This was from the additional footage in the movie Sicko.

And in the past, she's written an article or two addressing this subject.

The quote was made in reference to health care affordability.

But really, couldn't that quote be applied to almost everything else in life as well?

Should our country's bumper sticker read:

AMERICA: UNLESS YOU'RE A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE, YOU DON'T MATTER!

And if that's the case, then shouldn't something be . .. you know . . . DONE about that?

Yep.

Not really "kosher" to say this on here, but "strong" presidents who stick up for the people and try to defang corporations take dirt naps in Arlington. Corporations vet every candidate from minute one. They don't play ball, they don't get funded. This is how "messiness" is avoided nowadays.

You're never going to see a President Howard Dean or a President Sherrod Brown.

Corporations and the wealthy would seriously prefer no Democratic presidents EVER.

I mean, what do you want me to tell you, life's fair?

This is the price Americans pay for not being brave people. They couldn't even think for one second what life would be like if they had no house, no possessions, no car, no job . . . in other words, nothing at all left to lose. We expect everyone else to do the fighting and hard work FOR us. We don't protest. We're afraid of police. We're afraid of being seen in the wrong place because we'd lose our jobs, and in turn, our health insurance.

We shudder to think what life would be like if we became one of, or less than, the "have too littles" that the TV keeps yapping about.

Therefore, they just go along, and vote along, to get along.

Americans participate in this dog and pony show called life because it's all about survival now. There isn't any notion of wanting real change.

If Barack Obama's election means anything, it's that the Plutocracy is now exposed in all it's ugly, wrinkled, hairy dangle-dongle old-white-man nudity.

They bought them. They bought them all. And your price just doubled.

I seriously don't even wonder any more about the notion of "how much longer Americans are going to take this".

"Our President Sucks! I'm voting for the other guy/not voting at all!"

The whole system is corrupt from hair to sole.

That's the problem.

You know, years after he stood on that podium, whatever podium it was, and asked for a blank check for military spending and the Rubberstamp Rodeo lovingly gave it to him, damn the long term cost?

Ever recall seeing that National Debt ticker ANYwhere on ANY TV station after it was nearly doubled under his watch?

Every time I look at CNBC, and this was even months before the whole Ceiling thing, you'd see this National Debt odometer at least twice a week and now, you see it every day.

It's funny how that works. Or not.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/...

Yes, I know it's Politico and Politico sucks. But content is content, so . . .



Oh FUCK OFF, you veneered orange bastard mobster.

Right, so let's put a psychodot, Bible-humping Jesus-eyed, homophobe fuck-up like Michele Bachmann in office. TRULY that's the better plan, to have some paranoid, whacksauce Left Behind End-times disciple with her hand on the Button.

And you pretty much admitted that Corporate America is indeed sabotaging American progress until you get everything and we have nothing. Gotcha. I give you that you at least have the courage to be blatant about your shitbaggery instead of hiding it.

Again I ask these "frightened" people (why do they always use this same canned adjective?): WHAT CHANGED???

Wynn Resorts stock is up 63% for the year. Steve Wynn is a fucking billionaire; one who buys his plastic surgeons from Madam Tussauds from the looks of it, but still a billionaire. He manages some of the most expensive hotels in Vegas and elsewhere.

Obama hasn't raised one rich person's tax or cost him one PENNY in profit. The Health Care act hasn't even gone into effect yet and it's completely Big Insurer-Friendly. This environment couldn't be more business-friendly if someone name Bewsh was running it.

OOOOOohhhh, piddles. Your taxes return to Clinton-era levels (which isn't a hike, as much as you try to spin it). So you'll be merely 700 times richer than your average worker than 800 times richer. Cry me a grand fountain, you greasy shit.

What the hell is this guy talking about?

So let me see if I got this right . . .

Corporations and businesses seem to be trying to create a world where they can do business . . . without the need of additional business.

Corporations and businesses want demand, they just don’t want to pay the price necessary for that demand.

Corporations and businesses want us to consume until the sun goes down; they just don’t want us to work for them.

