The Ant and the Grasshopper

[Nitrox]

Its not like I'm making this shit up, there is no personal responsibility anymore.

 

It's sure as hell drying up one bit at a time. The government is grabbing it when they can. The lawyers and we the people are letting or assisting them in taking it away one piece at a time.

 

Agreed

 

 

[Nitrox]

I didn't know there were close to 50 millions morbidly obese life long smokers who can't afford health insurance in America. It'd be really pathetic if you actually believed your own drivel. Please tell us you aren't for real.

 

I don't really care how many there are. Its not my job to make sure they can afford (monetarily and physically) their own lifestyle.

 

I recall getting screamed at by a Drill Sergeant "My heart doesn't pump fucking Coolaid, get your shit together!" Not only did his (or mine for that matter) not pump Coolaid but I got my shit together (out of necessity).

 

Life's lessons come the hard way, you learn them or you fail...but we've removed the "fail" from the equation so the lesson never gets learned.

 

 

[prole]

Its not like I'm making this shit up, there is no personal responsibility anymore.

 

It's sure as hell drying up one bit at a time. The government is grabbing it when they can. The lawyers and we the people are letting or assisting them in taking it away one piece at a time.

 

Agreed

 

If we could get Kevbone in this mix, we'd have a trifecta.

[Nitrox]

Its not like I'm making this shit up, there is no personal responsibility anymore.

 

It's sure as hell drying up one bit at a time. The government is grabbing it when they can. The lawyers and we the people are letting or assisting them in taking it away one piece at a time.

 

Agreed

 

If we could get Kevbone in this mix, we'd have a trifecta.

 

The danger is in caving because the issue just happens to be something we like. Its really had getting rights back once we've given them away.

 

 

[olyclimber]

But what if you're Too Big to Fail?

[prole]

The danger is in caving because the issue just happens to be something we like. Its really had getting rights back once we've given them away.

 

Yes, your passion is apparent from your outrage at citizens being shaken down for their papiere in Arizona.

Edited April 16, 2010 by prole

[Nitrox]

The danger is in caving because the issue just happens to be something we like. Its really had getting rights back once we've given them away.

 

Yes, your passion is apparent from your outrage at citizens being shaken down for their papiere in Arizona.

 

Hey now, I don't have time to be outraged at everything all at once.

[prole]

The danger is in caving because the issue just happens to be something we like. Its really had getting rights back once we've given them away.

 

Yes, your passion is apparent from your outrage at citizens being shaken down for their papiere in Arizona.

 

Hey now, I don't have time to be outraged at everything all at once.

 

Neither do the other Teabagger morons who've recently discovered "debt", "executive power", "majority rule" and a whole raft of parliamentary procedures they were happy to exploit when Bush was in power. Go figure.

[Doug]

 

Neither do the other Teabagger morons who've recently discovered "debt", "executive power", "majority rule" and a whole raft of parliamentary procedures they were happy to exploit when Bush was in power. Go figure.

 

Bingo. It ain't about any of this stuff; it's about who's using it and for what. It's not about doing what's right; it's about being right about what you're doing.

[billcoe]

..or the morons who choose to sit in the hot water ignoring reality as the heat gradually gets turned up.....

[prole]

..or the morons who choose to sit in the hot water ignoring reality as the heat gradually gets turned up.....

 

Who are you referring to here exactly? What's the "hot water" in question? The American left has been trying to draw attention to the 6 trillion dollar wars, increased surveillance and control, civil liberties infringements, the increasing consolidation and risk taking by finance capital, and all the rest of Reaganomics chickens coming home to roost for years. They continue to put pressure on Obama to push forward the policies he was elected to pursue, namely rolling back a lot of that bullshit. With the exception of the industry-friendly, center-right health care bill, he's been more focused on keeping this consumer-capitalist jalopy of an economy from unwinding any faster than it already is. Again, what's your problem, exactly?

Edited April 16, 2010 by prole

[olyclimber]

 

.

[Nitrox]

..or the morons who choose to sit in the hot water ignoring reality as the heat gradually gets turned up.....

