Try to enforce regulations on OIL.. they threaten to raise prices and lay people off.

[cubby1223]

In Venezuela, the wealthy class was happy to have a major economic shutdown to try to hurt the economy so much, it would create public pressure to remove Chavez. It was a hugely harmful use of power. They lost the gamble. Companies also did things like sabotage systems, refuse to hand over passwords to the government.

You have a very sick mind. You need help. You need a therapist or something. I don't know what, but it's clear you are not normal.

Seriously, what do you do for a living? Do you even work? Do you have any clue how the real world behaves?



You're standing up for a dictator who proclaimed that the earthquake centered in Haiti was a secret U.S. military strike testing it's effectiveness for an invasion of Iran.

Do you have troubles piecing data together? What is it? There is a serious flaw in your reasoning skills that is obvious to _everyone_ except yourself. You cannot blame everything you don't agree with as evil plots.

 

[Jhhnn]

Seriously???

You seriously supported Chavez in this post?

Seriously?

There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you support totalitarianism, Craig. No doubt at all.

As for your blathering bullshit on Kennedy, gee, what happened to the US steel industry just about a decade after??? That little crap by Kennedy, combined with a whole slew of other government intrusions (including an attempted takeover by Truman AND blocked mergers) and support of unions KILLED the US steel industry.

It simply amazes me that you cannot understand what your ideals lead to.

That's lame. Graig didn't champion Chavez at all, but rather pointed out that Venezuela's economic elite would basically stop at nothing, hold the entire nation hostage to have their way. You haven't countered that at all.

The whole bit about the american steel industry shows a lot of conditioning effort has paid off, at least with you, and a profound ignorance of history.

Foreign steel eclipsed american because it was and still is heavily subsidized by those govts, and because american capitalists were disinvesting in steel at the same time, actually supplying their foreign competitors with raw materials as they cut back production at home. Japanese, German and Korean mills underwent rapid modernization via investment while american capitalists sucked the life out of america's antiquated mills, sold off the husks in pieces.

http://books.google.com/books?id=pd...onepage&q=japanese steelworkers wages&f=false

Big oil is singing the same song as big banking- Give us what we want or we'll crash ya!

And that's because american consumers are dupes, anyway. Higher oil prices are inevitable, but the sales of pickups and large automobiles are still good- the best part of the market for american makers. Not to mention that America loves to drive everywhere at the slightest provocation, usually alone in the car, too. Check out how few cars have more than one occupant the next time you drive to work, and how few of them actually get better than 25mpg. Hell, make that 20mpg. And, of course, no American would give more than passing consideration to the idea of living near where they work- Huh-uhh! Metro Denver's roadways are clogged every weekday by people who live near the tech center driving to work in Longmont, and their Longmont counterparts driving to work in the Tech center- Same basic neighborhoods, same quality of schools, same basic taxes, both groups sucking up petroleum and blowing the remains out their tailpipes simply because they can, because gas is cheap and they think it'll be that way forever...

Not to mention that they'll drive 20 miles across town to save $3 on a sale of anything...

 

[Anarchist420]

And big banking is due to big government.

 

[JSt0rm]

You're standing up for a dictator who proclaimed that the earthquake centered in Haiti was a secret U.S. military strike testing it's effectiveness for an invasion of Iran.

Again, think for yourself. Research this story and you will not find a quote of Chavez saying this. shocking I know but you are being played. We all are. Its a massive misinformation campaign.

The question is why? And we only need to see that Chavez nationalized the natural resources of his country. This goes against how we use the world i.e. we trade our paper monies (worthless) for real tangible natural resources. We also lend them the money via the world bank and make them pay us back interest on that paper. hah. Its all a scam and we are at the center of it. It's hard to see when you are in the middle of the empire. Now I know some of you applaud this type of activity but ask yourselves why its always the countries with the most natural resources that are the bad guys?

 

[JSt0rm]

heres a little rundown on the story

http://theantipress.blogspot.com/2010/01/truth-over-ideological-delusion-hugo.html

 

[Craig234]

And big banking is due to big government.

No, it's not. Ask the banks how they feel about your theory when the government did as it's supposed to under FDR. Bug meant reigning in the banks, not creating them.

Big banking is cause by big banks - by the natural tendency for the concentration of money, which makes for the concentration of power, when it's NOT stopped by government.

You are pushing a no-government utopia that is a guaranteed private tyranny.

