No Banker Left Behind

[uscitizen]

Yep but no change from the previous administration.

It's hard to see how any meaningful change is possible as long as voters continue "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican.

Citizens United seems to have ensured even more money from the richest 1% of voters will be used to pre-select the candidates from both major parties.

Republicans AND Democrats could be FLUSHED by the hundreds from DC beginning in 2012.

With very little additional effort required beyond casting a ballot.

How?

Seriously GP, how?

What organization can the people rally behind that won't be just another cut-out shamocratic organization orchestrated by the powers that be?

The Tea Party? MoveON.com?

Anybody or any person who becomes a real threat to the Puppeteers is targeted for takeover or character assassination.

Frankly I am dubious that this nation's path to a more democratic, more economically just society can be found through the election process.

This society's fundamental flaw is philosophical, not political.

We are a nation of materialists and a highly materialistic people are far too easy to divide and conquer, far too easy to anticipate and manipulate.

The "I got mine, get yours; Greed is good" zeitgeist replaced the nationalistic zeitgeist that once existed.

Nationalism is a kind of commmunal sense that means that enough people will do the right thing. That enough of them will make that personal sacrifice in day to day decision making that it takes to make community vibrant and functional.

And as long as one can always hire one worker to kill another the GOLDEN RULE will be in effect.

It isn't politics by which the American people are captured and controlled, it is by economic means that they are kept powerless.

And NOBODY is challenging the economic machinations that keep them and this nation on a path to destruction.

Spot on. Too bad I can't rep you again yet.

 

[uscitizen]

Do you think Obama's one and done?

naw, plenty of delusion left to spread around George....

Right, again; however, I would never underestimate Obama's arrogance.

If the economic conditions of November 2012 make November 2008 look good......

Neither could I underestimate Bush's arrogance.

Perhaps you will catch on someday.

 

[Dr.Drock]

I'm not going to advocate any specific 3rd party, but I'll agree with someone who votes for ANY of them, and least they haven't proven to be disasters like the 2 status quo parties have.

And George haven't you listened to the talking points? Ignore the facts, Obama and the dems are battling those big bankers even while they're in his cabinet!!!

 

[dblack]

Yep but no change from the previous administration.

It's hard to see how any meaningful change is possible as long as voters continue "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican.

Citizens United seems to have ensured even more money from the richest 1% of voters will be used to pre-select the candidates from both major parties.

Republicans AND Democrats could be FLUSHED by the hundreds from DC beginning in 2012.

With very little additional effort required beyond casting a ballot.

How?

Seriously GP, how?

The tactics aren't yet an issue, and won't become an issue until we summon the will to demand real change. Right now the 'protest vote', far from being a waste, is the best choice we have. Solid third parties - or solid movements for change within the Republicrats - aren't going to happen as long as we keep granting explicit approval for the same old song and dance, falling for the same 'lesser-of-two-evils' nonsense. When we see a significant number of voters (even as little as 15 or 20% would do it) turning away from the major parties, things will start to change. But not as long as we keep allowing them herd us back under their 'big tents'.

I'm certainly not advocating voting for someone you can't support in good conscience. But writing in someone you know personally is better than giving your stamp of approval to lesser evil.

 

[georgephillip]

How?

Seriously GP, how?

What organization can the people rally behind that won't be just another cut-out shamocratic organization orchestrated by the powers that be?

The Tea Party? MoveON.com?

Anybody or any person who becomes a real threat to the Puppeteers is targeted for takeover or character assassination.

Frankly I am dubious that this nation's path to a more democratic, more economically just society can be found through the election process.

This society's fundamental flaw is philosophical, not political.

We are a nation of materialists and a highly materialistic people are far too easy to divide and conquer, far too easy to anticipate and manipulate.

The "I got mine, get yours; Greed is good" zeitgeist replaced the nationalistic zeitgeist that once existed.

Nationalism is a kind of commmunal sense that means that enough people will do the right thing. That enough of them will make that personal sacrifice in day to day decision making that it takes to make community vibrant and functional.

And as long as one can always hire one worker to kill another the GOLDEN RULE will be in effect.

It isn't politics by which the American people are captured and controlled, it is by economic means that they are kept powerless.

And NOBODY is challenging the economic machinations that keep them and this nation on a path to destruction.

What I'm suggesting, ed, is best characterized as the "Political Leap of Faith Movement."

I'm not sure how many already existing third parties appear on Maine ballots.
In California it is a substantial number.
Pick the third party candidate closest to your political heart and vote accordingly.

Chris Hedges revealed recently this has been a voting technique of his lately.

I think you're right about US First Principles when it comes to politics.
Greed has never been in short supply.
The richest 1% of humanity understand instinctively how to manipulate that fact.

Divide and conquer could be turned on the rulers here if enough of the eligible voters who don't normally see anything worth voting for can be influenced to come into the polls and vote against Republicans AND Democrats.

George, one ought not vote for a third party candidate who is also a forking nutter.

I remember when I had some hope that the GREEN party might have legs.

Then I started one-on-one talking to that party's front runner here in Maine.

His POV was more of the same elitist crap only with a greenie tinge that gave him a smug satisfaction that he rode in on some high moral horse.

The ARROGANCE of the monied class in America is profoundly distrubing.

