Why Isn't The Following Post On DU's Front Page?

A pre-emptive attack on North Korea would be insane.

There's no oil there.

So nukes, belligerence and unbearable human suffering are deemed sensible, in this instance.

So don't get any ideas, Iran.

Regards,

Third-Way Manny

Boston-Area DUers interested in forming a discussion and rabble-rousing group?

I have this fantasy of meeting every week or two, over dinner and/or adult beverages, to discuss a topic du jour. I used to do this with a group of people and it was a lot of fun. Each meeting, a volunteer would present a few minutes of info on a topic, then a discussion would begin.

I live near Allston, I'm thinking that its many fine and inexpensive establishments might be good places to meet.

Let me know if you're interested either below or by PM.

An Interview with Elizabeth Warren - from 2007 - long before she ran for the Senate

Cross posted from Douglas Carpenter's An Interview with Elizabeth Warren - from 2007 - long before she ran for the Senate

Dick Durbin voted to cut Social Security by 22%. Remember what Obama said?

As a member of the President's Catfood Commission, Dick Durbin voted to recommend Messrs Simpson's and Bowles' proposal to reduce the average Social Security recipient's lifetime benefits by 22% over time.

It's fascinating that our President immediately rejected the commission's recommendations to cut the military as too extreme, but did not push back on the Social Security cuts. He said... nothing. 22% might be OK, it seems. Note that this was after he'd claimed publicly, on multiple occasions, that Social Security was not originally intended for retirees, which is a far-right lying point used to justify cuts.

At the time, a few people on DU said "hey, this is pretty screwed up". Those people got an enormous ration of shit, being accused of everything from being PUMAs to liars to being on Karl Rove's payroll. But they were right. I suppose that the specter of Democrats gutting the social safety net was so unbelievable that many didn't want to believe their own words and actions.

But here we are. And Durbin's back to his sick tricks again:

Durbin wants new fiscal commission. Wants to raise retirement age, cut COLA.

And as we know, the President, Pelosi, and others keep pushing hard to whittle down SS benefits through the chained CPI, the cut that they claim is not a cut. Bullshit!

Do people finally have a sense of how sick and brutal the bipartisan war against the 99% has become? They want those trillions in our Trust Fund, they want them now, and they don't care who starves, freezes, or perishes for lack of medical care. They just don't give a shit. But I hope that YOU do.

I know that I'm a goddamned broken record on this. I'm even sick of hearing myself talk about this stuff. But these are real lives in the balance, all so the Predator Class can have even more cash, and I will not gulp a glass of STFU on this issue.

We must stop this decisively. It is pure evil, and Democrats don't do pure evil.

I think he threw in the towel a couple of weeks ago

For now...

Senator Warren is already more bipartisan and more effective than Scott Brown ever was

From our local (and very insightful) Liberal site, Blue Mass Group:

Social Security: Stealing the World's Largest Bank Account

The Trust Fund is close to $3 trillion and growing, growing.

The Predator Class wants that money for itself. Their efforts to get it will be unprecedented, they have purchased virtually all our elected officials and they want results.

They will not stop their epic war on us until they have it in hand. Every trick in the book: Commissions, chained-CPI, more commissions, raising the eligibility age... they'll try everything until something works.

This will go on for years, decades. Continuous. They are sick, they are wealthy, they are determined. And they own most of our lawmakers, and law executors.

Keeping the 99%'s bank account for its rightful owners won't be easy.

Are you ready to fight back?

Hey Catholic Cut-n-Runners: Come Back, Now. DU, Your Country, and World Need You.

Sure you had poo launched at you: DU2 had plenty enough sharp elbows, but DU3's Thunderdome gestalt can be utterly crazymaking. I recently had the pleasure of being called a Ratfucker (allowed, 4-2). I'm regularly called all manner of other things: PUMA (ugh), paid Karl Rove shill, unpaid Karl Rove shill, a liar who roots for America's failures, and one who wants nothing more than for America's economy to totally melt down, etc. (In fact, some of those may sound very familiar to one of our cut-n-runners, but I digress).

I hate getting called this shit, but after I mutter a bunch of bad words, I sit back up and think "Ha! Teachable moment!" and I'm back in the cyber-fray. I continue to believe that liberal, dogged, repetition of the plain truth will win.

I'm sure I'm not special at all in this regard. In fact, I know that our cut-n-runners go through the same process - people write awful stuff at them, they mutter, they launch back into the cyber-fray. Until now, of course, when they cut and ran instead.

But for all of my bravado, nobody's gone after my religion yet, so I don't know how that would go. And there's a reason why we call things "religious issues" when they're likely to explode upon critical discussion - because religious discussions have a high potential to piss people off. Everyone gets very excited very easily, sort of like how Simpson and Bowles feel if you're homeless, jobless, penniless, but won't hand them the last morsel of food you were hoping to give your starving baby. Really, really angry.

But here's the thing: this religion stuff is petty stuff compared to the awful, awful stuff that will happen over the next few years. The 99% are starting to fight back, we're drawing a little blood, and the 1% are starting to notice. They're beginning to realize that they can't keep stealing us blind by simply having Rush, Sean and the rest make crazy things up to get us to nod vigorously in agreement when new laws are passed to grab our money. They're going to have to work hard for our last few valuables. And America's Difficult Woman, Senator Warren, wants to start putting banker asses in jail. In jail!

The 1% are getting pissed, and will soon start to rain fire down on our heads, and it will suck. Nitwits keyboarding stupid stuff about Catholicism, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism will be the least of our problems. We'll be trying to figure out how to eat, and how to get people out of jail. Think I'm crazy? I hope you're right but I've studied history and this is a recurring pattern. Large swaths of my family tree stopped growing in Poland in the middle part of the last century when this savagery went down. It can get better after a while if we go FDR, or really awful if we go Hitler. That's up to us to influence, and we need as much influence, from as many people of good character as we can get.

All hands on deck!

So, cut-n-runners: come back. Now. Please. We need you, and you need us. If a bunch of nitwits can spook you this badly, then I fear for what will happen when the cannonballs fly.

"We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
- Dr. Benjamin Franklin

Elizabeth Warren: Why isn't minimum wage $22 an hour like it used to be?

Our FDR Democrat points out that if the 99% got their share of the productivity gains since 1960, minimum wage would now be $22 per hour.

$22 per hour.

Are you starting to get an inkling as to why things are so fucked up today?