Comments on: Tom Friedman is Full of Suck

By: Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:20:43 +0000

What pisses me off most about Friedman’s idiocy is that the European Union itself is in no danger whatsoever of breaking up. None. Zero. It is here to stay, permanently as any political organization can be, up to and exceeding the stability of the United States (which looks kinda strained at the seams these days – I would not be astounded to see secession in another twenty years, either of one or more Red States protesting rule by colored people and liberals, or by Blue States sick of paying the bills for the Red States).

AT MOST, all that will happen is that the monetary union will be restructured. Its not going to go away, but having multiple sovereign nations tied to a single currency with no single central bank was a bad idea to start with, and everybody acknowledges that now – the question is how best to fix it, but fix it they will. Even if that means jettisoning Greece. But they won’t jettison Italy because it’s not in anybody’s interest to do that; Italy is too big. A big mess, but big.

I’ll leave the Arab side of the idiocy to people who know something about the Middle East – which would be somebody other than Friedman – but on the Euro end, he’s just plain flat wrong.

By: JS

JS — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:20:23 +0000

Holms: What you need to keep in mind about the (modern, Reagan-era) Republican party is that the whole point of the party is tax cuts for the wealthy, and secondarily deregulation for business interests. As you may have noticed in Congress the last four years, the GOP preferred to put up half a billion in Defense Cuts up rather than additional tax revenue in that whole ‘sequestration’ deal.

You may ask what about ending abortion? opening the Grand Canyon up to oil derricks? a constitutional amendment to protect the right of every citizen to own a bazooka? building a thousand-mile long wall along the Rio Grande? resigning from the United Nations?

All of those issues are Republican because they need more than the 1%-10% of White Males who either are filthy rich, or aspire to be. There’s lots of people voting against their self-interest because of these ‘social’ issues the Republicans flog every election. (They only got in trouble in states like Wisconsin and Ohio these last two years by actually trying to legislate their unpopular ideas into law.)

But if Romney loses, how does the GOP survive? If they seriously play for Hispanic votes, what do the Joe Arpaio Xenophobic White Republicans do? If they seriously play to narrow the gender gap, what do the Mike Huckabee Evangelical White Republicans do? If they play to the libertarian isolationist anti-war vote, what do the Dick Cheney Warmongering White Republicans do? And for that matter, If they play to the populist youth freedom/stoner/gay rights vote, what do the Rush Limbaugh Blowhard White Republicans do?

By: Cid

Cid — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:46:06 +0000

Who are the productive JY? I ask this as one who sees his nation dying, have we reached our zenith? Forgive the barb, but have we reached our Waterloo?

By: Holms

Holms — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:50:32 +0000

For my part, I still have no idea how the Republican millionaires managed to engage the sympathies of their constituents over this whole 1% vs 99% idea, when it is the republican states that have not only the lowest average incomes, not only the highest unemployment, but naturally also the highest poverty.

How the FUCK do these red voters not pick up on the fact that the leaders they KEEP VOTING FOR fucking hate them?

I honestly have no idea how such self-harming voting is even possible. It’s kind of like voting for a guy who promises that employers will gain the right to summarily execute their employees for shits and giggles.

Thinking about your republican plague gives me a headache.

By: Jody

Jody — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:13:29 +0000

I didn’t take it as a hatred of rich people. I took it as a hatred of an undeserving tool who gets paid way too much to make the 1% feel better about themselves.

People are so quick to defend wealth in America. Like, faster than they are to defend their own self-interest. What’s with that?

By: Cid

Cid — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:16:42 +0000

You seriously don’t like the rich, do you?

JY: Only the unproductive rich.

By: Jody

Jody — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:53:27 +0000

I demand salami poetry readings.

Srsly. I’ll need something to transition back to Beepo and Roadkill once Weapon Brown is over, and that sounds like a nice middle ground.

By: Miguel Angel Teran Mendez

Miguel Angel Teran Mendez — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:44:24 +0000

so ... this means no strip ... right? JY: I'M WORKIN' ON IT!! Can't I have a life outside of Weapon Brown?? I'm more than just musclebound men and explosions! Don't force me to post my salami poetry! (Yeah, salami. It's slam poetry about deli meats. It's something new...oh! But I suppose since it doesn't involve a cyborg you won't come down to the Proving Grounds coffee house at 8 pm this Friday to hear it, will you??)