 

[Craig234]

Do you have any clue how the real world behaves?

Far better than you.

You're standing up for a dictator who proclaimed that the earthquake centered in Haiti was a secret U.S. military strike testing it's effectiveness for an invasion of Iran.

There's the 'you're standing up' part, and the earthquake part.

Chavez did not shoot JFK, nor does he eat babies for all three meals daily.

OH, wait, there I go again standing up for him - and if you just say enough all the things bad about him, it'll refute my post and prove he actually did shoot JFK and eats babies.

Actually, let's skip ahead to your next comment, since it earns you irony of the month:

Do you have troubles piecing data together? What is it? There is a serious flaw in your reasoning skills that is obvious to _everyone_ except yourself.

My post did not discuss what Chavez did right or wrong, but rather the behavior of the wealthier class and major companies in reaction to him.

Its point was about the power and willingness of very powerful private organizations to challenge government, whether you like the government or not. It could be your government, the same issue applies regardless of the government being good or bad, but you had nothing to say about the topic, you instead put words in my mouth and ranted against your straw man.

On the Earthquake, it's been refuted above, but that's not all there is to it, let's note that this is propaganda, and you're a dupe falling for it.

Simply for reasons of wanting to keep the Latin American people poor that profits us more, as has been the case with many Latin American countries, Chavez has been made an 'enemy', and demonized into a new Hitler/commie/monster/Stalin (which oh by the way, we supported a coup against, yet another of our supporting the overthrow of an elected leader), and to demonize him, the interests who want to do that can get big media coverage of a lie, which spreads a false myth - propaganda. Hence the earthquake.

The next question is, if big media propagandizes the free American people with a lie to further an agenda, will they get away with it?

There are many people like you who show they will and they do.

This has nothing to do with how bad or good Chavez is, it has to do with the ability of interests to propagandize the American people at will for their agenda.

Noriega didn't change a lot between having 'good' and 'bad' press here. Saddam didn't change a lot between having 'good' and 'bad' press here.

But you can't tell you are being propagandized constantly - you just buy the propaganda and then regurgitate it here attacking anyone who has the right info.

We can lead a horse, you, to water, but we can't make it not pee in the trough as you do.

 

[Craig234]

Thank god for the industrial military complex, eh Craig? If not for our grossly inflated military budget, Kennedy couldn't have pressured the steel industry. So really, it only costs us hundreds of billions of dollars per year and numerous American lives to keep the steel industry in check. What a deal.

You post idiocy consistently to my posts from the few I read. It's a bit like a parasite.

Be nice to find a cure, but in the meantime, let's contain the parasite in an example here.

The topic was the behavior of big business and the issue of the need for a government to be able to reign it in, something you did not get.

The topic included, did Kennedy have the tools he needed to represent the public interest?

The fear of the word 'socialist' left him with very few tools - this could easily have gone the other way with Kennedy forced to let the companies do what they wanted against the public interest, because if he stood up to them he'd be an 'anti-business socialist'. It shows he did not have the right powers that he had to scramble using what happened to be there.

That was the point, that his threat of the Justice Department would be called by the right today an 'abuse of power', 'big government tyranny', but it's what he did for this because it's all he had, and there might be some truth to those attacks, but it was for the right interest.

The point was that the military spending happened to be there for leverage, showing how he lacked other authority and had to use the military spending. No one said - but you wrongly implied they had - that the military should be overfunded in order to have this leverage. Rather, the situation is that big business could win that battle if not for the 'luck' it was there to use.

Today, the top supplier of oil to the US military is reportedly BP - there's big 'leverage' once again in dealing with their bad behavior on the oil spill. We don't know what role it played in things like getting BP to fund the $20 billion fund. The better point is that the government should have the power to represent the public - and not have to hope it has some big money interest to let it do so.

The point is that big business can get too powerful at being able to defeat the democratic system we have and let the powerful interests hurt the public.

People need to realize that, before they run off demanding to reduce the ability of government to represent them in Libertarian and right-wing delusions.

Kennedy had a balanced approach for the good of the nation, with plenty of room for the businesses to profit, but preventing them from conspiring to gouge the public.

The decline of the industry 'a decade later' wasn't his fault here.

You're little cult member warriors screaming for your ideological side and attacking, without pretty much any truth, facts, logic, anything but hot air and nonsense.

