Democrats now are about where the GOPers were during the Ronnie Raygun era.

Sure, gut SS and Medicare. Gotta pay for the Iran war somehow.

Hey, what have the old people ever done for us anyway?

Very well said, in a nutshell. The fight goes on.

Look at it this way: at least we didn’t send you off to die in Viet Nam, like our parents did.

From Linh Dinh’s article:

American democracy is like a restaurant with only two items on the menu, and no matter which one you order, ass or pachyderm, you’re served a toxic and bloody mess. Dissatisfied, you must wait four years to order again, only to receive, once more, a toxic and bloody mess. Bon appetit!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ass-Won-by-Linh-Dinh-121107-873.html

Quite right, Eli. There’s a lot of work that remains to be done.

You know the old (Stalin) saying about how the people who count the votes matter more than the people who cast them? It’s only partially true: What matters most are the filters that determine who gets to run in the first place.

It doesn’t really matter who casts *or* counts the votes when either outcome is a victory for moneyed interests.

I don’t really see why there would be any resistance to the Democratic Party once it lines up behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Grand Bargain.

You’re so right. Heads, they win. Tails, we lose. What a racket.

Sad and harsh truth, Eli, but still the truth none the less.

NO GOP operatives could have accomplished what Obama has done, and is about to do.

And the liberals who fervently believe he’s the saint incarnate to oppose the devil’s own apostles of the GOP REFUSE to believe what’s coming down their pike at them.

It’s all over ‘cept for the bleeding, but it’s all right ma . . . it’s just life and life only.

LeSigh.

I doubt there will be any resistance, either. Once Obama has enacts the TPP and the Grand Bargain, Democratic operatives will tell Democratic Loyalists: “Yes, that’s too bad, but it’s over. Now we have to concentrate on the 2014 House and Senate races…The Most Important Midterm Elections in Our Lifetime!”

Good on you, Eli, for not opening up a bunting-decked shoeshine stand for Obama. I know you’re glad he won, and so was I, but rewriting his first four years to the fantasy of brave Obama being thwarted by the dastardly republicans in his courageous push for progressive reforms, as some are doing, is a sure prescription for more of the same.

We don’t need any more tinkerbelle-dust, we need to deal with hard political realities, and they involve that terrible question of “what now?”. I think that IF he gets into the trenches with us and reminds people that the solutions to our problems involve more government oversight of corporate wealth and power, not less, and IF he sticks to it and will use the pulpit to fervently rack some GOP ass, then by the mid-terms, he just might have gotten enough clout to turn the House. It’s thin gruel to hope for, but I think it’s all we’ve got.

Someone needs to put some fire in the man to seriously try to make some real changes. He needs to forget about hoarding political capital and start using what he’s got left. If he doesn’t, then we’ve already seen the “high point” of his 8 years, and by 2016, the GOP could run anyone and win. The country will be in such bad shape that the Tea Party idiots will seem ilk oracles of wisdom as they peddle one outrageous lie after another.

You’re kinda depressing. I was still in party mode here. Now you want to talk about the grand bargain. What utterly silly nonsense that is. But Obama and the dems seem to feel they are going to foreclose on us, if we don’t do it. I only wish I knew who ” they” are.

On a positive note if the thugs keep on defining themselves the way they have these,past four,years, there’s a dust bin I want to show them

“It’s the best best we could do” “our hands are tied” “Those entrenched Republicans made us do it” “half a loaf is better than none” 99% cliched to death by the MOTU.

You have some good points in there. If Obama really does gut SS and Medicare, he will surely resign himself and his party to the same dust bin beside the Rs. But, unfortunately, he has some room to run here. I despise that but people have been conditioned to believe if we don’t do it bad things will happen. I have no idea what those bad things are but it seems most believe it.

As I said above, he has some room to run that game here. I personally utterly reject it. But I am in a minority, I think. We are NOT running out of money as some people believe.

How long till department of justice announces simple possession of mary jane is still illegal in Washington and colorado? and prosecution and jail will continue for that heinous offence.

a day, a week, a month?

as the oh so funny guy in Colorado said, to much chuckling, don’t get your cheetos out just yet.

I wonder how long it will take the progressive caucus to break out the pencils and paper to write themselves some sternly worded letters? That way they can tell us how they really, really tried.

