Serious food for serious thought:
The sad reality is that a dumbed-down American public has lost the capacity to think critically. A well-financed propaganda campaign on television could probably persuade the American citizenry to elect Adolph Hitler over F.D.R., and given the fact that Republicans and mainstream Democrats have the ability to outspend the poor at the ratio of 20 to 1, the election results are a foregone conclusion. Although the majority of people in Wisconsin voted for Scott Walker, they voted more so against the union pension benefits, and salaries of unionized public employees. It was not a matter of disrespecting the police, firemen and teachers, who constituted the majority of public workers impacted by Walker’s actions; rather the voters felt that the cops, firemen, and teachers did not need the generous retirement packages they were receiving at a time when the rest of the workers in the state were struggling to get by. Obama and the Democratic Party itself opted out of the entire debate.
----------
That’s the America of today, and it’s a glimpse of the very near-term future. The formula is pretty simple, really. Wealthy elites who have spent the better part of a century chafing under the unbearable burdens of the New Deal and Great Society (where they are rendered mere billionaires instead of zillionaires) have finally found a way to steal back ‘their’ money. Buy whole political parties, buy the media, buy – therefore – the entire mindset of the country, buy the Supreme Court, dumb down education, especially the study of history, make college prohibitively expensive, repress dissent, create distracting enemies abroad (towelheads) and at home (fags), replace jobs with machines and cheap overseas workers, squeeze the economy so that money is scarce, and divide and conquer the 99 percent, so that those who miraculously still maintain a vestige of decent wages and benefits from an ancient civilization called 20th century America will be resented and torn-down by those already drowning.
snip
It will get far worse before it gets better, if it does. The Wisconsin election was widely and correctly seen as a dry run for November, but in fact November is already as over as is May or April. The hapless Obama people may not have gotten the word, but they are as dead as the unions in Wisconsin that they didn’t bother to support. And Obama will go down in near-term, right-wing renderings of history as another Jimmy Carter. Meanwhile, stupid liberals, who slavishly admired a decidedly right-wing, militarist, ultra-statist, corporate-serving Democratic president, will sit holding their heads in surprise at the damage wrought to the president himself, to his party, and to their cherished liberal principles. Um, sorry, but have y’all been snoozing through Afghanistan and Pakistan? Did you miss the whole presidential-ordered assassinations program? Have you not heard what has happened to whistleblowers? Did you forget the tax cuts and the offer to dismantle Medicare? Have you been watching Fox and not heard about the growth of military spending? Did you not know that the health care bill was co-authored by, and for the benefit of, insurance and pharmaceutical companies? Have you not heard that our ultra-progressive president has done nothing whatsoever about the planetary über-crisis of global warming, other than to open vast new oil drilling fields? Did you not see in action the joy and wonder of Obamaism in 2010, the most devastating election for a political party in half a century, and coming only two years after the total meltdown of the GOP under Bush? Sorry, but this is the SOB you adored and went to the mat for?
This country’s future looks grim in so many ways. You can just feel the doors and windows shutting, one by one. Are we really so far off, given the displays we’ve already seen, from being a corporate-owned polity, in which oceans of Citizens United sponsored propaganda limits the cognitive landscape of an entire country, sham elections and a steady stream of brain-numbing high-def television gruel satisfies most of the (obese) public enough to keep them stuck on their sofas, while a massive police state armed with domestic drone aircraft and angry cops deal swiftly with the few remaining malcontents stupid enough to demand a return to the better country we once knew? You know, more or less a carbon copy of Putin’s Russia, here in North America.
