Deja vu all over again

[newsmanfan]

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Agreed. I blame it all on the Calvinists. "Being rich shows everyone that you're one of God's Elect"...and that BS philosophy has simply carried on down generations and been further twisted into making unadulterated greed a social goal for many. Shouldn't the "good life" be about having what you NEED...and then being able to give to those who don't have? The Repubs throw around "socialism" like McCarthy's still in Congress! The worst part is they've got the general populace thinking that real, benevolent, RATIONAL socialism (NOT the corrupt systems practiced in Eastern Bloc nations) is a BAD thing. Hardly!

Psst...that guy you all claim to worship, that you call your Christ? He was a SOCIALIST...idiots. Not to diss religion here, but it infuriates me that many (no, not all) of the worst capitalist offenders would identify themselves as "Christian" when they clearly follow NONE of the philosophy expounded by that teacher!

The system is not going to change until we put forth more role models as philanthropists. Kids who think having the five Jags in the garage and unlimited charge accounts is the penultimate social ranking need to be shown how one can have a comfortable living WITHOUT running over everyone else. Gordon Geckos, indeed.

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[CensoredAlso]

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it infuriates me that many (no, not all) of the worst capitalist offenders would identify themselves as "Christian" when they clearly follow NONE of the philosophy expounded by that teacher!

"My temple should be a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves."

 

[Drtooth]

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Agreed. I blame it all on the Calvinists. "Being rich shows everyone that you're one of God's Elect"...and that BS philosophy has simply carried on down generations and been further twisted into making unadulterated greed a social goal for many. Shouldn't the "good life" be about having what you NEED...and then being able to give to those who don't have? The Repubs throw around "socialism" like McCarthy's still in Congress! The worst part is they've got the general populace thinking that real, benevolent, RATIONAL socialism (NOT the corrupt systems practiced in Eastern Bloc nations) is a BAD thing. Hardly!

It's not even socialism. Though we do have our fair share of corporate socialism. How comes it's so horribly unAmerican to make a set of rules and regulations that get corporations and investors to play buy a set of fair rules so that it can mutually benefit them AND the poorer class who rely on them for work and services? Every president since Reagan, EVEN Clinton deregulated things more and more so these companies can do whatever they want, get huge tax breaks and favors for NOT doing what they should be doing in the first place, and then dragging the entire country down with them when they make the inevitable horrifying mistake.

If this wasn't so horrible, I'd laugh. It again, proves the right WRONG about another thing. The Job creators really aren't. They're getting the same subsidies that they're denying the FAA that actually CREATE jobs that they give to the oil industry that's running at less than 80% capacity and creating a phoney crisis to please stock holders and their greedy CEO's.

I can't say I blindly trust government, but compared to Big Big Big fat business, they're saints. Worst thing that happens in politics, someone doesn't get re-elected if they screw up. In business, there are multiple scenarios...

1) if the screw up plays in the favor of the stock holders, nothing....

2) if it winds up displeasing the stock holders, they PR fire the CEO (PR fire: to "leave of their own volition"), and the CEO gets a nice golden parachute. Basically rewarding a screw up. Another CEO who does the same thing or worse gets hired and the cycle starts all over again.

3) the screw up is so bad the company gets taken down, there's talk of testifying before congress, but the CEO's escape and hand out bonuses to everyone that helped them cheat the system, throw everyone else under the train, and get away scott free while the slightly higher than minimum wage employees suffer the fates THEY were supposed to face.

Either way, bonuses are given out to people with obscenely high pay to begin with to reward them for doing bad things, and they get Uncle Sam's helping hand while Social Security and Medicare are "entitlements." No one wants this to happen, but no one wants to do anything about it.

 

[newsmanfan]

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Well, we COULD revolt....This is why I don't have a problem with white-hat hackers!

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[CensoredAlso]

I read something on the NYTimes website today that truly blew my mind regarding the often warring "conservative" and "progressive" points of view:

"You can't have progress without conserving. You can't conserve without progress."

Wow. Think about that.

 

[Drtooth]

Thanks to John "Crybaby" Boehner (and everyone else for not giving him exactly what he wanted when he threw a temper tantrum in the store), we ARE getting a credit limit default downgrade ANYWAY, and we're all going to suffer.

