Comments by "Matthew Ingerson" (@matthewingerson) on "Thom Hartmann Program"
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The oligarchy is certainly united, and one of their main goals is to divide the citizenry.
As long as the wealthy-class are able, they will utilize their wealth to:
1. Bribe politicians.
2. Corrupt the government.
3. Commandeer the economy.
4. Defund, destandardize, and deregulate public education, to dumb-down the working-class students.
5. Prop up the school-to-prison pipeline and the prison-industrial-complex, to continue the centuries-old institution of slave-labor.
6. Promote the police-state and military-industrial-complex, utilizing the worst and dumbest citizens (class-traitors) within the working-class to supervise and punish the better, smarter, and least-fortunate citizens within the working-class.
7. Collude with politicians, at local, state, and fed levels (I.E. via The American Legislative Exchange Council, and many organizations like it, funded by the Koch billionaires, and many other billionaires like them), to create more laws for working-class people to break, which means a greater chance that someone will break a law, which means more warm bodies to fill the beds of the for-profit prisons, jails, and work camps, which are owned by the wealthy-class oligarchs.
...I could go on.
But yes, I agree with the sentiment of your comment.
Jordan Chariton calls it the United Corporations of America. There's a flag and everything. Ha.
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His show is supposed to be a reciprocation of the right-wing radio-sphere. He is combating sensationalist theatrics with theatrical sensationalism.
I would argue: SOMETIMES Thom makes good points. But Thom's capitulation to the Democrat-party -- the same Democrat-party that capitulates to right-wing wealthy-class politics of the Republic-party -- is what weakens any of the good points Thom makes.
Of course, political-novices and the "blue-no-matter-who" crowd, who have no sense of class-consciousness, won't understand these complexities.
If one doesn't yet see that the wealthy-class has bought, sold, bribed and controls both Republic and Democrat parties, then one is still politically-asleep. This is why the smarter working-class folks in better countries laugh at America's working-class.
When you come to realize that Thom capitulates to the party that capitulates, then you'll start to question:
Is Thom a fool who doesn't understand that the Democrat-party is the left-leaning arm of the Republic-party?
OR
Is Thom a knave who knows that both parties are corrupt, but he pretends not to know because he benefits from the corruption?
I say the second one.
He doesn't care about the quality of his show, so long as he maintains a certain level of ignorant-viewers, preventing those viewers from realizing that the Democrat-party apparatus IS the Republic-party apparatus, all corrupted and controlled by the wealthy-class.
Thom's a millionaire, and an employer who profits off his employees' labor, by the way. To me, and true leftists, that makes Thom a member of the wealthy-class and, thus, a right-winger by international and historical standards.
Whether a fool or a knave, neither is anything to be proud of.
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Make it a law. Call it, "The Oath of Public Trust Breakers and Deceivers Act". (Haha -- The TOP BAD Act-- I hate it when lawmakers try to be cute with the names of laws, just so they can make an acronym, but that's what I did, and I hate myself for it.😊)
All Elected Representatives, Senators, Public Servants, Government Employees, Law Enforcement, Military, and probably some other folks, are considered as in positions of "Public Trust." They ALL shall take "The Oath of Public Trust."
Breaking "The Oath" shall be considered a felony offense, punishable by X-years. (I'm open to negotiations on that, but simply breaking "The Oath" should be deemed a felony by itself.)
So, yes, making untrue and inaccurate statements to the public citizens should be deemed a violation of The Oath.
But it should also be considered breaking The Oath by committing any other crimes -- such as assault, fraud, DWI, and any others -- while in a position of Public Trust.
And, obviously, anyone in a position of Public Trust who tries to cover up, hide, aid, and abet the violation of The Oath or the commission of any other crimes by any other person in a position of Public Trust does also violate The Oath themselves.
Additionally, any crimes that a person commits while in their position of Public Trust should be punished with penalties that are doubled from those imposed on private-citizens.
For example: if a private-citizen would get a penalty of one year in jail and a ten-thousand dollar fine for an infraction, then the people in positions of Public Trust should get two years and a twenty-thousand dollar fine.
And I would go even further with the law.
Once a person has violated the Oath, they can never again hold a position of Public Trust.
Now, here's where I might lose some folks, if I haven't lost them already.
