patrick.net

CaptainShuddup says

Oh no, who in the hell am I to make such assertions?

A thinking human being.
I add:
"The Imperial Cruise" by James Bradley
"Crossing the Rubicon" by Michael Ruppert
"Everything I Want to do is Illegal" by Joel Salatin
"We Don't Need Them" by Joe Carpenter
"You Are Being Lied To" by Russ Kick
"The Hunt for Zero Point" by Nick Cook
"The Conspirators" by Al Martin
"Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen
"Fair Game" by Valerie Wilson Plame (avoid the movie)
Then there's this:
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1998Q2/foxbgh.html

Auntiegrav says

Any country is just 3 meals away from a revolution.
In France, they said "Let them eat cake!" (meaning cheap bread) and in America, we say "Let them eat corn syrup."
The question is: "Can they continue to provide the corn syrup?"

Maybe not:

I believe he said we only led three categories, didn't he forget about gross domestic product, even if it has been gross lately in some categories like fast food, prescription drugs, and some of the recent music and entertainment. I think we lead in food production as well, even if we use some of it to make ethanol which is totally insane overall, but if the government subsidizes its production then I can't blame the ones who produce it. I think we may have the lowest ratio of pollution to GNP, and I think we are leaders in the ratio of the area of really cool places for recreation and travel to the area of slums and unappealing places. You can say we didn't make the really cool places, but you also have to say we preserved them pretty good. I think when I see us be obviously defeated in any technologically based short term conflict....at that point I will not continue to claim we are one of the leading contributers of technological advances. We're not all that bad, but we really should stop buying so much imported stuff or we're going to strangle the research and development, not to mention the people.

Like what? Promoting the agenda of the 1% by dividing Americans with wedge issues like Fox News does?

People quickly forget that people who join the media world are just people; people with agendas and they have the same percent of immoral and selfish people as the rest of the population. Fox news is propaganda, and it works.

Great opening clip. I was stunned. Regardless of what went on in the show later, it was still refreshing to hear someone lay out a bunch of raw truths, without doing a politically correct apology.

I worship the Trinity. Fox news, Limbaugh, Beck.

Auntiegrav says

To read between the lines of what we are forced to talk about only through humor is quite enlightening.

So true. My favorite lines:

Facebook actually saves the CIA money.

That's how they got my brother.

400 billion tweets and not one useful bit of data was ever transmitted.

HEY YOU says

I worship the Trinity. Fox news, Limbaugh, Beck.

I like Lolcat News. It's the news read you can has.

Ruki says

Uh..I think that meant 'public sector labor unions', not 'rich and powerful'.

Yeah, it's just like the French Revolution when the population rose up and chopped off the heads of the public sector labor unions. Just think about all those fireman and teachers who died during the French Revolution.

Dan8267 says

HEY YOU says

I worship the Trinity. Fox news, Limbaugh, Beck.

I like Lolcat News. It's the news read you can has.

You can back up everything in it with the LoLcat bible.
http://www.lolcatbible.com/index.php?title=Proverbs_1

Dan8267 says

Ruki says

Uh..I think that meant 'public sector labor unions', not 'rich and powerful'.

Yeah, it's just like the French Revolution when the population rose up and chopped off the heads of the public sector labor unions. Just think about all those fireman and teachers who died during the French Revolution.

Well, except there wasn't anything left to keep from burning and nobody really wanted to learn French anyway.....
Just think of all those Bugs Bunny cartoons with guillotines in them.

Srsly, the issue in all of these cases is the bully factor. One bunch of bullies takes advantage until another bunch fights back (or things collapse and all new mobs are formed). The lack of human moderation is really pissing off Ceiling Cat, who wants tummy rubs and some tuna.

freak80 says

Romney is a perfect example. He's "liberal" on social issues but "conservative" (i.e. neocon) on economic & military issues. Obama is another perfect example. He does the bidding of powerful special interests (like the homosexual pressure groups and Planned Parenthood) but won't go really go after the top 0.1%. Do we have anything like Glass-Stegall in place? No.

Well said. Gay marriage is a perfect example - one the one side we have religious zealots trying to seize the opportunity to bring back religion-based politics and on the other side you have a herd of Pavlov's dogs conditioned to bark "discrimination!" if somebody just expresses their personal views (clearly separated from their business), and "human rights issue!" when it is clearly not. If one really strongly feels about reducing favoritism they would stand for abolishing government backed marriage, incl. all the perks and duties, as well as removing the ban on poligamy and let marriage return to a purely religion-of-choice event/journey if desired and a fusion of families/civil union based on contracts agreed by the involved parties only which can easily be enforced by courts without the government's interpretation, so that the people who simply don't want to marry don't get left out.

