Americans!! A public service film-

Toolfan66

By Kid Rock & Sean Penn.

"Americans" is a short, public service film starring Sean Penn and Kid Rock, directed by Jameson Stafford. The goal of the film is to tear down the one-dimensional political stereotypes portrayed by the media by confronting them head on. It reminds us that what really matters is that we're all Americans, with diverse thoughts, opinions and stances on issues. We are millions of unique, individual parts, the sum of which comprise a whole that is the shining beacon of freedom throughout the world.

The film reminds us to be proud of our differences, and to never forget that we're all in this together as Americans.


http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=oSQJ2ULuhb8

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Warning !!! Some bad language and pretty damn funny!!!

chumlie

Thank you. Good video. Hope it goes viral.

decal

What a load of crap. My opinion,nothing more.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I thought it was pretty dumb as well...

badchad

meh...predictable.

Toolfan66

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How bout some RW

gdb

If ya want wisdom, look no further than George Carlin. Kid Rock........ yeah right.:rolleyes:

tonyb

gdb wrote: »

If ya want wisdom, look no further than George Carlin. Kid Rock........ yeah right.:rolleyes:

Love ol' George Carlin, he spoke many truths with a funny spin to it. The thing that strikes me about the video is these 2 couldn't be more opposite in their political views......but lets all get along ? Which you can up to a point, but then the crap hits the fan and lines are drawn.

I'm a firm believer if you had a more limited government, all this political haymaking would be avoided altogether.

snake1

Drop the big salaries and perks, make a man in office sacrifice some to serve his country in that way, and I think you'd have people in office that actually care. JMO

cnh

The Gov't and the Free Market are "dialectically" intertwined. One cannot operate without the other. Get your read on. Learn something about history and leave the ideology at "home" where it belongs. Ideologues cannot "rule" a country very well. The record shows that both for the LEFT and the RIGHT!

It's neither small Gov't vs. BIG Gov't, nor minimal regulations on businesses that will turn things around but something FAR more nuanced and perceptive. I've yet to see it from anyone currently spouting platitudes in our political arena. But why should you expect to see it?

cnh

tonyb

cnh wrote: »

but something FAR more nuanced and perceptive.
cnh

I'm almost afraid to ask. Pray tell...what is this utopia you speak of ?

cnh

tonyb wrote: »

I'm almost afraid to ask. Pray tell...what is this utopia you speak of ?

A place where serious compromise is "possible". Where cuts are made with the thought of how it impacts on people and business. Where education and health and the aged are priorities. Where one takes into consideration a global economy where cheap labor "benefits" the flight of capital from the U.S. and the loss of jobs. Where the work of Dr. Stiglitz is read and appreciated in terms of how Gov't and the Market can cooperate and need not be seen as antagonistic unless you simply want to espouse a profit only model of economics that throws everything human out the window. It's not Utopian but human. A great theorist once said when Utopian thought is "no longer" possible, neither is society. Utopian ideas are what motivate both sides because they are ALWAYS critiques of what is wrong with the present. The real world does not work the way it is depicted in an Ayn Rand novel, nor in the work of Marx!

What's so hard about envisioning a place where we can sit down and DO NOT automatically, knee jerk "free unfettered markets" or "Big Gov't saves Big Bird? lol

All I'm calling for is intelligent, NON-ideological discourse, and most of all flexibility. We can't have people signing pacts to "never" allow something to happen if that something can help contribute to "debt" reduction, etc. I'm for putting "everything" and I mean "everything" on the table: taxes, regulations, entitlements, military spending, corporate and social "welfare", etc. Let's "talk turkey"!

Now I ask you, WHO is doing that. Obama? Romney? Both of whom are beholden to 100s of millions of dollars of private interests in an election cycle that will easily break a Billion. That's just shameful!

But no more politics because you know where that will take us. I'm just willing to "bend". And I think everyone else should TOO!

cnh

gimpod

tonyb wrote: »

I'm almost afraid to ask. Pray tell...what is this utopia you speak of ?

That would be what's called "The Art of Compromise" and is something that's been missing in our government for a long time and is essential for a democratically elected government to function properly.

The problem we have now is that we have two political party's that are so opposed to each other that they've taken the stance of "Our way or the Highway" to the point that nothing gets done and if something does get done it usually ends up being bad for the people and the country in general.