If a person is found guilty of breaking The Oath and violating the Public Trust, that person shall complete their sentences, and then spend X-number of years on probation, during which time they shall be committed to doing the jobs in the community which are, shall we say, less than desirable. (In agrarian societies, those jobs would be sh!te-shoveler or outhouse-emptiier -- those are very official titles by the way.)
A law like that would stop some, but not all, crooks, cheats, and lairs from even trying to obtain positions of Public Trust, and it would reduce the number of people who ARE in positions of Public Trust from accepting the bribery of crooks, cheats, and liars.
I don't think we solved the world's problems, but it puts some of the problems and their facilitators on notice.
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They are victims of personal traumas, just like the rest of us, and they have addictions to mitigate those traumas, just like the rest of us. Their drugs of choice are materialism, social-status, easy-living, and power. They need rehabilitation.
If we rehabilitate the rich in the same way they promote the 'rehabilitation' of the poor and working-class, then the rich will be spending a lot of time in cages, which will do little to no good. Caging humans is just another form of trauma that leads to further addiction.
Breaking the cycles of trauma>addiction>punishment>trauma>addiction>punishment>trauma could help the rich and poor alike.
Don't allow anyone to become rich and powerful. Then no one can become addicted to it.
Don't tolerate anyone falling to poverty and powerlessness. Then no one can be traumatized by it.
Don't allow private schools. Educate all people equally to ingrain an actual common-sense within society.
Don't allow children to be traumatized by parents, guardians, teachers, or other children. Then they will be less likely to grow up to become substance-addicts who then pass their traumas on to the rest of society and the next generation.
That might be a good start.
Then as a society, we could concentrate on the real bad-apples whom we wouldn't incarcerate but instead try to rehabilitate.
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If he's violent, then leave him.
If he's not violent now, then it's only a matter of time before he becomes violent.
He's ripe for being talked into violence via the instigating and enabling rhetoric of the wealthy-class, right-wing extremists.
The wealthy-class leadership of the RNC and DNC are both apart of that right-wing extremism.
Right-wing economics is, by practice, supportive of the wealthy-class and detrimental to the lower-classes.
The RNC leadership promotes the extremist right-wing politics of economic and social issues, and the DNC leadership is the paid opposition who pretends to fight back.
The only difference between the leadership of the RNC and DNC is the rhetoric they use. Both parties are pro-war, pro-big business, pro-wealthy, pro-corporate socialism, and pro-voter suppression.
I could go on.
Do yourself and family a favor.
Leave. Him.
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Vote for wealthy-class, right-wing Republicans for the fast-road to fascism.
Vote for wealthy-class, right-wing Democrats for the slow-road to fascism.
Both parties are bought, owned, bribed, and controlled by wealthy-class right-wingers.
The anti-working-class, right-wing SCOTUS decisions over the last 50 years -- decisions that legalized bribes by calling them "donations," claimed that corporate legal-entities are "people," and money is "speech" -- are cases that have allowed BOTH political parties to become corrupted by wealthy-class right-wingers.
Educate yourself about working-class versus wealthy-class politics.
Right-wing politics are wealthy-class politics.
Wealthy-class politics are capitalist politics.
Capitalist politics are corporatist politics.
Corporatist politics are fascist politics.
Fascist politics are authoritarian politics.
Authoritarian politics are minority-rule politics.
Minority-rule (mob-rule) politics are right-wing politics.
Both the Repubocrats and the Demlicans are right-wing political parties. The leadership of both parties are members of the wealthy-class. Pelosi, McCarthy, Schumer, McConnell, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden are ALL are members of the wealthy-class. All are members of the right-wing.
In contrast:
Left-wing politics are working-class politics.
Working-class politics are collectivist politics.
Collectivist politics are community politics.
Community politics are cooperative politics.
Cooperative politics are democratized politics.
Democratized politics are majority-rule politics.
Majority-rule politics are left-wing politics.
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Democracy in the workplace is probably a point of contention between left-wing Wolff and right-wing Hartmann.
Hartmann has owned and operated many businesses across the country (including the show-business he is hosting right now). Hartmann became wealthy by selling those other businesses out from under his old employees. Hartmann wouldn't have been able to do that to his past employees if they had democracy in the workplace. So, it's likely that Hartmann doesn't believe in democracy in the workplace, or Wolff would probably mention the concept.