“Demographics make the GOP irrelevant, Democrats make it unnecessary.”

I shall be stealing this line.

“How long till department of justice announces simple possession of mary jane is still illegal …”

That started yesterday.

You know we don’t need rich people’s money. Taxes don’t finance anything for the Feds. But people believe it and we should do it to help redistribute income. But we need to spend it so it does not drag on the economy. So lets start a very large infrastructure program. You could easily spent over trillion in NY and NJ. Plus it would help the economy.

LOL!

So now we live in the Monastery of Obama, praising his greatness while taking our vows of poverty…

There is more money in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world by far, especially if you count the money controlled by people in the U.S. stashed in “friendly” Countries banks. As Naomi Klein always says we have a distribution problem not a resource problem.

But the GOP is quite necessary! A “two party system” requires that there be two parties, and so they need a dummy party to keep the people in line.

Party mode? Why? The more effective evil won. That’s nothing to gloat over. It’s especially not something that you should wave smugly in the faces of .3% of voters that actually, rather than rhetorically, rejected both Obama’s murderous warmongering and harmful neoliberalism.

What I find incredibly amusing is how incredibly effective the private enterprises have been able to control the debate on income distribution.

Apparently, if you give the money you earned to Walmart and they redistribute it to shareholders, vendors, employees and whatnot without any consideration on whether or not you, the consumer, approve of how they redistribute it, that’s peachy.

However, if the government you elected and have the ability to tell how and where you want your tax dollars spent redistributes money then it’s “COMMUNISM” and a terrible, terrible thing.

We in the .3% should resolve to move to Wyoming and if my math is correct we would be the majority Party. We could elect two Green Party Senators and one Congressman. It would give us more power than we could get in the same time frame any other way and it would piss off Dick Cheney and a bunch of other .1%ers that have ranches there.

Worse yet, it looks like Obama and the Democrats are poised to Grandly Bargain away Social Security and Medicare

At Naked Capitalism they are calling it the Grand Betrayal.
I think that sums it up nicely.

Never been to Wyoming, but ok, I’m in.

“Demographics make the GOP irrelevant, Democrats make it unnecessary.”

Excellent. Makes a great bumpersticker. Thanks, Eli!

I think we’ll know pretty soon if Obama 1) is capable of really grasping an alternative to the fiscal austerity fix — although he may be constitutionally, philosophically, psychologically unable to do so — doesn’t leave much to hope for does it, and if so 2) capable of rising above the kabuki — and his constitutional, philosophical and psychological patterns — to assert some positive leadership. Something really transformative is needed to rearrange his organism.

And we will know long before the faux shape of the solution to this faux problem is finalized, I would say, by his opening position.

The shape of everything else for the next four years will be subsumed by the direction of the next few months — or weeks.

And, please, no premature talk about legacy or other front loaded superfluities. Or any more eleventy dimensional chess talk or similar self-calming delusions.

I hear it is very much like Chicago except there are no buildings or people just cold wind and fracking wells. And as Colbert has pointed out many times..BEARS. :)

Have you seen the Rachel Maddow show or video yet? You can go to nbcnews.Com and click on Maddow to get to the video. If that does not make you feel good, I got nothing.

I think climate change trumps petty little political parties and their Randian politicians.

A pox on both of their houses, the American Dream Murderers.

Katrina, Isaac, and Irene, just the beginning, and that’s just North America.

Just a few years from now, Climate change will be the only issue. There won’t be any social security issues to discuss, because much of economy, and the government and the hallowed private enterprises will be gone.

But, we’ll have lots of oil and coal to eat.

And that bull on Wall Street will be up to its nostrils in sea water.

Those upper class folks on long Island see how far a large amount of cyphers on a computer screen get you . Gas, food, electric, restaurants you name it they don’t have it.

Sandy shit hitting the fan this time, next time maybe solids hit the blades.

WOW, this post is right on the money. great not to have the nightmare from hell as POTUS, but having to vote for a two-timing corporate shill leaves with that feeling you can’t wash off with soap and water.

They can always eat their gold and warm themselves with their portfolios. Jeff Master at weather undergound seems to be predicting one of these superstorms every year. Hope the next one is called Donald or Jamie and hits in the Hamptons because then scientists will be smart again.

I’m glad it’s over. A very dispiriting “election” this time around. Very despressing.

