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Thom ..."Let's make sure that those who support SHAFTA find themselves out of work in their next election."
Thomas Paine....." When we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."
Clearly with SHAFTA, and other trade deals, the elected have formed an interest to themselves separate from the electors.
As Thom and Thomas both suggest, let's not furnish the means by which we suffer anymore. Vote out the self-serving scoundrels.
FEEL THE BERN.....time for economic revolution!
Both answers are right here,but Bernie Sanders for pres 2016"
Alas, chuckle8, what you imagine happened did in fact not happen at all. Neither FDR nor the Scandanavian countries EVER overcame capitalism.
All they did was manage, temporarily (and only because the Ruling Class was terrtified by the prospect of worldwide Communist revolution), to ameliorate capitalism's savagery just enough to make its tyrannosauric evil palatable to the masses.
In the long run, FDR failed completely. His "New Deal" has been destroyed beyond any rational hope of restoration.
Indeed, U.S. society has been reorganized to ensure no New-Deal-type program will ever again arise to threaten the One Percent's profiteering.
This reorganization is total and therefore permanent. Its physical manifestation is the methodical eradication of community. Intellectually it is the reduction of the U.S. to Moron Nation. Emotionally it is the imposition of manifest fears of additional loss to perpetuate the 99 Percent's embrace of the Ayn Rand cult of moral imbecility.
In short it is Nazism -- Germany's "master race" and U.S. "exceptionalism" are conceptual twins -- dressed in new clothing by Madison Avenue's diabolical powers of psychological manuipulation.
Here in the U.S., the process is complete. The vaunted experiment in representative democracy is slain, never to be revived.
In the Scandanavian democracies, the capitalist onslaught, disguised as "austerity," has just begun -- and already the capitalists are winning.
There is no "magical path." Ultimately there is only socialism or capitalism -- with our need to choose one or the other intensifying as our planet sickens and our overlords become ever more like the vengeful god they emulate.
The question is no longer which sort of world we want.
It is instead in which sort of world our endangered species is most likely to survive.
Will our species survive in the world of today, all of us reduced to ever-more-deadly poverty and ever-more enslaved by the inconceivably powerful, inconceivably wealthy One Percent?
Or does our species' survival require a world in which the looming hardships of terminal climate change and the shrinking assets of our planetary wealth are shared equally amongst us all?
The answer is obvious. If we are to survive, our ethos of greed and selfishness must be replaced by the ethos of communism: from each according to ability, to each according to need.
Failing that, our species is dead, our planet rendered uninhabitable by life as we know it.
And presidential candidate Hillary Clinton doesn't have much an opinion one way or the other regarding TPP? While serving as Secretary of State, did she not help craft some of the Agreement's general precepts? Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suggests that she herself would need to see more of the TPP Agreement language before taking a position. I don't know how MSNBC can continually support Hillary Clinton's candidacy with a straight face or perhaps it has come more to light, to say, that MSNBC is a part of the corporatist structure that provides Hillary, in part, her free, low-cost campaigning advantage. Hopefully, Hillary Clinton will implode, then forcing MSNBC to scrabble and encourage Vice President Joe 'Tax Haven Delaware' Biden to make a last minute effort to enter the race because Bernie Sanders doesn't represent and serve the corporatist Democratic Party as a whole.
Hi Tom,
I have immense respect for the breadth and depth of your knowledge and for the passion that you display in fighting for progressive causes. However, I am at a loss to understand how you and other progressive voices have failed to learn a lesson about how to effect a change in the minds of the American sheeple from the fight for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All it took with this segment of brain dead zombies, entertained to a passive, mindless state, was to label it “Obama Care” (OC). It stuck! It replaced ACA in the public vernacular. Hell, countless polls demonstrated that the majority loved most all of the provisions of the ACA but vehemently rejected "Obama Care", not having a clue that they were the same thing, and never having heard of the Affordable Care Act. Ask them the passing completion percentage of the top 10 NFL quarterbacks, the current NASCAR standings, who’s in the lead with Dancing with the Stars or what the Kardashians are up to and you would get well-informed, thoughtful responses.
My point – relabel the “Republican Party” the “1% Party”. It’s already out there, they have all heard it, but they only associate it with the super-wealth elites that they already despise, thinking that they have nothing to do with their morally upright republican politicians. It has not been universally attached to the Republican Party, where it belongs.
My suggestion – remove “Republican Party” from your vocabulary and replace it with “1% Party”. Don’t make a point of it, don’t discuss the change in your nomenclature- ever. Just start using it in any discussion of what they are doing.
My bet is that if you and all the other progressive voices adopted this that “1% Party” would soon become a familiar part of the public vernacular, and you would start hearing it on the streets and seeing it in social media. Obviously the super wealthy and their minions and wannabes would have no problem associating themselves with this label, but all the misguided working class, working poor and poor who have voted republican against their best interest would then have a hard time casting their votes for the 1% Party and maybe we could be on our way to some desperately needed changes. Maybe we could make “Republican” a largely pejorative label like they have made “liberal”. Good Luck! You have the microphone – use it. You are truly exceptional at “preaching to the choir”, but unfortunately I think it will take a strategy like this to bring more into “the choir”.
AIW -- I think we need both natures god and Bernie.
It is one factor to form special rules for national security. standard crime is totally different. It appears like [these law enforcement agency agents ar phonying up investigations. Live Radio Online Streaming
Loren -- I like the words (poetry?) you use so much that I find it uncomfortable to disagree with you.
