I with you Thomas ... you bring the pitchforks and I’ll be looking for torches.

If I’m not there, just start without me.

DaveZx3, October 24 at 3:06am,

Your post is self-involved blather.

ThomasG, October 23 at 11:01 pm

When the revolt starts will it be the 70% against the 30% or will it be the 99% against the 1%?

Or is it just going to be everybody against the “aristocrats”? 

I don’t know where I fit in among these groups, but I am a fiscal conservative, I own a house, and I have a bank accont.  I would just be asking whether or not the 70% is going to come knocking on my door?

If so, let me know, and I will stock up on 12 gauge shotgun shells.

DBM, October 23 at 5:11pm,

DBM said: “So for all the Left v Right noise there is no real electoral choice in the U.S.”

ThomasG’s answer:  Awareness in the masses is the solution and the remedy.

When the Left, liberals, that are the masses of the population of the United States, rather than their elected representatives, become aware that they are NOT represented in the making and enforcing of legislated law and order and that law is being made and enforced to enact law and order that is intended by the minority duopoly of the American Aristocracy and Professional Middle Class to disenfranchise the Left as a 70% MAJORITY Common Population of the United States, the 70% MAJORITY Common Population from awareness will revolt against the tyranny and oppression by the 30% combined minority of the American Aristocracy and Professional Middle Class; when the revolt starts, if the tyranny and oppression is not dealt with, only time will tell where it will lead.

Those who force tyranny and oppression that are a part of the combined 30% minority of the duopoly of the American Aristocracy and Professional Middle Class are NOT concerned about anything other than their own greed and corporate interests; those of the 70% MAJORITY Common Population, as a result, will have to force redress of their tyranny and oppression by the American Aristocracy and Professional Middle Class without concern other than the interests of the 70% MAJORITY Common Population and let redress of their tyranny and oppression sort itself out by whatever means of peaceful or violent redress occurs; hopefully peaceful redress will occur, but if it is otherwise, whatever will be will be.

Well yes, Thomas, you correct of course from an economic perspective.  The trick is that the “Right”, as you describe it, has successfully convinced a large number of people that they are not defined on economic grounds but on moral, religious and ethnic grounds.  Their votes are not in favour of delivering the wealth of the broader population to that 1% you talk about they are votes against a “Left” which is defined in non-economic ways.  You’d like to think the rich 1% would be delighted by that but I expect that they just feel entitled.

The bottom line is that under the current rules there are only two parties that can win election.  Both are completely owned and dominated by your 1% because the electoral process requires so much money.  Co-incidentally, all the federal politicians are personally in that 1% by economic measures.  So for all the Left v Right noise there is no real electoral choice in the U.S.

DBM, October 22 at 7:31am,

DBM said: “Left & Right are meaningless now.”

ThomasG’s answer: The only difference between the Left and the Right is the difference between the masses of the population on the Left  and the minority aristocrats of privatized Corporate Capitalism on theRight.

The Left and the Right are representative of the populations of the United States that are represented by the Left and the Right, NOT whether or not duopolistic politicians actually represent the Left or whether or not Lumpen-Proletariat on the Left support the Right contrary to their own best interests.

To say that there is NO difference between the Left and the Right is a ludicrous statement; when the majority wealth of the nation is vested in the top 1%, one percent, of the population and the Right, the Conservative Right-Wing EXTREMISTS, represent that top 1% of the U.S. Population to the exclusion of the masses of the U.S. Population, and the masses of the U.S. Population that have nothing but their dreams identify themselves as the Left, liberals, and are NOT represented in Congress by their chosen representatives, there is a drastic difference between the Left and the Right economically and in the way the Left and the Right are represented in both Houses of Congress and the Government of the United States with regard to the promulgation and enforcement of legislated law and order; the Left is the MAJORITY Population of the United States that benefits the least from the U.S. Economy and is for the most part not represented in the promulgation and enforcement of legislated law and order, the Right is the minority population of the United States that benefits the most from the U.S. Economy and receives 90% of the benefit of the U.S. Economy and is represented exclusively in the promulgation and enforcement of legislated law and order——This is the difference between the Left and the Right and the difference is a vast chasm.

Interesting isn’t it?  This is one of the most united threads I’ve ever seen on TD.  Those who see themselves on “The Right” or “The Left” all find this whole facade repugnant.

Left & Right are meaningless now.  The only differences between the two parties with a chance to get elected in the U.S. are only on marginal issues like the place of religion in politics, the treatment of minorities or willingness to engage with other countries (not that the latter is doing much good! http://www.commondreams.org/print/48319).

The only thing that matters to politicians is their ability to get elected and re-elected.  The only way to do that in the current system is have truckloads of money behind them.  After 30 years of progressively more brazen rip-offs the only sector with cash to spare is the super-rich and corporate leaders (who spend their shareholders money when they aren’t taking in bonuses).

Obama can be offended all he likes ... it’s part of his appeal and that is useful to his corporate backers.  But don’t expect any change from the Left or the Right.

