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Sorry, "Feel The Bern" Fans: President Sanders Won't Change Anything
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Fans of Obama learned the hard way that
hope and change are quietly dumped the moment you enter the Imperial Presidency.
The appeal of Bernie Sanders is clear even to those who don't "feel the Bern":
maybe, just maybe something will actually change in Washington. Fans of
The Donald have the same hope.
A vote for Hillary is a vote for the status quo--for fake-sincerity speeches fine-tuned by
the latest polls, for simulacra reforms that leave Wall Street and the rest of the Empire
untouched, and for the astonishing hypocrisy of a visionless politico who amassed
a vast fortune on the coattails of her aging-Lothario hubby attempting to fan the flames
of class warfare.
As tempting as it is to hope that an outsider president such as Bernie or
the Donald might change the trajectory of the Empire, this is a vain and futile hope.
This is partly the result of the limited domestic powers of the Imperial President and
partly the result of the momentum of the Empire and the pressure that will be brought to bear
on anyone, insider or outsider, who attempts to change the course of the ship of state.
Get money out of politics? The president is powerless. Congress passes the laws,
and the Supreme Court shreds any attempt to limit political contributions. Any bill that
does pass has loopholes big enough for truckloads of cash to breeze through.
How about taxing the rich? Well, for starters, the wealthy already pay most of the federal
income taxes:
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1% paid 39% of the
personal income taxes in 2010 while earning 15% of the before-tax income, and the
top 20% paid 93% of the federal income taxes in 2010 while earning 52% of before-tax income.
So the rich are already taxed heavily, and those that aren't bought a loophole from Congress
that no president can close.
Tax codes can't be changed at the whim of the President; Congress passes tax laws,
and yes, contribution-loving Congress is open for business when it comes to buying
tax breaks.
How about changing U.S. foreign policy? Long before he is sworn in, President-elect
Sanders will get the treatment: the lives saved by all those drone strikes,
the risks of upsetting our many allies, our many treaty commitments, the dangers of
appearing weak in these critical times, the enormous value of the intelligence gleaned
by the NSA and the rest of the National Security State, and of course the famous
nuclear launch capability that rests with the president.
Don't hold it against Bernie or anyone else when they cave under this pressure.
The president is a figurehead, a PR spectacle with limited powers to change the
course of the state or nation. Yes, Bernie could end various undeclared wars, but
the pressure to maintain drone strikes (and everything else we don't even know about)
will be unremitting.
Whatever the president proposes domestically is just that--a proposal. Congress has
to approve programs, budgets, tax codes and the rest of it, and what's left after
all the pork-barrel additions, lobbying and campaign contribution buy-ins?
Should anything untoward actually get passed (don't hold your breath), the Supreme Court
strikes down anything that threatens the status quo.
Other than glad-handing and managing whatever undeclared wars he's been let in on,
President Sanders won't change anything important because he can't change anything
important. Neither can any other president.
Political theater is just that--theater. Fans of Obama learned the hard way that
hope and change are quietly dumped the moment you enter the Imperial Presidency.
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I know where I feel the Burn from Obama...where will I feel the Burn from Sanders?
“BS” is short for Bernie Sanders. Coincidence? ;-)
Looney
The problem with Sanders is he's a true believer like Jimmy Carter, and didn't THAT work out well.....
Who since has been better?
Never get a chance. Then the Clinton machine will release the stored up Trump negatives in the fourth quarter for the win.
Hillary will reconstruct America one executive order at a time.
I don't need no stinkin' executive orders. I don't belong to or work for the corporation.
Since the governmental systems refuse to be limited by the American Constitution and they have all the biggest guns, the only way out is to withdraw as much as possible your financial support and be as non-compliant as possible.If gov. is going to hold a gun to your head to steal from you make them chase you down first. Don't just comply as soon as they send you an "order".
Also, try to educate those sheeple that have their instincts and critical thinking placed on hold through mind control. You have to go easy on them though or they will become enraged red faced screaming monkeys.
If you don't vote Trump , you are voting for more illegal immigration .
The only plus side is construction will pick up due to Mosque building
"If you don't vote Trump , you are voting for more illegal immigration .
The only plus side is construction will pick up due to Mosque building"
If you don't vote Sanders, you are against dual passports (& therefore an anti-semite). The plus side is that graffitti removal sandblasting will pick up at Temple locations.
