Kinja reply list

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ReburnsABurningReturnsHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:51pm
Meh, we’re a long, long way from a critical mass of people being willing to take up arms.

As it should be. It’s one thing to write about it from the comfort of a writing table surrounded by people who, if you disagree with them at most might say something snarky about you on the internet.

Have you ever had the business end of a gun pointed at you in malice? I think if you had, you wouldn’t so casually toss out the prospect of violence.

But besides all of that, our culture’s ideas about what is “fair” divide along very different lines than our wealth does, which would mean any sort of conflict would be much more, Poors vs. Poors than some sort of Dark Knight Rises scenario where we get to take over the joint and hand down death or exile sentences to the plutocrats.
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  BurnedAtTheSteakReburnsABurningReturns
  2/04/16 2:01pm
  The rising inequality argument ignores the fact that living conditions for the majority remain about the same. Real wages have remained stagnant and the 99%’s share of wealth has declined, but we haven’t suffered a significant decline in quality of life or absolute wealth. Nobody is starting a violent revolution over that. If we start seeing real drops in quality of life... well, we’ll see. I doubt we will ever find out.
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  AnnieBodyBurnedAtTheSteak
  2/04/16 2:18pm
  People revolt when they get hungry. Provided we have the $1 menu, people will may get worked up but I don't see rioting in the streets en masse. We'd miss the Bachelor or the Super Bowl commercials!
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dothedewHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:41pm
I will never advocate violence against Wall St or the wealthy, but I would settle for this, for now

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  BurnedAtTheSteakdothedew
  2/04/16 1:47pm
  There is a Donald J Trump for President 2000 sign in that video. The more things change...
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  DennisNY8dothedew
  2/04/16 1:48pm
  It’s cute when bad bands that are signed to major labels set up hilarious ‘protest pieces against the man’ lol.
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JunkeezHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:46pm
He has to be shitting major bricks (probably of solid gold) at the thought of President Sanders appointing SEC and DOJ directors who would actually prosecute financial crimes.
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  TfluffJunkeez
  2/04/16 1:52pm
  Don’t live in such fantasy, we all know the do nothing congress won’t approve those appointments anyway
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  JoJo66Junkeez
  2/04/16 1:55pm
  Don’t you think that if the current batch of SEC and DOJ directors could prosecute someone, they would have already?
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IAMBlastedBiggsLostBurnerHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 2:03pm
The idea of some sort of revolt, or some other function designed to depose those at the top, is a fantastic idea, natch. But it won’t happen anytime soon. As angry as those without get, as fed up with the system as we all are, there simply isn’t the actual machinery in place that would allow any sort of major upheaval. Those who should be the angriest don't have the time or the energy to work towards change, because they're working multiple jobs and are hold positions that are the most vulnerable. I mean, Jesus Christ! We have the gross, orange rinded, bloviating moron who has so many right wingers eating out of his pristine hands, and he is The System incarnate! Billionaires worried? Why should they be? They're behind several reinforced layers of economic, political, and legal protection!
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  BIMming ItIAMBlastedBiggsLostBurner
  2/04/16 2:12pm
  I’ll never get over the current thought process in the Republican base that:
  
  A) Candidates are bought and paid for by corporations
  
  B) Anyone who has been a politician is part of the system, and can’t be trusted.
  
  C) We should elect trump (one of the ‘corporations’ that has been buying up politicians for years) because he’s not a politician.
  
  How in the fuck does cutting the middle man out help anything?! lol
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  IAMBlastedBiggsLostBurnerBIMming It
  2/04/16 2:35pm
  The whole shitstorm the GOP has trotted out there is freaking laughable. A professional real estate shyster, a disgraced former CEO who rode a once-prosperous company right down the shitter, an admittedly gifted surgeon (who also has no solid concept of how the administration of a local fan club works, much less the government), a professional politician who held the entire government hostage as he threw a temper tantrum, a rather harmless professional politician, and a bunch of nondescript losers who could stand in for ‘politician’ stock photos.
  
  but then again, that one shyster seems to be playing the Pied Piper for all these reflexive, soft-brained types who can't even make sense of why they're liking him so much...
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DisinterestedPasserbyHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:50pm
What’s he so afraid of? That the marginal tax rate might be raised above 40% for people earning more than a half million a year? We’re not talking about raising it to something like 90%, like it was under that damn hippie Eisenhower.
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  WTFmechanicsDisinterestedPasserby
  2/04/16 1:52pm
  Eisenhower, my favorite socialist president ... Oh wait ...
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  DisinterestedPasserbyWTFmechanics
  2/04/16 1:53pm
  He was also the one that warned us of the rise of the “military industrial complex.” What a kook.
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AllModConnedHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:47pm
Fear is a great tool to get people to vote against their own interests. The fear of economic collapse, business leaving the country, criminals roaming the land, psycho Republicans. That’s how you make someone like Hilary Clinton attractive to votes. If liberals spent as much time trying to push progressive legislation as they do trying to convince leftists to give up their ideals, hold their nose and vote for HRC then maybe the US wouldn’t be the giant open-air debtors prison that it is. But instead we get more rhetoric about reaching across the aisle and how to be the perfect pragmatic citizen. Sometimes the middle ground is halfway to nowhere.
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  DolemiteAllModConned
  2/04/16 1:56pm
  Yeah, funny how we were told we’d have anarchy, chaos and a destroyed country if we passed Obamacare, legalized marijuana or gay marriage. Yet life goes on exactly as it has before. Insidiously, the thing actually destroying the country is the fact people like this guy have been puppeteering our government for decades now, stealing all of the wealth American workers have generated through hard work, then when we say something, they have the nerve to scream “class warfare!” in a drama queen voice.
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  NoGasAllModConned
  2/04/16 1:57pm
  The truly scary thing is how quickly the machine-that-be will tell citizens that voting for Clinton is the only smart decision because Sanders is an impossible dreamer. Media companies, who are owned by these billionaire figures, will actively churn out what is effectively propaganda to keep humans afraid for their own meager wealth.
  
