Bernie Sanders calls Larry Kudlow a Socialist over his support of the Wall Street bail out
By John Amato Wednesday Sep 24, 2008 1:00pm
This is too funny. You know my fondness for Kudlow, who blames poor people for the mess we're in. Well, Larry "Market Popeil" Kudlow said he was in favor of the bail out and Bernie Sanders, (I) VT, called him out on it. Larry, who hates all forms of regulations on Wall Street and is a big free marketeer and Conservative is looking for a hand out. Way to go Larry.
Sanders: Larry, I'm sure after all of the ranting and raving you have done against government intervention and the virtues of free market I know without saying that you are opposed to the bail out.
Kudlow: No, I'm in favor of it.
Sanders: Oh, you've become a Socialist overnight Larry, what happened?....I think your version of socialism is to bail out the rich. My concern is about the middle class and working families who are now asked to bail out the disaster caused by the incredibly greedy people on Wall Street who have fought for this deregulation which is now taking us over the cliff.









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LOLOLOLOL!
FINALLY...someone calls out the bald headed stooge on his hypocrisy.
Larry Kudlow...another Wall Streeter who capitalized on his failures.
Palin volunteers to shoot bears on Wall Street from a helicopter.
Kudlow is a fraud. He still can't deal with the fact that Cramer's more popular than he is.
All I can say is that if Bernie Sanders calls YOU a socialist, you know you're screwed.
John,
Do you know anything about this article written by Elliot Spitzer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR200802...
and the leak about Spitzer's hooker habit?
dosido @ 2:
Please aim at Kudlow.
"I'm votin' for McCain-Palin because she has a hot body and she shoots stuff." -- As heard from a staff member in Kudlow's TV studio
Pwnt.
Kulow is just another hypocritical self-serving conservative elitist,
John,
Do you know anything about a Feburary 14, 2008 Washington Post column by Elliot Spitzer and the media assassination of him a couple of weeks later? The column was about GB's protection of the banking system's efforts towards predatory lending.
Kudlow - ugly voice, ugly hypocrite.
As a socialist I take that as an insult.
So wait let me get this right, the problem was created by too many people buying too much on credit and then not being able to pay the bill. So the solution is to make sure that people have more access to credit? That's like trying to put out a fire by throwing gas on it.
roninkokoro22 @ 4:
Damn, beat me to it...
Wasn't Kudlow supposed to cut Sanders' mike or shout him down? That's standard American TV journalistic practice, I understand.
Tim Buktu @ 5:
Ah, one of those low-information voters. A real asset to cogent, rational, informed thought.
It'd be nice if we could eliminate all of them once and for all. First, a nice well-aimed shot right to the family jewels ...
Oh, bernie, you illiterate ass, shut the fuck up.
You're giving socialism a bad name.
These fucks aren't advocating socialism. Socialism always aims for an egalitarian distribution of resources, wealth and responsibility.
This is sheer, pure Corporatism, whereby the state arm of the corporation preserves the 'bidness' arm with whatsoever resources it can appropriate from the commons.
If you' of all people, are gonna use the term, fucking use it fucking correctly, fuckwit...
Anyone who would listen to Kudlow and Cramer etc. is a nut! These idiots who pretend to be "experts" almost always get it wrong. They were saying like McStain and Bush up until a week ago that the economy is strong. They were encouraging people to keep investing while they knew it was going down the drain, these are wolves and they are scum!
More important is the question: Is Cindy McCain still a junkie?
Ah yes, more trickle down rationalizations from the "conservatives" of America. As long as the government is benefiting crony capitalists (Wall Street, Halliburton, tax cuts for the wealthy) they are for it; but when anyone proposes helping the poor they revert to Milton Friedman.
kudlow sounds shrill.
Democratsrule @ 16:
Really, there's no exact or even remote animal analogy that describes or illuminates the behaviors of humans involved in 'money.' No other species will kill a member of its same species for no reason--which is what money is.
so leave the poor wolves alone. they've got enough problems with the CILF (Candidate I'd Like to Fuck)....
It's good to see Bernie again. As a former Vermonter, and a former VT Congressional staffer, (not Bernies but we all three teams worked closely together), it's so cool to see a strong, opinionated, and intelligent man step up and challenge the rhetoric today.