Edit: I guess what I'm trying to say is that basically anybody can write any bullshit that they want. The only difference is what gets censored or not.
CHS is misguided, the President is only powerless because the citizens blindly and willingly select from between two impotent soggy biscuits, backed by the machine of State. The office itself is quite powerful (hence the imperial presidency), but when it is staffed by an empty suit, the underlings do even more work than they should.
The problem is those underlings, and unless an outside candidate has an EXISTING army of thousands of qualified outsiders, then the cogs in the machine will turn unimpeded. Moreover, a candidate actually having their own army is not only unprecidented it is almost irrationally risky.
The simply fact is that Bernie's "army" is the Demopublican machine, and Trump (despite his alleged wealth) doesn't have an army - so he would be forced to rely on the Republicrat machine.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-29/trump-sides-putin-syria-you-sho...
Despite the fantasies of some of the local lunatics, the President of the USSA has immense power. The problem is that the Devil is the details, and neither President nor the Cabinet Officers really make (and implement) policy. That task falls to over a thousand Deputy Secretaries, Under Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, and the thousands of career SES, SFS, SIS, et al officers who are not even Presidential appointments... That is why nothing ever changes despite elections. Not even Trump's rolodex is big enough to overcome that institutional resistance to change, but on the bright side- he might be less inclined to listen to the gray beards of the one party with regard to their "recommendations" as to the 1500 "best suited" for Senate approved positions, and the thousands of positions that don't require confirmation.
Despite the legislative limitations of the presidency, our soon to be elected POTUS should be a statesman/leader who inspires the rank and file electorate to demand change from Congress. Before change can be made, the people must be convinced that they are able to make change. As we all know, the direction of this country must be drastically altered. However, the necessary alterations must be made from the ground up, not from the top down. The people always have had the power for reform. They must be awakened from their long slumber by a leader who reminds them that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Sadly, I do not see one presidential candidate who has the intestinal fortitude to inspire the people to take control back from the oligarchy.
"...our soon to be elected POTUS." Don't count your chickens before they hatch there AB. There is absolutely no guarantee of any election next year. As difficult as it is for a rational soul to grasp, progressives are ecstatic with Barry's "performance" to date. Everything America once was, is now in tatters. This is what they wanted all along! They being the Weather Underground, the Cloward-Piven morons, the Muslim Brotherhood, and any number of other assorted leftist rabble, but, most importantly, the ruling cartel oligarchs. But there is one task in which they have failed miserably: disarmament. They have staged their laughable false flag shootings to no avail. All they did was enrich Smith & Wesson et al. So now all they can do is jawbone and legislate. It is therefore no coincidence that both Obongo and Shrillary have mentioned mandatory buy-backs Australian style recently. And if US lawmakers can't get it done, the TPP/UN will step in with "legal authority". We all know what will happen then. Elections may be the furthest thing from our minds a year from now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-bush-deregulation_5626b26de4b0...
Maybe strip out the hard returns the next time you copypasta.
Oh he'll change it alright you'll be poorer... Joe the plumber on Steroids...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahT-1Nr2Ty4
Well then - seeing as none of the candidates from either party are acceptable, let's just save the money it will take to stage this presidential election and keep the current occupant of the White House until he dies.
Sounds like a plan.
A troika of the MIC, Wall Street, and spooks from the CIA/NSA runs the land of the free. This Deep State is firmly in control. The president is there to pretend that the US is a democracy while it is a fascist, police state
Who rules America?
The secret collaboration of the military, the intelligence and national security agencies, and gigantic corporations in the systematic and illegal surveillance of the American people reveals the true wielders of power in the United States. Telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, and Internet companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, provide the military and the FBI and CIA with access to data on hundreds of millions of people that these state agencies have no legal right to possess.
Congress and both of the major political parties serve as rubber stamps for the confluence of the military, the intelligence apparatus and Wall Street that really runs the country. The so-called “Fourth Estate”—the mass media—functions shamelessly as an arm of this ruling troika.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/06/10/pers-j10.html
Uh huh.
I guess I'll just watch TV.
I'm still waiting for all that hope and change promised by the current administration. Still not convinced we'll see his term through the to end.
