"And, now, they're coming for your Social Security"

[ipaint]

"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else."

"But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

"You know what they want? Obedient workers ­ people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club."

George Carlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q&feature=related

Can't say we weren't warned.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Recommended, sadly, for the truth...

[readmoreoften]

2. I have a dream: Big Crowds expelling the Big Club

permanently.

Just a dream, mind you. It's good to dream.

[Faryn Balyncd]

3. K&R... Simpson want to permanently steal the the $2.5 trillion in bond obligations to the trust fund

He wants general revenues, including wars and corporate welfare, to be paid with regressive payroll taxes, instead of income taxes. And he wants the government to default on the bonds securing the loans from the $2.5 trillion trust fund rather than using those funds to meet SS obligations.... In short, he wants to steal your SS, which you have paid for, to finance unfunded wars, etc...... And he wants you to think IT'S YOU (rather than him) that is feeding from the public trough.

[glitch]

4. And he's madhatter enough to believe he hasn't been hogging the trough his whole life.

Very well said btw.

[inna]

17. that's a very good summary. thank you for that. nt

[laughingliberal]

5. K & R nt

[Bryn]

6. K&R

[underpants]

7. Great truly great and insightful

:applause:

[scarletwoman]

8. K&R. They won't stop until they've sucked up every last drop of blood from us. nt

[bobbolink]

9. So *that's* why vampires are popular now.

:evilgrin:

[scarletwoman]

10. LOL! Wow! Good call!

I love how your mind works! That's brilliant!

:applause:
sw

[bobbolink]

12. My mind is working???

Who knew... :silly:

:pals:

[scarletwoman]

14. Your mind is just fine.

:hug:

[bobbolink]

13. silly me... when it says it didn't go through, I believe it.

:crazy:

Must be those damned vampires at work!

[Odin2005]

40. DUzy!

[nightrain]

11. if Obama promotes or allows reductions in benefits, increase in eligibility age, or

reduces COLA/CPI, he's going to be toast for the future.

The outrage will be enormous. And rightfully so.

[SammyWinstonJack]

30. Anyone really think that Obama gives a rat's ass if he is re-elected

I don't think he runs for a second term but we will know soon enough. This much is clear, he'll never have to rely on SS or anything close to that minuscule amt most of us receive or will receive. Thanks Obama for your bi-partisan DRC. :yourock: :sarcasm:

[ipaint]

15. "When they ask who will pay to redeem those bonds:"

1. No body asks that question when we pay bonds held by Pete Peterson or Goldman Sachs or Japan.

2. The money funded tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, by taxing the poorest, while deficits piled up year after year.

3. Tax cuts during a deficit are loans.

4. Those tax cuts, those loans went to the wealthiest Americans.

5. Now those loans should be paid back by the people who got the tax cuts: the top 1%, those earning $400,000 per year and up.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/56536


The rich in this country need to pay back the money they borrowed from our retirement fund. Why should social security be touched in any way except to expand and extend benefits to those older workers who find themselves permanently jobless and years away from social security as a result of the current depression also caused by the top 1%.

The rich need to step up and make good on the loan. Treating workers openly as expendable wage slaves while the parasitic wealthy execute the biggest heist of workers wealth in history is deplorable and unacceptable. A democratic president that assists them is unforgivable.

[inna]

18. fucking PRECISELY.

"The rich in this country need to pay back the money they borrowed from our retirement fund. Why should social security be touched in any way except to expand and extend benefits to those older workers who find themselves permanently jobless and years away from social security as a result of the current depression also caused by the top 1%.

The rich need to step up and make good on the loan. Treating workers openly as expendable wage slaves while the parasitic wealthy execute the biggest heist of workers wealth in history is deplorable and unacceptable. A democratic president that assists them is unforgivable."

[Jackpine Radical]

35. They have no obligation to pay back the $$ because they didn't

borrow it.

They stole it fair and square.

[Hydra]

16. Carlin saw through the whole game

It's a wonder they didn't kill him.