Hey, I gotta bail out my friends. Otherwise they will not let me stay in their ten vacation homes or lend me their thirteen cars. Oops, perhaps I've said too much.
If Kudlow believes the public will make money on this why don't all those rich investors invest into it?
Breathless, heaving filibustering by a free-market pig. Fogirve me if I am underwhelmed, Luds.
woody, tokin librul @ 21:
"Ripleeyyyyy!!!!"
we now live in a world post modern make-believe. up is down, left is right, wrong is right. the ability of the american people to gullibly believe this conservative crap is truly unbelievable. i heard rush limbaugh (i tuned him in accidentally as i was adjusting my car radio) just today say that conservatism is the only system you can believe in. and his listeners will believe it.
After 9/11, Americans were told by the President that they had to sacrifice by spending our money.
As Bernie says, the middle and working classes have lost jobs and spending power since Bush got into office, however illegally. The greatest source of income became the equity in their homes or what they could get by buying a home and then taking equity loans as prices rose. Alan Greenspan said that this was what people should do. Home prices were going up so fast that it did become a "source of income" in hard times. This is why Bushies kept saying that everyone was doing so well. Southern republicans were buying those new boats and paying higher gas prices using this method as much as northern under- and unemployed.
Television ads for home loans became one of the larger types of ads seen.
These loans were profitable to the sellers of the mortgages (who "improved" the applications to get them approved), who, then, resold them throughout the world economy.
Everyone depended upon housing prices to go up and when they slowed, the market panicked.
Yet this is the same thing that Bush has done. Cut back on taxes and increased spending and corruption. Its called Tax and Borrow and this is the gift that this President wants to give to the next one.
I heart Bernie Sanders.
woody, tokin librul @ 16:
You know, Sanders is one of the few politicians who actually takes an interest in the workers in the field, people like you and me. Why the "fuck" are you going after him with such venom? And btw, the man is hardly illiterate.
I am a Socialist and I know one when I see one.
Larry Kudlow is a Corporatist.
This country has used propaganda to vilify 'Socialism' every since WWII and the word has come to mean, that is to say, to be used to mean 'bad, very very bad'.
The words Socialism and Communism were constantly conflated, they should not be.
The general populace has succumbed to this propaganda.
However, the general populace does not know what a Corporatist is, even though they are exploited and subjugated by the Corporatist every day.
Therefor Bernie Sanders, who is a fine fellow and as close to a Socialist as we have in the Congress uses the word that the most people will see as being 'Bad, very, very, very bad'.
I do the same thing. But I say 'Socialism for Fat Cats'.
I should stop.
They are Fascists. And, there was one group of Fascists who put the words 'National' and 'Socialism' together. Two popular and mutually exclusive concepts put together as a trick which worked. The first people the National Socialists put into the labor camps were the socialists, the real ones.
Socialism is about programs which benefit the greatest number of people. Education, health care to name the two most important.
Fascism is about programs that benefit the group in power.
Using $700 billion to bail out these Fat Cats, the gamblers who gambled and knew they could lose, except that the Government would bail them out, this is Fascism.
Bonkers @ 30:
Because he's the only "socialist" in Congress.
And when he calls Kudlow and his ilk "socialists" too, he tarnishes his own 'luster' as well as that of anyone else who takes the principles of 'socialism' seriously, by putting himself--and the rest of us--in the same class as these predatory scum...it's both stupid and ignorant, and i do NOT know why anyone with a fucking brain would do it...
ahhh - Kudlow is just another repug hypocrite...
gummint bailouts are bad for the citizens... but great for the wealthy elite...
privatise the profits! socialize the losses!!!
after all, the "market" should be rigged to provide only one thing: profits for Kudlow and his ilk... when they suffer losses, well, that means only one thing: they need to be reimbursed for carrying all the risk of the country on their shoulders... so, all you poor people! pay up!
he should be on faux news he's such a hypocritical shill...
Its Class War. Since Mr. Kudlow thinks a Wall Street bailout is for Main St, I invite him to walk down my street...preferebly at night. He needs this sort of education.