Hope, Change, Shovel ready, free Healthcare, 3000% savings, the bull shit went on and on forever. I see more Blue tarp tent people than in days past, again this is the Liberal Utopia he chimed about.
If you see more blue tarp tent people, you are seeing the fruits of equality, Obama style.
It's working alright.
Chill, I'm long BlueTarp. I got a tip from Bain Capital.
Of a like mind. They rank high on the KrugeDex 100 top performers.
Have my eye on a split level, two shopping cart BlueTarp in the trendy northside part of the landfill.
- and that could be either because he doesn't leave office, or...we are all dead.
Oh the fun it wouild be to watch Bern and Trump debating. Too bad that will not likely happen. Concellation prize: Foot-in-mouth Joe vs. Trump? That too would be one hell of a show.
Just imagine the drinking games that you could have with Joe v Donald. It would be worse than doing a shot every time Obama says "Let me be clear."
Alcohol is poison after all.
I believe Bernie when he says that he is a democratic socialist.
Yeah, yeah.
But, is his birth certificate photoshopped?
Dunno about that but I hear Trump keeps the silver spoon that he was born with in his mouth wrapped up in his short-form birth certificate
So I hear.
The politicians that cast the vote are of no importance.
The people control the candidate selection process, and fund elections of those who cast the votes, decide everything.
You and I are neither.
Speak for yourself.
This article forgets to mention that his mother didn't even get nude photographs taken by a known pornographer....i mean...thats his first disqualification in my book.
I am so glad that people who make money from complaining about what is wrong, want things to stay wrong.
CHS and Nomi Prins should shack up together.
It is a cottage industry indeed.
Hilldawg 2016! Go Cankles!
PANTSUITS FOR EVERYONE!
Speaking of "Feeling the Burn"....
NOAA's top ten warmest global monthly departures from average
1) 0.90°C, Sep 2015
2) 0.89°C, Aug 2015
2) 0.89°C, Mar 2015
2) 0.89°C, Feb 2015
2) 0.89°C, Jan 2007
6) 0.87°C, Jun 2015
7) 0.86°C, Feb 1998
8) 0.85°C, May 2015
8) 0.85°C, Mar 2010
10) 0.84°C, Dec 2014
Today is October 21st and it's 70 degrees here in Pittsburgh. That rarely ever happened when I was a kid
I've lived thru heat waves with 80+ temps in Oct in NYC growing up in the 70's and 80's. The last two winters were among the coldest I've ever expereinced.
And neither of the above two comments have anything to do with the observed global temperature changes....
Learn the difference between climate and weather...
There is no climate without weather.
The weather does not repeat according to schedule and neither does the ever-changing climate.
Did you practice at it, or are you naturally deluded?
FYI, The accepted definition of climate for the purposes of discussing historical weather data is a 30 year average...
And if you knew anything about such processes, you would know that predicting weather is an initial value problem, whereas the climate is a boundary value problem....
And since you very likely have no fucking clue what an initial or boundary problem is, you really should simply STFU and spare us your worthless ramblings from the peanut gallery....
Oh, by the way, an obvious strawman argument on your part...
Face it, you are way out of your league....
I would abandon any attempt to present rational views on climate science here. Most of the commenters on this theme have their intellectual underwear so ball squeezingly tight that they will never be able to step back and evaluate data, models, hypotheses, basic findings etc. This is in part 'trust no one' scepticism (which I accept), partly the result of low general knowledge, poor understanding of science (christian 'education' in the US is the culprit here mixed with corporate public relations), but most significantly it is the belief that 'carbon taxes' are the endgame of a global climate conspiracy. If this were all about carbon taxes then why are global fart tax revenues so paltry? Surely there's an easier way to increase taxes than herding a notoriously argumentative community (the scientific community) in one direction for decades. Remember that most of our analysis of deep state, genuine oligarch and financial conspiracy, originates in the scientific community (dissident engineers on 911 springs to mind). Even if all that were true though, a carbon tax isn't the only response to climate change, it's the statist or 'financial' response. So in sum, your average American obscurantist gets batted in both directions by the same oligarchy's disinformation machine: science is bullshit, the world is flat and 4000 years old, energy oligarchs rule OR taxation and financialisation are the cure for every problem, Wall Street technocracy rules. It's a classic PR pincer movement.
Yawn...