One bright spot was the trouncing of Rep Dan Lungren (Reptile) in the CA 7th District. Ami Bera, who won, has potential to be a really good Rep (D) for all concerned. I am glad about this, but… the rest of the picture ain’t so great.

Good luck to us all. We’re gonna need it.

Inside the reams of data after this election cycle there is little to cheer about, really. The large urban areas of this country will continue to be pushed to the brink by the suburbanites/gentrifiers who favor moderation on social issues and fiscal austerity for the lower middle class/poor. Thus, the same people who elected Obama and a larger majority Senate, inner city folks of all stripes, will be ditched for the upper incomers and wealthy who provide the money road map to victory. I think as the cities grow more frustrated in this straight jacket, panic and desperation will spiral out, rapidly. The rising cost of food, housing, transportation coupled with wage stagnation and world wide environmental degradation is going to play out in very nasty ways for this country. And, by extension its’ economic allies. Sandy is the warning on the prescription bottle for our dimmed future. Will the urbanites, ringed by various disaster zones, trapped by economic quarantine even bother to read the label before swallowing more poison? Or even be allowed to? I don’t know that they’ll even have time to ponder the possible results. The term cannibal was used in the 19th century to describe every one who hadn’t been ” saved ” by the missionaries. That term describes the fate of 70% of our fellow heathen citizens, I fear. The missionaries can’t even save themselves after this election. Their $600-700 a vote strategy didn’t pan out, oddly enough. Will a $1000 a vote be the tipping point? That $$$flag decal still won’t get you into heaven or the oval office. But for how long will that be the case? Saving yourself and your urban community will be progressives’ 2nd full time job. But will there be any benefits package? I’m not too sure.

Well said, Eli.

Lets revisit the people who won and examine their records at the end of their terms. I am sure they will have sold out and lost their idealism. Contact with money is evil, and these people are not strong enough to withstand its power. They will crumble, unfortunately. The only way to cure the system is to stop money from touching them. Then there may be a chance. But I am not optimistic.

You know we don’t need rich people’s money. Taxes don’t finance anything for the Feds.

I don’t get what you’re saying here. Could your elucidate a bit please? Thnx.

Or anyone’s thoughts on what is meant?

People choose to spend money at Wal-Mart. They don’t get a choice about taxes and they don’t feel their votes matter, that is the difference.

Which video are you pointing us to? URL? THnx.

He’s right. Taxes don’t fund spending at the federal level. We’re a monetary sovereign government, so all spending at that level is funded by money creation. Taxes just give our currency its value. There’s no need to run a surplus. In fact, it’s counterproductive (as it was during Clinton’s term) unless we’re running a large trade surplus and unemployment is near 0.

Yes, that’s pretty much the case.

But don’t jump ahead of the story. The first tell of strategy is what happens to the fiscal cliff. The politically smart thing to do is let the Republicans drive the situation past the deadline and the fiscal cliff in December. Obama has published his plan; it’s an across the board 8% cut more or less (the percentage on the military side is higher). Because they’re entitlements, Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are not cut. And the President will not cut military pay and benefits. It automatically happens if Congress does not come to agreement. And for a short period of time, it is going to be more symbolic than actual in terms of services; the President and agencies have been cutting and squirreling away a limited amount of saving in expenses already. Politically, the President should just let it happen, putting the monkey on the Republican House to come up with the funds for discretionary and military spending and balancing them with other cuts or tax hikes. I say it’s a tell because of the uncertainty about whether Mr. Bipartisanship will do it. He once again has the political capital and media honeymoon for it to happen.

At the same time, the Bush tax cuts expire. And once again it is on the Republican Congress to deal with the middle class tax cut (and grandstand again on a tax cut for those with incomes over, where is the bargaining now, $1 million in income. Doing nothing here works to the President’s advantage; he no longer has to worry about election attacks for “raising taxes” (letting tax cuts expire). Will he put the monkey on the GOP House on this?

If nothing happens, run the numbers for the budget in February and the debt situation looks remarkably better. At that point will there be the necessity of a Grand Bargain? What will be the popular politics driving it with the dramatic reductions in debt (in prospect) and analysts beginning to fret that austerity is the wrong thing for the government to do to the economy.

I don’t do tea leaves, but that’s what a Democrat wanting to win back the House would do in this situation.

Like I said, the fiscal cliff will be a tell.