------------
So let’s get it straight. The Wisconsin battle was hugely important — an existential struggle for the US labor movement and working people in general, and a critical litmus test of the real nature of both President Obama and of the Democratic Party. And both the president and the party failed that test. Completely and deliberately.
snip
Obama not only didn’t put in a single visit to Wisconsin during this long recall campaign; he went out of his way to steer well clear of the state, not even dropping in during a visit to Minneapolis a week before the vote, when he was 15 miles from Wisconsin, less than 100 miles from Eau Claire, and less than 300 miles from the capital of Madison, the epicenter of the recall battle.
snip
The Obama campaign and the DNC decided long ago that they did not want to get involved in the Walker recall. Partly, they didn’t want to risk being in support of a losing effort. More importantly, they did not want to be identified with union activists. The truth is that the big money supporting both the DNC and the president’s campaign is corporate money, and those people simply don’t like unions. Also, the Obama “brain trust,” if you can really call these people smart after three and a half years of disastrous White House policies favoring the rich and the powerful, has decided that the way to a second term is by ignoring the poor, ignoring minorities, ignoring labor unions, ignoring working people, and instead focusing on “independent” and “undecided” voters.
That strategy, which was also used with some success by President Clinton, though in much different economic times, involves proposing a lot of targeted narrow legislative measures — for example a law to require equal pay for equal work — that have no chance of passage, and taking stands on narrow “wedge issues” — for example coming out in support of gay marriage, while still insisting it is an “issue for the states to decide.” These are not things that will energize anyone, least of all people who are “independent” or “undecided.”
snip
When it comes the Democrats and this president, it has now been demonstrated unambiguously that labor and working people are completely expendable. The assumption in the Obama campaign, and at the DNC, has always been that progressives will vote for them in the end no matter how they are ignored and humiliated and undermined, because the alternative — the Republicans — are so much worse.
----------
Wisconsinites — like the rest of the nation — are left in the coming Presidential election with picking the lesser of two fascists. Freedom from fascist and corporatist rule — and the scapegoating, sexism, nationalism, militarism, propaganda lies; and gutting of unions, education, environmental protection and civil liberties this implies — is a precondition to living justly, fairly and well; and to sustaining global ecology and social well-being long-term.
The American dream of hyper-consumption for some is over because it couldn’t be sustained ecologically or socially. America can’t expect to reap the ill-gotten benefits — all too often seized at the point of a gun — of 4% of Earth’s people consuming 25% of key global resources any longer. The 2.5 billion people globally living on $2 a day understandably want their fair share too. The natural and painful consequences of downsizing America’s extreme lifestyles and unwinding horrific disparities is sadly leading to demagoguery, a decline in truth telling, and yes, the rise of fascism in the American heartland.
America has lost its way. Our ecosystems and economic system are collapsing, fascism rising, and conflict growing — do we want societal and ecological collapse to come as we are at each other’s throats? Things are heading that way. We are becoming the terrorists we abhor. And all the reasons are evident in microcosm in Wisconsin. Decent, thoughtful folks in Wisconsin tried valiantly but ultimately failed for now to combat the John Birch, KKK, Tea Party inspired rise of hateful and destructive fascism. But the battle to retake our great state and country from the fascists has just begun.
-----------
"377 members of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans have given almost half a billion dollars to candidates of both parties, most of it in the last decade. The median contribution was $355,100 each."
snip
Uh-huh. The sound you hear is the world's smallest violin, say, a teeny-tiny Stradivarius insured for millions. "Is there a group of people you can think of who have thinner skin than America's multimillionaires and billionaires?' Paul Waldman asks. "Wall Street titans have been whining for a couple of years now about the horror of people in politics criticizing ineffective banking regulations and the favorable tax treatment so many wealthy people receive... America's barons feel assaulted, victimized, wounded in ways that not even a bracing ride to your Hamptons estate in your new Porsche 911 can salve. And now that the presidential campaign is in full swing, their tender feelings are being hurt left and right."
----------
An extraordinary event occurred on Wednesday in the august chamber where the US Senate Banking Committee meets. In a magnificent ceremony lasting two-and-a-quarter hours, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon sat on a throne constructed with “all the pomp of Oriental greatness,” while the various senators passed one by one, bending their knees, placing their hands within his, taking an oath of fealty, and rendering to him “the homage which had been previously agreed on.”
snip
Dimon and other bank executives have played a significant part in the massive decline in US household income over the past four years. How many foreclosures, bankruptcies, layoffs, family breakups and suicides are the CEO of JPMorgan Chase and his fellow bank executives responsible for? How much homelessness, poverty and accumulated social misery? By rights, Dimon should be contemplating how much jail time he will face. Instead, he walks around a free man, living a life of opulence, having received $26 million in compensation in 2011 alone.
