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November 9, 2014
We are like mere dogs trying to understand the Internet.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2671211
The implementation of a corporate authoritarian state is clearly a necessary incremental step in the long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long. long, long journey toward a liberal, compassionate future.
They can't tell us people with limited smartness why, though. It's a secret.
The implementation of a corporate authoritarian state is clearly a necessary incremental step in the long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long. long, long journey toward a liberal, compassionate future.
They can't tell us people with limited smartness why, though. It's a secret.
November 9, 2014
Third Wayers really, really don't like threads about what their politicians are actually *doing.*
+1 Lots of walking around the stink and pretending it doesn't exist.
Third Wayers really, really don't like threads about what their politicians are actually *doing.*
November 9, 2014
+1 This entire complaining response was predictable. Corporate Dems know what "Third Way" means.
They know very well what "Third Way" means.
Those called out for sympathy with a predatory group try desperately to play victim and to twist the accurate label of the group into a pejorative, so they can prevent use of it and have it removed from the conversation. It's what authoritarians do...try to get rid of the *accurate* words we need to describe what they are doing to us.
I wrote about this before re: the constant attempts here to redefine both "authoritarian" and "Third Way as pejoratives instead of the useful and necessary descriptors they are:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3171893
Ah, the attempt to discredit the term, "authoritarian." I predicted this OP.
...Authoritarians (and Third Wayers) don't like being called what they are, and since they can't yet prohibit words and restrict others to an approved Newspeak Dictionary, they settle for flailing at and attempting to discredit the individual words they dislike.
...When someone uses an accurate word to describe what you are doing or advocating, just put the word in quotation marks, add some exclamation points, and try to neutralize it by pretending it's an epithet instead of an accurate descriptor. We have all seen it here 1,000 times. A person's politics are described as Third Way, and he or she rears up in indignation, expressing shock at the "namecalling."
Well, no. "Third Way" means something. It is not an epithet, but rather descriptive shorthand for a clear and specific set of political values and policies. You can see what "Third Way" means by going to the Third Way website, where the goals and policies - liberal on the social issues unimportant to the One Percent but corporate and authoritarian on virtually everything else - are clearly delineated.
Those who embrace the policies don't want to admit it, so they try to make the term an epithet...something to be banned by a jury so that it can't be accurately applied to them on the forums. And now we are hearing the same sort of defensive attempts to discredit the word when authoritarianism is called "authoritarianism."
Of course "authoritarian" means something. Brazen defense of a government's spying on its own citizens is indisputably authoritarian.
I always picture an indignant poodle rearing up in outrage and exclaiming, "What?! You called me a DOG?!"
Orwell was right. Defending against authoritarianism *requires* defending language, because authoritarians will try to twist, discredit, or take away the words that are necessary for us to describe what is being done to us.
The attempt to redefine the word into a pejorative and claim victimhood here is exactly like when they tried to make bankers into the poor, maligned victims during OWS.
The truth is that they *really* don't like people talking about that homeless kids statistic. They don't like people talking about the cruel, vicious real-word results of their policies.
November 9, 2014
The jobs that have been created in this "recovery" are (and CONTINUE to be, as your own article shows...) mostly low-pay, often part-time service jobs. The truth is that it was not a recovery. It was a restructuring to benefit the One Percent. What you tout here is not a recovery. It is the construction of a vicious new normal for the 99 percent.
In addition, the TPP that Obama is hell-bent on supporting will DESTROY jobs and cut wages for over 90 percent of American workers:
No, the chocolate ration has not been increased.
Welcome to your low-wage, temp work future:
The jobs that have been created in this "recovery" are (and CONTINUE to be, as your own article shows...) mostly low-pay, often part-time service jobs. The truth is that it was not a recovery. It was a restructuring to benefit the One Percent. What you tout here is not a recovery. It is the construction of a vicious new normal for the 99 percent.
April 28, 2014: Most Of The Jobs Added Since The Recession Pay Low Wages
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/28/3431351/recovery-jobs-low-wage/
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0
Low-wage jobs proliferate as middle class ones disappear: job growth patterns since the recession
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/low-wage_jobs_proliferate_as_m.html
Low-Wage Jobs Replace Middle-Income Work, Study Finds
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/31/low-wage-jobs_n_1846733.html
Careers Are Dead. Welcome To Your Low-Wage, Temp Work Future
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2012/08/30/careers-are-dead-welcome-to-your-low-wage-temp-work-
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/28/3431351/recovery-jobs-low-wage/
Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0
Low-wage jobs proliferate as middle class ones disappear: job growth patterns since the recession
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/04/low-wage_jobs_proliferate_as_m.html
Low-Wage Jobs Replace Middle-Income Work, Study Finds
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/31/low-wage-jobs_n_1846733.html
Careers Are Dead. Welcome To Your Low-Wage, Temp Work Future
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2012/08/30/careers-are-dead-welcome-to-your-low-wage-temp-work-
In addition, the TPP that Obama is hell-bent on supporting will DESTROY jobs and cut wages for over 90 percent of American workers:
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
No, the chocolate ration has not been increased.
