goedel's Comments (52)

“Yes, this is not a one person government, but you diminish the potential of a popular president too curtly.

In foreign affairs, the President is especially the leader of the nation and his party. The president who succeeded Bush did not HAVE to engage us in more warfare in Af- Pak. He did HAVE to use dronesk, as on Sunday, in Yemen - killing about 43 civilians and missing the intended target.

With re: the Constitution, Obama did not HAVE to continue the Bush policies in the federal courts of pleading "national securtiy" when confronted with evidence of US tyranny and law-breaking. He did not HAVE to support continued warrantless spying on US citizens, renditions to foreign countries and the maintainance of secret prisons throughout the world.

He did not HAVE to station American armed forces in seven new bases in Columbia.

I could go on to Obama's appointments and his right to have chosen others than Clinton acolytes, the moral criminals who obliterated bank regulation.

The list is too long for fairness to the website's other contributors. The President is powerful if he is persuasive. Honesty is very persuasive. Obama lacks that virtue.”

“I'll tell you how to move Obama: find a popular Democrat with the gumption to declare that he is considering a run against Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012.”

“Correction: My prior comment should have been addressed to Mr Kaufman.”

“Mr Rich: Of course Barack Obama did not deserve his inauguration!

Are you not aware that he won it with more than $300 million given to him by the Wall Street gamblers and frauds that have now received huge bonuses and, their companies, huge bailouts? Is this a legitimate way to win an election? I don't think so!

Let candidates win on the merits of their declared policies and their past records! Eliminate the private domination of our election financing. Eliminate the media's ability to rule out candidates who do not please their corporate masters.

Then we might have presidents who deserve their inaugurations.”

“Progressives! Defeat the bill! Give Obama the kick in the ass he deserves. Let him know what is in store for him in 2010 and 2012, when progressives stay home on election day.

If Republicans have to win in order to destroy the present Democratic Party, BULLY!”

“A good result of killing the bill: defeat would give Obama the good kick in the ass he deserves. Maybe, it would wake him up to what's in store for him in 2010 and 2012. Progressives ought no longer be lackeys for the Democratic Party.”

“The Democratic Party is just a machine for electing politicians. It stands for nothing. Both Dennis Kucinich and Max Baucas are Democrats!

The best prospect would be the splintering of the Democratic Party into parties that were more ideological, at least in the sense that they represented well defined political interests. A spectrum of interests within a party is tenable but not when it ranges from infra-red to ultra-violet.”

“None of our political arguments or divisions matters. We have the inevitable prospect of a two to three degree F temperature rise, because the major powers (especially the US) are unwilling to do what must be done to avoid it - if there is still time.

The result will be catastrophic climate events, rise in sea-level that will inundate coastal cities, droughts that will sharply reduce the production of food, more intense storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, widespread disease from much poorer living conditions and, lastly, many armed conflicts from the competition for the necessities of life.

Current US problems of debt and deficit will be made worse with a high probability of US government defaults, failure of government programs (Social Security, Medicare) and private ones (pension systems, insurance). Martial law will often be invoked and the use of US military force to maintain order will be common.

All of the conflicts that loom so large now, will seem like the greatest of follies against the toll that will be taken by the warnings that are being ignored now by our ruling class, which is scientifically ignorant.”

“Pres. Obama's "confrontation" with the bankers is all smoke. They love each other in a symbiosis, a symbiosis that gave our small-change President the funds he needed for his campaign. Obama met with the bankers to impress the foolish progressives who voted for him, when they should have voted their consciences.

Voting for a candidate in order to fend off another candidate is self-defeating. Progressives should have learned by now.

Voting for a smile is like voting for the wimp who kills with a smile (compare Oscar Wilde).”

“Let the Dems hit the 2010 iceberg! They deserve it. If Obama hits the 2012 iceberg, as I believe he will, he wil have deserved it far more than his Nobel prize!

Progressives should not fall into the trap of trying to protect Obama and the Dems from themselves. If the Repubs win, so be it ! The system will only take so much. Bringing the house down may be the only corrective measure. Sustaining Obama and the Dems to keep the Repubs out gets progressives nowhere. They should have formed a third party years ago. The longer they stay with the Dems, the worse our nation's problems become.”

