dagblog - Comments for "Stop Making Sense (Left and Right Edition)"

Seconded.

Ramona — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:13:17 +0000

In reply to I agree. Mr Smith, if you're

Seconded.

I agree. Mr Smith, if you're

Michael Maiello — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:34:45 +0000

In reply to The gutting of our society in

I agree. Mr Smith, if you're so inclined, please republish your excellent comment as its own blog. It's the start of another huge discussion we need to have.

The gutting of our society in

Ramona — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:17:55 +0000

In reply to Reading all this, I don't

The gutting of our society in order to fund the further enrichment of the already over-entitled elites, is a shame so despicable and embarrassing that both sides don't have the stomach to face it head-on.

So well said, Mr. Smith. It really should have been a blog post. Thank you.

Reading all this, I don't

MrSmith1 — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:07:29 +0000

In reply to Seems right on to me, Tmac.

Reading all this, I don't know whether to laugh or cry ... or go howl at the moon, so I guess I'll do a bit of all three.

It seems to me, these mental gymnastics by Brooks and Miller are unavoidable. Because neither side wants to look directly at the unvarnished truth; which is that the people who have no interest in a united society have succeeded in turning us into a nation of individuals who are interested only in our own self-enrichment. They have convinced a majority of people that it is in their best interest to think only of themselves rather than pooling their efforts to create a just society for all, united for the common good of the country. They have made the fight for wealth into the definition of 'winning', and turned people with less desire to claw their way to the top in order to achieve wealth into losers and slackers, rather than simply acknowledge that some people have a different vision of what Life and the pursuit of happiness could and should be. We have allowed the conflation of money and power to turn us into 308 million individuals, living in private bunkers, whose mantras are, "I've got mine, screw the rest of you." That is why America will no longer build great things or make great strides. We have become, as DD expressed in a recent blog, petty individuals, with no desire to contribute to anyone's benefit other than our own. And the cause of this is staring us right in the face, and yet, no-one will step up and point the finger in 'polite circles.' No makes the painful connection that America's traitors, the destroyers of our democracy, are the ones who have spent the past 30+ years, ensuring our eventual demise by the under-taxation of wealthy Americans and corporations, which has left our society impoverished and our nation unable to provide a real safety net for those truly in need or even provide for our own common good, like fixing our infrastructure. Instead of pointing the fingers of accusation, we allow these bastards to continue to operate their scheme, which now manifests as the Paul Ryan budget, their final assault on what used to be the middle class. They set the trap and baited it with tax cuts, which seemed reasonable at the time, but have snowballed in significance into why we are now in such a horrible financial situation. We trusted them, and they played us, and now they want us to turn the government back to them so they can 'fix' the very thing they broke.

We continue to this insane march towards the Randian vision of a world where if you can't compete, you deserve to be enslaved by the "elites", and "winning" means you are great at making pots of money for yourself ... and keeping it. Pity those 'stupid artistic' people whose pursuit of happiness doesn't include the desire to make large pots of money. Sure, Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth, but that will be long after the rich have sucked the earth completely dry and sold off all the valuable parts, leaving the meek with a life-less rock of a planet on which they'll be taxed at the pre-assessed value.

The gutting of our society in order to fund the further enrichment of the already over-entitled elites, is a shame so despicable and embarrassing that both sides don't have the stomach to face it head-on. Republicans won't say anything because they actually support all the money flowing to the top, so all they want to do is divert our attention from the truth. The Democrats won't do much more than make lame protests, because if they really took on this topic fully, and called the Republicans traitors for destroying America, then people would start asking, "Where the Hell were you when all this was happening?" "How complicit were you that you allowed things to get to this point?" Besides, Democrats are scared to say too much that contradicts the Republican narrative now, because they know if they do, they'll be targeted and 'taken out' by the Right-Wing Scream Machine and end up being destroyed politically by a gerrymandered electorate that includes very few 'safe' Democratic' districts. So, everyone, politicians and commentators alike, bend themselves into pretzels to find any other explanation to build into a rationalization of why we are where we are.

It all stinks. The End. And that's my rant for the day.

Seems right on to me, Tmac.

Michael Maiello — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:05:08 +0000

In reply to I think unpaid internships

Seems right on to me, Tmac. Since the very wealthy don't think that they need a public pension plan or old age health care, they don't want to pay into the system. And that's really that. Pete Peterson doesn't want to pick up the check for anybody else's lunch.

I think unpaid internships

tmccarthy0 — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:23:02 +0000

In reply to Stop Making Sense (Left and Right Edition)

I think unpaid internships are criminal and you are correct, they are just for the upper class. It is a way for businesses to get free work too, without violating labor laws.

What I see clearly is we are moving towards our own caste system in America. It reminds me very much of the cultural system in SE Asia where the upper class clearly controls everything and the tiny middle class survives and the vast majority of people are poor, very very poor with very few opportunities to become upwardly mobile.

When I first moved back to the US, I didn't see people on the streets begging at all. But as time moved on, a few short years of the Reagan years, more and more homeless people lived on the streets and were begging to live. But when I left this country in 1970, it wasn't like that, at all. And it was shocking to me upon my return, that I saw the things I'd seen in Manila. I hated the poverty in the PI, because there were people who not only didn't live in poverty, but people who clearly could do something to alleviate that poverty to some extent but did nothing. And didn't seem to care about doing anything about it.

To Brooks and Miller, well they are the upper class, so they aren't affected by any of this. If Miller thinks using social security to pay for his tuition is a good thing, rather than addressing the underlying issue of SMR's and TEL's (Super Majority requirements and Tax and Expenditure Limitations, he is sorely mistaken. The type of legislation I mentioned above is all designed to limit taxes that can be raised and spent, and that affects the middle and lower classes. But the legislation I am talking about has spread unofficially to the federal government which now has a what seems to be a permanent SMR to pass any legislation. The House of course has picked up on the TEL movement and that seems to be a permanent, yet unwritten rule there. And this is the result, people are fighting to use ever shrinking coffers, not because we couldn't raise more money, but because we refuse to do so. It is a 35 year tax revolt, and it is killing the country, little by little.

That's too long isn't it. But I've been working on a piece for LGF that discusses exactly this subject, the Tax Revolt, and your piece fits so well with it.

I do not really know why but

Richard Day — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:21:33 +0000

In reply to Stop Making Sense (Left and Right Edition)

I do not really know why but I must hereby render unto Destor (shirt or no shirt, boa or no boa) the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me for this line:

If you want to make a moral argument about why we should all not take Social Security checks and why businesses should be free to do whatever, that's fine by me. We can have that argument. We're always having that argument. But, come on.

It is like religion to them.

trkingmomoe — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 06:41:19 +0000

In reply to It's amazing that nobody

It is like religion to them. They cling to it in blind faith and talk all round it like there is not flaws.

An in depth look behind the

Resistance — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 02:59:12 +0000

In reply to It's amazing that nobody

An in depth look behind the curtain.

http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/tpp-fta-tppa-trans-pacific-partnership-free-trade-agreement-subordinates-nations-and-pe

Awesome brainwork, Brooks I

Richard Day — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 02:44:13 +0000

In reply to I would like to invite these

Awesome brainwork, Brooks

I dunno, but at this hour I must render unto Flower the Dayly Line of the Day for this here Dagblog Site given to all of her from all of me.

I mean:

AWESOME BRAINWORK BROOKS.

hahhahahaha