Welcome to The Now

 

 

 

 If the cave on the shutdown didn't answer that question, let Kshama Sawant (and others from Workers Strike Back) explain:

  Will someone please think of the Centrists ? After months of wrestling with the decision of whether to run for reelection for a third term in the swing state of Michigan, Sen. Gary Peters took a pass. At a moment when Senate Democrats are grappling with how to win back voters they lost to Trump in 2024, Peters was the first of at least three Senate Democrats who have opted against running for another term in the Senate, citing in part the changes to a body that used to be much easier to make deals in. “I will say, over these last few years, it gets harder every single year,” Peters said in an interview in his Washington office last week. “The middle is disappearing.” The retirements of the three Democratic senators – Peters of Michigan, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire – illustrate the challenges Democrats face out of power. They also reflect the broader problems of the institution, which had already grown less collegial and productive even before it al...

 

 

 The guy pulls no punches, but sometimes that's what it takes:

 Can't think of another way to explain this.

The biggest problem with the current two-party system in the United States is that the tribalism between supporting either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party overshadows any energy focused on improving the lives of average Americans. There are countless groups, clubs, organizations and movements that have come and gone (and some are still around in some form or another) where the goal was to improve the quality of life in some way: helping people find good jobs, exposing corruption, taking care of the sick, etc. Too many of them fell into the trap of, "Do you support the Donkey or the Elephant?" which depending on the answer, alienated them from a whole section of people (thanks mostly to the media).  This is encouraged by the two major parties. The division helps keep them both close to power; all one party has to do is wait for the other to screw up (which is inevitable) and then the party that's not in power promises to make things better if they get elected....

Yikes.

It's a shame really . Let's help him out !

If you have a house, car, TV and/or VCR then apparently you should not complain about your financial hardships. Of course, without a job that can pay for that house and car -not to mention food and medical care- you'll probably lose all four, and that's not even getting into couples and families who have other expenses. Oh, yeah, and there's also the fact that the housing crisis -the one that many of the banks these guys are protesting were major players in- put a lot of people out of their homes.

From a recently well-received summer movie : CIA Director McCone : The law says we've got to turn her over. William Stryker Sr. : The law applies to human beings. The same laws don't apply to mutants. They're too dangerous. In times like this, security is important than liberty. There is a war coming, John. William Stryker Sr. : Yes, but a war with who? Emma Frost : [ gets up, walks towards them, cuts a circle in the glass and looks at them through the hole ] Excellent question. Though I wouldn't call it a war, exactly. That suggests both sides stand an equal chance of winning . And on that note, I give you Jon Perr's " Republicans Rush to Defend Winners of the Class War ." It's a piece worth reading, especially in light of all of this "Class Warfare" nonsense. I mean, can a conflict between the 1% of the country who holds like 95% of the wealth and the 99% who holds the other 5% really be considered a fair fight; especially when some of...

For those who like to blame Clinton, Bush or Obama, well... the truth will surprise you .

( Via ) when you look at this chart, it's pretty clear where the battle lines are. Also, Micheal Moore let's Madison (and America) know what the deal is:

But most of you knew that already. Anyway, here are some depressing charts and graphs . Props to one of the posters over at DU . P.S. a one DUer pointed out, this isn't the freshest data. Still, I'd be stupid to think any of this has turned around drastically, considering how Republicans have decided to obstruct just about everything President Obama's been doing; not to mention that most elected officials are closer to the Top 1% then the Bottom 50% (both financially and politically).

TPM Election Central has the details .