Spare us your mealy mouthed bullshit...
Argumentum ad consequentiam is a well known fallacy....
Ha, not quite. Do you have a better explanation or are you sticking with 'morons!'.
For shits and giggles, could you answer this question?
Did we land on the Moon in 1969?
Strange question. Yes, 'we' did.
"Today is October 21st and it's 70 degrees here in Pittsburgh. That rarely ever happened when I was a kid"
yeah and it was 29 degrees for a low on October 17th in Western Md. That rarely ever happened when I was a kid.
would those temps happend to be from the end of the runway?
Speaking of temperatures...
http://surfacestations.org/
Standard Disclaimer: Because everyone knows that as "exceptional Americans", we have the most calibrated thermometers on the planet and all ushcn stations are never located near large swaths of asphalt, cell towers, exhaust vents, or anything else that might actually distort the readings...
If "global warming" were true. the "top ten warmest global monthly departures from average" would occur simultaneously all over the globe.
They didn't, did they.
And if you don't understand this, well, you're not a scientist.
You must have auditioned for Village Idiot at some point in your life...
Because what you just said makes absolutely no sense whatsofuckingever...
I suggest you looking up Dunning-Kruger effect and or "fractally wrong"
Toodles, moron...
Always dressed for church, I see.
Fucking gash.
bye, Felicia...
guess you didn't read the part that said 'global'. and, the requirement that they 'would occur simultaneously all over the globe' is not necessary - for either global warming, global cooling, or status quo...
Really?
And I guess that there is also no requirement that "global warming" have anything to do with "warming" either.
Stupid people really confuse me.
You seem to get confused very easily...
Not that I am surprised...
why bother, thebigunit, this is amorica...science is only science if the science supports the interests of those funding the science. as for the idiots who peddle this balderdash, they make me long for the days of religionists. at least with religionists they confess there is faith required for reasoning in the absurd...these pukes are evangelizing of behalf of people who want to either eliminate them or reduce them to serfs stacked in tenements.
the global warming twits really are this century's biggest and most laughable rubes...but i get it. you manipulate the simple-minded individual's guilt complex, augment by flattering their flat and reactive 'intelligence' (by convincing them that they're the vanguard of logos...like Galeleo's acolytes contra temps...and oh-so much smarter than those pitiable 'deniers') and then you fluff with the moral buoyancy resulting from do-goodery, and, well, you've got yourself a goddam cult.
this is just sophisticated marketing to effect a most nefarious outcome. if you dolts cannot see it, you're worse than any blue-haired baptist preaching against the perils of dancing...straight to hell with ya, you gluttonous carbon-belcher. have you no shame with this critical thinking, bigunit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUtborIaiU
clear as winter ice,
this is your paradise,
there ain't no need for ya,
janus
A damn fine outburst of verbal diarrhea on your part...
\hattip...
thank you, Flakmeister...sorta.
i should, however, say that my deft with this-here language should not obscure the points i've made. the fillagree and fluidity of my prose notwithstanding, there is most certainly cult-like behavior and passionate yet meritless dogma espoused on behalf of the climateers.
the climateers almost had me for a brief moment in time; and then, whence they began deploying the tactics of bolsheviks (firing and maligning 'deniers'), fudging data and, most disturbingly, moralizing the issue -- that was the point at which janus did some checking. and there is verily something rotten in denmark, or wherever is the nerve-hive of climatology.
it's like this, human beings are supremely preservationist. they will, at all costs, save their necks. they need no moral crusade to protect their interests. the motivation is intrinsic to the the mystery of life and its relevant dynamism. it's the very reason we do so well in tackling legitimate pollution...every fiscal (and therefore governmental) interest is against pollution control, but people, motivated by their instinct to protect themselves, will do so.
now, there may be some danger in these 'con-trails' that spew from the backs of planes almost every day and lattice our skies with 'something', and i wonder where is the outcry from our noble planeteers?...but CO2, the very oxygen of all green things? cummon, man. i'm down with eliminating sulfer, PCPs...you name it...but fucking carbon?
they want you to live like a serf whilst they parade about in billion dollar yachts...can you not see this?
janus
Buddy, I hate to break it to you, but I didn't give you a compliment....
oh, but you did...the simple invitation to bat you about is all the thanks i need.
now, i will confess that you didn't do much in the way of argument...but i do understand.
run along, now...i think rachel maddow is about to come on.
janus
Rachel Maddow???
