The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Matt Allison]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

former AG Barr recently said, "the Republicans have become a working-class party." 

You see some snootiness in tony left-wing circles about this, as in looking down on guys who work with their hands for a living and who drive pick-up trucks.

The only part of "the working class" that the GOP supports is the racist, bigoted, gun-toting faction.

If you think the Republican Party gives two sh*ts about the average working man and his wages, I've got some nice swampland for sale.

[Matt Allison]

1 hour ago, Robert Wheeler said:

#peterpedo trending on Twitter.

I just looked at Twitter, and I don't see that trending anywhere.

I'm curious what you're feeding the Twitter algorithm if that's what is actually trending for you in your feed.

[Ron Bulman]

On 7/9/2022 at 9:41 PM, Matt Allison said:

I've clicked on and enlarged this but still can't tell.  What is Crimo (red striped shirt) holding in his right hand, over his shoulder?

[Kirk Gallaway]

15 hours ago, Bill Fite said:

The most powerful force in American politics today is anti-establishment fury at a rigged system. There is no longer a left or right. There is no longer a moderate “center.” The real choice is either Republican authoritarian populism (see here, here, and here) or Democratic progressive populism. Democrats cannot defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform — an anti-establishment movement. Democrats must stand squarely on the side of democracy against oligarchy. They must form a unified coalition of people of all races, genders, and classes to unrig the system. Trumpism is not the cause of our divided nation. It is the symptom of a rigged system that was already dividing us. 

This is the crux.

I'd vote for Robert Reich, Clinton Labor Secretary who got betrayed when Clinton knuckled to the Gingrich" Republican Revolution" and the "Contract with America." You might check out some of his movies such as "Inequality for all" "The one percent" and "Saving Capitalism". He doesn't live in Berkeley because he wants to hobnob with other Republicans.

I'd also vote for Al Franken, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. There is no comparable Republican candidate representing the everyday person. Despite the Democrat betrayal of the unions.There are still many more working people who vote Democrat than Republican. Reich understands that outside of forming a third party, the Democrats are the only party that could reclaim Labor.

 

[Joe Bauer]

1 hour ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

This is the crux.

I'd vote for Robert Reich, Clinton Labor Secretary who got betrayed when Clinton knuckled to the Gingrich" Republican Revolution" and the "Contract with America." You might check out some of his movies such as "Inequality for all" "The one percent" and "Saving Capitalism". He doesn't live in Berkeley because he wants to hobnob with other Republicans.

I'd also vote for Al Franken, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. There is no comparable Republican candidate representing the everyday person. Despite the Democrat betrayal of the unions.There are still many more working people who vote Democrat than Republican. Reich understands that outside of forming a third party, the Democrats are the only party that could reclaim Labor.

 

Right on Kirk...right on!

[Ron Bulman]

8 hours ago, Douglas Caddy said:

 

I've been to the LBJ Library.  It looks nothing like this.  Of course, his transgressions are worse than LBJ or Nixon and the Bushes.

59 years from JFK's Assassination to this.  Will Democracy, as he served it, survive?

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

This is the crux.

I'd vote for Robert Reich, Clinton Labor Secretary who got betrayed when Clinton knuckled to the Gingrich" Republican Revolution" and the "Contract with America." You might check out some of his movies such as "Inequality for all" "The one percent" and "Saving Capitalism". He doesn't live in Berkeley because he wants to hobnob with other Republicans.

I'd also vote for Al Franken, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren. There is no comparable Republican candidate representing the everyday person. Despite the Democrat betrayal of the unions.There are still many more working people who vote Democrat than Republican. Reich understands that outside of forming a third party, the Democrats are the only party that could reclaim Labor.

 

Kirk-

I largely agree with you, although who are the new "authoritarians"  is debatable. 

The left seems very interested in censorship these days, and building up police-state apparatus---we need a bigger panopticon to beat down rivals. The Wuhan lab leak has been debunked! And you will be censored if you talk about it! 

A bigger Defense Department to bomb Libya is good! 

China is good! Ask Disney, Apple or the NBA. 

The right-wing, the old allies of the police-state, is curiously skeptical of the new police state--and more skeptical of the world's largest and most powerful authoritarian state, China. 

