June 6, 2014

Hey Republicans: we lost the war, and it's your fault. Now we trade prisoners.

Republicans (with a bit of Democratic help) waged an unbelievably-stupid war against Afghanistan, totally ignoring the basic rules of how to win. Like they ignore all rules based on "facts" and "evidence". Wars are normally won by destroying the enemy's will to fight, by horrific and sickening destruction - think Sherman's March to the Sea and the firebombings of Germany and Japan.

Obama took a crack at winning the thing, ignoring those same rules, but finally realized it wasn't happening.

So we lost.

War's over.

Now we trade prisoners.

That's how it always works.

If you don't like losing wars, either don't start them, or fight them in a way that might win.

June 6, 2014

I *told* you things were changing!

Since Occupy, I've been prattling on about how the 99% are starting to wake up after 30 years of slumber and start paying attention.

Today is another milestone - Hillary now admits that her vote on the Iraq War Resolution was a mistake.

Now anyone who thinks about this stuff figured Hillary would go all Elizabeth Warren in public after completing her "I'll soon need to say stuff in public that I don't believe but don't worry!" victory lap of Wall Street. We knew that: she even mumbled "middle class" a few times in 2008, so this affectation was not without precedent.

But admitting that she got the war wrong (while most Congressional Democrats got it right)? That's new and unexpected, I gotta say, I'm impressed. Not impressed by Hillary, but by the pressure she must be feeling from her polling of the 99%. Clearly, they found we're mad as hell and are not going to believe utter bull#%^* anymore.

Good. Let's get mad, and let's get going... lots of work to do.

June 4, 2014

Glenn Greenwald ain't no Libertarian, Part 2: Wall Street

(Second in a series on pervasive lies spewed on the Internet)

Rachel Maddow calls Glenn Greenwald "the American Left’s most fearless political commentator".

Bill Moyers says that Greenwald is ”the most important voice to have entered the political discourse in years.”.

Michael Moore says "The first thing I do when I turn on the computer in the morning is go to Glenn Greenwald’s blog to see what he said. He is truly one of our greatest writers right now."

Sounds like these folks think Greenwald's a Liberal - but others know better. A small but vocal group on the Internet is working 24/7 to let us know the truth: that Glenn Greenwald is in fact a Libertarian, and that his work is an existential threat to Democrats. That Greenwald attacks Democrats from the right because he's a far-right kook, not from the left because he's a Liberal.

Are Maddow, Moyers, and Moore mere rubes for the Koch brothers and Ron/Rand Paul? Is Greenwald truly a Libertarian bent on destroying what's left of good government, and turning the 99% into Soylent Green?

Yesterday we were shocked to find that Greenwald's stated views on Social Security and Medicare are substantially to the left of our Democratic president and many/most Democrats in Congress: he doesn't think these programs should be cut strengthened, no way, no how. Sacrebleu! Doesn't sound very Libertarian!

Perhaps we'll have better luck today: let's review Greenwald's record on the regulations that fetter Wall Street, that prevent the creation of an Ayn Randian paradise on Earth. Surely Greenwald must be in favor of freeing the wealthy and powerful from their nanny-state chains, and is working tirelessly to keep them from being unfairly prosecuted by The Most Liberal President Ever, yes?

For your review, here's some of Greenwald's handiwork on the subject:

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions

"Zero Accountability": Glenn Greenwald on Obama’s Refusal to Prosecute Wall Street Crimes

Immunity and impunity in elite America

And then there's these:

Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Wall Street’s ownership of government

Another Goldman executive named to key government post as its profits skyrocket

The events preceding Goldman Sachs’ new “blowout profits” which starts In May, a former top IMF official noted: "the finance industry has effectively captured our government."

Sounds kind of... well, Liberal. Like that difficult woman from Massachusetts who somehow sneaked into the Senate.

Oh well, we seem to have struck out again today in proving Greenwald's Libertarian cred. Again, he appears to be a good bit more Liberal than our Democratic president and many/most Democratic members of Congress.

