I am so disgusted...is there any hope?

[Hugabear]

Ugh...so many places to go with this...so much pure bullshit...how can one stand it?

I never thought I'd see the day when a Democratic WH administration would basically tell unions to go fuck themselves.

We're sinking faster and faster into the New Depression, and instead of lending a helping hand to the people who are out of work, our Democratic leaders are handing over bags of money to the very same folks who created this mess in the first place. I dunno, is giving the corporations billions upon billions of dollars somehow supposed to "trickle down" to the rest of us? Meanwhile, Congress sits by allowing unemployment benefits for thousands of Americans to expire...nice one!

We have the largest environmental disaster in American history (if not the world) happening in the Gulf, and our government is doing NOTHING to stop it. Instead, we allow BP to continue failed experiment after failed experiment. Oh, we talk a good game. We talk about "kicking BP's ass", how we're going to make sure that BP is held accountable, blah blah blah. It's not enough to make a few visits to the region. We should have kicked BP out of the way from the very beginning and done whatever was necessary to stop the oil spill. This is absolutely going to DEVASTATE the Gulf coast. I guess they should all be comforted knowing that the White House is making a bunch of tough speeches, though.

And WTF is up with Elton John performing at Rush Limbaugh's wedding? I don't give a goddamn what the reason was, I don't care if Rush was donating a million dollars to Elton's favorite charity, this should NEVER happen. Rush Limbaugh is single-handedly responsible for the right-wing propaganda frenzy we've seen over the past twenty-something years. Without Limbaugh to pave the way and show how lucrative it could be, there would be no Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Glen Beck, none of them would be remotely as successful as they are now.

There are so many other sources of disgust...Israel/Gaza...Palin...rising unemployment (nice try, trying to convince us that thousands of temporary Census workers is indicative of a recovering job market)...

[stray cat]

1. Maybe we should let states elect their own representatives?

[daleanime]

2. There's no Labor....

in Ark?

[HughMoran]

5. according to someone on Rachel - no

they claimed that there wasn't enough unionized labor there to push Halter over the top.

[Stuart G]

3. Yes. Always ..Hope..

In answer to your question.."Is there hope?"

Yes, Always..Hope

Sure it sucks, It is awful. Human history is full of evil bad stuff.

Yes, I feel the same way.

But we cannot give up all hope. even though it feels like we should.

Occasionally, humans overcome evil. Not in our time frame, but it happens.

[Demeter]

4. Where There's Life There's Hope

What would be the point of giving up?

[glitch]

11. There is no point to giving up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc

[BeFree]

6. yep

On the highway to hell.

Scattered pieces of a broken dream
Lie behind us like litter on a windblown prairie

On and on the train rolls as the passengers scream
As the rapturists engineer a false faith in some fairie

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Have faith, it as been said, it is the only thing that is all yours.
Well, I am damn near free of that as well.

C'yall in hell?

[mzmolly]

7. I don't recall unions being told to go F themselves.

Regardless, I join you in disgust. Though my disgust is with how frikken long and difficult it is for anything to change in Washington.

[AnArmyVeteran]

12. The Obama administration backed Lincoln in Arkansas

[mzmolly]

18. She's the Democratic incumbent

it's not that unusual to back her under the circumstances. :shrug: Imagine if they'd backed her competitor and lost?

[AnArmyVeteran]

19. They should have backed Halter because he would have had a better chance in the Fall.

And why should the administration support someone who threatened to filibuster against the administration's health care reform package. If Obama was LBJ or another strong president Lincoln would be history.

[mzmolly]

20. Are there polls that reflect that he would have had a better chance?

I don't like that the administration supported Lincoln, I'm simply pointing out that it's not unusual for a president to back an incumbent of the same party.

[muffin1]

25. Didn't you hear?

This is the time for namby-pamby, milquetoast Democrats. Anyone with balls or moxie need not apply.

[AnArmyVeteran]

35. Yeah, I know. It's like a donkey with all of its guts removed, as well as 'other' body parts too :(

I look around the political landscape and all I see are cowards. There is not ONE DOUBT IN MY MIND that I could do a better job than anyone in congress and President Obama. They are all selling the people out to their corporate masters. I was a hard working Obama delegate and I gave a lot of my hard earned money to his campaign, but I am feeling completely betrayed, COMPLETELY. I didn't work tirelessly for a year to hire a coward. I worked to get a leader elected. But time after time, Obama is caving in to his enemies and giving our treasury to the most corrupt people in our country, all the while turning his back on the American people.

