John Tsitrian says Rick Weiland's populist approach to South Dakota voters is misguided, because America's rich are not an oligarchic monolith. In perhaps the most articulately brilliant thing I've heard any candidate say this year, Rick Weiland says John Tsitrian misses his point about plutocracy:
Today we are reaping the whirlwind of two generations of public policy attention myopically focused on the needs of the wealthy and the powerful for policies that allow them to unleash their talents and ambitions with full force in our economy. Those talents and ambitions are in fact a formidable force for progress. I do not in any way agree with those who believe you can confiscate their fruits and your economy will walk away unharmed.
But after two generations in which the ideas of the rich and powerful have routed those of the middle class, the result has been predictable. What began as an unchaining of productive genius has congealed into protection of raw power and already earned big money. What at first helped the inventor starting out in the little garage market his or her inventions, to the immense benefit of our economy and our public, now helps the inventors grandsons and granddaughters amass unheard of riches with ponzi schemes of negative value to the public, or simply send their billions offshore, while head start programs are shuttered because their billions go untaxed [Rick Weiland, quoted in John Tsitrian, "Prairie Populist Pushes Back," The Constant Commoner, 2014.05.06].
Great Pettigrew's Ghost! I want to hear that speech on the campaign trail.
I agree Cory, but will the people of South Dakota listen?
Rick hits the nail on the head.
$1.9 trillion annual world wide subsidy to fossil fuel industry-5/14 moyers interview: ellen dorsey, thomas van dycke
1% pays half tax rate the lowest poorest 20% pay. $8 billion estate tax savings to Sheldon adelstein costs the rest of us $2-3 billion. moyers commentary after paul krugman interview-"what the 1% doesn't want us to know"
we must use every weiland available to counter this flood of propaganda, greed and pollution from the right.
This is good, but I fear that he uses too many big words for many South Dakota voters: congealed, myopically, and formidable. Then of course he uses words that the typical Republican has trouble understanding: middle class, head start programs, and progress.
Condensed version for South Dakota voters. The wealthy are stealing from you and your children, let's stop them now as it will only get worse.
To borrow an old phrase "If you want to live like a Republican, Vote Democratic!"
This is so brilliant on so many levels!
Unfortunately, the very people that need to hear this (the lower income Tea Bagger types being bilked by the ultra rich) are the ones that won't listen. I love Jessie Jackson's comment that they are "Turkeys at their own Thanksgiving!"
Those people (tea party, Rush Limbaugh fans) will just tell us to leave the country since we're not patriotic enough. Then they will start on the free market blather and call us socialists since we don't believe in the (rigged) free market system in place.
Jerry has a point. The greediest super-rich in America robbed us in 2008 of our savings, pensions, retirement funds and our family homes. Don't give them another chance, vote for the Democrat!
About as close to a modern populist manifesto as you're likely to see. Kudos to Weiland for responding to my in-your-face challenge with a classy and thoughtful response.
There is one absolute in the free market system, it wouldn't survive without socialism.
And which party is it that saddles business with so many regulations that people who want to start a business can't? The Democrats, that's who. And what is the result of that? The established, older, biggest businesses shut down any upstart competition. And which party is it that wants to get government regulations out of our hair, off our backs, so we can start new businesses? The Republicans.
If the Democrats really cared about making it easier to start up a business in your garage, they would abolish the EPA and repeal Obamacare. For a start.
Anne, why do you think the EAP was founded? Just for the fun of it?
What do you want to replace the ACA with? As one who has health insurance because of the ACA my question to you is what do you want to replace it with Anne?
Bank ,stock market and housing catastrophies all compliments of de-regulation by wingnuts-wholly owned subsidiaries of korporate amerika. Fannie Mae has paid back pretty much all loans from gubmint just in case you were gonna toss in Dodd-Frank.
Abolish the EPA, Anne? Great idea! Can we put the next radioactive waste dump in your backyard? Better yet, how about a fracking well? Do you have children? Grandchildren? Some of us care about the planet we are leaving for the future generations of our family. Are you a Christian? I guess you do not have to care about this world when you think you are promised an eternal paradise when you're dead.
