The Real News: Paul Jay- ‘American Casino’

Source:The Real News- from Andrew Cockburn's film.

Source:FreeState MD 

“Andrew Cockburn co-producer of the documentary “American Casino” talks about the sub-prime crash” 

From The Real News 

I don’t think you can put all the blame on President George W. Bush for the Wall Street crash of 2008 and the Great Recession that followed. But since his Administration furthered the culture of Wall Street is everyone’s best friend and therefor we should just leave it alone to serve our interests for us and government should just butt out, we saw all of these investors and big banks that were too big to fail, allowed to operate without a referee. And because of that, we had all these investors who were simply operating at their on their own interests (which is their right) but doing it without a referee and crashing the American economy as a result.

Salon: Troy Williams- ‘When Mormons Were Socialists’

Source:Salon- If Mitt Romney is a Socialist, then I'm a Hippie-Evangelical living in Mecca.

Source:FreeState MD

“You are cursed because of your riches!”

It was a bummer message that nobody wanted to hear. Samuel the Lamanite stood alone atop the great wall of the city of Zarahemla to warn the inhabitants of their pending destruction.

Now you have probably never heard of this Samuel, nor the capital city that was once the center of the Nephite nation. But Mitt Romney certainly has. In 6 BC, as the story goes, somewhere on the American continent, the inhabitants of this mythic city had grown decadent. There were extreme class divisions. Politicians were corrupt. The government disregarded the sick and poor.

Sound familiar?

God had called Samuel to essentially Occupy Zarahemla, to stand up and speak out against corporate greed and wealth accumulation. For his trouble, he was promptly thrown out the front gates. Undeterred, he bravely scaled the city’s exterior wall, evading a barrage of arrows and stones to stand defiant. He offered Zarahemla a choice: repent or be destroyed by God. Like any of us who have ever witnessed the ranting of a doomsday prophet, the Nephites couldn’t be bothered. Four hundred years later, Samuel’s prophecy would sorely come to pass. After decades of perpetual wars and extreme environmental upheavals, the inhabitants of Zarahemla were wiped completely off the continent and out of history.”

From Salon Magazine 

Hopefully this is not a news flash for anyone, but I’m not an expert on religion. I’m also not ten-feet tall, if anyone is wondering that as well. I’m especially not an expert Mormonism, which is probably one reason why I’m Agnostic. A devout Agnostic (if there’s such a thing) but what little I do know about Mormonism, is extremely little, as small as Danny DeVito (which is probably only enough to fill up a bottle cap) that there is a communitarian aspect to Mormonism. That they live together in compounds, that sort of thing.

To suggest that Mormons are Socialists and they believe all people should live this way, have multiple spouses (at least for men) that sort of thing, is a big stretch. The only socialist religion out there (if you want to call it a religion) would be Atheism, or really militant or fundamentalist Atheism that you see on the Far-Left. The belief that there is no God and today’s so-called Progressives (Socialists, in actuality) tend to be Atheist. The closest thing we have to a socialist religion in America would be what is supposed to pass as progressivism today, which is another way of saying democratic socialism.

Today’s socialism really, is a very collectivist, communitarian, share and share alike philosophy: “That we are only as strong as our weakest link. That we need a strong, large centralized, bloated, I mean big government to mandate, I mean ensure economic equality in America. That we don’t have rich, middle or poor people. That we are all the same and equal”. That’s what progressivism is supposed to be today from today’s so-called Progressives. And if this was a religion, it would be a socialist religion.

And as much as today’s, well Socialists in America, may complain or hate religion, they have as much faith and belief in the state, especially the federal state to take care of and look after and manage the people’s well-being, as the Religious-Right believes Jesus will do those things for the people. The Religious-Left in America (and yes, there is such a thing) to call Mormonism a socialist religion or to link Mitt Romney to socialism at any point, is a stretch and pretty humorous.

Calling Mitt Romney a Socialist, is like calling people who have salad with their steaks, a vegetarian. A blind person wouldn’t believe that because they could smell the beef: “Where’s the beef, right in front of my nose.” But people are welcome to say and believe anything they want, in a liberal democracy, including Socialists who wished we weren’t a liberal democracy. And if anything Socialists have more freedom to express themselves in our liberal democracy, than in a social democracy because of our liberal First Amendment.

Real Time With Bill Maher: ‘Rosen-Gate: Just The Latest In Stupid, Non-Consequential, Meaningless Controversies’

Source:Mediate- Real Time With Bill Maher.

Source:The Daily Journal 

“It’s time to play everyone’s favorite game: DISPROPORTIONATE OUTRAGE AT SOMETHING PRETTY INSIGNIFICANT! Tonight’s topic: Hilary Rosen-Gate! Everyone in the media has been absolutely obsessed with talking about this one comment made on CNN by a Democrat who doesn’t even have any strong ties to the Obama campaign. So naturally, this topic made its way into the discussion on Real Time with Bill Maher tonight.

