Young Turks: FAUX News’ curious Christmas poll.
Thom debates Horace Cooper on voter fraud.
Jennifer Granholm ponders how Republicans get people across the country to vote against their own interests:
Newsy: Unemployment hits a three-year low.
Young Turks: What Americans think about socialism.
Alynoa’s Tool Time: Capital One is greedy.
Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.
Ed: Obama campaign lays out multiple pathways to victory.
The G.O.P. Primary Reality Show:
- Maddow: Iowa chaos!
- Sharpton: Who is more dangerous for America?
- Buzz 360: Iowa polls are all over the freakin’ place.
- Maddow: Going rogue in Iowa.
- The Obama campaign lays out multiple pathways to victory.
- The
nutcasescaucus for Sarah Palin in Iowa. - Buzz 360: The I’s that really matter.
- Thom: …then THEY came for Newt & then Perry!!!
- Young Turks: Newt chokes up over his mother.
- Newt considers Sarah Palin for his Energy Czar (via Right Wing Watch):
[audio:http://www.rightwingwatch.org/sites/default/files/mp3/Newt Gingrich Palin VP 12-29-11.mp3] - Lawrence O’Donnell: Newt’s disorganized campaign.
- Newt intends to pack courts with judges from Regent & Liberty University, Federalist Society (via Right Wing Watch):
[audio:http://www.rightwingwatch.org/sites/default/files/mp3/Newt Gingrich WallBuilders Judiciary Regent 12-28-11.mp3] - Young Turks: Newt’s energy flip-flops are a case study in corruption.
- Thom: Did new voter I.D. laws bite Newt in the ass?.
- What is Mitt hiding?
- Young Turks: Bachmann’s Iowa State Chair jumps ship to Ron Paul.
- Ed: Bachmann’s campaign implodes. Accusations fly.
- Newsy: Bachmann’s campaign manager jumps ship.
- Newsy: Romney takes aim at Big Bird.
- Mitt Romney takes aim at Big Bird.
- Young Turks: Mitt wants to turn Big Bird into a corporate whore.
- Ezra Klein: Republicans self-disenfranchisement.
- The Romney Rule (via Crooks and Liars).
- Newsy: Perry’s part-time Congress idea.
- Young Turks: Racism isn’t the worst thing about Ron Paul (via Crooks and Liars).
- Young Turks: Ron Paul’s more sinister than ‘peace, love and no jail for pot’
- Ed, Pap and Lizz: Michele meets metal man.
- WTF??? Michele reads speech from iPAD (i.e. teleprompter) (via Crooks and Liars).
- Animated Santorum.
- Newsy: Santorum surges from behind!
- Sharpton: Santorum’s solution for joblessness.
- Lawrence O’Donnell: G.O.P. establishment efforts to destroy Santorum are on!
Buzz 60: A weekend left in Iowa.
Young Turks: Crazy right wing group’s ad with straight couple in cross-hairs.
Newsy: Very bad news for Republicans—Unemployment hits three-year low.
Sharpton: Oddly…Republicans have no concerns about voter fraud in Iowa caucus.
Thom to US Senator Ron Wyden (D- OR): “You’re fired!”
The Obamas wish you and military families “happy holidays”.
Young Turks: Larry “wide stance” Craig IS BAAAAAAACK.
Seattle protesters do a Christmas foreclosure on Bank of America (via Crooks and Liars).
Thom with some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.
Year In Review:
- The top 10 G.O.P. moments of 2011:
- Mark Fiore: The year in crazy.
- Ann Telnaes: Year in Review.
- 2011: Year of OWS
- Ezra Klein: The year in repealing and replacing:
- Lawrence O’Donnell: The year in political comedy.
Pap: The Republican’s war on voting.
Not exactly Rick Snyder (R-MI).
Young Turks: Good riddance, Sen. Ben Nelson.
Thom: NE Democrats…take back your state!.
White House: West Wing Week.
Mark Fiore: Aggregating Arianna.
Alyona: TSA needs more intel, less groping.
Newsy: Ben Nelson retirement to hurt Democrats?
Cenk: Has Obama beaten Republicans at their own game?
Ed: Justice Department blocks SC voter suppression laws.
Thom: TSAs Security Theater is going on the road!
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Dear trolls,
You can prattle economic nonsense, or you can read this longish article and learn something, keeping in mind one cannot hear at the same time one’s own tongue is wagging.
Yours, a rabbit
http://www.economist.com/node/21542174
@ RR
Books and printed words are socialism. The First Amendment only applies to Producers, not consumers. Producers produce what will make them the most profit. Consumers are only required to consume the things that the producers produce. To attempt to bypass that by self-producing, or consuming anything not produced for mass-consumption by approved producers is subversive, and anti-colonial.
