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Steven Weber

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People: Get Ready

Posted: 10/05/11 10:21 PM ET

As predicted, the election of Obama definitely lit the keg the right-wing's been sitting on for some time.

As recent years have proven, everything has a saturation point. Of course, ideologues and deniers always leave themselves out of that possibility, out of the natural order of things. They deny climate is capable of change by human influence, that morality is dictated from within not from "above", that their zillionaire heroes are anything but the Ayn Randian frauds that are bent from greed and delusions of immortality.

Lacking actual creative imaginations (but mistakenly thinking "shrewd deception" is the same thing), the right-wing corporate machine may have bought up all the gullible Tea Party's concerns and transmogrified them with craven corporate cant but they are at sea when it comes to doing as much with a spreading sense among the citizenry that their days of seeming omnipotent influence may be numbered. They'll send their media narcs to infiltrate and coerce, to terrorize and threaten, but history (another item the corporate creeps have tried to buy up and re-brand) has shown again and again that when roused, truly roused, the citizenry becomes a swelling, sweeping movement, imperfect but impassioned, motivated by inalienable rights and the stark hypocrisy of those who would yoke the people in misery while they themselves profit.

You can smell the right-wing flop-sweat as their presidential candidates resemble a roomful of low-rent talent show contestants, their policies as transparently heinous as the paid dimwits who espouse them. They just hate "reg'lar" people, hence they hate this new movement. They even loathe the Tea Party, no doubt deriding them under their breaths at swanky cocktail parties and no-press-allowed benefits.

And the bullies will fight hard now, rolling everything out in advance of what could be their last moments of power, should they lose the next election. The shit sluices will be thrown open and the Obama-aimed invective will flow.

So get ready, folks. Since they own the airwaves, the revolution may not be televised. But when have revolutions ever had to be in order to triumph?

 

Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber

 
 
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triplettam
Mind Bender
07:19 PM on 10/18/2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7ECdYboOVA

'Nuff said.
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askandtell
Proud Minnesotan; Inspired by Paul Wellstone
10:38 PM on 10/08/2011
Love this article Steven. You described the landscape to a tee and remind us that republicans step up the bullying, shame, fear mongering, and anything else in their bag of tricks when they feel threatened.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
antmousie
08:26 PM on 10/07/2011
You nailed it, yet again. I am encouraged by your optimism that democracy will, once again, prevail, at least in the end. I get discouraged by the appearance that we are headed back to a time when there are no consumer or worker protections, or safety nets to keep the elderly and poor off of the streets. Thanks.
Rob McKercher
Don't mourn ... organize
10:09 AM on 10/07/2011
The best commentary written on the movement to date... love it, Steven! We are facing a second Gilded Age financed by the bloated corporate oligarchy and its economic royalist cronies where democracy is for sale to the highest bidder. In 193 A.D. Roman emperor Didius Julianus ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard. The happy and stabilizing result: execution by the same Praetorian Guard 3 months later. Oh history.
08:11 PM on 10/06/2011
Before this article disappeared I wanted to say Thanks for your last two sentences. Good to be reminded, and you are so right.

Also loved the title of this article--I own 4 versions of People Get Ready--figures, huh?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Katherine Schock
Over the hill,liberal,organic gardener
03:12 PM on 10/06/2011
"low-rent talent show contestants" describes the Republican slate of candidates perfectly, Steven! You do have a way with words...awesome post!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
marignymitch
E pluribus unum percent
02:46 PM on 10/06/2011
You are more optimistic about the people then I am, Mr Weber, but thanks so much for the post.
02:03 PM on 10/06/2011
Here's what the 1% (Boehner's job creators) are doing with their entitlement tax breaks: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/10/06/the-olsen-twins-39000-alligator-skin-backpack-is-flying-off-shelves/?xid=rss-politics-huffpo
01:56 PM on 10/06/2011
Obama is on the side of the 99%?
The Right may hate Obama and accuse him of being a socialist no matter how many free trade deals or patent reform favors he provides for his corporate handlers and funders. Doesn't matter how much he expands and continues Bush policy --he is, same as the Right, still on the side of the 1%.
09:08 AM on 10/06/2011
" Since they own the airwaves". Do you ever check in at Media Matters? More than half their stories are about Fox. An occasional Wall Street Journal story, something from CNN occasionally. Then they'll hit Limbaugh, a commentator, not a news reporter. Where are the stories about CBS, NBC, ABC, NYTimes? ABC,CBS, and NBC has a total of around 22million viewers for their evening news. The bias is on the liberal side in those outlets. Fox's total viewership is what? So, who really owns the airwaves?
I like to Google "Steven Weber Huffington Post". Up pops his "GOP:RIP" blog of April 11, 2009. Wishful thinking on his part. But he wasn't much of a prognosticator then, was he? Elections of 2010, anyone?
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The Smartest Monkees
Planet of the Apes? We're on it, baby!
10:11 AM on 10/06/2011
"Elections of 2010, anyone?"

You're pointing to those buyer's remorse examples, as something that supposedly shows Steven was only engaging in "wishful thinking?"

In every state where the Repubs took the majority, they've ignored their "Jobs" election promises. Instead, they proceeded to cut jobs and attack worker's rights.

They focused on attacking women's rights, with anti-abortion legislation taking precedence over the deplorable economic situations in their respective states.

Anti-union legislation. Laying off government workers. Slashing pay and benefits to those workers who remained. So much for their promise to create jobs.
And now the folks in those states and across this nation have said ENOUGH!