The assembled senators treated Dimon with reverence and awe. For the most part they provided him with a platform to denounce bank regulations, defend the “great American business machine,” and argue that the US had to “get its fiscal act in order,” i.e., that social programs had to be gutted to safeguard the wealth of the financial aristocracy. Dimon’s arrogance and his barely concealed contempt for the hearing were never dented. No mystery there, since almost all of the senators on the committee are, for all intents and purposes, on his payroll.
snip
... Only six of the 22 members of the committee have not received money from JPMorgan Chase or its employees in recent election cycles, and two of those are retiring and no longer collecting campaign funds.[cross-posted on correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
--------------
Libby
Too many thoughts on either too much or too little Justice-
Jamie Dimon and the funding of Chase by crony capitalism in the form of Food stamp/ other public program administration and the "investment" of government employee union monies with Chase is just so outragous you have to laugh or it will kill you (No Really, they WILL send around hit men to shut you up------)
Look up CATO institute on corporate personhood, eminent domain- we have loots of room to co-operate for Justice- but when you come down to it, it is only Just US and our consciences.
Too many thoughts on either too much or too little Justice-
Jamie Dimon and the funding of Chase by crony capitalism in the form of Food stamp/ other public program administration and the "investment" of government employee union monies with Chase is just so outragous you have to laugh or it will kill you (No Really, they WILL send around hit men to shut you up------)
Look up CATO institute on corporate personhood, eminent domain- we have loots of room to co-operate for Justice- but when you come down to it, it is only Just US and our consciences.
I need to go find some really really rich asses to kiss big time. It's my only hope as I see it.
So grim, I am shaking my head in dismay.
We have already been taken apart, eviscerated, by the right and the left, both, but at different times and in different ways.
Horrible.
Rated for encapsulating it in one post
We have already been taken apart, eviscerated, by the right and the left, both, but at different times and in different ways.
Horrible.
Rated for encapsulating it in one post
Oh boy! God, I wish every American could/would read this. We need to "school" as many Americans as we can, Libby, what should do? This is probably the last chance for Americans to vote FOR their own interest. Grand post, Libby, God bless you. R
I sometimes wonder if the American public is as dumbed- down as pundits make out. The fact that 50-55% of eligible adults don't register and vote says a lot - they already know that elections are a waste of time.
I don't think Obama would be turning the US into a police state for no reason. I think the powers that be know that our inner cities will explode like a tinder box with the next economic crisis. We're talking about a population where 50% of young people are unemployed.
I don't think Obama would be turning the US into a police state for no reason. I think the powers that be know that our inner cities will explode like a tinder box with the next economic crisis. We're talking about a population where 50% of young people are unemployed.
Libby, this was so such informative to me being out of your country but in same issues and for me it is exactly what Thoth has written "..This is probably the last chance for Americans to vote FOR their own interest..." Here, in Greece too. We must start feeling before thinking, I think... feeling and fearing what our future will be if the situation described goes on. Thank you for sharing, Rated, Libby.
If Obama wins again, many will be surprised when he shifts farther to the corporations and abandons them too. We're not in the first year, this is ongoing and worsening. I've observed enough to know he's not going to treat those who are still above water like they matter. He'll treat all working people just like the people he's already abandoned. He's all talk and no action.
As far as the bankers and billionaires they're simply defective when compared to other people. These aren't like ordinary humans who want to be millionaires to be secure or take care of their families and enjoy a few luxuries. They serve no real purpose as contributing or productive members of society. In many ways they're like underperforming equipment, they don't even care about each other, it's strange they think they shouldn't be criticized when they're such epic failures that they toppled the global economy. Their stupidity is more dangerous than their greed. I don't understand why most people don't see them as they are, but they don't. If they all resigned tomorrow it's not like they would be missed.
