If we can eliminate the bottom 50% of the people, there should be plenty to go around.

The real answer is to eliminate both the bottom 50% AND the top 50% of the people. Let Mother Earth try again......
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As a self-styled radical (not the kind recently posted: radicals who support war, torture and genocide), I believe the system is so rotten, that nothing short of tearing the system down and starting over, again, might help.

Perhaps, adherence to the Constitution in the manner we presume the founders intended might be a starting point,because it sure as hell has been a long time since any recent administration has allowed the document to stand in their nefarious ways.

Thanks for being the first to visit, SkyPixie0.

Nothing will change unless the arguement is taken to the streets.

The system is truly ossified.

R

I thought Stewart's bit was funny when I saw it. I stopped laughing this morning when I read that the Republicans (and some Democrats) want to eliminate the payroll tax cut that was instituted last year, a cut that helps the working poor. In summary: ending a tax cut for the very rich = bad, ending a tax cut for the poor = good. It makes my head spin.

I'm shocked! More than 99% of "poor" people -presumably including those freeloaders on welfare-have refrigerators!

No wonder we're so far in debt! These "poor" people live in the lap of luxury while hard working hedge fund managers are getting buy on as little as $100,000,000.00 per year and had to fork over 15% to support these deadbeats. It's just shocking!

This certainly is one of the most under-reported issues. And Stewart has Fox sized up pretty well. It's a propaganda channel outfitted like a real news show.

But there's that old saying that people get the government they deserve. If enough of them stampede to the Republicans everytime they offer tax cuts or decry "big government", this is what you wind up with. Thanks for highlighting the issue Mark.

Why can't they just scrap the tax code and have a flat tax?

Wait, that would make too much sense, something our govt wouldn't touch with a gloved hand.

I agree with you though, we should just gut the system and start over, but that would mean Capital Hill would lose power and they will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

The only way to do that would be a revolution, because we all know voting is pretty much a joke in this country.

-R-

Agreed Toritto. A coalition of the poor, the middle classes, and the sizable number of rich who have offered to pay more in taxes, are needed to remedy this, truly, dysfunctional condition.

Thanks for the visit,my friend - Your support is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks SO much for stopping by, Cranky Cuss. New and infrequent visitors are, especially, appreciated, here.

Jon is a great comedian, but like You, when the humor subsided, I found myself in a deeply reflective mood.

What a dysfunctional society america has become.

Thanks, again, for visiting.

Just came back from Your blog, John, and saw the perennial idiot treating the whole matter as if it were a joke.

That, in itself speaks volumes as to his character, or lack of.

apisa is the major problem blocking meaningful change.

Vermin and cretin like him should be forced to live like the 2% Mr. Stewart refers to.

Thanks,again, for stopping by and thanks for finding the post important enough to reprise

Thank YOU, Abrawang for adding to the discourse. Up until this point, no attention has been played in the roll faux news plays in all this.

Your comments,ALWAYS add additional, oft overlooked attention to details that would otherwise be overlooked, and I, especially, appreciate that.

Thanks for making the time to visit, my SweetLadyJane, especially considering the stresses in Your life, You have made us aware of on Your blog.

I, no longer know the answers, but something MUST be done, or as Toritto pointed out, there will be no recourse, but to take to the streets to demand legitimate grievances be given recourse.

Our prayers are with You in the struggles You are so capably withstanding.

Happened to see that episode. Very well done. The bit about how 700 billion was a drop in the bucket when talking about the rich but a stupidly enormous amount when applied to the poor said everything.

There isn't actual analysis on the other side, just reaching for whatever weapon is handy, regardless of the nature of that weapon. These are people who would shoot you if they didn't think they'd go to prison for it. As Stewart makes clear, there is zero intellectual integrity at Fox. We knew that already, we just can't make ourselves believe just what zero really means. Surely there should be Some integrity, right? I wish.

God bless Jon Stewart!!!! How tragic that even his exasperation doesn't begin to cover the grotesque narcissism and stupidity of the pol, media and corporatist elites. The WAR ON EMPATHY steamrolls onward. 1 out of 4 kids in Calif. goes to bed hungry, but what the hey. THEY ALL GOT THEIRS. Cronyism really rocked for them. Bribe the pols and the rewards just pour in for criminal behavior. I need to carry a vomit bucket around nearly all the time now. [r] libby

Thanks for stopping by KosherSalaami.

Needless to say, I can only get snippets of the evening comedy shows, where the only real news is reported.

The snippets You point to in Your comment lend credence to my first sentence in reply.

I'm happy that You took the time to add them - they enhance the value of my post, and for that, I am VERY grateful.

It HAS become sickening way beyond the theater of the absurd, LibbyLiberalNYC.

You may need a 55 gallon barrel before long.

I'm afraid we've seen, but the tip of the iceberg.

This Sunday at the oil sands protest in D.C.: "The activists are facing charges of failing to obey an order governing protests on the sidewalk, said an official with the U.S. Park Police. The protesters were asked to move and when they refused, they were arrested and taken to the central cell block of the city’s police department.

Officials for Tars Sands Action, the group that has organized the two-week campaign, say police originally assured them protesters would be released after being warned. Instead, they have been charged and held in jail for two nights.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/dozens-arrested-outside-white-house-during-oil-sands-protest/article2136415/print/

Note that this report comes from Canadian media.

I think we are about to see the beginning of the end.

Thanks for stopping by, LibbyLiberalNYC.

The problems with the Democratic Party are manifold. That said, here are the major ones, in my humble opinion:

1. Corporate ownership of key leaders and committee heads, even Biden (Delaware is owned by Credit Card companies---their entire commercial code was basically drafted by the US Chamber of Commerce).

2. Identity-based special interest groups are so obsessed with sex, gender, disability, race, ethnicity, religion and the like, that they are willing to put their own unique special identity-based special interests above and beyond the general and universal national interest. Rather than trying to achieve results on commonly held values (universal health care), they may be willing to betray their entire socio-economic class, because of cultural differences. This goes for all groups, not just WASPs.

3. Upper class Democrats like to "talk the talk" when it comes to socio-economic justice, but when it comes down to really having it, in a radical, egalitarian, dirty gritty manner, they get scarred of empowering the rabble and they stay home or find ways of inadvertently neutering themselves so as to empower the GOP. For example, I read about a bunch of Left-wing radicals who were discussing whether they should go hunt excess white-tail deer in Louisianna after Hurricane Katrina, and use these to feed the homeless and displaced persons who weren't receiving aid from authorities at the time. They had the tools and manpower to effectuate the hunt. However, the hunt fell apart, because Leftist radicals entered into a 2 week debate about whether hunting deer and serving venison to homeless people would be tantamount to "serving them oppression by the spoonful."

This isn't a joke, but honest to god, a real story.

Until Democrats and the Left can get some discipline and prioritize what it is they really want to accomplish in this world, and how they wish to accomplish it, they will be ineffective and incompetant. Believers in all things and supporters of all causes, but unable to achieve even the most basic plank in their platform.

You can't accomplish everything at once.