We tried to warn them
Submitted by terriertribe on Sat, 08/13/2016 - 8:29am
And we got dismissed as misogynistic Bernie Bros, fairy-dusters, etc., etc..
Suddenly, some of the msnbc smart folks seem to have noticed that Hillary is hanging with an unsavory crowd, and that some of her policies may not be as wonderful as they thought.
For your schadenfreude-laced viewing enjoyment (even if it is too late) I give you Jimmy Dore parts one and two:
[Video: https://youtu.be/F2JQXszJyPM]
[Video: https://youtu.be/A-yaNBquHwg]
Comments
May seem off topic but I hope not.
Economists like Baran and Sweezy pointed out that as a result of their research, unemployment in the 1960s and 1970s would be at Great Depression levels if not for the war the USA was waging against the people of Vietnam. Those soldiers and sailors as well as those employed by the arms industry sopped up the excess workers capitalism could not otherwise employ. Back then it was known as "military Keynseianism."
An oversized military/intelligence establishment continues to employ people the economy can't seem to hire. The related benefit for the 1%, and this deals with your diary, is that the US military is one of the 4 props global neoliberalism needs to sustain its existence.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Of course
they could use infrastructure spending instead, which would give a higher return on investment.
True
the thing is, only so many roads and bridges can be built and maintained and improved over time. War is forever.
These people decided that perpetual war would sustain itself better than infrastructure maintenance/improvement/R&D would do. Because they are short-sighted, selfish bastards.
The entire electric grid
needs to be rebuilt and our energy needs to be met via clean renewables. This is not a one time deal. The big problem with our infrastructure is not just bringing it up to date, but maintaining it.
Our infrastructure deficit is due to a lack of both maintenance and upgrading. Infrastructure is more than roads and bridges. It is energy, water resources, other forms of transportation such as rail. I actually wrote the first essay on this subject last Wed. I intend to write one or more on the subject of how the neo-liberal ideology has led to a huge infrastructure deficit in this country.
Unlike war, infrastructure brings positive economic returns to all of our citizens without the downsides associated with these wars. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone will end up costing the taxpayers up to $6 Trillion according to a March 2013 study done by Harvard University researcher Linda J. Bilmes. I am sure those costs have escalated by now and they do not include all the other countries we are waging war in.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yes it will cost the taxpayers $6 Trillion but the amount paid
by the 1% is nothing compared to the profits they make from the wars.
Why spend money on clean water and sanitary sewage disposal for Xenia, Ohio,(say) when you own a private island or live in a safe blissful spot surrounded by gates and security guards and the local politicos answer to you?
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
"...the profits they make from wars."
This triggered a ripple of memory that caused me to reach for my copy of Tom Paine's Rights of Man.
Paine exposes war as a con job throughout but one particular quote sums up the fake math that misrepresents
empire as a profitable enterprise.
"The most unprofitable of all commerce is that connected with foreign dominion.To a few individuals it may be
beneficial,merely because it is commerce;but to the nation it is a loss.The expense of maintaining dominion
more than absorbs the profits of any trade.It does not increase the general quantity in the world,but operates
to lessen it;and as a greater mass would be afloat by relinquishing dominion,the participation without the expense
would be more valuable than a greater quantity with it."
225 years ago Paine completed Rights of Man it could have been 225 centuries.The human species insists on recreating
failure.The only things that change are the names of the actors.
To paraphrase Bob Dylan:
"How much do we pay to get out of going through all these thing twice."
Solidarity
Well that went pear shaped
Don't know what happened and I'm too lazy to fix it.
Solidarity
The more things change, the more they remain the same
The founding fathers would recoil with horror if they could see the present debacle we call modern "politics".
I can only imagine the horror with which the rest of the world watches when exposed to this folie a deux--two sociopaths battling each other; one who has no mind and the other who is losing her mind.
Absolutely
but when you're a selfish bastard, it's more important that YOU and only YOU benefit from deficit spending. They get way more return on investment for themselves than they would helping millions. It's disgusting and vulgar and they don't care.
They need to be made to care.
Couldn't be said better: "They need to be made to care"
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Not to mention
information infrastructure - running fiber optic lines to every home and free public WiFi where population density is great enough.