RELATED: Ann Romney Responds to Hilary Rosen: ‘I Know What It’s Like To Struggle’

Maher brought up Mitt Romney‘s problem in trying to get women to support him and the fact that he currently trails President Obama in that demographic. Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell said this was because Romney and his fellow Republicans “want to go back to the 1960s” and revisit issues like contraception that she thought had already been dealt with in the United States. David Stockman quipped that the Republicans were still stuck in the 19th century on women’s issues. Conservative writer Matthew Continetti pointed out that Romney can win the general election if he just keep the focus on the economy.

Maher brought up the statistic that a significant number of jobs lost in the recession were women’s jobs, and asked if that was mainly due to “Republican policies.” He argued that Obama was actually fighting to keep the jobs that are mostly occupied by women, like schoolteachers. Continetti noted that the Republicans narrowly got an advantage among women during the 2010 midterm elections.”

From Mediate 

“Hilary Rosen apologized for a comment questioning Ann Romney’s qualifications to advise Mitt on women’s economic issues. Thursday, April 12, 2012.” 

Source:Absolutely Definite- Democratic Party strategist Hillary Rosen on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.

From Absolutely Definite 

This is not Hillary Rosen’s big mouth or feet. Just an example of what politicians and their employees sound like when they speak a lot and are desperate to win. Which are people with big foot in the mouth disease, who say the first thing in their head that they think can help themselves or their bosses.

Source:The Daily Journal- this Hillary Rosen talking about Ann Romney.

I’ve gone out of my way to avoid blogging about Hillary Rosengate (as Talking Points Memo coined it this week)  because it was one of the dumbest things I’ve heard said in American politics. Which is saying something, I mean we had eight years of George W. Bush as President.

Dumb thing to say especially coming from one of the best political strategists and analysts in the business today in Hillary Rosen. Both Democrats and Republicans would acknowledge that. So dumb to the point that after Hillary Rosen made her statement saying that “Anne Romney has never worked a day in her life” on CNN’s AC360 on Wednesday night, she ends up apologizing for it on the CNN Morning Show on Thursday.

The Democratic Leadership goes out of their way to make it clear that they disagree with what Rosen said. The White House makes it clear that Hillary Rosen doesn’t work for them, or for the Obama reelection campaign. Thanks to Rick Santorum who’s turned out to be a year around Christmas Gift for the Democratic Party, as well as for comedians, bloggers and political satirists, Democrats have kicked butt when it comes to female voters in 2012.

The Democratic Party has been kicking Republican Butt, especially Mitt Romney’s, when it comes to female voters, as CNN political analyst Gloria Borger said. “Mitt Romney doesn’t have a gender gap with women, but a gender gulf”, or gender canyon. Something to that effect. In others words: a huge deficit among female voters.

President Obama was already having a bad week to begin with from last Friday’s jobs report that showed job growth slowing. And Hillary Rosen gives the Romney campaign a gift from God. Something positive to talk about, their support for motherhood. I mean seriously who’s against Motherhood, I mean that would be like hating freedom, or sex or sleep, anything else where most Americans absolutely love.

To suggest that you’re in favor of motherhood, which was what the Democratic Leadership was saying post Hillary Rosen’s comments, is like saying you support having a strong country where everyone can get a job that needs one. That you’re against crime, especially murder and you hate racism. These things are so obvious, that you shouldn’t have to try to convince people of your positions.

Hillary Rosen is the big foot in the mouth that the Republican Party has been waiting for ever since they decided that Mitt Romney should be their presidential nominee and Rick Santorum should be his main challenger. They figuring that if: “We are going to have to foot in the mouth’s running for president, Democrats should have at least one. And I mean a really big one since we have two of them for both legs.”

Robert Reich: ‘Turning America Into a Giant Casino’

Source:Robert Reich- left-wing political economist and blogger Robert Reich.

Source:FreeState MD 

“Anyone who says you can get rich through gambling is a fool or a knave. Multiply the size of the prize by your chance of winning it and you’ll always get a number far lower than what you put into the pot. The only sure winners are the organizers – casino owners, state lotteries, and con artists of all kinds.

Organized gambling is a scam. And it particularly preys upon people with lower incomes – who assume they can’t make it big any other way, who often find it hardest to assess the odds, and whose families can least afford to lose the money. 

Yet America is now opening the floodgates. 

In December, the Department of Justice announced it was reversing its position that all Internet gambling was illegal. That decision is about to create a boom in online gambling. Expect high-stakes poker to be available on every work desk and mobile phone. 

Meanwhile, states are increasingly dependent on revenues from casinos, lotteries, and the “Mega Millions” game (in which 42 states pool their grand prize) to partly refill state coffers.