What a fucking tool. People like Kudlow are insane.
woody, tokin librul @ 32:
I think he was saying it for effect, both to get Ludlow's goat and to point out his (Ludlow's) hypocrisy, much like you called him an illiterate fuckwit. Come on, really; that's what you REALLY think of Sanders? All I am asking is that you imagine him standing in a room with you fighting your fight and you call him a fuckwit in the middle of a sentence, then imagine him raising an eyebrow at you, standing aside and saying, "Hokay. Insults, then! Have at it, kiddo."
If this bailout goes through I believe the best person to be put in charge the oversee everything should be Ron Paul. I am sure he will make sure that every penny is accounted for if any of it would be used at all. That would fix those greedy bastards. LOL!!!
The entire mortgage mess is a GET RICH, GET RICHER and GET FILTHY RICH SCHEME.
They knew what they were doing the entire time:
1 Deregulate Mortgage Lending
2 Increase demand for Mortgages. Offer easy credit with adjustable teaser rates to get people into houses they actually will not be able afford once the real rates kick in. Since there is no law you don't tell them that.
3 Increased demand for housing pushes up prices.
4 Repeat steps 2 and 3
5 Make a killing.
6 Bundle all those mortgages that are going to implode, give them a fancy name and SELL THEM!
7 Make another killing.
These people knew the SHIT WAS GOING TO HIT THE FAN.
This was a PONZI SCHEME.
They are greedy but they are not STUPID. Their BUDDY IN CHIEF, Dubya, is getting them the money back.
We are being FLEECED.
$700 Billion is $2,333 for every man woman and child in the country.
FLEECED!
Okay, this is apropos of nothing, but am I the only one Larry Kudlow reminds of Paul Lynde?
Bernie Sanders has rightly taken it to the absolutely shameless, disgusting hypocrites of the corporate, profiteering, murderously imperial bunch in a measured way here. His use of "socialism" here is to highlight the quite valid argument regarding "corporate socialism," or, equivalently, "socializing losses and privatizing profits."
The gutter-dwelling free-market shills spout vacuous talking points that they receive routinely from the imperial propaganda machine (and this country has been enormously successful in driving home the propaganda- to quote the murderous imbecile in the WH). The entire right-wing, R-party enterprise is nothing more than a bunch of ignorant, self-obsessed, vicious, reckless empty-suits that are not even remotely aware of the garbage they talk and spew endlessly- only to be cheered on by clueless dittoheads ignorantly bent on self-destruction.
What the Congress in this country desperately needs is to send many more true "Independents" such as Bernie Sanders in order to build up a viable "third party" option that might just help curb the entrenched duopoly, and perhaps rein in, even eliminate, the mighty military industrial complex and its perpetual violence upon the world.
Those interested in challenging the duopoly would do well to strengthen the Senate campaign of Cindy Sheehan- whose victory would send a strong signal to the status-quo that fundamental changes are in order, and the imperial enterprise of greed and plunder must stop.
[Deleted. Off topic. Site Monitor]
Alice, forget it...let it go.
It's quite clear what has to happen in this country. It's simply a matter of time.
krudlow
what a sorry son of a bitch!
A bullett between the eyes is what would be good for these people!
Dishonest people like Kudlow are in large part responsible for what is wrong with this country.
*
Bonkers @ 36:
Come on, woody, Sanders' whole point was that all of a sudden, when Wall Street causes a crisis and gets in trouble, Libertarians like Kudlow cry out for a handout. You know, "every 20 or 30 or 50 years or so," the government has to step in like a Socialist government would in general. The whole point was that Kudlow was NOT a Socialist, but a hypocrite.
As Jon Stewart put it -- free market very good at causing problems, not so much at solving them.
Corporate Socialism:
From each to their party according to their need and to each according to their desire and loyalty to the powerful.
"But you'll make MONEY!" Kudlow yells at Sanders at the end of the clip. Yes, "Park Place" will set the board on fire, make sure their houses are put out first, capture the run-off and charge it back to "Baltic Avenue."
I hate people who make a profit off the misery and exploitation of others. Which is why I hate free-market capitalists and HMOs.
God, Larry, you are such a d*ck.
Bonkers @ 36:
See me at 31.
Bernie Sanders is a fine fellow, despite being a politician. That very fact gives me hope for politicians in general.
Politicians need to know how to stand in and give and take with the worst that humanity has to offer.
Right here he is doing it.
So now WE ARE ALL SOCIALISTS.
