30 Years of Class War

[bitterlyclingin]

Seventy nine years, to be exact. Franklin Roosevelt pioneered the art of political campaigning based on "Coveting Thy Neighbors Goods". Over time the practice has waxed and waned depending on the Democratic Practitioner using it. Under Barack Hussein Obama, the tactic has enjoyed a rebirth to unparalled heights and utilization. Whether it will lead this time to a replay of the scene of the Bolsheviks battering down the locked doors of the Duma, remains to be seen?

Maybe a replay of the tanks of the Taman Division shelling the Russian White House?

"The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force.

"The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for a while. The constitutional crisis reached a tipping point on 21 September 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin purported to dissolve the country's legislature (the Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), although the president did not have the power to dissolve the parliament according to the then-current constitution..."

1993 Russian constitutional crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Constitutional crisis that appears to be developing between the Legilslative body and the executive in this nation today, is not what I had aimed for. I was envisioning the rifraff at Zuccotti Park bludgeoning the doors down in the House Of Representatives. The scenario that you refer to is already been contemplated in Van Jones' remarks "From the top down, and the bottom up." Barack Obama is the "Top down" part, the Zuccotti Park protestors are the "From the bottom up". Mr Jones envisions crushing the resistance of the Conservatives in the House, the Tea Party, as well as the Constitution, between those two opposing forces, like the garbage dump in the Imperial Death Star that Han Solo and Luke Skywalker found themselves caught between.

 

[Ringel05]

"Redistribution of income has been taking place since 1980, when the top 1% already had a large piece of the pie (7%).

"Then they took a second piece (7% more).

"Then they took a third piece (7% more).

"That's over a trillion dollars a year of after-tax income that would be going to the other 99% if it weren't for 30 years of tax cuts and deregulation.

"If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000..."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

Vote Republican OR Democrat in 2012 and give the 1% another 7% (or) more.

Your favorite holiday wouldn't happen to be May Day would it?
Just askin".

 

[Steelplate]

You know what the problem is? Conservatives only think "Class Warfare" comes from the left. That's the extent of their heralded "Critical Thinking".

Not only are they in the wrong army(because, I'd be wiling to bet that at least 99% of the Conservatives posting on here are just 99%-ers, but they are so ignorant that they don't realize that Offensively, the 1% has been kicking the 99%'s ass in repeated fashion in this "war" for the past 30 years. Furthermore... they are so blind in their ignorance that any attempt that the 99% make to have an retaliatory "offensive" in this so called "war" is treated like an attack on them.

Perhaps there is a war.... but wars are always two sided, and obviously by the tone and the hatred shown by our "Conservative" brethren.... Psychological warfare, much like the "Jedi Mind Trick" works... and it works best on weak minds.

 

[occupied]

The class war was won 30 years ago by the billionaire class when Reagan cut taxes to the bone and made the rest of us pay for the resulting deficit explosion. Anything after that was just consolidating their continual victory.

 

[georgephillip]

The good news is that people have finally woken up and realized what's been going on. Republicans have a tendency to warn against provoking class warfare, especially when the possibility of increasing taxes on the rich is on the line. The GOP establishment isn't trying to prevent a class war; it's trying to convince one side that the war isn't even going on. They don't even like to use the terms "wealthy" or "rich" anymore, they'll instead say "job creators" because that stirs less anger towards the very people sucking up the bulk of America's wealth and hijacking our representatives in Washington.

And yes, I know Democrats are just as vulnerable to being bought by corporate lobbyists, but they're not the ones denying the growing wealth gap in this country.

If OWS and the labor movement can make Democratic politicians choose between shareholders' rights and workers' rights between now and next November, it would be impossible for any candidate to claim class war isn't the defining issue of the election.

Maybe millions of voters (Republicans AND Democrats) will finally stop voting against their economic self-interest?

I am a huge advocate of electoral reform so that people can stop voting by the "lesser of two evils" philosophy. As much as I bashed on Republicans in my previous post, Ron Paul would very much be the candidate that serves the self-interests of middle and poor America. Outside of him, yes the OWS crowd would likely have to make their mark with the Dems and let it expand from there. I would also like to see the movement increase pressure to overturn Citizens United v FEC (although it's probably too late for the 2012 elections).