Given who plays, this is one of the most regressive taxes in the nation. In the most recent Mega Millions game – whose winning tickets were drawn last week and whose jackpot rose to $640 million – lottery ticket buyers shelled out some $1.5 billion, most of which went to state governments. 

And then there’s the “Jumpstart Our Business Startups” or “JOBS” Act, which President Obama is expected to sign into law Thursday. It allows so-called “crowd funding” by which people whose net worth is less than $100,000 can gamble away (invest) up to 5 percent of their annual incomes in any get-rich-quick scam (start-up) that any huckster (entrepreneur) may sell them.” 

From Robert Reich 

To respond to Robert Reich, I’m going to give you both a practical response for why we have legal organized gambling in America, as well as a philosophical one.

States (whether they’re run by Democrats or Republicans) can only tax so much. There are only so many people that can afford pay high taxes in each state. Which is one of the main facts that Socialists will probably never understand about American economics. Which means to have the high quality schools, roads, bridges, law enforcement, tourist attractions to each state, they have to have the revenue to pay for those things. Without business, workers, and money in the economy and not in the government’s, government would never have the revenue to pay for the services that every developed economy has. 

My philosophical argument for organized gambling in America: there has yet to be a government anywhere in the world that is more qualified to make the personal and economic decisions for the individuals, than the individuals themselves. With any life comes at least a certain amount of risk (at least in a free society) otherwise life wouldn’t be worth living for most of us. The way to reduce risk in a free society is through regulation and taxation, not prohibition, which doesn’t work. Just look at the War On Drugs or prostitution.

Guardian Mary Silver: President Franklin D. Roosevelt- Great Depression Fireside Chat

Source:Guardian Mary Silver- America in the 1930s, during the Great Depression.

Source:FreeState MD

“AP US History Assignment.

7th Hour

Great Depression/Unemployment

By: Riah Countryman, Kevin Islas, and Hector Mirelez” 

From Guardian Mary Silver 

“President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office in early 1933, would become the only president in American history to be elected to four consecutive terms. He would lead his nation through two of the greatest crises in its history—the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II (1939-45)—and would exponentially expand the role of the federal government through his New Deal reform program and its legacy. From March 1933 to June 1944, Roosevelt addressed the American people in some 30 speeches broadcast via radio, speaking on a variety of topics from banking to unemployment to fighting fascism in Europe. Millions of people found comfort and renewed confidence in these speeches, which became known as the “fireside chats.” 

Source:History- President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat, New York) 32nd President of the United States (1933-45)

From History 

The fact that President Franklin Roosevelt was speaking about a recession in America in 1938, is pretty good evidence that five years after becoming President of the United States, that we were still not out of the Great Depression yet.

The economy was getting better in 1938, but we slipped back into recession in 1936 or 37. We were still looking 20-25% official unemployment. Maybe half of the country living in poverty. By the time the United States got involved in World War II in 1941-42, we were still dealing with the Depression, Recession and high unemployment. And it was really World War II that moved the country to full-recovery from the Great Depression. With all the money that was spent financing our involvement in that War.

What the New Deal deserves credit for, is establishing a public safety net that the country could turn too, when they are unemployed, or don’t have a large enough retirement account, to protect people’s savings in banks. And the New Deal did put some unemployed workers back to work through infrastructure investment.

But the Great Depression was so deep which is why it was labeled the Great Depression with so many people losing all of their money and jobs at the same time. With so many banks and business’s all failing at once. What the New Deal did was help sustain the country through the Great Depression, so things couldn’t get worse, but it didn’t bring us out of it.

It was World War II that brought the United States out of the Great Depression and back to prosperity and an economic power, as well as a world power, where we’ve remained ever since with the millions of people it employed, either in the Defense Department, or working with private contractors that did business with DOD. Making all of our equipment and the American auto industry did very well during World War II making all of those tanks And President Roosevelt deserves a lot of credit for this as well.

The New Deal, served as a buffer from the Great Depression. Put in the floor that the American economy could cash on and buy it time to recover. But it didn’t get us out of it and back to full-recovery.

Salon: Alex Pareene- Rick Santorum: ‘Liberal Penn State Punished Me For Being Conservative’

Source:Salon Magazine- "Rick Santorum's 1976 high school yearbook photo" From Salon Magazine.

Source:FreeState MD  

“Rick Santorum hates college. The former senator from Pennsylvania and current presidential candidate has lately taken to declaring that Barack Obama’s promotion higher education is both elitist snobbery and a insidious attempt to “indoctrinate” the children of America’s hardworking conservative parents into socialism. His crusade against the ivory tower took an even weirder turn last weekend when he told a radio station that he was discriminated against at Penn State for his conservatism.”

