hglindquist's Comments (123)

“"According to The Hill, House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Pelosi, are 'worried they've appeared unresponsive to rising unemployment because they were absorbed by health care.' The article also says that Harry Reid has told colleagues he wants a jobs bill soon."

And what we see coming at us in health care reform ... without at least a strong public option when we should have some form of single payer IMHO ... isn't anything to tell the grandkids about either.

It's time to clean house!”

“I agree. And I believe their is a huge "workers' populism" base that could be united on two fundamental, simple to understand, issues:

1. A job for everyone 18 and older, willing and able to work.

2. A living wage as the bottom rung of the wage ladder. Note: IMHO a living wage provides food, clothing, shelter, health care, education and recreation for a family of four.

If we need a new political party, so be it and we need a leader to ignite the base.”

“You are right. We cannot afford the type of war we wage in Afghanistan ... not financially, not morally, and not physically (our young people going off to war on repeated tours),

But Obama put himself in this trap and double-downed on it with his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 17th.

What will he do? IMHO he will take the rode most likely to win re-election 2012, telling himself that once he is re-elected three years from now he can do the right thing instead of just speaking the right words.”

“"Our private, for-profit health insurance system, designed to fatten the profits of private health insurers and Big Pharma, is about to be turned over to ... our private, for-profit health care system. Except that now private health insurers and Big Pharma will be getting some 30 million additional customers, paid for by the rest of us."

And when the health care insurance rates start hitting the young working families at or below the median income level ... and the trimming in Medicare starts coming from a reduction in services (realistically, where else is it going to come from?) ... this sellout by the Democratic Party leadership (and yes, that includes Obama -- and it's my party) will be the proverbial millstone around the party's neck ... without any chance to float above the tsunami that is going to hit.

Between jobs, health care, and the Afghanistan War, Obama can kiss his re-election chances goodbye, IMHO. He hasn't taken a principled stand on any of these, only rhetoric ... and it has already grown old.”

“skatscan, I don't know what Sarah Palin's solution is. I don't support her. I simply acknowledge the fact of her populism. If the Democrat Party (mine) would represent the interests of workers and not just try to hold the left in line while the financial services sector rips us off in ye old company store scheme, maybe Palin wouldn't get that much traction.”

“It is the continuum of slavery, feudalism, facism, or any system designed to siphon off the wealth labor creates.

I have begun to call the current system for siphoning, with the financial services sector as the new elite, an iteration of the company store. The high rates of usury keep the workers indebted, using their credit cards (as they used their home equity loans prior to the collapse) much like credit at a company store to bridge the gaps in income.

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/classic-country/sixteen-tons---tennessee-ernie-ford-14930.html

Note: The financial services elite are not so much interested in building a viable company as they are in building a company from which they extract enormous personal wealth.”

“And the bills aren't just going to come due for senior citizens, young families are going to be hit as hard as anyone on their premiums ... while Big Insurance and Big Pharma will increase profits.

This bill supports profits and administrative costs of both Big Insurance and Big Pharma. Does it also reduce health care options for the rest of us? Like with the new mammogram study? Is it just not cost-effective for women between the ages of 40 and 50 to have regular mammograms? To catch the few who will have breast cancer? Why don't we ask those few?”

“That's when everybody will realize we the people got the short end of the stick ... again.”

“No, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that this country is wealthy enough to have health care for everybody. Why they are pitting one group against the other? Doesn't anyone remember the income tax rates of the Eisenhower years? Or do we really want to become a banana republic with gated elites siphoning off the wealthe labor creates?”

“Yes, and that was a mistake also. What? We have to find the worst possible covers to justify Newsweek's obvious sexist choice of which photo to represent Sarah Palin on its cover?”

“You are right on target. This was so obviously a sexist gambit that if outs Newsweek editor Jon Meacham as clueless, just as you state.

Democrats (and I am a Democrat but not clueless) who fail to understand the wave of populism being generated like a tsunami by the earthquake of Sarah Palin, had better do whatever it takes to start getting the unemployment figures back to the middle class's comfort level soon (almost impossible now) or kiss the 2010 election goodby. IMHO

And if this health care reform passes in anything like its current state ... and the bills start coming due ... well, I can feel the rumble already starting among us senior citizens.”

