Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Republicans don’t trust women.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Come on, man.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Let’s finish the job.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

We still have time to mess this up!

Second rate reporter says what?

He really is that stupid.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Dylan Ratigan Is Shrill

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  6. 6.

    Cat Lady

    He’s right in his diagnosis, but not in the cure. He’s just another clown who thinks Obama needs to use the bully pulpit, but missing in the rant, yet again, is media culpability. I guess hearing him on a real cable news show calling out the financial systems and the bought Congress is a baby step, but “MOAR BULLY PULPIT” is a useless prescription without acknowledging the FAIL media’s role as the third leg of the corrupt financial/political/media stool. He’s good at making himself heard though, I’ll give him that.

  8. 8.

    jheartney

    Post Civil War Reconstruction is an example of handling a problem correctly? Really?

    Ratigan seems to be in the school of “If only the president would make a super-duper speech then all our problems would be solved!” He says Obama should come out and say that the Congress is bought off, but it doesn’t seem to occur to Ratigan that the president gets his campaigns financed from exactly the same pool of donors as the Congress. He’s unclear on how much domestic political authority the president has to unilaterally initiate spending programs (hint: none), and he seems to think that the problem with the economy comes from businesses being unable to borrow, rather than from a lack of demand.

    If you want to argue that money has too much influence in politics, I’m not disagreeing, but I think you need to understand that so long as you have massive wealth disparities then all that accumulated money is going to find a way to create influence. The base of the problem is the wealth disparity, not the particulars of campaign finance.

    Ratigan does rant nicely, though.

  9. 9.

    opie jeanne

    Maybe I missed this during the rant, but where does this money he mentions to fund this new bank, where does this re-patriated off-shore money come from, exactly?

  10. 10.

    Poopyman

    @eastriver: A prime time slot? This is the kind of talk that makes the corporate suits nervous. Might have had a talking-to already. Wonder what he’ll say today?

  12. 12.

    Anya

    Why is he screaming? Can he not make his point without screaming? I feel sorry for this guy’s wife and kids, if he has any.

  13. 13.

    Xenos

    Short of the arrest and indefinite detainment of at least five supreme court judges, this can never happen. This would absolutely require a president with dictatorial powers.

    That is why we are so thoroughly screwed – the cure is worse than the disease.

  14. 14.

    artem1s

    @Cat Lady:

    “MOAR BULLY PULPIT” is a useless prescription without acknowledging the FAIL media’s role as the third leg of the corrupt financial/political/media stool.

    and SCOTUS who keeps confirming that money=speech. The people with the money are paying to elect the people who confirm the judges.

  15. 15.

    Strandedvandal

    @Anya: Haven’t you heard? Screaming is how you show you are serious now. Reasoned discourse just means you aren’t fighting hard enough. If only he had banged his shoe on the table…

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    More and more, while I appreciate Mr. Lincoln’s humanist desire to forgive and forget, I’ve come to realize that with some assholes, that does not work.

    Like Confederates in general. At least a few of them should have been made examples of. Jefferson Davis, for sure.

  17. 17.

    blahblahblah

    Nice rant, but expecting Obama to do anything more than suck Wall Street and Fortune 500 cock requires equal cognitive dissonance as expecting Republicans to negotiate with the opposing party in good faith. There’s nothing but bad faith all around.

  18. 18.

    FlipYrWhig

    @opie jeanne:

    Maybe I missed this during the rant, but where does this money he mentions to fund this new bank, where does this re-patriated off-shore money come from, exactly?

    I think Martin has been making a case for a similar course of action (repatriating earnings, subject to certain conditions) in comments here for a while. Maybe he knows…

  19. 19.

    Three-nineteen

    So what is this non-corrupt government bank supposed to do? And how does it keep big banks from paying off politicians/

  23. 23.

    matt

    if the president did give a speech as he suggests, the American people wouldn’t understand the problem. They’d be told by the media that he was crazy.

  24. 24.

    RalfW

    Repatriating offshore income is a novel idea – but I don’t see it happening.

    The effective tax rates on the rich in this country are a joke. C-suite salaries will continue to be 300X worker pay as long as those greedy bastards get to keep nearly all of it, and their companies get to write off the expense for a tax deduction to boot.

    The fundamental question is: as the US finishes the move to being a viciously income-stratified nation with a massive underclass, can the coming fascism keep the masses contained?

    Another option is mildly progressive taxation that takes a globally-average percent of GDP. But that is rampant soshulizm and class warfare, so ‘sorry pardner.’

  25. 25.

    shano

    I love this. So when are the progressives going to make this their cause and when is it going to go viral on the main stream media like the rant of Rick Santelli!?

  26. 26.

    Marcus

    @jheartney: Very astute observation….now whats the plan to redistribute this wealth and recalibrate this inequality….who will cross the Rubicon?

