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Thom Hartmann continues to think that all that is needed is for everyone to read more anti-ruling-class literature at various web sites, etc. So what will that do except continue to enforce the reader's opinions or perhaps, depending on the true motives of those media, keep people convinced that they should be mad as hell but still vote for Democrats. When some Democrats turn out to be lying sacks of sh!t traitors to those who elected them in the first place, then it's time to send a really big message and vote Independent...in the very least...if not a violent revolution. No, don't vote for that A-hole twit, Trump, that gets off on firing people and made his reputation and persona on that draconian and machiavellian schtick...what a clown!
Jessie Ventura is looking, and sounding, like a really great possibility...but I wonder how well even Jessie Venture would hold true to his preelection convictions. I wonder what our constitution concerning elegibility for president (in re: dual citizenship..Jessie did say that he is considering dual citizenship with Mexico where he currently lives)...the Repubs would have a sh!t fit over that and continue to give comedians like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher more fodder for their audience's funny bones. I think that even the comedians like Maher and Stewart are acting like a kind of steam release valve that may even help keep the lid on and defuse outright revolution. They act as a kind of catharsis..a comic relief..so that we can continue along our not so merry way struggling for a better life while it all slides down the slippery slope into the sh!tter.
But since the rich have degradated the honor of the office of the POTUS by rigging the elections to put into office those circle-jerk dummies, including Obama, and criminalized not only our government in general, and the supreme count, congress, and the presidency specifically, some people (maybe a lot of people) may be thinking that only a violent revolution is the only answer.
So, I wonder just how Thom Hartmann, and some of those organizations, who pretend to be on the side of working and retired Americans, who say all kinds of things we want to hear....just how much are they really on our side? They are playing the money game as well...although I imagine Thom doesn't get the big bucks that someone like Sean Hannity, et al, gets. After all that Obama has done against those who voted for him, siding with the rich, it makes absolutely no sense to continue supporting Obama or any of the turncoat Democrats. It's the old bait-and-switch game. A game to keep people hopeful that change will occur. That's what the Democrat party has become....a smoke-and-mirrors, bait-and-switch illusion of democracy. There's no democracy here...it's an illusion. It's as corrupt as any third world country dictator, aping democratic elections which are obviously rigged, and proclaming that they are a democratic country. The rich are our dictators and they use a dangling puppet useful idiot in the guise of some pompous ass pretending to be honorable and fair while making backroom deals and using state of the art propaganda to keep us all from a raging rebellion.
Some people might look at history and see that it eventually took violent revolution to make things right. It's a struggle. And if you think that all it takes is to read more stuff, and get others to read it, and show up at meetings and get active....for what purpose to get more voters? We had more voters when we elected Obama and look what happened...and now Thom Hartmann is saying we should all work harder to get him reelected? How dumb is that? It is nice to hear most of what Thom, et al, says in support of the majority of Americans, the non-rich, but I cringe everytime he tends to indicate that reelecting Obama, or just the Democrat party is the answer. We did that with Obama already. Fool me once...but never again!
The False Debate on the Debt
By Robert Scheer
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/the_false_debate_on_the_debt_20110412/
Get Robert Scheer and Chris Hedges on regularly. You're too moderate, Thom...
Maxrot, we do kind of have to have a 2-party system, because we have single-member districts. If we had multi-member districts the ability of a minor-party candidate to get elected, instead of just stealing votes from the more agreeable major party, would make extra parties viable.
I would reduce the number of House districts to 250 (so that it's 5 x the number of states, just like the Constitution originally had it), but each district would be represented by 5 votes in the House. Those 5 votes would be given to the candidates proportionately to the popular votes they get (just like a normal proportional representation system, except going by individuals instead of parties).
To be pragmatic, we should probably use a state legislature as a test bed though.
What about athletes who give credit to God when they win, but blame themselves when they lose? If you follow the logic, either the players have no free will (they are controlled by God), or God has no free will (the players control God), or neither has free will (something controls both God and the players).
