90-percent
90-percent's JournalAlso
Because the SS Trust Fund has absolutely no impact what so ever on the national debt and is not part of the federal budget, I think it's great our President wants to cut something we've all worked all of our lives to get in our golden retirement years.
They want us to work until 70 and throw people over forty out of the work force and end their careers.
The POWERS THAT BE ARE CERTAINLY GOING FULL TILT MEDIEVAL ON OUR ASSES, aren't they?
And I, as a full blown corporate serf, would at least like to know which Lord within the PTB is assigned to my slavery district. Isn't this still a constitutionally protected right?
-90% Jimmy
Is there any democracy left in America?
I have heard that over 90% of all groups surveyed, including NRA members, are in favor of at least background checks before being able to buy a gun.
Our politicians are so afraid of the NRA they are not willing to even consider doing something that 90% of America favors!
You can't get 90% agreement the sky is blue, fer chrissakes!
I am so thankful I'm almost 60 with no children. The future for this planet is Orwell-squared bleak, when you consider corporate fascism and the end-of-life-as-we-know-it consequences of global climate change. I guess corporations plan to make big bucks in the future providing us with air conditioners that can convert 180F outdoor temps to a more moderate 110F inside or something?
-90% jimmy
PS - this is where I got my 180F doom and gloom info. well worth the 15 minutes to watch.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017109076
The current system
With things brewing in our government like the Trans Pacific Partnership
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=425489
it is clear that the people that run the entire world are going medieval on our asses.
The most extreme example is global climate change. We are hurtling along mindlessly, as the keepers of the planet, while apocalyptic doom for the worlds future is merely a matter of when, and it's already been happening all around us. (The planet is the warmest it's been in 4000 years or something?) I'm against mass extinctions and rendering entire southern states as unlivable by humans!
The future of humanity is looking more and more and more like the movie Mad Max.
Our institutions are failing us utterly every where you turn. It is possible to be assured a future of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but not with this collection of PTB sociopaths driving the planets future into the ground.
All this human misery does not have to be. We can live fair and peaceful and prosperous lives. All our problems have solutions. Modern technology is exploding all around us at an astounding pace (3D printing, as one example) If we could apply the same human ingenuity to solve the planets problems COLLECTIVELY, the future could be fair, just, prosperous and happy.
-90% Jimmy
Honorable
She gave her life standing behind her beliefs and principals.
I fear we are nearing the point where some more will have to die to make a stand against the powers that have purchased our democracy.
A Century ago give or take a few decades, many people died taking a stand for unions and collective bargaining. Looks like we will have to fight this battle all over again to get democracy and a modest amount of fairness and justice back into our American Lives.
So many people I know openly admit the PTB want to turn us all into powerless corporate serfs without human rights.
The are getting medieval on our asses, so to speak.
Thank you and your family again for your sacrifice, Rachel.
-90% Jimmy
The worst part about global climate change for me is:
That I have heard from people I respect that there's a possibility of extinction of all life on the planet in thirty years if global climate changed is not lessened or even reversed.
Well, gee wizzzz, that is one humdinger of a worst case scenario, isn't it?
For those that profess to do Gods Work on Wall Street, perhaps they should begin a renewed career DOING GOD'S WORK TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE.
Because an Act of God seems about the only possibility that gives any chance of hope.
I'm fine with it all because I know if I further enrich the already wealthy, my time in the afterlife will be almost as good as a middle class American in 1967.
-90% Jimmy
Blankfein
I've always found this Olympic caliber sociopathic greedhead to be slightly more galling than the rest of the Wall Street Sociopath/Titans of Finance. This m-f'er pulls in 16 million a year in compensation for doing his "God's work". Seriously, that is an exact quote from him describing how he earns his living.
Based on his suggestion to raise the retirement age and lower the expectations for SS confirms he has the grasp of economics of a fifth grader that has no access to the internet or public library.
Does he have any clue as to what the working life of an average blue collar worker is like? Carpenters, construction workers, auto repairmen, carpet installers, drywall people, heavy equipment operators, tree surgeons, and all others that do strenuous physical work for a living usually have their bodies noticeably breaking down in their late fifties and spend the balance of their working life in severe pain, unless they opt for the cushy Walmart Greeter gigs, for the lavish health insurance free minimum wage.
Ezra says the life expectancy for blue collar people that do physical work has only gone up 1-1/2 years in the same time period the White collar folks live ten years longer.
AND WHAT SORT OF FUCKING JOB IS A 65 YEAR OLD GOING TO GET ANYWAY?
