... I am no longer of the opinion that anything that is happening was ever really opposed by the Democrats in Washington DC. I think their squealing is nothing more than cover.

... is in a death spiral, and no one in a position of power to do something to change it, has any intention of doing so. The good cop/bad cop routine has become so blatant that the only people not "seeing" it, have chosen not to. Our political system is FUBAR and We the People will pay the price for it.

The GOP is determined to turn this country into a corporate dictatorship run by them and the fundy churches and the Dems seem too weak or chicken to stop it.

What galls me more than anything is we have had two Democratic presidents with two terms and the GOP has still gotten most of its way on policies that are weakening the economy and the country.

For instance with Clinton we still ended up with GOP free trade, and a GOP media. With Obama we still ended up with healthcare for profit and an essentially GOP ACA. We still have an essentially GOP education policy that is turning our schools over to churches and corporations while we scuttle the teaching profession. GOP lite has really worked out.

When we had majorities in both houses of Congress we still ended up with GOP policy when you really examine it.

We may already be sunk.

We don't support corporatist businesses in a concerted large scale effort. Or, we just give up like you friend.

I suggest you pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

up and fight back then they deserve what they get. If you feed a beast and he then bites you should you be surprised? In the infamous words of Bob Weir "The futures here, we are it, we are on our own"

... how that tilting at windmills works out for you.

In my 6 decades on this Earth, I've come to one very clear realization, the deck is stacked against us and short of a violent revolution, nothing is going to change that. But you keep right on with thinking your are going "hurt" the corporate masters by "boycotts." You may be right and I may be wrong and the world NEEDS idealists. Myself, I am too tired, too old, and too beaten down to pretend I matter to anyone that has the power to fix things anymore. My idealism has been all used up.

John Lennon as his avatar and is speaking of fatalism and violent revolution. I have heard it all. People could work together for the betterment of society or we could take your approach. I will take the optimistic approach, and you just keep dreaming about your violent revolution.

... between recognizing something and advocating it? Apparently not.

Making stupid assumptions about other people will cause you unnecessary issues in life. I tried to approach you in a friendly manner. Quite clearly, you'll have none of it. Fine by me, that why there is an ignore feature here.

your friendly condescension was noted yesterday right friend. Good luck continuing to feed the beast and expecting it not to bite you.

It is ReTHUGs on the defensive these days

The GOP is preparing its final assault on the country right now. Sequestration is just the beginning. Based on back chatter they are just celebrating this debacle. Remember Bonehead said he got 98% of what he wanted. They knew they would allow sequestration to happen. And I am waiting to see what they do with the "debt ceiling" coming up.

on their own party and then on the nation, then they followed that up by becoming republicans themselves.

humiliated the Unions. The three biggest points of power. The Powell Manifesto, a VERY critical part of the rightwing (fascist) takeover, had already begun to take serious shape, and the infiltration of universities, churches (the far right's easiest mark), and government offices at the local levels had been well financed.

The State Department decision on the pipeline is one example of salted GOPPERS in the system. The GOP has had a chance to install saboteurs all over government. Yet Obama did nothing like NOT firing all the attorney generals when he got in the first time.
He won't even pardon Siegelman.

and the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999,
which effectively repealed Glass-Steagall.

The point is, it started even before Reagan, with the Powell Manifesto (corporate and 1% takeover of the entire national dialog) . Then Reagan's radical shift is what set the political stage -- in support of the Powell Manifesto -- for Bill Clinton to represent the DLC bandwagon. The DLC was/is the democrats shift to the right. Clinton's benefactors -- a couple of whom I know personally -- were the republicans who decided to infiltrate the dem party with their money and their politicians to support, as per the Powell Manifesto, as per the Reagan/Bush political shift to the extreme right.

The Powell Manifesto was the PNAC agreement of the 1970's. Same school, same philosophy. Take over government with their money at every level, one law at a time, one race at a time, one news station at a time, one tv station at a time, one newspaper, one college, one school board.

to a novel. All narrative fiction must have characters in conflict, rising plot action leading to a climax and falling to a resolution. I believe the Cold War was the plot. The election of Reagan and the collapse of the Soviet Union the climax. Falling action is the triumph of the plutocracy and the illusion of representative democracy. The resolution to the story is the emergence of a fascist state. The author is corporatism, and in any story the author is omniscient and all powerful. But this is only an analogy. In reality, the characters may become authors themselves and rewrite the narrative.

I believed all the propaganda when I was young. What the American people do not understand was that the Cold War
really was a set up in a way. It was more than about communism.

