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    ManchuCandidateHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:39pm

    And the GOPers are pretty much in denial whereas the Demrats make half hearted/assed attempts at dealing with both.

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      A House In VirginiaManchuCandidate
      11/30/15 1:42pm

      stay home and don’t participate then.

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      owen-magneticManchuCandidate
      11/30/15 1:47pm

      half-hearted attempt is better than no attempt at all.

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    WhatthefoxsaysHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 2:06pm

    I don’t believe for one second that my vote for either a Democrat or Republican will make a significant difference regarding either of those two issues. What did Obama do about carried interest? Eliminating that would have been the clearest sign that he cares about income fairness. And nope, nothing despite his campaign promises. Same with climate change. Nixing the pipeline after it’s clear that the price of oil is too low to make it worthwhile? Thanks Obama!

    The only issue that matters to me are the next people to be nominated for the Supreme Court. That’s it. And even though I don’t trust a single bone in Clinton’s body, there’s no way we can let more Scalia wannabes get appointed.

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      InTheStillWhatthefoxsays
      11/30/15 2:17pm

      Serious question, why do you say you don’t trust Hillary Clinton? Did you not trust her as Secretary of State? Was her record as a Senator untrustworthy? Do you trust Obama?

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      Graby SauceWhatthefoxsays
      11/30/15 2:37pm

      What did Obama do about carried interest? Eliminating that would have been the clearest sign that he cares about income fairness. And nope, nothing despite his campaign promises.

      Because Obama writes and passes all the laws himself, right?

      Obama Renews Carried Interest Tax Fight With Republican Help

      Same with climate change. Nixing the pipeline after it’s clear that the price of oil is too low to make it worthwhile? Thanks Obama!

      So, he does EXACTLY what you want him to do, but because he had several very good reasons justifying his action, including low oil prices, he gets no credit. You are not a rational person.

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    ReburnsABurningReturnsHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:46pm

    Gotta nitpick here a bit Hamilton.

    It is the root from which blooms nearly all major social problems.

    The bigger problem is generally considered to be income inequality, not wealth inequality. Plenty of European countries that have less civil unrest have fairly high wealth Gini Coefficients, but more moderate income coefficients. The U.S. had a somewhat unequal distribution of wealth during the halcyon days of the 20th century that we liberals typically look to as paradise, but steadily rising real median wages made life better for a lot of people.

    It is not natural. It is not unavoidable, or ordained by science. It is the result of choices made by powerful people.

    I thought we had agreed that it actually is natural, at least, in an environment where you don’t take active steps to curb it. r > g and all that stuff. The key is taking those steps in a way that balances the need for competitiveness.

    A lot of the European countries we look to as models for how we could address are facing some serious complications. Norway in particular is often touted, and with the falling price of oil they are preparing to have to make some hard choices about spending, spending that helps re-distribute their income currently.

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      blameitonthecroutons goodbye tourReburnsABurningReturns
      11/30/15 1:58pm

      While income inequality is a problem, here’s a case (in which current Illinois governor Bruce Rauner and friends bought an election and will buy the upcoming Illinois midterm elections) that is a part of a larger issue on why wealth inequality is a problem as it relates to politics.

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      Hamilton NolanReburnsABurningReturns
      11/30/15 1:58pm

      I think it’s foolish to consider income inequality more important than wealth inequality. Wealth is your total assets. Whether or not you took in those assets this year or last year, you have them at your disposal, which is the important thing. There is a link to a post on this topic in the text above.

      Second, economic systems are constructed by humans. They are not “natural” in the way that evolution is natural. If Piketty style inequality is a “natural” outcome of a certain type of capitalist system, we can modify that system to correct that outcome. It is wrong to imagine that any nation’s economic system springs forth from a state of nature.

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    Cam/ronHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:50pm

    Hope starts with equality of means, and equality of opportunity. Economic equality. Not a cartoon version of confiscatory communism that will be waved around to scare people—a more fair society, in which all people can reasonably expect to be able to meet their basic needs, and not live in poverty, and have an equal chance to succeed. We are far from that today. But it is not an impossible goal.

    So many platitudes and generalities, and not enough specifics on how those grand goals could be accomplished.

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      Jerry-NetherlandCam/ron
      11/30/15 2:12pm

      Here are three - and their immediate effects:

      Reinstate the Estate Tax

      Restore top marginal tax rates (on income above $1,000,000/year) at over 50%

      Tax capital gains - other than on retirement account disbursements and primary homes - at the same rate as regular wage income.

      Use the massive increase in revenue to fund affordable housing and food subsidies.

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      #NotAllYzermanCam/ron
      11/30/15 2:15pm

      Particularly when it comes to income inequality regarding income here versus the rest of the world.

      “On a global scale, economic inequality fuels riots, and revolutions, and terrorism, and war.”

      Unless he’s proposing mass American resource and wealth reallocation to the third world (good luck), I have no idea how the F we can do anything about this, let alone without “cultural economic imperialism yerp de derp.” We already donate more money to the third world than any other nation on this planet (not a bad thing!).

      Accordingly, while terrorism indeed does arise out of poverty, it is disingenuous to argue that we should be fighting income inequality around the world as a means to fight terrorism, when there is no practical way that such a tactic would diminish the threat of terrorism, not to mention that 99% of voters would accept making ourselves poorer to make the rest of the world richer. Other methods are needed, and as such, you cannot simply say that income inequality and climat change are the only two issues that matter.

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    InTheStillHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 2:09pm

    Women’s rights and racial justice are actually paramount to a functioning society but I can see why an underpaid white guy who has never heard of intersectionality might not know about that.

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      flamingolingoInTheStill
      11/30/15 3:46pm

      It’s just so strange that in 2015, progressives continue to insist that it’s possible to separate out economic inequality from oppressive hierarchies.