But still they rise to the top of every organization, GP.

Hence I refuse to join any revolution I do not control.

The American people are going to have to go though a period of enormous pain before they give up the philosophical POVs that put the insiders in control of this nation.

Until the people (and this means ALL of us, not just one class) are ready to REWRITE the social contract, the problems that you and I and some others here on this board are talking about are not going away, in fact they are only going to get worse.

GIGO
(garbage in garbage out)​

When a society starts out with presuppositions that are inherently false that society is doomed to failure.

Our entire economic philosophy system is flawed from the GETGO.

In the first place it begins with the concept of 'Homo economicus"

Such a flawed belief system as that inevitably lead us to such preposterous notions as perfect markets, invisible hands of the markets, and self-correcting markets.

The market is DESIGNED TO BE STAMPEDED.

And every one of those CONCEITs of MASS PSYCHOLOGY (see "animal spirits" ) leads to massive and fundamental tragedies of the commons like we are now experiencing

Tragedies which the INSIDERS not only understand how to take advantage of, but understand how to CREATE for their own personal benefit.

NO voting, no party, no heroic populist is going to change that fundamental flaw in our thinking.

Right now I live in a state with a Governor that got 38% of the vote.

But he's got 100% of the power to pander to the capital class.

You see my point?

VOTING is not going to fix this problem because our governments are no longer in charge of our society except to keep the rest of the hoi polli in check.

We are prisoners of philosophical system that was designed of the capital, by the capital, and FOR the capital class.

The arrogance of the US monied elites is at least as obvious as the number of psychopaths who are drawn to politics. Maybe there's a connection?

I can't dispute much of what you've laid out here.
Economicus may very well be a fatal flaw that we've been using for a starting point.

Ask yourself this:

If 100 or more Democrats and a few Republicans are FLUSHED from DC in November of 2012, is it worth including a few "forking nutters" among their replacements?

dblack just posted a gem, imho, on the significance of will.

Americans don't believe they can hit back at Wall Street:
Hence they have little will to demand real change.
FLUSHING a hundred incumbents from the US Congress in a single news cycle would prove they are badly mis-underestimating themselves.

Do you believe he's right when he says "even as little as 15 or 20%" of voters turning away from the major parties will begin to change things?

Only one way to find out.

 

[georgephillip]

I'm not going to advocate any specific 3rd party, but I'll agree with someone who votes for ANY of them, and least they haven't proven to be disasters like the 2 status quo parties have.

And George haven't you listened to the talking points? Ignore the facts, Obama and the dems are battling those big bankers even while they're in his cabinet!!!

It would be the political miracle of the ages if US progressives ever learned to judge Obama by the content of his character instead of the color of his...?

 

[georgephillip]

It's hard to see how any meaningful change is possible as long as voters continue "choosing" between Democrat OR Republican.

Citizens United seems to have ensured even more money from the richest 1% of voters will be used to pre-select the candidates from both major parties.

Republicans AND Democrats could be FLUSHED by the hundreds from DC beginning in 2012.

With very little additional effort required beyond casting a ballot.

How?

Seriously GP, how?

The tactics aren't yet an issue, and won't become an issue until we summon the will to demand real change. Right now the 'protest vote', far from being a waste, is the best choice we have. Solid third parties - or solid movements for change within the Republicrats - aren't going to happen as long as we keep granting explicit approval for the same old song and dance, falling for the same 'lesser-of-two-evils' nonsense. When we see a significant number of voters (even as little as 15 or 20% would do it) turning away from the major parties, things will start to change. But not as long as we keep allowing them herd us back under their 'big tents'.

I'm certainly not advocating voting for someone you can't support in good conscience. But writing in someone you know personally is better than giving your stamp of approval to lesser evil.

It had never occurred to me how an additional 15% to 20% of voters turning from the majors could affect this issue. Even if no incumbents were purged in 2012, millions of voters (especially those who don't usually bother) would begin to sense a potential for influence they never realized they possessed.

Thanks for the heads up.

Time to start boycotting those big tents.

 

[pvsi]

What made Obama pick a Treasury Secretary who arranged a secret $30 billion loan to Goldman Sachs at .01% while taxpayers were paying 25% on missed credit card payments?

"It was merely one small part of that reckless policy of throwing mad money at the banks while ignoring the plight of homeowners whom the banks had swindled, a plan pursued by both the Bush and the Obama administrations that set the stage for the current slide into a double-dip recession.

"On Tuesday it was reported that home values have continued an eight-month decline back to their lowest point since the recession began.

"With housing in deep trouble there can be no rebound of consumer confidence or job creation, and the first-quarter growth rate was an anemic 1.8 percent even as Wall Street profits and bonuses flourished.

"Wages are stagnant, unemployment claims have recently risen and, as The Wall Street Journal headlined on Tuesday, 'Economists Downgrade Prospects for Growth.'

"That same edition of the Journal reported that 44.6 million Americans now survive on food stamps, an 11 percent increase in that misery index over the past year, while Geithner’s friends at Goldman are doing quite well."

Geithner and Goldman (and Obama): Thick as Thieves.

Robert Scheer: Geithner and Goldman, Thick as Thieves - Robert Scheer's Columns - Truthdig

I thought it was supposed to be no child left behind