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Unfortunately, there is no way to tell whether Obama has come to his senses or not, because although he- like every other politician- talks a good game, the one thing he fears above all else, is keeping his campaign promises. It makes me wonder whether he tells his children it's ok to promise to do things and then not do them, as a lifestyle choice. And if it is not ok for his children to adopt a hypocritical lifestyle, why is it ok for him to behave that way when his unkept promises have directly resulted in thousands upon thousands of pointless deaths and even more injuries, illegal imprisonments, torture, and the bankrupting of America. Why, if I didn't know better, I would think Obama just doesn't have the courage to do the job he talked us into electing him to do or the honesty to admit it.
To correct a claim about a Reagan movie being "scrubbed", the "Bedtime for Bonzo" movie starring the chimp is available on Netflix
The persons who are leaving the administration have done great damage to the presidency. The people who are leaving will be rewarded handsomely by the rich and transnational corporations. There are excellent replacements but Obama must want and seek out these replacements to be part of his administration. Hopefully, the people who are leaving are taking their stench with them.
As a person grows older, here is a problem.
What I cannot understand why people who have been married for thirty or forty years are divorcing. As a person grows older, his body does not function normally. Here is an example. When I eat, my internal plumbing does not digest the food as easily as it did at a younger age. This slow digestive process develops more air pockets in the colon. With more air pockets there is more expelling gas. Some women tire of the continuous stench in the air. What I try to do with more air pockets in my colon, I go into the basement or outside the home. At times I cannot hold back the expelling gas. To date my wife has not complained about my discombobulated internal plumbing but a man never knows what is going through a woman’s mind. I share these words with you so you can use extreme caution with the frequency in expelling gas as you grow older in the presence of your wife.
I have been chewing my food longer and I have found that I am expelling less gas.
It'll be interesting to find out who replaces Timmy Geithner. Another Goldman Sax tool?
Democracy Now today had a fascinating piece on the subject of "debt" as a driver of world strife. That has recently been my "beef". Who appointed private BANKERS and "Rating Agencies" (Moody's , S&P, Fitch, etc.) masters of our little planet? Time we took them down a notch, and then some.
Thom should interview the author of "Debt: the first 5000 years", David Graeber. Paul Mason of BBC Newsnight was a light in the tunnel, too.
Peace, all.
@Kassandra, same is true for a zebra!!!
A. Like heaven, it's nice to believe one exists.
Q. Does President Obama have a secret weapon?
A. An insurance giant will fail.
Q. What do you think will happen?
I just don't see Obama appointing more progressive ( left) advisers after what he did when so many left after '10. What did he do? he appointed lobbyists from the banks and big corporations to "advise him".
Obama isn't progressive. He's even siad he's a "New Democrat" which mean Neo-liberal.
I DO hope he holds the line on the debt ceiling, but his hiostory fo caving over everything that could help US get out of this economic disaster doesn't give me much "hope".
A leopard doen't change his spots
Fleeing the sinking ship .... where to go before it all comes crashing down?
I just hope we get another former CEO to help regulate banks. They are always willing to help create larger and larger to big to fail companies.
Here are more thoughts and words to lead your weekend!
GOP/Taliban Farts
Democrats are not perfect but they do not have an air about them.
Here are some laughing points regarding the GOP and the Taliban!
GOP/Taliban have an air about them. They really do have an air about them.
GOP/Taliban are synonymous with the fundamentalists, the neocons, and the kkkristian evangelicals.
Their farts remind me of their attitudes and policies. Here are some examples.
1. Vain fart – GOP/Taliban love the smell of their farts.
2. Proud fart – GOP/Taliban think their farts are exceptionally fine.
3. Impudent fart – GOP/Taliban boldly fart out loud and then laugh.
4. Strategic fart – GOP/Taliban fart and then conceal it with loud coughing.
5. Sadistic fart – GOP/Taliban fart in bed and then pull the cover up over their partner’s head.
6. Unfortunate fart – GOP/Taliban try really hard to fart, but they poop instead.
7. Honest fart – GOP/Taliban admit they farted but offer good medical reasons.
8. Dishonest fart – GOP/Taliban fart and then blame the dog.
9. Thrifty fart – GOP/Taliban always keep a couple good farts in reserve.
Please enjoy your weekend holiday! Here are some thoughts and words that may help your weekend.
Advanced Farts
Different Types of GOP/Taliban Farts
Beefy Fart
Sounds loud, and will smell a bit like the rotting offspring of an infected cow and a dog turd.