  28. 28.

    beltane

    So what? Another millionaire media whore providing a moment of catharsis for frustrated people thinking it will make a difference. I’ll admit is an entertaining bit of distraction though.

  30. 30.

    Cat Lady

    I wanted to hear where the lady in the blue dress wanted to go with her “then what?” question, after President Bartlet Obama gives his “cut the crap” speech cuz that’s where the media criticism needs to happen. As we all know, the president doesn’t mean what he says, and only means what he doesn’t say. Just ask Romney, which of course they would. The panel analyzing this Teddy Roosevelt-esque speech would be Alex Castellanos, David Gergen and Gloria Borger, with Mitt Romney’s spokesperson and Matt Drudge’s BFF.

    Until there are cable talkers on my TV conducting an honest self-aware analysis of how thoroughly they’ve contributed to the cock-up that is the current state of the affairs in this country, they can all STFU, and then DIAF.

  32. 32.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Anya: APPARENTLY, YOU CLUELESS IDIOT. SCREAMING AT YOUR ENEMIES IS THE ONLY WAY TO COMMUNICATE. IF YOU’D PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS, YOU’D KNOW THIS. STAND UP, TAKE CHARGE AND SMELL THE COFFEE. REASONABLE DISCOURSE IS FOR LOSERS.

  34. 34.

    Strandedvandal

    @Anya: I think it all started being mainstream with Springer, Dr. Laura, Judge Judy, Nancy Grace, it jumped with “You Lie” to the political theater.

  35. 35.

    becca

    @artem1s: The Roberts Court is Bush’s everlasting legacy. A multi-national corporation ace up the sleeve.

    Isn’t Roberts the youngest CJ ever? Clever, that chimp.

  38. 38.

    John X.

    Anya,

    It became acceptable to browbeat and shout at people in 1776, when the United States rebelled and tarred and feathered the local Loyalists. We’re living in history now, not middle-class fantasy land where everyone is judged on their decorum and table manners.

    If you are scared of the shouting, wait until the riots start.

  40. 40.

    John X.

    Balloon Juice – where we’d rather lose politely than win loudly.

    Or Balloon Juice – where former Republicans go to hide.

  42. 42.

    Rob

    He’s not shrill. He’s just pissed off. And right. And anybody who isn’t as pissed off as he is must be brain dead or soul-less. Being turned off at Ratigan because he’s foaming at the mouth angry doesn’t take away from his argument that both parties, in collusion with (or in obedience to) multi-national banks and corporations are screwing us over on a daily basis.
    I welcome Ratigan’s anger and I want to see a hell of a lot more of it on the liberal side.

  43. 43.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Yeah, Dylan, the common sense approach always works. Except when the people you have to convince are half-bright atavists who believe we need to “get back to the Constitution” because … well, because we’re America. If the common sense approach worked the country wouldn’t be in this effing mess.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    I said this on the FB posting of this, but Dylan Bleeding Ratigan is the media whore with a microphone. It’s his damn job to keep saying this stuff. You don’t change people’s minds by whining about the RW talking points, you do it by hitting them over the head with your own. Well, maybe not hitting. Gently sledgehammering.

  46. 46.

    wrb

    Unfortunately we have a series of Supreme Court decisions, culminating in Citizens United, that turn Ratigan’s appealing prescription into nothing but venting gas.

    I remember thinking at the start of the Clinton presidency that the time was ripe for real campaign reform, and he should have refused to do anything until it passed. Now, I don’t see how without replacing a bunch of supremes.

  47. 47.

    Martin

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I think Martin has been making a case for a similar course of action (repatriating earnings, subject to certain conditions) in comments here for a while. Maybe he knows…

    Yeah. Repatriated money typically gets taxed at the full rate – 35%. If it’s not repatriated, it’s not taxed at all, so what’s the incentive to do it unless you need it in the US for something you can’t do overseas? And, well, almost everything short of infrastructure and domestic retail can be done overseas for less than 135% of what it would cost to do in the US. So there’s between $600B and $1T in corporate cash held overseas by US companies.

    In 2004 we had a repatriation holiday, so the companies brought cash back and either bought back stock or gave investors big dividends. Well, that’s fucking useless for the economy, so I’m proposing something which is basically the HIRE Act but rather than exempt payroll taxes, we’d exempt corporate income taxes on repatriated dollars. There’s about a zillion loopholes there that need to be addressed, but rather than a $13B program like HIRE, it’d potentially be a $200B program (35% of $600B) if everyone took advantage of it. Further, it could be expanded to other things, like domestic construction – basically things that would require domestic hiring. We’re not getting these taxes now, so there’s no actual cost to the program.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    I should add, I don’t think it’d have a big effect on employment, but honestly, why are we leaving solutions on the table? We should be throwing the kitchen sink at the problem, and there’s a freebie not being utilized.

  50. 50.