Obama needs to clean house. He is being advised by thugs like Rahm Emanuel and corporate whores. Obama needs to fire him and everyone around him. They are mostly corporate prostitutes who couldn't care less about what the people want or need, or what the country needs.

Lest anyone attack me for feeling the way I do, well, I have earned that right by tirelessly supporting and believing in a man who said one thing on the campaign trail and is doing the opposite as leader of this country. Let me correct that. Obama ISN'T acting like a 'leader'. He's acting like he is selling out all of the millions of people who worked so hard to get him elected.

Obama is a coward. There I said it. And yes, I have no doubt I could do a better job than him. For one thing. I wouldn't take any shit off of anyone and I would be a forceful leader. I wouldn't have let the ignorant and illiterate tea bagging crowd outsmart me as Obama clearly did for over a half a year.

I am only saying the above because I had faith in Obama and I wanted him to succeed. He could have been a hero by now by shoving through all the progressive legislation we have been demanding for years. But every time Obama talks about any program he describes it as difficult. The Daily Show last night perfectly addressed how everything seemed complicated to Obama. Doing the RIGHT THING is NOT complicated, not if you have even an shred of creativity or leadership within you. The problem with our political system is people who are real leaders who aren't corrupt will never get elected. To even be considered as a candidate you either have to be extremely wealthy or you have to sell out to the wealthy. I am not rich and I would not sell out to anyone, so that means I could never win in a state or national office. Unfortunately, our country is doomed. Without leaders who are honest, have integrity, ingenuity, creativity and courage this country will continue its slide into oblivion.

It's not too late for Obama. But he needs to wake up and he needs to shake up his administration announcing a purging of everyone person in his administration who has any ties to business. Frankly, I'd rather see him surround himself with honest, competent plumbers, electricians or landscapers than the corporate whores who surround him now. They couldn't do any worse, and at least they would have a moral compass that wouldn't always point to corporations. They certainly wouldn't become the corporate whores that have infested every part of our government.

[Hugabear]

16. They blasted unions for spending money to defeat Blanche Lincoln

n/t

[mzmolly]

17. I didn't take it that way.

I took the comment to be an assertion reiterating essentially, that all politics is local. Obviously the White House would love all die hard liberals in the Senate, but that's not the reality.

[bluethruandthru]

31. I really don't think the White House would want "die-hard" liberals in the Senate.

The administration has gone out of it's way to marginalize and criticize "the far left" as we get called.
The administration would be happy if we all just went away...at least until it's time for reelection.

[mzmolly]

34. I don't think the problem is with leftist ideals

as far as the administration is concerned? It's with "purists" who suggest that we're better off with Republicans winning than those who vote with Democrats 80 percent of the time.

[SocialistLez]

8. Today I'm just going to be in a pissy mood.

I truly thought Bill Halter winning would be a great birthday present.

I feel like it's pointless to even try since corporate backed candidates seem to be indestructible.

::sigh::

I want to cry.
I want to scream.
I want to throw things and break them.

Most of all, I want to be out of this country.

[AnArmyVeteran]

36. I was born in Canada. But I served in the US Army. I'm a citizen. I'm not proud of this government.

[Barack_America]

9. Of course there's hope!

Oh wait, you meant "for the U.S.", didn't you?

In that case, no....no there's not.

[dgibby]

10. Hope? Not so much.

I pretty much gave up when the SCOTUS determined that Corps could buy elections. I realized that whatever passes for Democracy in this country is gone, and that my vote no longer counted(if it ever did).

[RKP5637]

22. +1, n/t

[Stuart G]

38. Democratic Underground was founded on Hope..2001??

Deep dark times..yet things did change.some good changes too..Let us not give up hope.

[treestar]

13. Of course there is

People have lived through worse times than this.

[Stuart G]

24. Yes, we have lived through worse time..We should keep this thread alive..

because.. there is hope, yes, hard to see. It is there.

[joeybee12]

14. There's only hope if someone leader takes up the cause...

...can't see any of the worthless Dems out there right now doing so.

[revolution breeze]

15. I was just thinking the same thing.

I just came in from outside, it is 86 degrees and gorgeous outside and my daughter and her friends are ready to hit the pool. But the smell of crude oil is so strong, I worry about them breathing the fumes, not to mention we don't know what else is floating in our air here in southern Louisiana. Am I supposed to keep them inside all summer? She has already been through so much since being diagnosed with Leukemia two years ago, she is feeling well in remission, finally feels like she has a strong group of friends, is doing well in school, and I want to just pack up and run from this mess. But that would devastate her, not to mention we would have to find a new medical team which would be so very very hard on her. I just want my daughter to be a a child, enjoy the freedom of being a child, free from worry, but she can't even breath in her own back yard!