Some Socialists want to have Universal Education and Universal Health Care. To help our most vulnerable citizens.
Some Socialists want to give away $700 Billion to Rich Wall Street Bankers.
NOW, since we are, it appears, all going to be SOCIALISTS, we only need to know which sort we are.
That is where Bernie Sanders is coming from here, I suspect.
Monish Chatterjee @ 40:
Sheehan is running for Nancy Pelosi's House seat; she's not running for the Senate.
In any case, if you really want to challenge the duopoly, you have to work for electoral reform. Once this election is over, I'm pretty much going to concentrate my political energies on that. No electoral reform, no change.
Paul C @ 45:
Heh, corporate socialism has another name: Fascism.
Alice X - (Click Here for Nader Debate What If) - status quObama - change you can pretend in - @ 31:
Right on the money!
It's another term that has lost it's real meaning amid caricature and misinformation, but absolutely belongs in the current dialogue.
Liberal AND Proud @ 41:
A matter of time until what?
Bernie Sanders' pimp hand was certainly strong on that one, that's all i have to say.
BaScOmBe hearts Rachel Maddow hates MSM @ 29:
Bernie kicks ass and takes names. Kudlow is a buffoon. I love when Allard says that it's not class warfare. More like class welfare.
Alex, until history repeats...once again.
Sorry...ALICE...not Alex
If we had leaders with any COURAGE, they would say WE MUST PAY AS WE GO.
Immediate emergency tax surcharge. Instead they are bumping up the National Debt to 11.3 Trillion.
If you start this very instant counting by increments of one thousand per second, even if you are two years old, you will not live long enough to count that high. Not even close.
You also will not live long enough to see this paid off.
These people and their 'Country First'. My ASS.
i dont get the "bailout Wall St" meme... its like no one on main st. has any retirement, savings, business to do...
History, it is said, is one damn thing after another!
Liberal AND Proud @ 55:
Liberal AND Proud @ 54:
Universal Healthcare Bad.........Wall Street Bailout Good.
That translates to "Fuck the people"
Why use the peoples money to help the people when we can just steal it!!
SOmeon needs to ask one of the assholes who keep saying "the taxpayer will make money on this deal" whether they're putting their personal money into buying MBS's. If the taxpayer was going to make money on this deal there wouldn't be any need for a bailout. People would buy the assets and the liquidity/credit crisis wouldn't exist. Problem is its not liquidity that the problem, is solvency. The MBS's are practically worthless.
Joe & Jane sixpack have had it hammered into their tiny brains that "socialism" is BAD. It's BAD because it's fair, and the corporate fatcats don't LIKE it. So, rather than brush up what it means, they just parrot that they don't want socialism, when in fact they NEED it.
What an asshat this guy is. As long as his bread is buttered he is fine. Throw out the baby with the bath water and he is in for the rescue. These type of people need to be culled. Something like thowing them out of the Temple or banishment. Asshat is too tame…
I wish Sanders was one of MY Senators.
And I'll send May Day cards to Comrade Kudlow next year.
Bernie Sanders...Ladies and Gentlemen
Now you know why Thom Hartmann calls him "America's Senator", without a doubt the best man in Washington. I call him America's Senator, he's my Senator.
I live in Georgia, but when people ask, I tell them Bernie Sanders is my Senator, not the two bit bubbas wasting office space that south Georgia rednecks keep voting for....
See Ralph Nader here speak on the bailout.
The Democrats are talking a good talk on some of the points, but not all. As we have seen in the past, they can talk a good talk and then completely cave to the Swindler in Chief.
Let Nader Debate.
For that matter, let Barr and McKinney debate. I want to hear all of them.
Alice X - (Click Here for Nader Debate What If) - status quObama - change you can pretend in - @ 65:
Actually, that's a good point. I am going to find out what Nader thinks of this mess.
My email to Kudlow after he blames the Democrats for the meltdown:
Mr. Kudlow,
It has come to my attention that you are blaming the Liberal Congress for the sub prime meltdown and investment institution bailout. You are supposed to be an intelligent person but your logic makes no sense. Either you are not as intelligent as you claim or you are a liar. There is no doubt that the financial meltdown was started by the conservative Congress. In 1999 Phil Gramm introduced the banking deregulation bill known as the “Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act” and it was voted on and passed with a Republican majority. The Republican sponsored bill is at the root of the sub prime meltdown as you well know. The sub prime meltdown is at the root of the investment bank meltdown as you know. Why would blame Liberals for this mess when it is quite obviously a Republican induced nightmare.