    Davis X. Machina

    @John X.:

    If you are scared of the shouting, wait until the riots start.

    I’ve never yet. seen a castle stormed by peasants with a pitchfork in one hand and a Wii remote in the other.

  51. 51.

    Chris Andersen

    The Dem consultant wasn’t allowed to complete her point to Ratigan. She asked him what Obama should do. Ratigan said give a speech asking the people to dump Congress. She asked what happens then? He said you create an investment bank (blah blah blah).

    Of course, that’s a great idea. But Obama can’t create an investment bank. *CONGRESS* has to create an investment bank. The very same Congress that Ratigan says Obama should campaign against. How, exactly, is Obama supposed to get an investment bank through an institution that he then goes out and *runs against*?

    This is the problem with the “bank the podium” strategy: it is based on a mythical conception that banging the podium will cause the people to rise up and the Congress will just respond automatically to that kind of pressure. But that only happens in the movies.

    He pointed to Teddy Roosevelt as an example, but Roosevelt knew how to twist the arms of Congress behind the scenes. He knew how to compromise as well. But the “bang the podium” crowd thinks that compromise is the root of the problem.

    Nothing gets done without compromise. At least, nothing in a Democracy.

  52. 52.

    Elie

    @Rob:

    Man, all we hear everyday is anger. There is no lack of screaming. Its in our entertainment, the blogs — everywhere!

    Anger is cheap and gets you nothing unless the fix for the reason to be angry is addressed. Unfortunately, the fix is pretty damned hard and requires consorting with bonehead morans and crazy people. This leaves the solution difficult to achieve and requiring all sorts of arcane procedural techniques to accomplish — such as the kicking the can down the road and other techniques. You end up having to use those, as Obama and the Democrats did, because they had to find a way to help the Republicans crawl out of the corner they had painted themselves into to get them to agree to raise the ceiling.

    I hate it when people don’t pay attention and over simplify what a successful solution would entail…its the biggest damned cop out! Like the person who turns over the table during the chess game because they can’t capture the other guy’s Queen in two moves.

    My message to those folks is to stop knocking over the furniture and sit down and try to figure out solutions for a change. Losing control and screaming is a waste of time and the act of people who do not have tools to do the real problem solving. Dylan is just a talking head. He can rant all he wants. Thank God he has nothing to do with any real problem solving. He should not, indeed must not, be emulated by serious problem solvers. Period.

  53. 53.

    RalfW

    @Anya: Yes.

    I’d say about the time Billo became the highest rated show on Fux, browbeating became the new conversing.

  54. 54.

    bkny

    that’s his schtick, unfortunately. he’s far too enamored by his own voice to be effective. apparently, killerjoe mocked him on his program this morning…

    but it was funny to see the msnbc lessers come onto set to see what all the screaming was about…

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    That was pretty fun. Loved it when token Republican blondie piped up it’s all the preznit’s fault so she can collect her next check.

    Did not hear anybody opine how one “takes the money out of politics” after Citizens United.

  56. 56.

    wrb

    @Martin:

    I should add, I don’t think it’d have a big effect on employment

    It might be possible to structure it so that it had a good impact. Tie the amount that may be repatriated tax-free to increases in payroll or infrastructure construction, for example.

    It is an interesting idea.

  57. 57.

    Chris Andersen

    BTW, I’m not dismissive of Ratigan because he is angry. We are all angry. But I am tired of those who think that all you have to do is “get mad” and the rest will take care of itself. Getting mad is just the first of a LOOOOONG series of steps, many of them tiring, many of them morally compromising, that ultimately leads to real change.

    But the “bang the podium” crowd get nothing but more angry when the LOOOONG process takes to long and is so hard. Ultimately, they just want a dictator who will step in and “make it happen”. Just so long as they always do what they say.

    George W. Bush was right. It would be a lot easier if there was a dictator, just so long as I am dictator.

  58. 58.

    JC

    The diagnosis is correct, however. Money in politics corrupts.

    Like I’ve said, federally financed elections. It’s the only way things will actually change. Money is the root of all evil here, and money has so distorted incentives, as to make any progress impossible.

    Obviously Obama is better than any Rethug on this, but, he and the Democratic party also need to suck at the financial money teat, so, they put small limits on what these elites can do, and call it a big win.

    Problem is, Supreme Court, of course.

  59. 59.

    Comrade Luke

    I agree with what he’s saying, but why would the president do anything when he’s bought by the same people?

    Interesting discussion, but ultimately very naïve.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    @wrb:

    Tie the amount that may be repatriated tax free to increases in payroll or infrastructure construction, for example.

    I think the problem is that some companies that have a lot of cash to repatriate also have a lot of already taxed cash sitting around domestically. If they aren’t using that money now, is the 35% tax break a good enough incentive to do this? Probably not. I don’t know how much of that cash pool would be impacted, but I know of a few companies that fall in that category.

  62. 62.

