With the election of 1980, Americans — most unknowingly — chose great wealth over democracy, oligarchy over a middle class, billionaires over working people.
Raising the income taxes on the super-rich is outright communism!
That is what we will hear as the GOP defends their opposition to such a move. Thus, like killing Citizens United, the November election will have to be a Blue Wave to achieve such common-sense change.
Assertions that higher taxes on the wealthy are not fair is just gaslight. The Billionaires benefit far more that the average American from a Navy that enables reliable international trade and an Army that can rush in and keep rogue dictators and rebels from disrupting trade in surrounding countries. Having a reliable interstate highway system (no potholes or fallen bridges) is critical to retail sales. Even restaurants depend on 18-Wheelers to replenish their food supplies - so do the owners of Publix, Safeway, Kroger, COSTCO, etc. Yet the middle class pays for most of that; not the morbidly wealthy.
It is about time we require the 1% to pay their fair share instead of scamming IRS like Trump and his fellow billionaires have been doing - paying less than the typical middle class citizen.
America has always been the place where people come to find security and freedom from oppression. That’s why migrants fro all over the world are marching through dangerous jungles to get to our borders. However, no one who gets to live here expects to live rent free. Everyone expects to have a chance to work hard and reap the fruits of their creativity, innovation, and labor. That’s the deal, as Biden would say. If you contribute to society, feed your family, and pay your taxes, everyone benefits.
But along the way, for many people, the goal to get rich, very rich, became a sickness. Many people didn’t care about the deal. They learned how to use the capitalist system to use leverage to become obscenely rich, with no regard to whom they exploited, ruined, or even killed. Once they amassed their fortunes they decided that they must be geniuses for being able to do that, so they decided that they should run the government. Sadly, many people who were not so ruthless and greedy got sucked in to the idea that the very wealthy must know more than they do. If you listened to ten minutes of Trump’s conversation with Musk you would quickly realize that certainly is not true.
This is a segue for what we've been sayin' elsewhere. Musk and Trump. Megalomaniacal SOBs. Civil commitment. Trump was a threat to himself during the NY trials. His "contempt" would initiate a competency investigation for anybody who was never president of the United States.
Both Trump and Musk rant and rale about migrants threatening to infect our "blood?" Migrants as "vermin"? Alarmist speculation about crime in the streets? Labelling the "other" as the physical enemy?
Megalomaniacs differ from narcissists to be powerful rather than charming, to be feared rather than loved. They instill fear. Crime. As a matter of FACT crime is higher in red states than blue states.
Civil commitment - involuntary hospitalization of a patient – is the legal process by which a person is confined in a psychiatric hospital because of a treatable mental disorder, against his or her wishes.
Under principles of equity, a court can appoint a conservator to protect financial interests during that period.
Yes, Trump should have been hospitalized after January 6, 2021, as a danger to himself and others. Instead the courts have decided to protect him from prosecution instead of protecting the public from him.
AS regards the NY trials, Merchan and Chutkan presiding. You are correct Daniel, anyone else would have had to face a competency hearing and be remanded to jail, but not Trump. We can use the excuse that he was a prominent figure and ex President, but that doesn't in any way justify or excuse the fact that he hasn't been prosecuted or penalized.. I reject any and all apologists, whatever the situation.
Liberals see Merchan and Chutkan as hero's. I don't. Merchan bent over backwards time after time for Trump during his trial.
As always behavior can be explained by the three C;s, Cowardiness, Complicity or Corruption.
We elevated Mueller to demigod status, yet his report was so weak that Barr had no problem claiming that it basically exonerated Trump.
We placed all of our faith and hopes on Jack Smith, yet he has allowed Aileen Cannon virtgually get away with murder, when he should have filed for her removal, at the beginning, he still hasn't. Hmmm, wonder why that is?
The morbidly rich will not become good American citizens voluntarily. Lol. Gilens and Page research published in 2014 makes a good argument that the US is an oligarchy with the majority only getting what they want if oligarchs also want it, which is almost never.