[nichomachus]

21. What's more depressing

is that this is a worldwide phenomenon. It's not just the US.

The social safety net in many parts of Europe is in danger because of the ponzi scheme by the bankers. In every country where Goldman Sachs and its co-conspirators managed to create a crisis, the "leaders" are responding by driving down wages of working people, reducing benefits, firing workers, etc.

I'm coming to the conclusion that this crisis was engineered -- or at the very least allowed to develop -- to give the corporatists the opportunity to turn us all back into serfs.

We can't even discuss holding bankers accountable -- remember how their megamillion dollar bonuses were owed to them and couldn't be touched -- but we can take away what little working people have.

[RKP5637]

23. +1, n/t

[stuntcat]

26. ditto, pretty much

people think they're free though :patriot: :eyes:

[bobbolink]

27. I hear your despair. There is a despair that is deeper,..... being poor and seeing that very very

few of you ever include us in your lists of priorities.

Can you see us now?

What can we do to matter to you?

[tabasco]

39. Do you EVER come down from the cross? n/t

[bobbolink]

40. thank you for your compassion.

Heartlessness is rampant on DU.

[tabasco]

45. Serious question.

How do you manage such regular access to the internet, living in abject poverty and all?

And where do you find the time?? Aren't you out there struggling for survival on a daily basis?

[maryf]

41. WTF

Have you ever tried putting yourself on the cross with someone who is in pain? Criminy, this was uncalled for and cruel...was it really necessary? Is your compulsion to speak your mind and vent your uncontrollable ire that much stronger than your compassion? good lord...

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Shhhh, Capitalism is dead

been dead for at least a generation. What you are seeing emerge is a new corporate order.

SHHH....

And as far as I am concerned, the first step is for people stop imbibing the propaganda... and wake the fuck up. But capitalism has been dead for a while now. RIP, and has been replaced by a new type of a command economy. If you ever read Gibson and cyberpunk... well you will get it. If you have not, read him. He did not write science fiction, but social prophecy, not that he understood that at the time.

[kctim]

29. Guess its all in how one looks at things

The administration didn't tell unions to go eff themselves, they just threw their support behind the Dem whom they thought could win and that would be best for the country. And the unions threw their support behind who they thought would be best for unions. They supported different Dems but should now support the same Dem.

I totally disagree and all, but Congress doesn't want corps failing and people losing jobs. The dominoe affect would be very significant. And most people probably believe there has to a limit on unemployment benefits.

Kicking BP out of the way and "Doing whatever was necessary to stop the oil spill" from the beginning would have meant hiring the work out. Well, that is unless there is some kind of 'Dept of fighting oil spills' in our govt that we know nothing about. And you are correct, the tough speeches are not going help. President Obama needs to concentrate on fighting the spill and do everything he can to do so. Please.

Who cares about the personal lives of Elton John and Rush? People are going to say what they want and they are going to believe what they want. One man's propaganda is another man's truth and vice versa.

Being disgusted is fine. Being disgusted due to opinion is downright silly.

[uponit7771]

30. Link AND quote to the WHITE HOUSE saying ANY of this. TIA

[Taverner]

32. Maybe, just maybe, we need to form a real worker's revolution here in the US

You know, "workers of the world, unite" and all that?

[Stuart G]

33. It is true that it looks very bad..Under Bush, when he annonced

that he had to bail out the banks, it looked very bad too. It looked very bad the day that he won in 2000..and when the court went along. Sure it was bad and it still is. But if everyone gave up, then who would be around to try to make things better?..Yea, I feel like giving up too..But maybe tomorrow I will pick up the fight and continue..

[AnArmyVeteran]

37. If I could bottle up 1/2 of the courage I have would Obama drink it?

[JBoy]

42. Yup. everything is fucked up. I share your outrage.

[Stuart G]

43. Not everything is fucked up...Lots of things are very bad, but

there is enough food for everyone here
there is enough water for everyone here
there is a chance that things can get better
No, I am not super advocate of "positive thinking", but there are things that could be worse.

I have that it wont get worse.

[Initech]

44. If I were in charge, I'd totally outlaw the practice of trickle-down economics.