This week’s Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts Sunday nights at 8 pm Eastern
Stepping into the Ring of Fire this week: Eric Alterman from The Nation magazine will join us to talk about why, even when progressives controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches of government, it was impossible for them to pass the laws they promised would pass during their campaigns.
Investigative journalist Lee Fang will be here to tell us how the newly elected Republican Congressmen have surrounded themselves with lobbyists – something they promised their Tea Party followers that they would never do.
Author Nomi Prins will be joining us to discuss President Obama’s economic report card, and we’ll find out who’s benefiting more from his policies – constituents or corporations.
And attorney and consumer advocate Peter Mougey will be joining us to discuss the secret cabal of Wall Street insiders who have captured the derivatives market and how they’ve perpetrated one of the biggest scams in financial history.
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Everyone, check out Farron’s blog and the link he gives to it, above.
GREAT writing and a Devastating revelation of Sarah Palin. I left my own comments, as well.
Mike Pappantonio spoke of what he’s coined “Birkenstock liberals” not wanting to fund a liberal response to right wing radio many years ago. Although I don’t think they’re the exact same lot, I do think there’s a considerable overlap between them and what I call the “cultural left”.
My theory as to why the cultural left, in particular of among the various leftists and also the socially dominant leftists in America, likely didn’t want to fund leftist radio is two fold:
First, I think they likely were aware that the Dem Party didn’t want it (I’m assuming this) as it would dilute and therefore weaken the party officials’ authority. And by the time of the rise of right wing radio, the cultural left had acquired much influence with those same party leaders and they therefore would be weakening their own influence, unless they themselves were to have full control of any new programs.
Second and most importantly, I believe the cultural left saw a benefit in the way the right was now attacking the left much less frequently on the basis of race/ethnicity/religion, but instead was transferring or channeling the nativists’ animus towards the “non-realAmericans” into a hatred of liberals/ Democrats.
According to NorMan GoldMan, we are Winning on the Cultural Wars – gays can now openly join and fight in the military, gays can marry – or soon will be able to, in All states, etc. A woman’s right to chose is Still the law, no matter how the crazy right fights against it (and their chipping away and smashing away is a True Danger, of course). But, Culturally, we are winning.
It’s on the $$$ front, says Norm, that we are losing.
At any rate, the “cultural” issues cannot be divorced from the Progressive movement w/o doing violence to it and twisting it into something it’s not meant to be, imo.
Buggywhipper and Mara,
we are beginning to see a very old Republi$$K$$an trick-connect the educated progressive base to “elitist” thinkers..
I have seen this at least 3 times in my life, everytime after
Republi$$K$$ans have been CAUGHT in major screw-ups..
Progressives are very, very conscious of being caught up in such scapegoating..especially given historical nature of the educated, worldwide, when “revolution” takes place..I believe
Republi$$K$$ans well KNOW and PLAY this card whenever they have no credibility…you know, like after THEY have completely destroyed the economy…
we can get “Rated R-Republicans in Hollywood” on “Half.com”
for around $4.00 plus shipping=$3.00…
Jon, thanks for that…and check out Norman Goldman’s efforts
to recruit-start-up progressive political candidates to RUN against corporate dems…(and of course Republi$$K$$ans)
I think it was Flick who mentioned “The Social Network”-look at Frank Rich comparing today, this movie to the new “True Grit”, and American values contrasted…THEN please look at the COMMENTS following, as these are perhaps even more relevant than the inimitable Frank Rich:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/opinion/23rich.html?hp
First I’d ask, who’s “we”? For example, I consider myself very much left. I know where that is. I don’t know where “progressive” is.
I would say we of the standard left are losing on the economic front in large part because “progressives” are winning their idiosyncratic battles.
To all,
I just got done listening to the entire podcast. I felt I needed to re-introduce myself to it especially in light of Keith Olbermann’s departure from the airwaves. There has to be something to fill that void for me. I came in with high hopes with the addition of Sam Seder and upon listening to his contribution to this week’s show, I was not disappointed one bit. Sam is a sharp political mind and his perspective is a much needed breath of fresh air to the conversation here. He asks the right questions and gets to the heart of the subject matter no matter what it is.