IMHO we have 1. a collection problem and 2. are undermined by a "energy tax" initiated by OPEC, both which should be prioritized and which could make corrections of income disparity more palatable.
I agree that if there are violations of antitrust, perps should be 1 first threatened and if no compliance 2 prosecuted. The Biden administration is on the job.
With respect to OPEC, economics meets national security. We are, in effect, financing Russian and Iranian proxy wars against the US and our allies.
Here's the good news (from Daily Chatter): Top Ukrainian commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi boasted this week that his troops now control almost 400 square miles of Russian territory in the Kursk border region, capturing 28 villages and forcing more than 100,000 Russians to flee.
“Russia brought war to others – now it is coming home,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video posted on Telegram.
The Ukrainian invasion of Russia – marking the first foreign incursion since World War II – began on Aug. 6 and is a daring move that has shocked and humiliated Russia and turned the tables on the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, more than two years ago.
Over the past week, Ukrainians driving American tanks pushed deep into Russian territory, facing little resistance from a weakly manned border area, reported the Financial Times. Russian planes have launched bombs to stop their progress, but Russian troops have not sallied forth to halt the Ukrainian advance – yet. Meanwhile, as National Public Radio wrote, even pro-Russian bloggers have called Russia’s response “slow and disorganized.”
Putin, in reaction, has called the Ukrainian push a “large-scale provocation,” which the BBC reported as “irony not lost on many.” Regardless, some analysts believe he will use it as an excuse to sanction harsher attacks on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure, and shore up his position that Ukraine is a threat to Russia, Al Jazeera noted.
The counter-offensive, meanwhile, appeared designed to force the Russians to divert forces from fighting on the primary front line to the south. The invasion has also boosted Ukrainian morale, added the Washington Post, as thousands of Russians flee the Ukrainians, reversing the trend so far of Ukrainians running from invading Russians.
It was a way to remind Russians in Russia about the war, said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament. “If Ukrainians feel the war every day and Russians don’t, they don’t want it to end,” he said. “They need to feel it too.”
Western officials also said the advance might offer a strategic advantage during negotiations: Zelenskyy could use seized Russian territory in exchange for Putin agreeing to retreat from parts of Ukraine that Russian troops now occupy.
Meanwhile, analysts at the Atlantic Council explained that Ukraine was going on the offensive because it has failed to make much progress fighting Russia on the main front. Zelenskyy needed to think outside the box and shake up the current terms of the fight, which favored the far-larger Russian military to eventually defeat Ukraine.
“Kyiv’s best chance of military success lies in returning to a war of mobility and maneuver that allows Ukrainian commanders to take advantage of their relative agility while exploiting the Russian army’s far more cumbersome decision-making processes,” they said.
The attack also happened at around the same time that American F-16 fighter jets first arrived in Ukraine, the BBC added, aircraft that were long denied to the Ukrainians because Western allies worried about being dragged into a third world war, even a nuclear war. Now, these jets are supposed to be a vital part of a larger campaign to roll back the Russian army.
That might take a while, if it happens at all, say commentators, noting Russian strength. In the meantime, the Ukrainians have had something to chuckle about, they added.
“There has been quiet delight in Kyiv,” said the BBC regarding the invasion. “People are saying, ‘Oh look, here’s our special operation – we are liberating Russian territory.”
I am ashamed to say, throughout the 1980s and 1990s I voted against the very policies that provided me with an economically secure childhood. Having been brainwashed by the evangelical right and ignorant of American economic history left me vulnerable to be used as a weapon in the war against economic stability and democracy itself. I was literally voting against my own self-interest! I am now working hard to make amends for my past but, I’m afraid, I will not live long enough to see the results of my efforts. Vote 💙 to save democracy for our grandchildren and future generations!
