Community | November 20, 2009 | 99 comments

The critical unraveling of US society

source: http://pubrecord.org/commentary/6084/critical-unraveling-society/

Image
SleepDirt
You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before exposing the root causes of this breakdown, let’s look at some vital statistics and facts:

* The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The US already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top one percent, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high.

* As the stock market went over the 10,000 mark and just surged to a 13-month high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and benefit the most from the government bailout have just set a new global economic record by issuing $30 billion in annual bonuses this year, “up 60 percent from last year.” Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s history, they are also benefiting by only paying 1% in taxes.

* The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth.”

As the looting is occurring at the top, the US middle class is just beginning to collapse.

* Workers between the age of 55 – 60, who have worked for 20 – 29 years, have lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans went up by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion.

* Home foreclosure filings “hit a record high in the third quarter [of 2009]… They were the worst three months of all time… 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter” in this three month period. “3.4 million homes are expected to enter foreclosure by year’s end, with some experts estimating that next year will be even worse.”

President Obama has enacted a $75 billion taxpayer funded program that has been a spectacular failure in stemming the foreclosure crisis and has proven to be another massive waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.

* 25 Million people are unemployed or underemployed.

This means we have 25 million people who urgently need to increase their income, and they’re quickly running out of options. The unemployment rate is expected to rise further and remain high for several years. “The president’s chief economic adviser warned that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay ‘unacceptably high’ for years to come.”

[More at link] http://pubrecord.org/commentary/6084/critical-unraveling-society/

http://current.com/items/91511835_the-critical-unraveling-of-u-s-society.htm
  1. groups:
    Community,   Culture,   Current Tonight,   News and Information,   1 more
  2. tags:
  3.     
    |

99 comments // The critical unraveling of US society

  • rknowlton91
  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • What we need to wake up to, all of us, is that we are all interconnected, we all need each other, because we all belong to each other.

    • 2 years ago
  • JonRaymond
  • extracrazykiwi2008
    • 0
      extracrazykiwi2008  

    • 1% tax? Are you kidding me? They should be taxed at the same rate as other banks. 16.7 billion for compensation expenses? Yeah, they can easily pay a much higher tax rate.

    • 2 years ago
  • jharris815
  • Daimyo
    • 0
      Daimyo  

    • Its a time of conservation and innovation. Newer products will be made to be more efficient and save money. Were going to be ok.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • Hoodwinked

      Economic Meltdown -- A Call for Systemic Change
      By John Perkins

      We have been hoodwinked into believing that a mutant form of capitalism espoused by Milton Friedman and promoted by President Reagan and every president since - one that has resulted in a world where less than 5% of us (in the United States) consume more than 25% of the resources and nearly half the rest live in poverty - is acceptable.
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24027.htm

    • 2 years ago
  • SNJ
    • 0
      SNJ  
    • Image

    • People in the US are paying the most they have ever paid to just live in a home. Instead of something reasonable, say $200 a month, it now costs an average of $1600. This is a hidden crisis not discussed much. Mortgage amounts are much too high for the average person to pay. The hardest part to understand is why does only $200 of the $1600 go towards the actual payment on the home? Where is the $1400 going? Interest? When we solve this issue, people, even on the low income making scale, will still have enough money for items like Food, Electricity, a Car, Dental and Health Insurance. This is not a Conservative vs Liberal issue. This is people surviving issue.
      I did hear some time ago that the top 1% of America's wealthiest individuals would be able to pay off the National Debt, (which is in the trillions), right now. Wow.

    • 2 years ago
  • growdude420
    • 0
      growdude420  

    • Our definintion of "normal" has been wrong for the last twenty years. This economic "crisis" is only the status quo readjusting itself to a point of normal that's, well, NORMAL. We al need to realize that our economy has been over-extended for quite awhile, and the readjustment will be uncomfortable at least, and more likely, painful.
      I see this as an opportunity for the new generation to gain a foothold by creating new industries around viable energy production and environmental recourse. It's high time for such an event, and it could end up saving the world

      "Got some bad news this morning, which in turn made my day"
      --Gnarls Barkley

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • WHICH SEEMS TO FIT NICELY WITH THIS ONE TOO ;)

      "The process [of mass-media deception] has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies - all this is indispensably necessary.": George Orwell in the book 1984

      & REMEMBER...