 

Who are you referring to here exactly? What's the "hot water" in question? The American left has been trying to draw attention to the 6 trillion dollar wars, increased surveillance and control, civil liberties infringements, the increasing consolidation and risk taking by finance capital, and all the rest of Reaganomics chickens coming home to roost for years. They continue to put pressure on Obama to push forward the policies he was elected to pursue, namely rolling back a lot of that bullshit. With the exception of the industry-friendly, center-right health care bill, he's been more focused on keeping this consumer-capitalist jalopy of an economy from unwinding any faster than it already is. Again, what's your problem, exactly?

The left helped vote for the wars. Our current Secretary of State voted up for the "War On Terror".

[billcoe]

Who are you referring to here exactly?

 

come on, try and keep up....

[Fairweather]

Who are you referring to here exactly?

He's referring to tools like you, Asshat.

[Stonehead]

Here's one of Aesop's lesser known fables:

 

A group of frogs lived happily and peacefully in a pond. Over time, however, they became discontented with their way of life, and thought they should have a mighty king to rule over them. They called out to the great god Zeus to send them a king.

 

Zeus was amused by the frogs' request, and cast a large log down into their pond, saying "Behold, your king!" At first, the frogs were terrified of the huge log, but after seeing that it did not move, they began to climb upon it. Once they realized the log would not move, they called out again to Zeus to send them a real king, one that moved.

 

Annoyed by the frogs, Zeus said, "Very well, here is your new king," and sent a large stork to the pond. The stork began devouring frogs. In terror, frogs called out to Zeus to save them. Zeus refused, saying the frogs now had what they'd wanted, and had to face the consequences.

The Frogs Who Desired a King

 

BTW, Soviet dissidents often wrote in code to evade persecution. This type of writing was referred to as Aesopian language. Others who employed Aesopian language include Benedict Spinoza.

[billcoe]

Nice post Stonehead. I just finished the book "Lenins Tomb"....shocking stuff.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Lenins-Tomb-Last-Soviet-Empire/dp/0679751254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271476412&sr=1-1

 

In this story, a richly detailed tapestry of the breakdown of the largest totalitarian empire in the world - the Frogs were the "Progressives", but they got burned by the Storks in a huge and shocking manner. The depths of horror institutionalized by the state on it's own citizens makes one grateful (and more watchful and suspicious) for what we have as Americans.

[Fairweather]

The depths of horror institutionalized by the state on it's own citizens makes one grateful (and more watchful and suspicious) for what we have as Americans.

 

Unfortunately, the average cc.com tool doesn't see it like you do.

[prole]

If the Soviet Union had never existed, you pinheads would have to invent it. Oddly enough, the people of the rest of industrialized world, most of whom have had a much more immediate relationship with socialism in their own countries and with totalitarianism on their borders, enjoy a much higher quality of life than Americans and don't seem nearly as willing to commit social suicide because their politicians and corporate CEOs told them they have to. If you two put forth the kind of drivel you display here to the average German, Finn, Czech, Austrian, etc., you'd be ridiculed, placed on display, and paraded around the country.

[Stonehead]

You can keep singing your siren song about paradise under the state but I’ll take heed of Circe’s warning transmitted through the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:

 

At what exact point...should one resist? When one's belt is taken away? When one is ordered to face into a corner? When one crosses the threshold of one's home?

 

If ... if .... We didn't love freedom enough, we purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.

The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

 

 

 

[Fairweather]

Prole might want to take a look at Germany's recent election results. I believe Merkel's CD party continues to do well with their tax-cut platform. And, of course, we're all supposed to accept his Koolaid proposition that quality of life is superior in the states he listed. I doubt he knows much about them at all.

[prole]

Siren song? Are you fucking kidding? Pull your head out of your ahistorical, idealistic, utopian, anarchowhateverthefuck ass. I don't love the State, but until you find another set of existing institutions that have the democratic features that provide a modicum of accountability to the governed, the capacity protect the vulnerable, and maintain regulatory functions over consolidated economic power, I'll continue to take republicanism as what we currently have to work with. Is the US Government currently performing any of these functions well? No. Are there others in existence right now that permorm them better? Yes. You can play pomo cynic or conspiracy nut with everybody else if you want but unless you're seeing an impending spontaneous eruption of "autonomy" that I'm not, I think we'd be better off reforming what we've got before shit gets any worse. Your "Chinese model" is a lot less conspiratorial than you think.

