Displaying 421 To 450 Of 3,237 Comments The GOP Wave Pool: Money, Lies, Ignorance and Democratic Apathy I like the tone of your statement. I like its particulars. While the Dems have their failings, as a whole, they have stood with more of the everyday people more of the time than have the GOP. The failure of the Dems in 2010 and in 2014 to walk away from their legacy and their promise and to stand for election as a sort of GOP lite is beyond reprehensible. As to third parties- the system is a duopoly – alternative candidates with more than a token following are spoilers. Nader ruined Gore and Perot ruined Bush for example. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 7, 2014 @ 12:55 pm I think so….blue doggism haunted them…GOP lite does not sell. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 7, 2014 @ 12:48 pm Most appreciated. How kind. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 7, 2014 @ 12:47 pm There is enough of a right wing base and Fox is diverse enough as a corporation that it does not need to provide something that is really fair and balanced. For the so called liberal media the effort to expand their viewing base for ratings is paramount. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 7, 2014 @ 12:45 pm It is all a search for ratings. Widened appeal supposedly widens their base. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 7, 2014 @ 12:02 pm “We must make our choice,” warned the American jurist Louis Brandeis nearly a century ago, writing on the state of American society. “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few—but we can’t have both.” This review from the Kennedy School is worth looking at: America’s New Gilded Age: A Review of Chrystia Freeland’s Plutocrats and Christopher Hayes’s Twilight of the Elites I think you find your clear thinking reflect in and supported by both works. Do you happen to either or both. I have them on my bookshelf. The predictions therein are uncanny. Thanks for your comment. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 6, 2014 @ 9:27 pm Like these: “This country has made real progress since the crisis six years ago. The fact is, more Americans are working. Unemployment has come down. More Americans have health insurance. Manufacturing has grown. Our deficits have shrunk. Our dependence on foreign oil is down, as are gas prices. Our graduation rates are up. Our businesses aren’t just creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s. Our economy is outpacing most of the world.” His words at the press conference on Wed. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 6, 2014 @ 9:20 pm Monica, I join you in perspective here. Dems seemed embarrassed by the man who put many of them into office in 2008, and 2012. I was astounded. The GOP needs party discipline in this if it did not have voluntary enthusiasm. Although I expected this turn of events (though not as dramatically, and with much better news from the governors which never materialized) I am truly angry at how many of my fellow Dems walked away. The President was clear in his own message and he did not duck out from under it: “This country has made real progress since the crisis six years ago. The fact is, more Americans are working. Unemployment has come down. More Americans have health insurance. Manufacturing has grown. Our deficits have shrunk. Our dependence on foreign oil is down, as are gas prices. Our graduation rates are up. Our businesses aren’t just creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s. Our economy is outpacing most of the world.” His words at the press conference on Wed. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 6, 2014 @ 9:18 pm That is now I see it as well. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 6, 2014 @ 3:32 pm Read the article. Excellent. I just saw Wright on Al Jazeera America and he really stands tall on this. Mark Pryor tried to appease the NRA and they poured a ton of money into his opponent’s campaign to thank him. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On November 6, 2014 @ 3:31 pm Conservatives Take Voter Deception To (not so) New Levels Terrific structural analysis…. In my own experience that invitation “to join the crowd composed of all those who know…..” is evident in the Tea Party and in Occupy. Both operate from a set of assumed principles rather tested and ever more rarely challenged. They both appeal to a certain kind of person who seeks group identity as a foundation for personal identity. I am (and I think you are) true independents. I have a set of very mixed views that represent positions on both sides of the midpoint in the right to left political spectrum. In some I am more left than right and in others more right than left. With that being the case it is hard to be as doctrinaire as the purists demand since “it’s common knowledge that….and….everybody understands that…” As the GOP core has grown smaller it has also grown harder and more resolute which makes peeling away members from that body very difficult. At the same time the Dems remain squishy and soft around the edges for many reasons…not the least of which is their lack of discipline as voters in every election. Part of peeling them away is getting them not to vote. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 22, 2014 @ 5:52 pm By their works shall ye know them…. And by their works I know the GOP is anti-Most Americans. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 22, 2014 @ 5:13 pm Carlin- the gift for the absurd as a vehicle for truth. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 22, 2014 @ 5:12 pm The Constitution is the villian in all of this. It was set up in the Electoral College for a first and second place finished, in the Congress for majority/minority organization…it was tailor made for two parties and it is tailor made to repress other (third, fourth, fifth) parties as an outright rejection of the parliamentary system that is based on coalition government. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 22, 2014 @ 5:11 pm excellent, multi-faceted analysis… my take away is that both GOP and Dems are jaded, both operate from selfish and self centered motives, both have their eyes much more on the elections than the electorate, both are part of a fundamentally corrupt system dragged down by the power of money…. having said that I do not seem them as equally jaded, equally selfish/self centered, equally corrupt… the GOP “wins” the race here because their attention is glued to the priorities set by the mega-wealthy, the ultra-rich. Their base, as George W Bush joked in a moment of likely unintended honesty and that is what makes all the difference. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 22, 2014 @ 5:08 pm In the Midterms GOP Operatives Have a $331 Million Advantage Over Dems I did indeed. I am going to integrate it into a reboot of the article next week using this article as the platform. I made this point to Ad Lib and wonder if you might have any thoughts on this: “I have posted this article in four places- two left leaning sites, one right leaning site and one that shifts back and forth. At none of the sites was there much in the way of reaction or discussion. I wonder why? Is this the new normal? Have we accepted the buying of elections as business as usual? Have corporations been accepted as people with very strong voices?” » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 24, 2014 @ 11:30 am Clearly we agree on your point of view. SCOTUS, as a result of a false ideology and equally false in their loyalties to a class that represents the worst of the American experience, the over lord. I know that you and I disagree about the power of money but I fear that right is learning to use the gift/plaque that Citizens United on many fronts and with candidates whose objectional nature is hidden enough to win crucial votes. Lower turnout for Democrats is the result of a lack of electoral discipline (something the GOP seem to have by the ton), and by a lack of engagement in the issues with a matching knowledge for the base in both parties….and party leadership seems interesting in preserving the status quo…what the party bases do not know is a key to power at the top. One other point: I have posted this article in four places- two left leaning sites, one right leaning site and one that shifts back and forth. At none of the sites was there much in the way of reaction or discussion. I wonder why? Is this the new normal? Have we accepted the buying of elections as business as usual? Have corporations been accepted as people with very strong voices? » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 23, 2014 @ 9:31 pm By changing the Supreme Court, by changing the Congress, by passing the kind of transparency laws and accessibility to the info that emerges that reveals who is spreading around the cash. I also favor spending for all parties. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 23, 2014 @ 6:04 pm Outstanding. I am going to go back to Daily Kos and Yabberz and repost this article with info from the Tomasky article and a link to it. kudos to you for identifying it. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 23, 2014 @ 6:02 pm CNN, MSNBC and Fox News to Sue Ebola For Underperformance Another difference, a communication technology that makes viral dissemination so easy, so fast, and ubiquitous. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 21, 2014 @ 8:01 am Perfecto Mundo!!!! Ad Lib. This little gem is being relayed to Yabberz and Daily Kos. It is the piece that I wish I had written (but will get some credit for by association!) I recall how angry the national media was at Ford after his pardoning of Nixon and how they set out to ruin his image and his campaign and to elevate a very unprepared peanut farmer who could not have won a second term in Georgia to an exalted level. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 20, 2014 @ 1:31 pm The Weekend Music Thread – Love Songs If We Only Have Love by Stage Door Manor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2W1ZI4n6ZU and by Johnny Mathis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyJF0ISolEw If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love If we only have love Then with nothing at all » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 18, 2014 @ 10:42 am Against Their Own Self Interest: Missourians Likely to Vote to Hurt Themselves Greetings-this, I think, is our first time talking, good to meet you. I hope you spend some more time here at the Planet. In response to your comment” I wonder how your grandfather managed to be a Democrat. Was he a “Dixiecrat”- i.e. what would pass for a Southern Republican or was a Roosevelt/Truman Democrat? Very interested in your response to this. I suspect they were the latter. As to your Father and your Brother…..the power of our peers is extraordinary and so easily misleads. I am a token liberal/progressive in a very RED area but I am also the organizer of a local coop that has done the area a world of good, and I trained to be an ACA Navigator and had the privilege of helping more than two dozen people get affordable insurance. I am also part of a group pushing our state legislature to reverse its stance on ACA. Fox has a lot to answer for and there will come a day when Fox News and all of the GOP hate mongers that have plagued the American landscape will be generally condemned- or they will have triumphed and American fascism will be the order the day. Your brother would certainly have benefited from the palliative care to relieve his suffering » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 19, 2014 @ 10:28 am Excellent. I am cutting and pasting and posting elsewhere. Hats off to you. It certainly names and frames my experience. Some additional thoughts on the subject here in Mo. I think they fit nicely into your closing paragraph. Most of those who are Missouri GOP today would have been Democrats prior to the mid 60’s when the Dems became the party of civil rights. Their parents and grandparents fled from the Democratic Party as race traitors. That memory lingers and it is not a good one. It “colors” everything and Obama is the ultimate “n word” in so many minds. Beyond that…. At its root their belief in the GOP is fundamentally irrational. Church-Family-Patriotism-Republican They are melded together. And the TV news of choice, as you say…Fox, along with the internet right wing zone, reinforces the message shaping current event to support their voting the “right way.” I see this again and again. AND, one of the “niftiest tricks” is to actually find creative ways to blame the Dems and their Demon Leader for a lack of health care for ex. “We GOP want good health care for all of our citizens but we have been saddled with this job killing, socialist death panel monster.” And because they are disposed to believe, because the narrative fits what they want to be so…then it is so. Education definitely plays its part in this with poor schooling, and more tellingly, a distrust of education, especially historical and scientific education as leftist propaganda. The presumption that GOP are truth tellers and that Dem are liars fits in very nicely. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 17, 2014 @ 6:07 pm PhD can also mean pile it higher and deeper. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 17, 2014 @ 6:00 pm Most of those who are Missouri GOP today would have been Democrats prior to the mid 60’s when the Dems became the party of civil rights. Their parents and grandparents fled from the Democratic Party as race traitors. That memory lingers and it is not a good one. It “colors” everything and Obama is the ultimate “n word” in so many minds. Beyond that…. At its root their belief in the GOP is fundamentally irrational. Church-Family-Patriotism-Republican They are melded together. And the TV news of choice, as you say…Fox, along with the internet right wing zone, reinforces the message shaping current event to support their voting the “right way.” I see this again and again. AND, one of the “niftiest tricks” is to actually find creative ways to blame the Dems and their Demon Leader for a lack of health care for ex. “We GOP want good health care for all of our citizens but we have been saddled with this job killing, socialist death panel monster.” And because they are disposed to believe, because the narrative fits what they want to be so…then it is so. Education definitely plays its part in this with poor schooling, and more tellingly, a distrust of education, especially historical and scientific education as leftist propaganda. The presumption that GOP are truth tellers and that Dem are liars fits in very nicely. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 17, 2014 @ 5:51 pm Hi…I have been spending a lot of time at Yabberz. I always take part in Vox Populi on Friday evenings. Writing articles takes time that I have not had since the fall is very busy for farmers. Things are slowing down. As to this….you make a very compelling case…so compelling I intend to copy and paste it into my archive for further use…thank you for this. Big Thank you. Given all of those facts….why, yes, why? Most of those who are GOP today would have been Democrats prior to the mid 60’s when the Dems became the party of civil rights. Their parents and grandparents fled from the Democratic Party as race traitors. That memory lingers and it is not a good one. It “colors” everything and Obama is the ultimate “n word” in so many minds. Beyond that…. At its root their belief in the GOP is fundamentally irrational. Church-Family-Patriotism-Republican They are melded together. And the TV news of choice, as you say…Fox, along with the internet right wing zone, reinforces the message shaping current event to support their voting the “right way.” I see this again and again. AND, one of the “niftiest tricks” is to actually find creative ways to blame the Dems and their Demon Leader for a lack of health care for ex. “We GOP want good health care for all of our citizens but we have been saddled with this job killing, socialist death panel monster.” And because they are disposed to believe, because the narrative fits what they want to be so…then it is so. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 16, 2014 @ 3:27 pm Most of those who are GOP today would have been Democrats prior to the mid 60’s when the Dems became the party of civil rights. Their parents and grandparents fled from the Democratic Party as race traitors. That memory lingers and it is not a good one. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 16, 2014 @ 3:20 pm At its root their belief in the GOP is fundamentally irrational. Church-Family-Patriotism-Republican They are melded together. And the TV news of choice, as you say…Fox, along with the internet right wing zone, reinforces the message shaping current event to support their voting the “right way.” I see this again and again. Efforts to enlighten are met with an equally irrational resistance. Having voted for OBama, and worse having worked for him, I am beyond redemption. I am in league with the prince of liars. It is that simplistic. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 16, 2014 @ 3:19 pm They only listen to that which reinforces core messages. At its root their belief in the GOP is fundamentally irrational. Church-Family-Patriotism-Republican They are melded together. And the TV news of choice, as you say…Fox, along with the internet right wing zone, reinforces the message shaping current event to support their voting the “right way.” I see this again and again. AND, one of the “niftiest tricks” is to actually find creative ways to blame the Dems and their Demon Leader for a lack of health care for ex. “We GOP want good health care for all of our citizens but we have been saddled with this job killing, socialist death panel monster.” And because they are disposed to believe, because the narrative fits what they want to be so…then it is so. The facts are as snow flakes in a Missouri Summer…..they melt right away. » Posted By MurphTheSurf3 On October 16, 2014 @ 3:16 pmComments Posted By MurphTheSurf3
http://harvardkennedyschoolreview.com/americas-new-gilded-age-a-review-of-chrystia-freelands-plutocrats-and-christopher-hayess-twilight-of-the-elites/
from Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Then tomorrow will dawn
And the days of our years
Will rise on that morn
To embrace without fears
We will kiss with our eyes
We will sleep without tears
With our arms open wide
Then the young and the old
Will stand at our side
Love that’s falling like rain
Then the parched desert earth
Will grow green again
For the hymn that we shout
For the song that we sing
Then we’ll have a way out
We can reach those in pain
We can heal all our wounds
We can use our own names
We can melt all the guns
And then give the new world
To our daughters and sons
Then Jerusalem stands
And then death has no shadow
There are no foreign lands
We will never bow down
We’ll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns
Then we’ll only be men
And we’ll drink from the Grail
To be born once again
But the little we are
We’ll have conquered all time
All space, the sun, and the stars.
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