The entire agriculture infrastructure needs to be rebuilt for water efficiency and climate mitigation. I expect conventional agriculture to suffer widespread failures within a decade. This can't happen fast enough.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
Well, not to mention the social infrastructure.
The American people have gone fallow.
A nation must invest in its human capital above all. Each generation mush be improved, healthier, more educated, more civilized. They are soon to be the generation that supports everyone else. If they fail, we all fail.
In the 21st century especially, the nations with the strongest and smartest societies will survive.
Perhaps Americans are too damaged already.
Because Americans are denied basic universal human rights — health care and freedom from hunger, are among the most basic — the people's willing compliance appears weak and undignified to the Establishment. The people's needs and opinions become annoying. The people's civic rights, the expression of their ideas and opinions are curtailed. Suddenly, gathering in a public place to protest is illegal. Clerical errors block them from voting. Or their votes are erased when they are deemed problematic. Those who fall through the huge Neoliberal policy holes in the safety, are criminalized. Just as people who attempt to feed the homeless face criminal prosecution.
For this, the United Nations Human Rights Committee criticized the United States for the criminalization of homelessness, noting that such "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" is in violation of international human rights treaty obligations. This rebuke did not make the US news.
Perhaps Americans are too defeated to save themselves.
By defeating Hillary, they could deliver a crippling blow to the Democratic Party, while the Republican party is completely in tatters. Working together, they could defeat anyone who crossed them and recall the rest. They could see their own power. The establishment has certainly seen it. If Hillary wins, it's unlikely the people will ever get another chance.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
There are some other good
There are some other good effective long term jobs that there is a need for. As an example many states - including mine - could use more fish and game officers (also some tighter rules about what can and can not be taken, both commercially and recreationally...but that is getting off track). It seems almost 1/2 the time I go diving I see either poaching in action or evidence of poaching but I've only ONCE seen a fish and game person in 2 years.
Also the National Parks are starting to see too many visitors - both a blessing and a curse there. But there are areas that are currently forest service lands or privately held by places like timber companies that could make great parks! Creating a few national parks plus more state parks and hiring all the staff to maintain them could create new jobs in some locals while reducing the pressure on some of our over burdened parks.
Another thing would be to intentionally bust up the overly sprayed and overly homogenous mono-crop that makes up so much of our farm land. Limiting the sizes of farms and regulating how many miles in a row something like wheat or corn can be grown would be good for the nation from a jobs perspective, from a nutritional perspective, from an environmental prospective ...really good for everything except the bottom line of big ass farm conglomerates - also potentially higher food prices but that could be dealt with by a more rational tax code and more appropriate usage of farm/food subsidies.
Investing in infrastructure is certainly what should be done.
However, for the 1%, who own or work for multinational corporations, good roads in the USA doesn't mean a better ROI because the factories who make their products, are not in the USA.
It's also true, in the main, the factories that make their products are not owned by the multinationals. It's cheaper to contract out production so if another area of the world is opened up for exploitation of labor and resources, the corporation doesn't have to move machines from one country to the next: They just cancel the contract and let the contractor deal with the idle equipment.
Parasites.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
"military Keynseianism."
Forgets that in 1973 that 60k a year engineer building cool war stuff, his pay could have gone to creating jobs for 7-9 people.
But that would have created a labor shortage and driven wages up.
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
No "reserve army of unemployed" as Uncle Whiskers put it.
If you build a bulldozer from the ground up, and it sells, a lot of people are involved in its design and manufacture and then the construction company buys it and more are employed.
Build an ICBM and it sits in a silo.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
50 cal ammo, M-60 tanks, F-4 fighters
Napalm, jet fuel, grenades, missiles, 120mm shells.
All are expended, and replaced, ad infinitum....
FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.
Jimmy Dore
Does such a great job of spotlighting hypocrisy and irony. So, the "liberal" media finally has concerns about HRC's foreign policy and endorsements after months of maligning Bernie supporters, calling us sexist "berniebros". Too bad they didn't have integrity before it became too little too late.
Thanks for posting, terriertribe, it's always a pleasure to watch Jimmy.
I feel so much better now.