      "It does not matter if the war is not real, or when it is, victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of modern warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labor. A hierarchal society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. The war is waged by the ruling group against its subjects, and its object is not victory, but to keep the very structure of society in tact." - George Orwell, from 1984

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • HERE'S AN INTERESTING RAT RACE/MAZE DIAGRAM :)

      ...Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World". - From a letter to George Orwell, dated 21 October 1949. From Letters of Aldous Huxley, ed. Grover Smith; Harper & Row, 1969.

    • 2 years ago
  • TGolem
    • 0
      TGolem  

    • time for the "peasants" (as the rich like to call the working class) to lop off some heads again.

      i've yet to hear a good reason not to.

    • 2 years ago
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  
    • TGolem:

      LOL! Sounds good on paper but exactly how would we go about that. Who would be defined/included and who would not? (Not all of our ruling class deserves it - just most of them.)

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • seaseasea
  • SleepDirt
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • I have a question. How many of all you people who bitch so loudly about government in general take the time to write letters to your congressional representitive and your senator. I am willing to bet the farm the vast majority of you bitch bitch bitch but never take the time to make your voices heard to your elected representitive. And yes it does make abig difference, if a great majority of constituants have correspondence with your senators and reps the lobbyist have less influence. Its all about being re-elected for senators and representitives. Without the votes it does not matter how much money lobbyist contribute.

      tommic

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • tommic:

      Not only do I write my reps. State feds and local. I have their numbers saved in my cell phone. So when it comes to me and what I do. You would lose the farm and I would own 2

    • 2 years ago
  • pobeeno
  • sergantonio
    • 0
      sergantonio  

    • I think the biggest mistake made with the foreclosure program was putting trust in the same banking and investment groups that caused this mess Obama made a mistake in trusting that these bastards had learned a damn thing or would do the right thing just listening to the stupid fuck from Goldman sacks talk about how they are doing gods work it is obvious he feels no guilt nor do any others in those investment banks and lets be real here between the whole bunch of them you wont get one days worth of real honest work between the lot of them this is not unprecedented look at Spain England and France in the 1600's-1700's they began to base there economy in the banking sector owning land as empires and renting the land became the main economic driver while education and manufacturing vanished and for about 100 years Europe fell apart we are heading down that very same road we need to invest in education and manufacturing or prepare for the collapse of our future

    • 2 years ago
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  
    • sergantonio:

      Damn, that's the longest sentence I've ever tried to read! I'm not sure but I think you may have a valid point or two there, can you go back and edit in some punctuation?

    • 2 years ago
  • KSirys
  • jharris815
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • "THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING !"
      YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN RESPONDED THE KING ;)

      As Wall Street Posts Record Profits and US Hunger Rate Grows, Robert Scheer Asks: “Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?”
      http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/19/as_wall_street_posts_record_profits

      A pair of new government reports released this week paint a startling picture more than a year after the economic meltdown. On Tuesday, the New York Comptroller Office said Wall Street profits are set to exceed the record set three years ago. The four largest firms took in $22.5 billion in profits through September. Meanwhile, far more people are going hungry in the United States than previously thought. The Department of Agriculture estimates 50 million Americans, including a quarter of all children, struggled to get enough to eat last year.

      ROBERT SCHEER: Well, first of all, I mean, the whole thing about the profit of Wall Street that makes it particularly obscene is that we gave them that money. Your previous guest talked about how China is carrying $800 billion of our debt. We’re running up a $1.4 trillion deficit. And what happened was, we threw a lot of money at Wall Street. In particular, in relation to Goldman, we had this buyout of AIG, $180 billion. We’ve guaranteed the toxic assets of these enterprises. And that money, in a really truly shameful way, was passed on directly to the very companies that you mentioned that are giving themselves profits. So there’s something—yes, I’ll use the word “obscene.”

      It’s also interesting that he should say he’s “doing God’s work,” Blankfein, the head of Goldman Sachs. And my goodness, if Scripture is clear on anything, it’s condemnation of those who take advantage of the poor. You know, after all, Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple. Scripture is devastating in its condemnation of usury, the immorality of usury. And yet, in your promo, you mentioned Chris Dodd is trying to get a bill passed that would cap interest rates. You know, where is the Christian right? Where are the Christians? Where are the Jews, for that matter? Or the Muslims? At least the Muslims, in their religious practice, don’t believe in interest as a principle, but the idea that we’re jacking up credit cards to 30, 35—this is loan sharking. And we can’t even get a bill passed through Congress that would cap interest payments.