    Chris Andersen

    “if the president did give a speech as he suggests, the American people wouldn’t understand the problem. They’d be told by the media that he was crazy.”

    Worse. He’d be characterized as an angry black man.

  63. 63.

    John X.

    Yeah, no one with a video game console riots. Cause they sure as fuck don’t have those things in London.

  64. 64.

    freelancer

    @Chris Andersen:

    Yeah, about that…

    I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.
    __
    We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
    __
    We all know things are bad — worse than bad — they’re crazy.
    __
    It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”
    __
    Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.
    __
    I want you to get mad!
    __
    I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
    __
    All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.
    __
    You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”

  65. 65.

    Kane

    Congress is incapable of making legislation on healthcare, banking, trade, or taxes because if they do it, they will lose their political funding and they won’t do it.

    Um, Dylan, there actually was legislatio­n passed on healthcare­, banking, trade, and taxes.

    Still, you want President Obama to refuse to work with Congress at a time when the country is facing enormous challenges­. Your recommenda­tion is for the president to feign outrage, declare that he’s going to magically fix Congress, while at the same time abandon any attempt to actually pass viable legislatio­n that addresses our problems. Do nothing. No wonder this guy is paid the big bucks.

  66. 66.

    RalfW

    @John X.:

    If you are scared of the shouting, wait until the riots start.

    Which reminds me: the fucking media whores all seem to be buying the British Chamber of Commerce framing that their riots are caused by greedy hooligans.

    They’re correct, in that the greedy hooligans are responsible – but they work in banks and hedge funds and managed to bankrupt the gov’t coffers and impose the almighty and cleansing austerity.

    The mayor of London is telling the truth, that 20% young adult unemployment is the cause, but that is boring and lacks the “ohh, scary lawless thug” narrative that the news craves.

    The evil genius of the CoC is to be briefly admired, and then hated and halted.

  67. 67.

    cleek

    @JC:

    Like I’ve said, federally financed elections.

    won’t help.

    as long as we have a first amendment, you can’t stop me from running an ad telling the country that Bob Q Candidate’s policies will ruin America™ and make us Less Safe™.

  71. 71.

    Montysano

    @Davis X. Machina:

    I’ve never yet seen a castle stormed by peasants with a pitchfork in one hand and a Wii remote in the other.

    We have a winner!

    Edit: We ain’t England. Wish we were. Hope I’m wrong.

  72. 72.

    dan

    He’s loud? That’s what some of you are taking away from this? Wow, you are very sensitive. Go have a cup of chamomile.

  73. 73.

    wrb

    @Comrade Luke:

    I agree with what he’s saying, but why would the president do anything when he’s bought by the same people?

    There is a difference and you can see it in how the justices appointed by the different parties vote. Republican-appointed justices vote against restrictions on corporate donations, Democrats for them.

    Once Republicans got restrictions prohibited, then, yes Democrats have to seek the donations.

    But all Republicans fought for the creation of this situation, most Democrats against it.

  74. 74.

    Corner Stone

    @John X.:

    Or Balloon Juice – where former Republicans go to hide.

    Ha! So true.
    “Balloon Juice – where ‘Nothing can be done!'”
    “Balloon Juice – where chastened Republicans go to chide the uncivil.”

  80. 80.

    cleek

    @dan:
    this is a funny meme you’ve all agreed upon. insulting, sure. but nonsensical. was there a “tell em they’re all a bunch of pussies!” article in the Daily Firebagger this morning ?

  82. 82.

    BlizzardOfOz

    @jheartney: FDR created the New Deal and 15 million jobs via executive order. Obama has all the authority he needs, he just doesn’t want to use it for anything except bailing out his criminal Wall Street friends.

  83. 83.

    Elie

    @RalfW:

    There are always multiple perceptions about the truth…always have been and will…

    In a completely unrelated example, you hear stories of people who stay in their beachfront homes when a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane approaches cause “they always have” and their context of the world is and has never been of events and forces outside of their knowledge or control. Sometimes these folks get lucky again and maybe just get a little water damage. Other times, their homes and their bodies are never found again.

    People get so upset when either this or that group or person doesnt see a threat (or a positive thing) the way we do. We have to keep working but sooner or later, they have no choice but to see… the waves are breaking over their heads as their designer furniture floats out to sea.

  89. 89.

    Martin

    @BlizzardOfOz:

    FDR created the New Deal and 15 million jobs via executive order.

    Well, no. Congress gave him broad authority, which he then exercised to do those things. Obama has used similar authority under ARRA, but it was not remotely as broad as what Congress handed FDR.

  90. 90.

    Davis X. Machina

    @John X.: That’s not a revolution. That’s a boot sale, without any money changing hands.

    When members of the House of Lords start turning up hanging from lampposts on the Embankment, then I’ll get excited. Hell, even ordinary MP’s will do.

