ibsteve2u's Comments (669)

“It won't be just Cheney. I *predict that many of the names associated with PNAC will become both more vitriolic and more public.

(*Of course I'm cheating...I saw Forbes show up on CBS' "The Early Show" this week - and those boyz act in lockstep, as they expect of Republican members of the House and Senate.)”

“But they'll never beat us for our willingness to sacrifice all - our people, our country, our future - out of sheer greed!!!

hahahahhahahah...we win, again!”

“Or they could look up any old bank they wanted to here, and make a fitting choice:

http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/

One that excludes the big banks, of course, who are ever busy, busy, busy financing and/or arranging the building of new factories and service centers offshore that will eliminate the American people's ability to possess any kind of wealth, at all...”

“Of course, be pragmatic about it, and see if your money's prospective new home is in trouble by looking it up here:

http://banktracker.investigativereportingworkshop.org/banks/

No sense in throwing out the baby's diaper money along with Big Finance's dirty bathwater.”

“That is, in fact, the most troubling aspect of Obama's behavior to me:

To make so much of a "grass roots" campaign...

To make so much of the small contributions of so many Americans who could see how desperately this nation needs change in the ever more rigid status quo...

To make so much of those "grass roots" supporters who hoped that their giving of whatever they could would finally give them a voice again in their government and thus their future...

And then to do nothing about "K" Street - THE weapon of the status quo?

Puzzling, to speak...nicely.”

“I couldn't agree more.

The American people do not have a prayer of a chance to get their country back until massive campaign finance is enacted, the revolving doors between the Pentagon, Congress, & "K" Street are welded shut, and "K" Street itself is plowed under and replaced with a park dedicated to the principles espoused by our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Obama, in my opinion, would come across as more sincere, would have been more effective, and would have left a far stronger legacy and a much brighter future for the American people had he chosen to remember the age-old wisdom that you attack the most lethal threat first: The hand those special interests have upon the wallets and purses of our Congress.

Americans are facing the possibility of dying for their country RIGHT NOW - and the future they hope to have when - if - they return is being stolen by the special interests even as they bleed.”

“By the way: When you think of what the right will do next, you must always consider the fact that they despise the "common people", and they consequentially despise anybody who has ever done anything for "labor" (or "human resources", or "some sectors", or any of the other delightful descriptors they use to dehumanize the American people...age-old tactic, that).

And the leader of that list of those they despise is FDR, and anything done under his guidance to help the American worker/consumer is perpetually on their list.

So don't be surprised when they start yammering for a "temporary holiday" for the employer's contribution to Social Security.

Foot in the door, give them an inch, all that.”

“Attacking the minimum wage is part of a larger pattern of behavior designed to create a two-class America. And the American people don't seem to be capable of grasping just how openly it is being done....

Take inequitable free trade, for instance.

If someone deliberately tries to harm a chunk of America and they live outside of this country, we'll send our military to get you. Just ask Osama bin Ladin.

But if you work from INSIDE this country and call it "free trade", you can even go on TV and say "Some sectors will be hurt...", and nothing will happen to you.

Clinton, the neoliberals among the Democrats, and the entire Republican Party chose to sacrifice "some sectors" of the American people to further enrich those in a position to produce at low cost offshore and sell at high cost here.

That is, they diverted the income - the wealth - of the Americans in those "sectors" to themselves.

Now ask yourself: Beyond the lack of the trappings of religion, how is "free trade" as inflicted upon America any different from when the Na.z.is prohibited those who practiced Jud.aism from engaging in business, and diverted their income to themselves?

The common theme is that the people in power assaulted those without power to enrich themselves; there is no moral or ethical difference.

I am constantly amazed that the American people can permit themselves to be herded - like so many peoples before them - towards the abyss.”

“Just evacuate California of all folks who aren't Republicans, send the rest of America's Republicans to California, and then all of the rest of us across the country can jump up and down.

Real hard.

Facetious? Not really...just admitting that the nation's government is wholly-owned, and not by the American people.

I don't like it, but how can I look at the facts and avoid that conclusion?”

“Depressing, isn't it?

We have a Congress that will see the nation destroyed, as long as that destruction doesn't interrupt the luxury of their daily lives nor interfere with their anticipated retirement into a life of ease.”

“"A case of penny-wise, pound-foolish, typical of America's lack of historical perspective."

You can blame that on the Republicans. They're very good a launching military adventures, but when the bill comes due...

Take Iraq....they ran it off the books so that it wouldn't be sitting there on the budget, a glaringly non-zero number that named their tax cuts not just foolish by malfeasance in office.

They hate - with a passion - "entitlement spending", and that makes them more willing to start expensive wars, as they look at the eventually unavoidable cost of war as an opportunity to redirect "entitlement spending" away from the American people, and to places where it will make THEM money...either directly through the diversion of government logistical contracts to themselves or their constituents, or indirectly because of the positive impact that war has on their defense and energy industry stocks.