I want a recall election. This is the WORST speaker of the House I've ever seen. Even Newt "dumps his wife on her cancer sick bed to have fun with floozies" Gingrich wasn't this bad. There is no reason why the entire country should suffer because of some dope listening to the ranting ravings of a lunatic fringe that's roughly 20% of the country, just so he could get their selfish spoiled brat votes. Seriously? What was the big evil Nancy Pelosi agenda again? Certainly wasn't driving the country into a red hot fire to make a politician fail so she could get her buddies in.

All because the rich didn't want a tax cut. Egad... how greedy and stupid are these idiot CEOs? You're willing to destroy the economy so you can get a little extra scratch? I can't wait to see the market crash for the 10th time because of that on Monday so we can go back into a recession created by the wealthy that we'll never ever be able to get out of.

 

[CensoredAlso]

We have been putting too much faith and confidence into these politicans on both sides. Their only concern is to keep their own side in power, and point the figure at the other side. Even if it means the country crumbles around them. They have the money; they don't have to care. And it's our own fault because our loyalties have been more wrapped up in our party affiliations than in our actual country.

 

[Drtooth]

We have been putting too much faith and confidence into these politicans on both sides. Their only concern is to keep their own side in power, and point the figure at the other side. Even if it means the country crumbles around them. They have the money; they don't have to care. And it's our own fault because our loyalties have been more wrapped up in our party affiliations than in our actual country.

They should care, if the country crumbles all around them, guess who's not getting re-elected. Still, the Dems had the right idea... tax the gluttonous CEO's to pay for the drunken debauchery of the last guy. I think we could have survivived with tax hikes AND painful cuts... 75% of the country and the Dems thought so, but we have to listen to less than 20% of the country who desperately WANT a huge catastrophe because they're crazy enough to think that would bring change when... let's face it, NO ONE learns from catastrophe. We didn't learn from the S&L's, we didn't learn from Enron, we didn't learn from Bernie Madoff...

Still, the country actually got the message in two cases... ONE, that a divided congress is dangerous to the country and not even the president can sort that stuff out, and two, that the tea party IS lunatic fringe territory and completely out of step with what the majority of Americans want.

Still politicians are weak, pathetic underlings compared to big corporations. Even if they did give us any change, the corporations would send down their snotty little maggot lobbyists, and they'd get away with more plundering and pillaging. Look at what happened to the weak regulation bill that came out of the bail out.

 

[CensoredAlso]

They should care, if the country crumbles all around them, guess who's not getting re-elected.

We have never given either side any indication that that they won't get re-elected. Very much the contrary!

No matter how many times both sides screw up, the American people still elect them into power. Party #1 screws up, bring in Party #2. Party #2 screws up, back to Party #1.

We can say "guess who's not getting re-elected," but we know (and they know) it's an empty threat. Which is why nothing changes.

 

[Drtooth]

We have never given them any indication that that they won't get re-elected. Very much the contrary! No matter how many times both sides screw up, the American people still elect them into power. Party #1 screws up, bring in Party #2. Party #2 screws up, back to Party #1.
We can say "guess who's not getting re-elected," but we know (and they know) it's an empty threat. Which is why nothing changes.

I don't mean Party... I mean politician. Plus, let's be honest. Certain media outlets favor certain parties and say that when they're screwing up, they're actually doing the greatest thing ever (also known as 2000-2008).

What REALLY gets me about Sub-Standards and Keep everyone Poor's Credit downgrade, and you're gonna laugh... S&P REFUSED to warn us about Sub-prime mortgages and hedge fund managers and all that stuff that destroyed out economy in 2007. Something tells me they WANT us to destroy our economy. They get their money either way.

Somehow I wish we could've made a backdoor deal with that IMF chairman that was framed for assaulting that hotel maid (she kept changing the story), and let him keep his job in exchange for fiscal protection. Dishonest, yes... but we're going to get freaking soaked Monday, leading us into the "double Dip" recession that the hedge fund managers keep willing into existence... though, to be honest, it will be more like our Double-dodeca Dip, since we've dipped like a million times since the recession was "over."

Recession and companies making record profits... that's not suspicious at all.