My enthusiasm was dampened a bit when the same familiar attacks were launched against baby boomers by Mike who seems to always want to blame all of our current political woes on a generation of which he is one as well as myself, my husband and most of those who post on this blog. Mike once again not only gives a free pass to Millenials and Gen-Xers but as usual seems to heap his greatest hopes upon. Hello? Who was it that stayed away from the polls in droves this past mid-term election? I believe it was the Millenials while most of the Gen-Xers, many of whom reside in the top 2% of this country’s wage earner bracket were voting for the Republican establishment candidates or tea party candidates, decorating their yards with “Don’t Tread on Me” signs, and listening to Rush Limbaugh. Please don’t continue to paint a picture of reality that I don’t see in my day to day existence. Oh, it is us fat cat baby boomers who have reaped all the benefits of the BushBama Tax Cuts? My husband and I, as my husband so aptly puts it, can wipe our asses with our tax cuts. You see we aren’t in the top 2% like Mike Papantonio is or thinks all baby boomers are. You cannot keep talking in generalities and heap all the blame for our current state of being on one generation as Sam very accurately points out. Why do you hate your own generation so much, Mike? I don’t think you have ever had to live paycheck to paycheck like my husband and I have our entire lives. You think it’s us that have made out like bandits in this current economic environment? Do you not think that a large percentage of 99ers that Ed Schultz so passionately talks about aren’t of the Baby Boom generation and now because of our ages can’t buy a job?
As Sam says, this isn’t a generational war, it’s about the financial elite. Mike talks frequently about “Inheritance Babys”. I believe Paris Hilton is one of those. Is she a Baby Boomer, Mike? She’s one of those wonderful Millenials as many of these new rich who shit on us hard working individuals like my husband and I. Us Boomers are just out of it. Wow. That is so nice for you to point that out to us, Mike. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and start to see the light of the error of our ways. And when I heard the words that the bulk of the tea party are blue collar? WTF? These are retirees who are living off their pensions, Social Security and Government provided health care to a great extent. And those that aren’t in that catagory are not hurting. They want to keep every nickel they make and see all entitlements that don’t benefit themselves personally eliminated.
buggywhipper wrote:
Mike Pappantonio spoke of what he’s coined “Birkenstock liberals” not wanting to fund a liberal response to right wing radio many years ago.
Why didn’t that take place? How about this for an answer? Remember when the MSM was referred to as “the liberal media”. Those “Birkenstock Liberals” didn’t think they had to fund alternative media because the media was an unbiased news source those many years ago. It was at the very least “fair and balanced” in the real sense of the term. Nobody saw this rise of the lunatic fringe as a real threat to legitimate news organizations. The left was at worst caught napping, not realizing the full impact of the Fairness Doctrine’s demise courtesy of Ronnie Raygun.
The bottom line is, the greatest concentration of wealth in this country is in the hands of right wing idealogues and their deep pockets have overwhelmed any opposition from the left. Just about every Baby Boomer that has the personal wealth to build a media empire have sold their souls to the ideals of the right wing. Because it’s bankable for them and greed will always win out over doing something in the greater intersts of this country.
This GOP isn’t going away. They are like mutant parasites who can re-invent themselves whenever they need to and find the next group of individuals to act as their hosts. You can cut their heads off and they will grow another new one back. No, they will always walk among us in whatever evil incarnation they choose. And each one gets worse. Futility? You bet.
NorMan GoldMan is also hard on the Baby Boomers too (which is also His generation). It’s a sense of anger that both Norm and Mike have, I think, that our own generation is not doing more to make this world a better place. It’s not meant to target any individual member of the BB’s, though. Nor, I would think, to completely absolve the younger generations.
As for the tea baggers, I see many of them as working class, most definitely.
But ignorance and selfishness cut across economic lines. After all, those who get the Most contempt from Mike are the richest of the rich, like the Koch Brothers.
Here’s an article from AlterNet about Keith and what’s left of the Liberal media. Rachel and Ed could be gone from MSNBC next.
http://www.alternet.org/media/149639/what_the_hell_happened_to_keith_olbermann/