General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShot In the Face Or Stabbed In the Back?
Who says we don't have a choice in America?
At this point I choose shot in the face. To quote Han Solo, "Bring it on! I prefer a straight fight to all this sneakin' around."
I saw those comments in a Daily Kos Social Security diary. They made this tingle go up my leg and I felt compelled to share the sentiments.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)...best choices
forestpath
(3,102 posts)Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Republicans have been very outspoken about how they want to screw us over. The corporate Dems have the same sentiments but are sneaky chameleons.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)It's amazing. Your despise for him has completely consumed you.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)We do get both with Obama, and Oilwellian does have a right to be bitter. Hell, I am I bought into the "Hope and Change" like a total rube.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)We spew endless hate at Obama based on fear and unstated agendas.
Gotta love it.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)They both use the same tactics.
forestpath
(3,102 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)You supporting a post that accuses another of being rightwing is laughable.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Rather rabid actually.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Sorry, but I just cannot take a budget proposal concept and raise it to the level of being "shot in the face" or "stabbed in the back". If seeing me disagree with a hyperbolic metaphor is the equivalent of apologizing for Bush in your eyes, I don't see that as my problem.
On edit, let me also point out that Bush apologists have a deep despise for Obama, not unlike what I'm seeing over and again at DU.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)If you want to sanctimously scream about people "hating" the president and compare the average DU to some RWer then you better expect that sort of response.
I don't see your being upset with being compared to a Bush appologist as my problem. It's your behaviour, not mine.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Not for me.
I get the whole CPI concept, but I have yet to drink the kool aid.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)I refer you to response #17
I think whats more telling, is the simple fact that you'd rather scream about people "hating" the president than anything else.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)I'm done here. You get the last word.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)Maybe the language gets a little strong around here sometimes -- but that's because people do give a shit and get angry when they feel betrayed by those who are supposed to be on their side.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)But I haven't lost my fucking mind over it.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)I've been shot in the face (in military combat). The metaphor doesn't really work for me.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)and aren't being denied needed chemotherapy as a result of corporate greed and political gamesmanship.
For many, the metaphor works just fine.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Oh, wait.
Nothing has happened yet. So, is your post complete bullshit?
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)in an attempt to excuse or minimize what is unconscionable. People die every day in this country as a result of corporate greed. That's a fact. Pay attention to the continual stream of posts here about people denied essential care by the insurance cartel, the people who ration their own medication in order to afford to eat, and the innocents slaughtered for our MIC..all in a country where we could easily afford to meet everyone's basic needs. There was another one yesterday, a DUer talking about a family member who died rather than drown his family in debt through the insurance cartel.
Don't you dare try to derail this thread with huffy outrage because I defended a metaphor that deserved to be defended. Our outrage should be for EVERYONE who is suffering and dying as a result of these monsters who have taken control of our country.
What is being perpetrated on all of us is wrong, period.
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)And don't allow comments.
I think you are overreacting in a huge way, to the point of total hysteria. If you don't like my opinions, you have many options open to you.
OldDem2012
(3,526 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)That would make me frustrated and mad as as hell, too. If there's a metaphor for that, I'm not sure what it is.
Best wishes to you.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)but I am heartened that your compassion for those who are may cause you reconsider the appropriateness of the metaphor.
As someone who has suffered needless, unconscionable pain, you are in a particularly good position to appreciate the OP's point.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)Let me just say welcome home. I was really moved by the picture you shared in the thread last week - baby face platoon leader indeed! Cheers, pinboy3niner.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)i have a speaking engagement coming up at the local JC, and once again I will be emphasizing what I was doing at that age--which is younger than some of the students in my audience.
Cheers, alcibiades_mystery...
Oilwellian
(12,647 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)about what is really being done to us by those who pretend to be our allies.
"Guess what? Chained CPI is the bright idea of Third Way, the Dem "policy shop.'"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2489745
The Third way folks are the real "professional left"...er...one percent posing as left.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022644983#post155
Wall Street uses the Third Way to lead its assault on Social Security
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/11/wall-street-uses-the-third-way-to-lead-its-assault-on-social-security.html#more-3690
Third Way is run by a man who Laursen terms an acolyte of Pete Peterson. Peterson is a Republican, Wall Street billionaire who has two priorities imposing austerity on America and privatizing Social Security. Privatizing Social Security is Wall Streets unholy grail. They would receive hundreds of billions of dollars in fees and ensure that their firms were not only too big to fail, but too big to criticize if they could profit from a privatized retirement system. (We do not know who funds Third Way because it refuses to make its donors public. Given who dominates its Board of Trustees, however, the donors must be overwhelmingly from Wall Street.)
Third Ways self-description has some elements of honesty, admitting that it is led by a prominent private sector Board of Trustees, drawn from finance, industry, academia, the non-profit sector and government. The order is revealing the board is dominated by finance, with a thin veneer provided by industry, and with the barest patina of academics and government.
Here are key excerpts from their web site identifying their board.
· John L. Vogelstein
Mr. Vogelstein is the Chairman of New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC. [He co-managed that huge private equity firm.]
· Bernard L. Schwartz
Mr. Schwartz is Chairman and CEO of BLS Investments, LLC.
· David Heller
Mr. Heller was the Global Head of Equity Trading for Goldman Sachs.
· Georgette Bennett
Dr. Bennettan award-winning sociologist, criminologist, and journalist . [Yeah criminologists!]
· William D. Budinger
William D. Bill Budinger is the founder of Rodel, Inc., where he served for 33 years as its chairman and CEO. [Rodel manufactured semi-conductors.]
· David A. Coulter
Mr. Coulter serves as Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus, focusing on the firms financial services practice.
