I guess a couple of people liked that last piece. Too bad it’s true. I might have added that the rich bastards who are so ably represented by the Republicans just undermined our credit rating. Why did they do that? To avoid paying one dime in taxes. I wish I had remembered to include that fact in the piece because it’s all part of the attitude that’s driving people crazy.
I also want to note that the last thing this country needs is to have its cities lit on fire by our own underclass. The last time we tried that we got Nixon. This time, we’d get Rick Perry or some other plausibly tough, white, head-stomper. This country is already teetering. We can’t afford to tip in that direction. I think if people understood how perilous our situation has become, they’d talk a lot less shit about the president and start praying that nothing happens to him and that he can keep this ship afloat for five and a half more years.
Don’t think we’ll see cities burn.
It doesn’t seem like we are at the tinder box stage. In the 1930’s the country was a t that stage.
Google emptywheel, Mc Graw Hill, and see the chart halfway down the article showing that Mc Graw Hill owns Standard and Poor and that lots of our best friends own Mc Graw Hill.
I didn’t know that, thanks. Wasn’t McGraw Hill in a bit of a bind recently? I can’t remember what it was about.
I would like to see the financial sector shrink greatly.
Doesn’t matter if the market is up or down the big guys are sitting on the cash and that includes Apple.
Yeah, I shared that piece on facebook, a few of my friends did too, and some pretty interesting discussions ensued.
You may get some new readers out of that one.
I get to know what’s on cable by what’s posted on blogs. There is one that has gone viral. Dylan Ratigan yesterday unloading on both parties, the financial establishment, the MOTU, the political class in general. In front of two Beltway Welfare queens – one a Democratic operative and one a Republican operative. Who were shocked, I tell you, shocked to see the embodiment of Howard Beale sitting in front of them.
Ratigan has a flair for this sort of thing. He’s one of the few genuine truthtellers in the world of financial punditry. It gets him in a lot of trouble.
I think if people understood how perilous our situation has become, they’d talk a lot less shit about the president and start praying that nothing happens to him and that he can keep this ship afloat for five and a half more years.
But the President isn’t helping matters. And for better or worse, he’s the leader of the party. The President is embracing the austerity agenda because he believes in it. And it’s only going to make things worse.
Not according to Robert Reich’s inside sources:
I’m pretty confident that no one in the WH actually said anything like that. But, in a strange kind of way, it might somewhat accurately reflect their thinking. I say ‘somewhat’ because I don’t think any one actually is thinking it’s a savvy way to distract people to focus on the deficit. We just had our credit rating downgraded by S&P because we don’t seem to be capable of addressing our deficit. To continue to argue that the deficit can be ignored is ridiculous at this point. As for the Jobs Bill part of it, they are kind of between a rock and a hard place, but I gotta think that a little theater is called for here. If they’re thinking they have to push a jobs bill with a prayer of passing then they’re right not to bother. But why not push a jobs bill with no prayer of passing? Because they’ll look weak and ineffectual? They’ll look that way if they don’t try, too. But they won’t look like they’re trying, and that could be fatal.
Right, I agree. That’s what I’ve been saying since…forever. After this deficit commission crap, he should continue trying to pass jobs bills; doesn’t matter if it won’t pass or not.
I doubt they’ll do it, but why not? They have a 50/50 shot right now.
Also, continue taking people’s time with speeches they’ll watch in primetime. It will sway people.
How do you think statements made by Senator McCaskill and other Democrats trying to win re-election in red areas affects the calculus. She said there would be no jobs bill this year because of the debt issue. It seems like every time the President tries to push forward with something, it is senators in his own party who start to put the brakes on.
Absolutely amazing and appalling. “Rather than fight” they just give up.
Obama is simply a totally useless tool.
Dataguy-
Sad to say, but you are probably right. And it hurts me deeply to say that because it means I have to accept that I was wrong about this guy. But right now, unfortunately, he’s the best we’ve got in the running so I am going to have to be supportive. The alternatives are FAR worse. This doesn’t mean I’ll be canvassing for him or anything. I will canvass for our Dem Senate candidate, Dem House candidate and local offices, but not for Obama. And I will vote a straight Dem ticket.
But I will remain active. You should too. And stop bitching so much. The stress isn’t worth it. That’s all. Nothing personal. I’ve always admired you from your comments but lately you seem really bent out of shape. Sorry ’bout that but it’s true.
We need less praying – or braying – and more organizing. I wish him well and hope he does well, but waiting for Obama, or anyone else, to save the day is a recipe for disempowerment and failure.
Yeah, there’s a lot of us disaffected people out there in a world of economic hurt with no prospects for improvement any time soon. Yeah, Obama’s got the biggest megaphone, and he’s (mostly) not speaking to or for us, because it’s not politically expedient right now or because he’s an evil corporatist monster or pick your uninformed explanation. That doesn’t mean nobody else can help shape and give voice to our needs.
Or, to trot out a 2008 cliche that’s mostly been forgotten in the rush to ridicule hope and change, we are the change we’ve been waiting for. Still.
And as long as we are waiting for Obama, we’re not that change, are we? I feel like we too often position ourselves as waiting for someone to step in and save us, when we should be working our butts off saving ourselves. Yes, it would be nice if we had some help and a little more direction from upstairs, but we’re ultimately the ones who will have to do it.
From an outsider looking in, one of the big problems I have with the “Progressive Movement” in the US is the simple fact that you are always waiting for the guy at the top to fix everything. People projected so much on Obama, and when he failed to deliver on the stuff he never said he would, they turned on him as though it was his fault. For example, the guy flat out said he would expand the war in Afghanistan, but the amount of people who still say he campaigned on pulling out of Afghanistan is huge.
But back to the point. The Progressive Movement is essentially very passive. What they really want is a left wing Bush who will sweep all the bad things away and everything will be hunky dory, and they won’t have to do a damn thing. I’ll say this for the Tea Party. They may have been whipped up with corporate money and Right wing propaganda, but at least they actually got off their asses and marched a bit. Unless the US Progressive movement realizes, like the people in Wisconsin did, that they might actually have to get out from behind their keyboards and actually do some work and get stuck in. they will be bitching about stuff for the rest of their life and being roundly ignored.
And maybe that’s what a lot of them secretly want.