The Most Equal Comrade went to leafy, tranquil Palo Alto to attend a Freedom-Hater fundraiser at the home of Michael McCue, a tech entrepreneur, on Thursday. Zombie's photo essay of the event and its spillover into the neighborhood's streets provides an insightful glimpse into a particular slice of American society you don't find everywhere - the sharp, clean-cut go-getter entrepreneur and his adorable flag-waving kids and pets, and their radical, America-dismantling ideology.
(Well, maybe you do find it everywhere now. See my rants from earlier today.)
Take a scroll though the photos for an on-the-ground look at where power in post-America is being channeled. The smiley face of the thug regime.
The intellectual core of the thug regime on his facebook page with some of the 422 comments so far. So is this what low info looks like? But you can empathize with grumpy, no?
ReplyDeleteRobert Reich · 97,000 like this
7 hours ago ·
Some of you occasionally ask me if I'm turning into a grouch in my older age. "Why are you always complaining?" you ask. The fact is, there is much to complain about. I'm optimistic about the long-term future of this country: I look at my wonderfully idealistic and energetic students, at the progressive attitudes of the young in this country overall, and at the increasing economic and electoral power of minorities and women, and I'm confident we'll get on the right track. And I'm proud of the progress we're making on issues such as equal marriage rights. American history is a long arc of progressive change -- of wider opportunity and economic and political reform so that the system works for more of us. Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said America always does the right thing eventually, after it's exhausted all other alternatives?
But in the shorter term, there's too much wrong for complacency. Inequality continues to widen, undermining our economy and democracy. The Koch brothers and other billionaires are buying politicians and the media. Wall Street is on the path toward another "too big to fail" explosion. Regressives are determined to pull the country back to the 1920s or earlier. More than a fifth of our children are in poverty. Climate change is already upon us. Our military is still way too large, our foreign policy too belligerent, and our civil liberties too easily encroached upon.
My intention isn't to let off steam or heighten your outrage but to stir some of you, and those with whom you share these thoughts, into more active political engagement. After working in Washington for many years I've come to understand that the special monied interests triumph only when good people give up, and that positive change in this country occurs only when Americans without great money and inside influence are sufficiently organized and mobilized to make change. (I'll continue to raise a ruckus as well.)
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Joseph Manning The power of positive and negative thinking function, respectively, to build on what is good and obliterate the bad.
3 hours ago · Like · 1
Brian Lindberg we'll just call you "Grumpy" (last night, I told Mary that's what we should rename our dog, as she is becoming more persnickety...)...well,no sense sitting around congratulating ourselves on work done...we have "miles to go before we sleep..."
3 hours ago · Like
Barry B. Davis Sr. Bob, I'm with you we must improve our Democracy and our Society!!!
3 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
Philip Denoncourt Pls continue to speak the truth! Robert, your words are much appreciated!
2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
Timothy Ashlock I haven't even had my coffee yet... another great post Robert.
2 hours ago · Like
Mikel Miller Many of the things Robert Reich said today are exactly the same complaints as the Libertarian Party, did you know that? But Robert's embracing of income tax as a great equalizer are inaccurate. Everyone that has the resources to avoid the income taxes ...See More
2 hours ago via mobile · Like · 1
It's interesting that you generally toss out someone else's viewpoint for consideration but generally don't go anywhere near whether it's your own viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteRobert Reich comes from the Paul Krugman School of Wrong on Everything.
Anybody who trots out the Koch Brothers as if there is something to disparage about either their business activities or their championing of human freedom is a huckster, hoping his audience hasn't progressed beyond a juvenile level of understanding the world.
ReplyDeletePaul Krugman has written several very optimistic pieces in the past month regarding Obmamacare and the deficit not being as bad as predicted. Both are bigger than this one voter and I hope he is right. You see, it's not so much that I agree with the Democrats (which I still lean towards since it is the party of my birth like Catholicism is my religion) it's that I don't trust most Republicans and the ones that I do, like Lugar and McCain, your ilk vehemently detests. Yes I read the pieces you posted some time ago from the conservative rags trashing Krugman and it did cause me to raise an eyebrow. Bottom line is I am clearly at best a far too reasonable person for you. It stings that you call my ilk spineless and without principle. I just don't know, most of the time. I am glad that you think you do though do not try to shove it down my throat and I certainly try my damndest not to shove my views down any other sovereign human being's throat. That's probably not a sufficient answer but I tire of typing here at the moment.
ReplyDeleteRead more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/krugman-the-obamacare-shock.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0
The Obamacare Shock: The program’s a looming non-disaster
Massachusetts has had essentially this system since 2006; as a result, nearly all residents have health insurance, and the program remains very popular. So we know that Obamacare — or, as some of us call it, ObamaRomneyCare — can work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/opinion/krugman-the-geezers-are-all-right.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
the numbers aren’t nearly as overwhelming as you might have imagined, given the usual rhetoric. And if you look under the hood, the data suggest that we can, if we choose, maintain social insurance as we know it with only modest adjustments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/krugman-the-spite-club.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
a number of Republican-dominated states seem set to reject Medicaid expansion, at least at first. And why would they do this? They won’t save money. On the contrary, they will hurt their own budgets and damage their own economies. Nor will Medicaid rejectionism serve any clear political purpose. As I’ll explain later, it will probably hurt Republicans for years to come.
Really frightening that Reich thinks that Wall Street is heading towards another "too big to fail explosion." Can you assure me that it's not, because my gut and my intellect have been telling me that for some time now. I do not like what I see and what I do not like you seem to defend.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Koch brothers, I confess, I know very little about them so will look into it to determine whether I give a shit.
Word has it that the Koch brothers want to privatize OASI. Not good in my opinion. Did their dad lie down with Stalin? And oil, Big Oil, yeppers, their workers get Cadillac health care insurance that we all pay for at the pump. Paying taxes at the pump too. What's the diff dude?
ReplyDeleteWhy not privatize OASI? And Medicare is a federal program. WHy should I have my money seized at gunpoint to pay for a medical procedure for somebody in Kansas or Delaware?
ReplyDeleteAre you aware that profit margins in the oil industry are far less than in most others?
Don't base you ideological conclusions on family stuff.
ReplyDeleteYou purchased a health insurance policy did you not? In that case, most likely your money goes to pay for a procedure in Kansas or Delaware or somewhere else where some poor bastard had to avail himself of the coverage. That is what insurance is, a pool of premium money that indemnifies those with losses per the contract. Your premium dollars also go to agents' commissions, big wigs' bonuses, advertising and a likely Caddilac plan for the company's employees.
ReplyDeleteI chose to buy health insurance. The damn government didn't make me. I'm fine with commissions and advertising. I don't expect to buy my breakfast cereal in a plain brown box.
ReplyDelete