Mr. Coulter retired in September 2005 as vice chairman of J.P. Morgan & Chase Co. He previously served as Executive Chairman of its investment bank, asset and wealth management, and private equity business.
· Jonathan Cowan
Prior to co-founding Third Way, Mr. Cowan founded and ran Americans for Gun Safety . In 1992, he co-founded Lead or Leave, which became the nations leading Generation X advocacy group. [He lobbied to protect second amendment rights to bear arms and led a Pete Peterson inspired group urging Gen X members to unravel the safety net.]
· Lewis Cullman
Mr. Cullman was the Founder and President of Cullman Ventures, Inc., a diversified corporation that included the At-A-Glance group, which manufactures and markets diaries .
· William M. Daley
William Daley served as President Obamas Chief of Staff from January 2011 until January 2012.
Prior to his Chief of Staff role, he was Vice Chairman of JPMorgan Chase, from 2004 until 2011.
As Special Counsel to President Clinton in 1993, Daley coordinated the successful campaign to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
He was co-chair of the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness. [This is code for deregulation of finance.]
· John Dyson
Mr. Dyson is Chairman of Millbrook Capital Management, Inc. (MCM), a private investment firm.
· Robert Dyson
Mr. Dyson is Chairman and CEO of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a privately owned, diversified investment holding company .
· Andrew Feldstein
Andrew Feldstein is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of BlueMountain Capital Management .
Prior to co-founding BlueMountain in 2003, Mr. Feldstein spent over a decade at JPMorgan where he was a Managing Director and served as Head of Structured Credit; Head of High Yield Sales, Trading and Research; and Head of Global Credit Portfolio. [High yield is a euphemism for junk bonds.]
· Brian Frank
Mr. Frank is a Director and Portfolio Manager at MSD Capital, L.P., the private investment firm founded by Michael Dell.
· Michael B. Goldberg
Mr. Goldberg joined Kelso & Company in 1991 as a Partner and Managing Director. [Private equity.]
· Peter A. Joseph
Mr. Joseph has been in the private equity investment business for over twenty years .
· Derek Kaufman
Derek Kaufman is Head of Global Fixed Income at Citadel LLC. He is a member of Citadels Portfolio Committee.
Prior to joining Citadel in 2008, Mr. Kaufman was a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase .
· Derek Kirkland
Mr. Kirkland is a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Global Financial Institutions Group at Morgan Stanleys Financial Institutions Group in Investment Banking.
· Ronald A. Klain
Ronald A. Ron Klain is President of Case Holdings, and General Counsel of Revolution LLC. [Case is an investment fund for the holdings of AOLs founder.]
· Thurgood Marshall, Jr.
Mr. Marshall is a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP, and a Principal of Bingham Consulting Group. Mr. Marshall counsels and devises strategies for advancing clients interests before Congress, the executive branch and independent regulatory agencies. [He is a lobbyist for a firm best known for representing financial firms.]
· Susan McCue
Ms. McCue is President of Message-Global, LLC, a strategic communications and public affairs firm she founded in January 2008 to advance progressive campaigns, activism and issue advocacy in the U.S. and globally.
· Herbert Miller
Mr. Miller, former CEO and Chairman of The Mills Corporation, one of Americas most innovative and successful mall developers and managers, founded Western Development Corporation (WDC) in 1967 and serves as its Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal Stockholder.
· Michael Novogratz
Mr. Novogratz has been President and Director of Fortress Investment Group LLC .. Prior to joining Fortress, Mr. Novogratz spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs .
· Andrew Parmentier
Mr. Parmentier is a Founding and Managing Partner of Height Analytics. He and fellow Managing Partner John Akridge formed the company in January 2009. He has worked in the financial services industry since 1997 .
· Kirk Radke
Recognized internationally as one of the top private equity attorneys during his 28 year career at Kirkland & Ellis .
Among professional activities, Mr. Radke is Co-Chair & Organizer of the International Bar Association Private Equity Symposium, Founder of the Private Equity General Counsel Network, Founder of Legal Series and Co-Founder of the Private Equity Law Firm Roundtable.
· Howard Rossman
Dr. Rossman is a President and Founder of Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc. and a Vice Chairman of its parent, Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. He is responsible for all aspects of fund management, including manager due diligence, strategy analysis and asset allocation.
· Tim Sweeney
Mr. Sweeney has been President and CEO of the Denver-based Gill Foundation since October 2007. For more than 30 years, he has worked to advance equality for all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
· Ted Trimpa
Mr. Trimpa is a partner with the international law firm, Hogan Lovells LLP.
· Barbara Manfrey Vogelstein
She has over 24 years of experience in venture capital and specialized equity investing. [S]he was a Partner of Warburg Pincus, one of the worlds largest private equity firms.
· Joseph Zimlich
Mr. Zimlich is the Chief Executive Officer of Bohemian Companies, a group of family-owned real estate and private equity holdings.
Twenty of the twenty-nine trustees come from finance (counting the lawyer whose specialty is representing private equity firms). Their most common background is Mitt Romneys private equity and hedge funds. The nine non-finance members include:
A Pete Peterson acolyte who previously created supposedly centrist front groups for gun rights and an effort to enlist Gen X in Wall Streets assault on the safety net
A developer of giant malls
A semi-conductor manufacturer
A manufacturer of diaries
A criminologist/journalist
A PR specialist
A gay rights activist
A lobbyist at a firm best known for representing finance
A lawyer
The board includes three representatives of main street (malls, semi-conductors, and diaries). They are not heavy hitters compared to the finance representatives. On finance issues, Third Way is Wall Street. It is run by Wall Street for Wall Street. It is liberal only on social issues such as gay rights and Wall Street created Third Way to focus on finance.
This is a much-needed OP. Thank you.