“The breaking of absurd taboos is always welcome ... from my pov. And if the taboo led to unhealthful practices-­-physicall­y, mentally, AND environmen­tally--the­n the sooner it is cast aside, the better.

I graduated from high school in the nid-50's so I have seen a lot of sexist taboos broken, and I have applauded each time. I do so again ... as well as for your excellent writing, it's information and clarity.”

“Geithner is a proverbial fox in our hen house sorting our eggs. There are others. But as long as he is there, we the people know we are not getting our fair share of the stimulus packages. Translated it means unemployment will remain high until middle class wages for labor are a thing of the past.

Want to know why we don't have a large infrastructure program? It's because construction work still pays what is the financial elites' eyes too high wages for labor. And if they started the program now, they would never be able to beat back. IMHO

It's all about the current elite--whomever it is--being able to siphon off the wealth labor creates ... a continuum of slavery, feudalism, fascism, and--now--­instrument­s of debt. When high rates of usury became legal, the working class would become entangled in another iteration of "the company store".

It simply shows how brainwashed we have become, to accept the greed of our current elite -- as vile as any communist cadre -- as the will of God, or the working of The Invisible Hand.

It's absurd. And when future historians look back on this post-Reagan era, they will shake their heads over our collective gullibility.”

“Exactly!

Politicians on the left and the right are not there to represent the diversity of options, but to keep their respective sides in line while the financial services sector siphons (rips?) off the wealth labor creates ... in the historical continuum of an elite ... slave, feudalism, fascism.

My chant lives on ...

Foxes in da hen house
Have sorted da eggs.
Foxes in da hen house
Have sorted da eggs.

Henry Paulson
Bernake, Geithner, & Summers
Dodd, Frank, & Schumer
Storch

Foxes in da hen house
Have sorted' da eggs.
Foxes in da hen house
Have sorted' da eggs.

To repeat myself from elsewhere on HuFfPo ...

The loss of our nation's "skill base" when the financial services sector manipulated future wealth through instruments of debt to buy up and sell off overseas our industrial base was as subversive to our nation as any threat of "socialism" .

It simply shows how brainwashed we have become, to accept the greed of our current elite -- as vile as any communist cadre -- as the will of God, or the working of The Invisible Hand.

It's absurd. And when future historians look back on this post-Reagan era, they will shake their heads over our collective gullibility.”

“Right on! We have plenty of work to be done ... on modernizing our transportation, communication, and energy systems ... and training our young people in the nature of work at a job by providing them with jobs doing work that needs to be done, like -- as you suggest -- :a Green Corps to rebuild parks, an Urban Corps to build low cost housing."

To repeat myself from elsewhere on HuufPo ...

The loss of our nation's "skill base" when the financial services sector manipulated future wealth through instruments of debt to buy up and sell off overseas our industrial base was as subversive to our nation as any threat of "socialism" .

It simply shows how brainwashed we have become, to accept the greed of our current elite -- as vile as any communist cadre -- as the will of God, or the working of The Invisible Hand.

It's absurd. And when future historians look back on this post-Reagan era, they will shake their heads over our collective gullibility.”

“And when the reductions in Medicare kick in leading to the Middle Class not only having to pay rising health care insurance costs but also contributing to their family seniors' health care expenses ... it is going to get ugly for the Democrats.

But then with the Tweedle Dee - Tweedle Dum political parties fronting for the new elite siphoning off the wealth our labor creates, maybe creating the conditions for a real politcal velvet revolution might not be so bad. I just feel sorry for the young families with workers who will struggle through what never should have been in our country.”

“Yes, I have noticed ... and there is a lot of evidence to support your observation.

Course, if we compare him to GW, he's doing pretty good. However, f we compare him to Lyndon Johnson, he's not in the same building, let alone room.

Those who keep repeating the mantra that it is Congress'fault, haven't read much history on our truly great presidents. Obama is proving that he is not in those ranks. IMHO”

“Exactly!