Fascinating times. 

But in the end, I say the US needs to "do a France." Toss out the establishment parties. 

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I've been to the LBJ Library.  It looks nothing like this.  Of course, his transgressions are worse than LBJ or Nixon and the Bushes.

59 years from JFK's Assassination to this.  Will Democracy, as he served it, survive?

Maybe so.

If you are among the 6 million dead in the US wars in SE Asia...you might think LBJ and Nixon were rather worse than Trump. 

And the Mideast wars promulgated by Bush jr? 

Trump was no angel, but he is a few million deaths shy of Nixon/LBJ or Bush jr. 

 

[Matt Allison]

18 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Trump was no angel, but he is a few million deaths shy of Nixon/LBJ or Bush jr. 

 

I think crimes that the U.S. committed as a country, such as deaths in unnecessary wars, are different than those committed by, and on behalf of, a single individual.

And when they're crimes against his own country, Presidential job performance is gonna be graded lower than Nixon or Bush.

[Matt Allison]

5 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I've clicked on and enlarged this but still can't tell.  What is Crimo (red striped shirt) holding in his right hand, over his shoulder?

That's a mystery to me as well, Ron.

[Benjamin Cole]

19 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Well said.  And Robert Reich should know, since he served in the Clinton administration.

He remains, perhaps, the best spokesperson today for our progressive Democratic wing, along with Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, and AOC.

Overall, Bill Clinton was a far more effective, successful POTUS than most people realize-- a real policy wonk-- but one of his signature blunders was signing the GOP Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which led directly to the 2008 subprime mortgage debacle and Great Recession.

Clinton's legacy of policy success has been completely obscured by the GOP's five-year, Whitewater smear campaign.

Do not forget NAFTA. Clinton getting China into the WTO. 

I liked Bill Clinton, smart guy, not a bad guy, stayed out wars, but a pure 100% neo-liberal globalist...

The 'Phants' Impeach-a-rama follies against Clinton fully weaponized the impeachment process. 

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Matt Allison said:

I think crimes that the U.S. committed as a country, such as deaths in unnecessary wars, are different than those committed by, and on behalf of, a single individual.

And when they're crimes against his own country, Presidential job performance is gonna be graded lower than Nixon or Bush.

Matt-

Well, each to his own, but Vietnam was a crime against the US too.

How about 60,000 American war dead, any number of injured, and a few trillion dollars (adjusted for inflation) in taxes? 

Nixon also conducted a horrific and entirely illegal war in Laos. 

Ditto Bush's Iraqistan, except the dollar costs were even higher, though the war-dead lower (on our side). 

As a taxpayer, and as a fellow citizen to the US dead, and as human and fellow to the millions who died in those wars---give me Trump any day over LBJ-Nixon-Bush. 

The damage those wars did to the US is about 1000 to one for anything Trump did, and 10,000 to one for the world. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

On 7/10/2022 at 5:45 AM, Bill Fite said:

Robert Reich:  [The Democratic] party depends on big money for its campaigns. Hence, it has turned it back on the working class. 

 

The Democratic Party has no choice but to depend upon "big money" for it's campaigns. Does Reich expect the working class to pay for them?

And the Democratic Party has not turned it's back on the working class. They want to transfer wealth from the rich to the poor, which they do with welfare and earned income tax credits. And with their most recent accomplishment, Obamacare.

The underlying problem is that right-wing lies get low-income white people to vote Republican, and thus against their own economic interests. Because of that, Democrats can't get the congressional votes needed to further help the working class. And to enact campaign finance reform.

Robert Reich has long been a hero of mine. But lately he seems to be losing it.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

You see some snootiness in tony left-wing circles about this, as in looking down on guys who work with their hands for a living and who drive pick-up trucks.

 

Really? That's odd given that the left are champions of the working class.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Today, the picture is very mixed. Are Donk voters voting against their own economic interests also? How do open borders for immigration and trade help Donk voters?

 

I can only speak for myself as a liberal Democrat. I have compassion on all poor people whether they be low-income Americans or low-income Mexicans. It's gratifying for me to see either one getting the American job.

Though I do understand it is the congressman's responsibility to look after the welfare of Americans, not citizens of other nations.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Sandy Larsen