    Till then, not so much.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @RalfW:

    Nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to happen to change the monied from having the money. Name one time in history this has happened without revolution. And we won’t have a revolution in this country. No one is going to start one and if they tried the patriot act will be used to find them and smash them. Like bugs. I’d almost bet no one would even know they existed.

    Not enough people have nothing to lose. Nothing will change.

  92. 92.

    TK421

    @wrb:

    I agree with what he’s saying, but why would the president do anything when he’s bought by the same people?

    There is a difference

    Hilarious.

  94. 94.

    Cain

    I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Jake Tapper thinks Tunch is fat. Thanks Jake, thanks for dragging Tunch into washington politics

  95. 95.

    wrb

    @Ruckus:

    Nothing is going to happen. Nothing is going to happen to change the monied from having the money. Name one time in history this has happened without revolution.

    Then how did the 90% marginal income tax rate we used to have come to pass?

  96. 96.

    LittlePig

    Obama has used similar authority under ARRA, but it was not remotely as broad as what Congress handed FDR.

    He could still act, and to a considerable extent (granted not FDR level). Yes, it would lead to a Supreme Court challenge (not to mention impeachment), and yes, the Roberts court would strike it down. But Brand GOP would get a major shellacking even Chuck Toddler couldn’t spin away.

  98. 98.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @BlizzardOfOz:
    From Wikipedia:

    The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  99. 99.

    LittlePig

    When members of the House of Lords start turning up hanging from lampposts on the Embankment, then I’ll get excited. Hell, even ordinary MP’s will do.

    “A noble sentiment” – Micheleen og Flynn

  100. 100.

    eemom

    look, rants are cheap.

    Couple of weeks ago before the abomination passed Congress, when we were still tick tocking down to defaultmaggedon, I heard a speech by CA Congressman John Garamendi at a Moveon rally outside the Capitol, that I was impressed as hell by. He would enumerate each specific thing the republicans are trying to do to fuck us all over, followed each time by the passionate cry, “WE WILL NOT LET IT HAPPEN!!”

    Hell, so impressed was I that I even e-mailed Cole/DougJ to ask them to post it, even though I know Cole never gives hat tips. (He missed that day in Internet Traditions Awareness School, it seems.)

    Then I found out Garamendi voted FOR the Zillionaire Tax Protection deal.

    What’s that you say? He (like Obama) went along with it as the lesser evil to prevent an economic meltdown?? WHEW. Two melted-down weeks later, we sure can appreciate what a bullet we dodged!

    I am done being impressed with any rich asshole’s righteous rant, thank you very much.

    @cleek

    And that includes those with “House votes.”

  103. 103.

    Martin

    @LittlePig: Well, shit. If your solution is just ‘Obama should simply break the law’, then yeah, that opens up pretty much all possibilities, doesn’t it? Why not just use his CIC powers to have the navy turn back any cargo ship approaching US ports under the Patriot Act? That should do wonders for domestic manufacturing.

  104. 104.

    LittlePig

    your solution is just ‘Obama should simply break the law’, then yeah, that opens up pretty much all possibilities, doesn’t it?

    He’s breaking the law now with wiretaps and torture without consequences. Breaking the law doesn’t bother him anymore than it did the Chimp.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @BlizzardOfOz:

    FDR created the New Deal and 15 million jobs via executive order using the authority he was granted by Congress through legislation.

    Fix’d. But why let reality and facts get in the way of a good “Obama sux!” rant?

  106. 106.

    Martin

    @LittlePig:

    He’s breaking the law now in my imagination with wiretaps and torture without consequences.

    Sorry, had to fix that typo.

  107. 107.

    Comrade Luke

    @TK421:

    We need to form a support group :)

    ETA: BTW, at this point Supreme Court positions are the main reason I will still blindly vote Dem.

  109. 109.

    Montysano

    @Chris Andersen:

    And what happened to Howard Beale in the end?

    If I recall correctly, he led a glorious and successful revolution to wrest power from the hands of monied interests.

    But my memory isn’t what it used to be.

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    @jheartney:

    Post Civil War Reconstruction is an example of handling a problem correctly? Really?

    Well, as planned and originally implemented, it was. Trouble is, the ex-Confederates managed to convince the feds that everything was hunky-dory and Reconstruction should be ended early because they had it all under control.

    Sounds familiar, eh?

  113. 113.

    Neldob

    Maybe we need a hunger strike in DC. Other than that it’s write letters and get out the vote. A rotten tomato at the local Wells Fargo might help my mood, but the Dylan guy needs to lay off the coffee.

  114. 114.

    Martin

    @Montysano:

    But my memory isn’t what it used to be.

    Actually he went on to primary Jimmy Carter in the 1980 elections as the one true liberal hero.

  115. 115.

    trollhattan

    @Poopyman:

    @RalfW: Prolly started back in the 80s with Morton Downey Jr.
    __
    Was that pre-Billo?

