via Al Stefanelli
One of my facebook friends posted a link to this internet posting, and I think it speaks quite poignantly about why some people may be voting against their own interests, especially those of an older generation.
…I listen to my own father, who has been the victim of layoffs from corporate merger after merger, who’s had his retirement fucked, who’s lost money on wall street – he’s done everything he was ‘supposed’ to do. He joined the military, went to college, had 2 kids, bought the house, invested & saved his money, worked his fucking ass off all his life & he still has squat to show for it. Now as a man well into his 60s he’s feeling the wrath of age discrimination, he’s finding his skills becoming outdated & his pay & benefits today (for the last 10 years) are lower than what they’ve been in the last 30 for him. Living the american life he finds his health failing as he’s a lifetime smoker with a growing waistline.
He’s the prototypical uncultured, red-blooded american male. He slathers his [steak] in ketchup, votes conservatives down the line, and wants the good old days before the women, blacks and fags took over. He’s a flag waver, supports his troops, and fends for himself. He’s always bitching about how much money corporations have to spend [because] of regulation & about how the upper class need a tax cut. Nothing in the world makes him angrier than “socialism” & the so-called welfare state. Working people getting needed services bothers him tremendously because a few extreme token examples get painted as degenerate leeches by the likes of AM Radio & Fox News. ANd then he’ll turn right around & support corporate subsidy for just about anything from corn to oil – b/c it “stimulates jobs” and it “trickles down”.
He refuses to recognize that we as a nation spend more money at the beckoning of corporate America than we even begin to touch what we spend on our own citizenry through what he claims is “welfare” or infrastructure. He’s a working class guy who’s been fucked by the system all his life. He still puts his suit on with a kind of sad pride, every day, & goes to work downtown to phone-monkey job nowadays. He’s doing a job any body could do but he likes to pretend all his education & experience has gotten him somewhere. He’s deluded about what America’s exceptional way of life has brought him personally as he is deluded about what the world is like at large. So he denies global warming, blames the unions, blames teachers & other government workers, blames regulation, blames the EPA & the FDA, blames those struggling to make it in this world, blames the blacks, blames the immigrants, blames everyone & anyone but those at the top.
Sound familiar? Maybe it’s your Dad or another relative, or the neighbor two doors down, but I think we all know a version of this man. Maybe, like the subject of this posting, there is some element of racism and bigotry, maybe not. This is a man who feels fucked over by the system, even though he thought he did all the things he was supposed to do — and he probably did! He’s a true believer “in an American dream & a way of life that simply doesn’t exist,” but instead of fighting back against the system that’s fucking him, he turns off his mind and turns the hate against those in the same boat as him.
Why? Is it easier? Less painful? What about some sort of corporate Tea Party Stockholm Syndrome? Those people really know their stuff — especially since their corporate masters told them so. No further thinking required…
We’ve seen this in history before. I’m not trying to evoke Godwins Law or anything but i see a lot of correlations between the right-wing disenfranchised populist uprising here in America & a lot of what people experience in Wiemar Germany. There was a lot of angry people, scared about the loss of their jobs & an economy in bad shape. Those angry, uneducated people were looking for someone to blame. They didn’t care if they sided with a political party that would be responsible for fucking them over & destroying their democracy, not to mention the massive harm they would do to other groups. No, all that mattered was they found leaders who pretended to have answers. People like quick & simple answers & fixes, certainty & shared anger.
Easy peasy! It’s not me or the people I aspire to be who caused any problems, it’s those other people. You know, the ones who don’t look like me or believe like me. Yeah, fuck them!
So far, the Tea Party hasn’t come up with a great leader for their movement, and we should consider ourselves lucky that they haven’t found him or her.
If somebody comes along who is charismatic & honest the US is in trouble bc of the frustration, disillusionment, justified anger & the absence of any coherent response from liberals. What are people supposed to think if someone says ‘I have got an answer, we have an enemy’? There it was the Jews. Here it will be the illegal immigrants from Mexico, the Muslims, teachers, unions, Planned Parenthood, NPR, & blacks (you can toss in atheists, homosexuals & liberals too). We will be told that WASPy private sector males are a persecuted minority. We will be told we have to defend ourselves & the honor of the nation. instead of fixing problems that truly affect the all of the working class, the nation will be convinced to support legislation that will further protect & consolidate power for the corporate elite.
Hmmmmm, that sounds mighty familiar already, doesn’t it?
What are we going to do, good people? Is there really any changing this kind of self-destructive thinking? Or should we just roll on over them, and concentrate on those who aren’t so invested in blaming “the other?”