Brewer Fart
You try to push the Brewer Fart out, but it stays firmly lodged deep within your bowels. You come to the conclusion that it is some form of gaseous landmark.
Bunbuster Fart
Sounds like a Beefy Fart, except much more sudden and much much more powerful. Generally smells eggy or beefy. Leaves your asshole smarting. You really feel these babies.
GNL Fart
Gambled ‘n’ Lost. You make a gamble that it’s going to be a fart and you stay where you are, but realize tragically that this is much more than a fart.
Hydrated Flatulation (aka Wet Fart)
The original Wet Fart, that leaves a mark on your pants, and gives you a cold wet sticky sensation when you walk. You may not like this little bugger, but the GOP/Taliban feel right at home with it.
Prelude to a Poopie
You feel like you have got a large beefy one, but out comes a tiny squeaker fart, and the head of something massive. You tense your buttocks fast, lest you give birth to the brown equivalent of a zeppelin.
Sphinctal Napalm
Tends to occur a few hours after a hot curry! Never mind the smell, worry about the burning sensation and the nasty stain you know it must have left.
Trouser Ripping Special
Sends seismic ripples to the next city! Rips the back of your pants. This fart genuinely hurts, and you can still feel it 20 minutes later. Anyone sitting nearby at the time will suffer hearing loss.
Hope this goes on this time.
Quote: “It was a tsunami that triggered the world's worst nuclear meltdown at Japan's Fukushima plant a few months ago.” -Thom Hartmann
Think of this: When the U.S. was bombing Afghanistan, the top brass commanding the American aircraft carriers ordered the Japanese operating their own refuelling tankers to bring them (the American) fuel from Bahrain for American war ships. It was easier for them to fuel up that way. The Japanese refused. In the end they complied after the Americans told them they would bomb Japan if they did not do exactly what they were told. The Japanese remembered Hiroshima all too well.
The Japanese people have been demonstrating against American foreign bases on their land. The Americans stay anyway.
The Americans along with Israel are losing the propaganda battle against Iranian peaceful nuclear plants. The world is turning against the Americans and Israel on this point.
Even the IAEA gives Iran a clean bill of health as it did Iraq.
With the Japanese car and truck industry hit by nuclear fallout, the American car industry is put back on its feet with little resistance.
Interestingly enough tectonic plates seem to not be near Japan to set off major earthquakes bringing on Tsusamis.
But an underground H-bomb explosion surely would.
Was the American base hit by the wave?
The more damage America does to the world on behalf of ‘its friend’ the more damage the U.S. will incurr on its own head. I can only hope the good people of the United States can find a way to take back their own country before its too very late.The United States military must stand with its own people against those who do not govern the United States for the good of all humanity, but are out to destroy it in the name of liberty.
At this late date to even consider that Obama has any interest in preserving Social Security and Medicare and anything else that benefits the middle class is retaining blind faith in a President who has done nothing but pander to Wall Street, big oil, big coal, the nuclear industry, the military industrial complex and his billionaire supporters since he entered the Oval Office. Because Obama chose to call himself a Democrat when he first entered politics he has been given carte blanche to do as he pleases without being restrained by real Democrats fighting him tooth and nail while he fulfills his promises to billionaires. Obama was a Trojan horse that entered the Oval Office as the voters' gift to themselves. They had blind faith and blind hope that he would deliver on his promise of "change". Little did they know that inside that Trojan horse was a liar and a hypocrite who, as soon as he was elected, proceeded to betray them. And when Obama is re-elected he will finish the job he started during his first term: the decimation of the middle class. The blind faith of Democrats in not wanting to aknowledge who and what Obama is or merely labeling him weak and innefectual will insure that this will happen. And those that are hanging on to the slim hope that if Obama is re-elected he will make an appointment to the Supreme Court that will swing the court to the left are living in a dream world. Those people are willing to gamble away our Social Security and Medicare on a future Supreme Court nomination that could cement the complete take-over of our country by the oligarchs. After Obama is re-elected he will no longer have to throw crumbs to the left. He can show himself for the neo-con that he is. And after his second term he can join his fellow neo-cons on their yachts, rewrite history in his post-presidential book, look at the destruction he has wreaked on all the rest of us, and say "let them eat cake."
On Thursdays show you talked about the false sense of freedom that the Libertarians promote to gain support. You compared their plan for small government/big army to some country and pointed out what kind of mess they are in. What country was that?