Too funny...
You are flattering yourself if you think I would dignify your dribble with a rebuttal...
Bernie definitely has the science denier/illiterate voter bloc sewn up TIGHT.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2015/10/dear_bernie_science_doesnt_...
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/opinion/miranda-devine-perth-electrical-...
Shove your ignorant statist trash up your rear end, that is if your head hasn't completely filled your descending colon.
The end. Toodles.
Call me when this "deep insight" gets published anywhere but in a third rate blog...
\Yawn...
I was with you... until you crossed that bridge.
Flakmeister, I don't even remotely understand why in the US the debate on "global warming" has become so damn polarized
just recently I hosted a bunch of relatives from the US. now, they see me as incredibly "green", and when they calculate my "footprint" they see me as a kind of unreachable paragon of virtue
but hey, then I opened my mouth and it looks like I said some stuff The Donald seems is also saying (did not know), and now I'm "Uncle G the climate denier"
(mostly, on the matter that science is based on repeatable experiments using the scientific method, that we have only one planet, and that I'm not convinced by the arguments, them being too linear in a very complex system like the biosphere)
to me it looks like the (English-speaking debate) "Anthropogenic Climate Change" movement has become a kind of religion elevating Scientific Consensus way above what it ought to be
still more of my taste then the five-thousand-billion dollars per year subsidy* of fossil fuel lobbyism crowd, mind you (*according to the IMF calculation)
you know what a true scientist of my taste looks like? doubtful, skeptical and saying more often then not: "we don't know yet, but we might get a good question out of it"
from the historical evidence, we are still exiting an Ice Age. This planet gave us lots of change before we started to do our mess. it might kill us like the dinosaurs even if we do everything right. consuming frigging eight barrels of oil per person is not sustainable, that's for sure, but so is it the elevetion of a scientific consensus to the new gospel of an age
and so I am a kind of complex riddle for my American family members: I live "green" and do a lot for sensible energy production and the conservation of natural habitats... but I am a hunter, too. and now a "climate denier", whatever that is
question: what happens if we experience a second Krakatoa Incident?
"...six DEGREES in applied mathematics..."
wtf? six?? and he still can't add 2 +2?
+4 !
Disagreeing with computer climate models has been going on for 25 years that I know of. The UN carbon tax proposal has been on the table for 25 years that I know of. Reports and conferences have been going on even longer.
"Now we are at the point..." where Senator Inhofe wants to begin a discussion? LULZ
You mean the moron that brought a snowball into the Senate as counterargument to over 13,000 published papers?
That douchebag??
Golly, I'm not sure. This douchebag had a chart with pictures of scientists like Dr. Willie Soon on it and the douchebag said these were scientists that could not be challenged. I didn't see a snowball but I may have missed that part. There's lots of douchebags out there ya' KNoW.
/s off
The quoted part is actually part of what Jarraud said at WG4 press release...
Wiilie Soon????
The one that forgot to disclose his funding from coal-heavy utiliies in producing mathurbation as passing it off as science?
Google "Soon-gate" to find out how real fraudsters operate..
Yeah that's the guy. Had a part-time gig at the Smithsonian. I wonder how that meeting with the directors there worked out for him...
Funny how around and about the same time all that was going on, many here at Zero Hedge were talking about the sun's influence. I dunno, did any of those 30,000+ science papers ever ever talk about that sun thingie Soon studied?
p.s. That AMS-02 unit on the ISS is ticking along quite well so I hear, and DSCOVR is the source for my new screensaver :0
The influence sun has been absolutely studied to death...
In ~1950 the sun went south and temps went north...
http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming-b...
Just for fun I looked at the 'advanced level' tab:
Ultraviolet Radiation Galactic cosmic rays Solar magnetic field Galactic Cosmic Ray Fluxetc...
"As illustrated above, neither direct nor indirect solar influences can explain a significant amount of the global warming over the past century, and certainly not over the past 30 years. As Ray Pierrehumbert said about solar warming,
Your faith in falsified data shows you to be a moron of the highest order.
Yep, all made up, thats why the coal companies spend 100 x more on PR firms to sow FUD instead of hiring a couple of qualified quants to demonstrate that the data is fake...