Honestly, you're not really trying to beat that old "liberal media" dead horse here, after the MSM all but ignored the Wisconsin-tens-of thousands-month-long-protests, while chasing after 100 tea baggers in DC, are you?

These new protests were initially ignored as well, but they're not going to be one day bagger affairs. The MSM now has to pay attention, because these protests are only going to get bigger and stronger.

Why? Because the greed of a handful, cannot long sustain it's attack on millions of people. Cannot keep them homeless and jobless without a fight. Cannot expect today's youth to settle for only minimum wage, while the wealthiest 1% wallow in obscene profits and bloated bonuses given for punishing the middle class and the poor.

I'd hoped your absence from Steven's blog meant reflection. I guess not.
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SeenItBefore
Ya want to super size that?
11:22 AM on 10/06/2011
It's high time the average American looked beyond the lies fostered by the media and elected officials. Unemployment, starving children and homelessness are highly motivating, especially when those most seriously affected are well armed!
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Steven Weber
Winner of 1967 Pond's Cold Cream Man of the Year
10:12 AM on 10/06/2011
I prognosticate that you will be heckling anonymously for as long as you live! Keep up the "work"!
09:07 AM on 10/06/2011
Wise Article Steve!

I blame the hick that was in office from 2000 to 2008 and his GOP buddies 100% for giving Wall Street the segway to be so destructive and corrupt.

They always say a bridge can be brought down in seconds after has taken many years to first put it there.

Obama wins the next election and he will be working those 4 years to rebuild as well. So too will the elected (Democrat) official who takes office afterward. There is no quick fix for this and the best way to keep moving in a positive direction is to keep the GOP/Teabag out of the POTUS position!!!! This country F'd up during the last mid-term election with this "we just want balance" BS that derailed actual positive change from happening. Government is now a stalemate when it could have been our most direct route to recovery!
I am the 99% who wants what was promised. CHANGE!!!
Start by getting the money out of politics followed by every GOP and Teabag good ole boy.
08:56 AM on 10/06/2011
Maybe we should rename "Wall Street" to Bastille Street. The pundents snicker just like the nobility in France did at the end of the 18th century. They didn't snicker for long.
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somewhatodd
micro-bio undetectable to the naked eye
08:41 AM on 10/06/2011
fascists hate everybody else. so if you're not a fascist, and you support x, then fascists oppose x, and vice versa. that's the tea party spontaneously knows what they are for or against without thinking. they check to see what non-fascists want or don't want, and take the opposite positions.

the tea party doesn't want to deny climate change. they only want to deny us.

the tea party isn't against anything in it's own right. they are only against us.

so if the democrats want to get anything done or undone, then they just need to publicly support anything the tea party supports, and oppose whatever it opposes. the tea party will reverse itself accordingly.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
skywalk
Socially Liberal & Constructively Financially Cons
08:30 AM on 10/06/2011
The hypocrisy with Faux News is so obvious they were touting the Tea Party movement like crazy and saying how tired people are with government blah blah and even though some of the OWS protesters have similar views and some are Rob Paul supporters the Grand Father of the Tea Party they bashing these OWS protesters like they are crazy and in a protest that large you are going to find a few crazies every time, its statistics, lol! MSNBC is doing an okay job covering it but a lot of reporting out there is just plain wrong.
09:32 AM on 10/06/2011
Wow what a change of positions. "Bashing these... protesters like they are crazy and in a protest that large you are going to find a few crazies every time, its statistics­!" So then are the TP protesters racists, or terrorists, or treasonous, or crazy astroturf? I do find it interesting the comparisons being made, how many were arrested compared to the TP? I don't argue that they have the right to protest, and good for them, but it is interesting that is democracy at work, but when the TP did it, it wasn't. No, rather the TP was called an angry mob, with no arrests. lol
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The Smartest Monkees
Planet of the Apes? We're on it, baby!
11:32 AM on 10/06/2011
Did you not see the tea baggers at those August 2009 health care reform town halls, screaming at disabled people and cancer victims? Calling those victims of our pathetic insurance-driven health care system, "freeloaders" and "bums?"

Did you not see the Koch Brother's bussed-in baggers, who arrived in Wisconsin at the height of those protests back in March? Baggers trying desperately to instigate a riot with their open mocking of those crowds?

But the Wisconsin PEACEFUL protesters didn't take the bait, and the bussed in baggers slinked off. Apparently the Kochs were too stingy to pay for a sustained counter-protest.

I've never seen anyone question the bagger's right to protest. The question has always been their motivation, and the lack of reality surrounding their "issues."
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AUveritas
John 6:68
08:03 AM on 10/06/2011
Blaming Wall Street for our economic woes is like blaming the cheerleaders for the result of a football game.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
skywalk
Socially Liberal & Constructively Financially Cons
08:16 AM on 10/06/2011
What? Please explain!
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AUveritas
John 6:68
09:20 AM on 10/06/2011
I think it would be much more appropriate to be protesting on the Capitol Building steps. That's the root of our economic problems. This is a misplaced attack on "rich people", not on the people causing our woes.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Realbluesky
08:29 AM on 10/06/2011
OMG, are you willfully ignorant are do you just live with your head in the sand?
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AUveritas
John 6:68
08:43 AM on 10/06/2011
First, give me a definiton of "Wall Street". Next, tell me how "Wall Street" has personally affected your life. I know style over substance is the mantra of the left, but I like to deal in facts.