From Salon Magazine 

If Rick Santorum is a Conservative, then Ron Paul is a Socialist and Ron Reagan was a Communist. Oh by the way I’m Santa Clause, right now its 100 degrees in Boston and it’s snowing in Houston. And before you take any of that seriously, keep in mind right now its March. And you want to know why Rick Santorum is not a Conservative, I’ll tell you anyway.

Conservatism in a political sense, forget about religion right now, but in a political sense conservatism is about conserving individual liberty. Not subtracting individual liberty or conserving a way of life from the 1950s and never modernizing. And it’s about limited government, especially the Federal Government, spending no more than you take in and always try to spend less than that. And devolving power back to the states and to the people. And a foreign policy that’s very limited and based around only protecting national security interests. 

Political or constitutional or classical conservatism, is not about: “I and people who ally with me, know best how free adult Americans should live their lives. And if you don’t take our friendly advice on how you should live your own life, even though we have no idea who you are, we’ll get our friendly advice passed through law. And then if you don’t comply on how we believe you should live your individual lives, we’ll arrest you for your own good for living an immoral life. Even if your lifestyle is not hurting anyone else with how you are living.” Which is sort of Rick Santorum’s political philosophy. 

On all counts of what conservatism actually is from a political sense, fiscally and socially especially Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative. Not on social issues, fiscal policy or foreign policy. He has a record as a borrow and spender, porker, empowering the Federal Government in his sixteen years in Congress. (House and Senate) 

On social issues, Rick Santorum has a record of wanting to outlaw things that are currently legal. Limiting our personal freedom and has even added to that in his presidential campaign, coming out in favor of a constitutional amendment to empower the Federal Government to define marriage. Nothing Conservative about that and what happened to States Rights? The distinguished Senator is also in favor of outlawing pornography, gambling and birth control.

On foreign policy, Senator Santorum voted for preventive war, hard to see either Barry Goldwater or Ron Reagan voting for the 2nd War in Iraq.

So in a political sense, Rick Santorum doesn’t qualify as a Conservative and never has. He meets the qualifications of a religious theocrat. But those are different from conservatism and on the Far-Right, where Senator Santorum is in American politics. 

Rick Santorum or perhaps Ricky or Slick Rick (at least when it comes to trying to convince people who know better of his conservative credentials or the serious lack of them) is a Big Government Republican. A right-wing statist, the ultimate big brother or big government, or better yet Uncle Sam, no real Conservative’s favorite uncle. And he believes he knows best how free people should live their own lives.

I mean if Rick Santorum is a Conservative, the Queen of England eats Burger King whoppers for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday. And when Burger King is unavailable, she gets her meals from McDonald’s. And it never rains in Seattle and a lot other nonsense that is simply not believable.

C-SPAN: President Franklin Roosevelt’s- 1933 Presidential Inauguration

Source:C-SPAN- Franklin D. Roosevelt, inaugurated as the 32nd POTUS.

Source:FreeState MD

"Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Inauguration (March 4, 1933)"

From CSPAN

When Franklin Roosevelt became President in 1933, America was in the worst economic condition in its history, at least in the 20th Century. And since the Great Depression obviously and moved quickly to deal with it with his New Deal agenda that was a collection of brand new social insurance programs from the Federal Government. Unemployment Insurance, Welfare Insurance, Social Security, public works programs and other programs and has been credited got getting America out of the Great Depression.

President FDR, is the father of the American safety net. A collections of Federal social programs to help people when they’re in need. And can’t financially support themselves.

President Roosevelt, should get credit for that, but not his New Deal getting us out of the Depression. By the time America got involved in World War II in 1941-42, we were still dealing with the Great Depression. And at best we're going through a severe recession. We still had 20% unemployment and 50% poverty in the United States. By 1942, almost nine years after FDR became President.

If you look at when the United States finally broke out of the Great Depression, it was during World War II and after World War II. That President Roosevelt committed us too, because of all the new jobs that opened up in America. With all the new military spending and work needed to produce those parts. And with everyone being drafted in the military. And with these workers going oversees, that opened up more jobs at home.

President Roosevelt, is one of the greatest president’s we’ve ever had. And deserves credit for it, but mainly because of his foreign policy success’. And also to call him a Liberal Democrat or even Progressive Democrat, just doesn’t fit. He was a Progressive on economic policy obviously. But had neoconservative leanings when it came to national security. With his detainment Camps for ethnic-Japanese, Italian and German-Americans. Because of their ethnicity.

The Roosevelt Administration, inherited such a huge hole in the economy from the Hoover Administration and didn’t have a clear outlined agenda for exactly how they were going to deal with. They had a bunch of experiments and ideas, sure. But didn’t know exactly how they were going to respond to the Depression. And they did the best that they could to deal with it.