      The other thing is, their rationalization is they’re somehow saving the economy. It’s the old blackmail thing. They ruined the economy; they got the legislation, the radical deregulation they wanted, that permitted them to become too big to fail—Citigroup and these companies; and then they turn around and say, “If you don’t throw all this money at us, the economy is going to go into the Great Depression.” But they haven’t solved the main problems. Mortgage foreclosures this month are higher than they’ve been in ten months. We have the commercial housing market exploding, you know, apartment building rentals exploding, going into mortgages. And so, you know, they are not dealing with the fundamentals. What has happened is an incredibly expensive band-aid was put on this. And these people don’t even have—they’re not even embarrassed.

      “Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?”
      http://www.creators.com/opinion/robert-scheer.html

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • WhiteNoise:

      A HINT EXPLAINING OBAMA'S BETRAIL OF THE RABBLE ;)

      Why didn’t we have a freeze on foreclosures? The smartest thing to do. Jon Stewart recommended it on The Daily Show. He’s the only person. I mean, where are these pundits, you know? And they would laugh. His guests on The Daily Show would laugh at him when he brought it up. But, you know, a freeze on foreclosures, we still need it. A moratorium on foreclosures for two years. They’re not doing it. What they’re doing is throwing more and more money at Wall Street.

      And I go back to Obama and the point of my column: he has betrayed his own—what is it? It wasn’t a revolution, but his own promise. You know, he gave a speech at Cooper Union in ‘08, in March at Cooper Union. This was two months after Robert Rubin, the mentor of all of these people, said there’s no problem, we don’t have any flap in the economy, it’s just a little mild blip. And Obama gave a speech that was right on. You could give that speech now, and it would be on target. He blamed Wall Street. He blamed radical deregulation. And then, inexplicably, when he got the nomination, he turned to these very same people that had created the problem and said, “OK, now you get us out of it.”

      And they’re not doing it. You know, maybe if they’d gotten religion, maybe if they’d learned their lessons, you know, maybe if they were a different breed—but they’re not. You know, and this Neal Wolin, he attacked Chris Dodd. You know, and they say, “Oh, you’re going to create nervousness for Wall Street.” That was the word they used: you’re going to make Wall Street nervous. I want to make Wall Street nervous. You know, the next time these guys figure out another way to fleece us, they should worry they’re going to get caught. Maybe they won’t do it.

      AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, you profile—you profile Brooksley Born in an article, “They Shot the Messenger.”

      ROBERT SCHEER: Yeah.
      AMY GOODMAN: What was his message?

      ROBERT SCHEER: That was in Ms. Magazine, that my wife wrote, Narda Zacchino, and I worked with her. Brooksley Born is the great hero of the whole drama. Brooksley Born was the head of the Commodity Futures Board. And Brooksley Born, seventeen times, testified before Congress that this was a disaster in the making. And the old boys’ club that is now in power—Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, and it was Robert Rubin and Neal Wolin, who condemned Dodd the other day—they smashed Brooksley Born. They took away her power. They pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act that said there can be no regulation of these over-the-counter derivatives. That’s why we’re in this big mess today. So Brooksley Born should have statues to her, you know? She is on the committee—Nancy Pelosi appointed her to the committee that’s supposed to be, you know, overseeing the rewrite of legislation. I’m hoping, you know, that she’ll be listened to. But basically it’s the old boy club that got us into this mess that is scamming us once again.

      AMY GOODMAN: Robert Scheer, I want to thank you for being with us, of Truthdig.com, author of many books, including, appropriately, The Pornography of Power.

    • 2 years ago
  • CaptSutter
    • 0
      CaptSutter  
    • Image

    • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14848767

      My, My the unraveling of the American Fabric. It actually is more important than many realize and more dangerous. I am not in favor of revolutions I am in favor of learning from history though. Point well taken that the inequality of wealth is as high if not higher than at any point in the history of the United States.
      When you look at capitalism and the model you basically find two kinds of economists.
      1: A perfect market will distribute resources optimally, aggregating the desires and abilities of the participants, improving efficiency and leading us all to the Utopian optimum.
      2: There is no such thing as a perfect market, but economics is a good way of modeling how people will respond and and predicting the future.

      So my view of what is happening this time and what happened between 1920 and 1945, and before that, in the period around 1890 is that:

      In an unregulated market some people will learn how to cheat, and by cheating (stealing, murdering, enslaving etc. etc. etc.) accumulate so much wealth and influence that they in effect unbalance the system that they have learned to feed off of that it collapses.

