Rico, I don’t know many Conservatives like you.  But I know a lot of “conservatives” like GRYM, and that’s how they think.

I WISH Conservatives were like you rather than these addle-brained Sarah Palin types, who call themselves “Conservative” but are radical reactionaries.

rico, suave - Perhaps you shouldn’t call yourself a
‘right-winger’ as you sound more like a Republican,
the Republican who is not necessarily conservative
but one who practices and preaches self-reliance
(Teddy Roosevelt comes to mine.)

It’s when self-reliance includes having to shit on
others to be achieved, which seems to define today’s
right-wing, that Republicans become ugly.

(The only definition I could apply to today’s
Democrats is they’re not Republicans.)

ITW:

Yes, the recovery was underway, but the “storied growth” needed WWII.

And I, a “rightwinger,” applaud the Civil Rights legislation of the 60s, passed over the objection of many Democrats, and a century before that, the 14th Amendment, passed by Republicans. And OSHA and the EPA, created by, GASP, Richard Nixon. And I do think that securing our border is a public good. As well as the interstate highway system. And I know quite a few other “rightwingers” who would agree with me.

And when I do see a homeless person, I do thank my stars it’s not me.

“...they all think that since they were born on 3rd Base…” Do they ALL now? Is that your definition of a rightwinger, someone born on third base?

Lose the broad brush.

Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. You, of course, omit the context you so lament in others.

America’s “storied growth” was propelled by WWII. And the 70% bracket applied to a miniscule number of taxpayers who never paid close to that in reality due to all the loopholes.
*******************

Another right-wing myth.  The Recovery was well under way when it suffered, in 1937, a devastating blow known as “The Businessman’s Strike” a Randian nightmare the caused the “Depression within a depression”.

There is not one public good or action that the right won’t attack.

I sometimes think when most Republicans see a homeless person on the street they think: “Good! One less on the rolls supported by my taxes.”  Never do they say “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

IOW, like Molly Ivins’ description of George Bush, they all think that since they were born on 3rd Base they must have hit a triple.

Tired of all those crummy movie remakes?  There’s a saying in the commercial film business: “Give them this year what you gave them last year”.  Goes for politics too. Last year they did not give you “Citizen Kane”, “Casablanca” or “Notorious”.  They gave you “The Obama Story” and “Mr. Beck Goes to Washington”.  Next year you’ll get the same, or maybe worse.

“we aren’t encouraged to remember that America experienced its most storied growth under the New Deal’s aggressive financial regulation; and we aren’t told that wages and job growth expanded in the mid-20th century with a top income tax bracket above 70 percent.”

Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave. You, of course, omit the context you so lament in others.

America’s “storied growth” was propelled by WWII. And the 70% bracket applied to a miniscule number of taxpayers who never paid close to that in reality due to all the loopholes.

The repubs   sow fear, obstruct, misrepresent and block any change and they
always have. This is a significant feature of today’s deeply divided society not
mentioned in the article. It is not being mean spirited to be honest about it.
It is no coincidence that an increasing number of people think Obama is a muslim.
It is the republican slime machine at work and now it can be fueled with money
from indiividuals such as Korrcectional Korp of Amerika, Target, IBM, Monsanto,
etc.
how can the country move forward with all of these lunkheads in the way?
gotta fight the insanity.

We will need a lot of financing

For this,  Truth Diggers will need to think of a

P O N Z I   S C H E M E…

To raid other progressive and independent websites.

FAT FREDDY,,,,,that is your job…come up with the ponzi

The Drafting Of The New Indepenent Party

T H E   R A T A F A R I A N   L I B E R T A R I A N
            P A R T Y

has already started,, please help the primaries by
drafting the leadership
1..Jesse Ventura
2..Snoop Doggy Dog
3..______________
4..______________
5..______________

“As the years go by, water running underground, the same as it ever was….same as it ever was.” TALKING HEADS

****************

It is all a marketing ploy that promotes ‘new’ as extremely
relevant while ‘what was’ is not of concern or old and bedraggled
and plays no part anymore. And it definitely plays on the
artificially induced ‘attention deficit disorder’ or ‘short attention
span’.

Make people think NEW is always going to be good and
wonderful and like the well cultivated dumbstream garden the
msm has created, that is all people want, something new is
something exciting. Same as joseph goebbel’s ‘tell a lie enough
times and people will believe it’( I think goebbel said it) but it
incurs that sacred word ‘belief’ and boy howdy what the
marketing, governmental and religious boys and girls can
accomplish with ‘belief’, the ostensible thought of reality that is
actually empty, useless, worthless or down right dangerous.

Just look at toothpaste. Just how much better and effective does
each brand become every time they announce a NEW &
IMPROVED version. The only new is a different looking box with
brilliant coloring of different size and shape of fonts and the
product may just have a different taste texture smell or any
myriad of things ‘mind catchingly’ different, but still the same
basic product. Deviously useless and repetitive actions always
with the NEW & IMPROVED.

