"Whatever the Issue, the Rich Guys Win"

[georgephillip]

From William Greider's "The End of New Deal Liberalism":

"Society faces dreadful prospects and profound transformation. When both parties are aligned with corporate power, who will stand up for the people?

"Who will protect them from the insatiable appetites of capitalist enterprise and help them get through the hard passage ahead?

"One thing we know for sure from history: there is no natural limit to what capitalism will seek in terms of power and profit.

"If government does not stand up and apply the brakes, society is defenseless.

"Strangely enough, this new reality brings us back to the future, posing fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism and democracy that citizens and reformers asked 100 years ago.

"Only this time, the nation is no longer an ascendant economic power.

"It faces hard adjustments as general prosperity recedes and the broad middle class that labor and liberalism helped create is breaking apart...

"One key dynamic of the twentieth century was the long- running contest for dominance between democracy and capitalism.

"The balance of power shifted back and forth several times, driven by two basic forces that neither corporate lobbyists nor timid politicians could control: the calamitous events that disrupted the social order, such as war and depression, and the power of citizens mobilized in reaction to those events.

"In those terms, both political parties are still highly vulnerable-as twentieth-century history repeatedly demonstrated, society cannot survive the burdens of an unfettered corporate order."

ZCommunications...

 

[Revere]

Government is an abject failure at making people equal.

But no corporation is as wealthy or powerful as government.

 

[georgephillip]

Government is an abject failure at making people equal.

But no corporation is as wealthy or powerful as government.

Does Wall Street control government or vice versa?

 

[Revere]

Government allowed some Wall Street companies to fail and bailed out others.

 

[georgephillip]

Government allowed some Wall Street companies to fail and bailed out others.

Would you agree?

"American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism.

"Government has been disabled or captured by the formidable powers of private enterprise and concentrated wealth.

"Self-governing rights that representative democracy conferred on citizens are now usurped by the overbearing demands of corporate and financial interests.

"Collectively, the corporate sector has its arms around both political parties, the financing of political careers, the production of the policy agendas and propaganda of influential think tanks, and control of most major media."

ZCommunications...

 

[Mr. H.]

What's wrong with being broke? I've been there and back several times.

I climbed out of that shit without government.

I don't need anyone standing up for me.

And now? I donate to food pantries, homeless shelters, even St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

And if tomorrow I'm once again broke, I could care less. Nothing scares me, nothing impresses me.

Money and power? You can have it.

 

[Revere]

Government allowed some Wall Street companies to fail and bailed out others.

Would you agree?

"American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism.

"Government has been disabled or captured by the formidable powers of private enterprise and concentrated wealth.

"Self-governing rights that representative democracy conferred on citizens are now usurped by the overbearing demands of corporate and financial interests.

"Collectively, the corporate sector has its arms around both political parties, the financing of political careers, the production of the policy agendas and propaganda of influential think tanks, and control of most major media."

ZCommunications...

No, I don't agree. This administration, more than any other before it, decides which companies live and die and whose private property is rendered worthless. They do it under the guise of social, economic, and environmental imperatives.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

From William Greider's "The End of New Deal Liberalism":

"Society faces dreadful prospects and profound transformation. When both parties are aligned with corporate power, who will stand up for the people?

"Who will protect them from the insatiable appetites of capitalist enterprise and help them get through the hard passage ahead?

"One thing we know for sure from history: there is no natural limit to what capitalism will seek in terms of power and profit.

"If government does not stand up and apply the brakes, society is defenseless.

"Strangely enough, this new reality brings us back to the future, posing fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism and democracy that citizens and reformers asked 100 years ago.

"Only this time, the nation is no longer an ascendant economic power.

"It faces hard adjustments as general prosperity recedes and the broad middle class that labor and liberalism helped create is breaking apart...

"One key dynamic of the twentieth century was the long- running contest for dominance between democracy and capitalism.

"The balance of power shifted back and forth several times, driven by two basic forces that neither corporate lobbyists nor timid politicians could control: the calamitous events that disrupted the social order, such as war and depression, and the power of citizens mobilized in reaction to those events.