In 1917 the Russians got fed up with the czars wars and the huge inequality between the workers and the Russian elite. The revolution was about workers rights and the communists were a part of it. But the Russians did not get what they expected. They ended up with a totalitarian state that had a communist elements but was really something else.

The core of the revolution was about sharing the wealth and removing the old monarchical system. It was anti capitalistic and the capitalist in the West wanted to make sure capitalism won. They rightly fought totalitarianism but were intent as we see to install one of their own, which is fascist in nature an just as dangerous.

What is ironic is that in the end if the GOP and oligarchs get their way, the US will look a lot like the Axis powers sans the Nazi element (maybe not because the Nazis had race superiority) and the emperor element of Japan. Huge military run by a corporate dictatorship.

CAll is what you want plutonomy, plutocracy, or oligarchy the American worker ends up in the same predicament as the Russians and Germans of the past.

We do not have titles like kings and nobles but the rich are an aristocratic class from their point of view. Like you said only the characters change but the plot remains the same.

The problem is that corporate money has corrupted our electoral system and purchased both parties.

There are very few in Washington working for us anymore. We can't afford them.

I often refer to Dems playing the parliamentary powder puff game. I do not even see my local deems playing hard ball on important issues. They will play around the edges of these issues and introduce half assed measures but never deal with something bluntly. I do not see a very many Dems openly supporting or introducing strong left labor legislation. I hear only lip service support of teachers. One example is NOT supporting tenure for teachers which was meant to protect them from political agendas. What happened to EFCA. It disappeared almost immediately in 2009.

If you count apologies from both parties Dems apologize 99% of the time even when they are right. GOPPER probably are not even 1% of the time even when they are totally out of line. If anything they double down like Rush. If they say something racist they get even more so for the most part.

It is pretty disgusting. And I get more furious when Dems do not support or defend their position when they are 100% right.
You say liberal to a Dem these days and they shit their pants.

sure, some dems are flat sell outs.

But, more than anything they simply lack friggen balls, while republicans exponentially over time have become more bold, mean and vindictive.

Add in the media, which very much operates from clinton's general assessment that people will favor bold over right every time ...

Either shot, are dead or politically marginalized. The Kennedy and King assassinations never have been explained in a satisfactory way. Ray and Sirhan were stooges. Oswald was killed before he could say a word. And the Dallas security was pathetic. It is a fact that the Kochs' dad put out an incendiary pamphlet before Kennedy went to Dallas. He was warned not to go.

Then you have Cleaver whose killer was never caught. And black leaders have been marginalized while black males have been systematically put in prison over the years.

What struck me most recently is how crazy the RW got when someone hinted that a new Black Panther movement was started. They were ready to call for their murders if you read between the lines. And OWS was brutally put down and the Dems hardly said a word. We also had Dems mayors cooperating. And what was most interesting is that it looks like the OWS movement is being investigated like a terrorist organization.

Plus the aggressive suppressive actions against unions is noticeable. Meanwhile Dems are pretty much silent. They will hint at support but will not put left legislation on the docket.

That makes you wonder what would happen if Obama got like FDR or Truman and just started bashing GOPPERS more heavily and mercilessly.

Things don't add up when you think about it.

neo-liberalism start in the mid 70s.

absolutely no need for being on the defensive. ALL polls on issues show support, not for current Democratic positions, but for ACTUAL leftish positions. Not only are Republican positions NOT supported by a majority of the people, but the Third Way bullshit positions don't get any support either. So the question becomes WHY are Democrats still on the "defensive". My thinking is that most of them (Dem pols I mean) actually AGREE with the Republicans on the economic issues.

The political class in this country is WAY out of alignment with the people of this country. WAY to the right of the people. And it's because they're just as bought by the capitalists as the Republicans are. They just aren't showing their "SOLD" sign as blatantly.

as far as voting for Democrats. If Obama was the best choice as a third way Democrat which he seems to be, they ultimately nothing will change for the better.

We should be going hard left by now. And what is most aggravating to me is that the Dems are trying to rule more as a slightly right of right center which is where Reagan Republicans were. I take that back the would be communists in today's GOP.

I don't have any children. I feel bad for the parents of today and ones to be because they will be helping and supporting their kids well into adulthood. The GOP economic model is suicide for a decent society.

nm

still doesn't understand Republicans are predatory political terrorists who will say and do anything to destroy the Democratic Party. For them it's all or nothing. They can't or won't take yes for an answer. Their Nihilist tendencies prevent them form being constructive members of anything. When Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, John Boner, Rash
Limbaugh, and other circus freaks are the standard bearers, there's no reason for them to bargain in good faith with normal people. They have become an anathema to American principles and ideals. Neofascist radical extremist reactionaries, nothing more or less.