Capitalists giving out Wall Street Bonuses ARE ‘Offensive’ to say the least, unless all the corporate welfare assistance money the Wall Street Capitalists whined out of the government has been paid back to the government in full, because the little girl on welfare assistance has to account for every penny and isn’t allowed to give bonuses to those assisting her.  Capitalists taking corporate welfare assistance are no better than the little girl on AFDC welfare assistance that was stopped, and should not be exempt to use government welfare assistance for corporate bonuses, as taxpayers are going to have to pay that money back over generations, while the little girl has no bonus and has a problem getting money to even pay for a baby sitter so she can work. Capitalists on welfare assistance from socialism are no better than the little girl trying to raise her children on AFDC and should be treated no better.  Personally, I think the situation with the little girl with children is far superior to corrupt capitalists getting a government hand out for bonuses.

That symbol says: kiss my ass mainstreet!

You got your $250.00 bone-us’s. What did you do, piss it all away on credit card over draft fees? Too bad!

What happened to the ‘fierce urgency of now’; the populas wind that carried our representative to the mountain-top? Seem’s our ring-bearer has fallen asleep!

This is one of my favorite stories.  I love to see it when hard work and dedication pay off.  These guys are my heroes.  They are living the American Dream.  They have good jobs, and they probably have pretty wives.  Golly gee whiz, I sure wish I could be like ‘em.

Unfortunately for me, my mom taught me truth, honesty, sacrifice, and love for fellow man.

Oh well, maybe reincarnation is true and I can come back and be like them big rich guys in my next life.

Have you had your daily injection of crushed bull balls?

What is that picture, a bulls ass?

Ah yes, the ever tender, ever revered bulls ass.

We all love it and what it stands for. At least it looks that way, since most folks hang on every number that ticks out of Wall Street, like it makes a difference to low these many lowly workers.

Gives new meaning to that age-old expression ... kiss my ass!

The empty posturing and Inspring bullshit of the Obama Dem team will be conveyed to the population via the Con and Prog media to emotionally glue the population to their side.  As comenters have noted, they have previously given the money industry the taxpayer money to hand out these bonuses. If the Dems were serious, they could tax and regulate the banksters, using politically on a wave of indignation of the population.

But of course they are not, the banksters finance the pols.  Note the difference in the Chinese system, where the state owns the banks and when the party’s ruling class says to lend to the economy, there is no backtalk. They lend. The Chinese stimulus was not handed out to the rich, but used to build cities, roads, airports and other infrastructure that increases future production.

Here the banks own the governement and, under Freedom&Democracy;, the state’s pols do what they tell them.  the state telling the US rich what to do is Tyranny!  Nationalizing the banks is Socialism!  Yes. And that is what we need.

The American people have to understand the simple holistic truth that the governement, parties and corporations are all part of one power system and they are out to drive the American people into the ground.  Smiling and looking Real Sincere all the while. 

The US power system cannot be reformed, its political and economic system is way obsolete, and cannot compete effectively with the new power systems in the world arena.  so they make their profits by making americans work harder and longer for increasingly less money.  Turning Americans into rental slaves is what they mean by Freedom&Democracy;.

Americans over historical time must understand that they must transform their power system.  that their main enemy is not Terrorists, Foreigners or Muslims, but their own religious, political and intellectual leaders.  It is necessary to restore the distrust of the American people in the American power structure.
And this class power struggle must enlist the people of other countries to assist us.

More mock scolding & outrage, while another Goldman Sachs executive has been named the first chief operating officer of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division.
  Wasn’t Obama recently on one of the sunday morning talk shows defending the bonuses, claiming we don’t cap the salaries of sports stars, for example, without observing that the taxpayers saved them from the breadlines.

OF COURSE the bonuses are offensive. If I was running a company with no fear of bankruptcy, I’d be giving out huge bonuses, also.

What is even more offensive is that the government allows these institutions to operate above and beyond any semblance of the rules of Capitalism. It’s our government’s actions that are offensive, not the bonuses. The bonuses are only a symptom of the disease. And the disease is being spread by the government.

Axelrod needs to take a good, long look in the mirror.

By Commune115, October 18 at 11:06 pm #

So what if Obama officials called it “offensive”? What are they going to DO about it? Obama’s presidency is being defined by pure rhetoric and nothing more, a lot of corporate advertising and no delivery.

* * * * *

You said it, Commune baby!

When the Obama administration is stocked with Wall street “luminaries” like Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner and the Fed is run by somebody like Ben Bernanke, who would be delusional enough to imagine that the administration has the political will to confront the corporate elite? They ARE the corporate elite.

Even Obama himself, by virtue of his celebrity status, is ensured of being a multi-millionaire for the rest of his life by a media culture that will pay him millions for books - ghost written if he can’t find the time to write them himself - and speaking engagements before gatherings of the rich and powerful. He is assured of receiving as many lucrative corporate board appointments and capitalist-lite think tank honorary fellowships as he wants. His daughters, currently enrolled in an expensive private school, will attend Princeton, Yale or Harvard with the grandchildren of George and Jeb Bush.