This is our daily open thread — What do you think?
They must be having the Ice Capades in Hell today, because Rachel Maddow is on the panel of Meet the Press, along with Alan Greenspan, Austan Goolsbee, and to interrupt anyone making a cogent point, Alex Castellanos. I’m curious as to what Greenspan will have to say about the debt downgrade by S&P.
Also on Meet the Press, Grampy McCain and John Kerry, losers of the last two Presidential campaigns, but it’s unclear whether they will appear consecutively or concurrently on the show.
http://www.politicususa.com/en/rachel-maddow-mtp-debt
Great post, Zooey. I hope that your own dad isn’t quite as far gone as the one described above.
Yesterday parx24 sent me a link – http://www.juancole.com/2011/08/downgraded-us-credit-rating-what-comes-of-coddling-the-super-rich.html – to a piece by Juan Cole regarding the downgraded US credit rating. I read the article, and started reading the comments. One of the got me so pissed that I had to respond. Here’s the comment, along with my (still awaiting moderation) response:
Jason
08/06/2011 at 9:27 am
“It is a matter of some astonishment that most Americans are just bending over and taking this treatment without so much as a protest.”
“I find this astonishing as well, but I imagine it’s attributable to this sense of guilt cultivated in the US for having a lack of success. This rugged American individualism that we are imbued with constantly creates a sense that if one is without a job or is not comparatively wealthy, it is due that individual’s poor decision making in life, that they have brought poverty upon themselves and are solely to blame for his/her own predicament. I sense this belief is particularly prevalent amongst the middle class and is significant driver in their complacency regarding systemic issues that are undermining them. What makes it pernicious even more so is that this thinking is self reinforcing, as taking ownership or accepting(mistakenly) one’s fate is viewed as somewhat commendable and distinguishes them from those whom raise their voices against the system. Obviously it will require a more severe shock to the US public before it becomes truly restive.”
Reply
Jane E. Schneider
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
08/06/2011 at 7:56 pm
Jason, I think that you are completely wrong. The “compassionate conservative” mindset projects that if a person is poor or not successful, it is due to that person’s poor decision- making in life, and that the person is solely to blame for it. This is, of course a total crock, as it does not take into consideration any outside circumstances whatsoever.
Whereas you believe that the middle class and poor are feeling “guilty”, we are actually feeling angry that our lifetime of hard work and playing by the rules has achieved little reward for it, and that the old-fashioned ‘American Dream’ is no longer attainable by the same means which brought their parents into the middle class.
Jason sounds like an elitist. Great response, Jane. Yes, we are angry and we don’t feel guilty.
Thanks, Cats – I just hope that my comment comes out of moderation soon!
How anyone can believe that claptrap is beyond me. Why should we feel “guilty” about the family to which we were born, as if we started our ‘poor decision-making’ prior to conception? If that were the case, one might as well blame the Teavangelists’ ‘god’ and have done with!
See this or was mentioned here yesterday?:
From the S&P release …
Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.
• • My italics.
ThinkProgress had this yesterday. Amazing how, despite the clear language as you quoted above, Teapublicans still blame Obama and the Democrats.
I’ll bet that part was never quoted on FuxNoise!
That makes sense.
Yes, I did — but that part has been given little coverage in the media.
It is too damning of the republican party.
Our main problem is that we defend Liberalism poorly, and that we allow the Right to paint us as all that is wrong with America, despite the fact that the America we all know, that many of us grew up in, and that the richest people in the world made their wealth in, is the result of Liberalism more than of Conservatism.
The media is afraid of being tagged as “liberally biased”, and so they appease the RWNJs by letting them have their say and presenting their views as if they had equal merit with ours!. They don’t, of course, and anybody with an IQ in the three-digit range can plainly see that it was Conservative (Republican) policies that created the horrible financial mess we’re in right now, and the last goddamn thing we need is more of the same!
Every chance you get, whether by posting comments online, tweeting, or writing Letters-to-the Editor (LTEs), remind the media of their failure to inform the public of the truth, of their failure to provide their customers (video, audio, and online) with the facts of the economic downturn, and how their reluctance to call the right wing the lying liars they are has done more damage to our nation than ever before.
Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. I’ll shut up now.
Kerry: ‘This is the Tea Party Downgrade.’
Kerry had to go first, next is Grampy.
TP has a ‘News Flash’ post up for this very statement.
McCain: ‘It’s all the President’s fault’
Plus he’s blaming the entire recession on the housing market.
Old man shouting at cloud.
Hello All!