If our elected officials (local, city, state and federal) are unwilling to compromise with one another then we are headed down the road to becoming a dictatorship.

JMO.

Jstas

I really hope he didn't actually sell a classic Chevy in favor of a Prius.

vc69

we never learn, do we?

gdb

It will take an all out, full on, aliens from space invasion, to truly unify us partisan bickerin' Americans !

tonyb

cnh wrote: »

But no more politics because you know where that will take us. I'm just willing to "bend". And I think everyone else should TOO!

cnh

I hear ya man, but we can sure have an idealogical discussion if we keep politics to the minimal. For the most part, I think a good portion of people would agree with you. The problem in that scenario you describe is pretty simple though. The problem is....man himself. Find me a man of such moral goodness to always do the right thing for society, his country, and not look to benefit himself finacially or power wise. Then find 500 more to fill congress. Sure you can argue that taking the special interest money out of the process would cut down on some of whats wrong, but man will find another way. For lack of better terminolgy, man has not evolved to the state yet to accomplish what you seek. Kinda like breeding certain traits out of a wild dog, man must learn what he needs to do to survive as a species in a world of many different breeds. Alot of this evolution of man I speak of, is going in the opposite direction today. Morality is for the birds, get what you can while you can. Religions are under attack, and anything goes as long as you can spin it or point fingers elsewhere. You see it with every news story that comes out. Doesn't sound to me like we are evolving for the better.

Maybe we can agree that for humankinds sake, we need some morality, or more of it. If so, then the obvious question is, where do you get your morals from ? Answer that, and you have a good starting point to solving our problems and evolving into a society of which you speak.

soundfreak1

Penn is a putz

tonyb

Que the George Carlin videos......

amulford

While I like the message, and some of it was funny, it really got dumb.

If you wanna hear the straight ****, Carlin was the man. No sugar coating about it. Yeah made put the comical spin on it, but he was spot on in the message.

As for the state of society? We are regressing to the feudal system and nobody wants to realize it. If we keep going like we are, we're going to see ourselves back in the early industrial revolution where the Carnegies', Mellons', Rockefellers', and DuPonts' will have all of the control. The common man is going to be eeking out an existence at the whim of the powers that be. The names may be different, but the situation very similar. History has a way of repeating itself through the millennia...

Toolfan66

cnh wrote: »

A place where serious compromise is "possible". Where cuts are made with the thought of how it impacts on people and business. Where education and health and the aged are priorities. Where one takes into consideration a global economy where cheap labor "benefits" the flight of capital from the U.S. and the loss of jobs. Where the work of Dr. Stiglitz is read and appreciated in terms of how Gov't and the Market can cooperate and need not be seen as antagonistic unless you simply want to espouse a profit only model of economics that throws everything human out the window. It's not Utopian but human. A great theorist once said when Utopian thought is "no longer" possible, neither is society. Utopian ideas are what motivate both sides because they are ALWAYS critiques of what is wrong with the present. The real world does not work the way it is depicted in an Ayn Rand novel, nor in the work of Marx!

What's so hard about envisioning a place where we can sit down and DO NOT automatically, knee jerk "free unfettered markets" or "Big Gov't saves Big Bird? lol

All I'm calling for is intelligent, NON-ideological discourse, and most of all flexibility. We can't have people signing pacts to "never" allow something to happen if that something can help contribute to "debt" reduction, etc. I'm for putting "everything" and I mean "everything" on the table: taxes, regulations, entitlements, military spending, corporate and social "welfare", etc. Let's "talk turkey"!

Now I ask you, WHO is doing that. Obama? Romney? Both of whom are beholden to 100s of millions of dollars of private interests in an election cycle that will easily break a Billion. That's just shameful!

But no more politics because you know where that will take us. I'm just willing to "bend". And I think everyone else should TOO!

cnh

While I just posted this because I think it's funny yet with some meaning around it (and yes some of it is dumb) you just posted some deep thoughts that gives one to think about as well as Tony and ford

Very good post my man...

Thanks!!

tonyb

amulford wrote: »

History has a way of repeating itself through the millennia...

