The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Benjamin Cole]

6 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Yes, I found it curious that Ben referred to Cliff as being "binary". As I've on numerous occasions called him "Binary Ben". Ben, like Hedges in the article, sloppily puts the Democrats, the Globalists, the MSM, the NSS and the government "Deep State" in one category so any story involving any one of these groups are interchangeable with each other. And somehow  Republicans are in sort of an ineffectual, neutral territory. 

It's the height of intellectual laziness.

OK, I like laying on the couch and hypothesizing.  

 

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

 

To Ben,

Whew! Hedges, what a  depressing diatribe that was!

Congenial Ben's contribution to the mornings conversation!

Glad you're able to go to sleep on that!

I'm sure that ray of despair will elevate Chris's mood,

for.....well  at least 20 minutes!

Such things are what suicide pacts are made of!

Hedges even looks unhappy, if you see him on Youtube. 

But he is smart and insightful. You don't have to agree with him. 

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Chris Hedges makes a number of blatantly inaccurate assertions in this article, especially his claims about allegedly similar Republican and Democratic policy positions on healthcare policy.

Let's not forget that the Republicons repeatedly sought to sabotage and overturn the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion, and passed major funding cuts for Medicaid in December of 2017.

They are also planning to force cuts in funding for Social Security and Medicare in 2023 if they regain control of the House.

My response to Chris Hedges is, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

Chris Hedges is certainly knowledgable and well-informed, and very intelligent.

I find his perspectives interesting, and his outlooks are, of course, never presented in M$M.  

OTOH, the "Donks are good/bad, the 'Phants are good/bad, and the end of the world is coming if the bad guys win" dichotomy is standard M$M fare. 

That makes reading people outside the M$M worthwhile....

 

[Matthew Koch]

 

[Mark Knight]

9 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Trump and Elon Musk are dangerous narcissists tailored to 2022 America

by Robert Reich November 8, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/08/trump-and-elon-musk-are-dangerous-narcissists-tailored-to-2022-america

 

"Beware. The last time the world gave in to megalomaniacs it did not end well.

The robber barons of the Gilded Age – men like William (“the public be damned”) Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller – siphoned off so much of the nation’s wealth that the rest of the nation had to go deep into debt to maintain their standard of living and overall demand for the goods and services the nation produced.

When that debt bubble burst in 1929, the world got a Great Depression. And that depression paved the way for Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, who created the worst threats to freedom and democracy the modern world had ever witnessed, and the most deaths.

We are much safer when economic and political power is widely diffused. We are better off when people like Musk and Trump cannot gain such untrammeled wealth and influence.

We all do better when fewer Americans feel so helpless and insecure that they’re drawn to reprehensible bullies who parade across the public stage as if possessing admirable qualities."

Steve Thomas

Exactly.

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, David G. Healy said:

we've been fixated with the commies of Russia/USSR since 1945, along with: the Chinese-commies in the 50's, the Southeast asian commies in the 60-70's... the middle east fascism w/commie undertones the 80's to present, plus ad hoc commie wannabe's throughout South/Central America and throughout Africa. 

DGH---

Well...until communist China provided a low-cost manufacturing platform...opened up a few markets...then communism was not so bad, and very very tolerable in mainland China, even the most repressive and worsening aspects of communism are not worth mentioning. 

So what, who cares about concentration camps and genocide in Tibet, or wiping out free speech in Hong Kong?

Google "Jimmy Lai." A publisher and a nice guy, rotting in prison under commie rule.  

Apple, Disney, GM, Tesla, NBC-Universal, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, BlackRock, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the NBA, media-entertainment et al industries love Beijing. 

It was President Clinton who got China into the WTO and also did the NAFTA deal. 

By pointing this out I am a "right-winger"?

I think I am just calling a spade a spade. 

 

 

 

[Benjamin Cole]

From the leftish Economic Policy Institute:

The High Cost of the China-WTO Deal

Administration’s own analysis suggests spiraling deficits, job losses

Report • By Robert E. Scott • February 1, 2000

[Mark Knight]

The unemployment rate is at its lowest rate in the past 50 years. Under the Biden administration. How does that make him and the Democrats "anti-worker?"