In short, Republicans should NEVER be allowed to participate in the decision to go to war, because their greed and their hatred for "labor" - the American people - affects their decision-making process.

When you're talking about deciding on whether or not to launch the rain of metal death upon innocents and enemies alike, you are yourself being criminally negligent if you allow the opinions of the Republicans to affect YOUR decision-making process, for their opinions are tainted by their own immoral desires.”

“It sounds like you're redefining "middle class" as "not starving".”

“What? You mean the CEOs of old wouldn't have created the middle class without the impact of unions?

Although the CEOs of today seem to be focused primarily upon eliminating the middle class, come to think of it...”

“I've noticed a tendency for the right to preach against divisiveness if it looks like the American people are about to stand up for themselves against the rich who the Republicans represent.”

“Didn't you know? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents small business in America. Ask any Republican.”

“Re: "By the 70's the middle class forgets or doesn't want to believe that their middle class status is a result of these liberal policies."

Actually, the right used the effect of soaring energy post-OPEC upon the American economy to trick "the middle class".

Although energy was the root of our economy's problem in that decade, the right pawned it off as the rich weren't getting richer fast enough.

Of course, they didn't use those words.”

“'Cuz Republicans have the perspective that all money should be in their hands, and they work to achieve that goal. Unfortunately for them, money is the lifeblood of economies; when it doesn't recirculate, the economy stalls, and that is "historically" reflected in the stock market.

Which is one of the reasons the Republicans have been using inequitable free trade to detach "big money" from the American economy. That is, by having multiple markets and production centers globally, they can abuse labor in any one country - specifically, at the moment, in America - without negatively Affecting their share prices - IF the corporations on "the Big Board" are sufficiently multi-national.

I.e., eliminating the stock market's dependency upon the American economy is a major goal.”

“lolll....ah, but Warren looks at the entire country, which is unacceptable.

Geitner restricts his vision to the well-being of the denizens of Wall Street and banking in America, which is the only acceptable perspective to those who control high finance in America.

And since the latter control the Republicans and too many of the Democrats, getting Warren confirmed would be a...problem.”

“I think your last paragraph pretty much sums up the Republican plan.

Rolling America back to pre-FDR.”

“It wasn't just Greenspan. He worked in cooperation with Bush and the Republicans to drive the American economy with a false housing boom http://www.hud.gov/news/speeches/presremarks.cfmm).

That was the only way they could conceal the damage that "flood-up/trickle-down" economics and inequitable free trade were doing.”

“lolll...some were upset that I point the finger at Carter.

Subtract out our dependence upon foreign - all - oil these last thirty years, and envision what our recent history would have been like.

Consider how an economy unaffected by uncontrollable (still !!!!) energy shocks would have negatively impacted the ability of the right to shove "flood-up/trickle-down" economics down the throat of the American people.

Without the incentive of those tax cuts - the ability to keep more driving the lust to get more - which unleashed their greed, the right's drive to reduce their labor costs would have been weakened; in turn, their push to offshore America's manufacturing and service infrastructure in order to take advantage of the artificially lower costs of labor offshore would have been weakened

And the American middle class would consequently not be at death's door.”

“He should have nationalized the U.S. Petroleum industry, permitting us to bargain with one voice with OPEC - and launched a full scale R&D effort to eliminate our dependence upon foreign oil.

By waging a bloodless war against the greed of the right and Big Oil, he could have spared us the real blood we've spilled in OPEC lands, the rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, and - of course - the death of the American middle class.”

“I've said for three decades that the intent of the Republican Party was to divide the United States into haves and have-nots, and they've been very good at it. Beyond the transfer of the wealth that America's middle class has accrued to themselves, their goals include the abolishing of the policies of both FDR and LBJ.

From a practical perspective, I lay the blame for the ongoing devolution of America into a third-world banana republic at Jimmy Carter's feet.

By failing to act aggressively to reduce the impact of OPEC's nationalization of petroleum production, he made our economy vulnerable to oil shocks. The effect of surging energy prices was broad, and our economy staggered as a consequence. That in turn enabled the Republicans to foist the Reaganite lie of "flood-up/trickle-down" economics upon us, and the savage assault upon the American middle class began.

But getting away with that great lie of "flood-up/trickle-down" economics emboldened the right...the middle class - "labor", to the right - was still too proud, and earned wages that the right resented paying and had accrued wealth that the right lusted after. Worse, they were still benefiting from the hated policies of FDR and LBJ.

So, with the help of the neoliberals among the Democrats they foisted inequitable free trade upon the American people...

And the devolution of America into a third-world banana republic began in earnest.”

“I still think Murdoch's primary objection is that people can easily google Fox story version 1a when Fox comes out with story version 1b and ask the question:

"Now which one of them is the lie?"”

“Fox, perchance?”