    Let me introduce y’all to Joe Pyne.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pyne

    At first, Pyne didn’t put callers on the air; he paraphrased for the audience what they had said. Soon the callers and his interaction with them became the heart of the show. Pyne became famous for arguing with or insulting those with whom he disagreed. One of his trademark insults was, “Go gargle with razor blades.”

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @wrb:
    Different time different place. The monied did not control as much of the economy and government. Opportunity may not have been great but it was there and non-monied people could and did take advantage of it. The monied now own and control the economy and the government and they are not giving it up. Not easily. Look how hard the great society had to be fought for and the price that was paid. And now they have the money to buy what they want, the media to misinform the general population and the money to keep it that way.

  121. 121.

    TK421

    Here’s what I would do if I were president:

    1) Destroy HAMP and start over. Create an effective program in its place that will help homeowners lower the principal on their mortgage with direct payments. There are tens of billions of dollars left in the HAMP fund–money the president needs no one’s permission to spend.

    2) Once that money runs out, order Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance more mortgages, borrowing if necessary, to get more homeowners above water. The president needs no one’s permission to do this.

    3) There is between $100 billion and $300 billion left in TARP. The president can spend this money any way he wants, and there is enough to boost the economy in productive ways (Cash for Clunkers only cost $3 billion).

    4) The Federal Reserve took trillions in worthless assets off the hands of big banks and is holding it now. It could put these assets (“toxic waste”) on the open market and force banks to match their own toxic waste to the market value. This would ruin them. Then the FDIC takes them over, pink-slips their executives, breaks them up so they aren’t too big to fail and gets them lending again.

    5) Use quantitative easing to take bad risk off of working people’s hands. The president needs no one’s permission to do this. If any member of the Federal Reserve refuses to go along, the president can legally fire them for cause and replace them with a recess appointment.

    People who answer with “but the media would say bad things about him!” will not be dignified with a response.

    Further reading:

    http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/08/at-the-economists-economics-by-invitation-we-need-different-cossacks-round-ii.html

    http://www.ianwelsh.net/what-could-obama-have-done-and-what-can-obama-still-do/

  123. 123.

    LittlePig

    @Davis X. Machina

    Not I, I was just blue skying. President NoDrama isn’t about to do anything like that, and Martin is being unjust – FDR had to battle the Supremes in his time, even with Congress more or less on his side.

    I did find it interesting that nothing illegal occurred at Abu Garib or Guantanamo in the last decade though. Good thing Martin was around to straighten me out.

  124. 124.

    Paul in KY

    @Davis X. Machina: I think the last honest-to-God crazy rioting they had in London was the anti-Catholic riots that the Gordon guy stirred up back at beginning of 18th century. That was some bad shit.

  125. 125.

    Montysano

    @trollhattan:

    Let me introduce y’all to Joe Pyne.

    Joe Pyne. Thanks! I’ve been trying to recall that name for a while now. I used to hear him back in Indiana when I was a teenager. Mark Levin’s style is straight up lifted from Pyne.

  126. 126.

    wrb

    @Ruckus:

    Different time different place. The monied did not control as much of the economy and government. Opportunity may not have been great but it was there and non-monied people could and did take advantage of it. The monied now own and control the economy and the government and they are not giving it up. Not easily. Look how hard the great society had to be fought for and the price that was paid. And now they have the money to buy what they want, the media to misinform the general population and the money to keep it that way.

    The moneyed did control during the Gilded Age and there was no safety net Somehow that was changed for awhile, without revolution.

    Whether another such change is possible in this vastly different media environment, I don’t know.

  129. 129.

    TK421

    @LittlePig:

    He’s breaking the law now with wiretaps and torture without consequences. Breaking the law doesn’t bother him anymore than it did the Chimp.

    I suppose you’ve forgotten when Obama went to Congress for approval of his attack against Libya.

    This is sarcasm, of course.

  133. 133.

    WereBear

    Before anyone does anything, they have to be aware that it is happenIng at all.

    Something like this gets Facebooked and passed around. That’s its value.

  134. 134.

    trollhattan

    @Montysano:

    Used to see him on the teevee occasionally when I was a kid, back when there were all of two and a half channels. It was kind of a shocker given the usual Mike Douglas/Merv Griffin daytime chat fare. Even at my tender age I could figure out his schtick–bring wackos on the show to make fun of the wackos. Never confirmed my theory that they also got the audience drunk before taping.

    Also, too, everybody: smoke ’em if you got ’em!

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    @Davis X. Machina: Good point, the anti-Catholic riots were waaaaaay beyond anything USA/England has since experienced (except maybe for the New York draft riots).

    The Brixton riots & the other ones you linked to would suffice as honest-to-God rioting (or ‘rioty’ rioting).

  136. 136.

