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Commie Jews!

Sorry, my grandma got a hold of my keyboard. You know grandma. Hates her some commies and some jews. I'm tucking her into bed for night night. I wanted to tell her a bed time story about Bernie the Dinosaur but all she wants to hear is the tales of Trump and his Trumpeters.

I took it as a visual and musical response to being called a commie pinko socialist anti-American.

This ad, to me, is aimed at the Republicans, if Bern gets the nomination.

The article linked above mentions Röpke and Eucken as champions of free market capitalism, so to speak. Ironically, Bernie Sanders is quite in line with many of Walter Eucken's core ideas. For instance, Eucken declared legal responsibility to be an absolute necessity for competition within a market economy. Meaning that under Eucken's notion of capitalism, US prisons would be filled to the brim with white collar criminals from Wall Street and just about every multinational corporation, including Volkswagen.

Ludwig Erhard, credited by many to be the main figure behind the German "Wirtschaftswunder" (nothing wonderous about it), postulated real wage growth in line with productivity and target inflation as an imperative for a working social market economy. Again, very much in line with Bernie Sanders. Maybe even to the left of Sanders. A 5% increase in productivity and a target inflation of 2% requires a wage increase of 7%, otherwise your economy will starve itself of the demand it requires to absorb its increased production. You can steal it from foreign countries, like Germany's been doing for more than a decade now, but that kind of parasitic behaviour is generally frowned upon. Minimum wage in the US according to Erhard would be what now, $25-$30? So much for Sanders' $15...

Sennholz further mentions the CDU as a counterweight to the SPD. Well, the CDU's "Ahlener Programm" in 1947 declared that both marxism and capitalism failed the German people. In fact, it put significant blame for Germany's descent into fascism at the feet of the capitalistic system and called for a complete restart with focus NOT on the pursuit of profit and power, but the well-being of the people. They called for socialism with Christian responsibility, later watered down and known as social market economy or Rhine capitalism.

As for the economic policies conducted by the occupation forces: German industry, and large corporations in particular, were shackled for the role they played during the war. If you work tens of thousands of slaves to their death, you lose your right to... well, anything. If they had stripped IG Farben, Krupp and the likes down to the very bone, nobody could have complained. No economic liberties for the suppliers behind a genocide.

Next in line, the comparison with Germany's European neighbours. Sennholz wrote that piece in '55, so you can't really blame him for it. Italy had more growth from '58 onwards, France had more growth than its devastated neighbour from '62 onwards. The third Axis power, Japan, had significantly more growth from '58 onwards.

Why did some European and Asian countries grew much more rapidly than the US? Fair Deal? Nope, Bretton-Woods. Semi-fixed exchange rates caused the Deutsche Mark and the Yen to be ridiculously undervalued compared to the Dollar, thus increasing German and Japanese competitiveness at the cost of the US. Stable trade relations created by the semi-fixed exchange rates plus the highly expansive monetary policy in the US – that's what boosted Germany's economy most of all. Sort of like China over the last two decades, except we were needed as a bulwark against the evil, evil Commies, so the US kept going full throttle.

Our glorious policians tried the same policies (Adenauer/Erhard) in East Germany after reunification, even though global conditions were vastly different, and the result is the mess we now have over there. The entire industry was burned to the ground when they set the exchange rate too high, thus completely destroying what little competitiveness remained. Two trillion DM later, still no improvement. A job well done, truly.

Anyway, if anything, Bernie Sanders' program is closer to post-war German social market economic principles than to the East-German bastard of socialism, state capitalism and planned economy imposed by an autocratic system. However, even that messed up system produced significantly less poverty, both in quality and quantity, than the current US corporatocracy. No homelessness, no starvation, proper healthcare for everyone – reality in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). And despite the fact that they were used as cheap labour for western corporations, no less. My first Ikea shelf was produced by our oppressed brothers and sisters in the East. The Wall "protected" the West from cheap labour while letting goods pass right through – splendid membrane, that one.

PS: Since that article was written in '55, I have to mention one of my city's most famous citizens: Otto Brenner. He was elected head of the IG Metal, this country's most influential trade union, in 1956 after having shared the office since 1952. The policies he fought for, and pushed through, during his 16 years in charge of the union are very much in line with what Sanders is campaigning for.

Bob just can't get over we actually have a political party that NAMED ITSELF THE LIBERAL PARTY, and we actually voted them into office.

To a US Conservative, that's like losing the Congress majority to a party calling itself the Commie Pinko Woman Power Gays and Illegal Minorities Anti-Religion Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck League.

Meh. How about you try and answer your own questions.

Would YOU blame Bush?

No? because he's only one person who doesn't have absolute control over congress or the fiscal policies they put forth?

Recently, you've mentioned how K Street lobbyists have their claws in everyone..

Does that include all 301 Republicans currently in Congress?

Or are those people magically exempt from the influence of: millions in campaign donations, gifts/perks, & guaranteed, cushy, post-congressional careers?

If so, would Democrats automatically become immune from corruption if they switched parties?

Omg, one party solution! China was right.
(I'm mean.. except for the dirty Commie thing.)