Brenda, after seeing the light, I think you have the insight to possibly change some of those evangelicals minds, at least about the economy anyway, that people like me are locked out of. Without a decent standard of living, we are just another third world failed nation! All this cultural BS won't mean tiddlywinks! We will all be poor, hungry and possibly homeless! If you have any Evangelical friends left, just for the fun of it try to persuade them "ECONICALLY" to vote blue please. Vote in secret if they have to.
Though they deserve our respect for standing up to Trumpian authoritarianism, a lot of Never Trumper Republicans (or ex-Republicans) had a major blind spot for how the Age of Reagan steeped our nation into a dark plutocratic cycle. Many still offer a level of hagiography around the Reagan years and its impact that can be a little intellectually dishonest when considering everything that has happened in the last several years. I hope we can reckon with how Reaganism and voodoo economics mired this nation and rebuild our middle class society.
Yeah, that voodoo economics previously was called horse-and-sparrow economics. Feed the horse enough oats and some passes through for the sparrows. And that’s a better term for it!
I'm a little confused, why didn't Garland prosecute the insurrectionist instigators? Why hasn't Biden replaced Garland? Why is Elon allowed to lie on x and still keep SpaceX? Lying is not protected speech! Only liars want it to be. The oligarchs need to be taken away from owning mass media! They keep picking on our morons, who just happen to be right wingers.
Hopefully Kamala will have some sane policies on the economy and immigration?
My complaints and questions all of the time Bob, Merrick Garland is playing for the other team, and why not he was on the other side when Orrin Hatch vetted him to Obama for SCOTUS.
And he will still be attorney general after the election. I can't count on him bringing the traitors who are going to try to steal the election, to justice. Fool me once, that's your fault, fool me twice, that's my faul!
And for this Bob, I blame Biden. The politics he learned in the Senate of comity, compromise, bipartisanship all bend to the Republicans, who are always unyielding, Any compromise ever, that is heralded in the media and by Democrats is on the part of Democrats, never ever Republicans.
There is no difference between centrist Republicans and Centrist Democrats, other than the team jacket they wear., both are in competition for donor dollars., finally in the second half of Biden's presidency has appeared some daylight.
My hope is that if Harris overcomes the voter suppression laws and actions that the Republicans have put in place, that there will be more and substantive daylight between them.
John Locke, father of liberal democracy, believed some people could accumulate so much wealth that it hindered others enjoying liberty, right to property, and become destructive to society, so government should intervene.
Hospitals and healthcare insurance should be not-for-profit only. During Reagan, BC/BS of IN was allowed to change to profit basis. Premiums exploded! They lost so many customers they had to reduce rates, but not to previous level.
Physicians, nurses and lab techs should be paid enough to entice people into the profession, The apprentice ship for doctors and surgeons is about six years after obtaining their doctorate. And there servitude as interns is disgraceful, they take shit and get paid bumpkiss, even a resident doesn't get paid what a journeyman plumber or electrician gets paid.
“Power concedes nothing without struggle.” -Frederick Douglas.
I just want to remind those who believe that the rights and economic security that the middle class abandoned in pursuit of punishing minorities and women and immigrants and gays and non-cisgender people, Jews, Muslims, and every other real and imaginary bogeyman will not be returned willingly. The systems that put them in place have been hardened. Rightly so; we have turned poorer and middle class Americans into tax cheats, because we have created a system that rewards them for cutting off their noses to spite their faces and they know the path to wealth is greed and fraud.
I know there are good people who want to see more equitable distribution of wealth in this country, but getting those who already have more than their share to release any of it…there’s the rub.
This will be years of reform: of the Supreme Court, Congress, taxes, subsidies, tariffs, and a host of really boring things that we need to remind ourselves are critical to enjoy the fruits of American democracy.
Will the rich ever go back to being good American citizens?
Not when they view the economy as a zero sum game ( if I want a bigger slice of the pizza - I need to take it from you ) . Hopefully most of us believe we can grow the economy and not make it a zero sum game
where we have a chance to bake more pizza and give one another a shot at a bigger piece of it .
Too many of us missed the Lion King -
“ Some say it’s eat or be eaten , to others it’s live and let live . But in the circle of life you will find that you should never take more than you give .”