When 1% of voters control the purse strings for both major parties, voting for the "lesser of two evils" may slow the rate of increasing inequality but it won't result in a government that taxes the richest individuals and corporations instead of borrowing from them.

Millions of voters live in states that already have multiple third party candidates appearing on every ballot. IMHO, it's just as easy to vote Green, Libertarian or AIP instead of Republican and Democrat.

The same social networks that helped topple Mubarak last Spring and fill Zuccotti Park this fall could be used to FLUSH hundreds of DC incumbents from office in a single news cycle.

 

[georgephillip]

Seventy nine years, to be exact. Franklin Roosevelt pioneered the art of political campaigning based on "Coveting Thy Neighbors Goods". Over time the practice has waxed and waned depending on the Democratic Practitioner using it. Under Barack Hussein Obama, the tactic has enjoyed a rebirth to unparalled heights and utilization. Whether it will lead this time to a replay of the scene of the Bolsheviks battering down the locked doors of the Duma, remains to be seen?

Maybe a replay of the tanks of the Taman Division shelling the Russian White House?

"The constitutional crisis of 1993 was a political stand-off between the Russian president and the Russian parliament that was resolved by using military force.

"The relations between the president and the parliament had been deteriorating for a while. The constitutional crisis reached a tipping point on 21 September 1993, when President Boris Yeltsin purported to dissolve the country's legislature (the Congress of People's Deputies and its Supreme Soviet), although the president did not have the power to dissolve the parliament according to the then-current constitution..."

1993 Russian constitutional crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Constitutional crisis that appears to be developing between the Legilslative body and the executive in this nation today, is not what I had aimed for. I was envisioning the rifraff at Zuccotti Park bludgeoning the doors down in the House Of Representatives. The scenario that you refer to is already been contemplated in Van Jones' remarks "From the top down, and the bottom up." Barack Obama is the "Top down" part, the Zuccotti Park protestors are the "From the bottom up". Mr Jones envisions crushing the resistance of the Conservatives in the House, the Tea Party, as well as the Constitution, between those two opposing forces, like the garbage dump in the Imperial Death Star that Han Solo and Luke Skywalker found themselves caught between.

"As a child he (Van Jones) paired his Star Wars action figures with Kennedy-era political figures; Luke Skywalker was John, Han Solo was Bobby, and Lando Calrissian was Martin Luther King, Jr.."

Notice any connection between the deaths of JFK, RFK, and MLK?
Why does the right always project its addiction for violence on others?

You have a first class imagination if you're envisioning the "riffraff" at Zuccotti Park knocking down doors in DC when they can't even muscle their way inside Goldman Sachs. What has lead you to believe the police in New York and DC are pussies?

If Barack Obama and Congress are not tools of the 1% why haven't there been any charges filed against Wall Street bankers for an epidemic of control accounting fraud the FBI began warning about in 2004?

The specific scenario I'm referring to hasn't changed in thousands of years, possibly since the Fall of Man; the richest 1% of humanity consolidate state power and use it to grow ever more wealthy at the expense of a majority of taxpayers.

Van Jones and OWS are not on the side of that 1%.
What about you?

Van Jones - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[georgephillip]

"Redistribution of income has been taking place since 1980, when the top 1% already had a large piece of the pie (7%).

"Then they took a second piece (7% more).

"Then they took a third piece (7% more).

"That's over a trillion dollars a year of after-tax income that would be going to the other 99% if it weren't for 30 years of tax cuts and deregulation.

"If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000..."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

Vote Republican OR Democrat in 2012 and give the 1% another 7% (or) more.

Your favorite holiday wouldn't happen to be May Day would it?
Just askin".

"...Guy Fawkes Day...is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in England. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords.

"Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure..."

May Day has its appeal.

"May Day can refer to various labour celebrations conducted on May 1 that commemorate the fight for the eight hour day. May Day in this regard is called International Workers' Day, or Labour Day..."

 

[georgephillip]

You know what the problem is? Conservatives only think "Class Warfare" comes from the left. That's the extent of their heralded "Critical Thinking".

Not only are they in the wrong army(because, I'd be wiling to bet that at least 99% of the Conservatives posting on here are just 99%-ers, but they are so ignorant that they don't realize that Offensively, the 1% has been kicking the 99%'s ass in repeated fashion in this "war" for the past 30 years. Furthermore... they are so blind in their ignorance that any attempt that the 99% make to have an retaliatory "offensive" in this so called "war" is treated like an attack on them.