I engaged in a email exchange with my younger brother after I received an email blast from him yesterday that “the administration” was responsible for the credit rating downgrade. Here was his final response before I chose to end the battle of words:
“Agreed the idiotic Repubs share in the blame here. Both parties have created this mess. And I agree that taxes need to go up. But ONLY if spending decreases. That will never happen. If I ran my business the way the government runs, I’d be locked up for fraud.
Still, never before have any of us seen a group of more incompetent, egotistical liars than this “administration”.
And, blaming anyone else still change the fact that this idiot Geithner still said the rating would not drop. You can’t continue to live beyond your means. Economics 101. I live it everyday when I continue to pay way more than my fair share into the system and continually watch others suck the system dry.
Obama = failure. Simple fact. Largest number of people on food stamps, largest number of people out of work (number, not percentage of population and including those who have never worked like life-long welfare recipients) largest growth of federal debt in the shortest amount of time.
Paint it anyway you want, fact is he is the worst. To repeat something you said oh so many years ago, “I finally have something nice to say about Jimmy Carter. After Barack Obama, Carter wasn’t our worst president”. Only you were referring to Reagan and Bush Jr.”
Now the key phrase from my BaggerBrother is “I continue to pay way more than my fair share into the system and continually watch others suck the system dry.” You see, he has no children yet he pays property taxes that fund schools. He has no dependents but watches “his” tax dollars go to foodstamps and welfare for “them”. He fails to remember that he purchased his home with an FHA mortgage, he went to college using government-subsidized loans, before purchasing his seasonal business, he spent many winters living on unemployment, and, because our father retired when he was just 8-years-old, he received Social Security dependent income that my parents banked for his schooling.
Yes, a bitter middle-aged white male. I would have thought the uterus I left for him was more liberal after my stay…
Spencersmom, it must be so tough for people like you and Zooey and so many others to have relatives who believe this crap.
In my case, my siblings and I have never been great at keeping up with each other directly on any regular (or even irregular) basis, but we got together regularly for family occasions while my parents were still alive and functional. After the Year From Hell, once our parents were gone, we drifted even further apart. But at least all three of us are of the same political persuasion, so on the few occasions when we actually do communicate, we certainly don’t have any arguments over politics. So I guess that’s a good thing.
I guess I’m the “odd man out” in my family. Three brothers, all Republicans (two are true ‘baggers, one is still sane) but I was the only girl and the only one who isn’t right-handed. I’m the family LEFTY and damn proud of it!
Have a great day, Jane! We’re in for a humid one but at least it’s not too hot. Yet…
It is humid and sticky. Everything I touch feels sticky.
Same here, Cats, it’s already gross here.
Mom, you have a great day, too!
Down here, we jump in the swimmin’ pool to dry off.
We don’t discuss politics in my family. My brother, a die-hard Catholic, tries to bring it up on occasion and I just change the topic. He will also bring up religion. By the end of our visits, we still hug each other and we still love each other. He knows that he won’t change my mind and I know that I won’t change his mind.
Funny, my parents (as you all know) were devout Roman Catholics, yet they were liberals. I guess it’s because they actually tried to follow Christ’s teachings.
Castellanos claims we got downgraded for Democrats’ insisting we keep spending. Rachel smacks him immediately by reading from the report, that it was the unexpected level of ‘brinksmanship’, that caused S & P to downgrade. He didn’t have a response. Castellanos doesn’t even have an ally in Greenspan. The old man says the problem is not the US, but Europe, specifically Italy, which is ‘too big to bail out’.
House, if you keep giving us the play-by-play, maybe I won’t have to watch it for myself.
Greenspan is blaming Europe/Italy? Definitely senile – why do they bother having him on? Then again, why do they bother with people like Kerry and Gramps, who have no relevancy either.
You should watch the panel. I can’t cover it all. Rachel has Castellanos right where she wants him, alone and unsupported.
Rachel herself is the reason none of these GOPeaBrains come on her show – she’s way too smart, knowledgeable and armed with facts for them to use their standard “baffle with bullshit” schtick.
Exactly. Last night Rachel had tweeted that she was going to be on MTP this morning, so it was a ‘school night’ for her. She’s always prepared.
MTP is starting here in NY now, so I’m going to watch it now. Thanks for the pointers, House.
I remember a “joke” a fellow told me in the summer of 2008, one which I suspect is probably making the rounds again in some circles. I didn’t laugh then, just scowled, turned and walked away. It went something like this (and he could barely get it out without giggling through the last line):
At a press conference a reporter asked, “Mr. Obama, if you’re elected president in November, do you think you’ll be able to fix this economy?” Obama thought for a minute, then said, “I don’t know if I can fix it, but I sure can nigger-rig it.”
