Stephanie Miller said, "If my aunt had a dick, she'd be my uncle." In fact, Miller repeatedly said crude, profane things -- up to a point where I and others were annoyed by her disruptions. She was drinking wine and offered some to others. Was she drunk?
Norman Goldman said that Hillary would have been another corporate Dem. Yes, she would have fought harder, but she would have fought for the wrong things. We have to stand by the choices that we make.
Dennis Kucinich pointed out that a huge number of Tea Party congressman voted against funding the war in Libya. We need to build some coalitions on separate issues and forget about labels and parties. Forget finding someone who agrees with you on every issue. With 50% of discretionary spending devoted to the Pentagon, we need to be flexible about ending it.
Why isn't ending the wars part of the debt ceiling debate?
Ron Reagan: We're a military empire. It never works out. Just ask the British, the Spanish, the Dutch, etc.
Peter Papantonio (I think) said: We're all victims of multi-conglomerates, who are like occupiers: they extract as much as they can (resources, labor) and move on. We're targets of multi-conglomerates' imperialism. They take away labor, resources, regulations, infrastructure..
Kucinich said: yes, but we don't become victims unless we buy into it. (??? I don't think that's correct.) We need to break through fear. Get past militarization of thought. Get over us versus them.
Norman Goldman (whom I like!) said we need to concentrate on simple messages:
- Downsize the empire. We spend $1 trillion a year on military.
- Tax fairness
- End corporate welfare
With simple sound-bites like this, separate from party labels, we'll get 80% of the public support.
Stephanie Miller said: I got new batteries in my vibrator, so I got a second wind. (!!)
Kucinich said that trade is a race to the bottom. Trade agreements ship jobs overseas and weaken labor, environmental, and health standards.
Corporations invest in candidates. We got to check that the candidates we support actually support the issues we want. (I thought Obama would support more progressive issues.)
Mike Malloy said that we have to take the voting system away from the corporations. They count our votes. Our voting system has been privatized. Until we fix that, we're screwed. (Yep.) Go back to paper ballots.
Asked what his dad would think of the current GOP, Ron Reagan, Jr. said that his dad would be more like Obama (a centrist) than like most of the GOP. Though he disagreed with many of his father's positions, he's certain that his father would not have supported torture. He did agree to raise taxes. On gays in the military, his dad would say "You don't have to be straight. You just have to shoot straight."
How much damage did President Reagan do? Norman Goldman asked an expert about this in 1982. The expert said: the damage that you can't see (judges, rules, money) is immense. Over the past 30 years, the GOP has radically altered power in Washington, especially in the courts and agencies. Even if we want to pass progressive legislation, it won't be enforceable.
Mike Papantonio said that he recalls an interview with Karl Rove that appeared in The New Yorker. Rove said that his top priorities were to destroy the labor movement and the justice system. And he wanted to create fear. Rove succeeded at getting judges to nullify our issues. We read the newspaper only above the fold; what's hidden is more important.
(originally published at Washington Liberals)
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