Romney and Obama: The Public Face of Corporate Power.

[georgephillip]

Chris Hedges wants a word with all the "suckers" who think a "choice" between Barry or Mitt amounts to anything more than personal preference for the brand of hemlock we'll be ingesting as we topple over the upcoming fiscal cliff.

"Obama is not in charge. Romney would not be in charge. Politicians are the public face of corporate power. They are corporate employees. Their personal narratives, their promises, their rhetoric and their idiosyncrasies are meaningless.

"And that, perhaps, is why the cost of the two presidential campaigns is estimated to reach an obscene $2.5 billion. The corporate state does not produce a product that is different. It produces brands that are different. And brands cost a lot of money to sell.

"You can dismiss those of us who will in protest vote for a third-party candidate and invest our time and energy in acts of civil disobedience. You can pride yourself on being practical. You can swallow the false argument of the lesser of two evils. But ask yourself, once this nightmare starts kicking in, who the real sucker is."

How Do You Take Your Poison? | Common Dreams

 

[georgephillip]

More from Chris Hedges on the "choice" next November:

"If you insist on participating in the cash-drenched charade of a two-party democratic election at least be clear about what you are doing. You are, by playing your assigned role as the Democratic or Republican voter in this political theater, giving legitimacy to a corporate agenda that means your own impoverishment and disempowerment...

"And while Romney has been, courtesy of the magazine Mother Jones, exposed as a shallow hypocrite, Obama is in a class by himself. There is hardly a campaign promise from 2008 that Obama has not broken.

"This list includes his pledges to support the public option in health care, close Guantanamo, raise the minimum wage, regulate Wall Street, support labor unions in their struggles with employers, reform the Patriot Act, negotiate an equitable peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, curb our imperial expansion in the Middle East, stop torture, protect reproductive rights, carry out a comprehensive immigration reform, cut the deficit by half, create 5 million new energy jobs and halt home foreclosures.

"Obama, campaigning in South Carolina in 2007, said that as president he would fight for the right of collective bargaining. 'I’d put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I’ll … walk on that picket line with you as president of the United States of America,' he said. But when he got his chance to put on those 'comfortable pair of shoes' during labor disputes in Madison, Wis., and Chicago he turned his back on working men and women."

How Do You Take Your Poison? | Common Dreams

 

[Avatar4321]

you guys really need to stop these paranoid delusions that corporations are the source of all evil. It's not healthy at all.

 

[Oldguy]

If you really believe there is no difference between Obama and Romney, then there's no reason why you shouldn't vote for Obama....right?

 

[georgephillip]

you guys really need to stop these paranoid delusions that corporations are the source of all evil. It's not healthy at all.

Is it possible for you to argue against a position you disagree with without erecting a Straw Man?

Hedges doesn't claim that "corporations are the source of all evil."
IMHO, he's saying corporations are collective institutions responsible for most of the individual wealth that determines which candidates we get to "choose" from.

 

[Truthmatters]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

 

[georgephillip]

If you really believe there is no difference between Obama and Romney, then there's no reason why you shouldn't vote for Obama....right?

Too late.
I'm writing in Dick AND Lyndon.
(Only because Barry and Curtis are still LOSERS)

Jill Stein for President

 

[georgephillip]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

How did Bill's repeal of Glass-Steagall help Bush do his dirty work?
Bubba produced a Dot.com bubble, and Dubya facilitated credit and housing bubbles.
They are both corporate tools as are Obama and Mitt.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Every politician in this country is a corporate tool. And because our government is practicing as a plutocracy now, we really don't have any voice in the matter. We are going to suffer greatly for it.

 

[georgephillip]

IMHO, the US economy has been in free-fall since the last presidential auction took place.
When it hits rock bottom the CRASH will be loud enough to focus our attention the same way 911 did.
Think empty ATMs.

I"m guessing the immigrants get the blame.

 

[Truthmatters]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

How did Bill's repeal of Glass-Steagall help Bush do his dirty work?
Bubba produced a Dot.com bubble, and Dubya facilitated credit and housing bubbles.
They are both corporate tools as are Obama and Mitt.

dear fucking dupe,

Bill did not repeal GS.


it was hacked away at for decades by the right.


GLB act was the last straw.


It was written by phil gramm who went to work for UBS bank shortly affer he managed to pass it.

Clinton signed it because in it were protections that Bush refused to allow to be implimented for nearly his entire term.


If those broker rules had been in place this mess could NOT have happened.


Bush gamed the law.