HEY YOU says

I worship the Trinity. Fox news, Limbaugh, Beck.

Nazi Germany did it, countries like Iran still do it...works for them, works for us! Why not? Nothing spells propaganda like nationalism and fascism. It always works on the ignorant and makes them feel smart, powerful and warm and fuzzy. Heil Fox!

Auntiegrav says

The lack of human moderation is really pissing off Ceiling Cat, who wants tummy rubs and some tuna.

Fuck Ceiling Cat. He's always watching me masturbate.

mell says

If one really strongly feels about reducing favoritism they would stand for abolishing government backed marriage, incl. all the perks and duties, as well as removing the ban on poligamy and let marriage return to a purely religion-of-choice

I could go for that, yes. Why is gummint involved in marriage at all? Isn't marriage an inherently religious idea?

CaptainShuddup says

That being said, it's a great performance by all, and it IS a damn shame that there's not a single news organization left in the world with 1/10th of the integrity the CHARACTERS in that show have.

The only newscast that even comes close is Comedy Central's, John Stewart's "The Daily Show". Sad that a comedy news hour is the most serious and best news program out there. This alone sums up the state of the msm today. I gave away my TV 10 years ago and my brain thanks me everyday.

Buster says

The only newscast that even comes close is Comedy Central's, John Stewart's "The Daily Show".

Someone hit him...

Buster says

my brain thanks me everyday.

The voices in my head told me to stay home and clean my guns today.

mell says

If one really strongly feels about reducing favoritism they would stand for abolishing government backed marriage, incl. all the perks and duties, as well as removing the ban on poligamy and let marriage return to a purely religion-of-choice event/journey if desired and a fusion of families/civil union based on contracts agreed by the involved parties only which can easily be enforced by courts without the government's interpretation, so that the people who simply don't want to marry don't get left out.

Yes. My first choice would be to eliminate the income tax and replace it with sales taxes. That eliminates the government involvement through tax breaks and paperwork that marriage brings to the table. Sans that, then we have to think of the quid pro quo aspect of why government is involved in marriage. That is because marriage in general provides the government with canon fodder in the form of children and also reduces the costs of social care because joined families have more resources to care for the elderly or indigent (when they aren't working 3 jobs at minimum wage). In the current context of this, then, the idea of a government marriage license should be replaced with a 'family' license, where any two people can form a union with the intent of caring for a third person (raising children, etc). Otherwise, just two people getting married is of little benefit to the government. Religions can still play the God card and people can still bring sausages for Offler.

Aaron Sorkin sure likes to write some self-serving, pompous stuff:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/andrea-mann/the-newsroom-aaron-sorkins-the-newsroo_b_1717071.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

Sports Night was the best but he dumped it for the West Wing. Loved the West Wing, but the pompous meter was off the chart. This appears to be West Wing in a newsroom.

Anyone notice there aren't too many original shows out there? They're all remakes of something or another, and we eat the shit because it's fed to us. Easier than having to forage for something better.

We watch the news that says what we want; Faux News feeds the conservatives, MSNBC feeds the libs, Daily Show satirizes both with an admittedly liberal slant... it's a parody/comedy show, but it does point out the craziness that we call news.

I keep a purge bucket by the couch when I watch the news because it's so damn hard to swallow - and harder to keep down.

Buster says

CaptainShuddup says

That being said, it's a great performance by all, and it IS a damn shame that there's not a single news organization left in the world with 1/10th of the integrity the CHARACTERS in that show have.

The only newscast that even comes close is Comedy Central's, John Stewart's "The Daily Show". Sad that a comedy news hour is the most serious and best news program out there. This alone sums up the state of the msm today. I gave away my TV 10 years ago and my brain thanks me everyday.

Maher > Stewart. Stewart is bold, but also incapable of conclusive reason when it disagrees with his punchline.

Dan8267 says

It's amazing how much that image still resonates with people.

THE Model for Revolution against Corrupt Elites. Everywhere in the world, the Marseillaise is heard when the corrupt 1% get the boot. Here it is in China:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z14rBlZNgMY

The Koumintang - which was an alliance between Generals, Warlords, and the Shanghai Mafia (his wife, Madame Chang, was a Mafioso's Daughter; her "Family" was called the Green Gang in English). The reason the Koumintang got beat by the Communists is because the Warlords and 1% stole all the equipment meant for the Army and sold it to line their pockets, and treated their soldiers like slaves or worse.

taxee says

After America , There is No Place to Go"

There are plenty of places to go where you can be free - even freer in many respects than America - and prosper.