Problem is, one cannot exactly consume if they don’t have any spare income to consume with. If all of a worker’s money is overflowing into necessities, as it’s been doing for the past 30 or so years since wages have not been keeping up with the cost of living during that time, then excess consumption is either put on hold or on credit (often times debt is needed to keep up primary (necessity) consumption. And that’s a tragedy all its own).

Despite what conservatives (and conservatives who call themselves “Democrats”) assert, the American worker does NOT “make too much money” and in most of our lifetimes, they never have. If a worker’s wages kept up with inflation, productivity and cost of living these past three decades, their average pay should be around 60,000 dollars a year. With that kind of consistent green multiplied by millions, consumption should be no problem. American workers, on average, do not make anywhere NEAR that. In an average entry-level position, sons and daughters are now making ½ to 1/3 the wage their fathers and mothers used to, and work longer hours on top of it.

When the worker has a stagnant wage and cannot consume, naturally, demand is reduced. Just like the collective wealthy and their ever-increasing surplus of saved/invested/offshored monies, a worker’s void in spare cash represents money which does not flow into the American economy, causing a bottleneck in supply and layoffs/shuttering due to lack of demand.

You would think now that American companies can get mom AND dad for the same wage they used to be able to get mom OR dad with, we should be keeping up with the mass consumption vs. mass production cycle successfully. You would think that with 10 straight years of the Bush II tax cuts in full effect, there would be no reason for corporate “uncertainty”. You would think that since not a single thing has been enacted or taken away to make the “job creators” (snicker) lives one atom-speck more miserable, they would be wont to expand or hire, if trickle-on theory holds true.

You would think.

Except Mom and Dad, as it is, are now not just victims of one layoff, but multiple layoffs due to outsourcing, position elimination, cost cutting, poor management, etc. Each round of job cuts, each resulting recession becomes ever worse than the recession preceding it. This trend makes it far more difficult for us not only to drum up ever-needed demand, but also as a nation makes it harder to recover and destroys individual morale and trust in our supposedly benevolent economic system of Capitalism.

What’s more phenomenally galling is that either no one wants to admit there are more than a few grave problems with this system we blindly trusted for so many years, or that those who run, control and engineer its future refuse steadfastly to blame themselves and their monstrous greed FOR those problems.

More conservative pundits blather that the new realities of our economy demand that working adults get better skills; get on a fast track to “never-ending education”, as it were. In other words, they’re blaming the victim, something they do so well it’s practically second nature.

Never mind that we don’t have 4 to 6 extra hours in the day nor do we have money trees in our backyard to facilitate these supposed multiple trips to college over our working lifetime. Never mind that the burden of figuring out what particular skills we need to train for, which remains a complete unknown at this point, falls on the worker rather than the Corporate community. Never mind that higher education is more expensive and less accessible than any time in our history. We’d better just find a way to make it work and forget about that “family” or “social” thing because consumption and profit doesn’t stop for such crap and if you’re lucky enough to be allowed to work for us, you NEED this money and this job!

If the last decade of job numbers tell us anything, it’s evident that we’re all unwilling participants in what could be a very sobering turning point in the foundation of this nation’s prosperity. Just as there are a vocal few that insist we have hit “peak oil” . . . we may have already reached “Peak Capitalism”.

How is it that the supposed “most powerful nation and largest economy on Earth” has been so vastly incapable (or unwilling) of providing even below-average jobs for citizens that need them for a decade straight? Why is it that employers refuse to even consider the unemployed for hiring? Why is it that all bargaining power today belongs to the upper class and the working/middle/poor are now completely at their mercy? Why do we still abide by a system that crashes like clockwork every seven years and not even remotely consider instituting anything else?

Is the weak recovery merely due to intentional sabotage or are we simply dealing with the popping of a linear system that requires perpetual expansion, resources, wealth, and education and upgrades on the part of the workers to keep it working in a world where none of that exists?