These people have no appetite for challenging and changing the system because they ARE the system. They cannot even SEE the system because it is the only medium in which they could ever have existed. The system is invisible to them like water is invisible to fish, while it simultaneously sustains them.

Fitting photograph.

Yes, Axelrod is correct, “The most offensive thing is, we haven’t seen the kind of increase in lending that ... we should,” [White House senior adviser David] Axelrod said. “There are a lot of small businesses, credit-worthy businesses around this country who still can’t get the capital they need to grow, which is important for our economy.”

Of course, the “new and improved” Chamber of Commerce, the supposed helper of small business is anything but that.  Steven Pearlstein @ Washington Post:

“Normally, it wouldn’t take a $100 million propaganda effort to convince most Americans of the value of “individual initiative, hard work, freedom of choice and free exchange of trade, capital and ideas.” But inasmuch as the country is now mired in the worst recession in 75 years after a decade in which the government pursued the rabidly free-market agenda espoused by the Chamber, you can appreciate Tom’s problem.

The Campaign for Free Enterprise, of course, is not really about creating 20 million jobs over the next decade—if Chamber members could double their profits while creating not a single new job, that would suit them just fine. Rather, it’s nothing more than a desperate attempt to repackage the same old anti-tax, anti-regulation, anti-government rhetoric in hopes of derailing the major initiatives of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/15/AR2009101504000.html?hpid=news-col-blog

Unreal.  Talk about the “little guy” getting stabbed in the back.  The Chamber of Commerce has other stances which could easily be found every bit as questionable.  The LA Times:

“The Chamber claims that limits on greenhouse gas emissions by Congress or the Environmental Protection Agency would be “a job killer’’ that would “completely shut the country down’’ and “virtually destroy the United States.’’ William Kovacs, the Chamber’s vice president for environmental regulation, is advocating a kind of Scopes Monkey Trial over global warming that would put “the science of climate change on trial.’’
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/10/climate-change-war-roils-us-chamber-of-commerce.html

Then there’s the insider trading scandal that makes Martha Stewart look like a sap.  From AFP:

“A top US watchdog has warned financial firms they face increased scrutiny after a billionaire appeared in court on Friday charged with one of biggest hedge fund insider trading case in US history.

“It would be wise for investment advisors and corporate executives to closely look at today’s case, their own internal operations, and the increasing focus and scrutiny on hedge fund trading by the SEC and others,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s enforcement division.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hlU7S-aK9waw1tsrN2vXkf_LeO_Q

But the naysayers say…. Obama, his admin, and the change in our congress hasn’t made any difference at all….  Again, I disagree.  Oh jeez… on top of it all, this late night news-type program is examining the issue of whether Pres. Obama is “tough enough”, apparently it has to do with some “National Journal” article.

LOL.  The more pertinent question is NOT… is Pres. Obama “tough enough”, but are those who are yet to be called on the carpet, “tough enough”?  Their day is coming…. their day is coming.

Oh, to be the fly on the wall of those scrambling to project their “honesty”.....  now, THAT would be entertaining.

We are being farmed.  Like so many cattle in our stantions waiting to be milked.

And Wall Street is the Bull.

So what if Obama officials called it “offensive”? What are they going to DO about it? Obama’s presidency is being defined by pure rhetoric and nothing more, a lot of corporate advertising and no delivery.

You can’t shame the shameless.  They are cutthroats and
thieves, we gave them countless billions to keep on
doing what they do best, amass great wealth at our
expense.  Yes we can!!!!!!

1. Until Der Won proclaims the bonuses “deeply offensive” ...

2. Wha?? “The most offensive thing is, we haven’t seen the kind of increase in lending that ... we should”?

Nooo: it’s that the Obama Org slipped seven trillion public dollars—or whatever it turns out to be—to the corporations, after a timely “crash” assured His election—or whatever it turns out to have been.

And now, Lead-Balloon Boy is trying, while simpering softly from His attic—while denouncing the insurance companies, along with Fox news, as old meanie-faces—to throw ANOTHER bazillion public bucks to private corporations, by way of mandated “insurance”.

“Offensive”? Words fail, for now, to convey just how “offensive” it/they/He really is/are: having smothered Single Payer, and bought off many, with a lotta “robust public option” blabla, now these mobsters are backing off the switch part of the “reform” bait-and-switch.

Jarrett: Obama Won’t Demand Public Option
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/jarrett-obama-wont-demand-public-option.php

Occupying the Post Offices and Social Security offices—just jamming up the parking lots, while milling around vaguely, in search of stamps and paperwork packets—or whatever, until these gangsters enact Single Payer might be er appropriate. OR not.

And picketing the military recruitment centers couldn’t hurt. “Offensive”? Sheesh.