The only demonstrable "fake data" was found in the lame attempt to refute "The Hockey Stick" where the moron Wegman did not even realize that he published the code that showed how the his data was created fraudulently...
Are you really that stupid? Or are you just very good at lying to yourself?
This data is bullshit. Departure from average compared to what? What is the average? How is it calculated? How reliable are the measurements? There is a degree of error in all measurements, what is it for these temperatures? Just throwing out a bunch of numbers that fit your narrative without backing up the data with tested, repeatable measurements that have been scientifically validated and accepted just makes you look like a mindless activist dipshit.
Generally agree as a Sanders supporter. ( FUCK the cunt Clinton)
But it's the only hope. I was around during the sixties when Vietnam demonstrations actually led to something, And when RFK was generating the same type of excitement - until he was assasinated, that is.
No, there is absolutely no hope. There's not a single person on the planet that can unfuck this mess.
There is no going back. The only way out is through.
The only hope is survival in spite of what is coming.
Mises warned you about this nearly a century ago.
It's unpleasant to contemplate but, sadly, logic seems to be squarely on your side. What can be pointed to that in any way indicates change WITHIN the system? Absolutely nothing. If anything, they are doubling down on the manifestations of psychosis.
If change is coming, it will come from the streets...or when people vote from the rooftops.
Sorry, but Bernie is a primitive.
He thinks food comes from a printing press in Washington.
He's much like the cargo cult, but just not as sophisticated.
My way or the highway.
Love,
The Powers That Be
Bullshit. Obama changed a lot.
Agreed, he aged considerably.
When The End comes, I hope you're doing stand-up near my town. I'd like to go out with a laugh.
Dude lived on an Israeli Kibbutz in the 60's. Enough said.
"Get money out of politics? The president is powerless. Congress passes the laws,
and the Supreme Court shreds any attempt to limit political contributions. Any bill that
does pass has loopholes big enough for truckloads of cash to breeze through."
Thus, Obama wielded his mighty pen and blackberry to circumvent.
Bernie will employ his hammer and cycle.
That being said, Bernie doesn't give me the instant urge to vomit like seeing Chalky on the tee vee. I guess I like him as much as one can like a commie tool.
As I've told my friends who ask my opinion of him. He's the only person running who's intentions I trust.
Thing is, they are what pave the road to Hell.
Know the feeling
He'll be the President before the Hunger Games start, where it all goes to shit.
It's true the President has limited power to change policy, but they can change the discussion, and that changes things down the road. Any outsider is better than any insider, at this point.
They bankroll the outsiders too.
Just to keep it interesting. They haven't perfected the realistic feeling yet.
Probably overkill anyway.
I disagree. I think that Bernie if given the chance would tax the bejesus out of the wealthy, including the Limousine Liberals in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the Upper West Side etc etc etc. Those Trustfarains currently gentrifying Brooklyn and swooning over Bernie will not know what hit them if Uncle Bernie gets the opportunity to grab their money that should have been taken by the Death Tax.
It is why the 1%ers at CNN and MSNBC, ABC and CBS have to make sure that Hillary gets the nod. Otherewise all those Progressive ideas they like to clink wine glasses to at their high-class gatherings will actually become reality, and the Limo Libs DO NOT want that!
The president of the U.S. can turn the world into green glowing glass.
He's a Seven Up bottler?
He doesn't have to do what he promises. His supporters, as with Obama, will just be happy to have him there. He'll never be called on anything. You average Democrat (Republican too) will morph their opinions to whatver their CiC is doing. I've never met as many pro-war Democrats as I have in the last 7 years. Wait until Hillary becomes president. Bush will look like a peacenik and the Dems will cheer her on no matter what she does.
EXACTLY. Where are all the "Code Pink" anti-war people now? THOUSANDS of dead woman and children from Drone Strikes and not hardly a peep from the left. "Nation Building" in Libya and nothing but *crickets* from the Progressives. Same ol' Same ol'
Wars with an "R" attached to them are bad, wars with a "D" attached to them are good. Same as it ever was.
Sanders or Trump would be better than another Bush or Clinton, even if it is just Theater.
Same crowd duped by Obama, are now getting duped by Sanders.
Some never ever learn anything.
