dagblog - Comments for "Crass Warfare"

'This is not class warfare,

LisB — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:33:07 +0000

In reply to Crass Warfare

'This is not class warfare, it's math': "Which is unfortunate, because America is way better at warfare than math."

- Seth Meyers, tonight

(No subject)

Donal — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:52:48 +0000

In reply to Crass Warfare

I often disagree with you in

Flavius — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:56:11 +0000

In reply to What brainless twits gave

I often disagree with you in part, and occasionally across the board. This time my only cavil is with

They'll pretend they care and that they really wanted to protect it; but we know it was all show.

My same old plaint: it's too broad. Dunno what the % is. Maybe 90%. But they don't all pretend. Of course is it 90% is it worth my objecting that you shouldn't say 'all'?

Yeah.

If we're going to be intellectually respectable we have to mean what we say . Not almost mean it.

Yes we have to fight

Flavius — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:26:00 +0000

In reply to Flavius, class warfare is

Yes we have to fight back.

But stay clear headed while we do it.

Confess: we think the tea partiers are ill-informed, muddled thinkers. And the rich are evil and selfish. Trouble is, resorting to those generalization is ... ill informed and muddled.

Talk to enough of the tea partiers and you'll find that along with some very unappealing people there are also some that are attractive human beings. Yes, they're ill-informed but the cure for that is to inform them.

Talk to enough of the rich and you'll find that along with people who fit that description, there are some who agree with us completely and some who put us to shame by the good things they do.

A majority? Hell no. A majority probably fit the image we have of them. But Paul Touch's book Whatever it takes (I think) about Geoffrey Canada and his Harlem project describes the involvement of a couple of famous, and rich, Venture Capitalists. Not just in writing checks, but taking the time to be involved in the project and advising Canada. I'm not ready to go to Class Warfare against those guys.

I can even confess that one of my children is a banker who'd be affected by the repeal of the Bush tax cuts. She seems like a pretty nice person to me. If we're declaring war with her I think I'll opt to drive an ambulance.

What brainless twits gave

Resistance — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:30:54 +0000

In reply to Please note that it is 13.5

What brainless twits gave Bush; Authorization to use military force, and at the same time thought, cutting taxes was a good idea?

We have known for years, the deficit problem needed to be addressed.

We knew years before Bush, so called "entitlements" would be threatened.

Now it's "OMG; to balance the budget we must cut into the safety net"

The democrats will play good cop and the republicans can play bad cop.

But both parties knew this day was coming. The democrats screwed us over when they didn't exact a price to be paid to support the war.

They chose war ............on (Socialism) the peoples safety net.

The capitalists want Wall street to administer a program of financial security as opposed to Social Security.

The capitalist's democratic wing agrees.

They'll pretend they care and that they really wanted to protect it; but we know it was all show.

Their actions speak louder than words.

The lesson learned? Don't ever authorize the use of military force unless you can pay for it, the safety net is not Congress' piggy bank, it's the peoples insurance program.

Congress, find your own money to finance your wars and the deficits you run.

Flavius, class warfare is

Red Planet — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:43:08 +0000

In reply to Jamie Dimon is not a

Flavius, class warfare is wrong, but you are eliding the fact that the war is on, and the great majority of us are already on the losing side. That some of the winners are okay guys, too, and some of the losers are not, is irrelevant.

cf.— Arjuna's Dilemma (The Bhagavad Gita).

Time to fight back.

Flavius, I like you story

Oxy Mora — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:34:50 +0000

In reply to I was walking across the

Flavius, I like you story about the Banker guy. What always impresses me about folks like that is how fast they are on their feet in an impromptu situation. That's what makes them leaders and why I finally discovered that competing with guys like that in a corporate structure was not for me.

I'm not sure I understand your comments about class warfare and the ideal class structure. Doesn't it take some class warfare right now to get to that ideal structure--or if we ever had it before, to get back to it?

They've absorbed the ethos

Oxy Mora — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:58:27 +0000

In reply to Why have Democrats conceded

They've absorbed the ethos that rule by the elite is the natural state of affairs, as is gross income inequality.

This, imo, is the heart of the problem. Our class divisions have become ingrained.

Please note that it is 13.5

Ed OShea — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:10:20 +0000

In reply to Crass Warfare

Please note that it is 13.5 months to a general election, and President Obama's political base has had two and a half years of his administration dancing to the tune of Wall Street. There will not be a tax increase on millionaires. The president and his "millionaire" backers know this and are playing the liberal left for their votes in 2012. After the election it will be back to business as usual. Though after the election look for the administration to to concede cuts in the entitlement programs with minimal tax increases.

Ed OShea

I was walking across the

Flavius — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:52:00 +0000

In reply to Hell No I won't go. Hell

I was walking across the Parade Ground one bitter winter evening with X. Coming back from camp library. I asked him why he was not going to OCS. He said, ' I'm not sure I can handle combat, I don't want anyone else depending on me'.

I went to OCS; he went to Korea at a very bad time.

Years later I saw a reference to him as the head of Wall Street against ..... the Republican President of the day. I was at the bank one day and my host pointed X out to me in awed tones. I said actually I already know him and over my objections I was dragged down to meet him.

After a minute he remembered me. I reminded him of his comment crossing the parade ground. He said, ' the second time I had to take my platoon leader back to the chaplain, I stopped worrying about myself.'

He's not my enemy or yours. I ain't throwing any grenades back at him. He looks like a duck and walks like a duck. But there are ducks and there are ducks.