And if the proposed changes to Medicare reimbursement rates goes through as part of this health care reform then there will be one helluva involuntary exodus from Congress and Obama won't stand a snowball's chance in Hades of getting reelected. When seniors have to tap their kids to pay their medical bills or die it is going to get ugly.

It has to be a viable public option, open to all, or -- better yet -- single payer, to make a difference, to bring about change that benefits we the people.”

“The Democratic Party mollifies the left while the Republican Party mollifies the right in a Tweedle Dee-Tweedle Dum political dance as a front for the financial services sector. It is the latest and arguably most sophisticated system -- in the continuum of slavery, feudalism, and fascism -- for an elite to siphon away the wealth labor creates.”

“The Obama administration is not going curb the financial services sector's excesses. They front for them.

It should be clear by now that we do not have a political party that represents the interest of labor ... and "labor" is NOT synonymous with "union" as in "labor union" ... IMHO.

History is the story of political/economic structures (and belief systems to support those structures) that siphon off the wealth created by labor by an elite: slavery, feudalism, fascism. As an aside, Hitler's contribution was to convince a whole ehnic group that they were "the elite" and could live off the labor of "lesser peoples."

The current elite -- the financial services sector's gurus -- siphon the wealth through forward-leaning instruments of debt. They use our money to create these instruments at obscene multiples called leverage, thereby tightening the stranglehold on future earnings. If they had to suffer the consequences of their actions in creating an unsustainable debt-hold into the future, they might not do it ... but there is the point that the individual guru (banker) can get his/her money up front in pay and bonuses, no matter what the future to the "bank" ... and then when we, the taxpayer/worker, turn around and bail the bank out for ripping us off ... well, it's absurd on the face of it, don't you think?

The Obama administration is the fox in the hen house ... clearly.”

“The insight is in foreshadowing Obama's decision. As henryberry writes, "His position is weak enough as it is--he wasn't able to investigate torture and other illegalities by a few CIA people. It's unlikely he would be able to go against countless serving and retired military people and their political and industrial confederat­es."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-wallis/afghanistan-a-whole-new-a_b_338518.html?show_comment_id=33675824#comment_33675824

As David Brooks writes, "Some of them suspect that Obama talked himself into supporting the Afghan effort so he could sound hawkish during the campaign. They suspect he is making a show of commitment now so he can let the matter drop at a politically opportune moment down the road."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30brooks.html

The issue of political expediency as the primary factor in the Obama decision-making process is being brought forward ... and Obama is answering the questions thus raised in his response: political expediency vs. commitment to principle.

We'll see, won't we? Brooks is setting the stage for the raising of the curtain on the real Obama. I, for one, do not think it will be pretty.”

“I think you make a lot of sense. Your conclusion of him being weak based on his not investigating torture is quite insightful ... and VERY revealing. IMHO”

“Obama put himself in this trap ... and the "politcal expediency" of his Afghan War policies was foreshadowed early on:

"While much continuity with Bush policies exists, some opportunistic changes in the execution of the Afghan war have been made. Most are inspired by the aim to better market “the good war” to the American public."
http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/04/12/americaand-8217-s-afghan-war-the-real-world-versus-obamaand-8217-s-marketed-imagery.html

David Brooks has an insightful peice on today's OpEd page of The New York Times. See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30brooks.html”

“[Continued from above]
On August 17th, Obama said: ""But we must never forget. This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/143101

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hglindquist?page=3&action=comments&display=all&sort=newest”

“See "How Obama is committed" is the question and therefore remains the problem ... a trap Obama put himself in (IMHO) by declaring the Afghan War a war of necessity in March, and then double-downing on this strategic policy in his August 17th speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (no less).

Some background that raises some of the primary issues in this trap is found at:

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/04/12/americaand-8217-s-afghan-war-the-real-world-versus-obamaand-8217-s-marketed-imagery.html

On March 27, Obama said: :" So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future. That is the goal that must be achieved. That is a cause that could not be more just. And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you."

http://www.cfr.org/publication/18952/

[Continued below]”