I think the number one cause for all of this, and I’ll keep saying it, is simply our refusal to implement universal health care. This is why people aren’t in the streets – we’re too tethered to our jobs and the benefits (if we’re lucky to even get them) that come with it. This is why people worry – we’re forced to pay for our insurance out of pocket, which not only prevents us from saving, but also takes away our leverage. Entrepreneurship is discouraged due to health care costs. Striking out on your own becomes an unwise idea due to health care costs, which subsequently means you’ll remain at that lousy job and take whatever garbage your employer dishes out because you need those bennies. Corporations commit mass ageism . . . because of health care costs.

It’s because of this (well, and the fact that they’re just plain greedy and they don’t care) that companies are going cheaper and cheaper with each passing year – either by offshoring to other countries, inshoring from other countries or undercutting American workers and their wages.

It’s as if Big Business pretty much decided that, blue OR white collar, they don’t need us any more, but they still want us to buy.

How does business reconcile the fantasy of cost-friendly expansion with the reality of having to give up their exorbitant pay or economy-destroying tax breaks to make it happen?

Either way, we as a nation need to figure out real goddamned soon if we want to continue on with this system or start learning from our own mistakes and putting some more social-friendly safety nets in place.

I’m just saying the lower 98%, from the family sleeping in their car to the student/patient stressing how they’re going to pay the six-figure anvil around their necks to the couple struggling to make ends meet despite making good incomes doesn’t have all the time on the planet to know what to do. There’s only NOW and the bills in front of them.

So today, Candidate Jesus Eyes was on (RN)CNBC today, and she said something that I found intriguing.

Yes, you read that right. Michelle Bachmann said something . . . intriguing.

“Intriguing” in the sense that I’m . . . stunned. And I need it explained to me as if I’m a four year old.

She said, fellow readers, and I’m paraphrasing, that “Clearly, Business Owners are paralyzed with fear thanks to this Administration’s policies.”

Earlier, Governor Failey Barbour was on CNBC, stating about the same thing . . . that there’s “too much uncertainty among business owners thanks to this Administration’s policies.”

There’s that little clincher again . . . "this Administration’s policies". I hear it an awful lot in regards to why this economy isn’t recovering and how it seems to be a standard “go to” so as not to place any speck of blame for this debacle on the “job creators” (snicker).

To which I ask these brain surgeon politicians on the slime side of the aisle – WHAT CHANGED?

Seriously, logically explain to me WHAT CHANGED in 10 years.

Have any taxes been raised on any rich person, any “job creator” (snicker)?

Have any breaks been taken away? Any perks been rescinded?

Are corporations making less profit? Is productivity down? Are CEOs making less?

Has there been a WPA enacted to cause them in any way to be scared of “dat creepin’ soshulism”??

Has Universal Health Care been enacted to take away even a cent of their enormous profits?

Has a giant wave of “yewnyunsim” swept the country, causing them to dole out more in precious wages and worker benefits?

Speaking of which, have wages risen in real dollars since 1979?

Has life for the “job creators” been made even an atom-bit less comfortable under this administration?

What has changed? There’s been just a little more than zero job growth in 10 years, with most of the positive numbers coming during Democratic administrations. Yet they keep prattling on and on and on as if Obama was like the second coming of Eugene V. Debs or something (if ONLY).

Explain this to me Like I’m a Complete Idiot: What does ANY Business Owner REALLY Have to Be Uncertain About other than the fact customers aren’t coming through the door because you won’t HIRE or PAY them better? If nothing has changed in 10 years, WHAT’S their problem?

Or could it simply be the unspoken truisms that A) Corporate Owners really, really, REALLY hate Democrats (or at least their idea of how they are) and B) Corporate Owners are steadfastly refusing to blame themselves/hold themselves accountable in ANY way for their blatant and willfull destruction of this economy?

http://www.cleveland.com/obrien/index.ssf/...


I'm partly convinced that Kevin O'Brien is on a quest to put ALL Northeastern Ohio comedians out of business. His performance art is laugh-filled GOLD. His delivery is unparalleled. He's so convincing, not even the great Kaufmann himself could come off as more beliveable.

