Thanks, B.T. Krugman has a firm hold on reality, thank heavens, and sees that a right wing victory would absolutely deep six anything positive that might be possible. Of course, heading off recovery from their disaster seems to have been their greatest hope over the past months since January 2009.

Krugman:

If I were President Obama, I’d be doing all I could to head off this prospect, offering some major new initiatives on the economic front in particular, if only to shake up the political dynamic. But my guess is that the president will continue to play it safe, all the way into catastrophe.

Spot on sir but you’re forgetting one very important thing. If Obama had investigated and prosecuted the crimes of the Bush administration like torture and rendition, just to name a couple, the Republicans would have been far too busy defending that to be going after him now. Not only that but his approval among Progressives would have made it impossible for the Republicans to take either House in November.

Obama would seem prefer to working with a Republican Congress. His fantasy of a post partisan world suggests that. What he fails to realize is they will work him over. President Photo-op is in for a world of hurt.

Cokie telling us about Pres. and Katrina/trip; also about the Beck revival. Rally: hard to tell how many there.

Reading summary or 4 ends of empire (Rome, Spain, Dutch Republic, Britain), Kevin Phillips uses the term ‘entrenched’ to refer to complete control by the PTB. Or to use a more popular current term, tipping point, the U.S. shows many signs. I think its hopeless.

Cokie describing the rally: Adamantly anti Obama…who is a “liberation Theologian” is not religion….What a lie…May not be his,

There is a time when fantasy crosses the line into delusional. Obama leaped across that line just after inauguration day.

When it becomes clear obama is just a place holder for the next bush and he’s being impeached by the new republican majority he may turn Holder loose on the bush clan treason.

That would be an interesting dust-up.

Maybe…but we better be ready to fight.

It would be too little, too late and by then it will just seem to be a petty game of gotcha, rather than a legitimate effort to prosecute people guilty of torture, kidnapping and murder.

Won’t do any good. Part of the description is attempts at reform, which are always half-hearted and ineffective. Strike a familiar chord?

Mornin’, BT, pups

Krugman:

But my guess is that the president will continue to play it safe, all the way into catastrophe.

No bout adoubt it.

I will refuse to go into that cynicism or give up…not to say it’s not scary. I have a beautiful grandson…

Any word on da job?

I wish you luck.

I don’t know enough about the immediate after-the-end-of-empire to opine, but in the long run it’s much better for ordinary citizens not to be a cog in the empire wheel. Transitions suck, but the U.S. will have to go thru it sooner or later. So your beautiful grandson will probably live through it in his lifetime, no matter what.

It’s inevitable. It has been since the late 1990s at least when the Republicans decided that they would much rather investigate made up Clinton scandals than actually govern. But it’s all been misdirection while the wealthy investors move manufacturing overseas to places like the UAE, India and China. I think we as a species are doomed because we never seem to learn that greed is the one intolerable sin. Greed for money, greed for power, greed for influence over people you don’t even know. Sustainability is not in these peoples’ vocabulary while “I got mine” seems to be the only thing that matters.

Nope. I called at the end of the day on Friday and he had one more interview to do that he said was going to happen today. He had told me last week that a buddy of one of the employees was supposed to be coming in for an interview and that was supposed to be last week. If this person couldn’t make it in last week for whatever reason and the guy doing the hiring is still willing to talk to him/her, it isn’t a good sign for me though. :/

Phillips also reminded me that, for example, many U.S. manufacturers, the car companies most conspicuously, no longer make profits on manufacturing, but on their finance subsidiaries. GE is another example.

Things I used to know that I don’t remember when I should.

With all that being said though, you still stand behind the Democrats in this Fall’s election. At what point do we as a nation hold the Democrats accountable for their betrayal? At what point do they get to lose and not take the progressive wing of their party for granted?

On one hand I hear you complain about them and their practices, but you vote for them out of a fear of a rise of fascism out of the teabaggers and Republicans?