Anne Beal,
Rather than echo Republican and tea party bumper sticker slogans about the EPA and Obamacare, I invite you to read John Tristan's Constant Commoner blog on April 19, 2014.
The thread is titled:
Obama Is Anti-Business? Hardly, Republicans Have A More Productive Economic Argument To Make:
We Need Higher Wages.
Republicans have and will refuse to follow John's sage wisdom and fight to the death to keep minimum wage workers in economic slavery.
Anybody that wants to start a business out of their garage can do just that, there is nothing to preempt them other than they have to play by the same rules as everyone else.
Remember now Anne, all those rules and regulations the tea party and Republicans whine about were not put in place by just Democrats. Keep in mind that many of those regulations actually protect many businesses.
Irony alert Anne Beal, who do you think established the EPA? Look it up, it is amazing what you missed in school or the media when they actually gave us the real news.
This guy tells the truth straight. That's why he won't win.
So Anne, the Republican push to repeal net neutrality laws is really to help small businesses and startups? Funny, because most experts seem to feel that would just protect large established corporations from new competition. Sometimes those pesky regulations actually promote growth and innovation.
What John T. said.....
Mr. Weiland is smart and well-spoken. I understood his response. And if I can understand it, others can too.
Anne, most "regulations" preventing "in-the-garage" start-ups have NOTHING to do with the EPA. Rather, it is local zoning ordinances that prevent them from turning your neighborhood into an industrial zone. And last time I looked, local governments in SD are DOMINATED by Republicans - just like every other part of state government. In fact - the preservation of quality neighborhoods is a CONSERVATIVE (conserve - root word - look it up) approach to land use regulation.
Okay, y'all have given "Anne Beale" enough attention now.
The EPA has done its job. Its over. Time for everybody to go home. We don't need to maintain an agency which has, as its only goal, the perpetuation of itself. This is why they have to go looking for more stuff to regulate, like dust, and CO2. They have run out of pollutants to regulate. The agency has accomplished its mission.
As for the ACA, the Democrats are chiseling away at it, delaying the employer mandate. But let's say you wanted to throw everything you've got into a start up business in your garage, but the law says you have to have health insurance. So you looked at buying it on your own and you can't afford it, not if you want to invest in your own start-up. So you can't quit your day job, because you have to have that insurance. Fortunately the penalty isn't that high right now, so somebody might just suck it up and pay the penalty. But the penalty for not having insurance is going to go up, trapping people in jobs working for somebody else when they really want to start their own businesses. And eventually the employer mandate will be enforced, causing small business owners to decide to stay small. The ACA will negatively impact a lot of business decisions.
good luck with that Anne! lol
Anne, seriously? Pollution has all disappeared? Polluters like Richard Millner no longer look for ways to make a quick buck with their CAFOs and impose their externalities on the rest of us? Water quality is no longer threatened by fertiilizer, pesticides, and antibiotics?
The EPA's work is never done. It's a good thing President Nixon got them started when he did.
No EPA? We could see if we could lure a smelter to be built just upwind from where Beals live similar to the Sudbury smelter in Ontario http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/f22/toyota-factory-turns-landscape-arid-wasteland-11994/
All that rich farmland will be a deadzone with various health issues that will result from the emissions but hey it will definitely create good paying jobs!
Anne is either delusional, ignorant of the facts or on the take. Little wonder that Thune and Noem want to block EPA from investigating their donors for non-point source pollution.
Yet, Anne, it is the wingnut Republicans who want to do away with EPA who took the authority away from the state DENR to regulate uranium mining and provided it to...EPA. The hypocrisy just never ends.
Mr. Pay, you know the state DENR is a puppet of the South Dakota GOP. Advocating for them to control the taste of your water is brave of you.
Anne needs to quit reading all the press releases from Thune and Noem over on DWC.
Tea party and Republicans think that by eliminating the EPA their little world will be a better place where they can start a business in their garage without President Obama interfering.