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gila commented on the blog post Lack of a Straightforward Defense of the Individual Mandate
I’d wager it’s the “no-tax” consideration.
Obama pledged he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class. He made a big deal out of it during the campaing. Even during the debates.
He is fundamentally a creature of the Washingtonian/Versailles culture, so the backlash against George Bush 1′s “read my lips” is front and center in his advisors’ and his thinking.
Ultimately, Obama “pragmatized” himself into a corner. Championing a garbage conservative policy that he then has to defend before a conservative court as a tax on the middle class he campaigned on not ever doing that gets painted in the media as Democratic “socialist” bumbling.
Describing this fiasco as “epic fucking stupidity” or perhaps just “fucking retarded” doesn’t do it justice. And never mind the claims of 11th-dimensional chess mastery by the Obama Administration apologists, used to shut down any criticism of the ACA during the legislation debate.
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gila commented on the blog post Conservatives at SCOTUS Harshly Question Mandate; Kennedy Probably Holds Deciding Vote
Yeah, it definitely has a through-the-looking-glass feel. And it highlights the gross political miscalculation by the 11th-dimensional chess masters of the Obama Administration.
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gila commented on the blog post Conservatives at SCOTUS Harshly Question Mandate; Kennedy Probably Holds Deciding Vote
Car insurance requirement is for liability for damage you to do others or their property, while driving on publicly-funded roads. You’re not required to have coverage for damage to yourself or your own property.
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gila commented on the blog post Slow Poster Children Ahead
Comparing the ACA to the beginnings of Social Security is nonsense.
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gila commented on the blog post Whistleblower Lawsuits Against Banks Extinguished in Foreclosure Fraud Settlement
What I would give to have drinks with David Dayen and an Obama apologist. Just to watch said apologist’s heads explode over and over again.
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gila commented on the blog post Exclusive Video Of President Obama Taunting American Soldiers
Lot of justifications based upon assumptions based upon…
Proof? Oversight? Got any of that? No? Guess we’ll just have to take their word for it.
And guess we’ll just have to take their word for it when a Republican president does it.
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gila commented on the blog post Exclusive Video Of President Obama Taunting American Soldiers
Due process isn’t “hugs of understanding”.
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gila commented on the blog post Republicans Try to Convert America into Pottersville
“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen.”
President Barack Obama describing Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan, and Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs.
Does this make Barack Obama a Republican?
This twisted thinking has infected both parties.
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gila commented on the blog post Samizdat Things Are Not Like The Others
Sounds a bit like making excuses to not put up much of a fight.
But, that’s a trait of Washingtonian insider “pragmatists” like Ezra Klein. Confusing actual pragmatism with a willingness to capitulate, in the face of Republican douchebaggery.
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gila commented on the blog post Samizdat Things Are Not Like The Others
Exactly what I was thinking.
Ezra allows Tucker Carlson to push him into scrapping what sounds like a healthy, useful community for left of center journalists?
Tucker Fucking Carlson? That’s who you let push you around?
Grow a spine, Ezra.
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gila commented on the blog post The Continued Intellectual Dishonesty of Jonathan Gruber
What’s wrong with non-profit health services?
Fire services are non-profit.
Police services are non-profit.
Health services are…
We need to start pushing, relentlessly, that health services are the same basic services, that should be provided by our society, as fire and police service.
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gila commented on the diary post Insider Tells Why Obama Chose Not to Prosecute Torture by David Swanson.
Exactly. It’s the ripple effect outwards into our general culture from not holding the leaders accountable. The Bush Admin not being held accountable leads to everyone who advised them not being held accountable. Those people contentedly return to our midst, having payed not any price for having contributed to robbing us of “the U.S.A. does [...]
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gila commented on the diary post Insider Tells Why Obama Chose Not to Prosecute Torture by David Swanson.
Well, that is the very clear example of why letting crimes, like the Bush-era abuses, go unpunished leads to the systemic rotting away of accountability in our entire culture.
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gila commented on the blog post FDL Book Salon Welcomes Eric Alterman, Kabuki Democracy: The System vs. Barack Obama
Remember the “Billy” ad?
Deliberately putting up Billy Tauzin as a poster boy for what fundamentally ails us. The revolving door (i.e. corruption) between powerful industry and government.
Obama’s action upon gaining office? Have Tauzin into the WH on multiple occasions to cut a deal with pharma that grossly favored pharma.
This type of action, along with his deliberately appointing the very faces of the failure of Wall Street (people like Geithner and Summers), is where your premise breaks down.
Yes, the system is badly corrupted and ripping people off. And no, Barack Obama is not an innocent caught up in that. He has unequivocally supported and buttressed those systems over and over again.
And what have we progressives/lefties done to change it? How about sending Mr. Hope and Change to Washington? Putting a candidate into the WH that ran under a clearly progressive banner of needing to change the systems that are corrupting and ripping us off. Of reestablishing constitutional principles on torture and privacy.
Your premise that the system is badly corrupted is correct. But that’s not really any big secret to anyone. Your conclusion that Barack Obama is hopelessly caught up in it is false. He is a willing participant.
How to arrive at this conclusion, which is contrary to your own? I refrain from imagining what is in his head, and I simply observe his actual behaviour.