"Sequestration was a defensive move and look how its working out now"

...that came in the aftermath of the 2010 elections.

The 2012 election changed that dynamic.

Americans will blame GOP for sequester
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022402803

This is why Woodward is freaking out and Mitt came out of hiding (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022445099)

Eugene Robinson: Obama, winning the argument
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022381931

lack of spine when the chips are really down.

"I Am Less Confident Because Of The Media And Dems lack of spine when the chips are really down."

...lumping the GOP shill media in with Dems.

when they don't have to. I do not see them as the same or similar to the shill media. Dems need to be more like Keith Ellison who went after Hannity. Hannity counter attacked and NO Dems have called him out for being the racist, bigot and hate monger he is. They rarely fire back or even return fire in kind. They never double down. Call him an asshole or something. Mix it up with him and O"Reilly for Christ's sake. Take some flesh and make it hurt real bad. Make it a fight.

The Dems lose because a lot of the public dislikes them for being weak. It they got nasty and pissy a lot of white male voters might take notice. They have to show white males that they are on their side as well and erase the race issue the GOP uses so well. They have to point out that the problem is not enough good jobs are being created rather than allowing the GOP to beat them up over the myth that Democrats and Obama are giving everything to brown people.

Forget being the reasonable one once in a while and just go ballistic on these bastards if you have to. It is no time to be reasonable or even civil to these fools.

What really pisses me off is how the GOP has treated some of the victims of the gun violence. That father who was being trashed at that hearing. I would have called him a sadistic inhuman asshole and that he would not understand until one of his kids were shot. Screw these bastards and screw some of these reporters. In another day they would have gotten their asses whipped.

We have every right to be mad as hell and scaring the shit out of these people. The Democrats just let GOPPERS beat on them with little or weak response all too often. They should be challenging reporters like Ellison did Hannity or something. God Reed is pathetic. The Democrats won't even say the work "filibuster" now.

The media and reporters are not sacrosanct and should be called on their malfeasance. And if they bitch double down.

The sequestration legislation is totally the GOP's baby. If the Dems let the media define it as theirs or Obama's they lose.

The problem is they are all (with very few exceptions) fighting for the same thing, big money interests.

I one really pays attention to what is going on it is hard to deny what we are seeing.

There is another interesting fact. The same money interests that are pushing the austerity agenda here are doing the same thing in Europe. A lot of those countries are under severe pressure by the banks to smash their work forces as well. The push here is being made in all the developed countries, but our media will never tell.

Many will say that it is they majority of the problem, but I don't think that's the case.

The war on us, all of us, has been fought on many fronts. I blame education cuts more than the media to be honest.

Critical thinking has been removed from every aspect of life in the US.

If one didn't vote for Jimmy Carter, the blame is ON THEM not anyone else.
Not the party. ON THE VOTER.

same protest voters that backed Ralph Nader in 2000

same protest voters now want to cut and run???

I don't like it. It isn't less filling. And it tastes like shit.

But compared to Repug Stout which burns my throat, leaves me in a drunken stupor, hungry, penniless, and getting me into bar rooms brawls; all while making me feel guilty without getting laid; I'll stomach it.

What I'd do for a taste of Dem full lager in a clean glass. I can imagine drinking a pint on the back patio on calm and sunny afternoon with good friends; loving the robust flavor in moderation with good meal.......

Democrats should have embraced the word & said, "Fuckin' A we're liberal & here's why." Then they should have gone on to cite the Joe Conservative points.

Instead they distanced themselves from the word liberal, & very soon after, liberal policies as well. Here we are, 30 years later, with a democratic party that more closely resembles the republican party of the 50s than the democratic party of the 70s.


"Get in Republicans' godamned faces big time and go on the offensive until they are politically bloody."

I agree, but like my grandma used to say, don't hold your breath.

But Reagan legitimized it, institutionalized it and certainly expedited it. Since then the Democrats have pretty much been about holding the fort and reducing the dismantling of the New Deal and the Great Society. Actually advancing social progress and improving conditions has been pretty much considered beyond the pale ever since.

is inviolate/sacred.

True, we have amended it from time to time, but for too many it is still seen as the "word of God", instead of a living document that was never meant to be worshiped.

It was written by men of their day, and they may have been visionaries, but they surely were not psychics.

There was also an intention to continually change it(not sure which of the framers were behind it), but they wanted the whole thing reviewed/updated REGULARLY, as time passed. They knew that things would evolve, and people would change.

By regularly updating it, we might be in a very different place..

The divide we are now experiencing pretty much means that we will probably never again amend it officially, and are pretty much stuck with an 18th century rule book for 21st century living.

listening to a sell-out media.

the new deal heritage.

but for some reason, they won't.