"We're all socialists,now" That's what Alter said on Madow's

[chieftain]

show last night. But if true, we are all dumb socialists. The RW has, yet again, put us in a corner where we have allowed the privatization of profit and the socialization of debt. After all of W's cronies have made off with wealth of unbelievable proportions, the American public is left with their toxic investments. And we are warned by the first MBA president, we better not try to change anything that his henchmen propose because the crisis is too dire.
We should realize why the GOP waited until the wolves were at the door to act on a slow motion debacle that was gathering before our very eyes for months and years. Rather than aiming government intervention to help people struggling with their rate adjusting markets, we are pumping these same folks' monies into the entities which caused the problem with no assurance that the people hurting will get any relief. And we have to pass this monstrosity of a bill by next week or an economic Armageddon will be laid at the feet of the Democratic Party.
We have been had again.
One of the lessons we better have learned from these past 7 years of thievery and thuggery is to NEVER let the GOP occupy the WH ever again. A Democratic Congress is no match for an ideological RW executive. I would hope that all Democrats would also have learned their lesson that theories of "regulatory modernization" is just 1920's laissez faire repackaged for media consumption. It is imperative that the Party of FDR and HST start talking and governing in their tradition. To update Truman's admonition that in order to live like a Republican, you have to vote Democratic, I would add that if you vote GOP, you may end up living like a pauper.

[MUAD_DIB]

1. I would not say socialists...

What we are seeing is a rampant kleptocracy that, after their ship has hit the rocks, is asking the passengers to get out and push it back into deep water: hoping that it will stay afloat.


This is far from over, and I believe that what happens next is going to be very scary.

[chieftain]

2. The actions of the past few days may not betextbook

socialism, but however named, middle and working class people are being stuck with the aftermath of an unfettered financial marketplace disaster.Sad to say you may be right about worse to come. Grover Norquist said the GOP goal was to reduce government to the size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. His prophecy may be coming true before our eyes.

[kenny blankenship]

3. If the alleged resemblance to socialism consists of taking money from people and giving it to others

then no, THE crucial distinction still remains: in socialism wealth is shared as a reflection of the social nature of production. It is not confiscated from the many to make the already wealthy-under-capitalism few wealthier still, nor to immunize them from losses arising from their criminal financial recklessness. That act of taking accords perfectly with traditional capitalism's way of reserving the lion's share and the central role within the economy to the predatory elite. At best it acknowledges the social nature of wealth only tacitly, by silently admitting that there is no other remaining conduit of cash to rescue the empire of capital than siphoning emergency capital directly from the pockets of workers at the barrel of a gun.

Or if this be socialism, it is of the "National Socialism" variety.

[xchrom]

4. i don't think socialism is the right word --

i get what he's doing -- but corporations figured out years agao that there are a variety of ways that they can use
the taxes the federal government collects like an ever re-newing gold mine.

i think that's what we're witnessing.

[City Lights]

5. We're only socialists when it comes to losses. Profits are still privatized.

The Wall Street welfare kings made a killing before going belly-up.

[high density]

6. That comment made no sense

It sure got people talking about Jon Alter but that's about all it was good for. Does he consider it to be socialistic to have the FDIC shutter failing banks before they completely implode and report a 100% loss? If not, then why is this different, despite the historic and much broader scale of the Treasury's action?

Everybody looked the other way for far too long, led by the crooks in the White House. The most depressing thing is the thought that Washington thinks the economy is the Dow Jones Industrial Average and nothing more.