The Limits of Power - Bill Moyers Journal - Five Parts

[L. Coyote]

Run time: 09:25 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK0nVwIEsm4   Posted on YouTube: August 24, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 24, 2008 By DU Member: L. Coyote Views on DU: 2035

 
How pride and selfishness are undermining the foundations of the American Republic. Andrew J. Bacevich discusses the wages of American Exceptionalism with Bill Moyers.

II - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIWa88Jqk94

III - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCsFztmiHgQ

IV - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3onqB4WFw

V - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2lHLNFijg8

[Sherman A1]

1. I watched this last week

and this guy has it nailed, there really isn't anything to add to his summation.

[PatSeg]

2. Me too

Bill Moyers shows have been exceptional the past few months. I just finished watching the one from last night.

[bjobotts]

3. Moyers summary of the Geogian -Russian conflict is ass backwards and shockingly dumb.

I will watch the whole thing but right off the bat demonizing Russian for responding to an attack by Georgia is a Bush right wing summation. Georgia used it's missiles to destroy one of its own towns before Russians ever moved in just to do a little ethnic cleansing. Bush/McCain threats are out of place and act as though Georgia did nothing to provoke this confrontation which they did after being advised by Rove and Schueneman. Moyers leads off mis-framing the whole situation which surprises me because normally he's a bit more objective but his summary that begins this video is horse shit and amounts to propaganda. It really made me angry for him to be so wrong and act like these are just "given facts" when they are distortions.

Now back to the video which I hope improves.

[bjobotts]

4. Bush only president who wanted war, Happy about going to war.

Pat Robertson said Bush was on top of the world that day just before he was to announce shock and awe had begun. Has made no effort sense to try to prevent the killing or even give troops armor they needed before sending them in to die for him...not the country and not the constitution or the American people but for Bush/Cheney and Rove as America was in no imminent danger from Iraq and Iraq had no WMD's and had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 yet Bush convinced those kids that they were sacrificing for their country. They died for him not defending us from terrorism, murdering sociopath.

[mntleo2]

5. Russia, USA Hubris Is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!

....I did not just hear USA demonization. I heard that hubris is hubris when it comes to national leaders. Bush caused much of this with his own. But that Russia playing into it and using it, is also wrong from a planetary perspective because BOTH are selfishly causing mayhem among the innocents for their own gain. If the US does not heal themselves of our consumer fever, we WILL get sicker and well, in nature the weak and sick are food.

I think this man and Moyers are talking about something VERY important. Our families should live on what they make, not rely on credit to buy them more stuff. Our kids should no longer think it is cool to own $200.00 shoes. They should think it is cool that another part of their cities are getting cleaned up ~ and that they helped to do it. Our leaders should be talking about how to maintain our environment and sustain nature, not lament that the consumer index fell another quarter.

Shut OFF the stock market information. It affects us little, I have noticed. Who gives a crap about that except the rich anyway? Let THEM find it out their own way! I want to know about the news abroad, I want to hear about what the Senate discussed today. I want to know what happened in Waterloo Iowa when the crops came in and what that means for the food they produced that comes to my table. I want to participate in the conversations and actions about what people are doing around poverty in Detroit Michigan, so that I can work on similar solutions in Seattle. I want to hear about the Iraq war and how people are managing over there and what we can do to make it better. I want to know how the education system is doing in preparing the next generation to take over the world and what needs to be done in order to achieve that.

These are the types of things I want to know. Yes the sub-prime market is tanked and the Little People are hurting, thanks to a few rich guys who wanted to hoard more, that IS news. But then perhaps we need to get rid of our rich people. Let them go with Bu$h to Paraguay and leave us to fix the mess they left. I know it will never happen but it should.

Remember Radio Free Europe? I am more and more thinking somewhere we need more Radio Free America! I suspect then change would come.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[trthnd4jstc]

6. This Interview is essential! Thank you L. Coyote.

I have long stated many of the elements that Dr Bacevich has spoken. I very much appreciate his succinct arguments against the imperial presidency, and the consumer economy. We should be a producer economy, and all those who would argue against that have no clear idea how the wealth of a nation occurs. We are stronger when we are involved in Our Nations governance, and if we are involved in creating value. The Consumer Economy, and the Imperial Presidency Both Need To End!

[bjobotts]

7. Thomm Hartman at AAR has been saying this for years. Even givves solutions

[bjobotts]

8. We have the answers, it's implementing them that is blocked by the very wealthy

[bjobotts]

9. 30yrs of Regannomics have failed. Time to reign in corporate "personhood"

[bjobotts]

10. FDR describe exactly what they are and how they operate. These "economic royalists"

are destroying out nation through years of inherited wealth to the tune of Billions in lost revenues and outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing. The breaking up of monopolies (especially media), the return of Americas natural resources to Americans and the idea that corporations are allowed only as they serve the interests of the people and the nation and not just the few greedy people who own them...that they have a life span and are not allowed to grow in wealth and power for generations. Simple stuff but the "money party" which controls the leadership of both parties perpetuates itself through lobbyists to continue to promote the corporate agenda of maximizing profits.

In 1968 the difference in salary between a CEO and the workers of a company was 20-1...today (2008) it is 541-1. Think about that because that in itself pretty much says it all.

[L. Coyote]

12. Well stated. I'll call it 'building a sustainable democracy'

What is now happening is the destabilization of out democracy, and a land grab on public lands and more minerals.

[Erda]

11. Many years ago there was a song. . .

"You load 16 tons - what do ya get? Another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't ya call me 'cause I can't go: I owe my soul to the company store."

I think this point is missing in Mr. Bacevich's analysis. Many people are using credit just to stay afloat, not to buy expensive sneakers. Jobs have gone away for a lot of people. In a profit-driven global system those jobs will not return to the US because our wages are too high and the profit margin would be too low.

I believe the American people are willing to work hard and are tremendously innovative. What we need is a national program to create jobs that will put people back to work and create goods that we can export like what President Roosevelt did. Green energy, green vehicles and products, rebuilding our infrastructure, creating alternatives to petroleum-based products, home-heating systems that are not oil or gas dependent . . . all offer tremendous potential. We already know how to create vehicles that run on hydrogen, even on water . . .Our government is not putting the well-being of America first. Look at what happened to Rep. Bart Stupak's bill to regulate oil speculation which would have dropped oil prices by at least 30% in 30 days. The news media ignored it. It quietly died in the House. Then the "Handmaidens for the Oil Companies" as Nancy Pelosi put it, held their sham protest about drilling.

We are wasting trillion$ of dollars in war, trillion$ of our tax money or money that we are borrowing and will have to repay. This money is not being invested in our country. But it is making a few people very, very rich. What is really happening is that wealth is steadily being transferred from the middle class into the hands of a few. The result is the enslavement of the general population.

[L. Coyote]

13. Welcome to DU.

It is great to read a well-reasoned post instead of the standard snarky quip!

[Erda]

14. Thanks!