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Allegedly amoral... I'd say greed is immoral and Capitalism is for all intents and purposes based on greed.
N
Capitalism is allegedly amoral, Maxrot. When there's a buck to be made by enslaving a major industrial power, vengeance isn't a necessary motive.
@Gene, would that be that vengence is a prime motivator?
N
Personally I feel that a lack of interest/ protest of all the wars we are involved in is : No Draft.. Less people have family or friends who could end up in the wars.
Perhaps when referring to the "Government" we should start calling it the "Government of Human People". For example. when people are afraid "Government taking something over", we should frame it as "The Governement of the Human PEOPLE is taking it over".
When the Republicans say that the people need to take the governement back they mean "their people" (represented by ATT and big oil - etc... these are the republican "people"). We need to distinguish between the Republican Corpocratic "governement of the corporate person" and the Democratic "government of the human person". We need to be sure Government is "the human people" - it should not be something that should be feared (unless Republican Corpocrats are running it)
Maybe we can start to wiin the rhetroic war.
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 guaranteed punishment for Germany and the population was desperate for any way out of their suffering at the hands of the winners. Hitler promised, and enough of the people were ready to accept anything to stop the pain.
The basic model of human being is still the same as it was then.
Thom I have to just point out, that in Germany in the 30's, if a German did speak out against the NAZI's they ended up in concentration camps. In other words, by the time someone interviewed Germans after WWII, the ones that had the courage to protest were long long gone. So you have to consider that the data from the "Good Germans" was skewed from the get go.
N
Something for Hour Two...
The Republicans are pushing the FEAR button again...
"WASHINGTON - Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Tuesday to warn that the Obama administration is on the verge of nationalizing the Internet, charging that the president has already seized large swaths of the economy." - From HufPo
How long do we have before America is a failed Empire? Would another world banking disaster precipitate anarchy? As Republicans dismantle the New Deal we spend a trillion dollars yearly on defense. This is a recipe for disaster and it will not last. The lyrics of Don Henley's song "Working It" are prophetic. Welcome to the U.S.A. We are partying fools in the autumn of our hay day. We are running out of everything but we just can't quit.
Not surprised that now Obama and his administration is going down the Republican path to cut and dismantle Social Security. What do we do about? Hoping the Democratic Party at least in the Senate has some Senators willing to fight all the way via filibusters etc. Things seem very hopeless now as we move into the plutocratic rule of the corporate oligarchy. The only way to get attention will be to restore the civil disobedience actions like in the 1960s and 1970s.
We have to make the banks become invested in our survival? – Matt Taibbi
If all of us go bankrupt then the banks fail. So we should have power over them.
Obama hasn’t changed since 2006. This long painful read will tell you all you ever wanted to know about what type of person he is. Basically, He’s just another Washington Power Player.
Barack Obama Inc.: The birth of a Washington machine
By Ken Silverstein 2006
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/11/0081275
The real prisoners, are the ones who blindly serve systems of power and force. They are the mandarins inside the White House, the Congress, and the Pentagon. The masters of war are slaves to the idols of empire, power and greed, to the idols of careers, to the dead language of interests, national security, politics and propaganda. They kill and do not know what killing is. In the rise to power, they became smaller. Power consumes them. Once power is obtained they become its pawn. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, politicians such as Barack Obama fall prey to the forces they thought they had harnessed. The capacity to love, to cherish and protect life, may not always triumph, but it saves us. It keeps us human. It offers the only chance to escape from the contagion of war. Perhaps it is the only antidote. There are times when remaining human is the only victory possible. - Chris Hedges
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/bitter_memories_of_war_on_the_way_to_jail_20101220/
Chris Hedges should be required weekly reading for the THP. I was saddened last Wednesday when Thom mentioned that he hadn't read his recent article. Every Monday, Read it, and change your opinion of Obama and the Democratic Party. Progressives are Not served by the Democratic Party. More Bernie Sanders' please.
If the President does obey the Republicans and cuts Social Security payments, it just might be the catylist The People need to impeach him, or otherwise rise up to battle the new world order wealth and power boys in Washington.
They might not have any fear of Us old ones. They might by the time We are finished.
Maybe not.
We shall see.
If Obama is NOT a Republican mole, he is giving a very good imitation of one! He is attacking the middle-class and doing Republican dirty work for them. Most of the voters will then vote Republican to "punish" Obama and the Democrats (as they did last November), unaware of the fact that they are like Jews voting for Nazis. They are putting their executioners in power.
We are in a Weimar moment. Our "democracy" no longer works - the GOP makes sure of that. The corporate elite see a chance to achieve their dream of destroying both the New Deal and Great Society legacies, destroying unions once and for all and reducing the once proud American middle class to the level of serfs. The GOP is literally robbing the public treasury and dispensing hard-earned tax money to their wealthy friends and patrons, yet the media will not challenge their lie of being the "fiscally responsible" party. To divert attention from this robbery, the GOP arouses the most ignorant and backward segments of the population as its "black shirts," busy fighting phantom enemies such as liberals, gays, minorities, etc. The most right-wing of our churches (including the Catholic Church) look forward to a regime where the state will enforce their religious doctrines. And there is NO OPPOSITION powerful enough to stop it. The Democrats could, but they are divided and following a president who may be on the other side.
If Obama loses the next election...
Republicans win! If Obama wins the next election...Republicans wins! The Republicans, of course, would still like to have their explicitly Republican holding the reigns but they would settle for another Obama Presidency as he is also their man. Republican or Democrat...doesn't matter...but if Americans really wanted to shake the tree they need to dump both Republicans and Democrats...unless those Democrats are really Progressive Democrats and not traitor-to-their-party Blue Dog Democrats. There are some Democrats who are worthy of the name and we know who they are! We praise them! We scorn the others! We need to knock Obama off his pedestal and get Bernie Sanders or Dennis Kucinich or even Ralph Nader. I'd love to see Dennis Kucinich along with financial advisor Michael Hudson, economist steering this ship of state before it sinks to the bottom.