Hong Kong, Singapore, most of South America, etc.

Buster says

The only newscast that even comes close is Comedy Central's, John Stewart's "The Daily Show". Sad that a comedy news hour is the most serious and best news program out there.

It's sad, but true. At least there is serious news somewhere, even if it's a comedy. (:

thunderlips11 says

The reason the Koumintang got beat by the Communists is because the Warlords and 1% stole all the equipment meant for the Army and sold it to line their pockets, and treated their soldiers like slaves or worse.

Well, there's also the Chinese version of the Bay of Pigs: we failed to provide support for Chiang Kai-shek at a critical point.
An understatement from Wiki: " Due to concerns about widespread and well-documented corruption in Chiang's government throughout his rule (though not always with his knowledge), the U.S. government limited aid to Chiang for much of the period of 1946 to 1948, in the midst of fighting against the People's Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong. Alleged infiltration of the U.S. government by Chinese Communist agents may have also played a role in the suspension of American aid."

Bottom line was that U.S. corporate interests (probably still hoping to reconnect to the opium trade which made the Delano family so rich) were playing the Communists against Chiang, even as Chiang was picking up weapon support from the U.S.. When the nationalists were in a retreat phase, we pulled materiel support. They almost won anyway, but it is that "almost" that put the Chinese under the Communists. Stilwell blew it. It's been a while since I read more of the details about it, but I remember it as being one critical shipment of weapons that was held back, because Stilwell basically wanted to be a prick to Chiang at a point when Mao was strung out over most of China in a blitz. Chiang's troops lost the chance to reform and cut off the head of the dragon. History is all fiction, though, so I don't know how much validity that story has.... ;-)

Randy H says

Maher > Stewart. Stewart is bold, but also incapable of conclusive reason when it disagrees with his punchline.

I lost a lot of respect for Maher when he made "Religulous". Not because I disagreed, but because it was a sad, sad attempt at milking humor out of what could have been a very poignant (and humorous) topic (I thought he was going to skewer religion, but he just followed it around like a starving cat.)
Stewart's show, though it is apparently the best source of news (according to surveys of how much people know about current events who watch The Daily Show vs. regular news programs), that aspect is by accident in the process of making fun of our society. If more people were otherwise better informed, the left-leaning slant of social issue discussions would be less of a contrast with our daily behaviors, and an even larger audience could laugh at humanity's foibles.
Unfortunately, our consumer-oriented culture requires a business-based system to feed shiny, noisy crap to the suburbs, and that makes respect for social mores, natural resources or diversity seem silly if there isn't a profit to be made from them. While there is a need for these things and the vacuum is filled with media discussions instead of real actions, the opposite discussion is absent: what are people making all of the Stuff for? Do we need them to be doing 'jobs' for the sake of having jobs? Is an extraction economic model going to keep growing forever? Instead, the left discussions dominate because they are concerned with the forever plan and the right discussions are short and succinct because they sell the daily stock forecasts without showing the actual logistics required for their projected "free market" solutions.

freak80 says

Romney is a perfect example. He's "liberal" on social issues but "conservative"

Errr..depends on the day you catch him. He is a sniveling smarmy weathervane, after all.

taxee says

taxee

Great Story. 100% agree with contents.
America is not the same as used to be.
Most professional jobs are licensed by goverment. Can be taken away any time they wants. In Europe now is trend for delicensing, though.

20 years ago, painter could start business by buying brush and a ladder. No way to do this today.

How U.S. discourages foreign investors
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/08/02/n-panasonic-manufacturing-jobs.cnnmoney?iid=HP_LN

elliemae says

We watch the news that says what we want; Faux News feeds the conservatives, MSNBC feeds the libs, Daily Show satirizes both with an admittedly liberal slant... it's a parody/comedy show, but it does point out the craziness that we call news.

I keep a purge bucket by the couch when I watch the news because it's so damn hard to swallow - and harder to keep down.

The PBS Newshour does a pretty good job. Their interviews run long, but they do a good job of bringing in more than one point of view. Their Supreme Court commentator is top-notch and Paul Solman's pieces on the economy are always outstanding. Mark Shields and David Brooks on Fridays to comment on the week's political stories -- it's a pretty good news show.

I gave up on network news a long time ago. Peter Jennings is rolling...

REpro says

How U.S. discourages foreign investors
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2012/08/02/n-panasonic-manufacturing-jobs.cnnmoney?iid=HP_LN

Difficult to get Mfg back in the US.. but not impossible! The Panasonic CEO was right.

Auntiegrav says

Any country is just 3 meals away from a revolution.

True, but judging from their waste-lines, Americans aren't missing any meals.