SEC Votes for Final Rules Defining How Banks Can Be Securities Brokers
Eight Years After Passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Key Provisions Will Now Be Implemented
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2007-190
Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2007 - Ending eight years of stalled negotiations and impasse, the Commission today voted to adopt, jointly with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), new rules that will finally implement the bank broker provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. The Board will consider these final rules at its Sept. 24, 2007 meeting. The Commission and the Board consulted with and sought the concurrence of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of Thrift Supervision.

 

[Truthmatters]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

How did Bill's repeal of Glass-Steagall help Bush do his dirty work?
Bubba produced a Dot.com bubble, and Dubya facilitated credit and housing bubbles.
They are both corporate tools as are Obama and Mitt.

the dot com situation was a brand NEW marketplace.

what exactly do youy contend Clinton should have done to alter what investors did in the face of a completely NEW market?


pretending any American president should have stepped in and told people what they should take a chance on and what they should avoid is untterly insane.


The housing market boom was so obvious people like me were screaming about it coming.

You know how the right treated any warnings during that period?


are you like 12 years old?

 

[georgephillip]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

How did Bill's repeal of Glass-Steagall help Bush do his dirty work?
Bubba produced a Dot.com bubble, and Dubya facilitated credit and housing bubbles.
They are both corporate tools as are Obama and Mitt.

dear fucking dupe,

Bill did not repeal GS.


it was hacked away at for decades by the right.


GLB act was the last straw.


It was written by phil gramm who went to work for UBS bank shortly affer he managed to pass it.

Clinton signed it because in it were protections that Bush refused to allow to be implimented for nearly his entire term.


If those broker rules had been in place this mess could NOT have happened.


Bush gamed the law.






SEC Votes for Final Rules Defining How Banks Can Be Securities Brokers
Eight Years After Passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Key Provisions Will Now Be Implemented
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2007-190
Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2007 - Ending eight years of stalled negotiations and impasse, the Commission today voted to adopt, jointly with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board), new rules that will finally implement the bank broker provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. The Board will consider these final rules at its Sept. 24, 2007 meeting. The Commission and the Board consulted with and sought the concurrence of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of Thrift Supervision.

Bubba signed the repeal of Glass-Steagall in order to "earn" his $100,000,000 corporate payoff after leaving office.

Your boy, Obama, will probably "earn" $1,000,000,000 from all those "savvy businessmen on Wall Street" when he "reforms" Social Security during his second term.

Do you have any children?
If so, why would you "choose" between Obama OR Romney?

 

[georgephillip]

this whole thing of we really dont have any choice is an idiots game.


saying the economy produced under Clinton was the same as the economy that was produced under Bush is an idiots game.


Cop Out


OP you failed

How did Bill's repeal of Glass-Steagall help Bush do his dirty work?
Bubba produced a Dot.com bubble, and Dubya facilitated credit and housing bubbles.
They are both corporate tools as are Obama and Mitt.

the dot com situation was a brand NEW marketplace.

what exactly do youy contend Clinton should have done to alter what investors did in the face of a completely NEW market?


pretending any American president should have stepped in and told people what they should take a chance on and what they should avoid is untterly insane.


The housing market boom was so obvious people like me were screaming about it coming.

You know how the right treated any warnings during that period?


are you like 12 years old?

Bill could've replaced Alan Greenspan, for starters.

"For six of eight years, Bill Clinton governed with Republican majorities in Congress. Not surprisingly, there was much continuity between the Clinton and Bush administrations. Both embraced the so-called Washington Consensus, a policy agenda of fiscal austerity, central-bank autonomy, deregulated markets, liberalized capital flows, free trade, and privatization.

"On each of these crucial issues, the most significant differences between Clinton and Bush were differences in timing and degree, not in direction. Both administrations were willfully asleep at the wheel.

"Clinton was fortunate to preside over the early stages of a bubble economy.

"Bush has had the misfortune of presiding as a lame duck through the final stages of the same bubble and, thanks to the deregulation of the Clinton years, without a regulatory structure capable of containing today’s speculative fevers."

Dissent Magazine - Summer 2008 Issue - The Legacy of the Clin...

Are you surprised at the timing of the recent SEC ruling you are all worked up about?
Is there any doubt it's an election year ploy?
Will you be surprised when it's gutted at the edge of the fiscal cliff?
Open your eyes!

 

[uscitizen]

Those who are in power must keep the political game going to cover their tracks.

 

[georgephillip]

Those who are in power must keep the political game going to cover their tracks.

Until the economic system they both subsidize stops working for a majority of US citizens.

For generations, the US investor class needed the US middle class to manufacture and purchase large quantities of goods.
That's no longer the case.
US investors have a much larger middle class rising in China, India, and Brazil, so it's STFU and DIE to the US middle class.
Republicans AND Democrats depend on the investor class to fund their campaigns.
What will happen when the ATMs run out of cash?