Everybody knows it was the Bush administration and a Republican Congress who looked the other way throughout 2001-2006 while investment banks (run by Republicans), commercial banks (run by Republicans) and loan brokers (run by Republicans) who PUSHED these loans on unsophisticated borrowers. I have no idea how much television you watch or radio you listen to but during that time there were (and still are) ad after ad telling home owners (people who already owned their homes and many who had owned them for many years) to borrow against those homes and use the money to have fun. These were/are home that people should be relying on for security during their retirement. These brokers and banks did everything they could to make unsuspecting home owners leverage their homes against their best interests. These were not Liberals with guilty consciences. These loans were PUSHED onto unsophisticated borrows by greedy Republicans.
When you try to blame liberals for this nightmare you lose any credibility you may have had. Furthermore, you always promote the “Free Market System” but you are the first to applaud the government socialized bailout for the Republican run investment banks. Again you lose any credibility you may have had. In the end you have become a joke to the people you call your audience. I know bankers and stock brokers and investment advisors (I work in the industry) who have CNBC on a television all day long and after the Market has closed and just about the time they are getting ready to call it a day and head home or to the bar your show comes on and they tell me they have a good laugh and watch for a few minutes. In the past, people in finance thought your knew what you were talking about but over the past nine months or a year you have turned into a clown who has no credibility. These people are not idiots. These people are very smart and understand the world of finance. Their lives are the world of high finance. They know what they are talking about.
I suggest you revisit your stance on this issue to try to regain any confidence you may have had with these type of investment professionals and come clean with who is really responsible for this financial disaster, the likes of which we have not seen since you were a financial advisor to President Reagan or the Wall Street meltdown of 1929. At this point you have no credibility.
Sincerely,
Captain Kangaroo
Bernie Sanders is the man!.....The only reason he called him a socialist is pointed out in the last part of the clip......he's no socialist unless it keeps the rich rich.............fuck them and feed them fish heads!
I love it!
The conservative bullshit train has come full circle. They are exactly what they always railed against. Thow did protest too much. Say it louder Bernie!
Kudlow is not for free markets. He is for trickle down economics.
Bernie Sanders is awesome because he's a real socialist. We definitely need more people like him in the Senate... and the House... and the White House...
Karen @ 45:
To call 'begging for a hand-out" socialism betrays the very essence of what beliefs he professes to hold about equity.
Cannot you folks see this?
Calling Kudlow a 'socilaist' just gives all the more ammunition to the myrid, uncountable knuckledraggers who ALWAYS throw "socialism' in to muddy the water and condemn any proposals that smack of equity, fairness and the rest.
Soicialism is NOT about "free hand-outs." That's the Rightard/Flying Monkey/Fuckwit construction. Sanders knows that, and that [pisse me the fuck off. I don't care what a "good guy" hje is, he's just proven to me he's got no more intellectual integrity than George Bush...
Notice he said, "Every 25 years or so..." So when we pay off the debts of this bailout in 20 years, they're going to need another one.
"This isn't class warfare". This is just rich people stealing from the middle class all over again. Stealing isn't warfare, right? I mean, they are asking nicely.
Anonymous @ 74:
Yeah, basically he's saying that "free market" capitalism works... except when it doesn't... which is every 20 years or so coinciding with repukelican rule... which needs a bailout... which isn't socialism... or class warfare... Anybody else have a headache?
How about enacting a 1% national sales tax and a 3% luxury tax on items such as yachts, super cars, private jets, high end jewelry, ect. and call it the "fat cat tax".
The free marketeers i'm sure would be honored to have a tax tied in name directly to them with all proceeds used to fix the problems they created.
Once the problem is fixed and bailout complete the tax stays in place and is then used to start up a national healthcare plan for the uninsured and underinsured.
dosido @ 2:
LOL!!!
I love Bernie Sanders!
Someday I'd love to have brunch with Bernie (and not just every Friday morning on the Thom Hartmann radio show). Go Senator Sanders!
