After Clinton is elected...

[SHRED]

...I think we need to get back to the issues.

Mr. Cole elaborates.
Issues we face of extreme importance are noted in the article.

Here's to hoping we can start pushing hard Left when this charade ends Nov 8th.


The Vanity of the Billionaires: Circuses and no Bread
By Juan Cole | Oct. 16, 2016 |

The US government offers a little bread in the form of welfare, but not much and much less than it used to. Most working people haven’t recovered from 2008. Mostly nowadays we are being offered circuses by the billionaires who now rule us.

Anything to avoid talking about the issues above. The mobs around Trump are mostly riled by the very inequality and injustice and lack of government services that he is campaigning to worsen, but have been fooled into thinking he is a populist by his swagger. And of course the Clinton campaign is inadvertently the beneficiary of these circuses as well, since otherwise its relationship to Wall Street and other centers of power and wealth would be headlines.

http://www.juancole.com/2016/10/vanity-billionaires-circuses.html

[LWolf]

1. I've never left them.

The issues need to be front and center at all times, whether it's campaign season or not, and regardless of who is or isn't elected.

No election is suddenly going to make the billionaires and their circus disappear, so we should be pushing hard left NOW and until we effect the change we're working for.

[SHRED]

2. Yeah but I'm wondering...

...Will there still be a "loyalty oath" here on the DU post election?
Will we be allowed to critique Hillary if she strays too far over into the corporate rightwing world?

[LWolf]

5. Well, based

on past experience, criticism will be allowed, and criticizers will be reviled. For at least 5 years.

Strays too far? Come on. Don't we both know where a Clinton administration will begin?

[SHRED]

6. I was treading lightly

I know where she'll begin. Fortunately I think it is to the left of Bill. But then again, as many have said before me, "Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we've ever had"...lol.

[LWolf]

8. We can hope.

And treading lightly is essential at this point.

[guillaumeb]

3. And this from the article:

Tax policy produces the class structure over time. In the 1950s, the top 1% owned about 25% of the privately held wealth in the US. Now it is close to 40%. What changed is mostly the tax structure.

Class structure is not an accident of politics, it is not "natural law" in action, it is a deliberate construct that works to concentrate power and wealth. The job of a government is to convince the bottom 99% via history books and political speech that this construct is the only logical way to structure a society.

Recommended.

[Starry Messenger]

4. We work like hell.

I know no one cares what I post lol, but just in case--Hillary has been signalling an intent to work on issues like poverty and children.

Her new tax credit: http://www.npr.org/2016/10/11/497570475/new-clinton-child-tax-credit-could-help-low-income-parents-but-cost-200-billion

"Hillary Clinton on Tuesday rolled out a new tax break that, if enacted, would put more money into the pockets of working parents with very young children.

The Democratic presidential candidate said she would push for a doubling of the current $1,000 tax credit for children ages 4 and under. An estimated 15 million children would be eligible.

The new help would come in the form of a tax credit, which cuts the amount of federal taxes owed dollar for dollar. Translation: If you owe $3,000 in income taxes, but you have a new baby, your tax bill would fall to just $1,000.

Even people who earn too little to owe income taxes would get cash back from the U.S. Treasury. "It's just like the tax refund check that everyone else gets; it's dollars in your pocket," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center."

[SHRED]

7. +10

[Starry Messenger]

10. Note to hosts: I blocked tralala.

This person self-deletes nearly every post they post in here. I don't consider that a good faith effort at being a member of the discussion here.