Republicans, in their zeal top repeal anything that even appears to be a government regulation of business, want to get rid of OSHA. How does that make Republicans "pro-worker?"

Sounds like "doublespeak" to me. Especially when recent indictments, and lack thereof, show that "some people are more equal than others."

OOOOOH, interest rates are UP! But they're still less than the mortgage rate I got when I financed my first home in 1994, or when I refinanced in 2004. [First time was under Bill Clinton, second time was under George W. Bush...one Democrat and one Republican, in case you failed to notice.]

DAMN that "evil" Biden! [That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.]

[Benjamin Cole]

10 minutes ago, Mark Knight said:

The unemployment rate is at its lowest rate in the past 50 years. Under the Biden administration. How does that make him and the Democrats "anti-worker?"

Republicans, in their zeal top repeal anything that even appears to be a government regulation of business, want to get rid of OSHA. How does that make Republicans "pro-worker?"

Sounds like "doublespeak" to me. Especially when recent indictments, and lack thereof, show that "some people are more equal than others."

OOOOOH, interest rates are UP! But they're still less than the mortgage rate I got when I financed my first home in 1994, or when I refinanced in 2004. [First time was under Bill Clinton, second time was under George W. Bush...one Democrat and one Republican, in case you failed to notice.]

DAMN that "evil" Biden! [That's sarcasm, in case you missed it.]

Real wages (adjusted for inflation) are presently declining and have been more or less stagnant since 1972. 

Meanwhile, income flows to the top few percent like the mighty Mississippi (in a wet year. Not a great analogy right now). 

Housing along the West Coast is a disaster. $2,500 monthly for studio in downtown Los Angeles. 

The American middle and employee classes have been pressured for 50 years. 

How will you ever get wages up with open borders? You won't. Labor will never be valuable again in America---that is my prediction. 

Biden was and is a part of the problem through his long career. I don't think Biden is evil, or a bad guy, but he is a globalist. (Sheesh, very globalist with millions of dollar flowing into his family from China and Ukraine). 

No hate here, and peace to all. 

Just IMHO...

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

Yikes!, has anybody heard this story from Jimmy Kimmel? He and his wife were was having dinner withe Oz's a few years back and they account a story where Trump pushed an elderly lady in the pool at Mar Lago. O'z's wife helped pull her out while Trump was laughing and they both said they were disgusted with Trump! But now they are endorsing each other.

 

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

Beto is winning in Texas!

[Benjamin Cole]

53 minutes ago, Kirk Gallaway said:

Yikes!, has anybody heard this story from Jimmy Kimmel? He and his wife were was having dinner withe Oz's a few years back and they account a story where Trump pushed an elderly lady in the pool at Mar Lago. O'z's wife helped pull her out while Trump was laughing and they both said they were disgusted with Trump! But now they are endorsing each other.

 

 

 

Epstein Victim Says She May Have ‘Made a Mistake’ in Accusing Dershowitz---NYT

Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked as a girl by Jeffrey E. Epstein, had accused Alan Dershowitz of abusing her. Now she says she is no longer certain.

---30---

I never met Dershowitz, have no idea about his personal behavior.

But just one more example---never trust headlines, accusations, allegations, especially in the hyper-politicized, hate-filled environment that defines America's media-sewer.

"Somebody said somebody said...."

 

 

[Matt Allison]

I certainly wish Beto would win, but it doesn't seem likely.

Live returns:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-texas-governor.html

[Ron Bulman]

15 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

I certainly wish Beto would win, but it doesn't seem likely.

Live returns:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-texas-governor.html

I figured I better post it while I could.  He was beating Cruz four years ago at this point too.  8% of totals in, all inner city.  When the rural totals start coming in it goes south.  Same thing for so many years now I've lost count.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Ron Bulman

[Matthew Koch]

Anyone else watching election streams? I'm watching this..