    FlipYrWhig

    @TK421:

    If any member of the Federal Reserve refuses to go along, the president can legally fire them for cause and replace them with a recess appointment.

    I like the list of ideas, but at least one problem with this one: the Senate refuses to go into recess, specifically to prevent recess appointments.

  137. 137.

    Elie

    @Davis X. Machina:

    You got THAT right… sadly. We seem to unrepentantly want a “strong man” (or woman) to just fix things and have no patience for, well, laws or fair/balanced process. In fact, if you advocate for laws or due process, you are a wimp, coward and unwilling to use the “bully pulpit” to get anything done. In fact, anything that you do using the “process” is rendered incomplete, insufficient or just plain wrong because you did not dictate the terms to be exactly “x”…

  138. 138.

    brent

    Well that was just plain dumb. Ratigan is, perhaps I am giving him too much credit, noticing that there are conflict points between capitalism and democracy and his prescription is to have a dictatorial president run roughshod over both and pretend those conflict points don’t exist. Basically, he’s a moron.

  139. 139.

    Mnemosyne

    @TK421:

    For a minute, you had me worried that Brad DeLong actually thought that the FDIC had the authority to take over commercial banks, but fortunately he’s not quite as stupid as you and Ian Walsh are.

  140. 140.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Elie: There’s something not quite right with people who seriously believe that “just find a damn way!” is an acute observation about political possibility.

  142. 142.

    TK421

    @FlipYrWhig:

    The Constitution says the president “may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper”.

    @Mnemosyne:

    The FDIC has the power to take over failed banks. Which many banks right now are, even though they are pretending otherwise.

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @TK421:
    I said, as much.
    Money always controls. Always. Since money was invented, money has been about power. That has not changed. It is the distribution of wealth that is the problem. And every time the distribution has gotten out of hand sooner or later revolution of one sort or another happens. What is changing here and now is the control over the lives of people without enough money. It used to be about food but people could move and grow/kill their food. Not so much any more.

  145. 145.

    opie jeanne

    @Anya: No, off to look for it now.

    I meant to comment that at first this rant catches your attention, parts of it feel really good, but long before he finishes, reality taps you on the shoulder, especially when the woman asks, “But what then?” and keeps asking, and you see that it’s all just noise.

  149. 149.

    Fulcanelli

    Even if his solution was ahem, flawed… It still felt good to see somebody with at least a semblance of a clue as to what’s well and truly fucked about our political system just frickin’ go off and say it OUT FUCKING LOUD.
    If the media had a way of mechanically filtering out the completely batshit insane stuff oozing out of the political news from either party 7/8ths of the stuff the right wing says and does no one would ever hear about.
    I’d love to see how the early TV news anchors of the past like Cronkite, Reynolds, Severied, Huntley and Brinkley would parse down and report on the fucking idiotic nonsense we tolerate on a daily basis passed off as “news”.

  151. 151.

    opie jeanne

    @FlipYrWhig: Yeah, and unfortunately I’m one of those people who rages and fusses and my family and friends smile and watch me until I run out of steam.

    It sometimes does end up with me figuring out “what next” and getting stuff done after I calm down, but mostly it’s just venting.

  152. 152.

    Elie

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Yes, but unfortunately they seem to get all the attention these days… the poor sops who try to follow a deliberate and already validated process are just considered rubes and weaklings with no “fire in the belly” for “REAL” change.

    It is so tiring though, and completely disables forming stable reasoning or respect for each other in solving complex problems in negotiated or collaborative ways. Its like we don’t get what democracy and representative government actually means. What happened? Did people actually think that the teevee show Survivor, was a model for how the political system is supposed to work? Like three year olds in a sand box, some folks just want to clump each other over the head with their plastic tonka cars…

  154. 154.

    LittlePig

    @Anya:Sure Dylan’s being a schmuck. That’s his job. But I’ll take somebody yelling rather than listen to John Yoo’s calm reserved tones

    “If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?”
    ——“No treaty,” replied John Yoo, the former Justice Department official who wrote the crucial memos justifying President Bush’s policies on torture

    Calm, cool, collected, sociopath.

  155. 155.

    Brian

    Yes take it to the American people. That way Politco and the rest can complain that Obama hurt the republican’s fee-fees and he was being a ‘dick’. It worked so well with the media last time.

  156. 156.

    schnooten

    @Cat Lady: This.

    Watched this earlier. I’m surprised that John Cole is calling this shrill when he’s historically been in the same camp as Ms. “Then-what?”

  157. 157.

    dollared

    @Anya: Did I miss when it became socially acceptable to steal trillions of dollars of the people’s money?

    What level of outrage would it require for you to become outraged?

  158. 158.

    Anya

    @dollared: yelling and babbling about some incoherent crap is not a useful outrage.