Perhaps there is a war.... but wars are always two sided, and obviously by the tone and the hatred shown by our "Conservative" brethren.... Psychological warfare, much like the "Jedi Mind Trick" works... and it works best on weak minds.

George Lakoff believes that conservatism is "fundamentally antidemocratic."
Conservatives believe in saving their own skin without any concern for their neighbors.

Some of his conclusions make sense to me; liberal/progressives are more inclined to base their morality on empathy while many conservatives base theirs on obedience to authority.

Here's a pretty well balanced review of Lakoff's 2008 book "The Political Mind."

Book Review - 'The Political Mind,' by George Lakoff - Review - NYTimes.com

 

[georgephillip]

The class war was won 30 years ago by the billionaire class when Reagan cut taxes to the bone and made the rest of us pay for the resulting deficit explosion. Anything after that was just consolidating their continual victory.

Among the scandals of the Reagan years, the 1980s savings and loan looting which depended on Reagan's aversion to even minimal financial regulation transferred hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Wall Street thieves. One of the Gipper's top aids, Michael Deaver, was convicted of perjury related to influence peddling. Reagan spent a lifetime sucking up to the 1% and the rest of us are still paying for it.

 

[zonly1]

Keynesian Kooks

100 years of fAiL

"At the height of the Great Depression, in 1933, Keynes published The Means to Prosperity, which contained specific policy recommendations for tackling unemployment in a global recession, chiefly counter cyclical public spending.

"The Means to Prosperity contains one of the first mentions of the multiplier effect. While it was addressed chiefly to the British Government, it also contained advice for other nations affected by the global recession. A copy was sent to the newly elected President Roosevelt and other world leaders..."

John Maynard Keynes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Milton Friedman was a tool of the 1%.
His policies lead to the crash of 2008.
His disciples(found on frontpage) are coming back for more.

It was refered to prime the system but evidently when abused and taken out of context it can be what is expected when we do not follow fundamental principles. Overwhelm lobbyist distort the flow and concentrate their own interest. When there interest and the legal citizens are compromise the taxpayers foot the bill therefore the this republic suffers.

 

[editec]

CLASS STRUGGLE is part and parcel of civilization. THAT is unavoidable

Every policy in any society that is not flat (ie is not classless) will effect the different classes within that society differently. There is really NO avoiding that reality.

Here's the thing about the term "class WAR".

It is like beauty -- it exists in the eyes of the beholder.

So when exactly does a class struggle really become class war?

Right now. many people in the middle class feel that they have been rode hard and put away wet by the MASTERS. (they're right, of course)

Why the change in attitude?

Previously if you'd asked most middle class people, they wouldn't have even believed there WERE classes in America.

We've recently read people posts here insisting that there are no classes in America, have we not?

REAL class WAR doesn't start until the society openly goes to war based on CLASS.

What the middle and lower classes are facing now is really CLASS BETRAYAL by the MASTERS and their tools.

The masters betrayed the res tof the nation by advincing policies that benefited them, at the expense of their fellow CITIZENS and the nation as a whole.

It's not class WAR...not yet.

Hopefully, not ever.

There is much we can do to pour oil on the troubled waters of this Republic.

But the first thing we have got to do is acknowledge that we are first AMERICANS, and then members of a class within that society that ALSO has rights and RESPONSIBLITIES.

What is the responsibility of the MASTERS? -- to oversee the nations well being. Of late it appears they are abandoning that obligation.

What is the responsibility of the REST OF SOCIETY? -- to obey the laws, to work and to pay taxes, and in time of crises? To send their sons and daughters to war in defence of the ENTIRE NATION.

Well, the lower classes have always done THEIR DUTY.

It's time for the MASTERS to do THEIRS.

Nothing the GOP is advancing is consistent with that premise.

FWIW, very little the DNC is advancing is a whole lot better.

The masters need to remember who made them wealth; whose labors they benefitted from; whose children died for them; and who ultimately the nation belongs to.

The Republic belongs to ALL OF US

This REPUBLIC belong to the people EN MASSE, not just the wealthy and their loyal tools.

If we continue to fail to recognize this social contract, then the USA is ultimately doomed to become (at best) a third world nation.