If Obama advocates cutting any part of Social Security then I think it is high time for us, his base, to impeach him. I certainly will not vote for him again...that's for sure. Even if it means another Republican President. I think it is high time for a revolution in this country and if the people can find no one to really represent their interests then a revolution may be closer than anyone imagines....and it won't be just an internet rebellion. People could get hurt...hopefully, they will all be the scumbag Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats and their puppet-masters...the rich. Something needs to scare the BeJesus out of these wealthy-elite like what was done in the 20s and 30s...which is what was needed back then...and what is needed now...for any meaningful change to better the lives of most Americans.
I think that 90% of us would be willing to make great sacrifices to solve the country's problems, as long as we knew for actual fact that EVERYONE had to sacrifice PROPORTIONALLY.
That doesn't mean cutting SS recipients' benefits by 20% to pay for rewarding the wealthiest among us for being born into a position of economic advantage and opportunity.
What it means, is that if you cut 20% of the income for the LEAST advantaged among us, you would have to cut all revenue streams of income for the MOST advantaged by the same percent. Except that wouldn't even begin to address the inherent difference that the 20% of the poor's income comes out of what they need to survive, just to get by, just to live on. In the case of the most well off, they may well make 10, 100, or 1000 times that more than what they need to maintain life.
Even a proportional sacrifice by all doesn't address the existing structural inequalities and inefficiencies that already exist. It isn't like we all start out at the same place on the playing field, with the same training and support, etc. I don't believe in legislating outcome, in no way. But I do firmly believe all should have relatively equal access to the same opportunities, resources, and the chance to make something of it.
In all fairness, those entities and/or individuals who profited so greatly (made out like bandits) from selling our manufacturing base and our jobs overseas should foot the bill to re-create good living wage jobs to replace the ones they whored out.
Yeah, like that could happen.
I'm afraid Wall St. has found its perfect spokesmodel. Talks Prog-like (D), lays on the golden rhetoric, but acts GOP, just to the right of Reagan. The clueless middle like him, as does anyone with only a passing shallow understanding of how things work.
It's just a good cop/bad cop act. You have to judge by the results, and he has done more to benefit millionaires and billionaires, in particular, the big banks, than anyone else. His bread is buttered, and he knows exactly from which side.
Politics is the subtle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich while promising each to protect them from the other. (Or something like that, I forget the exact quote.)
Unfortunately in our society, the wealth extraction scheme being run by the 2% on the 98% of the rest of us isn't even understood by most people, they haven't caught on yet. Because of the ever accelerating flow of wealth to the very most economically advantaged, the rest of us can't really afford to hire or intimidate our very own personal government to allow us to write laws to enshrine any crimes we want to commit on the sheeple as standard operating procedure.
But the 2% has plenty of funds to throw at influencing politicians and the gullible masses due to the massive return on investment they get back, in terms of sweetheart deals, tax breaks, subsidies, loopholes, etc.
The political party (there is really only one, with two faces: good cop/bad cop) just operates as a business. If in minority, they must collect funds to campaign, to get elected, gain power, and receive the spray from the cash firehose. Both parties are just fighting with each other over who gets to be the lead whore to Wall St. and the big banks, and facilitate their ever increasing wealth extraction from our real economy. Lather, rinse, repeat, infinite loop.
Obama is Wall Street's perfect bitch.
The left can't run anyone against him, and he can implement as much GOP policy as they want him to, under the guise of "compromise", "moderation", and "bipartisanship."
Just look where his money came from, and where it is coming from for 2012. He'll probably spend close to a billion dollars to get re-elected, pretty much mandating his day job as Wall St. shill, and night shift as big bank whore. We the people can't get him where the powers that be want him to be. Only their money can do it. He knows it, and they know it. We should know it too.
Judge the tree by the fruit it bears. He'll toss just enough sop to the left base to keep them from fielding a contender, and keep stringing them along for money and votes. The right could never achieve the level of gutting of the social net with a GOP pres, but don't worry. THe Status Quo powers have the solution. The latest, greatest spokesmodel/whore/flim-flam man. We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania. We will always be at war with Oceania.
Lee,
In your post, "futures" is the plural and needs no apostrophe, please proof read your posts.
Please don't Sarah out on us.
Yur teacher.
The SDS only got you infiltrated.
There was no internet then.
coffeehouses,folkclubs,potdealers,better,worse...
A limited network.Two drink minimum...
It has grown....
We are now the leaves on a tree whichnone can see the rootball.
Celebrate diversity and anonymity...
Can you say anon...
Hey,,, Oh
My father thought Eisenhower spent too much time on the links/lynks
I was a baby only interested in breasts,
where have I been for the last 22 minutes ??
This observation/opinion has already been put forth.
you may have come to this conclusion independently.
you are tuned in
you are turned on
stay connected
To What End will Thom Support Obama?
You are delusional if you think that we "Have to Have" Obama in office for the SCOTUS appointments. There will be no democracy left by then! So who cares?
There is no "Circular Firing Squad" Obama is a McCain/Clinton Corporatist. He's Harvard Elitist! No one gets to where he did without owing people favors. And those people are the Wealthy 1%. He is not one of us, so stop “Hoping” he will be and Start Fighting Him. Obama Sold His Soul to be President. The community organizer in him is dead.
It’s Time for Thom to advocate civil disobedience. Embrace your inner SDS, Thom. PLEASE!
Obama is an Eisenhower Republican, and basically ran on the 1956 Republican platform, and while he is the best available choice currently around, it is good to remember that. I wonder how he feels about bread lines.