    I am going to let Molly Ivins explain to you what a proper response should look like:

    So, fellow progressives, stop thinking about suicide or moving abroad. Want to feel better? Eat a sour grape, then do something immediately, now, today. Figure out what you can do to help rescue the country — join something, send a little money to some group, call somewhere and offer to volunteer, find a politician you like at the local level and start helping him or her to move up.
    ___
    Think about how you can lend a hand to the amazing myriad efforts that will promptly break out to help the country recover from what it has done to itself. Now is the time. Don’t mourn, organize.

  159. 159.

    Mnemosyne

    @dollared:

    Fine, you’re outraged. Then what? What is your next step after getting outraged? Because, believe it or not, no one is going to say, “Gosh, Dollared sure keeps posting a lot in comments about how outraged he is — I’d better do something to fix the problem he’s outraged about!”

  160. 160.

    dollared

    Agreed. But outrage is a beneficial step.

    For example, public outrage can lead to things like a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

    It could lead to a realizaton that a mixed economy is superior to a purely capitalist economy.

    It could lead to lazy liberal billionaires actually funding think tanks rather than wryly commenting that they pay taxes higher than their secretaries.

    Outrage led to the successes to date in Wisconsin. Outrage was what led Congress to pass the Sherman Act. Outrage led to the FDA.

    Yes, it has to be translated into action, but it’s a lot harder to get decisive action without outrage.

  161. 161.

    dollared

    @Anya: That’s a nice quote. I like Molly Ivins.

    But I want to know: is it bad to be outraged? Is it always bad to lose your temper? Would you rather we follow the rules of etiquette even if some people (who don’t live by your ironclad rules of decorum) continue to not understand how outrageous the situation is?

    Is my liberal viewpoint invalid because I ended my last sentence with a preposition?

    Are you the etiquette police or are you part of a group of people who need major change in your society in the face of an apathetic public and a powerful, grasping, amoral oligarchy?

  162. 162.

    General Stuck

    @Mnemosyne:

    Fine, you’re outraged. Then what? What is your next step after getting outraged? Because, believe it or not, no one is going to say, “Gosh, Dollared sure keeps posting a lot in comments about how outraged he is—I’d better do something to fix the problem he’s outraged about!”
    Reply

    Teehee.

  163. 163.

    Cat Lady

    Dollared- there are necessary conditions that aren’t sufficient. Outrage is one of those. It’s not that hard to understand.

  165. 165.

    General Stuck

    Emoprogs need Emo Red Meat. Nothing more than a dietary requirement. Everyone else keeps slogging along in the trenches making one small change at a time, in a system specifically created to only allow one small change at a time.

    If you gotta scream, then you gotta scream. Just like taking a righteous shit. Cheap pleasure.

  166. 166.

    angler

    On Ratigan’s Teddy Roosevelt point, WTF? TR was best buds with J. P. Morgan and got angry with his successor, Taft, for breaking up the Morgan-owned US Steel trust. TR having taken loads of campaign cash from Morgan may have influenced his thinking. TR was the original walk loudly but carry a small stick when it came to big business.

  167. 167.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Cat Lady:

    Dylan “Both Sides Do It” Ratigan was right about something?

    /yawn

    Stopped clock, blahblahblah. Get back to me when he stops saying “both sides do it”. Yesterday, at the end of his show, was the last time he said that.

  170. 170.

    Admiral_Komack

    “if the president did give a speech as he suggests, the American people wouldn’t understand the problem. They’d be told by the media that he was crazy.”

    …and angry…and black…

  171. 171.

    Anya

    @dolared – you’re deliberately misrepresenting what I’ve said, so there’s no point for this back and forth.

  172. 172.

    AxelFoley

    @blahblahblah:

    Nice rant, but expecting Obama to do anything more than suck Wall Street and Fortune 500 cock requires equal cognitive dissonance as expecting Republicans to negotiate with the opposing party in good faith. There’s nothing but bad faith all around.

    Sucking cock? Projecting much?

  173. 173.

    AxelFoley

    @shano:

    I love this. So when are the progressives going to make this their cause and when is it going to go viral on the main stream media like the rant of Rick Santelli!?

    Progressives getting from behind their keyboards and doing real work? Don’t hold your breath.

  174. 174.

    Jenny

    Meh.

    For years he hosted a pump-and-dump show on CNBC called…. wait for it…. “FAST MONEY!”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CNBC_Fast_Money_team.jpg

    He lead a team of douchebags grifters bilking people into losing their savings.

    But what the hell. Werner von Braun was Hitler’s point man in flattening London with the V-1 and V-2 rockets and all was forgiven after the war. I guess we can forgive Dylan for flattening life savings in return for good rants.

  175. 175.

    Mike E

    @Jenny: Except we got to the Moon with von Braun–these parasites will never redeem themselves after all this carnage.

  176. 176.

    TheHalfrican

    “Post Civil War Reconstruction is an example of handling a problem correctly? Really?”

    LOL. Christ.

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