[Sixstrings]

I ran across this vid on youtube, a speech by Huey Long:

Huey Long: Share the Wealth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphgHi6FD8k

And I was just struck that much of it is the exact words of what we're hearing now. A lot of talking about what percentage of Americans own what percentage of the wealth, and to share the wealth.

Long is a fascinating character, in history. He was a "chavez" style populist demagogue -- to the left of Roosevelt, hated even more than Roosevelt. But loved even more, by the majority, that kept voting for him.

He turned into a dictator -- not one thing happened in Louisiana government without his order or approval. He entirely controlled the legislature, as governor, and then after elected to US senate he handpicked a puppet governor in Louisiania -- and he continued to run the entire state gov, from the US senate.

He started talking about running for president and was assassinated.

So, that's a dictator, and dictators aren't good. But yet he did so much for people. He paved all the roads in the state. He built schools, he gave all the kids textbooks for the first time. I listened to one of his speeches on youtube, and it was remarkably progressive for those times. Things like not having the mentally ill in prison -- he built hospitals instead.

He built LSU. He built the capitol. He accomplished more in one term as governor, than any governor ever has before or since.

These were dark days, during the great depresion. People were starving. They were disillusioned with the "republican" and "democratic" parties, saying neither party would ever do anything for the people. In Europe, populist fascist dictators seized power -- with popular support. Hitler, Mussolini. USSR had a already had its hungry people revolution, turning to communism. And before all that was Franco in Spain, then the Spanish civil war, then fascist dictatorship in Spain.

Here's another famous demagogue of the day, "Father Coughlin:"

Father Coughlin Speaks Against the Federal Reserve
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9vWAInltDs

That's populism, there -- you can hear some of that in Warren, in Sanders, from the Tea Party and R right wing too. Just indignant anger, about wall street, about the 1%, about the federal reserve.

Is everyone angry? This has been brewing for years now, starting with the financial collapse -- the same thing as back in the 1920s, and the depression that followed that.

So are we in a new 1930?

I'm too centrist to ever vote for a "huey long" (sanders is just enough huey long for me but he's not TOO much so I'm comfy with him); can we at least get an "FDR," and who would that be? Is that Sanders, can Clinton somehow take up that mantle and not be a total sham? She plants to give a big speech in two weeks, at FDR's four freedoms park in new york city.

One thing is for sure -- Republicans can't just ignore it. It isn't going away. If I were advising the Republican Party, I'd tell them they need to not repeat the mistakes of Hooverism. Republicans need to start doing some things for the middle and working class.

But I guess they won't, and so history repeats.

[Plantagenet]

So are we in a new 1930?

Can we at least get an "FDR" out of it, and who would that be?

One thing is for sure -- Republicans can't just ignore it. It isn't going away. If I were advising the Republican Party, I'd tell them they need to not repeat the mistakes of Hooverism. Republicans need to start doing some things for the middle and working class. But I guess they won't, and so history repeats.

Ds have a demographic "lock" on the Presidency, so there's no point in looking on the R side for the next FDR.

On the Ds side, you've got Hillary, Sanders and now O'Malley. Hillary is Wall Street's favorite candidate, so she's not the next FDR. Sanders is a great guy, but he's not really a democrat and he's got that history of writing a "rape fantasy". That leaves O'Malley-----

Wall Street HATES O'Malley----so maybe he'll be the next FDR?



martin-omalley-is-wall-streets-public-enemy-number-one

[yellowcanoe]

The Great Depression was a man made event -- there were no resource shortages at the time. Now we are dealing with resource shortages, especially oil. So I would not agree that 2015 is like 1933, the economic malaise we are now in isn't going to go away.

[Sixstrings]

Ds have a demographic "lock" on the Presidency, so there's no point in looking on the R side for the next FDR.

Well I obviously don't expect Republicans to produce an "FDR," , but my point is that they just need to rediscover some sensible moderate in them again. Eisenhower. Bob Dole. HW Bush. They've just got to move a little bit, on a minimum wage and on healthcare and on getting some things for the 99% -- and my point is that if they don't, then they are inviting in things that are far worse for the interests of the rich.

My point is that it is unwise for Republican (and corporate democrat) elite to be Marie Antoinette at Versailles, oblivious. Cuz that ain't gonna work out for them.

I'll tell you exactly what will happen, down the road -- if Republicans and corporate democrats do not bend and start doing for the 99% --- then we're going to wind up with extreme socialism, like Hugo Chavez, just from pent-up anger and too much suffering by the 99%.

Latinos are going to be the majority, in not too many years -- Republicans need to change now, get it together now, start doing some things for the people too or honestly they're inviting in a Chavez one day and that's going to be far worse for them than just givin' folks some darn healthcare and raising wages and taxing the rich a little bit.