Joan Walsh has given me permission to criticize Clinton's foreign policy.
Solidarity
Now we are labeled as Trump
Now we are labeled as Trump supporters if we don't follow in line doing the goose step to Queen Hillary I.
It is sad that the public, and those governing are so willing to turn a blind eye to the horrible, horrible choice foisted upon us. We pretty much have ourselves to blame as the nation is so fricking absorbed in a 24/7/365 news cycle completely full of bullshit propaganda. The MSM has us wrapped around their finger, and Clintons own the media...lock, stock , and barrel ( to use a military term). "Our Revolution" needs to start by dislodging the strangle hold that the media has, and the way they offer up "News" as some sort of titillation, rather than factual journalism. As much as I admire, Stewart, Colbert, Oliver, Dore, etc., it is a crying shame that they offer more information, and true journalistic integrity, than the talking heads from the entire spectrum of the MSM
And here is another, long but cool
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Yes, long...but, oh so, excellent.
A favorite line from Scheer: "To protect the home brand {the US], people are willing to give up facts and logic."
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Does this mean
Everyone at that round table discussion is helping Trump? *grins*
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
They are merely pushing Clinton left.
That is what good little libruls do.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
If anybody wants a good read on this subject,
I recommend Queen of Chaos.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
They do not care
Endless war, war crimes, and the bombing of random people far away are now a proud part of what it means to be liberal. Hillary's pro-war record is unblemished. Nobody can claim ignorance.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
As Thomas Frank says above "she believes".
She has always believed this neocon way. And will not be stopped by any rational discourse.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
First hi, second the mass media did not truly vet
Either Trump or Clinton. This is not accidental. Oh and Thomas Frank's book "Listen Liberal" is a must read book.
Follow your bliss
And for those interested in a little trip down Memory Lane,
Franks' "One Market under God" is pretty good too.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I've got one thing to say...
To $hillary and her supporters...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
My cynicism is going crazy right now.
For some reason, I just can't wrap my head around the idea that these people who support the idea that she needs to "move to the center" are going bonkers when that tactic appears to be working so well. Unless, maybe, that tactic isn't working out that well at all, and this is just theatrics to get "moderate" right wingers that haven't hopped on board like her better by painting her as too right wing for the "Liberal Media." I don't know, is it too CT to believe that Her Heinous' biggest backers would try to be that manipulative?
I think the biggest backers
don't need to see liberals denounce her before they'll support her; they just need to be shown that she claims this man as her friend and role model.
Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.
Lol, Hillary's biggest
Lol, Hillary's biggest backers will be planning to profit from the global hostile corporate takeover she promoted as SoS, with whatever is not achieved via unconstitutional 'trade deal' corporate coups to be accomplished via the use of the involved public's militaries and public money, while any remains, for attacks/invasions on still-free countries. They're all convinced they'll live to profit from this, even if the world fries in nuclear war as soon as Hillary/Trump/random corporate candidate is installed in the US Presidency, or quite possibly sooner, the way Obama's setting up for this insanity of a 'limited' nuclear 'war' with Russia and China, these being countries able to defend themselves rather than being viewed as easy targets for greed-blinded, pathological bullies.
Edited to remove an extra word.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
In's worse. It's not truth, it's narrative.
step 1 - rig the polls so that they look like Hillary +10.
step 2 - have the MSM report that "Polls say Hillary has an overwhelming lead!"
step 3 - then when she loses just claim she won by 5 and people will believe you.
On to Biden since 1973
At this point, it does look like as far as MSM goes,
SHE'S THE WINNER!!! SHUT UP!!!!
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
(No subject)oops
Is there any way to delete a comment added in error? Like this one?
Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.
Nope, but you fixed it OK. n/t
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
edit out everything but a single exclamation point, aka "bang"
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
!
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Other than summer repaving and new high-end apartment
construction (ya know, retail on the ground floor), the only projects here are pipelines for moving natural gas to the Northeast. Plenty there, much grumbling and protest here.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Chill. It's only play acting.
Are we all in a bad play? No acting experience required?
Are we the (unknown) Greek chorus?
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
You decide.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/its-oh-ohnly-make-beeee-leeee-eeeve