To the President, most of Congress and the defective humans running the money show, we are indeed expendable. What they don't understand is they're the ones we don't need. They don't make anything or do anything of real value. If they were cars we'd call them all lemons and haul them to the junkyard and get new ones, it's pointless to hate them because they're not capable of performing any better than they are. Or they would. They'll cause a complete collapse because what's happening isn't sustainable. Then they'll all be baffled again, they'll want a handout like the last time they screwed up.
I don't need this President, he IS nothing of value to me. What he and his advisors fail to comprehend is they need us. The populace needs to figure that out too.
Lord it frustrates me. How many times does the public need to hear this? Will they all need to lose everything before they wake up?
As far as the bankers and billionaires they're simply defective when compared to other people. These aren't like ordinary humans who want to be millionaires to be secure or take care of their families and enjoy a few luxuries. They serve no real purpose as contributing or productive members of society. In many ways they're like underperforming equipment, they don't even care about each other, it's strange they think they shouldn't be criticized when they're such epic failures that they toppled the global economy. Their stupidity is more dangerous than their greed. I don't understand why most people don't see them as they are, but they don't. If they all resigned tomorrow it's not like they would be missed.
To the President, most of Congress and the defective humans running the money show, we are indeed expendable. What they don't understand is they're the ones we don't need. They don't make anything or do anything of real value. If they were cars we'd call them all lemons and haul them to the junkyard and get new ones, it's pointless to hate them because they're not capable of performing any better than they are. Or they would. They'll cause a complete collapse because what's happening isn't sustainable. Then they'll all be baffled again, they'll want a handout like the last time they screwed up.
I don't need this President, he IS nothing of value to me. What he and his advisors fail to comprehend is they need us. The populace needs to figure that out too.
Lord it frustrates me. How many times does the public need to hear this? Will they all need to lose everything before they wake up?
There are signs throughout the entire world of the failure of the basic economic systems to provide sustenance and security to the populations and the direction seems to be getting worse. From the impending disasters out of the ecological transformations to the total corruption of the various governments to the voracious greed and total short sightedness of those in control of the economic systems the indications oncoming are of massive disaster and pandemic violence when reality finally hits the general populace that the people in power are totally incompetent. There is a huge movement toward totalitarianism from control of the media to clampdowns on free information on the web and the creation of international military power of private armies that will have no compunction about exerting military force on national populations at the behest of the power elite. When the food crops start failing in major ways and the ocean dies, when the pollution through rape of the environment starts hitting hard, when the potential radioactive disaster start spreading death of hundreds of thousands from the ill cared for aging atomic power reactors there will be violence in protest and I shudder at the consequences.
Agreed. Especially about the deliberate dumbing down of the American people.
Now how does the thinking minority get the message across to THE PEOPLE? Traditional media is run by the enemy, inroads are being made into the "new" media. The way I see it, blogging here about these issues is preaching to the choir. What do the "simple folk" read? Oh, yeah, silly me, they don't. Not much. What's needed is a Thomas Paine, a John Locke with the oratory skills of Dr. King and the charisma of Elvis, but most importantly with an understanding of the common man (that's you out, Obama, sorry).
Now how does the thinking minority get the message across to THE PEOPLE? Traditional media is run by the enemy, inroads are being made into the "new" media. The way I see it, blogging here about these issues is preaching to the choir. What do the "simple folk" read? Oh, yeah, silly me, they don't. Not much. What's needed is a Thomas Paine, a John Locke with the oratory skills of Dr. King and the charisma of Elvis, but most importantly with an understanding of the common man (that's you out, Obama, sorry).
Frustrating and frightening because we can see it coming;
it's happening already.
Can we move on to a different planet where corruption and exploitation do not exist?
Libby,what do you suggest in terms of informing the broad masses?
Rated for hopefully groundbreaking epiphany.
it's happening already.