I also grew up in the 50's and 60's and we lived in a modest neighborhood in Evanston IL that had everything from working class people, teachers, Cubs baseball players (they weren't among the morbidly rich then), doctors (who still made house calls with their little black bags) and lawyers (who weren't allowed to advertise). Money was spread fairly evenly. Life was good.
George Carlin in one of his performances said- I tried cocaine and it made me feel like a new man. The first thing that that new man wanted was more cocaine. I think the same is true about money. You just can't have enough.
The rich are very close to ruining our country and must be stopped. The only way to start is at the polls.
Their $ will buy fed lands, parks , ports, resources of the commons, to pay down the N debt. Loot the country like corp raiders. Not only US ricos, but global yard sale.
Jeffrey, you probably know that has been done in South America. Now it's our turn if we allow it. The economist, Michael Hudson explains that well. Find Robyns' book, "Limitarianism" for an argument to limit wealth.
Raising the income taxes on the super-rich is outright communism!
That is what we will hear as the GOP defends their opposition to such a move. Thus, like killing Citizens United, the November election will have to be a Blue Wave to achieve such common-sense change.
Assertions that higher taxes on the wealthy are not fair is just gaslight. The Billionaires benefit far more that the average American from a Navy that enables reliable international trade and an Army that can rush in and keep rogue dictators and rebels from disrupting trade in surrounding countries. Having a reliable interstate highway system (no potholes or fallen bridges) is critical to retail sales. Even restaurants depend on 18-Wheelers to replenish their food supplies - so do the owners of Publix, Safeway, Kroger, COSTCO, etc. Yet the middle class pays for most of that; not the morbidly wealthy.
It is about time we require the 1% to pay their fair share instead of scamming IRS like Trump and his fellow billionaires have been doing - paying less than the typical middle class citizen.
America has always been the place where people come to find security and freedom from oppression. That’s why migrants fro all over the world are marching through dangerous jungles to get to our borders. However, no one who gets to live here expects to live rent free. Everyone expects to have a chance to work hard and reap the fruits of their creativity, innovation, and labor. That’s the deal, as Biden would say. If you contribute to society, feed your family, and pay your taxes, everyone benefits.
But along the way, for many people, the goal to get rich, very rich, became a sickness. Many people didn’t care about the deal. They learned how to use the capitalist system to use leverage to become obscenely rich, with no regard to whom they exploited, ruined, or even killed. Once they amassed their fortunes they decided that they must be geniuses for being able to do that, so they decided that they should run the government. Sadly, many people who were not so ruthless and greedy got sucked in to the idea that the very wealthy must know more than they do. If you listened to ten minutes of Trump’s conversation with Musk you would quickly realize that certainly is not true.
This is a segue for what we've been sayin' elsewhere. Musk and Trump. Megalomaniacal SOBs. Civil commitment. Trump was a threat to himself during the NY trials. His "contempt" would initiate a competency investigation for anybody who was never president of the United States.
Both Trump and Musk rant and rale about migrants threatening to infect our "blood?" Migrants as "vermin"? Alarmist speculation about crime in the streets? Labelling the "other" as the physical enemy?
Megalomaniacs differ from narcissists to be powerful rather than charming, to be feared rather than loved. They instill fear. Crime. As a matter of FACT crime is higher in red states than blue states.
Civil commitment - involuntary hospitalization of a patient – is the legal process by which a person is confined in a psychiatric hospital because of a treatable mental disorder, against his or her wishes.
Under principles of equity, a court can appoint a conservator to protect financial interests during that period.
Yes, Trump should have been hospitalized after January 6, 2021, as a danger to himself and others. Instead the courts have decided to protect him from prosecution instead of protecting the public from him.
Hospital or prison to protect the public would have made sense.