'fans of obama didnt learn anything...'
sorry but anyone that is a fan of obama has their head so far up the lefts ass that they cant see anything. most will tell you obama made a difference even thou they dont have a job, have a$80k student loan and live 8 to a one bedroom apartment...and cant afford obamacare.
All of this is a farce and Sanders and Trump are just false prophets of empty promises to fool again and again gullible US voting sheeple. Enough of that, boycott is the only tangible political expression left for vast majority of US population facing genocidal assault from the Wall Street globalists against basic democratic principles and economic foundations of US society.
And here why?
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/notes-on-buddy-politics/
THE SLOW DEMISE OF HOPE TRADERS.
As part of the 1%, I love the CHANGE Obomber has made to my portfolio, I just HOPE it won't blow up in my face.
What a shill. I knew it immediately after reading a few of his articles years ago that this guy was nothing more than a 'phony' Koch blogger. Irrespective of what he writes about his BS positions, he is a staunch austerity hawk and a big supporter of the status quo. He advocates implementing policies that take from the masses and give to the rich. For instance, take his his bullshit statement that the rich already pay all the taxes.
What is the TAX RATE deceiver? What is the AMOUNT OF SHELTERED income? Another bald head who can't tell the truth: taxes are levied on the poor.
The irony here is Bernie and his young college age supports want European style "Social Democary". Well, lets take a look at the youth unemployment rates in those countries.... What is it now? 25%? 40%? 50% in some cases? Watch how fast the jobs dry up if this idiot is elected. Better get used to Mom and Dads basement.
You're preaching to the choir Smith (and Tylers). Get articles like this into the households of America if you want to create any kind of an effect. We all know that the oligarchy (big business and Wall St.) runs the country through the Supreme Court, Congress and Fed Reserve Chair. A US president is a figure-head; teleprompter reader; PR person; the dog that is wagged.
The political pundits who take these polls/surveys only call people with landline phones.
I hear a lot of people don't have a landline phone anymore. At least, thats what I've heard. But who knows what to believe these days.
Hugh-Smith is certainly correct, but the truth is even uglier. History shows that a president, a politician--or just about any influential person--who dare serve the people pay for their idealism with their lives. It's that simple:
http://www.cjournal.info/2015/10/08/people-versus-the-banks/
This genuine reprobate lunatic is 74 years old right now. He'd be 76 taking the oath of office, and 79 when his inevitably disasterous first term would be over. He would be President droolcup, senile, forgetful, decrepit, void of energy, weak, and pathetic. His ideology was proven bankrupt and a failure before he was even birthed. America can do better.
Science illiterate lysenko disciple Bernie Sanders is unfit to be in ANY position of power.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/10/11/freeman_dyson_interview/
Pretty simple Mr. Dyson. They are rent-seeking degenerates using psuedo-science and alarmism to fleece the totally ignorant and uneducated.
JFK, like him or hate him, was the last dude who dared be a real POTUS. How'd that work out again?
Despite all the talk about voter intensity surrounding the presidential election, 13 million fewer people voted in 2012 than in 2008.
And the voter turnout for 2014 midterms was the worst in 72 years.
I hear a lot of people who didn't vote in 2012 and 2014 are going to vote next year, or they are registering to vote next year.
Yes. There are more people registering.
Most of those registering won't be required to show ID and still have the water from the Rio Grande sloshing in their sneakers.
And they are dipshits predisposed to vote for a lefty like the Bern.
They've never known anything else.
Most of the new people who are registering to vote are young college grads who are tired of hearing people like you calling them dipshits.
Not so sure about that. They are glued to screens watching Catfish, sports, and porn.
The most intelligent people in the world are only to be found here, at ZeroHedge, an exclusive club for geniuses.
Clarity, brevity, accuracy. This is why I come to...where am I again?
He'll anoint Al Gore as High Priest of the Church of the CAGW. They will collect indulgences just like the RC church in the dark ages, except they will be called "carbon credits." You too can be absolved of your white, first world privledge guilt! It will be an olde tyme tent revival, except instead of saving souls for Christ, they can collect money to absolve first world guilt like setting the thermostat to a comfortable setting, and driving a safe vehicle, and reading by electric light! There will be an alter call at the end of the scaremongering, er, I mean, sermon!
There's a sucker born every minute...
