THOM HARTMANN: Corporate Dems in DC in Freakout Mode--Liz Warren Threatens Their Power

[yurbud]

This is a tough one to limit to four paragraphs, but the essence is corporate Democrats are afraid of Elizabeth Warren because her message is resonating and they know what they are saying about Social Security and how to fix it is a bald-faced lie.

As Paul Krugman recently said, the Third Way folks look at a potential shortfall in revenues twenty years down the road that may lead to cuts in benefits, so their solution is to cut benefits NOW (they step around any mention of raising or eliminating the cap like it's a cat turd on the carpet).

We need Democrats who are listening to and looking out for us, not taking orders from Wall Street even when it means cutting the little bit of Social Security they have left after Wall Street stole their private pension and their house.

Wall Street is a fucking crack addict who gets mad at their family for holding back a dime that they could spend on their habit, even if that dime is all that keeps grandma alive.

We can't afford politicians that keep giving the junkies what they want.

Jim Kessler and the corporate Democrat “moderate” types who support Third Way are absolutely terrified. They’re terrified that Elizabeth Warren and her supporters will upend the stranglehold they’ve had on Democratic politics since the Clinton era.

Warren has said that she won’t run for President in 2016, but that doesn’t really matter. Because even if she makes good on her promise to fill out her Senate term, Warren’s message and her supporters will continue to threaten what the Democratic establishment sees as an easy road to a second Clinton presidency.

***
And here’s the thing—those establishment Democrats know that Elizabeth Warren is spot-on when it comes to policy issues.

The idea that Social Security is about to go bankrupt is just completely false. It’s currently running a $2.8 trillion surplus, a surplus that’s expected to rise even higher by 2020.

***

And as everyone learned back in 2008 when the financial system collapsed, the 401(k)’s that many Americans now rely on to make ends meet when they leave their jobs are risky and unstable...

http://www.alternet.org/economy/corporate-democrats-dc-already-freakout-mode-liz-warren-threatens-their-power

[blue14u]

1. K&Rec

I hope she continues to rattle the cages of DC. It's about time we had someone telling

the truth and the people are listening...

We also need Wall Street to pay back the money they stole from us.

Where is it, and when are you going to pay it back Third Way??

Shame on you Wall Street.

We are not going to take it anymore!!!

[loudsue]

2. The PTB thinks the truth sucks. They want you to believe the shit they're serving.

Warren is just speaking the truth.

[SunSeeker]

3. "They step around any mention of raising or eliminating the cap like it's a cat turd on the carpet."

Deserves a Rec for that line alone!

[EastHarlemGayDude]

32. I agree. I laughed out loud.

[JDPriestly]

4. It isn't Social Security that Wall Street is worried about.

It is Wall Street. When baby boomers stop investing and start withdrawing the money that they invested via their retirement funds while they were working, Wall Street will feel it. Stocks could fall. There is no source of money to replace the baby boomers' money on the stock market. The Wall Street crowd know that, but they don't want other people to realize it.

[yurbud]

8. And there's no one with money to replace the boomers because Wall Street already bled younger folks

dry

[JDPriestly]

12. Right. Ridiculous student loans to be repaid from jobs that don't exist.

We need a revamping of our entire economy.

I was talking to a few local businessmen yesterday evening. They are frustrated by the petty regulations and tax policies of local business. I understand their points of view. It is ridiculous to put up parking meters in the business district of a low-income neighborhood. No one parks at the meters because no one wants to pay a dollar to go shop in the "Dollar Store" or the "99 cents Store" or at the numerous second-hand shops on the main street of a low-income area. It makes no economic sense. What makes it worse is the outlandishly high parking ticket rates if you park too long or incorrectly in the city's parking lots.

"Under the parking proposal, the fine for an expired meter will increase to $63; tickets for parking on street sweeping day will cost $73; and parking in a red zone will carry a $93 penalty. A few violations — those dealing with handicapped parking — will go up by $10."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/anger-after-la-hikes-parking-fines-for-6th-time-in-7-years.html

And young people are supposed to start families while repaying student loans?

America claims to be a rich country. If that is true, why are so many Americans poor?

Because the guys and gals on Wall Street play with the nation's money, gamble with it, pass it back and forth, rather than invest it in producing useful things for export and the improvement of life. It's sick.

[yurbud]

15. parking tickets and meters are a way to tax the poor and working class

tolls and sales taxes are Republican favorites because the rich aren't touched by them as much.

[BelgianMadCow]

5. Thom Hartmann

is a treasure. I always trot around with his end lines for his RT program "The Big Picture": democracy is a verb. Go out there and DO something. Anything really.

[polynomial]

6. Americans are at an economic epiphany

with an intense curiosity in why the economy runs 24/7 but Wall Street only turns on between 9:00am and 3:00pm New York time. With a laugh and a chuckle many will start to call this time the bailout hour.

Think about it, a free market system in America that only allows the mass electorate to trade and deal within a very narrow market window. Is that really a free market? Not really. When they say the political persons are making a deal behind closed doors is that fair representation? Not really.

The more I think about our system and the way it works stagers the mind. We elect and appoint people to be secret, or our deciders are secret, or the Congress is secret, or the Senate is secret, or the latest bill is secretly talked about behind closed doors. Then our political people condemn a first responder, Snowden, in the economic secret metadata system as a trader in treason to let everyone know hey our public elected officials that meet in secret are secretly looking at all of us.