 

[Bfgrn]

 

[Bfgrn]

CLASS STRUGGLE is part and parcel of civilization. THAT is unavoidable

Every policy in any society that is not flat (ie is not classless) will effect the different classes within that society differently. There is really NO avoiding that reality.

Here's the thing about the term "class WAR".

It is like beauty -- it exists in the eyes of the beholder.

So when exactly does a class struggle really become class war?

Right now. many people in the middle class feel that they have been rode hard and put away wet by the MASTERS. (they're right, of course)

Why the change in attitude?

Previously if you'd asked most middle class people, they wouldn't have even believed there WERE classes in America.

We've recently read people posts here insisting that there are no classes in America, have we not?

REAL class WAR doesn't start until the society openly goes to war based on CLASS.

What the middle and lower classes are facing now is really CLASS BETRAYAL by the MASTERS and their tools.

The masters betrayed the res tof the nation by advincing policies that benefited them, at the expense of their fellow CITIZENS and the nation as a whole.

It's not class WAR...not yet.

Hopefully, not ever.

There is much we can do to pour oil on the troubled waters of this Republic.

But the first thing we have got to do is acknowledge that we are first AMERICANS, and then members of a class within that society that ALSO has rights and RESPONSIBLITIES.

What is the responsibility of the MASTERS? -- to oversee the nations well being. Of late it appears they are abandoning that obligation.

What is the responsibility of the REST OF SOCIETY? -- to obey the laws, to work and to pay taxes, and in time of crises? To send their sons and daughters to war in defence of the ENTIRE NATION.

Well, the lower classes have always done THEIR DUTY.

It's time for the MASTERS to do THEIRS.

Nothing the GOP is advancing is consistent with that premise.

FWIW, very little the DNC is advancing is a whole lot better.

The masters need to remember who made them wealthy. Whose labors they benefitted from, whose children died for them, and who ultimately the nation belongs to. It belongs to ALL OF US

This REPUBLIC belong to the people EN MASSE, not just the wealthy and their loyal tools.

If we continue to fail to recognize this, then the USA is ultimately doomed to become (at best) a third world nation.

Back in 2006, then Senator elect Jim Webb wrote a great op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.


Class Struggle

BY JIM WEBB
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this newspaper has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much.

In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth. At the same time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.

Manufacturing jobs are disappearing. Many earned pension programs have collapsed in the wake of corporate "reorganization." And workers' ability to negotiate their futures has been eviscerated by the twin threats of modern corporate America: If they complain too loudly, their jobs might either be outsourced overseas or given to illegal immigrants.

This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling arrogance is in the air among the nation's most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of the "rough road of capitalism." Others claim that it's the fault of the worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate paternalism.

The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet.

More

Opinion & Commentary - Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com

 

[Skull Pilot]

"Redistribution of income has been taking place since 1980, when the top 1% already had a large piece of the pie (7%).

"Then they took a second piece (7% more).

"Then they took a third piece (7% more).

"That's over a trillion dollars a year of after-tax income that would be going to the other 99% if it weren't for 30 years of tax cuts and deregulation.

"If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000..."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

Vote Republican OR Democrat in 2012 and give the 1% another 7% (or) more.

They deserve it.

Nobody gets rich alone.

"Wealthy people also claim that they've earned whatever they have. But they've made their fortunes with considerable help from society. Government-funded research, infrastructure growth, national security, and property laws have largely benefited rich individuals and corporations. DARPA (the Internet), NIH (medicine), and NSF and NASA (science) have laid a half-century foundation for profit-seeking corporations."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

And every one of those things is available to everyone. Just because some people use what's available more efficiently so as to earn a profit is no reason to vilify them.

Most people who are just eking out a living are doing it because ultimately that's what they've chosen to do.

 

[Bfgrn]

They deserve it.

Nobody gets rich alone.

"Wealthy people also claim that they've earned whatever they have. But they've made their fortunes with considerable help from society. Government-funded research, infrastructure growth, national security, and property laws have largely benefited rich individuals and corporations. DARPA (the Internet), NIH (medicine), and NSF and NASA (science) have laid a half-century foundation for profit-seeking corporations."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

And every one of those things is available to everyone. Just because some people use what's available more efficiently so as to earn a profit is no reason to vilify them.

Most people who are just eking out a living are doing it because ultimately that's what they've chosen to do.

The YMCA and the Red Cross teach people how to swim. But that doesn't mean if they are dropped in the middle of the ocean, they will be able to survive.

