Dvmx's Comments (37)

“Obama was supposed to be better than that. But maybe no-one can reign in the MIC which must have it's wars.”

“Exactly. Thanks for sending that to the public editor. Will he- can he- respond, I wonder.
What's really up with the Times? Why this pattern? Who is pulling what strings? What's the connection between the Hungry War Machine and the New York Times? Is the controlling end at the Military Industrial Complex? Or is it from some Shadow Cabal of international strategists? Is the connection to the Sulzbergers? The financial backers?
How does this really work? What's your guess?”

“Great post and well said. From many of the comments one can see just what a parlous and confused populace we now have after 20 years of gutted education and corporate media brainwash garbage.
It may be too late.”

“Yes, agreed. This is one of the best comment logs I've seen.”

“-the chart shows men are happier now than they were then-

Hah! Interesting point...”

“thanks good addition to a great article. I'd only add that it's no longer so much that "corporations are becoming an extension of the government", rather that the governement is becoming an extension of these corporations. The model Mr. Creamer finds in the security services, for example, where taxpayer money trains the staff which the taxpayer must then hire back at exorbitant rates once the recipient has moved on to the private contractor, can also be seen in a general way with Congressional lobbyists for all kinds of corporate parasites. The future highly paid corporate lobbyist learns the ropes- again at taxpayer expense- by spending a term or two in the congress, or as a congressional staffer (dealing with lobbyists). Once he or she has learned how the system is gamed, it's over to the corporate side, where the gaming begins and the salaries are fat. And before you say, 'at least the lobbyists aren't being paid by the taxpayers like those CIA hired Blackwater employees', remember that the whole point of the lobbyists activity is to win lucrative government contracts, derail oversight, and prevent reform- all this coming at the taxpayer's cost.”

“it would help if we'd stop seeing money as a reward deserved by the diligent and clever, and started seeing it as the lubricant of transactions, a necessary resource which must remain, to a large extent, evenly spread through society to guarantee optimal functioning.
When a tiny percentage of people amass huge sums while the vast majority penny-pinch and borrow and forego, you are bound to get a dead economy sooner or later. After all, what are those raking in a million a week or more going to do with all that money? How fast can you spend? They put it in financial instruments- and it only grows bigger... but it is no longer greasing the wheels of our transaction-based society model, which grinds to a halt.”

“Obviously the oligarchic corporations taking over the functions of governance without transparency and accountability had no place for Van Jones, a leader of The People. The path of government by the people and government by the "economic royalists" are utterly separate, it is an existential gap Obama cannot bridge with all his skills. So out goes Van Jones, and The People lose another fight in the struggle.
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few and the Republic is destroyed.­" -Abraham Lincoln
And for what it's worth, you are wrong about 911.”

“well said, thank you!”

“You will hear the question of universal health care, something which all other modern industrial states have implemented, broached in the frame: "health care- right or privilege?".

This is a paralytic meme. By that I mean it works to paralyze debate and effective action. Few would argue that health care should only be a privilege of a monied elite. The proposition is obviously unsupportable on ethical grounds. But arguing that health-care is a "right" sounds, to those who can afford it, like they'll have to pay for those who can't. And so there is resistance there too. The debate is paralyzed.

The same meme is applied to education, pensions, job security, vacation time, even gun ownership.

In fact, single-payer, affordable universal health-care coverage is the smart thing for a nation's people to do for the good of the nation, and in democracies the people act through their chosen representatives, that is, 'the government'. It's a smart investment in the country's future. Overall good health increases well-being and prosperity.

Let's not confuse ourselves with whether health-care is a righ or privelege for citizens; it is smart for a society.”

“Thanks for this insight! And I suppose print news is NOT to be taken with a grain of salt?

You know, if the newspapers had not quietly laid down for the 2000 election theft, the 911 imbroglio, the mendacious war campaign for Iraq, the corruption of the Justice Department, and the secrecy and tyrannical efforts of the Bush administration, not to mention the monstrous fraud perpetrated in the financial system, maybe people would still be buying them! As it is, newspapers were asleep or catatonic on all the major crises of the last 10 years, leaving us only internet sources to discover the truth. And now they are surprised that we turn elsewhere for news?
Dear newspaper executives- you look more and more like GM executives, wondering why people buy foreign hybrids!”

“Guns are made for the sole purpose of killing.
Sooner or later we humans are going to have to stop making things whose sole purpose is killing.
How long will it take? How stupid are we?
Unfortunately making things whose sole purpose is killing is probably the biggest industry on the planet.
We have a long way to go; we;d better start.”

“hmm... like maybe a tax strike until the fraudsters and thieves are actually held accountable?”

“Whatever one thinks about who the chimp personifies in the cartoon, the original caption makes the intended narrative very clear: the author of the stimulus bill is like a crazed chimp that must be shot dead.
I'm more disturbed by this not-so-veiled assassination reference than I am with the racist angle.”

“The remaining core Repugs expose themselves for who they truly are: cowardly, fourth-rate political hacks.
Their vote was zero because they're scared of Limbauh.”

“Nader may sound tough, but whose agenda does he serve when he sows doubt and distrust among progressives? If Nader wanted to be anything but an egotistical spoiler, he would have run for Congress.”

“Thank you for bringing this up and drilling the issue. It's astounding and shameful to me that the nation seems to prefer to collude and coverup these outrages.”

“OK Barack thanks for this, we're still with you. I'm sure you will overhaul it next year as president. Just be careful of compromise with the hoodlums in charge, you have the people with you.”

“General Wes Clark is of course absolutely right; it's rather obvious, unless you are a midget-brained squawking cartoon character commentator on the MSM. But that's a whole other world anyway. A theater of idiots for idiots.”

“Obama isn't claiming some kind of outsized commander-in-chief capability as McCain is, based on his war experience. Clark is obviously right. Big deal. What's the problem? The media's bubble of McCain-adulation got pricked? How about a little common sense here.”

“yes, the financial 'irregular­ities'... the corruption she witnessed and for which she was killed. That's the story.”

“amen... no more clintons no more bushes. that time is now over.

Hillary missed her chance. Destiny offered her a heroic role, but it was in 2004, and she thought that would be too difficult, and that if she waited til 2008, the fruit would fall in her lap. Had she divorced Bill and launched a movement in 2004 to take back the white house and end the war, she might just have won. And if she had, she would have been one of the great american heroes. Would have been. As it was, 2008 might have looked like an easy target from 2003 vantage, but by 2007, the nation had gone too far in the disaster, had been too traumatized, to just go back to Clintonia. We have to jump ahead now, we've been through too much, and it's too late to go back. And what incredible luck, we have Obama.”

“"Obama, in order to achieve the historic presidential greatness that might one day be his destiny, needs to first get past the supreme ugliness that he faces with the RRAM. And I am as confident as a caterpillar at a toe-countin' contest that McCain & Company will eat him alive in the general election."

Nice way to select our leader in a crisis-rife world. We're f*ed.”

“the "dumbocrats"? Hey, you're quite a wit!”

“and what exactly is your beef, ugly coyote?”