November 9, 2014
Low wage, crappy part-time jobs continue to replace careers.
This is exactly what the oligarchs planned: the replacement of careers with jobs for serfs.
It was a restructuring, not a recovery.
From your own article:
Still, the economic improvement hasn’t translated into significant wage growth — a reason one in three Americans still categorizes the economy as “poor,” according to the Pew Research Center. The average American makes three cents per hour more today than last month, and 48 cents an hour more than a year ago. Economists say that, for now, the labor market still has a degree of slack — meaning that job seekers well outnumber actual jobs, and employers don’t need to offer wage increases to get and keep employees.
...
Wage growth has been slowest at the bottom, particularly for part-time workers. And the biggest bump has come not from employers, but from state- and city-level minimum wage legislation. A handful of states, including reliably red-voting Arkansas and Nebraska, this week passed ballots to boost the minimum wage.
“Wages are still growing slower than the Fed would like, slower than everybody in the economy would like,” said Stu Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial. “I think it will speed up as this unemployment comes down, but that is one of the most important missing links in the job market.”
Perhaps the most vexing problem is seen in a wave of part-time workers who have swept reluctantly into the workforce as companies, post-recession, cut down on full-time jobs with benefits. Some 27.1 million Americans now hold part-time jobs, compared with 24.8 million a decade ago. Nearly all of that increase has come from workers who say they’re looking for full-time work but can’t find it. Among the part-timers, African-Americans have actually seen their wages drop nearly nine percent since 2009.
...
Wage growth has been slowest at the bottom, particularly for part-time workers. And the biggest bump has come not from employers, but from state- and city-level minimum wage legislation. A handful of states, including reliably red-voting Arkansas and Nebraska, this week passed ballots to boost the minimum wage.
“Wages are still growing slower than the Fed would like, slower than everybody in the economy would like,” said Stu Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial. “I think it will speed up as this unemployment comes down, but that is one of the most important missing links in the job market.”
Perhaps the most vexing problem is seen in a wave of part-time workers who have swept reluctantly into the workforce as companies, post-recession, cut down on full-time jobs with benefits. Some 27.1 million Americans now hold part-time jobs, compared with 24.8 million a decade ago. Nearly all of that increase has come from workers who say they’re looking for full-time work but can’t find it. Among the part-timers, African-Americans have actually seen their wages drop nearly nine percent since 2009.
November 8, 2014
Trashing thread now. Not just Third Way talking points,
but *absurd* Third Way talking points.
Ignore the 3rd Way shills with extreme prejudice
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5767160
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5767160
When the DLC connections to the Koch Bros. became well known, they just rebranded the infiltration
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4165556
When you hear "Third Way", think INVESTMENT BANKERS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024127432
GOP Donors and K Street Fuel Third Way’s Advice for the Democratic Party
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101680116
The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x498414
Same companies behind the GOP are behind the DLC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1481121
November 8, 2014
You bet it will scare them. And my prediction is that this OP will be swarmed by the familiar Third Way talking points/message control crew here. That's how dangerous this idea really is to them.
Amen. The greatest tool of the oligarchy is to keep us divided.
Separate TV news stations, separate radio stations, an endless stream of Two Minutes Hate against the other side....
The administration is doubling troops in Iraq, fast-tracking the TPP...
What's the lesson? We have united oligarchy, not gridlocked democracy. "Republicans" are a sham enemy. Neither party is running traditional Republicans or Democrats anymore. They are all corporatists. Our form of government in this country has changed.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5779080
I would say the Third Way is a group of CORPORATISTS. Yes, it is a creation of Wall Street. We tend to equate Republicans and corporatists because the Republican Party was infiltrated by Wall Street first and has been working for corporate interests for a long time.
But the truth is that traditional Republicanism was corrupted by the corporate monsters just as much as the Democratic Party is being corrupted now. The corporatists lie to Republicans as much as they lie to us. Just as our corporate politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education, social justice and the social safety nets, unions, and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties. Yet no matter which party is elected, we get the same corporate monster agenda of larger, more oppressive and authoritarian government, assaults on and privatization of public services, and more warmongering.
Every poll shows that Republicans are just as angry about what is being done to this country as we are. We drown in corporate propaganda to make us hate and blame each other so we won't realize that that we are ALL victims and so we won't unite to demand our representation back. They want it to be more viscerally repulsive to us to ever think about uniting with a Republican on ANYTHING, even than to defend our Bill of Rights and our democratic representation. Even though we keep getting the same suicidal, predatory agenda under both parties, we are to circle the wagons when it's our guy in office.