There are so many of us in America that were white collar workers that were surprised to become layoff fodder once they reached fifty! There are so many of us on DU with stories of spending over a year to find a job somewhat comparable to what we lost in our last layoff. Or scaling back and adjusting to a subsistence lifestyle foregoing all the goodies of modern life we used to take for granted.
I think most rational and well educated economists would argue that the best thing for employment, the economy and growing the SS fund bigger is to lower the retirement age to 60 and perhaps even earlier. (Thom Hartmann argues eloquently about this) This would make room for so many young people struggling to enter the workforce and score a "good job". To make people work until seventy is not only cruel to the old people, it is denying the chance for young people to make their way into the world with a good job and hopes for a good future.
I don't know what this Blankfein does at work to justify his lavish salary, because he certainly is ignorant about economic basics if he argues that raising the retirement age is somehow good for anybody, including the general economy. The only thing Lloyd will get if his suggestions are implemented is an Ebenezer Scrooge-like enjoyment over inflicting so much cruelty to so many people.
I have a bumper sticker on my Ranger tailgate:
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS
I should add Blankfein's picture to it.
-90% jimmy
2+2
Invade Iran = reinstatement of the draft.
No fucking way could we avoid it. Iran ain't the push-over Iraq was. At least we'll eventually get another spiffy war memorial on the DC mall some time in the future over it!
We'll also be getting a re-engorged military-industrial-congressional complex from it, besides. It's too bad all those young patriotic kids will have to die for it, though. Kinda like marching sacrificial virgins into a volcano. And just as superstitious.
-90% jimmy
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS
The people that run our planet simply don't care if they are creating a future of biblical cataclysmic proportions. They think they're rich and privileged enough to deal with it and the health of mother earth be damned.
To paraphrase Frank Zappa, humanities awareness of the consequences of global warming will not be felt by average people until it comes up and bites them in the ass. That time is now in the present moment.
The world should have been aggressively fixing this thirty fucking years ago! It's way too late to do anything about it now. Heaven help the young and the hell on earth we have given all their futures!
-90% Jimmy
ROOT CAUSE
There is a root cause for all this. I even managed to distill it into bumper sticker format, which is now plastered on the tailgate of my Ford Ranger.
OUR INSTITUTIONS ARE INFESTED WITH CORRUPT SOCIOPATHS
The people our planet relies on to run everything for the good of everybody ARE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY* and they are succeeding in running the entire planet and the future of everyone on it INTO THE GROUND!
I GOT MINE AND SCREW YOU is no way to run a planet, son.
-90% Jimmy
*We're only in it for the money is one of my favorite original Mothers of Invention albums
an essay, not much on Ryan.
The more I learn about Romney the more I don’t like him. He’s made a fortune screwing American taxpayers out of his fair share via elite-only-loopholes. I find it utterly amazing that this man, a walking version of every morally corrupted rot that’s making life worse for the majority of humanity, is the Republican nominee!
I welcome the discussion of how Romney ran his businesses and all the details of his personal wealth. For example, he has built his IRA up to $20-100 million? An individual can only contribute $5,000 per year! The IRA plan was conceived to help fund retirements, not to allow the wealthy another tax shelter.
This campaign will force blanket coverage of all the tricks the wealthy use to make their slice of the pie bigger at the expense of the bottom 99%. All of America will get a daily education from all media about the galling greed of the monied elite that have purchased our Democracy. (I contend in the present moment America is a plutocracy. We are no longer a democracy. We barely were for good portions of our history, anyway)
The right gets really offended about welfare queens. Those that game the social safety nets that are perhaps undeserving of taxpayer help. That does happen, unfortunately, and I have a personal real life proof for that, but the magnitude of Romneys lust for as much CORPORATE WELFARE as his looopholeologists can provide to him should be utterly repellant to any critically thinking American.. Whats comforting is there is a certain segment of the wealthy that understand PROGRESSIVE TAXATION and how going back to higher tax rates for the wealthy allowed a shared prosperity. They would prefer higher taxes for the good of society.
It’s about good citizenship. I hope all Americans that remember their High School Civics classes understand the underlying principals of our democracy and their responsibilities to contribute to it via informed participation. Such participation is necessary, especially for this election, for it is truly our last and only chance to prevent America from becoming an utter PLUTOCRACY. The Middle Ages with I-pads. We must show the entitled elites they cannot buy every single piece of our Democracy!
-90% jimmy
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Name: JimGender: Male
Current location: Barkhamsted, CT
Member since: Sat Jul 3, 2004, 08:36 AM
Number of posts: 6,829