Very true.....both good and bad. Which then tells me man has not yet learned from his mistakes. The other trick is, even if we did learn from our mistakes, try getting the rest of the world with all different cultures to do the same. May take another 100,000 years, but in the meantime we have to deal with our present reality.....which sure doesn't look very rosey right now.

nooshinjohn

tonyb wrote: »

Very true.....both good and bad. Which then tells me man has not yet learned from his mistakes. The other trick is, even if we did learn from our mistakes, try getting the rest of the world with all different cultures to do the same. May take another 100,000 years, but in the meantime we have to deal with our present reality.....which sure doesn't look very rosey right now.

I think we have learned from our mistakes Tony, and have been smart enough to craft ever more powerful weapons to make certain history will be different next time...:twisted:

tonyb

You don't need weapons to change the world from what we are accustomed to.....you need kaos. From where I sit, I see lots of it.

One more thing about that video that bugs me. Penn is one of the worst hate mongers out there. He's the perfect example of what the video is railing against. Hypocracy.....hollywood never learned that definition.

mhardy6647

KAOS, as in Get Smart?
or chaos?

Too late for the former, I think - plenty of the latter out there...

Unfortunately, the age of "Western" (Greco-Roman/European/Judeo-Christian) dominance of "civilization" (and possibly the age of "civilization" itself as the West has defined it) is rapidly drawing to a close. I suspect the big shift will align temporally with the extraction of the last barrel of reasonably priced (and extracted in a reasonably environmentally-friendly manner) crude oil.

To quote Steely Dan from their very first album...

When you live in this world
You're feelin' the change of the guard

cnh

mhardy6647 wrote: »

KAOS, as in Get Smart?
or chaos?

Too late for the former, I think - plenty of the latter out there...

Unfortunately, the age of "Western" (Greco-Roman/European/Judeo-Christian) dominance of "civilization" (and possibly the age of "civilization" itself as the West has defined it) is rapidly drawing to a close. I suspect the big shift will align temporally with the extraction of the last barrel of reasonably priced (and extracted in a reasonably environmentally-friendly manner) crude oil.

To quote Steely Dan from their very first album...

Not that far from the truth there:


cnh

obieone

1st thing Penn says in the video is: "Neanderthal" in reference to Romney. It's kind of hard to have "discussion" with people insulting me.

tonyb

Eh, I'm not so sure the end of crude oil would change too much. When it's gone, then you'll see a newer form of energy pop up but for now nobody is in a hurry.

The worlds power structure, may change, may not, but one things for sure there are those who are forcing that hand to be played instead of letting the natural coarse take place. Again, man himself seems intent on bringing about his own destruction. Change maybe needed, but the kind of change we are headed for I don't think is what people had in mind. Be carefull what you wish for as the saying goes.

I think back about periods in time when the world was turned upside down, empires rose and fell, power structures shifted, and all they had in common was massive death and destruction. Only until recently has man learned to live a civil life. Now we must go backwards ? To move forward ? If one subscribes to that line of thinking then surely man has a long way to go in the evolutionary stage.

mrbigbluelight

obieone wrote: »

1st thing Penn says in the video is: "Neanderthal" in reference to Romney. It's kind of hard to have "discussion" with people insulting me.

Valid point, Obi, but that is one of the points of the video that Larry posted.
In the bar, 1st Penn then Kid Rock start out with the platitudes/slogans/talking points and they become more personal, more heated. Testosterone driven. They face off, Penn's jacket comes off, it's almost show time.

Until .... the Hispanic waitress cuts through them, and gives them a good dressing down, IMO. Correctly informs them that they're both a couple of rich sock-knockers and that there are people busting their hump just to get here and yet here these 2 got-it-made "witches" are arguing over "who's junk is bigger".

Apparently makes them think. Apparently makes them THINK about what they were just doing .
They both start to semi-heartedly offer apologies when the TV news breaks in with what is REALLY important:

The 2K Milestone of troop fatalities in the Middle East.

Don't much care for Penn's expression of grief; it takes away from the point trying to be made, IMO.