 

[Skull Pilot]

Nobody gets rich alone.

"Wealthy people also claim that they've earned whatever they have. But they've made their fortunes with considerable help from society. Government-funded research, infrastructure growth, national security, and property laws have largely benefited rich individuals and corporations. DARPA (the Internet), NIH (medicine), and NSF and NASA (science) have laid a half-century foundation for profit-seeking corporations."

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

And every one of those things is available to everyone. Just because some people use what's available more efficiently so as to earn a profit is no reason to vilify them.

Most people who are just eking out a living are doing it because ultimately that's what they've chosen to do.

The YMCA and the Red Cross teach people how to swim. But that doesn't mean if they are dropped in the middle of the ocean, they will be able to survive.

And the people who will survive are the ones who not only learned how to swim but practiced and trained to perfect their skills.

Those that didn't essentially chose to drown

 

[Bfgrn]

And every one of those things is available to everyone. Just because some people use what's available more efficiently so as to earn a profit is no reason to vilify them.

Most people who are just eking out a living are doing it because ultimately that's what they've chosen to do.

The YMCA and the Red Cross teach people how to swim. But that doesn't mean if they are dropped in the middle of the ocean, they will be able to survive.

And the people who will survive are the ones who not only learned how to swim but practiced and trained to perfect their skills.

Those that didn't essentially chose to drown

Well, there are plenty of people who DID practice and train to perfect their skills. They're mired in college loan debt and working for half of what that practice and training should pay.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The YMCA and the Red Cross teach people how to swim. But that doesn't mean if they are dropped in the middle of the ocean, they will be able to survive.

And the people who will survive are the ones who not only learned how to swim but practiced and trained to perfect their skills.

Those that didn't essentially chose to drown

Well, there are plenty of people who DID practice and train to perfect their skills. They're mired in college loan debt and working for half of what that practice and training should pay.

Should pay?

For one college does not perfect anyone's skills. And the market sets what wages are paid for any particular skill. If you chose to train in a skill that is undervalued in the market then that again is no one's fault but your own.

And secondly those people chose to incur their debt so it is their responsibility and theirs alone to do what they must to settle that debt.

 

[georgephillip]

Keynesian Kooks

100 years of fAiL

"At the height of the Great Depression, in 1933, Keynes published The Means to Prosperity, which contained specific policy recommendations for tackling unemployment in a global recession, chiefly counter cyclical public spending.

"The Means to Prosperity contains one of the first mentions of the multiplier effect. While it was addressed chiefly to the British Government, it also contained advice for other nations affected by the global recession. A copy was sent to the newly elected President Roosevelt and other world leaders..."

John Maynard Keynes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Milton Friedman was a tool of the 1%.
His policies lead to the crash of 2008.
His disciples(found on frontpage) are coming back for more.

It was refered to prime the system but evidently when abused and taken out of context it can be what is expected when we do not follow fundamental principles. Overwhelm lobbyist distort the flow and concentrate their own interest. When there interest and the legal citizens are compromise the taxpayers foot the bill therefore the this republic suffers.

And some taxpayers in the Republic suffer more than others.

"At the time of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine noted that everything 'beyond what a man's own hands produce' came to him from society, and therefore 'he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came.'"

"Over a hundred years ago, Teddy Roosevelt, facing a plague of inequality not unlike today, stressed that 'Great corporations exist only because they are created and safeguarded by [democratic] institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with these institutions."

"Elizabeth Warren recently said 'There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.'

"Even GE's Jeffrey Immelt concurred, saying that 'government spending...prepares the way for new industries that thrive for generations.'"

How to Fix 30 Years of Redistribution: Tax the Rich | Common Dreams

The "rugged individualists" weren't born with the ability to read or think critically about their economy. Society provided them with the tools necessary to create wealth, and society is shortchanged when the rich loan their surplus income to government instead of donating the money in taxes.

 

[editec]

Skull opines

And every one of those things is available to everyone.

Poppycock.

Just because some people use what's available more efficiently so as to earn a profit is no reason to vilify them.

ONLY villians need be villified. Certainly not all the welathy are villians in the drama we are facing right now
.

.Most people who are just eking out a living are doing it because ultimately that's what they've chosen to do.

Ah yes, the great REPUBLICAN LIE

People choosing to be poor.