Our approximately 25-30% electoral ‘hole’ will always and inevitably assign the cause of every problem, no matter what it is, to Obama, and they’ll be assured 100% of the time by Fox News and Congressional Republicans that they’re spot-on correct.
Oh, and, as an aside, the same idiot that told that joke was a fellow employee, the wrangler at the high mountain lodge in AZ, the place where we ran the kitchen and dining room. Back then (and before the fires this year which destroyed 850 square miles of forest that once surrounded that lodge — also Obama’s fault, someone pointed out in a comment in the Phoenix newspaper), back in 2008 the ubiquitous forest Raven populations were renamed by our wrangler ‘friend’, “Obama chickens.”
That wrangler is now out of work this summer. No more easy cash, no more $35 per customer per hour take-home. He’s no doubt down and out again, all thanks to “that fucking Obama’s black ass.”
This country has earned its pending collapse and all the consequences thereof. As to precisely how it all happened I’m not exactly sure, but here we are.
A black man in the white house is really bringing the racism to the forefront.
I’ve often wondered if putting a black man in the white house was a masterful plot by our corporate overlords. Especially if they know he is one of them.
It would be successful on so many counts to do this. They get one of their own in office. They get millions and millions of supporters because of the historical relevance of it.
The corporate media pushes the “only in America” could this happen and the “we’ve come so far”….when in reality we haven’t. Racism is alive and well in this country.
On another count, by putting a black man in the white house, they know damn well it would divide the nation even more then we were under “W”.
A house divided will fall. Fall to what…..? Fascism?
I’m not claiming that President Obama is part of this but one has to ponder this as he appoints capitalists/corporatists like Rahm Emanual, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Bill Daley (Former JP Morgan Chase executive), Jeff Immelt (Former GM CEO), Thomas Donilan (Fannie Mae), Michael Taylor (Former Monsanto executive) to his cabinet.
Greenspan: ‘According to the IMF, increases in taxes do significantly curtail economic activity. So do expenditure cuts, but significantly less’.
Well, we know the IMF has only the best of intentions…
But of course. I mean they publicly claim they were forgiving the debt accumulated by third world countries and then, behind the scenes and out of the public eye, they take control of the natural resources of these countries and hand them over to multinational corporations, so that things like water become commodities.
Phuck Greenspan, he is just a tool, whose policies or lack of them helped get us into the mess we are in today. And don’t tell me he didn’t know what would happen. Him and his cronies profited greatly from the near economic collapse. The man should be held accountable along with the crooks on Wall Street!
Castellanos called Rick Perry a ‘lighter copy of George Bush’.
Ouch!
That’s not encouraging. We don’t want another “Bush” in the White House even if his name is Perry.
I don’t think Castellanos wants Perry as his party’s nominee. He thinks Perry is unelectable, because Obama won by running against Bush.
Speaking of Rick Perry, I wonder how his Prayer-a-thon turned out? Did he even attend himself – I thought that KO had mentioned a couple of days ago that Perry’s spokespeople said he was still undecided. What a fucking idiot!
HuffPo had a summary of PrayeraPalooza which stated that the stadium was less than half full despite it being FREE and heavily advertised in advance.
The Washington Post article I linked to yesterday listed attendance at 15,000. This in a stadium that seats 86,000 (IIRC). The organizers are claiming 30,000 and the media appears to be running with that. Based on one comment I read, there were long lines at the food booths – for a day of fasting.
Excellent article!
Big business, including DuPont Chemical, J.P. Morgan Bank, US Steel, Goodyear Tire, Standard Oil and Mutual Life Insurance plotted to overthrow FDR and the US government in the 1930′s and replace it with fascism. Thanks to retired Major General Smedley Butler, the plot was exposed. Astonishingly, none of those involved in the plot were thrown into prison for treason.
Did fascism disappear or fade away from our history after the plot? No. Since the 1930′s these very same people and businesses/multinational corporations have slowly but surely undermined our government with lobbyists, money and influence.
In America today, fascism is alive and well, and thriving. Today’s fascists, like those in the past are disguised as suit wearing businessmen, politicians, media moguls, financial executives, media talking heads.
Today’s fascists have hijacked American Christianity and the republican party. They have a cable entertainment channel dedicated to spewing their anti-government rhetoric. They own the rest of the media and the press. They control AM hate radio.
