When you realize Clinton renders people morally bankrupt

Yesterday at DKOS I posted about Welfare Reform - between 500K and 1 million were going to lose food stamps.

I noted that Welfare Reform was almost never discussed. Two front pagers responded.

Jen Haydon said that they had. I asked for a Link.
Crickets.

MB responded much later and said it had been critiqued. I asked when. His response; "Several Years:

Now if you are a liberal, Welfare Reform, is one of the worst results of the Clinton Presidency. A complete cave to what in the end are racist stereotypes.

Obama supported it too.

So it becomes a non-topic. Never really discussed. Years go by without mentioning it.

Of course poor people are still being hurt. That hasn't changed.

But when you become a partisan you make excuses. Surely we don't want to attack Clinton.

So you wind up saying nothing.

And you become morally bankrupt.

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It's one of the myths that D-Kos cares about such things.

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trial just so long as there is Democrat CoC.

The murders of MSF staff caused barely a blip

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gulfgal98's picture

examples of non-caring caused by partisanship. You did some very excellent diaries on it LaFem.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

SnappleBC's picture

Apparently that's not of much concern so long as it's a Democratic CiC that did it. Honestly reading GOS I've become astonished at what is OK so long as a Democrat does it.

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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

Alphalop's picture

but at the same time I feel compelled to keep going there to try to refute the most spurious of claims that end up in pro-Sanders diaries purely out of concern that other non-partisans that may be reading it may actually believe it's true if it goes unrefuted.

It's like working at a sewage treatment plant. A smelly, dirty and at times utterly revolting job which often leaves me feeling the need to shower that nevertheless needs to be done. Smile

The anonymous flagging system is being abused more often too. I am seeing flags landing on the most mundane comments based more on who the commenter is than what they are currently saying.

Needless to say I will be grateful when I no longer feel compelled to go there to help fight the good fight, lol!

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

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hester's picture

I rarely go. I'm much better off.

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Don't believe everything you think.

Raggedy Ann's picture

I've seen you in there when I take a chance to see what the comments are, hoping they stay positive. They more often than not, devolve quickly and I run away. I appreciate your effort on Bernie's behalf. Smile

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

diaries and in the substantive ones (not that there are many)

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Because of MRSA and CMT (charcot marie tooth) she lost her right leg just below the knee.

The CMT has affected her other foot badly so she is stuck in a wheelchair. She lives in special housing, and Gets $800 ssdi a month. They reduced her food stamps from $94 (which wasn't enough) to $24.

It almost kills her to ask for help.

I'm very angry.

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'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "

hester's picture

so gut-wrenching and so unnecessary.

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Don't believe everything you think.

He offered me a sandwhich
I said 'No, that's your last one'
He said 'No please, you're hungry, I can see you're hungry son'
He said he'd get another and he'd eaten twice that day
He said 'Take it please, for Jesus' and I had to say ok
He handed me the sandwhich with a smile on his face
He said 'Thank you and God bless you'
Then he hobbled off away.

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

Azazello's picture

The Clintons are in sales. Welfare "reform" is a perfect example of how they make their millions, by selling Neoliberal policies to the very people who will be harmed the most by those policies. That's a very valuable talent, if you're lowdown enough to use it.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

thrownstone's picture

that congress loves to play. It had nothing to do with either welfare or reform. It had everything to do with dumping 5 million adults onto the labor market at sub-minimum wage salaries. A comparison of the timelines of the decline of middle income purchasing power and the schedule of statutory exclusionary requirements in PRWORA might be interesting.

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“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire

FreakFlagFly's picture

This is a great interview, by the acclaimed author of "The New Jim Crow" and "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote," from yesterday that talks in part about the Clintons' role in welfare reform and mass incarceration and the role of their position in negating any possibility of real reform, "the evisceration, the end of welfare as we know it." I've got it queued up to one of the more relevant portions @ 6:37 in, but the whole thing is very informative.

https://youtu.be/9mgRAAzU794?t=6m37s

The money quote:

"... it's actually one of the reasons why I wrote my book The New Jim Crow in the first place is that many people of color don't know or fully understand how this
system of mass incarceration was constructed, why the devastating
consequences for our communities and the Clintons' important
role. They escalated the drug war, the get-tough movement, far beyond what the
Republicans had done, while at the same time dismantling the federal social
safety net and transferring billions of dollars away from child welfare and
housing into a prison building boom unlike anything the world has ever seen.
And I think it's difficult and painful for many on the left to face that reality. We'd
rather not believe it and we would like to imagine that the
politicians who were willing to sit with them in church and to be our friend
actually might have done vastly more harm than good..."

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I am a teacher. I teach kids that we feed. When I say we, I mean teachers. I give everything I have to special needs kids, five and six days a week. And we feed our kids, because they need food and they don't get enough. I do not want to hear one word of doubletalk from politicians who do not do jack for kids except to flap their gums.
Moral bankruptcy is for politicians to give speeches, while kids hug their guts and beg for breakfast bars.