Rest of the video shows these two "visiting" each other's turf with no lah-lah happy ending offered up on a silver platter. Kid Rock looks like he's ready to barf at the beach wedding, Penn almost has a stroke sipping a beer.
Still totally different, yet possibly a positive change of some sorts has occurred. Maybe it's only:

"Dude, your stuff sucks !"
"I don't know about that. But, dood, your stuff does suck !"
"I don't think so. So .... uhm ..... you know what ? We got some real problems here, so ..... let's figure out some solutions, okay ?"
"Agreed. I suck, you suck, but let's figure out some real ideas and solutions."
"Agreed. Real ideas, real solutions. If we can't figure out something, then we're too stupid to be called Americans".

mrbigbluelight

BTW, nice discussion of issues w/o politics.

The issue of "Big Government" vs "Little Government" is a hot button item usually. Walls go up almost immediately and nothing gets accomplished.

Was reading the Riverfront Times yesterday ("THAT LEFT-WING RAG ? I WOULDN'T USE IT TO WIPE MY DOG'S BUTT !") Mentioned how there are 945,326 corporations that call Delaware home. Delaware population is 879,934.

Checking those stats with those obtained from the Delaware Division of Corporations ("OH YEAH ? WELL FIGURES MAY NOT LIE, BUT LIARS CAN FIGURE YOU SLACK-JAWED SOUTHSIDE HOOSIER !! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR LIES !!!")

Why Choose Delaware as Your Corporate Home?

More than 900,000 business entities have their legal home in Delaware including more than 50% of all U.S. publicly-traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500. Businesses choose Delaware because we provide a complete package of incorporation services including modern and flexible corporate laws, our highly-respected Court of Chancery, a business-friendly State Government, and the customer service oriented Staff of the Delaware Division of Corporations.

http://corp.delaware.gov/

So it seems that a lot of corporations incorporate Delaware shell companies to avoid paying state taxes in whatever state they are actually located. It appears that Delaware does charge an annual "Business Entity Tax". I imagine that this tax is much less than individual corporations would have to pay in their "true state" location. By several accounts this amounts to approximately $10 billion dollars over that past decade.

So my question ("YEAH, I KNOW WHAT YOUR QUESTION IS: HOW CAN WE SOAK THESE COMPANIES SO THAT YOU CAN GO ON WELFARE AND SIT ON YOUR LAZY BASTAGE BUTT !") is does this 3-card-monty process really necessary ? Are businesses forced to do this to survive because states in the past have soaked these corporations ? It would seem to me that the $10 billion dollars state taxes avoided over the last decade split among 50% of all publically traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500 doesn't seem to me to be much of a burden for any single entity, IMO.

I would assume then there must be some sort of other issues involved. Perhaps states were starting to bleed corporations dry with heavy taxation ? Let's feed on the whale in town ? I don't know. If this were the problem in the past, then the Federal Government could step in and show some real leadership. Stop the shell game magic. Corporations stop incorporating their non-tangible assets in Delaware and are forced to incorporate these assets where their physical assets are located. They will be taxed. But to prevent a feeding frenzy from the states, the Federal Government imposes limits (under the "regulate interstate commerce" clause of the CONSTITUTUION. Corporations pay something to the states. They wouldn't, IMO, suffer financial hardships. The states would profit somewhat, but they would be prevented from "soaking business".

Just one point from somebody who doesn't know crap from apple butter from this stuff. Just ONE point. Will it solve our country's financial debt problem ? Heck no, but it could be a start.

BTW: the stats from the RFT on Delaware can be found on page 21.
On opposing page 20, please be aware that you can receive a free heart-shaped flogger with any costume purchase, now through Oct 31 at the Hustle Store. I'd recommend a Big Bird Costume ? ("AH HAH ! YOU SATAN WORSHIPPING COMMIE ! I KNEW YOU COULDN'T HELP YOURSELF ! SO ... DO THEY OFFER FREE SHIPPING ? I JUST WANT TO CHECK YOUR FACTS IS ALL")

I'm not sure, my fellow American friend, but I will try to help by checking for you.

tonyb

Funny stuff big guy. I don't think theres anything fishy about this though. Corporations....lets say Ceo's, get bonus packages based on numbers. They go where those numbers are easiest to attain given what they have control over. Certain costs such as labor contracts, material contracts, etc are always going up. Just a matter of controling fixed costs imho. If it makes financial sense to move to Delaware, then away they go. Don't see the hub bub about it.