2014
Imagine that, a left-wing government that couldn’t get the job done. Why does that sound familiar? LOL
PARIS (AP) — France’s government resigned Monday and President Francois Hollande was expected to name a new Cabinet just 24 hours after his Socialists suffered heavy losses in nationwide municipal elections.
Disappointment with the Socialists’ handling of the economy drove many voters to conservative or anti-immigrant far-right candidates in the elections Sunday. Hollande hopes the reshuffle will boost the government’s popularity.
He was expected to announce a new prime minister Monday evening after meeting with outgoing Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
One of Hollande’s closest friends, Socialist Mayor of Dijon Francois Rebsamen, told RTL radio that popular Interior Minister Manuel Valls would be named prime minister.
Ayrault conceded that the elections were “a defeat for the government.” The administration has failed to fulfill its promises to cut France’s more than 10% unemployment and boost growth, which was just 0.3% last year, according to figures released Monday.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
I never left, Dougie. Do you have anything intelligent to contribute?
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That is an idiotic analogy. The only thing hindering the Obama administration is Conservative obstructionism in the gerrymandered House. The American people agree with our president on every issue under consideration. I am at a loss to explain why the poor ignorant people in the southern and Midwest red states continue to vote against the only people that will ever help them? They need jobs, they need Medicaid, they need affordable healthcare, they need a livable minimum wage, they need unemployment assistance, they deserve the right to vote, they deserve a good education, they need veterans’ benefits, they need Medicare and they need Social Security. A Democratic congress will provide for all of their needs and conservative Republicans are dedicated to taking away everything that they need. The conservative Republicans are dedicated to “Wealthcare” – as demonstrated by their pilgrimages to Las Vegas to this past weekend to suck up to Sheldon Adelson (probably literally). What more evidence do you need to see?
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Well Wilson, welcome back many people asked where you were. I think you better check the polls again. The fact is the American people do not agree with most, if not all of Obama’s agenda. It seems to me that you miss the most important issue … why after the decades of Democratic control of congress and constant increases in spending on all those programs do Americans NEED them? Wouldn’t real progress mean eliminating the need for most welfare type programs or do you agree that goal beyond government resolution? Perhaps those red state people would rather do with less, but with what they achieve on their own. Your most telling words are “provide for all their needs.” Is that what we want, really?
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I must assume that you are a very wealthy conservative supporter of plutocracy based upon your comments on this blog. And, you have no problem with Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers, et al. buying our congress and trying once again to anoint our next Republican presidential candidate. Our people will prevail!
The conservative right-wing game plan is obvious to many: (you, I guess, don’t get it)
1) No food for the poorest among us – SNAP, Meals on Wheels and school lunches gone
2) No living wage for the poorest among us – eliminate the federal minimum wage
3) No good public education for the minorities that vote for Democrats – rather, charter schools teaching only the children of the wealthy and mooching on the public funding of school facilities for profit
4) Destroy the teachers’ unions so that profession is low-paying and public schools produce results inferior to for profit charter schools that mooch on our property taxes
5) Deny voting rights for any bloc of potential people that are likely to vote democratic, e.g. blacks, Hispanics, Asians, et al.
6) “If we can’t win the elections, we will rig the elections” – ARE YOU BLIND TO VOTER SUPPRESSION?
7) Block House votes on unemployment compensation, veterans benefits, infra-structure jobs bills,
8) Obstruct any proposal that will improve our economy so they can run against it in November of 2014 – destroy our economy and our status in the world to preserve their jobs
9) Attack our president for any reason whatsoever – if Obama walked on water, they would say he is “feckless and weak” because he cannot swim
This is a sickening and disgusting situation and you are supporting it. Shame upon you!
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Oh Wilson, you are really back in form. I admit to being a bit right of center, but sadly not very wealthy. I checked out the Koch brothers and indeed they have some way out views and do use their money irresponsibly in many cases like anti-Obamacare ads that were outright untruthful, but guess what, for all their money they don’t appear to get much in results.
I think you miss the point … again. No reasonable person including responsible conservatives want to do all the things you claim. On the other hand, a reasonable person should not support these programs becoming a way of life for millions of Americans as has happened to large segments of or society.
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“No reasonable person including responsible conservatives want to do all the things you claim.”
Representative Paul Ryan released his annual budget this morning, and it reads like a terrible April Fool’s joke. Of course, it’s not—these are the same destructive ideas he’s proposed every year since becoming budget chairman in 2011.
Rep. Ryan’s plan protects tax breaks for the very rich and actually lowers taxes for corporations. It contains $4 trillion in cuts to programs that protect Americans who can least afford cuts. Medicare is privatized. Food stamps, college aid, support for schools, Head Start, child nutrition programs are savaged. And it creates a process designed to ensure Social Security cuts in the near future.
Perhaps Lyan Ryan is not a “reasonable person”, but he’s still a congressman.
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“a reasonable person should not support these programs becoming a way of life for millions of Americans as has happened to large segments of our society.”
That statement is an echo of Lyan Ryan’s thinly veiled racist statement that inner city lazy blacks have a culture of generations not working, not trying to find jobs and living on government handouts. The facts are that there are many more unemployed white people in poverty in the southern red states which posture to abhor “big government”, but take more in government subsidies than any other region of our country. And they vote Republican!!??