They have thousands of political front groups that are disguised with patriotic names and names that give the public the impression that they are fighting for the average American, when in reality they are fighting for the total control of our government.
Their missions may be different but their agenda is the same. To destroy our government. They do this on many different ways. First and for most, having one political party and their propaganda agents dedicated to make government appear dysfunctional and broken.
Today’s fascists are the Koch brothers, the US Chamber Of Commerce, the GOP, the Tea Party and many other corporations, banks and financial executives. Today they have the money, the power and the influence to be successful because there isn’t a strong enough opposition party (Democratic Party) to stop them.
It’s my impression that because of the Citizens United decision, the opposition party will become just a few token politicians whose voices will never be heard in the corporate media. The game has changed. Citizens United did this. The Democratic party knows that if they are going to compete for the unlimited corporate money, they too will have to become corporate puppets and anyone with the eyes to see, know this has already taken place.
The Democratic party isn’t innocent in this either. From President Clinton, to Chris Dodd, to Chuck Schumer, to Steny Hoyer and yes to President Obama and VP Biden. We have many politicians in the Democratic party who are democrats in name only, when in reality they are corporatists.
Sure some of these politicians give good speeches and appear to put up a good fight, but perhaps this is just scripted to make us believe we still have somebody fighting for the middle class and the poor, while fascism continues to spread.
Wasn’t one of those 1930s plotters a certain Prescott Bush?
Indeed. In fact, the front end of the Bush family monetary wealth came about via Prescott’s efforts to help rearm post-Weimar Germany, and the massive profits that flowed from the process. It wasn’t until 1942 that the effort was halted via the Trading With The Enemy Act, but of course no charges were ever filed, and the Bush family moved forward to carry out the legacy, to do everything in their power to destroy the country — and profit in the process.
And today, Dubya, an indictable war criminal, is allowed to roam free when he should be locked up in a black hole prison somewhere.
Money and power must have a loud voice.
No argument from me on any of that as we sit here and helplessly watch history repeat itself yet one more time. A hundred years ago, in the first years of the twentieth century when Robber Barons reigned supreme in the business world, when there was little or no regulation of corporate or financial excess in the days which ultimately led to the collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed, fascism as a definitive philosophy was a freshly delineated Italian concept. As Mussolini himself defined it in the 1920s,
But yep, even during the depression years that same philosophy never let go of the idea that corporate control of the government, of the full power of the state, was the road paved with gold, the road that led to ultimate wealth and power.
They fought Roosevelt every step of the way, and in 1937 Roosevelt himself relented and began cutting Federal spending rather than maintaining it or increasing it to fight the Depression, and it didn’t take long before the quagmire returned. Ultimately, it was the Second World War that saved the US from itself — the MASSIVE government expenditures it took to rearm and to fight a global war. By the time victory was in hand, the US debt was the highest it’s ever been, up and through today, when measured as a percentage of the nation’s GDP. Taxes were at their highest with a maximum rate of 90% on the top one or two percent, but yet the economy was strong, and when war production was switched to domestic production it got stronger and stronger. The job market boomed, infrastructure was modernized, and soon the GDP grew to the point where the massive debt was no longer massive at all.
And now, today, with most of American industry offshored in order to enhance corporate profits, with debt again accumulating thanks to the lowest tax rates in 80 years along with massive spending on silly things including unfunded (and unnecessary) political/aggressive wars, we’re suddenly back in the (Depression) saddle again. The same old philosophy — now duly defined as fascism — once again attempts a government takeover, and once again is within striking distance of success.
If we as a nation collapse in a heap, it’s our own fucking fault for NOT finally vanquishing, once and for all, the extreme right wing Fascist movement. It’s our own fucking fault, and while there will be tears and more tears, no one in power will care, nor will they pay attention. Because they’ll have what they’ve long craved: a government which “reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual” … the precise anathema of the Constitutional authorities once carved into stone by America’s founders and today misunderstood by perhaps 50% of the American electorate.
It’s hard to feel anything beyond disgust anymore.
Oh, I don’t know, I can still feel extreme anger in addition to disgust.
Excellent thread by Al Stefanelli.
He nailed the facts within so many families in middle America.
There is something sublimely elegant to the evil of the Right Wing propaganda machine. They have portrayed the government as an incompetent and insidious socialist plot with a secret agenda of murdering fetuses, taking guns away, destroying marriage and the military, embracing Islam and flooding our country with illegal aliens in order they can keep handing out money to foreigners and bums.
And the truly amazing thing about this idea is that they just noticed it happening on 1-20-2009.