 

[BoberFett]

Blah blah blah, same old Craig bullshit. I can't even be bothered to read your tripe.

 

[Jhhnn]

Blah blah blah, same old Craig bullshit. I can't even be bothered to read your tripe.

Of course not. A solid wall of denial must be maintained at all cost, even if it means resorting to Nah-nah-nah-nah as a method of argument. Otherwise, your world would fall apart...

 

[BoberFett]

Of course not. A solid wall of denial must be maintained at all cost, even if it means resorting to Nah-nah-nah-nah as a method of argument. Otherwise, your world would fall apart...

I should have predicted you'd be here to defend Craig. Your walls o' text are almost as worthless as his.

 

[Double Trouble]

I should have predicted you'd be here to defend Craig. Your walls o' text are almost as worthless as his.

Both tend to be completely devoid of logic. Just throw in "big corporations" and "concentration of wealth" and "need government to stop them" every now and again and you'll pretty much capture their every post.

 

[Double Trouble]

Again, think for yourself. Research this story and you will not find a quote of Chavez saying this. shocking I know but you are being played. We all are. Its a massive misinformation campaign.

The question is why? And we only need to see that Chavez nationalized the natural resources of his country. This goes against how we use the world i.e. we trade our paper monies (worthless) for real tangible natural resources. We also lend them the money via the world bank and make them pay us back interest on that paper. hah. Its all a scam and we are at the center of it. It's hard to see when you are in the middle of the empire.

Yes, it has absolutely nothing to do with the actions of Chavez himself, shutting down the free press, imprisoning opponents, nationalizing industries who don't go along with his Castro-manifest. It's all one big giant made up misinformation campaign. Have you ever been there? Do you know anything about the place other than what Dailykos and other idiot outlets tell you?

Now I know some of you applaud this type of activity but ask yourselves why its always the countries with the most natural resources that are the bad guys?

Yep, Cuba is loaded with natural resources... as are Libya, North Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc etc etc.

Not all US goals are noble, most are just self serving, just as with any other country, but you're just a nut out there if you believe it's all some big giant conspiracy.

 

[William Gaatjes]

High business taxes do nothing but hurt the consumer AND the workers.

Why? Because busniesses merely pass these taxes on to the consumer with higher prices. AND, higher prices makes companies less profitable on the world market, which then makes countries with lower taxes have an edge.

Busniess taxes do NOTHING but hurt consumers and the ability of companies to compete, thus putting people out of work.

I actually agree with you. Taxes for companies should not be necessary because the tax should be payed to the government as an percentage in the salary. The only thing companies should pay the government as a few examples, is when their are regulations violated. Regulations such as for safety of employees. environment regulations, etcetera. When the company pays for the ground that should be hired from the state. And there should be government regulations where the companies as a whole collection are "stimulated" to address payment and maintenance for, for example public transport and educational programs etcetera. Since these directly affect the companies as well. This way, part of the profit of the company is in this way automatically inserted again into the country and us such increases efficiency because of less problems such as road block transport failures.

A government regulation to prevent corporatism, but actively working together with companies.

It is an idea anyway.

 

[piasabird]

If you try to set prices on oil or overregulate Oil wells, then domestic oil will get scarce and some other countries will just sit back are rake in the tax dollars. If you like terrorist oil countries this is fine I guess.

 

[xj0hnx]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. So we need oil. That means we need to pay the price to get it. Do you think oil companies should be handing us free oil out of the goodness of their heart or something?

Also, you tout the 6 billion number like it's a lot. If you look at profit the way anyone who understands finances would: as a percentage return on equity or investment, the profits for the oil companies are much lower than most other industries. Apparently you can't grasp that.

If we add a big tax on top of the price of oil, what do you think the company is going to do? Eat the tax? Of course not, they'd be stupid. They just pass along the cost to the consumer, just like any other business.

We are entitled to the oil that is free to produce at 100% profit to the evil corporations.

 

[dahunan]

If you try to set prices on oil or overregulate Oil wells, then domestic oil will get scarce and some other countries will just sit back are rake in the tax dollars. If you like terrorist oil countries this is fine I guess.

