Does anyone else laugh at the obvious shills on YA?

TL;DR.

OBAMA 2012!

Quite true unfortunately. I'll disagree with the exact same group. Their levels of influence in respective parties differ to an extent but both parties are the puppets of corporations and some of the rhetoric is purely corporate rivalry or corporate interests of some sort versus a special interest group. Thus gun makers who almost universally support Republicans because Republican rhetoric is pro-gun line up with the GOP and thus anti-gun laws are realistically more punishment on gun makers rather than any supposed safety issue. The environmental movement is the greatest example. Oil companies harm the US economy yes. Coal companies traditionally battled unions who are very influential in the DNC. As such the environmental movement has been hijacked by the Left to punish people who are "right wing". Never mind that electric cars require vast amounts of elements so uncommon they are called RARE earth minerals. That we would run out of these in a decade. That electric cars merely shift where pollution is generated, do more damage to the environment in their manufacture than gas powered cars do in their life time and become toxic spills waiting to happen when they start getting dumped in lakes, left rotting in fields and burned to a crisp on backroads. Lets forget all of that because electric cars are a feel good thing that can make certain industries a bundle.

So there are competing interests involved. The fact is that the 2 parties have learned that no matter how badly they act, we have to elect one of the 2 idiots. Long as that is true they hold a stranglehold on power. One they hold so tight they will NOT let it go. Thus laws like SOPA and PIPA to give them easy means to take out any website disseminating information they do not like.

They then take illogical stances on issues, some of the issues made up issues so that no matter who you are you can disagree vehemently with the other side and point out their own illogic while immune to the illogic of your own stance. Thus guaranteeing the people remain divided and need "protection" from the other side. They then repeatedly victimize the very people they purport to protect just to make sure they remain angry and feel oppressed thus willing to hop out and fanatically support one party or the other. The biggest enemy of the poor are the Democrats. The biggest enemy of the middle class are the Republicans. Both parties cater too and protect the wealthy.

As for your ruling class yes it exists but not organized like you appear to think it is. Yes there are lots of collaboration. You see it all the time in price fixing and presidential elections. Every year congress writes laws that are the result of corporations/groups pressuring them to squish this or that competitor or make it easier for them to engage in illicit, immoral and unfair trade/union/legal practices. If they were as organized as you say there'd be wars of succession with physical tangible bodies in the streets. There would be coups and take overs and all the diseases that follow power. The more organized the more impact these would have, the higher the body counts would be and eventually they'd inevitably disintegrate to reform a new power base. Until you find evidence, clear evidence of these you can only assume more of of mob/good ole boy kinda system where various groups and factions scratch each other's backs and compete with each other.

This is well said and for the most part correct, that's why I support putting a cap on campaign contributions.

You shouldn't need to be propped up by some major corporation to be able to run for office, If we cut off the means of communication we might have some decent candidates in office instead of people just looking out for the corporations paying for em.

Does it matter? If the madness is as you say, and I do believe you, then how do we stop it?

The rich are deathly afraid of losing power and they will destroy the planet before giving it up voluntarily. We must find a way of taking that power away and giving it to the people in a new way. This crappy scorekeeping system needs to be revised as well. Does the GDP REALLY tell you about the quality of life?

All I know is that we must find a way, and find it very soon, or someone is going to do something with consequences unthinkable.

Yeah I am convinced that the usual suspects that spew the same garbage over and over again are either delusional nuts that actually like belonging to the "team" even though the leaders of their team wouldn't p!ss on them if they were on fire (that's both sides of politics ) or paid lobbyists...

@draciron- "As for your ruling class yes it exists but not organized like you appear to think it is."

I agree with this somewhat but IMO this only makes things worse ...hard to fight something that is constantly changing and unpredictable in where and how it acts ...

Well, at least to some extent, what you're saying is correct. The REAL power is always the power BEHIND the throne, where they can dictate the actions of the public ruler but don't have to answer to anyone.

To some extent what you're saying makes sense, but the GOP is much more infiltrated and tainted by corporate interests than the govt establishment is.

I'm more shocked by the bad poetry some people post here.