“Sec'y Gates said that failure in Afghanistan would have "severe consequences", as quoted above.

I say that success in Afghanistan would have even worse consequences. If the imperialists who determine our foreign policy were to succeed, they would be encouraged to continue the projection of US military power elsewhere. Foreign policy out of the barrel of a gun has been the US style since the Korean War. It has to stop if we are to return to government by the people and a decent standard of living for all Americans.”

“To billw8017:

Medicare for all is not possible so long as we insist on wasting our resources in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wars cost big bucks, besides all the bloodshed.”

“The assumption is common that the ruling-class in American does not act with urgency to push for control of greenhouse emissions because it is not really convinced that the science is correct. They are in denial, some say.

I am reminded of what a chemical company exec in Niagara Falls, N.Y. told me years ago, after his tongue was lubricated by a third martini: We should not worry about pollution because people are living too long anyway.

A parallel belief is probably widely held among our corporate rulers, today: We should not worry about climate change because the earth's population is too large anyway.”

“If there is any mission for Veterans Day, it would be to end the militarization of the US that has taken place since the start of the Cold War.

That mission could be best fostered by restoring the significance of the day, calling it again, Armistice Day, that day in 1918 when the first world-wide hostilities ended. We can look back to the promises of that day, how empty they were, and realize how greatly we failed since, repeatedly. Stop the parades! Stop the speeches! Disband those veterans' organizations that lead the cheers for our misguided Presidents who return a military salute but never shouldered a military weapon.

Yes, let's celebrate Armistice Day and the end of the war to end all wars, if we can!”

“I am sympathetic to the unemployed, but - please - no more stimulus out of my pocket, Sir. I have seen my life's savings eroded to half their purchasing power since the turn of the century. A good part of that erosion is still to occur from the bailouts of big finance by both Bush and Obama. Want to help the unemployed? Do it by raising taxes on the wealthy and not by selling more Treasury Bonds or by creating deposits from which to write Treasury checks.

Tie the US$ down, if not to gold, then to a basket of commodities or other currencies. Stop depreciating my savings!”

“In the Saint Petersburg area of Florida, we are not worried. I did not see or hear of a single 350ppm event here, yesterday, when the whole world was having an unprecedented turnout of demonstrations. Why are we in St Pete not worried? Because we know that science is busily at work to engineer a genetic transformation. In a decade or two, when the tides begin to sweep over our downtown area and suck our pretty houses into Tampa Bay or the Gulf of Mexico, we shall be ready. We shall have grown gills and webbed feet and, since we love shrimp and other shellfish, shall swim happily alongside the dophins (whom we also love) and live happily ever after - underwater.”

“This IS a defeat for BO, if Sen. Reid prevails and a bill with a vital public option is included. BO has reneged, first on single-payer, secondly on the public option. Senators Feingold and Burris saved it. BO will get no credit for health-care, if achieved, and as with the Nobel Peace Prize he will not deserve it. Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi would get the credit, if achieved.”

“People think of Barack Obama as if they know him, but what they know are projections of him, projections he casts by appealing rhetoric and projections cast by the media. These are dangerous because they are so successful: Mr "Nice Guy" even lovable, as Ms Brawley expressed, after bad guy Bush is the minimal summation in many minds. The truth is we do not know him, and he has reneged on many significant positions he took as Senator and as candidate. Not only has this former Constitution-professor adopted the positions of GWB on withdrawing due process and state secrecy, but he has continued the imperial presidency and its dominance over the other branches of our government. He has continued the threat of further usurpation of power through presidential signings and by refusing to do the investigations of lawlessness by Bush and his top administrators with regard to our laws on torture. We don't know Barack Obama and what we do know from what we have seen is very bad. He follows GWB on projections of military power, subservience to the corporate elite and neglect of ordinary Americans (including health-care).

In understanding Barack Obama, the best technique is to avoid his imagery and rhetoric and pay attention to who is advising him - as far as we know - and what he does and does not do.”