Then again, they depend on people not getting it. They bank on it, and it hasn't failed them so far.

People are so caught up in the myths that truth could stare them in the face(Carlin and others) and they still refuse to get it.

I should know- I've been doing the same thing here for going on 5 years now.

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. If he'd been a political writer they would have killed him.

Because he as 'just a comedian' they simply ignored him.

People who have no sense of humor have no concept of the power of humor. That's why Franken took them by surprise.

[Odin2005]

41. Just like court jesters during the middle ages.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

19. It's sad when the ONLY truth the American Public ever hears ...

... is not from the evening news, but rather from a comedian. Same with Jon Stewart, et al.

Carlin spoke the truth. So do others. But ya ain't gonna get it on the news - because that is state (corprat-same thing) owned and run propaganda designed to keep us all sedated with BS so we'll keep putting up with them screwing us up the a$$.

[TBF]

20. Although he was wrong about one thing -

it's not a BIG club. It is a small club of elitists who own everything, and there are many more of us. We need to realize that and start working together.

[louis-t]

32. BIG is a relative term.

1% sounds small. 1% of 305 million is pretty big. We know what he meant.

[ipaint]

34. The "big club" was explained in the next sentence of the piece.

I didn't include it in the OP, here it is-

"By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you in the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table is tilted folks, the game is rigged.

Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard working people, white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about…give a fuck about you! They don’t care about you at all, at all, at all.

And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.

That’s what the owners count on, the fact that Americans are and will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white, and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth, it’s called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."

George Carlin

If people don't wake up en masse before they destroy social security, they will afterwards for sure. Poverty does that to people, ask the long term unemployed.

[TBF]

37. Thanks, that does clarify -

he knew exactly what was going on. I think many Americans do, but are helpless in fighting back. And as you stated in your last sentence, as things worsen they will surely wake up.

[DirkGently]

21. Carlin nailed it. As usual. +1

[slipslidingaway]

22. knr - and no doubt changes to Medicare as well. n/t

[Ignis]

23. K&R. I thought we went through all this in the '80s, but here we are again.

:argh:

[paparush]

24. Carlin and Bill Hicks knew..they knew, and yes, they warned us.

I miss them both.

I point my 15 year old to their videos and tell him to watch as often as he can.

[Stoic]

25. I'm sure glad I voted for Barack Obama. He'll protect us. n/t

[bobburgster]

26. Pretty damned depressing.

I'm starting to wonder if what he's saying just might be pretty close to the truth. They're doing a good job of knocking off critical thinking skills. Just watch Beck's rally tomorrow for proof.

[ipaint]

27. Arne Duncan and his billionaire buddies are taking care of that. nt

[earth mom]

28. And some people thought Obama was the next FDR. Big mistake.

We need more brave people like Carlin to speak the truth on T.V.

Are you listening Rosie O'Donnell and other famous liberals who are regularly on T.V.?!

[valerief]

31. Politicians are agents for the puppetmasters. nt

[mdmc]

33. close your eyes can't happen here..

[TBF]

38. As Sinclair Lewis wrote in 1935 -

it has been a class struggle for a very long time.

Here is a link for those who haven't read it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Can%27t_Happen_Here

[ProleDragon]

36. And now here we have droves of idiots,

who were told what to be angry about by the very people that are screwing them harder every year. And they bought it, hook, line, sinker, pole, reel, and fist.

They've eschewed all that tricky 'critical thinking' stuff for the nice, easy, simple 'hatriotism' they're fed. Why can't these people be roused from their torpor? Sadly, I know the answer; blind anger is far easier than thoughtful discovery, and admitting to ignorance is ego-shattering for the frail-minded.

[bobburgster]

42. 'hatriotism' ....first time I heard that......

it has a nice truthful ring to it! but, depressing as hell!

[bobbolink]

43. Credit Michael Moore..... "hatriots"

[Odin2005]

39. That's why they invented the guillotine.