Can we move on to a different planet where corruption and exploitation do not exist?
Libby,what do you suggest in terms of informing the broad masses?
Rated for hopefully groundbreaking epiphany.
A bunch of tiny vignettes, but cumulatively they say so much - well done, as usual, by the inimitable, Libby.
-R-
-R-
"America's barons feel assaulted, victimized, wounded in ways that not even a bracing ride to your Hamptons estate in your new Porsche 911 can salve. And now that the presidential campaign is in full swing, their tender feelings are being hurt left and right."
It seems to be true- money can't buy happiness. Which makes me wonder what they want. Way deep down inside- what is they're motivating factor? Answer that and we might have a chance.
It seems to be true- money can't buy happiness. Which makes me wonder what they want. Way deep down inside- what is they're motivating factor? Answer that and we might have a chance.
And still, even after all that, most people are still stuck in the two-party mindset, as fear keeps them from voting their principles. It's a real head-scratcher ...
Thanks to your kind comment on my post Libby, I found this outstanding one! Oh you summed up the situation to perfection and succinctly. I have countless conversations along these lines with my good friend and we've both agreed that we are in freefall and living in frightening times. What astounds us is that those who spend all their free time being indoctrinated by faux news, don't have any facts or figures, no stats and don't read. Their general world information is scant if not appalling. When questioned about Nazi Germany they informed us that they were "Socialists" who believed in plenty of public programs,"just like Obama". The Holocaust? "They killed some Jewish people." After shaking our heads in disbelief at some of their statements, I've come to the conclusion that it may be time to start looking around for those wearing brown shirts and I don't mean UPS. Seems to be where we are heading. By the way, if you have the time/interest, do look up a blog written by Susan Bruce who focuses mainly on New Hampshire politics, but she is great at research and investigative journalism; susanthebruce.blogspot.com
New Hampshire has become a very scary state. This is the state where legislators wanted to "acknolwedge" the Magna Carter, as well as other stupidities.
New Hampshire has become a very scary state. This is the state where legislators wanted to "acknolwedge" the Magna Carter, as well as other stupidities.
The problem I see is that a large segment of the population is addicted to badassness. There are a lot of people I meet who have an odd worship for cutthroats but look down on those who are less intelligent even if they're wonderful people. The conservative populace took a hindsight dislike to Bush when they found out he was incompetent. No one wants to vote for the moron but those who admire brutality will vote for a brute they think is smart. Wild west, rugged cowboys, terminator, alpha dog in the pack, who knows? It's obvious it isn't Palin's viciousness that keeps her from being electable, it's her obvious stupidity. I don't understand it, but there it is.
The problem isn't that the populace doesn't know they're not well informed, the problem is that they don't know those in charge are completely incompetent. From watching the bankers in the hearings on CSPAN a couple of years ago, it seemed the bankers didn't realize how incompetent they were. They seemed as surprised as anyone else that all the money on the Monopoly board was played out. These people live in mental la-la land where they truly think they're special and brilliant because others keep admiring them. They think they're smart enough to fix things if they go wrong, like Madoff started off thinking he'd figure out how to get the money back, they overestimate their own abilities time after time. Since it doesn't work well they buy the politicians to change the regulations thinking if the regulations were different they could make it work. They have the regulations they want and it's still not working. Sigh. They think they're going to turn it all around and unicorns will fart sparkles from the sky.
They are so demented they don't even understand why they're despised time and again. If they weren't so dangerous it would be easy to pity them.
It's the same with the politicians. There's a saying that politics is Hollywood for ugly people. They have no clue how ordinary they are, they believe their own nonsense and crave admiration. They think if they just do the same thing over and over it will eventually work and they will be the hero in the spotlight. Since they keep getting re-elected (approval), they think they're the best guy. If Joe the plumber had been elected he wouldn't have done a worse job than the morons there now. They're idiots because they're unable to recognize when they mess up. They find someone to blame, and move on.