My point is, the rich need to get smart and pay a little bit of taxes, before they lose it all. This is just like business, they should think of it that way. Like how if you charge your customers too much, if you're too rude to them, if you treat them too badly -- eventually you will LOSE your business.

Republicans are gonna lose everything, because of their blind greed and stubbornness, that's what I'm saying.

Hillary is Wall Street's favorite candidate, so she's not the next FDR. Sanders is a great guy, but he's not really a democrat and he's got that history of writing a "rape fantasy". That leaves O'Malley-----

I'll be curious to see Hillary's speech at FDR's "four freedoms park" in two weeks. I wonder what she's gonna say, will it be all vague or will she try to emulate warren / sanders.

She wants power, most of all -- if she sees that populism works, she may try to adopt it. But I don't know if anyone can ever trust her.

Wall Street HATES O'Malley----so maybe he'll be the next FDR?

Well if that's really true, then that makes me like O'Malley. I saw his speech, and I'm not sure, he's a bit too smooth -- I'm getting John Edwards vibes. Good speech though. Good delivery. I didn't hear exact numbers and specifics though, like bernie does.

[Plantagenet]

The Great Depression was a man made event -- there were no resource shortages at the time. Now we are dealing with resource shortages, especially oil. So I would not agree that 2015 is like 1933, the economic malaise we are now in isn't going to go away.

Actually there is no "resource shortage" right now. We're going to get to peak oil eventually, but right now we are in an oil glut and you can get all the oil you want (and many other commodities) at low to moderate prices.

IMHO the comparison between now and the 1930s is pretty good. We've got a nasty dictator in Europe taking bites out of other countries just like they had in the 1930s (Hiter = Putin), we've got a bad actor trying to expand in Asia at the same time (Imperial Japan vs. China) we've got a global economic downturn (Great Depression = Great Recession) and we've got a bumbling incompetent President who doesn't know what to do to fix things (Hoover = Obama) and who is engaged in appeasing various dictators from Iran to Russia (Neville Chamberlain = Obama).

Just today news came from Iran that their nuclear stockpiles continue to grow----Neville Chamberlain the Obama administration announced it was "totally perplexed" by this news. Indeed.

Yup--- we definitely could do with another FDR.

[Sixstrings]

Plant, I saw that speech, and yep my ears perked up when I heard this:

"Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he’d be just fine with either [Jeb] Bush or [Hillary] Clinton. I bet he would," O'Malley said, adding, "Well, I’ve got news for the bullies of Wall Street: The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families. It is a sacred trust, to be earned from the American people, and exercised on behalf of the people of these United States."

BUT -- there were no specific numbers, in O'malley's speech. That's what I like about bernie.

I'm open to O'Malley, though. The more he goes after banker democrat elite, the more I will like him. But I am just also a very smart person and I know that maybe this is all politics -- if he is saying no specifics, no numbers like bernie does, then it's just meaningless red meat talk to move up in the polls, same as all the others do, then maybe he'd flip flopped if he got to the WH because he never believed in it to start with. That's how Obama was. There were no specifics. Just inspiring talk, remember?

I like bernie for the same reasons I liked Ross Perot back in the day -- I'm hearing the truth, I'm hearing HARD NUMBERS and specifics.

And back to historical perspective, Huey Long had specifics too. He told people what he was gonna do for them, specifically, and he did it. His power base was 100% what he did for the 99%. He didn't have any rich behind him, only the people.

So I guess that's what I'm getting at here, short of a huey long or a Putin or a Mussolini, somehow we've got to get some people in Washington whose power base is US -- rather than the 1% and wall street.

I want to vote for someone that wall street HATES. I want to hear what old FDR said, "the rich hate me and I welcome their hatred" but yet we need someone that's not a loon either, and FDR was not, he was just a happy warrior iron man for the 99%.

[Sixstrings]

Yup--- we definitely could do with another FDR.

FDR's 2nd Bill Of Rights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9sq_PLF2rA&spfreload=1

Right to higher education, right to housing, right to jobs that pay enough to feed a family and live on, right of small business to not get squashed by big business monopolies "at home and abroad," etc.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt passed away before he could move forward with the 2nd bill of rights, after the war.

Saw this, while looking at FDR vids:

Our Daily Bread (1934) dedicated to Bernie Sanders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxQD47acoFE

The film depicts a couple, down on their luck during the Great Depression, who move to a farm to try to make a go of living off the land. They don't have a clue at first, but soon find other people down on their luck to help them. Soon they have a collective of people, some from the big city, who work together on a farm. There is a severe drought, killing the crops. The people then dig a ditch by hand almost two miles long to divert water from a creek to irrigate the crops. The film is an entertaining, uplifting political allegory about the virtues of collective, non-corporate action, self-sufficiency, and the rewards of hard-work rather than the rewards of rapacious finance capitalism