So is engendered an excitement of something that will fix and
improve what was before, thus relegating the old to no more
than a pile of dog shit lying on the ground, as if the old was
never any good, but all the while what is NEW & IMPROVED is as
worthless or empty or the same as what it replaces. That creates
the insanity which is forever, as far as this stupefied world is
concerned, because it just keeps repeating itself.

Europe is about to LOSE all their progressive reforms.

I will bet in just five years, very few countries in

Europe have socialized health care,  union wages,

a month or more of vacation a year….
AUSTERITY IS THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY…can’t you see?

Stonecutter you make some very good points, I would like to add a thought. Recently, I was sitting in a coffee house recharging my laptop talking on my cell when a lady at another table mentioned she had heard one of my conversation and asked to join me. She told me about her husband who came back from war a vegetable who spent the day drinking Coke and smoking cigarettes and felt at a complete loose end. As a psychologist and social antropologist she had come to the conclusion that countries are run by gangs. She said the military is a gang, the police a gang, Wall Street is a gang, the Media is a gang. Those at the bottom form their own gangs. To survive she said, you have to be in a gang.  She is right, its not about history, its about what gangs want and which gangs have clout. If we presented history as gang warfare maybe people would pay attention.

David Sirota:  You say “...we are somehow doing it all over again.”
  Why the word “somehow”?  Implying a sort of feckless innocence?  Absolutely not!  It’s all very intentioinal, deliberate, calculated—and by now, sadly, predictable. 
  People don’t “somehow” go to war.  They don’t “somehow” shoot innocent people and blow up villages and hospitals and waste trillions of dollars.  They do it (or rather, let their government do it) because “it’s the economy, stupid!” It keeps the wheels of industry turning—at home, at least for a while—and “creates jobs.”
(There again, the word “creates” is significant—and spooky!) 
  People should be taught to understand their language as well as speak it.

By and large, I like this article and agree with a great deal of it. The lessons of history are ignored much too often to our real detriment.

But in a way, I think the scope of the article is much too narrow. The thing about cycles is that you can neatly pick one, allowing an analysis of the cycle from Roosevelt economics to Reagan economics that seems immediately astute.

Without having to be bothered by, say, the cycle of ancient Greek and modern American democracy.

The element that I think is truly missing in the article is the increased sophistication of propaganda. Consider the mantra of the 60’s counter-cultural long-hairs—you shouldn’t stereotype people—to the practice of the modern, cioffed counter-cultural establishment in the use of marketing metrics, and it’s easy to see how the spin cycle has somehow stuck on hyperdrive.

Long-hairs today not only stereotype like crazy, it is considered an essential practice for achieving truth.

Modern nosiness and especially the ability of contemporary interests to pin-point, parse, disinform, and totally screw over people without even their knowledge of it being done to them—indeed, even making them do it to themselves willingly and happily (i.e. elect Republicans to preserve family values) is unmatched in history.

Or so I’m told.

Don’t forget to add the rise of demagogues to the list.

Palin won’t go away because in times of insecurity or change large amounts of people cling to the symbols, the mythology, in an effort to escape reality.

This is a cycle that continues over and over again.

As the actor Russel Johnson put it about Brennan, he was always looking to get people to sign loyalty oaths as a sign of not being a Commie.

And the “Predator” series is good, for what it is. Not Shakespear.

It’s hard to get past the revisionist crime of lumping in a highly innovative pop
band like Devo with a list of failed ideas like trickle-down economics, but Sirota
is not wrong about his basic thesis.

As Leonard Cohen summed it up, “the rich have got their channels in the
bedrooms of the poor”. There’s little use in bemoaning America’s impatience with
history or its incapacity for useful political/economic analysis. Ours is a society
of team allegiance over rational integrity, and hopeful delusion over cold reality.

It’s easy forget that while many Europeans enjoy more progressive forms of
government, it didn’t happen overnight. They’ve had to endure generations of
feudal slavery, tyrannical monarchs, colonial hubris, potato famines, economics
meltdowns, and a couple of world wars to finally get there.

America is going to have to suffer a little more before it earns the maturity Sirota
is asking for. We’re going to have arrive at the point where hopeful delusion no
longer gets us through the day. But I wouldn’t count on that anytime soon, Dave.
The myths of American exceptionalism are going to die slowly. As long as
conservatives can point to one person “breaking through”, millions will remain
convinced that their sorry lot is their own fault.

We are living in a time of “peak delusions”, where those in power attempt to deny, the suffering they have caused, by using words, that do not allow the truth to come foward…

But in the end, this won’t prevent the worst from happening.

Thanks, D. Sirota.

This article clearly defines what we are facing under the absolute control of big
financial and political power. The writer cannot be expected to offer a solution to
the inability of the citizens to see reality and be motivated to coalesce around
constructive political goals. He is asking questions, hoping that people can see
that we cannot apply the same old, detrimental solutions to our serious problems.
Sometimes we can only ask questions, do what we can to contribute to change, try to keep hope alive….. and keep asking questions.