Yuk. Blech. Gag. Barf.
That was one of the first things I read this morning.
Way to make the event seem significant.
Half empty stadium. Now many subscribe to those churches?
An is it any surprise that the most bible-thumping state turns out for a bible thumping homeboy who is their Governor? No.
blockquote>“He has the best record in the field on jobs, and doesn’t have to get off message beefing up bona fides on social issues, since they are firmly established,” said Mary Matalin, a former adviser during both Bush presidencies.
Given Texas’ recent uptick in jobs,
Matalin is of course either ignorant or a liar:
The Massachusetts labor market deteriorated less than in Texas from 2008 to 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Massachusetts was the fourth most-friendly state for employment in the period, the data show. Texas, where Republican Governor Rick Perry has touted his state’s title as Chief Executive magazine’s best for business, was sixth.
Massachusetts unemployment rate is 7.6%, Texas is 8,2% (New York is 8%, NJ is 9.5%. California is 11.8%).
“Matalin is of course either ignorant or a liar”
I say both.
Texas is creating loads of minimum wage jobs with no benefits.
They shouldn’t be bragging about that, but of course they will.
Can you imagine the right’s (over)reaction if Keith Ellison where to hold the EXACT same event, where all that’s different is changing the word “Christian” to “Muslim?”
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The world would surely end/
From something I’ve yet to complete (about the US/UK “special relationship”, the politics/economics that surrounded US isolationism and then participation in WWII, the myth of US exceptionalism and the championing of democracy, and my father’s and uncle’s war experiences):
In other words, Henry Ford was willing to give-up about $1.6 billion in business because he wanted Germany to beat Britain, but he didn’t mind making a buck off a government contract even though it was being offered under the aegis of the supposedly Jewish -financed and controlled FDR. .
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Money, money, money…money! Always does the talking.
(oh and bigotry..hating is so profitable for many a business adventure)
[excellent, as per usual - anxious to read more on the subject, from you]
What the IMF really said:
So, the budget deal recently signed into law means lower productivity and higher unemployment. According to the IMF. In October of last year.
It is important to note that the IMF said it would be worse with tax hikes to reduce the deficit, because banks typically provide less stimulus if the deficit reduction is achieved through tax hikes. In other words, its in the control of the banks, the same folks that caused this most recent collapse in the first place.
The IMF also noted the contractionary effects of deficit reduction would be reduced or eliminated with a discretionary stimulus. It’s a given that no more stimulus package will come out of Congress between now and the next election.
Conclusion: the powers that be passed a plan that must cause a contraction of our economy and increase unemployment.
With the result that those already with the money get to dictate the lives of those without, even more. .
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Happy Birthday Garrison Keillor!
As one who was born and raised in Lake Wobegon, I second that.
Briseadh na Faire on August 7, 2011 at 9:44 am said:
Conclusion: the powers that be passed a plan that must cause a contraction of our economy and increase unemployment.
————————————————————————————————-
Now why would those in power want this? Do they want mass riots in the streets as the unemployed and hungry kill one another over a loaf of stale bread found in a dumpster behind a burning Bakery?
Seriously, with world wide austerity measures taking place along with no jobs, lower wages, higher gas prices and food prices, it almost seems like our overlords and their political puppets want to create chaos so that they will have a reason to implement more draconian laws to control and rule us with an Iron Fascist fist.
They want the black guy out of the White House and are not the least bit against American cities bursting into flames if that’s what it takes. Some of the Dems realize that. Pelosi, Schumer, Franken, and Betty McCollum (my Representative) have all said as much in the last couple weeks but, oddly, it hasn’t been reported. Meanwhile the “librul media” has criticized President Obama for his “partisanship” because he said that it’s hard to reach settlements when “the other side doesn’t really seem interested in compromise”.
Nail. Head. Direct hit.
The Ruling Class sees itself insulated from the ensuing fray. They believe they have successfully pitted the lower classes against each other. They believe they own enough media whores and propagandists to instigate conflicts amidst the lower classes, essentially dividing them along social issues to conquer them economically.
Thus far, the Ruling Class is correct. I honestly doubt any charismatic leader emerging from the lower class who correctly illuminates the class struggle will be allowed to survive for long. Cindy Sheehan is the last one to come to mind. She lived, but was marginallized, and was a one-issue person.
Hi, gang.
