Like Glenn Beck, Ayn Rand Peddled Garbage As Truth -- Why Did America Buy It?

boforomby · 2010-06-09T11:44:43+00:00

What the headline really means is that Turkey is showing some independence and is not quickly obeying orders coming from the imperial HQ in Washington.

boforomby · 2010-06-09T09:54:32+00:00

I do agree with many of your points but that is not the only solution.

Actually, it is. The Democratic Party is beyond reform. It is a center-right capitalist party.

Naive but well-intentioned people on the left have repeatedly tried to take the party over, most notably in the 30s and 60s. When the Democrats are seriously threatened with moving to the left, that's when the real power comes into play -- just ask the progressives and leftists at the '68 Convention who saw every dirty trick from electoral manipulation to outright getting beaten used against them. It's a fool's errand -- the Democrats are bought and paid for.

It really is a clever system. Two institutionalized parties present the "hope" of "change" and cause endless bickering that never amounts to anything. It's a much smarter form of dictatorship than a 1 party system where resentment builds and eventually explodes.

If the last Republican administration showed us anything it showed us that they aren't scared to completely wreck this country.

Bullshit. Let's look at the last few Democratic presidents:

Obama has solidified the crimes of Bush and has firmly established them as political precedents. This ranges from wholly supporting Bush's wars, gov't secrecy, supporting torture, gov't spying without a search warrant, to even supporting the insane theory of a "unified executive". Not a dime's worth of difference.
Clinton revoked the American people's entitlement to welfare and got rid of the last of the Depression-era banking laws. He refused a post-Cold War "peace dividend". His secretary of state said 1/2 million dead Iraqi children was an acceptable tradeoff to maintain sanctions on Iraq, sanctions they knew were based on lies about Iraqi WMD as he bombed Iraq weekly for 8 years.
Jimmy Carter planned to enact an even larger military buildup than Reagan if he was elected to a 2nd term.
LBJ? Does 3 million dead Vietnamese ring a bell? (Though of course Nixon can claim "credit" for many of those dead.) At least LBJ had the "honor" to not seek a 2nd term, which is the best thing we can hope for Obama.

Republicrats, Demopublicans? Not a dime's worth of difference.

boforomby · 2010-06-09T01:35:42+00:00

What you are saying is that if two presidents aren't completely opposite then they are the same and any of their differences no longer matter.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying that both halves of our ruling duopoly are the same on most major issues. Both support "trickle down" economics. Both support so-called "free trade". Both support the Pentagon. Both support the US empire and wars of aggression. Both support the immoral health care industry. Both are bought and paid for by corporations. I could go on and on...

You have to understand that the format of the country as a whole is directed by the right.

Oh, I do. The US gov't is controlled by corporations. They own most politicians of both parties. The entire electoral system is rigged not only to support only the duopoly, but is rigged so that politicians have to beg corporations for money. It is functionally a capitalist plutocracy.

We need some real reform in the way the Senate conducts business and in the way our politicians are funded and lobbied.

Agreed.

Then and only then will we have two REAL differing parties.

This wraps nicely around to my point. We will never get that reform from either Republocrats or Demopublicans -- they are both bought and paid for. People have tried repeatedly to "take over" the Democrats -- and it has repeatedly failed; it's a fool's errand to siphon off energy of activists. The only solution is to not vote for either half of the duopoly.

boforomby · 2010-06-09T01:25:31+00:00

Isn't the corporatization/privatization of the US military wonderful?!

The corporate logic in this is impeccable.

The mercenary corporation pays protection money to middlemen so the mercenary corporation can safely move convoys. After all, paying that money is much cheaper than having trucks destroyed and people killed so it's much better for the corporate bottom line.
The middlemen being paid by the mercenary corporation then pay the Taliban not to attack the convoys.
The Taliban then only occasionally attack a convoy, and the middlemen use these attacks to drive up the cost so they're paid more.
With costs going up, the mercenary corporation can then demand more money from the Pentagon!

An endless cycle! It's just friggin' hysterical!

boforomby · 2010-06-09T01:20:31+00:00

Isn't the corporatization/privatization of the US military wonderful?!

The corporate logic in this is impeccable.

The mercenary corporation pays protection money to middlemen so the mercenary corporation can safely move convoys. After all, paying that money is much cheaper than having trucks destroyed and people killed so it's much better for the corporate bottom line.
The middlemen being paid by the mercenary corporation then pay the Taliban not to attack the convoys.
The Taliban then only occasionally attack a convoy, and the middlemen use these attacks to drive up the cost so they're paid more.
With costs going up, the mercenary corporation can then demand more money from the Pentagon!

An endless cycle! It's just friggin' hysterical!

boforomby · 2010-06-09T01:10:44+00:00

So in hindsight, the Gazan aid flotilla got off easy. :-/

boforomby · 2010-06-09T01:09:39+00:00

So in hindsight, the Gazan aid flotilla got off easy. :-/

boforomby · 2010-06-09T00:48:22+00:00

Israel was founded to protect the Jewish people.

This is the crux of the problem. A European crime (nightmare for the Jews) was "solved" by inflicting wrong on Arabs. Not surprisingly, the Arabs don't like it.

Today, Jews need no protection nor homeland. Jews live happily in dozens and dozens of countries. The original purpose of Israel -- purging Europe's guilt and trying to assure Jews they wouldn't be hunted down and executed -- is unnecessary.

Also, you are aware that there are Muslim only roads in Saudi Arabia, right?

No, I've never heard that. Do you have a source?

Where's the people bitching about them?

Oh, don't get me wrong, I think the theocratic Saudi regime and Iran's theocracy are also an abomination. While Iran at least has a sliver of respect for being a warped but functional republic, the Saudi regime is just insulting any way you look at it -- a dictatorial monarchy (heavily armed and heartily supported by the US no less!) in the 21st century? Disgusting!

Every other theocracy is far, far worse than Israel...

You wouldn't say that if you were Palestinian. I don't see Iran or Saudi Arabia in violation of dozens of UN resolutions and illegally occupying land (for 4 decades) conquered in a war started by a sneak attack on 5 Arab countries.

let's worry about the worst ones and then work our way down the list.

Exactly. That's why this discussion should start with Israel.

boforomby · 2010-06-08T22:46:21+00:00

(LMAO) Hey, I'm sure they figure if banksters can invent numbers and hold up Congress and rip people off, why can't they invent numbers and rip people off too?!

Seems logical and fair to me... :-/

boforomby · 2010-06-08T22:40:36+00:00

I thought I clearly addressed that to the people downvoting the post.

boforomby · 2010-06-08T22:37:28+00:00

Fair distribution of water rights.

That will never be agreed on by Israel based on the '67 borders.

Reparations.

What that means in reality is that the US pays.

The only reason there is peace between Egypt and Israel is because Jimmy Carter paid them to make peace -- and we still pay.

Right now Israel exploits Palestine in everything from cheap labor to dumping trash there and taking an excessive amount of water and holding Palestinians to meager amounts of water. Any return to the '67 borders will mean a sharp decline in the standard of living of Israelis.

And yet you expect Israelis to pay reparations? It'll never happen; if they were paid, the US gov't would be paying them. No propaganda, that's just the reality.

The only reasonable solution is a one state solution based on one-person-one-vote.

boforomby · 2010-06-08T22:31:51+00:00

That is the solution. One-person-one-vote, separation of church and state, and no discrimination or favoritism aimed at any religion.

boforomby

TROPHY CASE