Of course, this hardly disproves that Greenwald is the result of a torrid 13 seconds between Ayn Rand and Alan Greenspan in the bathroom at CBGBs - America is the land of baseball after all, it takes three strikes before we're out. Let's see if we can't nail Greenwald in our next installment. Or, maybe, just maybe, we'll find out that Greenwald ain't a Libertarian at all, that there's a group of people on the Internet who really, really really want us to know things that are simply crap.

Stay tuned.

June 3, 2014

Elizabeth Warren's Greatest (Youtube) Hits

12/12/2014 - Sen. Warren takes the floor in the Senate to describe how Citigroup has co-opted the Executive branch of government, uses that power to pillage working Americans.

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12/10/2014 - Sen. Warren Calls on Congress to Strike Repeal of Dodd-Frank Provision in Funding Bill - gobstopping overview of the crap getting pulled on us by Congress and our President. Citigroup is threatening to shut down the government unless they get the right to gamble using taxpayer money.



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11/212014 - Senator Warren goes after NY Federal Reserve Chairman (and former Goldman Sachs exec, of course) William Dudley for the Fed's a culture of letting bankers have their way with the 99%:

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11/19/2014 - Senator Warren Takes FHFA Director Mel Watt to task for blowing off his authority to reduce mortgage principals after promising, one year ago, to look into it. This would save hundreds of thousands of family homes from foreclosure.



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A list of videos showing Sen. Warren in action, fighting for the 99%. (This is a work in progress... we'll be adding more videos over time)

3/29/2014 - The case for Elizabeth Warren for president, in 7 minutes:



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6/19/2013 - Elizabeth Warren one of only four senators voting against Obama's choice for US Trade Representative, because he refuses to stop keeping negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership "free" trade agreement secret.



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2/24/2013 - Elizabeth Warren shames bank "regulators" at her first Banking Committee meeting



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4/29/2009 - Elizabeth Warren to Tim Geithner: Why treat banks better than the auto industry?

June 3, 2014

Glenn Greenwald ain't no Libertarian, Part 1: Defending Social Security and Medicare

(The first in a series on pervasive lies spewed on the Internet)

Glenn Greenwald is on record as opposing Obama's attempts to cut Social Security and Medicare, e.g.:

Reports: Obama pushing for cuts to Social Security, Medicare

Obama and progressives: what will liberals do with their big election victory?

Defending entitlements: does that sound like a Libertarian? I don't think so.

Greenwald is a strong advocate for civil liberties, not a Libertarian.

So why do I care? Am I just a Greenwald fanboy?

I care because truth is important. Only the truth will get the 99% out of the crater we've allowed ourselves to get stuck in. When people on the Internet write that Greenwald is a Libertarian, know that they're either lying or ignorant. Either way, they are not truth tellers, and all information they supply should be treated with great skepticism.

By the way - this info comes from a DailyKos article, which was linked by madfloridian.

June 2, 2014

Does smearing Snowden and Greenwald count as right-wing propaganda?

There was a poll yesterday in which DUers voted overwhelmingly (6 to 1!) that "promotion of rightwing propaganda is a per se violation of community standards", and thus offending posts should be hidden. And this makes sense to me - right wing nonsense should not be tolerated on DU.

My question: should sustained attacks on the messengers who carry important truths to us also be considered as right-wing propaganda? In particular, I'm thinking about the stuff that hijacks virtually every thread about Operation Spy on Everyone™, e.g., "Snowden sux!!! and should be in jail!" , and "Smearmaster Greenwald is a smearing Libertarian Paulite greed-head who was once in favor of the Iraq war***" After all, isn't this a standard right-wing technique to distract from discussing substantive issues?




***so were some, but by no means most, Congressional Democrats. But the same folks don't complain about that - instead we get a handful of "oh grow up" tossed at our heads.

June 1, 2014

Which is more right wing?