"In those terms, both political parties are still highly vulnerable-as twentieth-century history repeatedly demonstrated, society cannot survive the burdens of an unfettered corporate order."

ZCommunications...

That must be why Meg Whitman is now the governor of California.

 

[georgephillip]

What's wrong with being broke? I've been there and back several times.

I climbed out of that shit without government.

I don't need anyone standing up for me.

And now? I donate to food pantries, homeless shelters, even St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

And if tomorrow I'm once again broke, I could care less. Nothing scares me, nothing impresses me.

Money and power? You can have it.

If you were the victim of a mugging or car jacking would you call on government?

Goldman Sachs is a much bigger threat to your health and future.

 

[Mr. H.]

Dreadful prospects my ass. I'm a capitalist and I could be a pauper tomorrow because of it. No risk, no balls, no glory. Take the shit that's heaped upon you, brush it off, and move on.

Goddamn bunch of pussy have-nots.

 

[Revere]

What's wrong with being broke? I've been there and back several times.

I climbed out of that shit without government.

I don't need anyone standing up for me.

And now? I donate to food pantries, homeless shelters, even St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

And if tomorrow I'm once again broke, I could care less. Nothing scares me, nothing impresses me.

Money and power? You can have it.

If you were the victim of a mugging or car jacking would you call on government?

Goldman Sachs is a much bigger threat to your health and future.

Can Goldman tax me on my energy until I have to rely on welfare to afford to heat?

Goldman isn't a "threat." A government that taxes me on carbon and hands "credits" over to Goldman to trade them is a threat.

And government can't do anything about a mugging or carjacking until it's too late and it's already happened.

 

[Revere]

If corporations buy elections, which ones bought 2006 and 2008?

 

[georgephillip]

Government allowed some Wall Street companies to fail and bailed out others.

Would you agree?

"American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism.

"Government has been disabled or captured by the formidable powers of private enterprise and concentrated wealth.

"Self-governing rights that representative democracy conferred on citizens are now usurped by the overbearing demands of corporate and financial interests.

"Collectively, the corporate sector has its arms around both political parties, the financing of political careers, the production of the policy agendas and propaganda of influential think tanks, and control of most major media."

ZCommunications...

No, I don't agree. This administration, more than any other before it, decides which companies live and die and whose private property is rendered worthless. They do it under the guise of social, economic, and environmental imperatives.

On October 1, 2008 Greider offered this assessment of the impending Wall Street bailout despite overwhelming public opposition:

"T)his is a very revealing moment in American democracy.

"We’re seeing the real deformities and power alignments that govern issues like this, particularly the financial system.

"(A)ll of the power centers in politics and finance and business are discredited by these events.

"(W)e had this moment Monday (September 29, 2008) when, for complicated political reasons, a majority in the House rose up and said no.

"(O)f course...the broad public...regards this bailout as a swindle and backwards.

"(The public wonders 'w)hy are you giving all this money to the people who caused this crisis and taking the money from the public assets of the victims?'"

Would you agree Republicans AND Democrats swindled 98% of Americans in the Fall of 2008?

 

[Revere]

Would you agree?

"American democracy has been conclusively conquered by American capitalism.

"Government has been disabled or captured by the formidable powers of private enterprise and concentrated wealth.

"Self-governing rights that representative democracy conferred on citizens are now usurped by the overbearing demands of corporate and financial interests.

"Collectively, the corporate sector has its arms around both political parties, the financing of political careers, the production of the policy agendas and propaganda of influential think tanks, and control of most major media."

ZCommunications...

No, I don't agree. This administration, more than any other before it, decides which companies live and die and whose private property is rendered worthless. They do it under the guise of social, economic, and environmental imperatives.

On October 1, 2008 Greider offered this assessment of the impending Wall Street bailout despite overwhelming public opposition:

"T)his is a very revealing moment in American democracy.