At best, Hartmann is a moderate right-wing fool. He understands the monetary value that Wolff's presence brings to the show and is happy to keep the profits. And while Hartmann claims to hate right-wing neoliberalism, he is NOT capable of seeing how greatly he benefits from it and how much his benefits result in other people's suffering.
At worst, Hartmann is an extremist right-wing knave (like most business owners). He does this show as a propagandist grift, just like other right-wingers. And while Hartmann claims to hate right-wing neoliberalism, he truly loves it because he really IS capable of seeing how greatly he benefits from right-wing neoliberalism and he actually DOES understand how much his benefits result in other people's suffering, but he pretends not to know.
Whatever Hartmann is, it seems as if Wolff is not allowed to say whatever he wants to say on this show, and only comes on this show to do the best he can with what he's got.
Whether Hartmann is a fool or a knave, there's no way to be sure, and nothing can be done to stop him. But I only watch Hartmann's show to see how the white, wealthy-class, moderate right-winger thinks.
Of course, if Hartmann saw this comment, he would refute it, or he would remain silent and use it as an idea to try to extract some future value out of Wolff by having Wolff discuss democracy in the workplace in the future.
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@Traveller
"One can only hope that Trump's supporters are more loyal to this nation than to a traitor."
Think of it from the 'fools and knaves' perspective.
Knaves are elitist, wealthy-class fraudsters. They are traitors, not just to the country and to the people, but to the civility and equality as well.
Fools are the most ignorant and most easily persuadable among us. They are perfect puppets for the knaves.
The knaves are only in this country to make the greatest amounts of money and profits, under the least amount of regulation possible. The knaves are loyal to the corrupted-ideals of this nation. These corrupted-ideals allow the elitist, wealthy-class knaves to make massive amounts of money and profits off the backs and at the expense of the working-class and the poor-class.
The knaves would sell their own mothers and Donald Trump in order to increase their own wealth and keep up their easy standards of living. The same way that Donald Trump would sell his own mother in order to increase his own wealth and keep up his easy standard of living.
The fools, on the other hand, have been duped by the knaves like Donald Trump, but the fools are too stupid to see it. The fools have been tricked and co-opted by the knaves to blame the weakest among us. The fools have been tricked into blaming their own neighbors and fellow citizens who are in the same working middle-class and poor-class as they are. The knaves have gotten the fools to blame immigrants, minorities, and anyone who doesn't look like them. The knaves have gotten the fools to blame anyone who doesn't think in the same faulty ways in which the fools think.
The fools have also been duped into blaming a specific portion of the news media, rather than blaming the corrupt, wealthy-class, elitist knaves who produce, own, and operate a majority of the news media.
In this order, the fools blame:
(1) The poor, the weak, or anyone different than themselves
(2) The news-media journalists and the talking-head pundits whom the knaves have told the fools to blame.
(3) The government (which is supposed to be 'of the people, by the people, and for the people' -- which was bought and corrupted by the wealthy-knaves a long time ago).
The fools are unable to blame the wealthy-class knaves who are responsible for this unequal system whereby the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The fools are simply too ignorant to direct blame in the correct direction.
The knaves -- the most abhorrent people in the country -- such as Donald Trump and the people in his elitist economic class are surely a force to be reckoned with. But they will remain non-violent toward the majority of the citizenry as long as the economic and political systems are upheld in their favor. But when they feel their grasp slipping, they will likely incite violence here while fleeing to the next best country to produce profits and hoard money at the expense of the working-class and the poor-class.
The fools -- the most ignorant people in the country -- are also a force to be reckoned with. They are simply dumb enough to place blame, and take out their ignorant-angst, on the wrong people. They will take their economic-fueled aggressions out on anyone the knaves tell them to.
Elitist-knaves like Donald Trump might sell their own mothers and neighbors, but ignorant-fools will kill their own mothers and neighbors.
If you're afraid of predictable slavery, then elitist-knave traitors should be your greatest worry.
If you're afraid of unpredictable death, then ignorant-fool traitors should be your greatest worry.
This is just my opinion, based on my non-expert understanding of history, economics, politics, psychology, and sociology.
I hope I'm wrong.
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Diane Ravitch and Jonathan Kozol are a couple of authors who have written on this subject. I'm sure there are other valid authors on this topic, and I would be happy to know of them if you have any suggestions.
