active and getting involved in Rebuild the Dream with Van Jones. I have found that when you talk economics in a way that people understand, they get it that the wealthy have done very well at their expense and I think we have just about reached the tipping point on a lot of fronts.
I'm surprised at how many people have already conceded Obama will cave to the Republicans in the debate to raise the debt ceiling. It would make more sense to wait and see exactly what Obama does in fact agree to. A big question no one raises is why the Republicans have any say in whether the debt ceiling is raised? All the debt in question was created by the Republicans. The increase in the deficit during Obama's time in office is due TARP, two wars that should never have been started, the Bush tax cuts, and drug coverage for seniors, none of which were paid for. The bigger question is how dumb is America? Obama did not create the deficit. Obama did not help close 50,000 manufacturing sites or export 8 million jobs and compound the problem with tax credits for corporations who did. The Republicans did.Obama did not block all legislation to increase employment such as take away tax credits for corporations that export jobs and give them to the corporations that hire Americans. Republicans did. Obama did not allow the oil and gas industry to self-regulate. The Republicans did. The Republicans did not permit the banks and Wall Street to self regulate. The Republicans did. No party has ever previously stated clearly that their primary job was to keep Obama from getting re-elected. The Republicans did. History shows the most bills filibustered by one party in a year is 12%. Last year the Republicans filibustered 75% of the bills proposed by the Democrats. History clearly shows trickle down economics has never worked and yet this is the only solution the Republicans have put on the table to address unemployment. If we vote the Republicans back into power we will deserve everything that happens to us. This will very likely eventually lead to people in the streets. The Republicans took 8 million jobs. Many of those same people lost their homes. The Republicans have tried to eliminate food stamps also and fought any extensions to unemployment insurance. Even those who swallowed the Kool Aid and bought the 50 year claim by the Republicans that what is wrong with this country is Democrats want to take everything away from the white people and give to the colored will eventually wake up and see the Republicans for what they are. They are puppets for Corporate America. It could really get ugly when millions of Americans finally get the message they have duped. If Obama caves to the Republicans in the debt ceiling negotiations, then he doesn't deserve to be our President. However, what is the alternative. Is anyone other than a Klux Klan member or someone married to their cousin stupid enough to think Republicans are the answer rather than the cause of all of our problems?
Are we hurdling toward civil unrest--I certainly hope so. It's the ONLY thing that will wake up people, cause the monied to fear and regret their greedy ways--maybe consider the truth that we are stronger as a country when we ALL do better--that business cannot profit without the worker and the consumer (2/3 of the business picture), for whom they appear to hold contempt.
1776: we need to talk about class warfare, because that is exactly what it is. The wealthy have waged what they think is stealth warfare against the middle-class. We have noticed. They are the ones crying foul and you are either their lapdog or one of them.
They call it class warfare only when we SPEAK UP.
We need a French-style revolution -- complete with guillotine.
The light at the end of the tunnel: Liberals have 2nd Amendment rights too!