Unofficial State of the Union Address Thread

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I'm excited for the empty promises and lip service to the greatest problem of the century (economic inequality) while continuing to tacitly back policies which continue the transfer of wealth and power from the people to the plutocracy.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

We need a leftist response to the State of the Union, not just a response from the even worse reactionaries. The idea that a imperialist neoliberal thug should represent the "left" is disgusting.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama begins by shilling the hollow recovery.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Yay, America's the number one place to leech off the capital produced by labor!

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama throws pennies to keep his left flank distracted while tacitly supporting policies which rape the global proletariat (TPP, his secret war on public education, his health care handout to HMO's and Big Pharma, etc.)

And thank you for that, Scott.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama begins by shilling the hollow recovery.

Keep on whining for the rest of your life. Your ideology will never be popular.

Your ideology should have been stamped out in 1945, but the fights at the local level for $15 and a union and the end of the decline in unionization rates show that democratic socialism is not only alive, but on the cusp of victory.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

And again the imperialist suggests that the same band-aids he's given lip to for the past five years will solve economic inequality, and he's framed the issue in the most right-wing way possible (expanding le opportunity!!11)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Is this thug seriously suggesting that the fascist TPP will boost the American working class and lead to more American manufacturing?!?!?!

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Is this thug seriously suggesting that the fascist TPP will boost the American working class?!?!?!

Ignoring the hyperbolic rhetoric, the President acknowledged the necessity of guaranteeing protections for workers in trade agreements.

The proposals in the TPP negotiations suggest otherwise. Look at what he does, not what he says.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama begins by shilling the hollow recovery.

Keep on whining for the rest of your life. Your ideology will never be popular.

Your ideology should have been stamped out in 1945, but the fights at the local level for $15 and a union and the end of the decline in unionization rates show that democratic socialism is not only alive, but on the cusp of victory.

Unionization doesn't mean socialism. People support small businesses. People support low prices through free trade. People support entrepreneurship. They don't support handouts for nothing. Agree or not, that's the truth on what the people want.

You can argue about how taxing the rich to death will stop income inequality (failed in France), but the fact remains that won't help move the middle class/poor move upwards. It begins and ends with education, and collectivization and socialism won't do anything to make people happier if they can't move up the ladder. Education is the key, and it will continue to be until the day the government actually tries to do something to make it better.

I support free trade (which is not what FTA's are), socialism is compatible with some small private enterprise, and unionism is explicitly meant as a step towards workplace democracy (before it was co-opted by liberals to be a toothless organizing wing of the Democrats). And it's not "handouts", it's redistribution of wealth to counteract the parasitic rich in their theft of labor. The guaranteed minimum income is even advocated by libertarians due to consolidating many existing welfare programs into a simple check handed to every American.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

If Obama proposes a new WPA/CCC (plus aggressive promotion of unionization) instead of just extending unemployment insurance I might cut him some slack.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

High-quality preschool will only come through it being free and public.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama, just stop pretending to care about poverty unless you're willing to fight for far-reaching solutions that tackle the root of the problem (i.e. capitalism) instead of half-assed solutions like a $10 minimum wage or continuing the incompetent and insufficient welfare programs.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Executive order for minimum wage of $10 an hour! (for federal workers at least)

Table scraps.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama, just stop pretending to care about poverty unless you're willing to fight for far-reaching solutions that tackle the root of the problem (i.e. capitalism) instead of half-assed solutions like a $10 minimum wage or continuing the incompetent and insufficient welfare programs.

:temporarily off ignore:

Are you trolling? or is this the new bandwagon you're on?

:return to ignore until you grow up:

New bandwagon? I just know what the problem is.

The EITC is a scheme to let employers pay their workers less at the expense of taxpayers.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama, just stop pretending to care about poverty unless you're willing to fight for far-reaching solutions that tackle the root of the problem (i.e. capitalism) instead of half-assed solutions like a $10 minimum wage or continuing the incompetent and insufficient welfare programs.

:temporarily off ignore:

Are you trolling? or is this the new bandwagon you're on?

:return to ignore until you grow up:

New bandwagon? I just know what the problem is.

The EITC is a scheme to let employers pay their workers less at the expense of taxpayers.

So now you're concerned about taxpayers...

Indeed I am. Most Americans carry too high a tax burden, especially when most of it goes to further line the plutocrats' pockets.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Just a minute until the only non-plutocratic response!

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Just a minute until the only non-plutocratic response!

I was referring to the brilliant Ms. Sawant.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obama, just stop pretending to care about poverty unless you're willing to fight for far-reaching solutions that tackle the root of the problem (i.e. capitalism) instead of half-assed solutions like a $10 minimum wage or continuing the incompetent and insufficient welfare programs.

:temporarily off ignore:

Are you trolling? or is this the new bandwagon you're on?

:return to ignore until you grow up:

New bandwagon? I just know what the problem is.

The EITC is a scheme to let employers pay their workers less at the expense of taxpayers.

No, it's to help the poor and middle class in this country.

The same could be done without shifting the burden of payment off of employers.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Eliminating extreme poverty and other pervasive problems in developing states must come from within the country. The Bolivarian movement provides a model, albeit a flawed one.

"He who feeds you, controls you." - Thomas Sankara

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Wait, did I miss it, or did he not say what the state of the union was? Is it strong or not???

Gilded, as usual.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

It's certainly neo-colonialism at its finest--invest a little, extract a lot to the benefit of American/European/East Asian capitalists, threaten to pull out if they demand any more. Hopefully African socialism makes a comeback at some point to counter this.