. . . until you realize, Kevin O'Brien is NOT a comedian. Kevin O'Brien IS dead serious. And this may just be the Dumbest Columnist On the Planet's Dumbest Column yet . . . and that speaks VOLUMES (I bolded the awesome):





Simply stunning.

I think a good example of this would be that I don't own a device of any kind that has a touch screen, and I just have a plain-ol' crap flip phone instead of a 3G/4G Smartthing. I don't even know what the buzzword du jour "cloud" means; I'm assuming it's just a conceptual black box related to mobile devices.

There could be any number of reasons for the lack of upkeep; the most obvious one is the empty wallet where your spare pay used to go to keep up with it all. Another would be the fact that once you buy whatever whiz-bang thing is being paraded around at any moment, it's almost instantly obsolete.

Then there's the other problem of plain and simple overload. I really, REALLY don't have the spare time to sit and study every device, every plan for that device, every cost, every feature out there . . . I didn't even mention the various millions of apps floating around for these devices. Do I buy an iPad? Do I stay away? Are there other devices that can do the same thing for less money? Does this plan cost less that that plan and why? What's the catch? What are the benefits?

Devices, features, plans, bundles, apps, clouds . . . I do not have TIME.

Simply put, both parties lurves them some Uncle Milty and his disasternomic bullshit and nearly everyone installed in Washington either believes it, plays "Get along to go along", or is Sherrod Brown. Democrats have become corporate-enabling Republicans and Republicans have become country-destroying Fascists. I was livid . . . LIVID when he extended those tax cuts to the rich. They in turn fucked the country, as job creation has been tepid at best considering the Conservative's ridiculous assertion that "Cuttin' taxes == HIRIN'!"

I'm afraid unless we get people in there that, like they should be doing with war, stand up and say "I don't want to do this anymore because the American people are getting killed by this", our continuance of Trickle-Down will remain a cancer unless more is done to eliminate it and relegate it to the dustbin of bad ideas.

We need to raise taxes. Sorry that no one wants to hear that, but we do, primarily on the rich and extremely wealthy. Don't want your taxes raised? Stop electing borrow-and waster Pentagon/wealth appeasers, I don't know what else to tell them. Made Bed, Lie In it, and all that. "Y'all want to kill brown people so badly, this is the price you're going to pay for it."

We also need a new WPA. Our country's infrastructure is a worldwide embarrassment. Our public transportation systems are a joke. Our damming is crumbling and outdated. Internet and electric grids that should have been updated 7 years ago. Highways are cratered. Still relying on fossil fuels, STILL not caring about the environment. All of these things could put Americans back to work, send our military home and most importantly - RAISE DESPERATELY NEEDED REVENUE.

Neither party is doing enough, but I'd EXPECT the Republicans to not give a shit about anyone but "Nummer WON!" I didn't vote Democrats in to do the same things (really, I just voted for them so that the US doesn't become The United States Of ChurchMerica). I EXPECTED them to be different.

We usually have the station muted at work since the talk between commentators distracts the traders. I raised the volume of a conversation between ultra-right-wing asshat Joe Kernen and alpha-right-wing wealthmonger joke Jack Welch:

Welch:" . . . Other countries"

Kernen: "And all they would do is take our PROSPERITY away."

Aaaaaand back on mute.

Followed by a graphic of the unemployment rate.

Are there any business channels that AREN'T veiled RNC propaganda outlets?

If any American with a semi-functioning brain stem thinks, in all honesty and seriousness, that any one of these barking useless clowns they have as candidates can run this country better than who we have now, they just need to have a train dropped on their head. And I'm not even kidding.

"Hey, let's cut spending and not raise taxes on the rich or end these completely useless and costly wars! I can't really think of a non-incriminating or logical reason WHY, but . . . well, shut up."

"Hey, let's keep trickle down economics in place forever. It's only failed 95% of the population for 40 years now, but why stop now? It's called capitalism! Don't like yer lot in life, work infinitely harder, lazy-ass!"