If we just eliminate Democrats and liberals, everything will be fixed!
*pat pat* You're a genius! little buddy.

If we take for granted the need for cost cutting, it would be only logical, if not an outright neccessity in a democracy, to leave the details up to the local representatives. Payment of X Euros expected by mm/dd/yy, figure it out yourselves.

Why do it any other way?

Well, you know the three most discussed possibilities as well as I do: shock doctrine, an attempt to force Syriza to commit political suicide, and bureaucratic automatisms.

During the first stages of this facade, I would have put my money square on shock doctrine. The measures are just too damn beneficial to the "there is no society" kind of thinking. It's horseshit, economically, and tremendously damaging, socially.

Replacing Syriza with the Old Guard seems quite appealing, given the behind-the-scenes deals with the nepotistic elite as a means to facilitate a smoother transitition once those pesky commies are out of the picture. The vitriol against Varoufakis is just staggering in this regard. News of the World got nothing compared to what our respectable media has hurled at Varoufakis and Tsipras.

My take on the automatisms on the other hand is rooted in how our politicians and our public has been arguing this entire time. Neoliberalism is the gospel, dissent is heresy. Privatisation is good, cutting wages is good, flexible labour market is good, taxation of wealth is bad, deficit is bad, surplus is good. They drank the kool aid, they are in it hook, line and sinker.

And as a result, the diagnosis is always the same, and so is the treatment. And fuck me for using this ass of a metaphor, given how the language used is the most subtle means of manipulation. "Rescue" the Greeks, "drowning" in debt, "tighten your belt". How about: food only on five days a week, grandma gets to croak on diabetes and your baby boy dies of diphtheria.

Yes, I had a fucked up day. The discussion in parliament about the "Greek problem" was a disgrace and high treason of the humanistic ideas that are supposed to be the foundation of the European Union.

A troll is someone who just says something to inflame.

If you can give a reason why you do not agree with someone, then you can't be labeled a troll.

I'd had to agree with Bob, however, that the DOJ is there to push the radical agenda of Obama.

Of course, a lot of the employees of the DOJ, such as FBI agents, are law enforcement types who didn't have the advantage of communist mentors like Obama had (Frank Marshall Davis)..they didn't grow up in Indonesia, worshipping monkey gods and such, so there is a disconnect.
They probably didn't have commie parents like Obama, but now Obama is the boss so they have to give him their due.
So in the case of Ferguson, Obama and holder send FBI agents to investigate, and since they have personal integrity, they do a good job and holder gets nothing.
But my point is this...Obama must have a serious case of cognitive dissonance. here he is raised to know all the faults, all the shortcomings, all the missteps that the US has taken over the years. He has had none of the patriotic, love for the US traditions, etc.
He gets elected, now he's the boss, so he's going to straighten out all the bad things the US has done in the past, he's going to strengthen her historical enemies, and weaken her historical friends, because...the past is just not fair.
Which is why Obama is closer to the muslim brotherhood than to the Lions Club. Also, I don't think he feels much closeness to his black brothers because he's only half-black, he was raised in a privileged white neighborhood, went to Yale, etc. His black criticizers are right...he's not down for the struggle. It never was a struggle for him.

So we'll assume yes, she now pays nothing, can't be refused, but somehow in your mind she's in a worse position than spending $500 per month and having no security that she won't be refused next month by a corporation that fights her on every penny they have to pay out.

No, the VA is NOT the same thing as 'single payer'....it's a separate medical system designed solely for veterans and their specific range of issues, which is consistently intentionally severely under funded by the same people who claim to have nothing but love for the military because 'national debt'...but that doesn't matter when the issue is wasting $billions-trillions on unwanted military equipment.

So, you wish to completely disband the military, Interstate Highway department, police, homeland security, interstate communications, internet, electricity, and water systems because relying on the government is a bad thing, eh? No? You socialist commie!

Obviously your last statement is completely wrong, that was the point of and reason for the ACA, and even it fails to cover everyone. The only way to cover everyone is to actually cover everyone.

You once again completely ignore your previous failed argument and move on to your next argument when called out. That's getting old, and is indicative of your having absolutely no strength of your convictions IMO. I'm not sure why you say these things if you can't stand behind any of them.

Commy bastards! It ain't natural I tell ya.

I agree. You can have your Burger King your way and if any man in God's Great 'Murica tries to tell you how to eat it then they can go straight to Commie/Socialist Europe, where there's no Constitution that guarantees Freedom!

On the other hand, some things I cook take multiple days to prepare. Sometimes I may not have slept more than a couple hours overnight, tending to the food I just served you. The rubs, marinades, bastes, brines and such may represent years of experimentation. It often requires multiple different cooking methods to prepare one single item.

When I share that food with you, you can smother it in ketchup and salt before you taste it...that's your right. You can also take that food and eat it in the fucking street. I will, in fact, help you to the street. No...really...I insist.

There's assembly line food and there's unique, carefully prepared, food that sometimes represents a lifetime of care and effort. You can show some appreciation for the work that went into the food you're eating or you can be a self centered dick. That's what Freedom is all about.

Not directed at you personally DannyM...just the concept in general.

goddam commie crush him