      The assumption of the first set of economists is that our greed will be our salvation, and that no one should think beyond their own greed.

      This led to the interesting conundrum that the Government only stood in the way of the salvation of greed. You don't want the Government to interfere and you don't want anyone to try to out think the market for the good of all, because they will fail. Wow, that then means that with out a government making rules or enforcing rules, then the monopoly or oligopoly of the market is free to break and remake the rules at will, and they will do so to the detriment of the working classes and in the great contradiction, to the detriment of the market itself.

      Two things to close,
      1: Marx made of lot of sense and you shouldn't blame him for communism, There is a very good reason that he was being read by the wall street crowd during the last10 years.
      2: Robert Reich does a great job in "Super Capitalism" describing this train wreck.
      How do we enforce property rights When the richest most propertied individuals gained it all by rampant theft???

      Once we crack that nut we will finally escape the cycle. Well??? how do we stop the theft?

    • 2 years ago
  • peruvianboy2
    • 0
      peruvianboy2  

    • We are all capitalists at one point or another, please don't deny it. Just by living in America you can make a good argument. Most people don't know what capitalism really is (in America), like truly disproportionately abusive capitalism. Majority see it as just good, but good is not enough because we've been nurtured by it, therefore it is injected in our subconscious and in our daily life. The thing is that what proportion of this so called American capitalism is bad, we don't know. We just assumed is rich people and people in power but don't be fooled, It is also your neighbor, your friend, your co workers. Don't get me wrong, capitalism to an extent is a better economic system than others. Communism is pretty much proven to not work in a society. Socialism is more lucrative these days but we are not ready, especially in America, we are far away from such systems like Europe or Canada. Libertarian ideas and anarchism are just too unrealistic considering that they assume that humans can take care of themselves. Let's be real, we can't. This been said our society is so confused and polarized that we empty our frustration by going to watch TWILIGHT (which ironically is purely marketed to waste your money). Ladies and gentlemen, capitalism recycles itself.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • peruvianboy2:

      What you overlook is the degree of socialism that has been a part of American society for at least a century. The nation's roads and highways, for example, are paid for with funds from country's taxpayers. This wealth distribution without which it would not be possible to cross the country by road. The nation's world-famous national parks and monuments are in the same category. There are many more examples.
      Look, Communism, capitalism, socialism, any of those structures that have ever existed in history have never, ever been pure but some hybrid variant and vary from one country to the next. I would surmise that Cuba is far truer to communism even today than Russia ever was. I don't suggest that that is either good or bad; it's an observation.

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  

    • The people that I know all had health problems that caused their debt or were out of work (construction) and lost their homes . Do you have any stats on this sort of thing ? Or is that just your opinion .

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • artemis6:

      I just saw a figure within the last couple days that said unemployment among construction workers was around 20%. My brother-in-law is a union electrician in Chicago and he has been unemployed since March.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • artemis6:

      That is a believable figure, depending on the region.
      It's pretty widely agreed that overall unemployment is about 17% so I can see construction unemployment numbers being higher than the average.

    • 2 years ago
  • cephas
    • 0
      cephas  

    • Hold up now... These numbers are a bit biased. Most of the foreclosures are because ignorant Americans over extended themselves financially. People don't need pay raises. They need an education in accounting and finance!

    • 2 years ago
  • esserius
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  
    • cephas:

      "Most" American's that lost their homes were blindsided by a series of events. A substantial rise in property taxes from over valued appraisals, a substantial rise in insurance (that alone put many with fixed incomes at risk). Job losses are staggering, refinancing close to impossible after the appraisals dropped and banks were only willing to finance 80% of the new "appraised" value, leaving sellers at a huge loss - even if they were lucky enough to find a buyer in a market literally flooded with homes. 401k values dropped. The construction industry tanked. "Some" took out interest only loans on properties or bought a home they couldn't afford when homes were over valued to begin with, not most.

      Owning a home is an American dream that most everyone strives for, and when they get overwhelmed with circumstances beyond their control, or make commitment a bit over their head it doesn't necessarily mean they're ignorant.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • SNJ
    • 0
      SNJ  
    • cephas:

      Mortgage payments are near $1600 a month. For people making $7 an hour, well it is nearly impossible. The working poor is what they are called.