Obama also sounded clever back then, people never learn. Look at the facts, he is socialist, big government, more social security. Its already failure doesnt matter how clever he sound, reality is different. Also, there is no such thing as "democratic socialism", those are mutually exclusive.
Thank you Canada for the parliamentary system, where the Prime Minister is the head of the party in power - and if with a majority - can pretty much pass anything by making sure the party members toe the line. For contentious issues, perhaps they won't, but generally they will. Just watch young Justin go...and wish you were still under the British parliamentary system!
I do agree with the article that the POTUS in the US does have much greater challenges in making changes. They were supposed to be checks and balances - but there seems to be too many cheques and unbalance!
in a pinch, Trudeau can count on a heap of votes from the NDP and-that curious block of vote from the Gulf/San Juan Islands
Charles, you should go listen carefully to a Sanders speech to a town meeting. He goes through the list of what he plans to do, and then here (paraphrasing, but accurate) is what he says:
"I'm going to tell you something now that no other candidate will tell you. I can't do these things. No President can do these things. The corporations and the billionaire class have too much power. Winning these things is going to take a huge mass movement of ordinary people coming together to demand them. And I don't want to kid you, it's going to take a fight."
Then he pauses, looks right into the camera, and asks, "Are you ready for a fight?"
His audiences roar their agreement. And then he says, "If you organize and get me elected, I'll fight with you and I'll be your voice in the White House."
Every single person I have asked this question: "Are you ready for a fight?" - has said yes or Hell yes, or has at least nodded, excepting members of the "political class" (who seem frightened by it.)
The American working people are spoiling for a fight, and Bernie is offering to lead us. His movement is erupting in every state and hundreds of thousands have signed up as volunteers or are forming independent Bernie groups, far outstripping the power of his campaign to manage and control it. He knows the risk he's running, he knows he's unlikely to reach the Promised Land, and so he never stops reminding us that this race is not about him, it's about us.
For all his warnings, millions have given him their love and are going to be overcome with grief and rage if we lose him.
Bernie's diary, Day 67: "Note to self: Avoid Memphis motel balconies."
Martin knew the score, and had made his peace with death. Bernie was a young civil rights activist and in a sense a follower of Martin's. Like many of his peers he tried running away - to Vermont in his case - and found that he couldn't.
All of us who commit to standing against the Empire have to know and accept the price - it's the price of shedding our sheep-skins and living as free men. Free humans.
Whatever else you can say about Bernie, he, almost alone in that Congress, is living as a free man, for however much time is left to him.
He sounds very simliar to Lennon.
Just saying.
Squid
Right, and Lennon got shot.
Meh, I respect Sanders for criticizing banks, but he's a socialist and no ideology has killed more people than Socialism.
I think he's intelligent. But an intelligent Socialist doesn't believe in Socialism, they crave the power that comes with it. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Solving corrupt government with moar government is utter stupidity.
"Our government serves elites and includes central economic planning groups such as the FED. We should totally elect the Socialist!"
What's this "voting" thing anyway?
There is no left or right, that's just the crap that's keeps you arguing among yourselves. There is only oligarchy.
Always has been, always will be.
Get your 2016 bumper sticker now.
http://rlv.zcache.com/im_ready_for_oligarchy_car_bumper_sticker-rb39bd18...
From the 2014 Princeton study:
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
http://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_an...
Excerpts:
A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues.
Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.
...the preferences of economic elites (as measured by our proxy, the preferences of “affluent” citizens) have far more independent impact upon policy change than the preferences of average citizens do. To be sure, this does not mean that ordinary citizens always lose out; they fairly often get the policies they favor, but only because those policies happen also to be preferred by the economically-elite citizens who wield the actual influence.
when the BERN came out swinging in favor of Hillary and the email stuff he lost my vote. IN theory they should be natural enemies
Feel good global warming (hoax) story of the day. This is to all you environazis out there shrieking about co2.
Where have all the Eagles gone?
https://youtu.be/j2biK1hdKHo
Own it you reprobate psychopaths.
Who says we want things to change? Do you think that is what's behind the Trump and Sanders thing?
Maybe we want those outlier type candidates, the nuttier the better, because we know the system cannot, will not change, and we want to throw a monkey-wrench into the gears and see what happens...
Don't assume we're all trying to 'save' anything here.