I am a VTer living in DC. So proud that Bernie blew the Repub. contender out of the water in his race. They started out saying they would not spend more than $500,000 and ended up in the $5 million range to try and keep him out. Failed again. Not in VT boys.
Kudlow, formerly conservative, now for socialism for his wall street friends.
woody, tokin librul @ 73:
No more integrity than George Bush....oookay.
Ok, clearly you don't feel the need to temper your over the top flaming of Sanders.
I suppose the average teevee viewer wouldn't understand the nuance of what Sanders was getting at, but I also think that the average idiot who believes socialism is inheretnly evil isn't going to be swayed one way or the other when Sanders uses socialism in any context. They do, however, understand "fuckwit", "illiterate", and "like Bush (my words; not exactly yours)".
Whatever; it's not like he's my dad or anything. Besides, he wouldn't need my help explaining himself to you were you both to sit down and chat. I don't even entirely dispute your views on socialism. All I was trying to get across was that Sanders was being a bit snarky, with a sprinkle of truth.
Thanks, Karen@49, for the clarification re. Cindy Sheehan's run for Pelosi's House seat.
As a friend recently pointed out (quite correctly, in my judgment)- the long-standing and overwhelmingly futile efforts of virtually all 3rd party candidates for President (Ralph Nader being the best example) is in effect a meaningless exercise. The outrageous electoral farces of 2000/2004, despite Nader's candidacy, have only sustained, if not worsened the duopoly's iron-fisted control over the political system. To the extent that today, candidates outside the duopoly (and even the fringe candidates within the duopoly- such as Kucinich, Gravel or Paul) are systematically marginalized, including corporate manhandling in the polls, in organized exclusion from debates, in fudging debate results whenever (as has happened often) post-debate polls have overwhelmingly favored the "fringe" candidate- and on and on.
In the face of this continuing farce, which is really a slap in the face of democracy and free speech- the friend suggests that extra-duopoly forces may (or should) instead unite behind realistically winnable campaigns (and not simply waste resources on futile presidential runs). Thus, putting unified resources behind Cindy Sheehan, and other Congressional (or Senatorial) candidates, especially when Sheehan, in San Francisco, a high-profile liberal city, has a fighting chance of pulling off a win against Pelosi (given the latter's absolutely scandalous performance)- makes perfect sense.
If dedicated Independents or 3rd party representatives (such as Sheehan, and other antiwar, pro-peace, pro-labor, pro-minorities, pro-human rights campaigners)can be sent to Congress in larger numbers- it will begin (one hopes) a snowballing process, having shown that the duopoly can be broken.
Until something that at least puts a dent in the corrupt duopoly enterprise is carried out (by ingenious stealth- as in uniting forces in winnable strategies)- the idea of getting "electoral reform" is simply wishful thinking.
Ludlow needs to put a sock in it.
woody, tokin librul @ 73:
Okay, so you believe Socialism is a good thing, and to apply the term to this bailout even in an ironic sense denigrates the concept so much that it brings Bernie Sanders down to George Bush's level of intellectual integrity. I'm afraid you have reached terminal silliness.
Kudlow and his ilk rail against any government intervention that would help people because doing so is what a Socialist government would do. It's always bad, according to them, even in times of crisis, such as the crisis we are experiencing with health care. They always claim that having the government intervene in the market leads to outright Socialism, will always make things worse, and must be avoided at all costs.
Always, that is, except for now. Of course, Kudlow isn't a Socialist. Of course what the government is doing is not Socialist. That's the point. It only resembles Socialist action in that the government will intervene in a market -- the very thing Kudlow decries as Socialist.
Calling him a Socialist is an ironic way of calling him a hypocrite. (It also, by the way, twists the knife a bit when he hears it.)
It's okay, though, there's treatment for irony deficiency.
Kudlow: "A credit virus . . "? Wow, these pseudo-intellectual pundits and sycophants really like to play with words. Of course, language as a straightforward, unambiguous means of communications for the citizenry in a democracy is anathema to these shitheads. Language, for them, is a tool for duplicity and deception, the hallmarks of a corporatist society (see Mussolini's historical record for details).
Karen @ 50:
I think in this instance a more accurate description of Kudlow's stance would be "State Capitalist".