We don't have to have a 2 party system, we're stuck with a 2 party system, and we unfortunately have to vote for the lesser of 2 evils, but we don't have to have a 2 party system.
I don't even want to push for a 3rd party, or to be more precise I don't want to push for only a 3rd party, no I'd like to see a 4th, and a 5th party at the least. Divide, conquer and tame our political leadership... that's the way I see it.
N
great people of history understood dependant origination. the interconnection of all life. Shakyamuni stated the seven principles preventing decline as 1 to value discussion and dialogue 2value cooperation and solidarity 3 to value laws and traditions 4 to respect elders 5 respect children and women 6 respect religion and spirituality 7 to value people of culture and learning, whether they are from your culture or not. to be open to such influences from abroad.
i look at so many people of history from Shakyamuni Dr.king Gandhi Rumi Nichiren Jesus Ikeda Boulding Zinn Tutu and Madela amoung others that lived with the undestanding that we are all in this together
FDR claimed that his policies saved capitalism from itself. From his limited perspective of time and the immediate results of his policies, he was correct. But it seems that he only postponed what the robber barons had planned, he put a road block in front of them, but it seems to have only been a temporary set back. Woe unto the citizenry of the US, for in the next decade we will either be improverished or forced into a violent revolution... either way it does not bode well for those of us that will be crushed under the iron heel, then hung on the cross of iron. Of course that will only be 98% of us. Whether we will forge a great new country out of such a crucible is unknown, but in truth, I have no real desire to be tested by that furnace. Our only hope is a true democratic grassroots movement to head off this head on rush to the cliff edge. In Wisconsin we are seeing the stirrings of such a movement, the question is will it be stamped out, or will it spread? I find myself hoping for the latter.
N
I've never understood why we have this debt ceiling in the first place. In my lifetime -- 54 yrs -- no republicorp president hes put forward a legally balanced budget. Nixon had a short lived small surplus he created by impounding funds, but other than that, any balanced budgets were propsed by "tax and spend" democrats. Anyway, with that in mind, a debt ceiling is as meaningless as a Consttitutional amendment for a balanced budget. I guess as long as we argue over what they never intend to do, they have an excuse to not do what they never intend to do.
Ooh, there's a budget idea. Can we defund the IMF?
Here is a major problem that liberals, progressives, socialists, and working Americans face in the United States of Mortal Sin.
We can no longer rely on a party or a person for the work to be accomplished. Change can only come from the ground up and the work will have to be accomplished by you and me.
Currently, we are a damned nation and by 2065 the United States of Mortal Sin will die. It is truly over for our fascist-Nazi country.
Ladies and gentleman bend over and grab your ankles Obama has a plan!
Waiting to compare his budget to Paul Ryan’s right wing, crazy ass, plan leaves as they say, a lot of space in the middle, because the middle has been moved so far right you can’t see left from there.
If we progressives let him get away with this new betrayal, we deserve what we get. I have not seen the specifics but you just wait my friends we are going to get screwed, no candy, no flowers, no kiss.
Hi Thom, can you comment on Chris Cillizza of the Wasington Post " The Fast Fix" that's on Yahoo.Com
I think something is wrong with he's graph about how the country got in debt, thanks
I saw the video in your tweet:
Training Tea Party Activists In Guerilla Internet Tactics - BUSTED!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGB8Uuffi4M&feature=player_embedded#at=60 ;The results of your poll suggest that these traitors have infected your site and are on the road to destroying the social media as any free and open community based on the HONEST exchange of ideas.Thom, loved the way you handled "Vaughn" on Tuesday.