  Or the brilliant use of misinformation to tell people that taxes will go up, the government will take more of your money, and it will all be bad. There are no numbers or figures given, just this distant, looming threat of someone taking something from you. People flock to that message.
  
  As several more progressive groups pointed out: if you no longer paid insurance, the amount you paid in insurance basically becomes your cost in taxes, which will lead to single-payer healthcare. That in reality, you will be free to use whatever healthcare you choose without really paying any difference between insurance-model and the single-payer model. And that ignores how much you’d actually have to pay after the fact of seeing a doctor/specialist.
  
  But folks just hear “your taxes will increase” without looking at numbers and suddenly become a panicked herd, all clamoring away from the implied threat of losing more money. No one is looking at the numbers or what they mean. Just that there is a big, scary number.
  
  We basically deserve this shit.
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WillHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:59pm
Honestly i think if we just got rid of the tax cap on income witch i think is as low as 250000 now we would bring in so much more taxes we could pay for everything... It's ridiculous that someone making millons pays the same income tax burden as someone making a quarter millon
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Justice Rains From My ButtHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:41pm
Bernie Sanders is a fucking capitalist jesus christ

Wanting to reform the system doesn’t necessarily make you not- capitalist. This goes out to those of us who support him and those of us who don’t support him. Bernie Sanders isn’t that radical outside of the context of the rest of the people running.
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  pdxwhyJustice Rains From My Butt
  2/04/16 1:47pm
  That’s the point, though.
  
  But the very fact a few mild reforms can have a CEO of a financial company wailing about class warfare should really make people think about how good the billionaire calls has truly had it.
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  NoGasJustice Rains From My Butt
  2/04/16 2:00pm
  But the political machine of the USA needs to make you afraid of Sanders by using very loaded, sensitive words like “socialist” to keep you from voting for him. Sanders, and other progressive that have come before, are given the easy label or “communist” or “socialist” to turn off the minds of basically millions of Americans. Because we’ve been raised to believe that those labels are unAmerican and dangerous, that they are the enemy.
  
  So, fringe idea that has some tenets involved with socialization of a private program is quickly halted through a soundbyte we’ve been effectively conditioned to avoid.
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Free Market Party CompanyHamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:45pm
The Golden Slacks CEO has just unwittingly issued Bernie Sanders’ most important endorsement...
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  e.nonFree Market Party Company
  2/04/16 1:54pm
  sanders email received earlier today:
  
  The CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, said yesterday our campaign represents a dangerous moment, “not just for Wall Street, but for anyone who is a little bit out of line.”
  
  I have to say, I find it a little beyond comprehension that Lloyd Blankfein would lecture our campaign about “dangerous moments” after Wall Street received huge bailouts from the working families of this country, when their greed and recklessness caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, livelihoods, and homes just a few years ago. His arrogance has no end.
  
  Now Wall Street is pouring money into other campaigns. But I am here to tell you that we don’t want their money and we don’t want their super PACs. We are going to do it differently. We are going to win together on the strength of millions of small donations.
  
  Make a $3 contribution today to say you have had ENOUGH of Lloyd Blankfein and the billionaire class buying up candidates and elections in this country.
  
  Here’s the truth: Wall Street is terrified because we are running a campaign that does not support their agenda. They never expected us to battle to a virtual draw in Iowa, and they are starting to get a bit nervous about New Hampshire too.
  
  The next primary is less than one week away, and we have a slight lead in the polls despite opposition from the economic and political establishment in the state. But if we stand together, I know that we have a good chance to win next week.
  
  In solidarity,
  
  Bernie Sanders
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  DuddyKravitze.non
  2/04/16 2:02pm
  Awesome.
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ARP2Hamilton Nolan
2/04/16 1:51pm
So do I have this right.

1. Obama hates the rich and he’s been destroying their wealth, and generally ruining the country.
2. The rich have been doing fan-freaking-tastic under Obama across nearly every industry, so arguments of crony capitalism don’t apply.
3. We should worship and support the rich, because they are job creators.
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  BIMming ItARP2
  2/04/16 2:16pm
  You forgot:
  
  4) The vast majority of our rebound after the recession has gone directly into the pockets of the ‘job creators’, and wages have remained stagnant... again disproving the notion of ‘trickle down’ economics.
  
  and 5) We’re fucked.
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  ARP2BIMming It
  2/04/16 2:49pm
  True, but I’m still trying reconcile that Obama hates the rich and is a big socialist, and we need to be nicer to “Job Creators,” with the fact that Obama has pretty much given them everything they want and made them even more wealthy.
  
  If he hates the rich so much, he is doing horribly at punishing them.
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