I engaged in a brief debate with a GOoPer at the local paper’s site. He was claiming that the “intelligent conservatives” would just use the teabaggers as shock troops and then reclaim the GOP. Then he went on to claim that the “intelligent conservatives” are the only hope to save us from “godless commies”. So, I pointed out that virtually everyone I know, including me, could be called intelligent conservatives and that none of us are religious, none of us are the least bit afraid of mythical “commies”, and none of us have voted for a GOoPer since, at least, 2001. Then he went all “birther” and I lost interest.
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That limp noodle…often wonder if these same people believe a bunny lays eggs in the Spring.
oooh! Bright, multi-colored eggs, already hard-boiled! And he lays eggs that have candy or money inside, too!
The Easter Bunny is one of my mostest favorite Dieties!
Clearly he can’t be considered be an “intelligent” conservative if he went birther.
I probably would have lost interest at “godless commies.” So ’50s – wonder if the guy’s wife wears a dress and pearls while she’s vacuuming.
I wear pearls and high heels while vacuuming. Doesn’t everyone?
Of course I don’t wear anything else than that.
,
Don’t the heels hurt your feet?/ ;>
I’ll help you dust…
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From LGF:
Pamela Geller: Obama Tipped Off the Taliban to Get SEALs Killed
I really can’t think of a good reason why Geller, Robert Spencer, and others aren’t charged with inciting terrorism in Norway. In fact, I think the single most distressing part of modern society is that these freaks are welcomed by the “librul media” instead of arrested.
OMG, that is just despicable! Geller needs to “disappear” to Gitmo. She won’t be missed.
Heh! Tales from Wisconsin. Paul Ryan is smugly self-assured that the downgrade of the bond rating is vindication for his plan to cast pensioners to the dogs.
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/ryan-claims-downgrade-vindication-gop
Meanwhile. The teabaggers are blaming “libruls” for a billion deaths and calling the Wisconsin recalls “attacks”. I guess that I never really thought of voting as a terrorist act.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/tea-party-nations-judson-phillips-claim
Show us how it’s done, Wisconsin.
Okay, I’d like to share my morning with you all. I took a nice drive to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, camera-in-hand, to make the most of a gray morning.
Enjoy.
(Go ahead, click. I won’t hurt. If you like what you see, even post a comment. It’s easy.
)
The waterfall — coolest place in town, right?
Very nice.
Thanks frugal.
.
I’m living proof it won’t be injurious! Just came from viewing the stunning action photos of the waterfalls and the gorgeous plant life!
lol, thanks ebb!
I clicked. I saw. I didn’t get hurt.
It was easy.
and easy on the eyes, too.
thanks.
Thanks BnF.
You mean, Lee Harvey Oswald wasn’t the lone plotter and assassin after all? Unreal! /s
Johnson could have been part of it, but I truly believe rogue agents of the CIA had a hand in it, for the Bay of Pigs and for JFK wanting to remove all personnel out of Vietnam. I’m sure the war industry also played a part.
I couldn’t agree more. CIA, Texas oil interests, the mob, other corp. interests who lost tons of money when Castro assumed power in Cuba — the operation was clearly planned to the last detail well in advance (including the Warren Commission coverup), and the only thing Oswald had to do with it was as the convenient patsy. The operation was, indeed, a true coup d’etat by any other name.
And CIA guy GHW Bush who benefited enormously from his Texas connections was in Dallas the day of the assassination. Coincidence, I think not.
Has the MSM been reporting on this?
Israel rocked by the biggest protest in its history:
Haaretz said the protesters chanted, “the people demand social justice” and “an entire generation demands a future.” It remarked that, with regard to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government, signs hung on streets, which read “Resign, Egypt is here”.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/310025#ixzz1UNs74Peq
So I wonder to myself….When are the average American citizens going to take to the streets?
When the government comes for our ipads? (ipods? Which is it?)
.
I’ve not heard it on any news programs.
Have only read about it on-line:
.
Israeli protests..
I remember watching some program about the Israeli/Palestinian
conflictgenocide and recall an Israeli musician being interviewed. He was in a band with Jews and Arabs and when asked what he thought was the cause for the conflict between the two sides and he said………..the media.I’ve often wonder if Israel has their own brand of FOX news? Apparently they do.
Alan Greenspan mentioned it on MTP this morning and said that’s why the Israeli trading might be down.
Alan Greenspan alluded that it may have been a bigger factor in the Tel Aviv markets moving down, rather than the US debt downgrade, today on Meet the Press.
And miss So You Think You Can Dance?
Should I as undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null forward this message to GOP headquarters as a campaign contribution?
Start:
To: undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null
Subject: GREETINGS.
Date: Aug 2, 2011 6:40 AM
–
Please be informed that You have $250,000.00 Lodged in our Western Union to transfer to you as Compensation.