Sanders (I believe)wasn't seriously calling Kudlow a Socialist,rather,he was "taking the piss" out of him.
Monish Chatterjee @ 84:
But of course. ;)
It's worse than a meaningless exercise for third party candidate to run for the presidency. It actively undermines third party causes as it only reinforces on a national level the impression that third parties are not viable.
But their lack of viability comes not from their lack of popularity or lack of yearning to break the duopoly. It is part and parcel of our ELECTORAL SYSTEM. That's what needs reform, and it must start locally.
It is certainly a better idea to challenge at the House level, but in the ELECTORAL SYSTEM we have, Sheehan likely still will not win. Everything you very rightly decry stems from the single-member-district, winner-takes-all system of elections we have. Until we really start to push for meaningful electoral reform, we'll continue to have the candidates we have in the duopoly we have, and we the people will complain about the corruption, influence of money, etc. If we really work on reforming the electoral system, things will start to change. But it has to be done locally, and work its way up.
They won't be sent in larger numbers until the system by which we allocate power and representation is itself revamped.
If you're serious about it, learn about electoral reform, and get involved in some of the movements for it. There are some simple changes we can make to the electoral system that would make third parties viable everywhere the changes are employed.
I wish Bernie Sanders was the Senator of my state.
Conservatism is just a cover for the wealthy to stay wealthy. Conservatism uses fear and hatred to make sure greedy and plundering policies of a chosen few remain legal.
As an outsider I find it rather strange that all those lower and middle class workers, who can't afford an accountant to help them avoid paying tax are being asked, No forced, to help bail out all those high earners, who do have accounts and pay as little tax as they can get away with, and your not questioning how it can be allowed?
Are all you average earners happy to pay $3000 each to help the poor rich?
Funny how it's cl;ose to the amount of money which GWB gave only a few months ago ????
What the hell is wrong with this country that we only have one Bernie Sanders in the Halls Of Power?
Could we shoot for at least 5?
Are the people of Vermont that much smarter than the rest of us?
"Are the people of Vermont that much smarter than the rest of us?"
Yes, we are.
And Bernie has done more for social justice and the lower classes in this country than anyone else, so I am very offended by anyone who calls themselves a socialist and claims to be interested in social justice but calls this great man a "fuckwit". If I ever meet you in person I will give you the physical version of the smack Bernie gave the hypocrite Kudlow..
(The second part of that post is not directed at you "EWA" but at the person who was calling Bernie a "fuckwit")
What a whore!!! hows that goldilocks economy now Larry??
Well, watched this vid... Never have watched Kudlows show... Now I know why you are so fond of him John A. That whole back and forth, what. a. crock.!
So, it turns out Kudlow is OK with a little government intervention every 20 or 30 or 50 years.... To intervene with the taxpayer dollar apparently when the house of cards which oddly enough takes the free marketeer types about 20 to 30 to 50 years to get set up and running syphoning off wealth before it begins to fall apart...
At that point he's OK with tax payers picking up the pieces... So they can start the whole financial masquarade all over again. Ain't that convenient for the wealthy and their carnival barking mouthpieces ... One guy with a gun robbing a bank... Man, anyone can understand the mechanics of that. But some nebulous group looking to swindle the whole nation or world?? That's hard for many people to wrap their minds around unless it's presented as fiction or a 007 Bond or maybe a B. Willis movie.... People just ussually don't seem to be able to grasp a crime of that magnitude. They think anyone who speaks of that kind of scheme as a bit off, loony even, tinfoil hatters etc....
So this kind of shit worked in the 19th century which was the first and second time business managed to get congress to tilt the playing field via among other things, that whole business as a person crap in the 1870s.. There was also the financial shennanigans of the 1820's and 30's under Andrew Jackson as well, but what occurred in the 1870's and 80's in congress precipitated the 1907 financial storm. And the whole merry go round worked again post WWI and thru the 20's when again, business was given free reign, which set up the crash of 29... And it all worked in large part because people we're successfully kept in the dark about the sordid details... But now? We got us a little thing called the internet and it so far don't matter how much media consolidation occurs with ownership by the same crooks causing this.... The truth is getting out there and people are realizing we're getting played and have been getting played for over a hundred years at least...