In addition, in Lyan Ryan’s budget released today, he assumes the savings from implementation of the PPACA, but also includes repeal of the entire law. His math does not compute, his calculator is broken and the only time that he is not lying is when he is not talking. His 2012 address to the RNC was fact-checked into abhorrent absurdity!
In addition to your advocacy of congressional term limits, which I agree with; there are 435 members of the House and I believe that they would vote to help the unemployed, our seniors, our veterans and our people trampled into poverty by the 1%, if given a chance.
However, John Boehner will not allow votes on issues that he opposes. That is NOT democracy and that is too much power in the hands of one person. The house rules need to changed and changed immediately for the good of our country.
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Please tell me how “our people are trampled into poverty by the 1%”. I also would like to know why our seniors who already consume as a group more of the resources of the government than any other group should get more help. I would also call your attention to the Moynihan study of 1965 addressing the causes of poverty among blacks and whose statistics are more troubling today than back then. You focus on giving more and more people increased assistance, when do we focus on helping people out of the need for more and more government assistance; sometimes by giving them a kick in the pants?
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Just one example of the tactics of “the 1%”:
This morning, the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court handed down yet another decision that erodes American democracy by putting even more influence in our elections into the hands of the rich and powerful, increasing their already outsized influence.
It just became even more urgent that we amend the Constitution to undo the crippling damage of decisions like Citizens United and today’s McCutcheon v. FEC.
Your support has helped tremendously already, but the consequences of the Roberts Court’s reckless disregard for We the People and our country’s fundamental democratic principles become more dire by the day.
The power in our democracy should reside with the voters — but the voices of everyday Americans are being drowned out by deep-pocketed corporate interests and billionaire ideologues. Today’s decision in McCutcheon dismantled some of the few remaining campaign finance limits we had left and gives wealthy individuals like the Koch brothers greater ability to sway elections and essentially buy politicians.
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So now the 1% control our Supreme Court?
If someone on the right can “buy” politicians so can and do those on the left. It seems to me the problem is not so much those seeking to influence, but those who allow themselves to be influenced and the people who re-elect them year after year.
You seem to look at symptoms, but not the real problem.
Dick
Richard D Quinn Quinnscommentary.com
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HELLO??? – the Supreme Court is comprised of 5 on the right and 4 on the left. That is a “gift” from George Bush (the dumber one) and the Bushes are part of the 1%. The vote today was 5 to 4. Do you get it now?
Regarding; “but those who allow themselves to be influenced”
Many of these people are trying to make a living wage with two jobs at $7.25 an hour and continue to survive in a society where the 1% have totally stacked the deck against them. They don’t have the luxury that you and I have to read, study and watch news broadcasts. They can be very easily misinformed when the 1% pour huge sums of money into false advertising for their own political gains.
I am not willing to remain silent when our complete government is for sale to the most wealthy and you should not remain on the sidelines either. “The real problem” is that our government is for sale and that is not a “symptom”. I don’t have statistics currently at hand, but you and I both know, instinctively, that there are far more right wing millionaires and billionaires supporting plutocracy than there are supporting democracy.
You are aware and are well-informed. Don’t keep asking me to “explain” and document statements that you know full-well are true.
I wish you long life and good health so that you will live long enough to realize that you have long been on the wrong side of history.
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The ones I was referring to as being influenced were the politicians and policy makers. Do you really think influence peddling is something new or unique to right wingers? I’m still waiting for an explanation of how the 1% (which by the way is households with incomes about $350,000 and up) holds down or holds back the 99%.
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“I’m still waiting for an explanation of how the 1% holds down or holds back the 99%.”
I have posted a detailed, concise and factual explanation of what is happening in this nation’s workplace and in our society on your blog at least three times. And, you are intelligent enough to know that it is all true and factual. You are in denial of history and current facts. Don’t keep asking for reprints.
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No, you have posted rambling comments about the Koch brothers, influence peddling, etc. but you never explain how what they do actually takes anything from anyone. The income gap is real, but I maintain the problem is far more complex than the top making more money. You also talk a lot about all the federal programs people “need” but you never comment on why we can’t break the cycle of poverty after decades of new programs and trillions of dollars. Is the goal simply to keep people on welfare as a way of life? I hope not.
What has the Koch brothers money got them? Obama was elected twice, Democrats held the House and Senate for years and now still the Senate, environmental regulations are still being promulgated, Obamacare is law and contains higher taxes on upper income. Money is being spent on alternative energy and the Canadian pipeline still has gone nowhere. I’d say the right wing influence peddlers haven’t spent well.
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“The ones I was referring to as being influenced were the politicians and policy makers.”
These people got elected to cushy positions from incredibly gerrymandered districts in their states and they are loving the money, the perks, the power and their lobbyist futures. They are petrified of losing their chance for huge future wealth if they anger the Tea Party, the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and or any other elements of the right-wing plutocracy. They care only about retaining their congressional seats. They care not at all for their constituents or the future of America.
They can all be epitomized by Lyan Paul Ryan’s demeanor: “I was born with a silver spoon, I’ve got mine and you lazy non-white paupers are SOL.”
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And you don’t think Democrats do the same thing and have the same attitude?
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Oh my god he is back!!!!
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