Then it is just released from secret meetings in our political Congress that secretly all secret billionaires are secretly dumping millions of shares of stock into the stock market. Those in the know secretly envision a looming market crash. So, secret meetings are held to avert the secret time of the secret market crash.

Most of all the mainstream media is the real secret place. Many times it can be seen as the “laughing place” right in your face. The mainstream media has all the answers and know who really did what but they have what is called the right to protect their sources. That is to keep the sources a secret.

So America is tangled in secret representation and secret mainstream media. Then many wonder why we all want be by ourselves alone where no one will bother the individual. Is that what is called quality time. Sure is.

[yurbud]

10. secrecy is a tough commodity to hold onto anymore as Snowden and Wikileaks have shown.

[quakerboy]

17. Only for the masses

I'm pretty sure that the Cheney's don't have any concerns that their private phone calls, personal or seditious, are going to be recorded and used against them in a public arena.

[yurbud]

18. you would be surprised. Remember Greg Palast getting a bunch of Karl Rove's emails?

He turned these over to House Democrats on the judiciary committee, and they did exactly nothing with them.

In the new edition of your book, ARMED MADHOUSE, you report on the theft of the 2008 election. How do know what they're doing? Any way to stop them?

Palast: I know because I have Karl Rove's emails. No kidding. He and his team aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses -- and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box.

http://www.gregpalast.com/amy-goodman-and-greg-palast-moms-day-broadcast/

[King_Klonopin]

7. What if ...

What if we were allowed to roll-over all of our private retirement
account funds (401K, 403B, IRA, annuities, etc.) into our Social
Security accounts, with a guarantee not to lose our principal ????

Whoa!

Wall Street would shit themselves, because everyone would do it
in a heart beat. If we could have one, central, guaranteed retirement
fund -- never having to worry about losing all our savings in the
crash(es) that are sure to come -- why would we choose to decline ?

I have 3 separate retirement accounts, all invested in "equities"
(i.e. imaginary pieces of worthless paper that have vanished by half
in an instant on TWO occasions) What if I could have consolidated
everything into one S.S. account. Think of it!

The Social Security Private Retirement Funds Reinvestment Act of 2014 !

[yurbud]

9. if we had politicians we could trust, I would be up for that

[Laelth]

11. k&r for Elizabeth Warren. n/t

-Laelth

[AmBlue]

13. Dear Third Way: The gig is up and the party's over.

Hear these words again from the above article very clearly:

Elizabeth Warren and her supporters WILL upend the stranglehold (you unpatriotic, selfish, greedy sickos) have had on Democratic politics since the Clinton era.

(emphasis added)

That is all.

Sincerely,
Amblue

[yurbud]

14. Notice they haven't shown up in this thread

[Uncle Joe]

16. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, yurbud.

[4dsc]

19. We are but a small minority in the party

so in order to be heard we must remain vocal till the election of 2014 and beyond. Corporate Dems will just sit back and wait for us to implode.

[yurbud]

20. We are the majority, especially on core economic issues. But corporate Dems get the big bucks and

the favorable press for not upsetting the masters.

We have to either take over the Democratic Party or get out.

Getting out could be counterproductive until the GOP shrivels to the point that they can't credibly claim to win national elections anymore, or muster enough racists and pinheads to get majorities in either chamber of Congress.

[4dsc]

21. I like your style but it does not fit with what I hear

from most of our politicians. We need to become more vocal with our local politicians so we can have a bigger voice in DC.

[yurbud]

23. yep. currently, politicians count their constituents in dollars, favors, and future jobs for

themselves. By that measure, we are a tiny minority--unless we use our votes and our refusal to be buffaloed and bullied by the corrupt wing of our party.

[TBF]

22. This: "Wall Street is a fucking crack addict"

Is the truth. K&R

[yurbud]

24. VIDEO: Samuel L Jackson nailed it in Jungle Fever, and the rest of us are Wesley Snipes

[TBF]

25. Excellent! nt

[Cleita]

26. Truthfully, I fear for her. This woman will be stalked and subjected to

all kinds of character assassination until the banking industry and Wall Street succeed in destroying her credibility to those people who believe everything Rush Limbaugh and Fox News tells them.

[MADem]

27. The voters of MA like her just fine. She's safe with us. nt

[Cleita]

28. I hope you guys circle your wagons because once she steps on

a few Gucci shoed toes, the gloves will come off. They already showed their stripes when they stopped her from being appointed to the commission she set up.

[MADem]

29. We like her. In her short time in the Senate, her constituent outreach is second-to-none.

The reason you don't see her holding splashy fundraisers or appearing on Press The Meat or other "Sunday talkers" is because she comes home every weekend, or nearly so, to do constituent visits. She's always at some town hall or factory tour or some other local meet-n-greet, and she doesn't ignore the hinterlands (middle to western part of the state) either. If she appears on a weekend news show, it's one that originates outta Boston.

She's a fine senator, and she's doing a great job. It's a good thing she's a quick study, because she went from junior to senior senator in the blink of an eye (and the nomination of JFK to SECSTATE).

[yurbud]

30. those Sunday talk shows are painful infomercials anyway

[MADem]

31. The commercials -- Boeing, ADM, etc.--it's like "Who are they advertising to?"

The Congresscreatures who appear on those things? Their buddies on the Hill?

The local shows are slightly "better" (same smarmy sort of questioning) in that they at least address issues of interest to people living in the state. EW has appeared on a few of those in recent weeks, talking about constituent issues.

[KoKo]

33. Recommend!