Edited April 17, 2010 by prole

[Stonehead]

Who advocated any abolition of the State? Dude, you're seriously conflating what I said with what you think I said. Even your man, Chomsky, points out the dangers of where we're headed.

 

Noam Chomsky, the leading leftwing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States.

 

“I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio,” he said, “and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering” here at home.

 

Chomsky was speaking to more than 1,000 people at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, Wisconsin, where he received the University of Wisconsin’s A.E. Havens Center’s award for lifetime contribution to critical scholarship.

 

“The level of anger and fear is like nothing I can compare in my lifetime,” he said.

 

He cited a statistic from a recent poll showing that half the unaffiliated voters say the average tea party member is closer to them than anyone else.

 

“Ridiculing the tea party shenanigans is a serious error,” Chomsky said.

 

Their attitudes “are understandable,” he said. “For over 30 years, real incomes have stagnated or declined. This is in large part the consequence of the decision in the 1970s to financialize the economy.”

 

There is class resentment, he noted. “The bankers, who are primarily responsible for the crisis, are now reveling in record bonuses while official unemployment is around 10 percent and unemployment in the manufacturing sector is at Depression-era levels,” he said.

 

And Obama is linked to the bankers, Chomsky explained.

 

“The financial industry preferred Obama to McCain,” he said. “They expected to be rewarded and they were. Then Obama began to criticize greedy bankers and proposed measures to regulate them. And the punishment for this was very swift: They were going to shift their money to the Republicans. So Obama said bankers are “fine guys” and assured the business world: ‘I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.’

 

People see that and are not happy about it.”

 

He said “the colossal toll of the institutional crimes of state capitalism” is what is fueling “the indignation and rage of those cast aside.”

 

“People want some answers,” Chomsky said. “They are hearing answers from only one place: Fox, talk radio, and Sarah Palin.”

 

Chomsky invoked Germany during the Weimar Republic, and drew a parallel between it and the United States. “The Weimar Republic was the peak of Western civilization and was regarded as a model of democracy,” he said.

 

And he stressed how quickly things deteriorated there.

 

“In 1928 the Nazis had less than 2 percent of the vote,” he said. “Two years later, millions supported them. The public got tired of the incessant wrangling, and the service to the powerful, and the failure of those in power to deal with their grievances.”

 

He said the German people were susceptible to appeals about “the greatness of the nation, and defending it against threats, and carrying out the will of eternal providence.”

 

When farmers, the petit bourgeoisie, and Christian organizations joined forces with the Nazis, “the center very quickly collapsed,” Chomsky said.

 

No analogy is perfect, he said, but the echoes of fascism are “reverberating” today, he said.

 

“These are lessons to keep in mind.”

 

Chomsky Warns Of Risk Of Fascism In America

[prole]

Chomsky is not "my man", but I don't disagree with much that is said here. Despite the Teabagger use of the words "liberty" and "freedom", authoritarianism, racial purity, and corporatism is always the subtext as evinced by the appeals to the "real America", "economic freedom", "God and guns". As I've said in a previous post, the surest way to squelch fascist populism is to meet the underlying conditions that fuel it. Thirty years of trickle-on economics, the fusion of State and corporate power, bloated militarism, neglect, and retrograde antisocial philosophy should be countered by revitalizing the democratic aspects of governance, not by rejecting governance altogether. Drowning the State in the bathtub through tax cuts, removing its regulatory and social function, and paring its authority down to its basest level, the exercise of force, is the surest way to the authoritarian dystopia the Teabaggers claim to fear most. Concentrated power doesn't evaporate, it only consolidates in other institutions, I'd rather have it concentrated in something with mechanisms for citizens to control, rather than stockholders.

[Fairweather]

Growing fascism as a response to growing collectivism. This is something new?