We don't see it because we are systematically taught the intelligent/superior gain money and power if that's their desire. The inmates are running the asylum.
The problem isn't that the populace doesn't know they're not well informed, the problem is that they don't know those in charge are completely incompetent. From watching the bankers in the hearings on CSPAN a couple of years ago, it seemed the bankers didn't realize how incompetent they were. They seemed as surprised as anyone else that all the money on the Monopoly board was played out. These people live in mental la-la land where they truly think they're special and brilliant because others keep admiring them. They think they're smart enough to fix things if they go wrong, like Madoff started off thinking he'd figure out how to get the money back, they overestimate their own abilities time after time. Since it doesn't work well they buy the politicians to change the regulations thinking if the regulations were different they could make it work. They have the regulations they want and it's still not working. Sigh. They think they're going to turn it all around and unicorns will fart sparkles from the sky.
They are so demented they don't even understand why they're despised time and again. If they weren't so dangerous it would be easy to pity them.
It's the same with the politicians. There's a saying that politics is Hollywood for ugly people. They have no clue how ordinary they are, they believe their own nonsense and crave admiration. They think if they just do the same thing over and over it will eventually work and they will be the hero in the spotlight. Since they keep getting re-elected (approval), they think they're the best guy. If Joe the plumber had been elected he wouldn't have done a worse job than the morons there now. They're idiots because they're unable to recognize when they mess up. They find someone to blame, and move on.
We don't see it because we are systematically taught the intelligent/superior gain money and power if that's their desire. The inmates are running the asylum.
"Obama and the Democratic Party itself opted out of the entire debate... sham elections and a steady stream of brain-numbing high-def television gruel satisfies most of the (obese) public enough to keep them stuck on their sofas, ... 4% of Earth’s people consuming 25% of key global resources... The median contribution was $355,100 each... " What is missing from this post is the fact that Wisconsin's recall election was and is a localized political aberration.
The outcome of Obama's run for a second term will not be determined by corporate financed propaganda but by voter turn out among women under thirty, African Americans and Latinos in the South and swing states. All the Dems can do is focus on getting out that vote and hope that Romney keeps sticking his Gucci shod foot in his mouth.
The outcome of Obama's run for a second term will not be determined by corporate financed propaganda but by voter turn out among women under thirty, African Americans and Latinos in the South and swing states. All the Dems can do is focus on getting out that vote and hope that Romney keeps sticking his Gucci shod foot in his mouth.
Rudy, thanks for comment! Re Dimon, it is like when Congress deals with Israel, we really see who our oath-taking oaf sycophant representatives are REALLY working for. The phenomenal money JPMorgan has paid out. Walsh is right. He should be in jail. Instead he is still sticking it to us all! To more awakened consciences, my friend! best, libby
Matt, gallows humor appreciated, but this is surreally unbalanced, the greedy and narcissistic over-class and the ever expanding struggling underclass! thanks for comment! i'd like to find those asses to give a swift kick to. best, libby
Thanks, PW!!! Absolutely. We have a vague, generalized sense of this shift in serious tax dollars and money upwards to the extorting and bribing corporate overlords, and the trending of unemployment and poverty. But the IRL ripples are hitting our own personal shores, and it does not seem to be many of the overlords, it seems to be a bonding of ALL of them. Like disordered neglecting parents with all the power becoming more and more outrageous to those at their mercy, the way children are ... for life necessities. I feel the same despair I felt when I realized just how for all intents and purposes all of our Congress was lost to cronyism gamesmanship and had lost sight of protecting our needs as citizens seriously. And then there is the SCOTUS. Gone to corporate pimps most every one. With Congress and Prez, impression management bullshit and us vs. them bullshit and pandering and then behind closed doors giving it to their pimps, the corporations.