Re: the National Debt Ceiling
If Obama can disregard congress regarding his war in Syria, can't he also disregard congress regarding the debt ceiling?
"as a Canadian, flush with all this high-value (if funny looking) Canadian cash.. am I allowed to donate to Stephen Colbert's Super Pac?"
If you are having problems, as a real person, donating to a Pac then just incorporate into a faux person, a company or corporation, and you may be able to buy any of your favorite politicians that way....our Supreme Court made this all possible.
Well, this is the same kind of mis information that we got during the Reagan attack on the working class - trickle down economics. During the depression ( like what we more or less have going on today as far as the economy - maybe a little worse) the government hired young strong men, to make parks, roads - whatever. They had to meet certain regulations. They had to have a poor family back home, they got 25 cents of every dollar they earned, were fed and clothed and provided with a place to stay. More importantly 75 cents of every dollar went back to the family back home. So don't tell me about giving breaks to business or even worse giving breaks to millionaires and billionaires, and how everybody needs to be an entrepenuer because - the government takes 38 percent out of my check, and I know trust fund babies, who get 2 and 3 times as much money as I earn for sitting on their ass and the government only takes out 15 percent in taxes for them,
boo hoo.
http://salon.com/a/sFDwfAA They're betting against US!
Here's a thought: Since Obama doesn't have to run against Clinton this time, he won't be obliged to appoint Clintonites in his second term. Maybe he'll be more progressive starting in 2013.
A good bit of information to remember is that Nebraska is the only state with a unicameral legislature.
And there may be a correction in order. On the subject of the government-mandated nudity devices (a.k.a. porno scanners), Thom has said the TSA people are getting "cancer clusters". I don't have Thom's primary source for this, but normally "cancer cluster" doesn't refer to multiple cancers within one person, but a demographic group that has more instances of cancer than people outside that demographic, to the point that it cannot be random chance. In this case, that demographic is TSA employees--they are the cluster.
First thing to cut would be Congressional Salaries, and elimination of ALL their percs!!
Simple;
Just issue some credit default government bonds to cover it all.
Question; (maybe another subject?) ..as a Canadian, flush with all this high-value (if funny looking) Canadian cash.. am I allowed to donate to Stephen Colbert's Super Pac?
If not, I guess if I register a company in Nevada etc.. that company would have the 'free-speech rights' to throw all the cash 'it' wants into the campaigns? Is that the way it works?
Seriously, the first thing our own little neo-con Harper did with his 40% 'majority' was to cut out government funding for political parties. Hmm, he has just ordered postal workers back to work with less money than what was offered by the post office; he's sounding like a Republican Governor.
Feh!
As usual, you lay out a brilliant commentary. The only problem is the Republicans use a different form of logic and reason than you do. Instead of trying to find ways to solve problems in a way beneficial to all, their form of logic revolves around getting and keeping power and money. And the end always justifies means.
Thanks for providing that insight Thom. We have to collectively encourage the President to not back down on this. It is encouraging to hear that he has the power to turn the tables on them. What they are doing across the country right now is criminal behavior. These republican politicians deserve to be thrown in jail for neglecting the basic human rights of the lower in middle classes in favor of preserving their phony elitist agenda.
I am no expert but I think we need to be realistic about our expectations. This situation is provoking a lot of people to actually care about politics for a change. It is going to radically reduce voter apathy because basic human needs are being threatened on such a large scale. Coupled with the development of many "people movements" being formed this is an opportunity in the coming years for "we the people" to gain an unprecedented amount of political power. The republicans are causing a great deal of suffering but if this process serves to rally the troops out of their general apathy than it is a blessing in disguise. We should not overreact to the rep's manipulation of our economy. It is actually serving to build the power of the people for the next elections and for the next generation.
I don't know if many of you know about moveon.org but it is essentially an attempt to create the progressive equivalent of the tea party. There are currently about 1200 gatherings planned for the weekend of the 16th and 17th and they are eager to get as much of a turnout as possible. They still need people to host these gatherings as well. The website has all the tools and resources that you would need to host a gathering. If an organization with very little substance such as the tea party can generate so many participants I would think a progressive party that has so much substance should attract twice as many, at least. So please go to moveon.org and participate.
Happy 4th, jason
Highly recommended to watch Cenk Uygur on the june 30 youtube video. He says it all..well, most of it.
MSNBC/The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur addresses the people who despise the fact that he's critical of President Barack Obama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIBENqZilk