comment #1

filmsofdusts says ...

Mad, so mad that statist governments will not point more guns and redistribute more money?

Wells, you are so confused, you think you are a freedom fighter and yet you are standing lock step with the corporations and governments from around the world.

Oh wait, lets see who is paying for your advertisements.

Nevermind, you pretend to be hardcore, but you are nothing but a corporate shill.

And, if you think middle America has never taken up arms you should start with the Whiskey Rebellion and then I can teach you a thing or two from there.

For more recent references Google Kelly Thomas and/or Thomas Ball.

comment #2

Kakihara says ...

Well, considering the Brits are closer to us than the Arabs, in terms of geography and/or personal lifestyles, you've still got to wonder if the powers that be aren't just a little bit nervous that they could be next. Especially since the Brits have the stereotype of being even more unfazed than us.

comment #3

Kakihara says ...

On the other hand, if we magically overcome our own crisis without having to resort to the same methods as those protestors and rioters, we might at least be able to reaffirm our value as a leader in democracy.

comment #4

Super Soul says ...

I'm going to guess that whenever Jeff is called for jury duty he's one of the first to be dismissed.

comment #5

Ray DeRousse says ...

I know lots of people who have nothing and will never have anything, and they couldn't care less. They have pot and microwave dinners and Jersey Shore and video games, and that's all they seem to care about.

comment #6

TheGK says ...

I live in London. They're barely related to the conservative cuts.
There's a simmering resentment of the police and a perception of racism in the most deprived areas of London.
It all started after a peaceful march demanded answers over the police shooting of a young black man. Then it all spiralled out of control into an orgy of arson and looting.

Fuck them - they're destroying their local communities as the riots are largely confined to those deprived areas. Shops where people work are being burnt to the ground. Even people's homes are being looted and razed.

comment #7

Super Soul says ...

"They have pot and microwave dinners and Jersey Shore and video games, and that's all they seem to care about."

Surely some of them must enjoy a bit of the old ultra-violence now and again.

comment #8

Ponderer says ...

This is nauseating. I just saw that hundreds of independent labels just lost ALL their stock because these grand young heroes torched the Sony Distribution Center (including the entire stock of the Masters of Cinema series) and were looting PS3s. Earlier, they burnt down all the buildings around a local high school.

Wonder how you'd feel if YOUR place was indiscriminately torched by these pieces of shit, and you lost everything you had? Sounds great? Then be bold! Incite some violence! Arson starts at home, you know.

comment #9

DiscoNap says ...

Yeah there are people jumping out of their high windows to escape the flames. I'm not sure the downtrodden middle class needs to be bringing back 9/11 memories.

Read your Herbert Asbury. This is out of control and has to be put down hard. We're talking scores of deaths, but they have no choice.

comment #10

Jonathan Spuij says ...

I'm going to Empire's Big Screen event this weekend. Not too optimistic about that even now...

comment #11

Glenn Kenny says ...

Jeff's theme song: "Never Been In A Riot," Mekons. (It's not in your kids' iPods, Jeff.)

Yeah, this is pretty grotesque and dillettantish, until you understand what Jeff's on about. He wants the middle-classes (Joe Popcorn) to riot, and to keep it away from wherever he lives. But they'll never do it because they're soft...not like him. As far as the Hispanic Party Animals or any other such tribe throwing a brick, once that happens within earshot of our genial host, it's "exterminate the brutes" time. Nothing particularly adolescent about this fantasy, no sirree bob.

comment #12

BRob says ...

These scum are doing nothing but hurting their own communities. If this was truly about protest about the current economic situation then why are they looting their neighbours homes and burning them down? There is a video going about of a young kid lying injured in a pool of his own blood. He asks some other kids for help and they seem to offer it only to mug him and take his rucksack:http://itv.co/qkpOXZ. This is a beyond disgusting situation.

Over in the middle east the youth have been campaigning and dying for true democratic freedom from hardline states. But these kids are in it for plasma TVs and sportswear - this is what the most popular loot seems to be. These idiots don't know the true meaning of deprivation and they are hurting those that do. This is just gang led, anarchist organised mayhem.

comment #13

Alboone says ...

It's going to happen Jeff. It's just that collapses takes time to ferment. It'll be years before we as a nation will all have our Howard Beale moment.

Oh and to Mr. Glenn Kenny...you are a dick. I just had to remind you in case you forgot.

comment #14

Ponderer says ...

You're openly wishing for this nation to collapse and GLENN is a dick? Fuck sakes. This is gonna be the first entertainment blog where someone gets arrested for sedition.

comment #15

Super Soul says ...

People don't get arrested for sedition in this country. They get tenure.

comment #16

George Prager says ...

Because it worked so well in Watts, Newark and Detroit back in the day...

comment #17

BRob says ...

This isn't a Howard Beale moment in the UK. It's a greed moment. We live in a world where having a mobile phone and games console is more important that helping the community you live in. I have a lot of friends in London and they're terrified right now. My parents grew up in the 40's and 50's and many folk back then knew true deprivation. No toilet, lung diseases, dangerous jobs and families often squeezed into one room. I hope they throw water cannons at these scumbags. All they're doing is destroying their own communities by expressing self pity through violence and theft.

comment #18

Josh Massey says ...

I honestly can't imagine the level of thick-headedness it must take to romanticize the happenings in London right now. Or how one can actually believe this has anything to do with young people "enraged at drastic cuts in social spending."

comment #19

Michael says ...

Super Soul wins this thread. Well done.

comment #20

Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy says ...

Alboone,

The childrens' table is in the other room. Finish your vegetables and you can have some dessert.

comment #21

Glenn Kenny says ...

Leave poor Alboone alone. He's not even a child, or a dick for that matter. He's nothing. Which, you know, feels lousy.

comment #22

York "Budd" Durden says ...

The underclass have been programmed to believe that having teevees and game consoles is an inalienable right. They don't give a shit about corrupt, violent police picking people of color off at their discretion. They want stuff. They would do well to burn down the financial centers and media headquarters rather than their own neighborhoods. Or better yet, try nonviolent protest, like posting about these issues on movie industry blogs.

comment #23

JR says ...

Cue the Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK"

comment #24

Dazza says ...

This interview with some of the "rioters" sorta sums up the (lack of) thought behind the young people committing these crimes.

http://boos.audioboo.fm/attachments/1441622/leana-hosea-speaks-to-croydon-looters.mp3?audio_clip_id=434411

comment #25

Eloi Wrath says ...

Yeah, others have already said it, but Jeff's entirely off-base on this one. They're using a tenuous link to that guy's shooting as an excuse to destroy their communities and get as much free shit as they can. TVs, clothes, shoes. It's just mass criminality.

comment #26

RupertLally says ...

It's already been said, but I'd like to add my voice to the group: This has NOTHING whatsoever to do with cuts, Jeff...and in a lot of cases nothing to do with the shooting that took place on Thursday...the vast majority of the rooters are using that as a convenient excuse to do some looting...please do us all a favor and stick to commenting on stuff where you know all the facts...and anyway, who are you kidding, when you suggest people in the U.S. should do the same? History has already shown us how the U.S. Government typically reacts to any form of protest, peaceful or otherwise...

comment #27

Guy Lodge says ...

You haven't a clue what you're talking about here, Jeff. Plenty of civil, hard-working have-nots are losing their homes, businesses and livelihoods because a bunch of bandwagon-jumping, barely adolescent sociopaths have spotted an opportunity to act out and take stuff. If they were consciously protesting against Cameron's government -- and trust me, most of these kids can scarcely define "social spending", much less care about it -- they'd bear down on Whitehall, not their own streets. If you really want this to happen in your community, may your car be the first one to get torched.

comment #28

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Excuse me for not filng from the streets of north London and reporting about the troubles with ash and soot in my lungs. Rote boilerplate explanations in three or four news outlets I read last night alluded to a sense of hopelessness & futility in the wake of the Cameron government's budgetary trims. "It's very sad to see. But kids have got no work, no future and the cuts have made it worse," said Hackney electrician Anthony Burns, 39. "You watch. It's only just begun."

I clearly said that what's happening in England is a particular situation that has no application or spillover to American discontent about anything. But I also asked wouldn't it be therapeutic and almost amazing on some level if something was to happen in this country....ANYthing...in a Howard Beale-ish fashion about how this country is being (has been) screwed and up-ended by the radical legislative right and the corporate elite and Obama doing nothing to MAN UP & PUNISH THE BAD GUYS like a strong president would do in a movie?

Josh Massey, Kenny, Lodge and Ponderer & the others know EXACTLY what I was talking about, they KNOW that news stories (however accurate or inaccurate) have alluded to conservative cuts as a significant factor and they DELIBERATELY CHOSE to misinterpret as if I was saying "burn it down over here too!"

Do you have guys really HAVE TO DISTORT? You can't just address the thought in the way it was clearly intended & expressed? Which was that there's a lot of steam over here too, and that it would be vivid & startling if it blew in SOME WAY, or in such a way that it wasn't about flames and looting as much as a Howard Beale-type rage about how putrid and corrupted so much has become in Washington, D.C., and how this country was, economically-speaking, something else in the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon-Ford-Carter years, and that it gradually became and has now IN FACT BECOME another place entirely since the early '80s, and that REAGAN DID IT (deregulated banks & the markets, I mean) and that DUBYA really did it by cutting taxes on the rich big-time and upping the debt by $6 trillion ("deficits don't matter") and leaving the markets ENTIRELY ALONE & to their UNREGULATED COWBOY TERRITORY INSTINCTS until what happened in '08 finally happened.

comment #29

markj says ...

This is the kind of 'people' we're dealing with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gex_ya4-Oo

Utter scum.

comment #30

mizerock says ...

"The proletarians will never revolt, not in a thousand years or a million. They cannot. I do not have to tell you the reason: you know it already. If you have even cherished any dreams of violent insurrection, you must abandon them. There is no way in which the Party can be overthrown. The rule of the Party is for ever. Make that the starting-point of your thoughts."

Sticking it to the evil corporations that work against the best interests of society = sounds like Poetic Justice on paper, but that's just not what's going to happen, not ever. Yes, sometimes people get mad about injustice, mad enough to riot, but it solves nothing. Not the overturning and burning of police cars, and certainly not the looting of stores and lighting fire to your neighbors' house.

comment #31

Super Soul says ...

Comrades of the revolution, I present to you your footsoldiers.

comment #32

Super Soul says ...

Some people are quite proud of them:
http://uhurunews.com/story?resource_name=stand-with-the-resisting-african-workers-in-britain

comment #33

Fyo Karamo says ...

Reagan did it ... Boomers did it.... Dubya did it .... while Jeff was off savings whales, digging water wells in Africa, and lying down in front of bulldozers in the Amazon.

You're a fraud, Jeff .... so you didn't over-leverage yourself or ride the bull of MBS's.... neither did 90% of Americans, for half of whom you don't pretend to hide your hatred. You're a a typical consumer, and as beholden to the corporate hegemony as anyone.

This country was down and out in the 70s. Thirty years of relative peace and prosperity brought down by Democrat AND Republican demagoguery does not make those years imaginary.

People like you, Jeff, are the reason communism and socialism may be attractive to many, but utterly impractical.... your anger, intolerance, and lack of empathy invariably lead to autocracy and censorship.

comment #34

actionlover says ...

No Jeffrey, I think they were just mocking your seemingly simplistic, knee jerkish response to seeing the AP pics and saying, in essence, "Protestors in the streets givin' it to the man! Far out! Where's my Jefferson Airplane 'Volunteers' album?"

And a virtual "Like" to Glenn, TheGK, Super Soul, Ponderer, Guy Lodge, mizerock, and others. Nice work.

comment #35

jujuju says ...

"Peter Finch-mad"

wells

dude. there's a shitstorm coming. it won't be a 'mad mad' thing, either. it'll be a horror show.

you want rioting? give it a few more years... there will be a new definition of the word

bad thing: we all get a front row seat

comment #36

Manitoba says ...

Many readers might find Tuesday's recall elections to determine control of the Wisconsin Senate, worth watching. I know I'll be watching MSNBC and CNN coverage from Canada to see if Democrats can wrest control of the state Senate away from Republicans.I watch American politics with great interest these days because we in Canada are now stuck with a Republican-like Conservative federal government for the next four years.

comment #37

Robert Cashill says ...

When Wells goes ALL CAPS in a post he begins to blend and merge with LexG, PERFORMANCE-style.

What's needed is for Bachmann, Palin, or some other nutter to become president and for them to drag the country into complete and utter hell. Once we hit bottom, we can start afresh and rebuild. On the other hand we'll probably just sit and stew in the new low that's been created.

comment #38

lipranzer says ...

Jeff,

What about the collateral damage?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/09/british-film-distributors-warehouse-fire

comment #39

Chicago48 says ...

Jeff, we are rioting. Haven't you seen the news about the "flash mobs" that are attacking innocent people in Philadelphia and Chicago? That's the equivalent of a riot. It's just less than 20 of them, but they're all teens. Disappointed, angry, hostile, no hope. Same thing but on a smaller scale.

comment #40

Edward Havens says ...

Middle-class Americans regularly vent their frustration on the streets. They're called "protests" and usually done in an orderly, civic-minded fashion.

comment #41

hiviper says ...

@jujuju
I don't see things unfolding any other way

comment #42

The Pope says ...

Yeah Jeff, anarchy. 's cool, yeah bruv? Slike duckin' and divin' innit? Bit a lootin', bit a burnin'. Bit of aggro with the filth.

That is until it comes to your neighborhood. People's lives are in danger. Private property is being destroyed.

Be a mensch and stop trying to "explain" what you meant. You're a journalist so be more accurate in using your words.

comment #43

Joe Leydon says ...

First Jeff wanted to see a hurricane raze Houston, because he thought it would be cool to see karmic payback to climate-change-denying oil company executives. Now he wants to see riots and violence in the streets of L.A. because it would be cool to see "vivid and startling" rage against the system.

I wonder what Dr. Freud would make of this.

Jeff, when you were a child, did you ever set fire to plastic soldiers because it was cool to watch them melt?

comment #44

JR says ...

"Jeff, when you were a child, did you ever set fire to plastic soldiers because it was cool to watch them melt?"

Joe, Jeff has been melting down for weeks - hopefully it will culminate in an act of self immolation in the lobby of some major corporation or investment bank.

Jeff is one unhappy dude.

comment #45

davie says ...

Yes, spending cuts, what a stupid idea. Who needs that? Not the US certainly. Wells, honestly you are so dense some times.

comment #46

dangovich says ...

Given the behavior of our war mongering, benefits cutting Congress, I could see a variation of this happening again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

comment #47

Glenn Kenny says ...

"Excuse me for not filng from the streets of north London and reporting about the troubles with ash and soot in my lungs."

You're excused. At least by me. I'm not sure how quick folks like Mr. Lodge, who are actually in the line of fire, will be to pardon your bullshit, or your petulant, self-serving response to being questioned on it.

comment #48

Pjm says ...

I love all the comments about the "scum" who would dare steal from the poor and the innocent in London. They should be shot! The hedge fund managers that are stealing from you RIGHT NOW? - they're just shrewd businessmen... Raise taxes on the rich!? That's un-American! Steal a penny from a beggar on the street - now THAT'S evil! What hypocrisy! What you see in London is just a sped-up version of what's been happening since 1980 in this country. There it's the poor stealing from the poor - here it's the rich stealing from the poor. Which is more evil?

comment #49

the sandwich says ...

Jeff's more of a conjurer of inferences these days. Wonder how Carey Mulligan feels about the riots?

comment #50

Ian T says ...

No one is calling for exactly what is going on in London to happen here. I do ask though, how could anyone be against the idea of some people in this country waking up and fighting back in some way instead of continually being raped in the ass by those running the country? Jeff wants a sign of life from people who should be enraged, but instead have been beaten down too many times, are conditioned to it, or are just altogether apathetic to everything. Does everyone like things exactly as they are? You all feel things are headed in the right direction? Corporations and Corporately owned politicians does it for you? I hope some of you are more outraged by the state of this country than you are by something Jeff types that you twist.

I like Guy Lodge and Kris Tapley a good deal, but why do they only comment on this blog when they want to wag their fingers at Jeff?

comment #51

Alboone says ...

Thank you Ian T. Finally someone on this thread with perspective.

Oh yeah and by the way...Glenn Kenny...you really are a dick. Just in case you might've forgotten...again.

comment #52

JLC says ...

"The American middle-classes have never and will never take to the streets to vent anger about anything, ever."

"I do ask though, how could anyone be against the idea of some people in this country waking up and fighting back in some way instead of continually being raped in the ass by those running the country?"

I know you guys vehemently disagree with their politics (I'm no fan myself), but what about the Tea Party? Crazy? Maybe. Misguided? Perhaps. Inflexible? Certainly. But those people did, in fact, get off their butts and took to the streets and protested against the way things were going in this country.

In other words, be careful what you wish for.

comment #53

Rashad says ...

It's just less than 20 of them, but they're all teens. Disappointed, angry, hostile, no hope. Same thing but on a smaller scale.

No it's often more than 20 and the one common factor is that they're all black. It has nothing to do with "society ills" for why they do it. They're thugs and hoodlums, and it's celebrated in their culture. They're beating up people and stealing food from stores because it's fun, not out of necessity. I'm sure all those people at the state fair in Wisconsin, who got beat up solely because they were white are sure to feel sympathy for those poor hopeless youths.

comment #54

Pjm says ...

Rashad:

What do you notice about those hedge fund managers: they're all white. It has nothing to do with "society ills" for why they do it. They're thugs and hoodlums, and it's celebrated in their culture. They're beating up people and stealing food from stores because it's fun, not out of necessity.

comment #55

Rashad says ...

That's right, ignore the problem, put your head in the sand. Typical of you and your ilk.

comment #56

Mr. F. says ...

Since this is a movie blog -- isn't it possible this is all part of a viral marketing campaign for ATTACK THE BLOCK?

Seriously though: Ian T is exactly right in #50 above. The middle class needs to wake up before there IS no middle class any longer. While you don't need to burn down your neighborhood for whatever reason... you should be doing SOMETHING. Show a sign of life before it's too late, instead of going home from your dead-end job and turning on the TV until you fall asleep.

(Having said that: I fully admit, unlike most, that I am part of the problem -- because it's all too easy to ignore what's going on. I live comfortably enough... but my savings account is treading water, any money I've tried to save for retirement some day is treading water... but I'm fine with staying on that treadmill and doing enough to make ends meet. Something's gotta give -- in my case, it hasn't yet. So who am I to say we need a change?)

comment #57

bluefugue says ...

>I do ask though, how could anyone be against the idea of some people in this country waking up and fighting back in some way instead of continually being raped in the ass by those running the country?

It would be cool if this were done by, say, organizing, creating new voting blocs and even political parties, demonstrating peacefully, etc. I don't see how there's anything useful to be emulated in rioting.

Sometimes I look at what Dr. King and the gang did 50 years ago and I feel like the rest of us are little children.

comment #58

Pjm says ...

Rashad:

Who's the one ignoring the problem? The people rioting in London or the Americans who sit chuckling at "America's Got Talent" and getting teary-eyed as they sing "God Bless America" with a $9 beer in their hand at the ballpark, while their pensions and wages are being stolen year after year?

comment #59

Zach Heltzel says ...

The London inner-city trash behind this really could use an Attack the Block-style alien invasion to get them to wise up. Or maybe those teenagers were just incredibly sanitized in comparison to how they really are.

comment #60

mizerock says ...

Until somebody suggests a sensible and effective course of action, millions will be standing by, frustrated. Or, eventually, lashing out in violent and unproductive ways.

The Tea Party tried something radical & at least somewhat effective: take over a significant chunk of Congress and force them to pay attention to your agenda. Is there a party (or subset of a party) that exists right now that represents your priorities, passionately? The only way it wouldn't currently exist (or pop up soon) is:

1) your views are so out of step with mainstream Americans that only a slim minority of other people share them
2) your views are not shared by (or are, in fact, antithetical to) groups of wealthy individuals or corporations that might underwrite your cause.

comment #61

THE MovieBob says ...

JLC wins the thread.

The problem with "citizen uprisings" is that the majority of humanity - and, thus, the majority of ANY citizenry - is either ignorant, shortsighted, superstitious or some combination thereof. We are NOT one big happy human family. We are NOT "all in this together." Even a "backlash" riot that had some tangible basis in justifiable/targeted anger will eventually degenerate into a bunch of slobs causing mayhem for mayhem's sake - or worse, ignoring the "real" problem in favor of an easier target that confirms their own prejudices.

The "Tea Party" dolts are the perfect example of this - a bunch of middle-class white folks take an economic hit driven by corporate greed, and they turn their ire on... corporations? No! On a black president as a proxy for the minorities who're "stealing their tax dollars" through social services. Because it's what they already think. Because they are ignorant. Because they are human. It's who we are.

Do you know WHY people who come by the means to live economically-independent of anyone but themselves tend to move AWAY from "the rest?" It's because they can.

comment #62

Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy says ...

Ian T,

Well I don't only post here to wag my finger at Jeff. I just think that he should have done a bit more research before casting his lot with the rioters and their noble quest for PS3's. Also, don't they wear a lot of orange?

If you've read or listened to numerous reports, looters actually infiltrated the neighborhoods and outwitted the police by using text messaging to tell each other where the unguarded stores were.

And Jeff, I know your memory can be short, but remember the sit-ins at the capital building in Wisconsin? Those were a bunch of middle and lower class folks who decided they had enough of the Republican majority using a budget battle as an excuse for union busting. So when you say that nothing will get them off their asses and into the streets, you're wrong. There's a recall election going on as we speak. Now, if the citizens of Wisconsin, the state with largest per capita consumption of beer and cheese, can accomplish that, there's still hope for this country.

P.S. Alboone, go get your fuckin' shine box!

comment #63

dkaye says ...

What's happening in Wisconsin today (and which started back in February) is a perfect example of American democracy at its best. Let's all hope that there's a victory tonight and that the disgusting Koch brothers puppet Scott Walker is next.

That's the way you do it -- what we are seeing in London is the antithesis of what we should want to happen in this country.

comment #64

Ian T says ...

Wisconsin won't be a good example of democracy in the least if a county clerk here and there just happen to find 7500 votes on a computer the day after her party lost a close election that swings it in their favor. The wind goes out of the sails of democracy very quickly when those in power show time and again they will do absolutely anything to stay in power. When they can materialize as many votes as they need out of thin air at any point, it makes voting a bit of a drag. I very badly hope all of the Republican state senators lose their recall elections tonight, but I have very little confidence in the Democrats that would gain the majority.

comment #65

Kakihara says ...

Dazza: "This interview with some of the "rioters" sorta sums up the (lack of) thought behind the young people committing these crimes. "

How much thought was put into enabling a failed war, letting BP release a guy who blew up a plane, and letting Murdoch hack a terrorist victim's phone?

Lally: " History has already shown us how the U.S. Government typically reacts to any form of protest, peaceful or otherwise..."

Yeah, who cares about segregation when we could get hosed, too, dammit?!

Also, I like how people are pretending this situation is somehow different from what's going on in Greece.

markj: "This is the kind of 'people' we're dealing with:"

I'm not going to pretend that didn't happen, but how many billions of dollars and thousands of lives did that government rob from the people by supporting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?

Pope: Technically, they did come to our neighborhood 19 years ago. And the only one who rightfully deserved the blame at the time for not doing anything about it, and creating the climate for it in the first place, was Daryl Gates.

davie: I like how spending cuts only apply when they don't involve failed wars.

JLC: The tea-baggers are just random nuts who've been co-opted by corporations in order to represent a misguided sense of outrage in this country. That's why there's a sweet sense of payback seeing those same businesses' stocks being hit hard by allowing these heehaws to dictate economic governance. These multi-conglomerates are so fucking greedy that they're willing to sabotage their own gains and profit margins to avoid any regulation. Well, you know what they say about playing with fire.

Rashad: "It has nothing to do with "society ills" for why they do it. They're thugs and hoodlums, and it's celebrated in their culture."

That's what they said about the Irish once, too.

"I'm sure all those people at the state fair in Wisconsin, who got beat up solely because they were white are sure to feel sympathy for those poor hopeless youths"

You mean teachers? Oh, wait, they don't count.

Ian T: Apparently, they only need three Dems to get back the majority.

comment #66

Sams says ...

Well said..Lodge, Kenny, Pope, Soul, action et al

comment #67

Cadavra says ...

Liberals won't riot; they've become too neutered.

A more likely scenario: they DO get off their asses next year and vote. The Dems take back the House, widen their margin in the Senate, and the "colored" President is re-elected. The Tea Partiers, furious that their 1000-Year-Reign came up 998 short, grab all their goddamn guns, take to the streets and shoot anyone darker than Gwyneth Palltrow. Don't kid yourselves--these people are so deranged they dont care what they destroy...even themselves.

comment #68

Glenn Kenny says ...