To make it simple there’s an historical fact, the
‘battle’ between the have’s and the have-nots is a
battle that’s been waged as long as men have walked
this planet.

All we need to remember is that it’s constant, that
each of us can pick the side that most appropriately
benefits him and then act accordingly.

We, the serfs, getting news from our masters or privateers?
And not selected entertainment by people who do not have to answer to the people whom they entertain away from reality and lead them into den of fear, despondency, ever greater dependency-poverty, ignorance, confusion?

Welcome back to days of sargon, the-mafioso-kinggod of akkad! Thank you sirota for confirming my analyses.
I need you badly. Keep on trucking for hoffas and the uncle!

FRTothus drives the nail into the heart of Sirota’s whining, children’s book view of American politics and history. Look, the greedy bastards among us who have the elite education, connections, class pedigree and borderline sociopathic tendencies required to mine the mother lode of Wall Street and/or the corporate gravy train end up the wealthiest 5% (does anyone really believe the well-honed myth that Warren Buffett is just like Walter Brennan on “The Real McCoys”?).  Then there are the professional and professorial and “chattering” classes of doctors, lawyers, tenured college professors, CPA’s, pundits and media types, corporate road warriors, etc., who make up the other 20% of the top one fourth, managing to scrape by on $100-250K a year, driving a Lexus or BMW or Volvo and complaining about the direction of the economy and the country over dinner and the theater. 

Then there’s the next 50%, who for whatever reasons of fear or lack of class or mediocre education can’t or didn’t tap into the secret garden of wealthy delights, and slog on as wage slaves in some hyper-pressurized job, hemmed in by off-the-charts consumer credit debt at loan-sharking interest rates, underwater mortgages or chronic underemployment.  Despite this existential straight-jacket, these poor bastards have a job, can at least put food on the table and pay some bills, and go on clinging to their “comfort zone” of seeming normalcy punctuated by daily quivering dread over the possibility of a pink slip. They want stability at all costs, and they don’t give a tinker’s damn about history.  As Carlin put it, “Some men see things as they are and say, why? Some dream things that never were and say, why not? And most of us have to go to work and don’t have time for things like that.”

And then of course there’s the bottom 25%, not the wholly fictional and intentionally misleading 9.5% the government spins, who for one reason or another are acutely or chronically unemployed, living by their wits and their previously dormant but now forceably awakened baser instincts, being slowly consumed by fear, rage, paranoia, reactionary political extremism and, when they stop to look into the faces of their dependent children if they have them, increasing depression.

To these suffering masses, it’s not deja vu, but Carlin’s “Vuja De”.  The distinct feeling that something that’s actually happened before (like The Great Depression), is happening for the first time! Vuja De. Now there’s a guy who told the truth.

‘Reviving pure schlock’...Devo? I don’t know what they sound like now, but in the
late 70s, when I doubt Mr Sirota was choosing what music he listened to, they
were part of a huge breath of fresh air, the punks and the new wave, that blew
(for a short time, anyway) the miasma of prog-rock and disco out of popular
music. You must keep in mind that ‘Whip it’ came at the tail end of Devo’s career,
not the beginning.

Had he pointed to the revival in popularity of acts like Abba and The Carpenters, I
would be right with him, and I’m right with him on most of what he says about
other things in the article. This egregious lapse in musical judgement, though,
makes me want to start looking to see where else his rhetoric has run away with
him.

I think David Sirota has a good writing style and makes a valid point: our institutions have failed us in that their purposes are not our own. Thanks David.

Predator was a good movie.

As for history being buried, Sirota first says it’s all available.  Then he says it’s buried—by some mysterious unknown party.  How do they bury what’s available all over the place?

Is this from some last-year’s high school newspaper?

The repeated actions are INTENTIONAL, not accidents
or mistakes or blunders.  Duh!

Why does the left provide cover and insist these are
“problems”?

>> “This is why in the debates over war…we aren’t
urged to consider past conflicts” <<

WHAT????

You have got to be kidding me.  That’s ALL we are
urged to do.

Our “leaders” continually raise past wars and warrior
glory days.  We love war. World War 2 is a holy war,
despite our atrocities. We love when our mini-me
Israel kills brown people.  One day the dreaded
Vietnam Syndrome will be undone, they hope.  But War
(and “illegal” Drugs) is the biggest business for and
in “America”, and the gloves have come off.

Maybe this tepid column can be re-cycled in a
coloring book!

Have YOU ever   mosquedebated ?????

hello. rotten salmonella eggs on all observant chroniclers of living people. you are a pathetic breed
of profiteering secretaries, writing what matters to
none, about your reflective musings of inconsequential
history, solely for personal profit. nothing you have
written in the past year changed anything but your bank
account. rewrites are yesterday’s mistakes today, so
copy can update tomorrow. you write your own paycheck.