“The best way for the AFL-CiO to help its members and end the domination of our country by the corporate elite would be for it to cease its allegiance to the Democratic Party and help to form a new party, a progressive party. The AFL-CIO has become gentrified. It has forgotten the class struggle, pretending it does not exist. Stop being Democrats, and start representing your workers by forming them into a new party - even if it costs elections!”

“There is altogether too much military in our lives. We spend so much on so-called "defense" that we do not have enough of the money we borrow for domestic needs.

President Obama, in matters of constitutional rights, imperialism, socialism for the capitalists, has not been much better than GWB. He is more dangerous than GWB, because he has a more affable, polished style. Occasionally, he even throws a bone to the Left (medical marijuana, most recently). At the same time, he refuses to demand single-payer or even the public option (which Nancy Pelosi now is pushing without BO's help). He has been, in the past 9 months, a terrible disappointment to progressives who supported his candidacy (I did not!) Progressive had better cease supporting the least-worse candidate and organize a party of their own.”

“I learned that not all corrupted people realize they have been corrupted OR that the best actors are not in Hollywood.”

“I agree and disagree with Ms Noonan: it's Pres. Obama's policies I don't like. But his decisions on issues that would require a constructive president to stand up to entrenched power are deferential. It may be that he simply wishes to cultivate those big banks and investment houses in order to have their gratitude in the future. The same may be true of his health-care approach: he does not wish to do battle with big health insurers or pharmaceutical companies. Paul Krugman said BHO's prospective success in getting a health bill shows that he is strong, effective. What nonsense! It shows he will take whatever he can get without doing battle with the masters of US health.

Pres. Obama has had a meteoric ascendancy to a level above his competency on matters financial. On the one issue where he may be presumed to have some knowledge, the Constitution, he continues the imperial presidency, violations of privacy, habeus corpus and transparency. He allows the practices of the Bush adminstration with regard to presidential signings, torture, state-secrecy to continue or not to be revoked by prosecutions that would protect our separation of powers and the rule of law.

There is besides competency, the matter of intention. I find in our President no demonstration (other than words) that he is motivated by any concerns about our ordinary citizens or our country's future. Yes, he inherited many problems, but he has made them worse, more long-term, more irreversible.”

“The declaration by Pres. Obama that "This (Af-stan) is a war of necessity" is not supported by any reasonable analysis by him of our eight-year occupation of that benighted country. Similarly, Obama's statement in 2002 that Af-stan is the "right" war also was not based on any knowledge or experience of his own in such matters. Obama takes his views from a very narrow spectrum of opinion. At this time, those advising him are military people, either active or in civvies. As with the health-care issue, he does not seek the opinions of those outside the political establishment. Whatever problems he has, they are now more of his making than inherited, be they the financial, health-care or the war issues. Feel sorry not for Obama, but for the American people who will for many decades pay the price for his bad judgment and political cowardice. Obama? The sooner he goes back to Chicago the better!”

“Insignificant! All of the so-called "cultural" issues are insignificant. So what, you may ask, is significant? OK! I'll tell you:

1. BO has given away the taxes of our children and their children to save the big financial corporations that gambled and lost.
2. BO has immersed us more deeply in Afghanistan and worsened the situation of Pakistan internally. He has also killed many innocents.
3. BO has undermined international efforts to control carbon emissions.

These three issues are the ones that will determine the future of this country and of other countries. Everything else pales by comparison.”

“The Consumer Protection Agency, if it isn't already gutted, is very small potatoes compared with restoring Glass-Steagle and re-regulating. Obama gave away the game, when he allowed Geithner and Summers to be his advisers. They prevented the breakup of the financial institutions "too big to fail" and the regulation of the derivatives with which they gamble and we absorb the losses.

Obama is too little too late, and it is not by miscalculation. He took over 300 billion dollars from the corporate elite, a good part from the investment banks that caused the problems. Everything Bush III has done has been for the corporate elite. Nothing for labor; nothing for the small banks outside of New York; no jobs for the unemployed. Obama supporters are still living on hope and delusions. Their charmer is their betrayer. He is not a good person.”