AS regards the NY trials, Merchan and Chutkan presiding. You are correct Daniel, anyone else would have had to face a competency hearing and be remanded to jail, but not Trump. We can use the excuse that he was a prominent figure and ex President, but that doesn't in any way justify or excuse the fact that he hasn't been prosecuted or penalized.. I reject any and all apologists, whatever the situation.
Liberals see Merchan and Chutkan as hero's. I don't. Merchan bent over backwards time after time for Trump during his trial.
As always behavior can be explained by the three C;s, Cowardiness, Complicity or Corruption.
We elevated Mueller to demigod status, yet his report was so weak that Barr had no problem claiming that it basically exonerated Trump.
We placed all of our faith and hopes on Jack Smith, yet he has allowed Aileen Cannon virtgually get away with murder, when he should have filed for her removal, at the beginning, he still hasn't. Hmmm, wonder why that is?
Only the cult can listen 10 minutes without pulling their hair out!
The morbidly rich will not become good American citizens voluntarily. Lol. Gilens and Page research published in 2014 makes a good argument that the US is an oligarchy with the majority only getting what they want if oligarchs also want it, which is almost never.
Some of us grew up with this stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class
IMHO we have 1. a collection problem and 2. are undermined by a "energy tax" initiated by OPEC, both which should be prioritized and which could make corrections of income disparity more palatable.
I agree that if there are violations of antitrust, perps should be 1 first threatened and if no compliance 2 prosecuted. The Biden administration is on the job.
With respect to OPEC, economics meets national security. We are, in effect, financing Russian and Iranian proxy wars against the US and our allies.
Here's the good news (from Daily Chatter): Top Ukrainian commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi boasted this week that his troops now control almost 400 square miles of Russian territory in the Kursk border region, capturing 28 villages and forcing more than 100,000 Russians to flee.
“Russia brought war to others – now it is coming home,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video posted on Telegram.
The Ukrainian invasion of Russia – marking the first foreign incursion since World War II – began on Aug. 6 and is a daring move that has shocked and humiliated Russia and turned the tables on the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, more than two years ago.
Over the past week, Ukrainians driving American tanks pushed deep into Russian territory, facing little resistance from a weakly manned border area, reported the Financial Times. Russian planes have launched bombs to stop their progress, but Russian troops have not sallied forth to halt the Ukrainian advance – yet. Meanwhile, as National Public Radio wrote, even pro-Russian bloggers have called Russia’s response “slow and disorganized.”
Putin, in reaction, has called the Ukrainian push a “large-scale provocation,” which the BBC reported as “irony not lost on many.” Regardless, some analysts believe he will use it as an excuse to sanction harsher attacks on Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure, and shore up his position that Ukraine is a threat to Russia, Al Jazeera noted.
The counter-offensive, meanwhile, appeared designed to force the Russians to divert forces from fighting on the primary front line to the south. The invasion has also boosted Ukrainian morale, added the Washington Post, as thousands of Russians flee the Ukrainians, reversing the trend so far of Ukrainians running from invading Russians.
It was a way to remind Russians in Russia about the war, said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament. “If Ukrainians feel the war every day and Russians don’t, they don’t want it to end,” he said. “They need to feel it too.”
Western officials also said the advance might offer a strategic advantage during negotiations: Zelenskyy could use seized Russian territory in exchange for Putin agreeing to retreat from parts of Ukraine that Russian troops now occupy.
Meanwhile, analysts at the Atlantic Council explained that Ukraine was going on the offensive because it has failed to make much progress fighting Russia on the main front. Zelenskyy needed to think outside the box and shake up the current terms of the fight, which favored the far-larger Russian military to eventually defeat Ukraine.
“Kyiv’s best chance of military success lies in returning to a war of mobility and maneuver that allows Ukrainian commanders to take advantage of their relative agility while exploiting the Russian army’s far more cumbersome decision-making processes,” they said.
The attack also happened at around the same time that American F-16 fighter jets first arrived in Ukraine, the BBC added, aircraft that were long denied to the Ukrainians because Western allies worried about being dragged into a third world war, even a nuclear war. Now, these jets are supposed to be a vital part of a larger campaign to roll back the Russian army.