End
I am sure that they will give their account numbers and access codes to the original sender and the gift could never be traced to me.
Remember, the gun had nothing to do with this.
Is there a trend here?
How ironic. Twice in one day where guns didn’t have anything to do with killing people.
Maybe we shouldn’t say “Guns kill people,” but instead say “Guns facilitate killing people.” Of course, we might have to explain to the people the message is aimed at what the word “facilitate” means.
I left this comment on a Redstate thread that BnF linked to in yesterday’s Watering Hole. Let’s see if it gets posted and/or if I get banned for life.
I didn’t know it was a WordPress blog and that I could use my WordPress login to comment. I may have changed my password for nothing. Then again, I have two different passwords for this blog and for TP, so maybe it won’t affect that.
I will proudly let you know if I got banned. I’m saving my comment in case I need to refer to how I earned my Redstate ban.
P.S. My comment is titled “The Myth of the Rich as Job Creators”. That should get their attention.
More awesomeness by our Wayne.
Wayne, you are a raving pinko!!
NIce comment. My Redstate career was very short….
The rich maintain,
they do not create.
They support their strain,
and us poor folks’ fate.
Is everybody still at the lake, or what?
Just got back.
Oh, thank the gods.
I’m still there, don’t know how much longer I can tolerate the bugs,
They seem to be attracted to the computer screen, and my headlamp.
Where are you, Raven?
cABallo Lake state park. Again , still…..
Nice. Are you camping overnight?
I turned the headlamop off, lets see how well mi CN TYPE IN YHT DARK…
I can’t type in the dark. Of course, I can’t type with the light on either…
You need just the right candlelight.
candleught is more useful for other puduits than typing…
Is it? I forgot.
phuckin gnats…
Yeah, only 20 miles to work in the morning.
Had a good excursion and a couple of beers.
Not a bad commute — if you’re driving.
I’ve been visiting TP for the first time in a while, and the place still has its share of dumfuk trolls.
.
Say, wasn’t one of the reasons for going to the mixed-up commenting system to rid the place of trolls?
Yep!
I think we all knew that wouldn’t work!
.
Seems House and Raven never had to take
touch-typing
intr. & tr.v. touch-typed, touch-typ·ing, touch-types
To engage in typing or type (a document, for example) without having to look at the keyboard, the fingers having been trained to locate the keys by position.
Must be two-finger hunter-peckers.
.
Sexually showy birds age faster
Cuz they’re tired.
30 Years Ago Today (August 5): The Day the Middle Class Died
I just read that today, excellent commentary by Michael Moore.
Here is an interesting article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Did I Vote For The Wrong For The Wrong President?
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/126863383.html
Bonnie Blodgett hits the nail on the head about the financial collapse and the republican policies that caused it but she also makes an interesting point, that had John McCain won, there would be no need for the Tea Party…..Kind of interesting and NO I’m not saying we should have voted for McCain….I don’t think she meant it in reality either, but she is rightfully disappointed in President Obama, like many of us here are.
Geithner to stay on as Treasury chief
Mon Aug 8, 2011 12:22am EDT
(Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who had considered stepping down after the government borrowing limit was raised, confirmed on Sunday that he will remain at his post at President Barack Obama’s request.
What a shocker! After watching a few documentaries on the economic collapse and learning that Geithner had been a failure throught out his career as the head of the NY FED, I don’t understand why Obama would appoint his as his Treasury Secretary…..But of course Geithner has connections with Bob Rubin, Larry Summers and I believe Goldman Sachs.
Maybe this isn’t a big deal, God knows who Obama may have replaced him with.
OMFG, Batshit Bachmann made the cover of Newsweek.
.
JMJ – the woman is possessed! Evil personified.
BatShit Crazy for sure.
(jeesuz, mary and joseph )
Ora pro nobis if she gets elected
Could be worse — could’ve been the cover of Playboy.
.
Frugal – are you up late or early?
Or even worse yet – the inside of Playboy…
.
Whom – if you are lurking –
Jerry Day 2011
The music never stopped for thousands of fans of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia as they celebrate his 69th birthday in San Francisco’s Excelsior district Sunday afternoon.
“Jerry Day, one of the premier civic and cultural events of San Francisco, celebrates one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time and famous San Francisco native son – Jerry Garcia,” (Mayor Ed)Lee said.
Relatives attended today’s Jerry Day and said it was fantastic –
the only thing missing…
Jerry!
.
update with pics
Thousands gather for Jerry Dayhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/08/07/garcia08.DTL