Glass Warfare

[Mythsaje]

Those on the other side of the glass, the ones who own multiple houses and Lear jets, and vacation in the Bahamas and on the French Riveria, are scared to death of anything that might wake the dozing American populace up to the idea that they are getting royally screwed and paying for the privilege.

Of course it's class warfare, folks. Our government doesn't really work for us anymore, if it ever really did. It works for the rich and powerful, those with the money to contribute thousands of dollars to the campaigns of their favorite Representative.

It's not just the Republicans in their pockets, either. Plenty of Dems voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, which was one of the most loathsome pieces of legislation to ever come down from Capitol Hill. It was a blatant giveaway to the credit card companies at the expense of ordinary American taxpayers.

They treat us like we're all animals at a zoo, interesting enough at a distance, but who'd actually want to hob-nob with the likes of us? The great unwashed. We can build their houses, move their furniture, design their cars, tend their lawns, but god forbid we have the RIGHT to attend their schools or expect healthcare that might actually cost them a few cents from their ludicrously low taxes.

It IS Class Warfare, and it's BEEN class warfare. We can't expect a living wage. We can't expect universal healthcare. We can't expect education without debt. Those on the top don't have to worry about ANY of these things. They can afford the best. We're not even asking for the best. We're just asking for what should be ours by right, a chance to share in the prosperity of the country we work every day to sustain.

Do the wealthy even need tax write-offs for charitable donations? Well, it may be argued that if they didn't get them, they wouldn't give them.

If the ultra rich in this country were held to some sort of moral standard, if they weren't allowed any level of excess that strikes their fancy--if owning and maintaining several homes wasn't consider 'par for the course' maybe there's be a few less homeless people on the street, or a few less people dying of diseases that can be treated with the right medication (expensive as it may be). But we've been led to accept this all as the way of things and any attempt to point out how horrendously screwed up it all is gets denounced as "class warfare."

Well, as long as the poor die of things that the rich don't even need to think about, as long as people live in cardboard boxes and sleep in abandoned buildings, while other people flit around the world as if they have some inherent right to devour resources like starving wolverines, I say that we're already caught up in Class Warfare.

And the casualties are mounting.

[sweetheart]

1. the corporate presumption

is it really the rich, or are we all consumers strapped to the belly of B-52's,
dropping our cultural goodwill on the people of asia from saigon to beruit;
thank god for the american surplus, thank god for free trade in airdropped munitions.

its class war indeed, the surplus stolen from the poor is invested so wisely abroad,
that every person the planet over who knows anything about how stupid the US has behaved,
just shakes their head, really, stupid beyond measure, squandering a position of absolute power
for one of greedy irrelevance... but such is the betrayal of jesus christ, to
surrender the kingdom for mammon consumption.

Like 'nightmare on elm street', corporate freddy is in all our dreams, on signposts by
every freeway, the in-flight magazine of every flight, right after the macdonalds
commercial, freddy wants your life force. He's come back, thought our parents and
grandparents think they killed him in a bunker in germany, freddy wants your dilligent
participation in his imperial project, or there'll be hell to pay.

But we couldn't presume perhaps, that its a corproate faceless elite that turns the knob
of prison-state USA, the purveyors of the unitary warden, and the evil police of his
dictatorial realm, injected in to every orifice to inspect for drugs, every micropore of
your toothbrush is been tested for the inevitable betrayal of the human soul determined to freedom
and liberty.

Just walk away, the illusion that anyone can steer this crashing cart is just that,
corporate government by corporations, for corporations, populated by consumers after all.

[madokie]

2. You're hittin on all cylinders this morning, runing smoothly

And I couldn't agree with you more.

[hfojvt]

3. Do the rich even need a write-off for charitable donations?

As I recently learned- they can take a write off for a donation to the Heritage Foundation or Cato Institute among others. Some charity.

[annabanana]

4. So, Why can't I deduct my Move-On donations?

Surely Move-On is more in the public interest than the Heritage Foundation

[hfojvt]

11. both of those RW spin tanks

are classified as "educational" in purpose. I was just thinking today if it would be possible to sue them based on the fact that alot of what they put out is just plain wrong - can lies and shilling be considered educational? Since they are putting out partisan spin, shouldn't they be re-classified?

[Selatius]

16. Move-on is an advocacy group, I believe

The Heritage Foundation is a think-tank.

The Foundation itself never endorses candidates or wades into politics, at least officially. They merely release reports supporting unregulated capitalism. It is up to Repubs to use the ideas presented in their campaigns.

If you wanted a liberal equivalent, you'd mail your donations to this small list of fine liberal think tanks:

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Economic Policy Institute
Center for American Progress
Center for Economic and Policy Research

[Greyhound]

5. Thanks again.

:kick: & R
It is class warfare. It has always been class warfare. So far, only one side is waging this war, and it isn't ours.

[and-justice-for-all]

6. I have to set myself at ease...

...By knowing, wihtout a doubt, that all of it will come to a bitter end. Yes, we will pay a price for our greed and those who take it for granted will suffer. Reality is an evil bitch and its gonna bite us all pretty damn hard, just watch..No amount of money is going to save their asses either, because the impact will engulf every single one of us.

Mother Nature can not be bought.

[jelly]

7. With you all the way!

The new Bankruptcy laws piss me off so much. Class warfare it is and it is up to those among us who get it to spread the word. The war is winnable if people start paying attention to these issues and vote based on those issues rather than on who had the funds to buy the most bells and whistles for their campaign or who flooded their local television stations with the most negative advertising. In such a world big campaign money would not equate winning elections. No need for contributions from the privileged = no debt of gratitude to repay.

[raccoon]

8. K & R. Great post.

"We can't expect a living wage. We can't expect universal healthcare. We can't expect education without debt. "

Quite true. IF we ordinary peons get any of those things, we'll have to fight tooth and toenail for them.

The powerful ain't going to give them to us out of the goodness of their hearts.

[BlueEyedSon]

9. Kick for Class Warfare...let's not also forget "redistribution of wealth"

which has been exclusively UPWARD

[mom cat]

10. As a non billionaire, I totally agree. We need to work to undo the polarization

between us and our fellow non billionaires to get the solidarity we need to overcome the oppression.

[lumberjack_jeff]

12. Agreed

We are all yoked to this wagon. It is counterproductive to reserve the benefits of that collective labor for only a select few.

Warren Buffett was right: "It's class warfare, my class is winning, but they shouldn't be."

[cassiepriam]

13. The middle class voted away its very existence, year after year.

Until this year.

[Exiled in America]

14. Isn't it interesting how calling it what it is has been so demonized...

...remember how many times candidates were criticized by the "right" for promoting "class warfare."

I'm not sure how we take positive next steps until we can at least be honest about the state in which we really live in America. We live in a class society. Period.

Thanks for the well-written post. I saw it because you mentioned it on my other thread.

[bleedingheart]

15. the problem is that most people don't know what Rich really is

they have been manipulated into thinking that they are rich....when in reality is not the case.

If you have to work for a living, you are not rich.
If you have to work for benefits, and to make your mortgage payment...you are not rich.

However there are folks who think that because they can afford to buy certain items that makes them rich.

In reality there are very few truly rich people in comparison to the rest of us.

The even more manipulative thing I have seen is sub class warfare among the poor, low and upper middle class.

People who make $25K a year are pissed because someone makes $100K a year.....for example the waitress across the street from me who lives with her parents that doesn't think teachers deserver to make $36K a year to start and the benefits or increases in salary...

[lukasahero]

17. And that's exactly how "they" want it

Keep them fighting at the bottom so they'll never even see the people at the top.