The Democrats squandered their once in a generation opportunity to make this country a better place. Blaming the obstructionists isn’t going to work in the Fall. Our representatives played a part in that kabuki theater and they deserve to lose.

What’s your answer then? To put the teabaggers in charge? I have long said that I don’t know what the answer is but throwing up my hands and giving up isn’t it, nor is putting the teabaggers in charge. What is your solution? I hear you constantly complain about the Democrats. I hear you talk about punishing them ad nauseum but I never, EVER hear any solutions from you. Just griping at people who don’t acknowledge you as absolutely and unimpeachably correct. What is your solution other than more whining at people who are more into solutions than retribution?

Not all problems have solutions.

Love your response. I was thinking after the Lappe piece on Sat. that those of us here in Central TX should do a planned project for making a difference…maybe coalese a peace movement…don’t know. But thank you for not giving up.

I don’t agree with that. Like Margaret, I’m not ready to throw my hands up and say, “It can’t be done.”

Locally the Democrats are the clear solution. The way the National political structure is presently formatted, there is very little chance of a viable third party. I tire of changing the Democratic party from within, something the creation of the DLC has very effectively countered. We have tried to change the Dems from within since the Vietnam Era, you can see where that has gotten us.

But there is a new generation taking over now. Hope springs eternal-it has to. Without hope, we’re well and truly fucked…

True but I’ve never been one to surrender, nor am I known for finding fault with somebody else because they don’t agree with me 100 percent of the time. The Democrats deserve to lose. Fine. Accepted. Even embraced wholeheartedly. But in our system, the Democrats losing always, ALWAYS means the insane Republicans winning. Do they deserve to win? Because they will and we all know where that goes. The only answer is to swirl down the drain or attempt to change the system. Maybe I’m tilting at windmills but at least I’m in there trying, not standing on the sidelines shouting “You’re wasting your time”.

I was thinking after the Lappe piece on Sat. that those of us here in Central TX should do a planned project for making a difference

We really should! I’m sure the local VFP chapter would particpate.

Thanks….maybe we can start identifying ourselves….This month the local United Way has its “day of service.” Don’t know what all that may cover; can find out.

Just saying that criticism of people who do not have solutions for problems that don’t have solutions is misplaced.

I have no problem with keeping on keeping on. Nor do I have a problem with giving up, for those who have tried everything that’s been suggested (assuming the good-minded folks here at FDL are in that category) and it all comes up short.

Not all problems have solutions.

I would prefer to say that not all solutions will solve the problem. The issue here isn’t that our problems have no solution, but rather that the solutions the WH is fixated on won’t solve the problem. The WH’s so-called solutions are politically determined. Politically determined solutions can rarely solve social and economic problems.

But criticism of those LOOKING for solutions is okay? Sorry, I don’t understand that philosophy at all.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,255

US KIA Irak: 4.416

Iraki and Afghan casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2010: 29,884 and counting

High Hopes

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

I’m not criticizing. Just pointing out the realistic circumstances as I see them.

new post up top…

Y’all have a great day…Im starting early. I do want you friends to know I am starting the week with a very serious problem…..I may have the worst hair cut I have EVER had….I am so trying to have a good humor….given the context. Peace, folks….

Atrios: On The More Optimistic Side … Perhaps the placing of this op-ed by Laura Tyson, “a member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board,” signals a shift…

I really, really doubt it. In the piece that Atrios linked to, Tyson states:

“Under these circumstances, the economic case for additional government spending and tax relief is compelling. Sadly, polls indicate that the political case is not. … Over the next five years, the federal government should work with state and local governments and the private sector to finance $1 trillion worth of additional investment in infrastructure.”

SOS

The difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is a coupla weeks.