    • 2 years ago
  • pandaman2105
    • 0
      pandaman2105  

    • i think it's a little ridiculous to keep insisting on the US being so great and powerful when we clearly are a nation of economic instability, health problems, lack of initiative, and a government of greed and inequality. by initiative i'm referring to our actions toward climate change and socio-economic changes.

      rich and poor...a middle doesn't exist anymore. the rich are in denial about what is going on, the poor clearly see the source of the problem, yet they can't get any help to become more "average".

      we're just another nation who is suffering right now. a forceful method needs to be put in place by the less fortunate against the rich.
      they're just living high, mighty, and conservative, thinking everything is fine and god will help with our problems.

    • 2 years ago
  • esserius
    • 0
      esserius  

    • Revolution was typically what happened when the peasant overlords became too demanding. Now we have the internet and entitlement. I'm uncertain that what we got was worth it.

    • 2 years ago
  • parkerhistoire
    • 0
      parkerhistoire  

    • you can assert that the economic low we've recently hit is natural all you want, but it won't alleviate the stress it's creating for the middle and lower economic classes in our country. there are people who can't eat or provide shelter for their families. unfortunately there are no jobs to furnish these things for them. call me a generalist but the facts are there.

      it sucks. basically. and a lot of us put faith in pres. obama to change these things.

    • 2 years ago
  • sk8bs55
  • soadinc
    • 0
      soadinc  

    • money money money money money money money money money money money... my how important we've made it. the rich class (please, dont refer to them as the elite class) are there, counting their stack of bullions through their monacle, all crickety, ebenezery and corrupt. thats true, and sorry, 'taint new. its always been that way, always will. i dont think any revolution, or fist shaking is going to change that. has capitalism really done this to us? to cause us to insight violence over not having what the super rich have? sure, itd be nice if the super rich would give us a break, or support the country, or donate, or buy a cure for cancer, or whatever, but realistically, it isnt going to happen. find solace in something more worthwhile than money. money is boring. i mean, in the middle ages while the super rich sat at the tables drinking mead, sitting, hiring the poor to come in and strum the lute, well, damnit we played the fucking lute.

    • 2 years ago
  • treewolf39
    • 0
      treewolf39  

    • Well mallhater you have a point. Obama has vision though. He is not as progressive as I would have liked but he would not be president if he was. Give him a chance, it has almost been a year. Also there are a shit-heap of haters. You don't get to the top without lots of compromise.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • treewolf39:

      What do you mean.......I have a point???? I didnt write it. I only pointed it out for all to see. That part of the story was far into it and I didnt know if all had read that far.

      I Hate Them All

    • 2 years ago
  • neocongo
    • 0
      neocongo  

    • I've never seen somebody take a dumptruck full of horseshit from one guys's back yard and dump it squarely on someone else's front door step until now. Good job mallhater.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • neocongo:

      What the hell are you talking about. That was in the story. I didnt write it or comment on it other than to say I am surprised no one else did either. I didnt dump shit on obama. Hell if anything I almost defended him.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • neocongo:

      Mall hater-"Obama is a national tragedy. He is a symbol of the times. He is not a leader, just a symbol'

      Mall Hater-"I didnt dump shit on obama. Hell if anything I almost defended him."

      See the contradiction there?

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • neocongo:

      I am not picking on him. Even if he went into office with the best of intentions he can only do what the powers that be allow him to do. Not until you people wake up and accept that both parties are controlled by outside forces and they do what is in their best interest will anything ever have even any hope of actually changing.
      Thats as close to defending that shithead as I will ever get.

      I HATE THEM ALL

    • 2 years ago
  • Chique
    • 0
      Chique  
    • neocongo:

      Ironically, neocongo's theory would apply to the Bush administration and President Obama too. I see him doing, and trying to do, much for the average American and fighting an uphill battle against the party of no and the deep pockets of the lobbyists. We're not going to agree with everything he does, nor should we if it's a matter of principal, but we should at least give him enough time to undo the years of crap dumped on his doorstep and not judge prematurely.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Ihatethemall:

      So I can assume you are about to name a President that was not? Let me guess, Reagan personally blew the Berlin wall down by raising his voice in defiance and Bush made the world safer because there are now only 10,000 times a many terrorist attacks per year globally since 2000 as there would have been had Gore been given his due.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • Ihatethemall:

      WTF is your problem man????????????

      To start off with...I didnt write the line I just agreed with it...

      Second....I can think obama is a tragedy AND Bush AND Clinton AND every president before obama. Its not an exclusive title that can only be held by one shithead at a time. You do understand that right???