Hey Ian T, guess who distributes all the movie advertised on this site? Corporations. Corporations that are arms of the corporations that are screwing up this country. You and Jeff want "anger," because these guys are fucking the country in the ass, but you don't really want it to stop, because these same corporations you're so mad at are also responsible for your creature comforts, your flatscreen TVs, your entertainment. What you really want is for the problem to be cosmeticized, a little wealth redistribution to get the poor to make themselves less conspicuous for a while, that sort of thing. You don't want an actual overhaul of society and you don't think it's possible anyway. And if it did happen, you wouldn't be at all comfortable with the result.

Oh, and Alboone? Put up or shut up. Anonymous-ass coward fuckface.

comment #69

Kakihara says ...

Cadavra: I don't think Obama's gonna make it, even if the Dems take back the House. But who knows? I am kinda concerned about that tea-bagger revolt scenario being played out. But more likely, they'll fight amongst themselves for a while over why they didn't expand their win.

Glen: "What you really want is for the problem to be cosmeticized, a little wealth redistribution to get the poor to make themselves less conspicuous for a while, that sort of thing. "

No, I think we all want to be able to go to a doctor for an important treatment without having to take out a loan.

comment #70

Ian T says ...

Glenn, thanks for explaining to me how the world works and telling me what I do and don't want. Who would know better than you, someone I have never met nor ever conversed with, what I want.

comment #71

Krillian says ...

I don't normally care for Dylan Ratigan but his rant today was highly entertaining.

comment #72

Glenn Kenny says ...

Your initial post made pretty much the same assumptions, e.g., the idea that "corporations and corporate-owned" politicians "do it" for those of us who aren't beguiled by childish acting-out notions. We could do this for hours, which would certainly solve the whole problem of actually DOING something.

comment #73

Ian T says ...

Far enough Glenn. I do not know you or have any idea what your feelings or beliefs are. I'm sorry if you thought my post was referring to you.

I believe a lot of people are just sitting here waiting to twist what Jeff says and pounce on him for some reason. It seems silly.

I do in fact want an overhaul of society. I do NOT believe it is probable and maybe not even possible. It may be in the Big Foot exists area of probability. Whether i'd be comfortable with the result, no one could know.

I have very little faith in humanity, which made cheering on the apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes that much easier.

comment #74

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Ian T: I dunno. Seems the only time I've felt like speaking up lately. Guess I'm an asshole.

comment #75

Ian T says ...

Kris I don't think you are an asshole at all. Much of your appeal is your willingness to speak your mind on your site and podcast and mix it up with commentors etc. I've just noticed on this blog that people seem to want to jump on Wells all the time. I mentioned you and Guy because I always notice when you guys comment and figure you guys have to know Jeff well enough not to be up in arms over everything he says.

To me, Jeff and this blog's strength is the stream of conscious nature of his posts. He could never keep up the volume of content without this aspect. I think part of what comes with this style are unrefined, sometimes politically incorrect and not entirely thought through posts. I'd much rather this than he spend all time fine tuning and taking the bite out of everything he types.

It was probably unfair to lump you into it Kris.

comment #76

Ian T says ...

For the record, on the Wisconsin State Senate recall elections tonight.: The republicans currently hold a 19-14 advantage.
6 republicans were up for recall tonight.
Currently 3 republicans have retained their seats and 2 democrats have won seats.
1 seat remains up for grabs and it is 23,804 Dem to 22,693 Rep with 68% reporting.
Obviously if the Dem wins this seat they take control of the senate.
The problem???
This county seat is for is the same county that the county clerk "miraculously" discovered 7,500 votes in her desk the morning after the republican shill Supreme Court Nominee lost a close election to the liberal judge. It was the first election after all the stripping of workers rights stuff, so was a huge deal. The same county clerk is in charge now. She knows it all hinges on this seat, so lets just say i'll be a bit surprised if the Republican doesn't find a way to pull this one out.

On a side note, the republican shill Supreme Court judge is currently being investigated for choking a liberal judge in the supreme court.

comment #77

DocAl says ...

You're all on the money with the tea party being racist. Especially with people like Allen West and Mason Weaver involved. (Btw, they're black.....)