Good thing I don't sound bitter, huh? best, libby
Good thing I don't sound bitter, huh? best, libby
Thoth, once again, thanks for the validation on this stuff! I, too, wish more and more people would face down what is actually happening -- begin to hear about the extent of it all. I see Moyers on the tv, but that is about all. MSNBC is so caught up in the gamesmanship of election 2012, which should not be the job of media. It should be exposing the truth and reality. best, libby
Stuart,
Dumbed down or learned helplessness or profound over-identification with the power/celeb/political overlord class? Sarah Jessica Parker doing her part to bounce Obama's celebrity status at $40,000 a plate dinner. I guess Sarah is as politically astute as Carrie Bradshaw ... NOT really. And that Wintaur monster that Devil Wears Prada is based on, does she really want to be an ambassador by helping Obama? God save the world. One more pscyhopath at the reins of power.
I know very bright people who were politically less naive than I long ago who have been sitting out the fight for years. Shrug it all off. I find myself not turning on propaganda media more and more but that is dangerous because it keeps me away from information about what is happening, even though I get no ethical presentation.
Yes, the scaffolding of the police state that "such a nice personality" Obama is setting up is more than troubling. The right to assassinate Americans without due process. A tastey little blank check he assures us now he won't "take advantage of" even if it is gutting the bill of rights. The proliferation of drones for surveillance and cruel incineration. Troops not having to get up close and personal from 9000 miles away or one day not so far away within the states. FBI using Iraqi (Gestapo) tactics against citizens exercising their right to protest and assemble.
It is like so many are either in the throes of obtuse denial or more respectably but tragically actually drowning from Obama's callous disregard of the suffering of Americans and seem to be in a kind of battered spouse/child syndrome, too busy drowning to be able to rally and try to fight back or even rationally review the situation.
And as Glen Barry says above, we are left with the Obomney choice in the election, a choice between two fascists.
thanks for visiting! best, libby
Dumbed down or learned helplessness or profound over-identification with the power/celeb/political overlord class? Sarah Jessica Parker doing her part to bounce Obama's celebrity status at $40,000 a plate dinner. I guess Sarah is as politically astute as Carrie Bradshaw ... NOT really. And that Wintaur monster that Devil Wears Prada is based on, does she really want to be an ambassador by helping Obama? God save the world. One more pscyhopath at the reins of power.
I know very bright people who were politically less naive than I long ago who have been sitting out the fight for years. Shrug it all off. I find myself not turning on propaganda media more and more but that is dangerous because it keeps me away from information about what is happening, even though I get no ethical presentation.
Yes, the scaffolding of the police state that "such a nice personality" Obama is setting up is more than troubling. The right to assassinate Americans without due process. A tastey little blank check he assures us now he won't "take advantage of" even if it is gutting the bill of rights. The proliferation of drones for surveillance and cruel incineration. Troops not having to get up close and personal from 9000 miles away or one day not so far away within the states. FBI using Iraqi (Gestapo) tactics against citizens exercising their right to protest and assemble.
It is like so many are either in the throes of obtuse denial or more respectably but tragically actually drowning from Obama's callous disregard of the suffering of Americans and seem to be in a kind of battered spouse/child syndrome, too busy drowning to be able to rally and try to fight back or even rationally review the situation.
And as Glen Barry says above, we are left with the Obomney choice in the election, a choice between two fascists.
thanks for visiting! best, libby
Olga, thanks so much for your support and interest. YES, though we are in different countries the outrages being perpetrated are INTERNATIONAL! And we really need to bond as a family without borders to push back against the evil coming collectively at us! I agree. There is a disconnect between head and heart going on among many in the oppressed 99%. For so long we Americans have been "goose-stepping" "heartlessly" by homeless people on the street, afraid if we open our hearts even a little to them and relate we will have to break through to our own fear that this is what might happen to us. Like the cartoon characters who run off cliffs. As long as we don't look down we are okay. Once we realize we are in mid-air, already doomed, we plunge. It is human nature to fight to deny. Also, stress makes people nacissistic. But we must fight that and open our hearts to empathy. Sadly the people of Wisconsin couldn't even do that for each other, the resentment of those jobs and pensions still protected by unions made people choose Walker as being "fair" and they chose to vote, the majority, against each other instead of as a strong block. Austerity-mongering is not "fair". People should stive to raise their own lots, not yank down others who are not as bad yet. That is like insects crawling over each other to exit a barrel. Ugly and heartless and short-sighted.