I’ve been through a lot in my fifty years. I’ve done a lot and been through a lot. So much in fact that if I was entirely candid about what I’ve been through, most of you would call me a liar. That’s not to say “dig me” or anything so self serving. It’s just to point out that if I had given up like some people seem to be urging me to do, I wouldn’t have lived past 13 and that is not exaggeration, that is not overstating it, that is not melodrama. That is just the way it is. Since I was a child, people have tried to indoctrinate me, brainwash me, beat it out of me, remove every shred of self respect I had, deprive me of my very humanity. Ever been referred to as “it”? Yeah, didn’t think so. Ever had your skull fractured, your jaw and ribs broken, your colon ruptured, your eye socket broken, bone fragments driven into your eye because somebody didn’t like the way you looked and then told that you deserved it by the police? Ever had five years of your life taken away because somebody thought you should behave differently, more conventionally? Through it all I haven’t given up, nor am I inclined to now. It isn’t who I was made to be.

Agreed. I don’t see any initiatives coming out of the Village on funding to rebuild our manufacturing base.

No wirerat1 was criticizing. You were giving him/her a pass while finding fault with me.

Well said.

Somebody say windmills?

I’m starting locally and a hometown Democratic candidate came within millimeters of defeating a do nothing, just say NO, four term Rep State Assembly person, last go round, in this historically Republican district. Fortunately, I have a decent choice, Feingold on the Deomcratic ticket (though I haven’t been all that happy with his recent lack of “let’s get after them,” attitude. And with my state district congressional representative whose Repug opponents are a clear choice to not let get into Congress, that’s where I start. Governor, clear choice against his Repug opponent.

And I try to get out, did you see what “happened,” today, in conversations, to put doubt about right-wingers into many acquaintances’ minds, who may not see the nuances of candidates they might be considering.

Thanks….I needed that. Once as a child, I cut my neighbor’s hair…not good. That’s about the way I look;)

Margaret, I hear you. Thanks for never giving up. And best of the day to you.

Marggaret, you are so special, always a unique voice in the wilderness. Power to ya & all the love & respect you can handle.

There are so many things wrong with Obama and the dems these days. I don’t even care to enumerate them. But I cannot imagine giving up and voting for the tea baggers, Palin and the Kochs and what kind of a world that would bring us. There must be a way to work around this. You cannot simply say there is no solution and give up. If we get past November maybe there will be another direction. Maybe we try to understand 1968 a little better and work from there. Losing another generation to the repug assholes is not in my DNA, not without a fight.

Well said.

Margaret all you’re doing is ranting the same tired stuff with the “lesser of two evils” nonsense. At what point do we let the system work? At what point do we stop rewarding complacency and greed that has become the hallmark of our Democratic party?

There is no “good answer” Margaret, but if you’re saying we need to get out and vote for our apathetic Democratic party because we fear the Republicans and/or Tea baggers, then you’ve lost me wholeheartedly.

Looking back on at the path the Democratic party has taken in recent decades, do you honestly see much difference between the parties? Sure, one is filled with evangelical idiots, but the Democrats are no better.

I refuse to continue to support mediocrity and give these people a pass on their inability to provide for their constituents. That’s the answer. The solution is to let the Democrats fail completely.

Don’t be the lemming that Rahm expects you to be. He knows you’re going to go out and vote for whoever has a (D) next to their name because you’re scared. He’s counting on it. He doesn’t need to give you a damn thing. He doesn’t need to help you find a job or provide decent health coverage for anyone. He knows you’ll be that lemming. He knows that fear will override any sort of sense of justice that needs to come.

The Democrats need time out in the wilderness. It is sad, but it is true. I find it amusing to hear you constantly complain yourself about the party, but then profess that you’ll vote for them. You are a glutton for punishment and willing to take more and more of their shit.

At what point do you grow a backbone and say “No more”? Ever? Oh wait, if its not the teabaggers its the fascists.

Obama and his advisers are counting on people like you. It is sad.

There’s no solution there, just the same tired old whine. Spare me.

Lol. Sure. You and Margaret can have your little pity party after the election and decry why your party has forsaken you and doesn’t respect you. If you’re unwilling to let them suffer, then they have no reason to respect you.

Nor do I…