"Hey, let's take money away from the working people! Surely THAT's a far better plan than throwing them a lifeline!"

"Hey, let's hope Joe Sixpack can invent his way out of this mess like he did in the 1980s! You know, doesn't EVERY Joe Nosepicker have the same technology, powerful legal representation and lobbys that multi-million dollar corporate labs do?"

"Hey, the American people aren't educated enough. So the solution to THAT would be to increase college tuition and admission standards even HIGHER! YEAH! If they really, really, really, REALLY want it bad enough, they'll FIND a way to get into college! I are such uh jeenyus it kills meh!"

"Hey, do you think I care what polls think? The American people don't want no Leninist Universal Health Care, and that's FINAL. It's more like I don't want it because for some bizarre reason, I think the whole mess would be simply poopy for the well being of my future employe . .. . er . . . our . . . fine fellow citizens of the insurance industries, yeah . . ."

"Hey, blue collar workers who've done the same things all of their lives are kind of fucked. Uh . . . . . . . . . Oh Well? LOOK - BLACK COMMIE PRESIDENT BOOGAH BOOGAH!!"

Yep, vote these clones in and let me know how that works out for you fellers. Be sure to buy some new shoes after you do so . . . those bullet holes sure do tend to make things drafty.

On the ticker.

That's funny.

1. Republican Sure Thing Ace-In-The-Hole: GO! Don't tell me "it doesn't matter who" Tony Fratboy, because it DOES.

2. The economy can double-dip and your party STILL wouldn't win 2012. Why?

Your party overreached with the whack-a-ding-dong Fascist "GOVERNORS", THAT'S why!!

Every idiot nosepicker who slobbers lovingly for Faux red meat thought they were electing a bunch of hard liners who would take from the poor and give to the middle and working class until, lo and behold, the plan all along was to screw EVERYone making less than $300,000 a year. They're pretty much getting away with it and now every one of these low-info brain surgeons, amazingly enough, has buyer's remorse, as if they didn't see this coming

You say "this is Obama's economy to own?" WHO and WHAT ENTITY PUT him in that position? Who wasted a once semi-manageable debt into oblivion for nothing? Who shed taxes on the rich that resulted in ZERO job growth for 10 years? And we're going to put THAT element back IN the White House and the Senate because of a bad month of job creation? Shouldn't you be blaming this on your handlers for selfishly holding back even though taxes are at a decades-long-LOW for them (like they pay the full percentage anyway)?

Unelectable?

Got news for you: Unless your guy or gal sleeps with the Ditz-lamic TeaHad, they ain't getting the nomination. And if they do that, they lose the fence sitters, independents and moderates. Even if "false Christian" Mittens gets in, they lose the fundies and the nutters.

So how do you propose your loser party with it's loserish "scorch-the-Earth" candidates even has a fly-speck of a chance in hell of winning in 2012?

If this is what passes for intellect in the GOP, I'd hate to see their dumb ones.

Yyyyyyyeah. This isn't massively creepy, scary, shilling, misleading or off-putting in ANY way. Really.

A comedic look at how the low-info-disguised-as-authority crowd multiplies like cockroach birthers. Global warming denialist, Michael Moore hater, SUPAH-capitalist and all-around bloviating idiot Joe Kernen goes on Doocy with his daughter Blake, who I will say nothing more about other than I'm disturbed by her incredibly scary speaking voice.

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/2011/06/...



Right. The end game of unbridled capitalism is all Obama's fault, you stupid fuck. Nothing to do with people like you voting for hard-right conservatives that shanked you and your friend's livelihoods for 30 years prior. Nooooooooooo.

You know what I wanted? Not to be ruled by the Old Testament. Not to have Herbert Hoover Part II. Only to have a manageable catastrophe as a result of Junior's Waste-o-rama rather than "Game, Set, Match".

I made a good choice.

Oh yeah, thanks for governor Kat$hit, dumbass. Yeah, he's doing a real BANG up job thus far. Tool.