Listening to NPR's news this morning there was a repeating of one of the freshman House republicans expressing that there is more than enough collected in tax revenue to pay the interest on the debt. I found this to be quite intersting. As if that were the main goal of collecting taxes. Which led my to question who are the ones collecting on that interest. Is it ridiculas to wonder weather there are any strong ties to the top 1% Thom has been talking about. If they were fairly taxed it might actually go to paying off the actuall debt. Anybody out there have further insight on this one????
How can this be a close vote, when our representatives are corporate paid to do what corporate wants?
This meeting is intended to allow all the tasks and streamline activities in the future. Members of this group are prominent figures and research paper writers. Accordingly to mentioned, it is not difficult to make right decisions.
Thom
It would be good to begin pounding away at our country's "Empire" expenses. We are blowing billions overseas. The two wars, the troops and bases in many countries-why? The list is endless: you could list each day as a feature a few of these black holes in which we pour millions. For crying out loud, the HQ for the US Navy's 5th fleet is in Bahrain! Why do we have troops and bases in Germany. I've read that we have over 150 overseas military installations!
For instance, there is a false argument that we need to check the Chinese by stationing troops in Japan, Guam, Korea, etc.. Well, aren't the Chinese MORE compelled to contest us because we are in their back yard with American military presence? How would we feel if the Chines had 50,000 troops stationed in Cuba, Canada and Mexico?? Last summer we were running naval exercises and war games inthe Sea of Japan! How would we feel if the Chinese were doing the same in the Gulf of Mexico? Clearly, we are the aggressors in this situation. We should butt out.
And America wonders why the Iranians are so belligerent. Well, we are waging war in the two countries that border Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq. (How would we feel if the Chinese were waging war in Canada and Mexico?) No wonder that regime is paranoid. I can't say anything good about the Iranian regime, but don'cha think that our presence actually makes the Iranian regime rule more harshly and gives them an excuse to do so because of the fear of the "Great Satan" on their borders?
There are billions to be saved by shrinking our military empire-and it would enhance our stature in the world and make us more secure if we used diplomacy instead of guns to represent our interests.
Lysis - you hit thew nail on the head! This is what 99.9% of the progressives fail to realize - AMERICA IS NOT A DICTATORSHIP!
It is amazing to me that these super progressives don't realize that we have a representative government, of which there are 3 legislative branches and one Judiciary, the Supreme Court.
We have a Constitution and we have laws. Obama is stuck with it all. He cannot one day wake up and ipso facto fix everything - he has to work within the system, and the system we have, DEMOCRACY, does not lend itself well to DICTATORSHIP!
And all these progressives miss this when they yell at him!
So ok. He could have stood his ground, said no to the cuts, and there would have been a government shutdown. So who would that of benefited? Absolutely no one. If fact it would of hurt our economy terribly, put 1.0M people out of work, and maybe have sent us into another recession. So he compromised.
We would all LOVE that Obama could at a flick of his pen magically fix all our problems. But then, as you state, he would then be just another 2-bit dictator. Progressives seem to miss the fact that a Republican with the same power they wish Obama had, would wreck unimaginable havoc and disaster to America!
But this I have to state: Obama needs to put boxing gloves on and play the game he inherited a bit more aggressively! He is a bit too cerebral, a bit too willing to compromise and a bit too willing to play by the rules. The Republicans haven’t the former and certainly despise the second and they do NOT play by the rules!
Obama needs to stand his ground. If he does not, the Republicans will take him out to lunch. They are already doing it and they have pegged him – ask for the most outrageous and Obama will move to the Right and give it to them. This has to stop.
If Obama in his speech tonight states that he will try to “Fix” Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, etc, and he again tries to Compromise with the repugs, in 2012 I’m voting for my Pekinese!!
I am really sick of it all!
It's neither a matter of race nor gender, but class. Hillary Clinton, for example, was the leading proponent of welfare "reform."