^^^ that is the funniest shit I have read in a long long time.. just those few words

I assume you know what that all the iraqis and afghanis praise the USA and feel the USA now has a right to the oil there since they hung the old dictator before he could ever talk.


blind patriots are the worst kinds.... be a patriot of humankind not nations or dollars or
be a patriot of the heart and connection to other human beings EVERYWHERE... don't sit on your ass and think

US VS THEM
US VS THEM
US VS THEM

If you took enough time to see that the people who have the power will do anything and everything to keep it.. no matter how many lives it costs as long as they keep it

We are all living in their world... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Is Iraq a humanitarian mission? Then what is it?
Did the USA sell weaponry to Saudi Arabia

 

[JSt0rm]

Yes, it has absolutely nothing to do with the actions of Chavez himself, shutting down the free press, imprisoning opponents, nationalizing industries who don't go along with his Castro-manifest. It's all one big giant made up misinformation campaign. Have you ever been there? Do you know anything about the place other than what Dailykos and other idiot outlets tell you?

I'm not defending him. I know that story is false. The one the main stream media bombarded you with is a lie. If you enjoy that then cool. Personally I'm going to look into what anyone tells me. But that's just me. You want to be mad at me for questioning authority? lol. Fascist.

If you care

http://www.globalissues.org/article/403/media-propaganda-and-venezuela

I dont think you do though. I also enjoy living in the matrix, I like knowing though. If you don't, that's fine but don't get butt hurt when someone else does.

 

[rudder]

Not as much as having no Regulations as we have seen.

What regulations were not in place to prevent this disaster? Hard to enforce regulations when the enforcers are busy doing other things and looking the other way.

Competent government employees is the issue... not more regulations.

 

[JSt0rm]

What regulations were not in place to prevent this disaster? Hard to enforce regulations when the enforcers are busy doing other things and looking the other way.

Competent government employees is the issue... not more regulations.

Is that what you say every time someone is speeding?

 

[Double Trouble]

You want to be mad at me for questioning authority? lol. Fascist.

First, I'm not mad at you for questioning anything, that's your right, even if you're wrong.

If you care

http://www.globalissues.org/article/403/media-propaganda-and-venezuela

I dont think you do though. I also enjoy living in the matrix, I like knowing though. If you don't, that's fine but don't get butt hurt when someone else does.

LOL. Unlike you, I grew up 100 miles from Caracas. I now live in the US, but I have close family and friends who still live there. I don't just repeat what some stupid website yaks on about, I've seen it. That web site you linked to is complete crap, from start to finish.

 

[JSt0rm]

First, I'm not mad at you for questioning anything, that's your right, even if you're wrong.

wait so you are saying that Chavez did in fact say that we used our earthquake weapon? Please show me your source. :hmm:

 

[Throckmorton]

What regulations were not in place to prevent this disaster? Hard to enforce regulations when the enforcers are busy doing other things and looking the other way.

Competent government employees is the issue... not more regulations.

We didn't require all the safeguards that European countries did, because oil companies complained it would cost them too much money. Those were exactly the same safeguards that would have prevented the current oil leak.

Regardless, whether it's better enforcement or more regulation, they cost the oil companies money. That's the whole point. If they conformed to regulations without being FORCED to, then you wouldn't be saying we need competent regulators. So ask yourself why oil companies don't regulate themselves.

 

[Amused]

I'm not defending him. I know that story is false. The one the main stream media bombarded you with is a lie. If you enjoy that then cool. Personally I'm going to look into what anyone tells me. But that's just me. You want to be mad at me for questioning authority? lol. Fascist.

If you care

http://www.globalissues.org/article/403/media-propaganda-and-venezuela

I dont think you do though. I also enjoy living in the matrix, I like knowing though. If you don't, that's fine but don't get butt hurt when someone else does.

That site is run by, and written by one guy.

http://www.globalissues.org/about

Are you seriously using that as a source to prove your claim?

Seriously?

 

[Double Trouble]

wait so you are saying that Chavez did in fact say that we used our earthquake weapon? Please show me your source. :hmm:

It was on the ViVe TV website and broadcast, which is Chavez' personal government mouthpiece. I read the article myself where it said Chavez made the claim. It was later removed from the website after Chavez was roundly ridiculed around the world for the idiot that he is.

That's not my point though, my point is that you're trying to portray it as some vast conspiracy by the media to paint Chavez in a negative light. First, it was his own media outlet that reported it. Second, that's just one tiny spec of all the insane things El Presidente for live wannabe has said and done. Sadly for the people of Venezuela, it's not a conspiracy by the media, he really is dismantling a once proud country.