However, I cannot resist. How did FDR and the Scandinavian countries overcome the evil components of capitalism?
I like the description that the Economic Policy Institute gave of FDR's policies. I am proud of my little "poetry" to describe it. FDR found that magical path between Marx and Mussolini.
The so-called Obamaphone program started in 1984 to provide telephone service to poor people, because not having a phone is a big hindrance to getting a job. In recent years, the program has provided cell phones, and some of the companies that make them branded them in 2009 as Obamaphones, to capitalize on Obama's popularity, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with him. If any President were to get credit or blame for it, I guess it would be Reagan.
Reply to #10: Hi Loren! I was hoping you would see this post of Thom's. It immediately brought you to mind.
By the way, my hubby and I just ordered our Bernie Sanders tee shirts! I encourage the rest of you Bernie supporters to do likewise.
Like I said, Chuck, the presidency is no place for naivety. If we "commoners" are able to connect the dots between the TPP and fascism, there is no excuse for our president to not get it as well. He's a lot closer to the action than we are. If the Commerce Club of Chicago can manipulate Obama that easily, all I can say is, god help us.
We need Bernie Sanders in the worst way.
Loren Bliss: As you already know, Citizens United provides the Fascists with ability to utterly control the message at election time. That message is comprised of economic falsehoods intended to motivate citizens to vote against their own economic best interests. The question is, how does the economic truth overcome the big money lies? .....I believe Senator Sanders is well armed with the economic truth, and his message will be far reaching despite the big money media weapon of mass economic deception. In other words I believe old fashion word of mouth, and social media may very well shock the billionaires and their corpse media at election time. I for one don't feel powerless, never have...and as Thom says, "despair is not an option! " or something like that.
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Actually both answers are correct I would say,wall street should als have to forfeit any money they made illegally just like anyone else has to do, which would be a few trillion.
Chuckle8--Don't have time for a long discussion now as I have errands to run -- to hobble, actually -- but I'll be back later.
Meanwhile let me leave you with an Audrey Lorde quote that explains why "move to amend" is nothing more than another exercise in futility, tolerated -- even encouraged -- by the Ruling Class because it distracts us from the fact we have been already been reduced to the powerlessness of slaves.
(The forcible imposition of Fast Track, opposed by at least 75 percent of the electorate, will prove our powerlessness beyond dispute -- no doubt the reason for the joint military/federalized police mobilization "exercises" running concurrently with the controversy.)
What Lorde said is therefore a perfect description of our present circumstances.: "The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."
AIW -- My point was that Obama doesn't realize the TPP is the embodiment of corporate fascism. He thinks he is protecting our economy from the evil Chinese. I think the Commerce Club of Chicago is making sure he does not understand the TPP is an evil fascist plot.
Loren -- What is wrong with the economic/political structures of the Scandinavian countries? I think it is relevant to note that after the crash of 2008. the CEO of IKEA was the wealthiest person in the world.
Karagirl -- What does a mom and pop store have to do with capitalism?
I have often said here that all we need are the policies of the New Deal and the Great Society (without the war). They were so good that the "billionaires" became terrified. They clamored to the ideas of the "Powell Doctrine".
I think the number one step is movetoamend.org.
Again, FDR was not part of the Tammany Hall machine; he fought against that machine.
Your right they could have deversified a long time ago, but the profit margin wasn't there, so they didn't. That's the sad fact. And that's why implementing a carbon tax is really our only hope!! :-( your not wrong.
I'm with Naomi Klein... Choose; Capitalism or the planet...
My city, Centennial, districts according to registered voters. I hope that the Supreme Court rules sensibly, so that can change.
There is no way that it makes sense to declare that all GMOs are safe. Each one is different (which is, of course, the point of making them).
But by the same token, it doesn't make sense to claim that they're all unsafe.
karagirl, the oil companies could have diversified into renewables a long time ago. I don't think they'll be that smart.
I think that at this point we have our hands tied somewhat. We can't just get rid of capitalism. It's to ingrained into our society at this point. And their are differing degrees of capitalism. Mom and pop shops shouldn't be a target for our ier, but rather corporate capitalism. I've felt for a long time that corporate capitalism can and is becoming an enemy of democracy, but we are fools if we think we can just target it and do away with it. The better method of attack in my mind would be to manipulate it. Make it work for we the people instead of we the board of directors.
First and foremost we the people need to stand up all across this country and vote down, or pressure our elected officials to vote down citizens united. Their is no sane place in our society for a corporate entity to have the same rights as we the people. That must be paramount. As to how to effect the environment and pollution, which should again be at the top of any sane list of problems we the people are dealing with, we need to institute a carbon tax across the board to any and every carbon burning for profit corporation everywhere. If you make it non profitable to make money off of polluting our environment, the carbon burning corporations will look to renewable energy as their means of survival. Thus hopefully solving the global emergency that global warming is. As to what to do after that to combat corporate capitalism, for now I'll leave that to you much more educated people, but atleast if we can do this we will have started to make a better world for our children and our children's children.
One step at a time guys, but positive progression always works better than forced oppression!! Expecially when we the poor are going up against they the rich and socialpathic powerful. :-)
Well, Dirtman 2 you say, 'whatever steps are taken must not destroy the American economy.......' to parphrase 'whatever we do, let's not destroy the very thing that is destroying us.' I don't get your logic. Do you?