That might take a while, if it happens at all, say commentators, noting Russian strength. In the meantime, the Ukrainians have had something to chuckle about, they added.
“There has been quiet delight in Kyiv,” said the BBC regarding the invasion. “People are saying, ‘Oh look, here’s our special operation – we are liberating Russian territory.”
Ms. Maloney, please see my response below to Mr. Kaufman.
I am ashamed to say, throughout the 1980s and 1990s I voted against the very policies that provided me with an economically secure childhood. Having been brainwashed by the evangelical right and ignorant of American economic history left me vulnerable to be used as a weapon in the war against economic stability and democracy itself. I was literally voting against my own self-interest! I am now working hard to make amends for my past but, I’m afraid, I will not live long enough to see the results of my efforts. Vote 💙 to save democracy for our grandchildren and future generations!
Brenda, after seeing the light, I think you have the insight to possibly change some of those evangelicals minds, at least about the economy anyway, that people like me are locked out of. Without a decent standard of living, we are just another third world failed nation! All this cultural BS won't mean tiddlywinks! We will all be poor, hungry and possibly homeless! If you have any Evangelical friends left, just for the fun of it try to persuade them "ECONICALLY" to vote blue please. Vote in secret if they have to.
Brenda, don’t beat yourself up. Just share what you’re learned. Some politicians learned the art of deception too well.
Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Adam Smith all promoted curbs on excessive wealth as necessary to maintain a democracy.
Though they deserve our respect for standing up to Trumpian authoritarianism, a lot of Never Trumper Republicans (or ex-Republicans) had a major blind spot for how the Age of Reagan steeped our nation into a dark plutocratic cycle. Many still offer a level of hagiography around the Reagan years and its impact that can be a little intellectually dishonest when considering everything that has happened in the last several years. I hope we can reckon with how Reaganism and voodoo economics mired this nation and rebuild our middle class society.
Yeah, that voodoo economics previously was called horse-and-sparrow economics. Feed the horse enough oats and some passes through for the sparrows. And that’s a better term for it!
I'm a little confused, why didn't Garland prosecute the insurrectionist instigators? Why hasn't Biden replaced Garland? Why is Elon allowed to lie on x and still keep SpaceX? Lying is not protected speech! Only liars want it to be. The oligarchs need to be taken away from owning mass media! They keep picking on our morons, who just happen to be right wingers.
Hopefully Kamala will have some sane policies on the economy and immigration?
Wouldn't it be great if Harris wins, and she has the nerve to appoint Jack Smith as AG?
5 year statute of limitations. He didn't use the insurrection statute.
Why not? He would have been one of my favorite presidents in my lifetime if he had!
Right Daniel which is ipso facto evidence of his compliciy.
My complaints and questions all of the time Bob, Merrick Garland is playing for the other team, and why not he was on the other side when Orrin Hatch vetted him to Obama for SCOTUS.
And he will still be attorney general after the election. I can't count on him bringing the traitors who are going to try to steal the election, to justice. Fool me once, that's your fault, fool me twice, that's my faul!
And for this Bob, I blame Biden. The politics he learned in the Senate of comity, compromise, bipartisanship all bend to the Republicans, who are always unyielding, Any compromise ever, that is heralded in the media and by Democrats is on the part of Democrats, never ever Republicans.
There is no difference between centrist Republicans and Centrist Democrats, other than the team jacket they wear., both are in competition for donor dollars., finally in the second half of Biden's presidency has appeared some daylight.
My hope is that if Harris overcomes the voter suppression laws and actions that the Republicans have put in place, that there will be more and substantive daylight between them.
John Locke, father of liberal democracy, believed some people could accumulate so much wealth that it hindered others enjoying liberty, right to property, and become destructive to society, so government should intervene.
Hospitals and healthcare insurance should be not-for-profit only. During Reagan, BC/BS of IN was allowed to change to profit basis. Premiums exploded! They lost so many customers they had to reduce rates, but not to previous level.