"We’re seeing the real deformities and power alignments that govern issues like this, particularly the financial system.

"(A)ll of the power centers in politics and finance and business are discredited by these events.

"(W)e had this moment Monday (September 29, 2008) when, for complicated political reasons, a majority in the House rose up and said no.

"(O)f course...the broad public...regards this bailout as a swindle and backwards.

"(The public wonders 'w)hy are you giving all this money to the people who caused this crisis and taking the money from the public assets of the victims?'"

Would you agree Republicans AND Democrats swindled 98% of Americans in the Fall of 2008?

That's a government problem.

 

[Mr. H.]

What's wrong with being broke? I've been there and back several times.

I climbed out of that shit without government.

I don't need anyone standing up for me.

And now? I donate to food pantries, homeless shelters, even St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

And if tomorrow I'm once again broke, I could care less. Nothing scares me, nothing impresses me.

Money and power? You can have it.

If you were the victim of a mugging or car jacking would you call on government?

Goldman Sachs is a much bigger threat to your health and future.

My brother was beaten to within an inch of his life by an N-gentleman. Why? He cut off his pedestrian homies in traffic. My brother subseqently pulled up his socks and moved on.
Simple as that.
What's with the Goldman Sachs shit anyway. You are so fucking far removed from reality it's pathetic.

 

[Mr. H.]

"The Rich Guys Win"

You make me puke. Have you no value in your own life?

Have you ever in your life been so flat out ass-fucked broke that you didn't know which way to turn?
And who would you blame it on?

The Rich Guy?

What a fucking laugh. Corporate conspiracy greed domination of the masses withhold the goods from poor Mr. Have Not.

Oh I am bleeding here.

 

[georgephillip]

From William Greider's "The End of New Deal Liberalism":

"Society faces dreadful prospects and profound transformation. When both parties are aligned with corporate power, who will stand up for the people?

"Who will protect them from the insatiable appetites of capitalist enterprise and help them get through the hard passage ahead?

"One thing we know for sure from history: there is no natural limit to what capitalism will seek in terms of power and profit.

"If government does not stand up and apply the brakes, society is defenseless.

"Strangely enough, this new reality brings us back to the future, posing fundamental questions about the relationship between capitalism and democracy that citizens and reformers asked 100 years ago.

"Only this time, the nation is no longer an ascendant economic power.

"It faces hard adjustments as general prosperity recedes and the broad middle class that labor and liberalism helped create is breaking apart...

"One key dynamic of the twentieth century was the long- running contest for dominance between democracy and capitalism.

"The balance of power shifted back and forth several times, driven by two basic forces that neither corporate lobbyists nor timid politicians could control: the calamitous events that disrupted the social order, such as war and depression, and the power of citizens mobilized in reaction to those events.

"In those terms, both political parties are still highly vulnerable-as twentieth-century history repeatedly demonstrated, society cannot survive the burdens of an unfettered corporate order."

ZCommunications...

That must be why Meg Whitman is now the governor of California.

Meg326(her ranking on the Forbes 400 list) got "Moonbeamed."

With the possible exception of Diane Feinstein there isn't another California Democrat who could have won that election.

Meg will likely do better next time, and Jerry Brown's White House ambitions may open the door for her.

 

[snjmom]

Goldman isn't a "threat."

When they destroy your currency, they are a threat. When they destroy your economy, they are a threat. When they own your government, they are a threat. When they have supplanted your military, they are a threat.

Guns and butter.

 

[Ropey]

Goldman isn't a "threat."

When they destroy your currency, they are a threat. When they destroy your economy, they are a threat. When they own your government, they are a threat. When they have supplanted your military, they are a threat.

Guns and butter.

Who is they? Goldman Sachs?

 

[georgephillip]

Dreadful prospects my ass. I'm a capitalist and I could be a pauper tomorrow because of it. No risk, no balls, no glory. Take the shit that's heaped upon you, brush it off, and move on.

Goddamn bunch of pussy have-nots.

If your solution to the shit being heaped on you is to take it, you're the pussy.