      Fixing economic inequality for most women and African Americans (for instance) would require additional steps beyond, say, taxing captital gains at the same rate as other income or raising top marginal tax rates. You could implement both those things and still see profound economic inequality between men and women and whites and nonwhites. The underclass would just be even less white and less male than it is nowadays.

      I can’t help but be suspicious. Historically, greater economic and social equality among white men has been achieved by sharpening the distinctions between man and woman and white and nonwhite. That post-WWII era of greater prosperity for white American men started by kicking women out of their war-era jobs and by denying black GIs the same government benefits their white counterparts received.

      When is it ever our turn?

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      TimF101InTheStill
      11/30/15 4:02pm

      Racial and gender injustice are two out of many ways that the privileged keep opportunities for the ‘wrong’ folk as limited as possible. Another is redirecting the grievances of one working class group against another lest they realize the wealthy are screwing them both. FOX literally exists to make sure working class white voters never figure out exactly why Martin Luther King Jr. moved heavily towards union solidarity and issues of universal economic equality before he was killed. Getting over the fears that working class groups have for each other would devastate the GOP and the plutocrat assholes they work for.

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    The Noble RenardHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:56pm

    On the contrary. This election season has showed that the fundamental differences between the two parties are simply ones of empathy and acting on that.

    These elections boil down to a single question. “Should the US, as a matter of policy, be empathetic to the less fortune, and act accordingly?”

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      Cam/ronThe Noble Renard
      11/30/15 2:07pm

      Both parties claim to be empathetic toward the less fortune. One believes it’s best left to governments to do the job of helping them while the other says it’s best left to churches and charities.

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      The Noble RenardCam/ron
      11/30/15 2:13pm

      Ah, but I would argue that the GOP is not empathetic, they are sympathetic. They are not willing to step into the shoes of others less fortunate than themselves and address solutions from that perspective. They are willing to pity those people, but not to attempt to be those people.

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    emooHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:48pm

    It is incredible to see this playing out in Paris. Thousands are violating the ban on protests to demonstrate. The news is carrying stories of protesters trampling over the memorials at the Bataclan, but I just heard Naomi Klein, from Paris, stating that the police trampled them. Just the same way they destroyed the memorial for Mike Brown.

    No one will carry that story.

    It is so easy to demonize activists and free speech. When both the terrorists and the government can collude, even if by accident rather than design, against the mostly peaceful, informed citizenry, then what hope do we have for democracy?

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      Unbelizeableemoo
      11/30/15 2:07pm

      yeah i couldn’t believe that when i heard it on the BBC this morning. Really? Gonna focus on reports of protesters throwing memorial candles at the cops blasting away with pepper spray and tear gas on top of those same memorials...okay...

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      emooUnbelizeable
      11/30/15 3:21pm

      There is video footage on today’s democracy now broadcast, at 19 minutes on. Trying to take screen shots...

      http://m.democracynow.org

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    BobbySeriousHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:42pm

    “There are two real issues of primary importance facing America and the world today....They are economic inequality, and climate change.”

    Correct - two things that are in direct conflict with the interests of our wealthy rulers.

    So Mexicans, ISIS, Guns and God it is....

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      AmericanMuslimJewComboBobbySerious
      11/30/15 1:44pm

      This is the issue. No one gets rich off of these. No one gains “automatic reelection” points off of these. The system is broken. Tear it down.

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      HypnoCatBobbySerious
      11/30/15 1:47pm

      Well, that’s what the politicians paid by the lobbyists who work for the oil, coal and gas industries want you to think. The reality is, they need not be in direct conflict.

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    Low Information BoaterHamilton Nolan
    11/30/15 1:43pm

    The only issue is what brand of brass polish we should use to clean the bell on this Titanic.

    Seriously, America and Humanity, we had a good run. Now prepare your bodies for the Thunderdome.

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      PoodletimeHamilton Nolan
      11/30/15 1:59pm

      On the money, as usual, Mr. Nolan. I guess this means I am voting for Bernie, because if these two things don’t get fixed, the other stuff isn’t going to matter anyway. The hotter it gets, the worse things get for people who are poor, brown-skinned, or disadvantaged in other ways. Our entire planet, the future of our children and all the animals could go to hell in a handcart if we can’t get people to stop dumping dead dinosaurs into he air. The more money rich people are able to scam out of the system, the less is left for housing, health care, food, and future security and happiness for the rest of us.

      We here in the United State are living in a state of imaginary poverty — the government is too poor to afford food stamps for everyone who is entitled to them, the corporations are “too poor” to pay a living wage, health care is “too expensive”for employers to offer decent plans, or for the government to be able to provide it for everyone without breaking the bank. All of these problems would be easily solved if we stopped letting corporations and billionaires hoard all of the capital. As developed countries, from Greece to the U.S., we have allowed big banks and corporations to harvest our money and stow it away for themselves. We’re in the Matrix, except it’s our money that’s acting as the batteries, and our lives that are being enslaved to the interests of the global rich. It’s got to stop.

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        Destructive TesterPoodletime
        11/30/15 3:15pm

        I like your take on "imaginary poverty" in your comment. I get tired of corporations complaining about something being "too expensive" them posting record quarterly profits. The bottom line is that maybe stock prices taking a few percentage point hit (still being profitable, just less so) in favor of a better country and environment isn't the worst thing out there. Imagine the difference 1% of annual corporate profits could make...

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        mmsfcPoodletime
        11/30/15 3:35pm

        I am going to swipe your “imaginary poverty” expression. It is perfect to describe how we/politicians view useful and healthy, functioning programs like social security, guaranteed pensions, and health care.

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