I think being clear that corporatists are the enemy is important because we have got to break the con game of hyperpartisanship they use to keep us divided, and teach ALL Americans that we have a stake in getting corporate money out of government. The truth is that we can beat traditional Republicans at the ballot box. But right now, we don't even get the chance to do that. The system has been purchased by Wall street, and they aren't running traditional Republicans *or* traditional Democrats for office anymore. They are running corporatists on both sides.
We need to become the 99 percent to take our representation back. We don't have to agree on everything. Just that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by corporate corruption of our government and elections. And that we demand corporate money and power out of government and the political system so we can have our representation back.
K&R
I would say the Third Way is a group of CORPORATISTS. Yes, it is a creation of Wall Street. We tend to equate Republicans and corporatists because the Republican Party was infiltrated by Wall Street first and has been working for corporate interests for a long time.
But the truth is that traditional Republicanism was corrupted by the corporate monsters just as much as the Democratic Party is being corrupted now. The corporatists lie to Republicans as much as they lie to us. Just as our corporate politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education, social justice and the social safety nets, unions, and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties. Yet no matter which party is elected, we get the same corporate monster agenda of larger, more oppressive and authoritarian government, assaults on and privatization of public services, and more warmongering.
Every poll shows that Republicans are just as angry about what is being done to this country as we are. We drown in corporate propaganda to make us hate and blame each other so we won't realize that that we are ALL victims and so we won't unite to demand our representation back. They want it to be more viscerally repulsive to us to ever think about uniting with a Republican on ANYTHING, even than to defend our Bill of Rights and our democratic representation. Even though we keep getting the same suicidal, predatory agenda under both parties, we are to circle the wagons when it's our guy in office.
I think being clear that corporatists are the enemy is important because we have got to break the con game of hyperpartisanship they use to keep us divided, and teach ALL Americans that we have a stake in getting corporate money out of government. The truth is that we can beat traditional Republicans at the ballot box. But right now, we don't even get the chance to do that. The system has been purchased by Wall street, and they aren't running traditional Republicans *or* traditional Democrats for office anymore. They are running corporatists on both sides.
We need to become the 99 percent to take our representation back. We don't have to agree on everything. Just that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by corporate corruption of our government and elections. And that we demand corporate money and power out of government and the political system so we can have our representation back.
K&R
You bet it will scare them. And my prediction is that this OP will be swarmed by the familiar Third Way talking points/message control crew here. That's how dangerous this idea really is to them.
November 8, 2014
But all that awareness among Democrats is going to go down the toilet if we let them run Hillary and get a Republican elected. Obama's wars and TPP and TISA and new austerity will put things over the top, as the Third Way planned, and we will have a Republican president again in 2016.
Then the Third Way will be able to change back into their "passionate-but-conveniently-ineffectual-liberal" costumes. They will wail along with us about those evil Republicans, and we can all feel warm and fuzzy about our party again.
Oh, we'll still be an oligarchy lurching into fascism, but the important thing is that Dems will be consistently SAYING the right things again, and looking like the firebrand populist party we need them to be.
And the people will be reassured that we really do still have a Democracy, we can stop all this silly talk about oligarchy and needing fundamental change and such, and we can all go home and watch "Hunger Games" and grouse because our only problem will be that we need to get Republicans out of office and put the Third Way Democrats back.
We have to find a way to build bipartisan momentum for corporate money out of elections/government...or we will soon be back in the old game of merely hoping for a corporate Democrat again next time.
The oligarchs know people are catching on,
which is why they plan for us to have a Republican president for awhile starting in 2016.
We will lose the single positive effect of having an aggressively corporate Third Way Democratic administration in office:
People were finally waking up to the fact that we are an oligarchy....that both sides are really working for the same predatory corporate agenda. We were building urgency that electing Democrats is not enough...that we need fundamental change and corporate money and power out of the system.
But all that awareness among Democrats is going to go down the toilet if we let them run Hillary and get a Republican elected. Obama's wars and TPP and TISA and new austerity will put things over the top, as the Third Way planned, and we will have a Republican president again in 2016.
Then the Third Way will be able to change back into their "passionate-but-conveniently-ineffectual-liberal" costumes. They will wail along with us about those evil Republicans, and we can all feel warm and fuzzy about our party again.
Oh, we'll still be an oligarchy lurching into fascism, but the important thing is that Dems will be consistently SAYING the right things again, and looking like the firebrand populist party we need them to be.
And the people will be reassured that we really do still have a Democracy, we can stop all this silly talk about oligarchy and needing fundamental change and such, and we can all go home and watch "Hunger Games" and grouse because our only problem will be that we need to get Republicans out of office and put the Third Way Democrats back.
We have to find a way to build bipartisan momentum for corporate money out of elections/government...or we will soon be back in the old game of merely hoping for a corporate Democrat again next time.
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