      Third....WTF are you defending obama so much??? YOU posted the story, if you would like I will no longer comment on your stories, just ask.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Ihatethemall:

      "WTF is your problem man????????????"

      No problem. Why do you ask?

      "To start off with...I didnt write the line I just agreed with it..."

      So who accused you of writing it?

      "Second....I can think obama is a tragedy AND Bush AND Clinton AND every president before obama. Its not an exclusive title that can only be held by one shithead at a time. You do understand that right???"

      I won't argue with that, for the most part, though some of the 'tragedies' were engineered by unseen forces.

      "Third....WTF are you defending obama so much???"

      Am I?

      "YOU posted the story, if you would like I will no longer comment on your stories, just ask."

      That's entirely up to you, mall hater.

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • Ihatethemall:

      Why do I ask? because you seem to be trolling me. You claim not to be a democrat yet you seem to have a problem when I say shit about obama.

      So who accused you of writing it?
      You took offense to my reposting the line then came up with some stupid shit about reagan. How the fuck did he get into this subject. Oh you brought him in WHY? Every time a democrat....thats you.....hears someone talking shit about the annointed one they start off with the....bush did this, reagan did that....you claim not to be a democrat but defend obama and use the same arguements a democrat would use.

      You may not be defending obama but you are giving me shit for dissin him. Thats defending him to me. so yes....you are

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  

    • I wonder if any of you even went to the link and read the entire story. I cant believe any of you did and didnt comment on this part of the story...................

      III: The Obama Myth

      I don’t mean to dismiss the Obama myth, his words, the change we need is real, its just his actions don’t even come close to measuring up. Just read the legal documents he has signed his name to. Read them. His actions are most often the opposite of what he says. I venture to say a 10 year old can recognize that after doing a school day’s worth of research.

      Obama is a national tragedy. He is a symbol of the times. He is not a leader, just a symbol. He projects the change we need. He was our shortcut to correcting our diseased political system, a way to rid it of corruption. He symbolized the change millions so desperately need. People came out in the millions for the first time “hoping” if they could work and organize to put him in office, we would have some representation to defend against the economic elite that have put the overwhelming majority of US politicians on the payroll and brought humanity to a breaking point.

      People just need to research how the Obama myth was hatched. Goldman Sachs saw Obama early on and said, “He’s our guy!” When Obama became THE MAN in Iowa, he was on the Goldman Sachs pay roll. Goldman financed the psychological operation that is the Obama myth, the Illusion of HOPE – something to keep a suffering nation pacified just a little bit longer. Obama is truly a national tragedy. His failure and inaction has disillusioned millions upon millions of desperate citizens who turned to him as their best chance for justice.

      As further evidence of Obama’s duplicity — beyond repeatedly signing his name to documents covering up the Bush Adminstration’s highest crimes and increasing an already bloated military budget — in one of his very first moves as President he put Goldman Sachs’ criminal mastermind Tim Geitner in charge of the treasury.

      A new report from the TARP Inspector General further exposes Tim Geithner’s role “in overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.”

      Which brings us to the ultimate theft of wealth in history, and to the root cause of our current crisis.

      - – - – - – - – - – - -

      Everything in that is true yet you folks still gush over him like little school girls. He is no better or no worse than any other puppet we have had in office for years. Those in control pull his strings and when they say jump he says how high.

      I am not picking on him. Even if he went into office with the best of intentions he can only do what the powers that be allow him to do. Not until you people wake up and accept that both parties are controlled by outside forces and they do what is in their best interest will anything ever have even any hope of actually changing.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • Ihatethemall:

      I both posted it and read it in it's entirety. I am not a Democrat. i am an anti-Republican. The Democrats have proven themselves ineffectual, the GOP is a global disaster. So what?

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
    • 0
      Ihatethemall  
    • Ihatethemall:

      I am sure you did. How many others of the current faithful obama supporters read it in its entirty though. Not many would be my guess. I am not a repiblican or a democrat either........I Hate Them All. They are all worthless thieves that would sell us down the river if there was a profit to be made or an election to be won.
      SO WHAT??

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  
    • Ihatethemall:

      ihatethemall ypu have some serious mental problems, Starting with your screen name and what you post are rants and arguments. You offer nothing substancial to any debate about anything. you need to go see a shrink

    • 2 years ago
  • Ihatethemall
  • FoosMaster
  • KSirys
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  

    • Everyone knows about this. There is something seriously wrong with this country: The rich.