Incidentally, Wells follow up comment still shows he doesn't get it. He either truly believes that the current looting and destruction has some sort of greater meaning, or he's blissfully playing dumb. That way he gets to romanticize pointless rioting. Did it start out as something? Yes, as a matter of fact, it was in response to a police shooting. But that wasn't the riot, no, that started by opportunist pricks. Grow up pal.

Even if you didn't so blindly misunderstand what is happening, you have a grave misunderstanding of suffering. They people who are affected by all this are the ones you think you're championing. And no, its not the wicked upper class who is benefiting. Its nobody. Its just sad, mindless destruction.

But I'm down with you starting something Wells, it'll be fun to see what happens to your neighborhood...

comment #78

scooterzz says ...

all for the greater good, of course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYuMPw6Yi3k&feature=player_embedded

comment #79

MDOC says ...

Looking at the rioters, it seems there is a lot of projecting going on. They are human Rorschach ink blots. I understand that some see victims that have been cast aside by society and screwed by the establishment.

I simply see losers. I loser is a loser. If there was a factory on every block hiring by the hundreds, these are the people that would show up late on their first day and act inappropriate.

I'm just not sure what the answer is, there will always be losers. When I think about 10% unemployment. I think of 10 random people I know and there is always 1 I wouldn't hire. Once you factor in the ever expanding tattoo on the neck and face crowd, 10% starts to seem about right.

comment #80

MDOC says ...

Think of your 8th grade class, there was 30 people in mine. Right now, statistically, 3 of them are out of work. I bet you could have guessed which three would have a hard time finding employment by the end of the second day of school when you were 12.

comment #81

Kakihara says ...

MDOC: "If there was a factory on every block hiring by the hundreds, these are the people that would show up late on their first day and act inappropriate."

Funny that you're ignoring Cameron returning late to his country while its being burned down, and looking the other way on a major newspaper buying him off from prosecuting an illegal hacking of a girl's phone. I guess in your eyes, that kind of behavior is totally appropriate.

"I bet you could have guessed which three would have a hard time finding employment by the end of the second day of school when you were 12."

If they have well-connected parents who can get them into Yale and help them buy their own baseball team, why do they need a job?

comment #82

Glenn Kenny says ...

Invoking Allen West and Mason Weaver to prove the Tea Party isn't racist is like invoking Charley Pride to prove that Nashville isn't racist. Blacks in the Tea Party are pretty much the contemporary equivalent of the Trent character in "Shock Corridor." But nice try, DocAl.

comment #83

MDOC says ...

What's the point DZ? Sure some people are born rich and get into Havard and Yale. Each school admit about 1000 students a year. So we are talking 2,000 people.
What does that have to do with you?
In a way, isn't it like complaining that the NBA won't draft you because your 5'7?
The other 99.9% of the population have to get educated and find their niche. It's tough to quantify that there are less opportunities, but I will accept that there are.

comment #84

Super Soul says ...

Some people think "losers" should be a protected class.

comment #85

actionlover says ...

Glenn.... still going with that one, huh?

So. President is black. Most people in this "tea party movement" are white. Therefore............. a ha!

They probably hate McCain, Pelosi and Specter because their black, too!

comment #86

actionlover says ...

"they're"

comment #87

Kakihara says ...

MDOC: "What does that have to do with you?"

Um, see our political system in which scumbags like Geithner and Mike Brown continue to get promoted while the rest of us average Joes and Janes can't even be trusted with clerical work if we've been unemployed for a year in a stagnant economy.

"In a way, isn't it like complaining that the NBA won't
draft you because your 5'7?"

There *are* shorter people in the NBA who occasionally get drafted if they can prove they have a good defense. People who buy their way into these institutions and jobs, on the other hand, probably have as much know-how as those TEPCO nuclear plant operators in Fukushima.

comment #88

actionlover says ...

"...the rest of us average Joes and Janes can't even be trusted with clerical work...."

Ladies and gentlemen.... "The DeeZee Story".

comment #89

DocAl says ...

How is that a try? One would assume they wouldn't be involved in the tea party if its seriously racist.

comment #90

Cadavra says ...

"One would assume they wouldn't be involved in the tea party if its seriously racist."

Right. That's why there are no gay Republicans.

Oh, no, wait, there are.

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