Reply #202: This is the key---absolutely spot on!

[CoffeeCat]

Your post could serve as a springboard for all kinds of important discussion. Frankly,
I think it needs to be an OP.

As you said--DADT, SALT and First Responders do not affect the profits of our corporate
masters. They could give a rip. I'm elated that DADT was repealed, but let's be honest--
the only DC politicians who against this--are a tiny, vocal minority. The DADT win
was a significant, positive change--but politically it was not a big win--because it's just
not that big of a deal to the majority of politicians any more.

The same phenomena happened with the First Responders bill. Republican opposition to First responders was manufactured baloney wrapped in community theater. Seriously, who would
actually be against helping the firefighters and EMTs who ran into the WTC on 9/11? The
truth is, they never were. They fought it for theatrical purposes--creating a false reality
where compromise abounds in DC! The Republicans "caved" on what they never opposed in the
first place.

And as you very well know, the following items: Billions of tax breaks for the wealthy; a healthcare bill that enriched health-insurance companies beyond their wildest dreams; and
more government control of the Internet--are enormous wins that siphon money to corporations
and basic freedoms away from the American people. For politicians to suggest that SALT and
First Responders are comparable politically to the juggernaut of corporate giveaways that
Congress has passed--is a horrific joke.

We are being bamboozled in such epic proportions. And they get away with it. The constellation
of legislation that has recently passed, is being lauded as "something for everyone" with
Progressives securing wins as well as the right.

The corporations won steak dinners. We just had a few Cheetos thrown at us.

A blatant example of this was how the extended unemployment benefits were rolled
into the billions in tax cuts for the wealthy. Republicans would have NEVER voted down
those unemployment extensions, if they were presented as a stand-alone bill. It would have
been political suicide. So, Dems AND Republicans packaged them together--and created
a false choice, "If we don't give yacht owners their tax cuts, then the unemployed lose! We
must pass this!" In effect, the unemployed middle class were used to line the pockets
of the mucky mucks. The "compromise" was a lie. The rich got their windfall and the
unemployed got the benefits that would never have been killed in the first place.

Frankly, I am sick and tired of this nonsense. I am exhausted by how stupid our leaders
believe we are. I'm also losing my patience with people who buy into the total drivel
that is being dished out to us.

Sorry to ramble and vent--but this is a huge issue to me and the political lies being
spewed to us affect nearly every piece of legislation that is being passed.