I ain't the only seeing this, I ain't the only person sick of this shit.... And I ain't the only one saying NO! Enough is enough, no more blank checks written against my labors using my dime!! And just as an aside, if Kudlow was old enough to know Alexander Hamilton?? Then maybe he's a little too long in the tooth to even be offering advice on anything, save maybe metamucil dosages.... But then on the other hand... there's McCain???? Ehh, Kudlow may be a supply sider cheerleading moron, but I guess McCain has made it OK to be old and out of touch with reality... And STILL run for president...... So I guess ol Larry Kudrow is going to stay on the tube giving bullshit advice based on a failed ideology of greed. I don't think I'll be tuning in....JD
Applause for Sanders for calling ludlow the hypocrite he is. BTW where's that gutless POS gramm while this is going on?
Neo @87,
Twisting words indeed! There isn't a conservatard pundit who doesn't deserve an honorary PhD in techno-global-bullshit!
When anything for the people pops up, don't you know hard working people have too much pride to ask for handouts? Deadbeat implied.
But when it comes to millionaire handouts - suddenly its "liquidity enhancement, or capitol diversification" or some other Orwellean bullshit term they invented to make stealing sound very sophisticated and proper.
I hope all these sick bastards not only rot in hell, but that they "take it with them," only to find out hell is some sort of opposite universe where the poor have it made, and fuck over the rich everyday.
Kudlow, like his brother-in-arms the Bush Idiot, has been debilitated by substance abuse. Only in this retarded country could such lunacy prevail.
this is a great example of how the Republicans love their double standards, to a mother who is trying to raise her kids and hold a job or two it's "No Help For You!" but when it's greedy white bankers who go bust due to their shitty deals then it's "We need to bail out these guys for the good of the nation"
Oh how I hate Republicans, they greatest enemy America has ever known. Al Queda could never have hoped to bring the destruction the Republicans have created. But don't worry because it's all Obama's fault, somehow.
Confiscation huh?
We'll be quite happy to forego the confiscation. You're right Mr. Kudlow, this is government confiscation of private assets. So... Skip it.
We'll take our tax dollars and use them elsewhere.
Good Point Mr. Free Market Asshole.
I think if you started throwing people in jail for robber baron actions, the market would magically correct itself. IMO
The rich have always had the idea that they are earning their money, when in actuallity other people earn money for them.
If you are earning more yearly than a brain surgeon, you are not earning that money. You are being given a blessed bonus.
Kudlow comes off as one of those greedy, cheezy used car salesman. It's clear all he cares about is getting a hold of some of that money.
Kudos to Bernie!!
I love how Kudlow argues that he's only for corporate socialism "every twenty or thirty years" - which always seems to be just about the amount of time needed for each wave of the deregulation manias he and his robber baron ilk promote to bring about an economic meltdown.
thank god for Vermont, I wish all American voters were like Vermonters
Karen@89:
Your views about the American electoral farce are perceptive, and quite realistically, lead to pessimism regarding a truly hopeless situation. I agree that the 2-party charade, controlled with criminal efficiency by armaments and energy peddlers, the propaganda ministry (a la Fox News, the American Enterprise Institute, and the like) and by political lobbies driven by racism and xenophobic hatred- is deeply entrenched, and the power wielded by the Washington insiders and their lobby-patrons is such that an outsider cannot penetrate the corrupt, impenetrable barrier.
Yet, I am not entirely convinced that electoral reform is even remotely possible in this environment. The role of journalism in this country is a tragic joke (a flesh trade, essentially). The unholy entente between rabid Zionists, lunatic Christian right-wingers, and corrupt-to-the-core Wall Street CEOs and their immoral cohorts: these alliances have thoroughly damaged this country (and I am only referring to the most recent version of this runaway crime-spree: the Reagan and post-Reagan imperialism of the Anglo-American killing machine).
Some talk about the American people being either too comfortable, too supine, or perhaps irredeemably brainwashed to bring about any revolutionary change. In such cases, the use of stealth and craftiness may be a possible tool to effect change when and where least expected. It has happened elsewhere in the world.
Kudlow is from the O'Reilly school of interviewing: "If I can yell louder than you (on my own show), I must be more correct than you."
All that coke Kudlow snorted in the 90's turned his brain into mush. Keep drinking the kool-aid larry! what an arrogant SOB!!!!
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