      The republicans would suggest cutting taxes... I wonder how that helps.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • Toughth
    • 0
      Toughth  

    • Under the Bush policy tthe wealthiest class of americans did so by hard work and the sweat of their brow. From what I can tell most sweated their way to the top by playing both ends against the middle. Played the same game that big energy played for years. Whenever they wanted to have a bigger profit, they created a false shortage and had to raise prices due to supply and demand. Pirats within the protection of the government.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • Toughth
    • 0
      Toughth  
    • Toughth:

      Sorry; my mentaly ill wife was standing behind me screaming at me. I call the hospitol and the Prosecuter for adult protective services and was told that if I came up with 350000.00 dollars then I could put her into a permenant mental hospitol. This is just the down payment. She has been threatening for the last three days and The answer from the authoritys is that I am a big boy and should be able to fend off anything that she does. The state just could not take on a maniac.

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • The only way to preserve the United States will end up being the one word so many decry. Socialism, we will be forced to adopt some socialist ideals to preserve the country. Otherwise we will start to see uprisings in America, and there will be no stopping it in a country with 250 million guns. I fear that the rich have taken so much and left so many behind that those left behind will eventually organize via the internet and start the next revolution. Danger is around the corner.

    • 2 years ago
  • SleepDirt
  • diabolical44
    • 0
      diabolical44  

    • all of these statistics are the fruits of Reaganomics. this is exactly what the republican party has always wanted. no middle class. just very very rich, and very very poor to work slave labor for those very very rich.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • "While the richest one percent have never had it so good, a significant percentage of the US population now has firsthand experience in this. Millions upon millions of Americans are poor, broke, struggling, starving, desperate… and armed".

      "We are sitting on a powder keg"!

      Lets hope so.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image

    • GET IN LINE ;)

      Get a third job ! Sell a vital organ ! Move in a card box by the river, but stop your whining buba ! Victim of your imagination, you suffer from a severe case of "mental recession"... Now, get over it !

      UNCLE SAM : LIVE FROM THE DUMPSTER !
      http://current.com/items/91500927_uncle-sam-live-from-the-dumpster.htm

      "America will always be filled with half-clever hucksters who look for ways to live the fat life off the ignorance and loneliness of country rubes.These past years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch. These were the years when the U.S. parliament became a historical punch line, a political obscenity on par with the court of Nero or Caligula -- a stable of thieves and perverts who committed crimes rolling out of bed in the morning and did their very best to turn the mighty American empire into a debt-laden, despotic backwater, a Burkina Faso with cable." – Matt Taibbi

      "Washington has become Versailles. We are ruled, entertained and informed by courtiers. The popular media are courtiers. The Democrats, like the Republicans, are courtiers. Our pundits and experts are courtiers. We are captivated by the hollow stagecraft of political theater as we are ruthlessly stripped of power. It is smoke and mirrors, tricks and con games. We are being had." - Chris Hedges

      You say yer life's a bum deal
      'N yer up against the wall...
      Well, people, you ain't even got no
      Deal at all
      'Cause what they do
      In Washington
      They just takes care
      of NUMBER ONE
      An' NUMBER ONE ain't YOU
      You ain't even NUMBER TWO
      - Frank Zappa ‘The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing’

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
  • nursediesel
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • WhiteNoise:

      Frank Zappa quotes are always welcome. In his latter days Frank often reminded his audiences 'Don't forget to register to vote' and advocated taxing all churches. My kinda guy.

    • 2 years ago
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  
    • Image
    • WhiteNoise:

      If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT. Stupidity has a certain charm, ignorance does not. - Frank Zappa

    • 2 years ago
  • Imjustabill
    • 0
      Imjustabill  

    • When the Dollar becomes worthless it won't matter if you have Billions of them. They will still be worthless. A strong nation comes from a strong working class.

    • 2 years ago
  • desertcat
    • 0
      desertcat  

    • We cannot stop the rich from stealing more money, you could ask them but they would tell you to f.... off. So lets start eliminating them or make it hard for them to enjoy life's fruits. Steal their cars, damage their homes and businesses, take what you can from them. Throw eggs at them as they enter restaurants and opera houses.

      There is no solution until we all unite for change. Look at the republicans, the party of the rich, fighting to keep health care from us, yet when they are in office, they never propose a bill for health care. They don'tcare.

      we need some militant leaders to get the masses moving. Leaders who will fight the rich and government not buildings filled with ordinary citizens and children.