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shaharazade's picture

to quit posting there. When ever any pol starts throwing around the word 'reform' you just know we're in for another heartbreaking screw. Welfare 'reform' is double speak and in order to believe in these upside down reform's you have to think double. If you don't know the language of double speak they can't hear you and assume your a RW troll or a dangerous insurgant far lefty who wants to give the people 'free stuff'.

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detroitmechworks's picture

"We Fired and prosecuted the Corrupt Asshole, Sorry about that"

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

hester's picture

and will look now. If not, can you post it here?

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Don't believe everything you think.

Lenzabi's picture

I stopped bothering with the other place

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So long, and thanks for all the fish

you mentioned that has always irritated the shit out of me at Dkos - "We already discussed that" as a dismissive response to a diary. So what if it was already discussed sometime in the past? There are new members here now who can benefit from learning about/discussing this particular issue. There are people there that treat you like if you weren't there since the beginning then fuck off with any ideas or diaries you'd like to discuss.

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knows it is not an answer.

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Bollox Ref's picture

Just so wrapped up in the Dem team that they can't see anything else beyond.

The Party seems to make people very stupid. And I really don't understand why anyone would get so attached to a Party.

Especially if it's not fit for purpose.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Alligator Ed's picture

The difference between "morally bankrupt" and "stupid" is not a true dichotomy, logically. The two descriptors can be applied to the same person. Somewhere in the middle of that ideational morass is "don't bother me with the facts, I have my own ideas". True believers are prone to embodying all 3 of those not incompatible qualities. Without recourse to ad hominem arguments (snark-warning) I would slightly hesitate to include Hillary-ites. (Swoosh! If this were DK, the ban-hammer would be crushing my skull right now).

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Cassiodorus's picture

is both quite intelligent and morally bankrupt -- or at least she is by our standards, tho' probably not by her own Goldwater Girl standards.

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“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris

your avatar/sigpic/whateverthefuckthatshouldbecalled.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

has stated he is backing Sanders. Has he changed that position? I did notice before I stopped going there that it seemed his posts had been pushed to later in the day. Man didn't impress me as sellout material, but what do I know?

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Steven D's picture

No more a token anymore.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Cassiodorus's picture

Please explain.

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“One of the things I love about the American people is that we can hold many thoughts at once” - Kamala Harris

the post on the unemployment release - which he always does.

He really is the only FPer with at least a passing knowledge of economics.

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MB is also very well versed on climate change and how conservative the scientific forecasts are.

He is also the only one who knows about, and cares about, the American Indians.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

michelewln's picture

He is also the only one who knows about, and cares about, the American Indians.

Don't forget Ojibwa he has done a long series under the heading Indians 101 which hopefully he will one day put together in book form. He cares very much about American Indians. He is a shaman and blessed my Community Quilt. Navajo is another strong supporter.

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A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. Oscar Wilde

You are certainly correct but I thought the chain of thought was about front pagers. That's why I only commented on MB.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

snoopydawg's picture

Women and children, but when I ask for examples I get crickets.
Not only welfare reform has hurt many women and children, but the crime bill, the deregulation of the banks that set up the housing crisis and many people lost their homes. Nafta saw many jobs lost which also hurt women and children.
Then there's the wars that Hillary voted for or pushed Obama on that also hurt women and children in the Middle East.
I wonder how many of her supporters voted for Obama because of what she was back then and now conveniently forget why they didn't vote for her?
Bernie is running on a platform closer to what Obama did then Hillary is, but they are going to throw away the chance to try to change things.
It doesn't make sense.

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A leftist is someone with morally correct politics. A liberal is someone who wants to feel morally correct w/o ever putting themselves at odds with power or costing themselves opportunities or experiencing the uncomfortable emotions that truth causes.

big events.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The Clintons don't give a flying f$ck about the children they are the epitome of the Reagan me ,me, me mind set its all about money and power they have proven this over and over.I don't know how they can sleep knowing they are responsible for people going hungry so they can line their pockets and spend money on bullshit wars ,and this also applies to the people that support them.

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So, a punch of "statesmen" are on an educational cruise with a bunch of school kids who have been selected to participate due to their extraordinary efforts in political activism.

The ship hits an iceberg and starts to sink. Panic ensues. Jimmy Carter makes his way across the deck, shouting, "Get the children into the lifeboats! Children first!"

Dick Cheney comes wheeling through the throng, Liz rolling his chair over the feet of anyone unfortunate enough to be in his path. "Fuck the children!" he snarls.

Denny Hastert looks around and says, "Do we have time?"

(This joke has never not been current since I first heard it over 30 years ago. Then, it was Nixon who snarled "Fuck the children", and Dan Crane who said, "Do we have time?". The "great" thing about the Republican party is that year after year, decade after decade, they keep rolling out characters who can fill the second and third roles in this joke. Meanwhile, Carter just keeps on keeping on. I don't know with whom I'll replace him when he finally passes on.)

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Bisbonian's picture

Wink

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Bisbonian's picture

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

ArizonaProgressive's picture

Welfare reform directly impacts the lives of the people I work with. I am dreading July 1st in Arizona:

The change will mean that at least 1,600 families, including more than 2,700 children, will lose the benefit on July 1, 2016.

We are fighting the 12 month limit, but are vastly outnumbered. Fuck them for turning food into a political tool.

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