To start with. The last Democrat in office ended basic poverty relief for Americans (i.e., welfare), in spite of the fact that not everyone can work, and that this has never been a full-employment nation (made much worse by the massive exporting of American jobs since Reagan). People say, "No way would a Democratic prsident cut off Social Security," but until Clinton came along, most people believed that there was no way that America would turn its back on babies and children in deep poverty. Just as welfare was "reformed" by first reducing benefits (and, at that time, swearing that government had no intentions of ending welfare), Obama will begin "reforming" Social Security for the disabled and elderly. The "reforms" will continue until the program is wiped out. Think about it; today, the lion's share of taxes paid goes directly into only two things -- the military and handouts (tax cuts, etc.) to the rich. The rich are insatiable, and while our government has given more and more to them every year since the Reagan admin., they continue to howl for more. Well, if you want a lucrative job in government, you need the sort of campaign funding that only the super rich can provide, so you do what you need to do to keep them happy. People have been calling for an end to war(s) and handouts to the super-rich for decades now, with no results.
The last Democrat in office, Bill Clinton, took an ax to desperately needed welfare programs, using that money for corporate tax cuts instead. Americans yawned with flat indifference. We feared that the next Democrat in office would "reform" Social Security, just as Clinton "reformed" welfare programs. It appears that Obama is continuing the this economic strategy; it starts with cuts and "adjustments," and ultimately leads to ending the programs. As a direct result of our welfare "reform," which isn't considered worth discussing even in most progressive media, the longevity rates of America's poor have actually fallen below that of some Third World countries. What chance do our disabled and elderly have?
I think we all know that the way to resolve the deficit is by ending the massive tax cuts for the rich, and for those corporations that have already used tax cuts to export hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deeply harming this country. What are the odds of that happening?
I am tired of hearing so many negative things about our president. If he has the power of the corporations to help him sway the legislative branch the left will condemn him. Without the power of the corporations he has little or nothing to sway any gop to help the American people.
According what I've heard from the so called progressives they don't want a president who has the backing of the corporations, so for him it's a lose lose situation with the left.
He isn't a right wing dictator of a banana republic to take matters into his own hands and pass laws in spite of who is in the minority so he must either compromise, veto or just go along with the gop and its affliates.
According to what I've heard from the progressives they don't want a right wing dictator nor the banana republic. Again the President is in a lose, lose situation.
I've come to the conclusion that the so called progressives won't be happy no matter what happens, and my fear is that just like in 2000 we will again have someone from the gop in the white house and we will go back to a more disaterous economy than we have now.
BTW is the grandstander nader running again to insure that the gop will win again?
It's time for a R E V O L U T I O N !
Paul Ryan is an idiot. I'm tired of civility towards greedy B---terds. I was up late last night and suddenly popping into my fronze (head) was the beginning of a realized fear.
The fear that one day I'll wake up and the scales have permanently tipped to the negative, to a country that is washed up - run by a government fragmented, divided, and sold off to the highest bidders. A government in word only. I'm a reasonble human, I've worked in various government bodies from municipal to federal in natural resource fields. I've made a difference. But I also know just how close this country is to a government in name only - and it's close. Pual Ryan's 'concept' is sheer lunacy. I've yet to hear anyone mention just how many seniors there'll be by 2040. Take away the safety net, and just how will any elders pay for anything? Are we to assume that the huge health conglomerates will exercise devine benevolence and take care of them?
Greed has been with humanity as soon as it was realised that trinkets could be used to build and wield power, I'm not a dooms-dayer, we can intellectualize issues all we want but it doesn't change a natural and fundamental flaw of humankind - that some are dilluted with the sickness of money and power: Greed. We can divide it up in oh so many ways but it all comes back to the same foundation. Never mind all the other global issues that are near. The day when I wake up to that feeling will also bring with a reality that to change it back will be the turning point in history - I hope we will be able to.
I totally agree with you. I'm about to change my political party to Socialist and see if we can get more Bernie Saunders in. OMG, I heard him on another progressive talker's show yesterday and I've never heard him so angry. Maybe we could talk him into running for office. We need another FDR.