Physicians, nurses and lab techs should be paid enough to entice people into the profession, The apprentice ship for doctors and surgeons is about six years after obtaining their doctorate. And there servitude as interns is disgraceful, they take shit and get paid bumpkiss, even a resident doesn't get paid what a journeyman plumber or electrician gets paid.
“Power concedes nothing without struggle.” -Frederick Douglas.
I just want to remind those who believe that the rights and economic security that the middle class abandoned in pursuit of punishing minorities and women and immigrants and gays and non-cisgender people, Jews, Muslims, and every other real and imaginary bogeyman will not be returned willingly. The systems that put them in place have been hardened. Rightly so; we have turned poorer and middle class Americans into tax cheats, because we have created a system that rewards them for cutting off their noses to spite their faces and they know the path to wealth is greed and fraud.
I know there are good people who want to see more equitable distribution of wealth in this country, but getting those who already have more than their share to release any of it…there’s the rub.
This will be years of reform: of the Supreme Court, Congress, taxes, subsidies, tariffs, and a host of really boring things that we need to remind ourselves are critical to enjoy the fruits of American democracy.
We prefer bread and circus.
Modern day, low food prices, concerts, rallies, NASCAR and sports.
Yay, Olympics.
A good portion of the athletes competing for a nation, were not born,nor do they live in the nation for which they compete.
It is a business.
Will the rich ever go back to being good American citizens?
Not when they view the economy as a zero sum game ( if I want a bigger slice of the pizza - I need to take it from you ) . Hopefully most of us believe we can grow the economy and not make it a zero sum game
where we have a chance to bake more pizza and give one another a shot at a bigger piece of it .
Too many of us missed the Lion King -
“ Some say it’s eat or be eaten , to others it’s live and let live . But in the circle of life you will find that you should never take more than you give .”
If only the deciding vote for Citizens United had not been bribed, (tipped?) with millions without disclosing any of it.
Well said! Help me out here; if 70% of Americans oppose Citizens United, why do 50% vote for Republicans? Welcome to the human mind!
The billionaires and even multi-millionaires, say 99 to 999,000,000 USD, have No incentive to become "good" Americans.
They want to own the Entire plantation nation, in a feudal sense.
And they will scapegoat their mothers and their mothers' mothers to get hold of a chunk of said plantation.
They wouldn't mind a dictator [esp. one who's sick in the head] because they could bypass all of those messy and pesky elections.
They, (the oligarchs) see themselves as the head of a centipede.
And the citizenry are its legs.
The objectives of the head? Self-nourishment/reproduction (Musk made 12 babies)
How? By uninterrupted forward movement.
The only way that happens is thru strict control of the legs. Look! Over there !!! It's an external threat. RUN in Lockstep!!!
The welfare of the legs? Irrelevant. As long as they keep working in sync to benefit the head.
Unions? PATCO? UAW? They're individualistic Rebels. Hence . . .
A-N-T-H-E-M-A to the centipede's head.
I also grew up in the 50's and 60's and we lived in a modest neighborhood in Evanston IL that had everything from working class people, teachers, Cubs baseball players (they weren't among the morbidly rich then), doctors (who still made house calls with their little black bags) and lawyers (who weren't allowed to advertise). Money was spread fairly evenly. Life was good.
George Carlin in one of his performances said- I tried cocaine and it made me feel like a new man. The first thing that that new man wanted was more cocaine. I think the same is true about money. You just can't have enough.
The rich are very close to ruining our country and must be stopped. The only way to start is at the polls.
Their $ will buy fed lands, parks , ports, resources of the commons, to pay down the N debt. Loot the country like corp raiders. Not only US ricos, but global yard sale.
Jeffrey, you probably know that has been done in South America. Now it's our turn if we allow it. The economist, Michael Hudson explains that well. Find Robyns' book, "Limitarianism" for an argument to limit wealth.
Foreign and domestic billionaires will buy the commons and that will end all this nonsense about the "American dream"!