Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Actually, I don't think this is a failing of Obama so much as one of Democrats at the state level. We've been whipped at the state level, where we've not just had the possibility of a Democratic congress redistricted out of existence, but we've also had lots and lots of austerity programs directly counteracting the good being done at the federal level in running the economy. And it is the congressional tilt to the right that puts pressure on Obama to move to the center.

Democratics being democrats at the state level is the most urgent need, and to the extent we can get a President who can help and feed that its a good thing, but it's going to take something a little broader than that.

It's at least as much a policy problem as a political one. The policies that have worked in the past aren't working now.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

What you propose requires:

1. Overturning Citizens United;
2. Curing short-termism on Wall Street (the cause of job cuts that creates the income inequality); and
3. Bringing labor arbitrage under control.

Two of these things are beyond any party's reach.

And that's why it's all gonna burn, baby, burn.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

I am not on or interested in twitter.

This is bizarre to me. I love Twitter.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

And that's why it's all gonna burn, baby, burn.

I don't think so. Most Democrats lean moderate. A moderate Democrat, probably HRC, will be the nominee in 2016, and a moderate Democrat is likely to win that presidential election. Burning will have to wait.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

And that's why it's all gonna burn, baby, burn.

No it's not. The fools getting screwed are frogs in the tea kettle. It's like watching a really slow dystopian novel unfold.

The status quo will hold, as it has for the last fifteen years, as long as the decline is well managed. The loss of freedoms, of quality of life, and the bifurcation of class and culture can and only need be slowed, rather than arrested or reversed, to keep the system running and serving those with the most to lose.

ETA: I am no conspiracy theorist. Power doesn't need to conspire as the interests of those who have it, however disconnected, almost always coincide. (Somebody else once said this much better than I have.)

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

I don't think so. Most Democrats lean moderate. A moderate Democrat, probably HRC, will be the nominee in 2016, and a moderate Democrat is likely to win that presidential election. Burning will have to wait.

I don't expect it to happen in the next two years. On the other hand, it's going to take more than a moderate Democrat to prevent it from happening. When enough people get hungry enough, the shit will hit the fan.

It's easily preventable. Feed the people.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

No it's not. The fools getting screwed are frogs in the tea kettle. It's like watching a really slow dystopian novel unfold.

The status quo will hold, as it has for the last fifteen years, as long as the decline is well managed. The loss of freedoms, of quality of life, and the bifurcation of class and culture can and only need be slowed, rather than arrested or reversed, to keep the system running and serving those with the most to lose.

ETA: I am no conspiracy theorist. Power doesn't need to conspire as the interests of those who have it, however disconnected, almost always coincide. (Somebody else once said this much better than I have.)

Read your Thorstein Veblen. We've been living on borrowed time since the last big recession created a huge underclass of formerly working and middle class people whose lives were destroyed. That underclass is growing.

Feed the people.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by taxwonk

Read your Thorstein Veblen. We've been living on borrowed time since the last big recession created a huge underclass of formerly working and middle class people whose lives were destroyed. That underclass is growing.

Feed the people.

We are. A steady diet of cheap diversions and shitty, processed Monsanto-based food stuffs.

The masses which could amass are too geographically splintered and ideologically disconnected to congeal into something large enough to rise up against anything.

What would you have the downtrodden do? Effect change by voting for a candidate who isn't already bought and paid for by corporate interests?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The fools getting screwed are frogs in the tea kettle.

Add "hypothetical" and the metaphor works.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Add "hypothetical" and the metaphor works.

The science apparently settled (by what cruel experiment [probably done by Bill Frist] I don't want to know), not even that description works.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

The science apparently settled (by what cruel experiment [probably done by Bill Frist] I don't want to know), not even that description works.

Exactly.

[taxwonk]

Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield

We are. A steady diet of cheap diversions and shitty, processed Monsanto-based food stuffs.

The masses which could amass are too geographically splintered and ideologically disconnected to congeal into something large enough to rise up against anything.

What would you have the downtrodden do? Effect change by voting for a candidate who isn't already bought and paid for by corporate interests?

I'm not saying I believe the People will rise up together in a Glorious Revolution. I'm saying that we are headed for an economy which is subject to isolated, multiple cases of mass violence and disruption. Think Ferguson on a bigger scale, only with a poverty and hunger focus instead of a racial focus.

As for having the downtrodden effect change by voting for a candidate who isn't already bought and paid for by corporate interests, I would suggest more that it will need to be a large enough group of people who believe that a progressive agenda is needed to counteract the politicians bought and paid for by corporate interests. After all, the downtrodden will have been largely disenfranchised to the extent they aren't already by the next election cycle.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

And, TM, yes, sometimes I sound like a dickhead. You too. Welcome to the PB.

Don't give a shit about you sounding like a dickhead. More power to you. It's the feeling of superiority that emanates from all your posts that's the issue.

TM

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

This is bizarre to me. I love Twitter.

I'll bet he doesn't like scotch either.

[Adder]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

This is bizarre to me. I love Twitter.

It's weird how it's become a go-to source of information. Like, hey, I wonder what's going with that, let me check twitter, scroll for a few seconds, and there it is.

Once you figure out who you want to follow, it's the anti-Facebook, bringing you only stuff you're interested in.

ETA: Until they decide to fuck it up, of course.