      Or we can just sit at home watching reality TV while reality of a decent living passes us by.

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • desertcat:

      You may be right about that . I suggest a more subtle approach . They will build more prisons . A skilled com or hacker may have better luck . support sudanese pirates .

    • 2 years ago
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • desertcat:

      The most practical remedy is to simply murder the rich, one by one.

      The estate tax will start accumulating revenue and the money will start to funnel out of their hands and into the public's.

      They could just let things be fair, but if they won't the only other solution is mass murder.

      Before we do that, I would suggest we raise the estate tax, first.

    • 2 years ago
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  

    • It ain't commin' back either . That adjustment has been a long time coming . Invest in your community . That is the only thing left .

    • 2 years ago
  • nkeg87
  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  
    • artemis6:

      You are correct . Communities are in a bad way . You are not helpless , though . I am trying to start a weekly discussion group at a local coffee house . If you are not a part of community gardens , you can try and start one . Networking . You don;t have to be a leader or organization to do it . If you can communicate , you can do this . It will help you survive . Barter childcare , services , food . The original community structure for human evolution and survival is a lateral one , not top down . Do not believe the programming that it was otherwise . We can take back our power . We can have fun doing it too . Money isn't everything by a long shot .

    • 2 years ago
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • We are witnessing the final stage of cancer for capitalism, the demise will bring about change and many fools still will die kicking and screaming for their dreams of being a millionaire and getting tax breaks like they have supported for decades. Well the truth for these fools is they never were rich but had been lead down the garden path by a party that fooled them time and time again that Unions were bad that it was OK to pay their workers 5 bucks an hour and the worst joke of all was they let the societal safety net collapse in their own hour of need. Many woke up in time to see what they have been responsible for. You know if we don't take care of each other then the chips will fall where they were played. Good luck to the small business owners who for years listened to Rush and Hannity believing all the crap that spewed from their mouths. The only thing that will save the Union is socialism or some form of it. CAPITALISM is on life support, and thank God we have a good man in the White House who came from the working side of the equation. Maybe he can pull off an FDR and save capitalism but I think this time the people haven't payed attention for too long and will blame the man in charge for the last thirty years of Greed.

    • 2 years ago
  • Guyatthebusstation
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  
    • kennymotown:

      "If you believe that FDR's social programs brought us out of the great depression, i would recommend reading some history books."

      Horse hockey. Republican flavor of the month talking point debunked.

      **According to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, "Only with the New Deal's rehabilitation of the financial system in 1933-35 did the economy begin its slow emergence from the Great Depression." In fact, even famed conservative economist Milton Friedman admitted that the New Deal's Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was "the structural change most conducive to monetary stability since ... the Civil War."

      As Newsweek's Daniel Gross reports, "One would be very hard-pressed to find a serious professional historian who believes that the New Deal prolonged the Depression."

      h/t David Sirota

    • 2 years ago
  • hardknockxpert
  • kennymotown
  • CreditFigaro
    • 0
      CreditFigaro  
    • kennymotown:

      Hidden in your "lack of tact" response is a supreme deficit of reason, logic, or value of any kind to be shared. Don't worry about offending others with your "lack of tact."

      You long since made and ass of yourself and owe yourself an apology for presenting such drivel in this space. The result being great embarrassment for yourself.

      Tuck thy tail between thy legs.

    • 2 years ago
  • hardknockxpert
  • SleepDirt
  • ChristopherX
    • 0
      ChristopherX  
    • kennymotown:

      I can fully understand your blind optimism, hell I felt it too ,but the truth is we got duped because they all play ball for the same team. Although the jersey might have changed colors, it still reads corporate interests! Your fate and mine is sealed by the lobbyists for whom the government works.

    • 2 years ago
  • kitteneater
  • diabolical44
    • 0
      diabolical44  
    • kitteneater:

      we didn't unravel, but we did have possibly the most radical leftist president in our history there to take on the corporate pigs that sunk us into the abyss to begin with. there is no hope for that now.

    • 2 years ago
  • Nettle
  • CarolineS
  • grassroutes
  • SleepDirt
    • 0
      SleepDirt  

    • **If you didn’t think starvation was a serious threat in the US, just read this new Washington Post report: “The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat… Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished by how much the problem has worsened. ‘This is unthinkable. It’s like we are living in a Third World country,’ said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America.”**

    • 2 years ago
more from Community:
from the community

top videos