Thanks for visiting. best, libby
Thanks for visiting. best, libby
will be back! best, libby
I was just reading about one of the Chase's long before they merged with JP Morgan; in 1929 he sold short when the stock market crashed and was never held accountable. There was no way to hold people accountable at the time, which is a major reason why it crashed in the first place.
They put some safeguards in place, not enough but a big start. Things got better for a while, not as good as they could and should, but better. They're eroding the safeguards again and the corruption is coming back as fast as they reduce the accountability and they're arguing for more reduction in regulation!
The irony is that they benefit from some of the regulations like trade secrecy laws and copyright laws and others.
They only want to eliminate regulations that make it harder to steel not regulations that make it easier to steel.
They put some safeguards in place, not enough but a big start. Things got better for a while, not as good as they could and should, but better. They're eroding the safeguards again and the corruption is coming back as fast as they reduce the accountability and they're arguing for more reduction in regulation!
The irony is that they benefit from some of the regulations like trade secrecy laws and copyright laws and others.
They only want to eliminate regulations that make it harder to steel not regulations that make it easier to steel.
IceRune
Did you ever notice that the true name of the Nazi party was National Socialist German Workers' Party? Yup, it's that second word that gives them away. Maybe your friends can, read?
Did you ever notice that the true name of the Nazi party was National Socialist German Workers' Party? Yup, it's that second word that gives them away. Maybe your friends can, read?
@Catnlion,
Thanks for the illustration of the ignorance of the Faux News crowd. I can call myself "Queen of England" and it doesn't amount to much.
The Nazi's were anti-socialist, and anti-communist. They have been best described as "far right" by historians. They were also really really good at propaganda.
Thanks for the illustration of the ignorance of the Faux News crowd. I can call myself "Queen of England" and it doesn't amount to much.
The Nazi's were anti-socialist, and anti-communist. They have been best described as "far right" by historians. They were also really really good at propaganda.
Thanks for the post, Libby.
It is insane that people cry socialist whenever regulations are mentioned. But those guys love love love their FDIC insurance, and they would probably expect a fiduciary duty be upheld for a licensed agent selling their home, or an investment broker handling their savings.
r./
It is insane that people cry socialist whenever regulations are mentioned. But those guys love love love their FDIC insurance, and they would probably expect a fiduciary duty be upheld for a licensed agent selling their home, or an investment broker handling their savings.
r./
So much to say, who knows where to start. Another commentator mentioned a thirst for "kick-ass" actions. Just as zenophobia grows in economic crisis so does a thirst for aggression and a search for scapegoats. Identification with the aggressor/the Stockholm Syndrome also adds to this, resulting in wanting to be on the 'sale' side by endorsing the punitive aggressor, the strong man who's going to "kick some ass and take some names" in order to avoid being his next victim. A vain hope, if you are not truly wealthy. [r]
I while back, I read "What's the Matter With Kansas?", in which the author portrayed a political situation in which working-class voters were persuaded to vote against their own interests by corporate-led Republicans. Now, that thesis is being examined by political scientists, and what is going on isn't really that simple. According to the numbers, most working class and lower income people vote Democratic, no matter what you tell them. The predominate groups responsible for conservative voting seems to be middle class people, of evangelical persuasion. These people are definitely voting against their own interests, by helping to eliminate the middle class itself. However, maybe they view their church and the people in it as a separate economy, which is somehow immune to any outside influences. To their minds, they're only sticking it to the Devil and all his cohorts. In my opinion, such organizations need to be invaded by sleeper cells, ready to corrupt the minds of the innocent, to turn them to the dark side.
JAN SAND HAS RECEIVED A READERS' PICK AWARD FOR HIS COMMENT ON THIS POST.
Don't mourn. Organize.
No comments:
Post a Comment