PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalYou've sure got this right
The idiots on welfare are:
1. CEO's and Boards of Directors who continue to 'vote' each other exorbitant salaries while driving their labor further into poverty
2. The corporate managers who consistently put policies in place to maximize profits at the expense of their workers and their customers
3. Those same corporations who are only hiring part time people and not offering any benefits
4. The corporations who steal pensions from workers and fight tooth and nail to break unions
5. The Congress which created tax loopholes that allow over 30 Fortune 500 companies to not pay any income tax
6. The neoconservatives who blindly believe that keeping this nation on a constant war footing is a good idea because then retiring generals can have cushy jobs while our weapons kill innocent people worldwide
7. The neoliberals who blindly believe that we should deregulate, privatize and cut out social spending so we can have a much less restrained version of capitalism
As my parents used to say, these people are burning both ends against the middle, and pretty soon there won't be any middle left. Then, when people rise up in massive social unrest that turns into a horrible, bloody anarchy, what they think they have built will disappear. Hopefully, this monstrous and brutal way of life can be replaced by a world of social and economic justice.
Think we're capable as a species of making this world what it should be?
Nah. We are the only species of which it can be said that if we went extinct, all other life on the planet would actually be better off.
A thoughtful post
My own belief is that Obama is very much a populist - personally. He clearly has the intellect to understand the corporate cancer that has all but made our society into an oligarchy.
But, as the first black president, he has been very careful to be middle of the road, and I believe he understands quite well the unspoken rule the oligarchs have imposed on American presidents. Get too far left, advocate the people a bit too much, attempt to put policies in place that help the people at the expense of corporate profits, start taking away tax loopholes - well all that isn't tolerated. Not at all. Consider Jack, Martin and Bobby. It just isn't tolerated.
He did give us a clue, though, when he told us that we are the change we've been looking for. It is only through social unrest that the pendulum can be swung back toward economic and social justice, and then resistance from the oligarchs is strong and unrelenting.
Obama has sadly towed the corporate line with his drone attack policies, and in allowing the NSA to become the bloated overreaching monster it is. However, because of this, and because the profits from keeping the nation on a war footing have kept flowing, Obama is allowed to 'thunder' about the middle class, student debt and raising the minimum wage from the bully pulpit. Will those things do some good? Sure. But GE, Wells Fargo, Paccar, Mattel and dozens of other major corporations still aren't paying any US income tax and the loophole encouraging stratospheric executive 'performance' bonuses is still in place.
There's still plenty of our tax money for war and 'national security' but very little for our benefit. Free college? Universal healthcare? A guaranteed living wage instead of a minimum wage? Those won't happen without lots of suffering on the part of people who have the courage to demand them. No one politician has the power to put them in place.
Hannity certainly 'jumped the shark' but to continue with metaphor...
There are bigger fish to fry in this whole thing. The biggest issue in this whole Cliven Bundy thing is the 'militia' that came to his rescue to face off the 'guv'mint revenoo-ers.'
While I can understand why the government chose to back off at that point because they didn't want another Ruby Ridge, this is a very alarming precedent.
I cannot believe our government will let this lie, and they should not. This government is supposed to be one 'of, by and for' the people, and it is our government. If we allow people who have misidentified the 'enemy' as the government to flagrantly disobey its laws and policies, then we encourage anarchy.
Yes, I know our government is imperfect and seems to serve the rich few rather than the general population, but only someone very foolish would want to replace the order and predictability the government provides with anarchy.
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