My brief, non-professional point of view is as follows:
Lower-class kids go to defunded and destandardized public schools. Those kids are cultivated to become good-soldiers and obedient-workers, and, if they're unlucky, subservient prison-slaves.
Wealthy-class kids go to over-funded and deregulated private schools. Those kids are coddled to become human-manipulators and labor-exploiters, and, if they're lucky, demanding-sociopaths.
(Disclaimer: I understand that my explanation is a broadly-brushed verbal-painting that isn't representative of the entire educational-canvas nor every education-institution. Just most of them.)
This dual education-structure is a means to continue the division between people -- to maintain the hierarchical systems of class and caste -- in which the wealthy-class minority continues to rule and reign over the working-class majority.
By separating and segregating citizens, it serves to keep the working-class majority in constant competition against each other -- elbowing side-to-side at the people who they have the most in common with, kicking down at the least-fortunate in society -- fighting for the falling crumbs from the master's tables.
Many people in American society want to gripe about the lack of "common sense" within society, but I find that most of those people don't seem to have an explanation for how to achieve or maintain common sense.
I would argue that a basis for common sense can be found in the pursuit of common goals. Those common goals should be achieved by the utilization of common knowledge. That common knowledge should be obtained by a common education. That common education should be taught by common teachers who teach common lessons, learned by common children who attend common schools.
But again, I'm no professional.
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@Randy R Randelson -- You're right. It's a weird world. But, I think your skepticism isn't just warranted. It's reasonable!
I would like not to be skeptical. But, knowing what I know about socio-economic politics in historical and international contexts, I'm well beyond skeptical.
According to Wikipedia (a right-wing source, like most American "news" sources), the ownership of Vice Media is as follows:
Shane Smith (20%)
The Walt Disney Company (16%)
A&E Networks (20%)
TPG Capital (44%)
Soros Fund Management (10%)
James Murdoch (minority stake)
That entire list of owners are members of the wealthy-class.
Wealthy-class politics are right-wing politics. (That statement isn't my opinion. It is the internationally accepted way in which economics and sociology professionals discuss socio-economic politics; I.E., right-wing politics are wealthy-class politics, and left-wing politics are working-class politics.)
That entire list of wealthy-class owners benefits from right-wing economic politics/policies.
This video was about the Proud Boys -- a right-wing organization founded by right-winger Gavin McInnes.
The guest in the video, Tess, works for Vice Media -- a right-wing organization also founded by right-winger Gavin.McInnes.
The outlet Tess works for, Vice Media, is now owned by wealthy-class right-wingers, and, thus, Tess is paid by wealthy-class right-wingers.
And, while Tess may not be corrupt herself, the wealthy-class people who pay her are.
Those wealthy-class people -- the ones who pay Tess -- get to decide what kind of stories are researched and written, and they decide which get printed as articles.
Tess wouldn't have been able to write the right-wing expose` without the consent of the right-wingers who pay her. Now, if that isn't suspect...
Moving on...
Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, a right-winger, has been outed as a gov't informant who was given a good deal of freedom to act in the best interests of right-wing politics -- and let's not forget, right-wing politics are wealthy-class politics.
Internationally and historically speaking, both U.S. political parties are right-wing political parties. In other, better countries -- where they have actual freedom of political-choice -- American Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats would all be right-wing political parties. They would either be one big-tent political party or member-parties of a coalition.
Thus, it does not & would not matter which party Tarrio is or was part of. His actions have been to the benefit of the wealthy-class right-wingers and a detriment to the working-class.
One of the reasons that the working-class in other, better countries laugh at the working-class in the U.S. is because the U.S. is governed by two right-wing parties, both of which are bought, owned, bribed, and controlled by the wealthy-class.
The working-class majority in other, better countries -- where they understand working-class solidarity and real left-wing politics -- wonder how the American working-class majority could become so stupid as to allow themselves to be governed by two right-wing parties controlled by the wealthy-class minority.
Perhaps you're correct; Vice Media now is different than Vice Media back then. But the right-wingers who control it are the same now as they've always been.
I wish I were smarter so I could better explain what I know.
But, I'm not worried. Because realizing the intertwined corruption of both American political parties, the media, corporations, and the wealthy-class is like watching a film or reading a book in the crime-genre.
Once you see the criminals, you can't unsee them.
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