Didn’t you get the memo?
@2 Of course I know what their memo says, but I’m a subversive sent by Rabbit Central to undermine the human economy so rabbits can take over their ecological niche.
Sappy Sentimentality Dep’t
“Newt Gingrich teared up during a campaign stop on Friday, speaking about his late mother in front of a group of mothers in Des Moines.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....his-mother
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Gingrich had a mother? I would’ve sworn he was raised in caves by wolves.
1 – That Warren Mosler of MMT fame is not to be trusted. A wealthy bond trader who dodges taxes. Yes, he can think out of the box a bit and get wealthy in the process but after reading around I believe he serves no one well but himself.
I applaud him though for making a bet opposite to that of Bill Gross of PIMCO and winning.
Imagine going long on American treasuries and making a bundle. ODS lemmings like the yd(iot) must have soiled their pants.
that economist article was dense and it suffered from the writer wanting to be important by using 20 dollar words.
I am not an economist so didn’t make any sense.
Reading the comments, I think they are all written by bots taking random words from the dictionary. Could this article be an art project like Herman Cain?
The summary was the only thing that made sense. The blogosphere and the bad economy has allowed fringe economic theories to get a wider audience. Dhuhh. That happens every time.
@6 I think the article also conveys a sense of how much closer to art than science the field of economics still is.
Mariners On The Way Out?
A sports columnist persuasively argues the front office is positioning the team to be sold.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....d=obinsite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Makes perfect sense. Lousy team, eroding fan base, but lucrative broadcast deals on the horizon — and 86% of ownership resides with two guys, an 84-year old non-baseball fan, the other going through an expensive divorce. The only question is whether the buyers will keep the team here or move it elsewhere. My guess is the team moves to another market.
6 – It’s been funny to me over the years how mainstream economists like Krugman who write for a larger audience say very explicitly that junk economics like the supply-side camp is crazy and their theories don’t hold up and they repeat that a few times for effect and then they stop because it’s apparent that all the level-headed people have got the message and all we’re left with is the noise from the true-believing zealots.
So it will be with the Austrians and their gold standard and now the MMT proponents and their ideas about fiat money.
6 – It’s been funny to me over the years how mainstream economists like Krugman who write for a larger audience say very explicitly that junk economics like the supply-side camp is crazy and their theories don’t hold up and they repeat that a few times for effect and then they stop because it’s apparent that all the level-headed people have gotten the message and then all we’re left with is the noise from the true-believing zealots.
So it will continue to be with the Austrianists and their gold standard and now the MMT proponents and their odd ideas about fiat money.
@9 Even a rabbit can figure out that if you tie money supply to a commodity in finite supply like gold the only way the economy can expand is through monetary deflation; and because deflation discourages borrowing and credit is key to economic expansion, the gold standard paints you into an economic corner.
Guns Don’t Kill People Dep’t
A 5-year-old boy died last night after being shot at an Oakland taco stand.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....y_area_ca/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Everyone knows guns are inert objects that can’t hurt anyone until they’re picked up, loaded, pointed, and fired by humans. So the problem isn’t that America is saturated with guns; the problem is how many of those guns are in irresponsible human hands.
Number of people shot by rabbits this year: 0
Folks, the problem isn’t rabbits, it’s humans. The solution is clear: Humans shouldn’t be allowed to have guns! No more rabbit hunting!
@13
Dogs shot at least two hunters this year. The idiots had rounds chambered and safeties off when they didn’t need to be and their dogs stepped on their shotguns.
@12
9 people were shot on Christmas morning in Chattanooga TN.
Let’s seize all those dangerous guns out there! Let’s start with those held by the govnerment, the military and law enforcement.
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Keynesian economics if over. Government can’t print currency and magically make it all better. If it could, we’d just have Uncle Ben run the printing preses and we’d all be prosperous. Give “The Creature from Jekyll Island” a read. That gold standard stuff ain’t as crazy as you think.
The “gold standard” makes a lot of sense…if you happen to have a lot of gold. In fact, it makes to base your economy on whataver you have a lot of. Perhaps that means the United States should tie its currency to empty beer cans and Kardashians.
17 – According to the MMT people, yes government can. Just have Congress pass spending bills and the Treasury Dept with the Fed runs the printing press to pay for the spending. No raising taxes and no increase of debt. I’ve read MMT proponents say there’s no need to issue bonds.
Of course there’s a limit to this and MMT favors hitting a nominal GDP target as covered in the article RR referenced @1.
Right wingers have wrung their hands for a long time over inflation especially since Obama took office and guess what – it hasn’t happened. There’s tons of excess capacity in the economy. As long as that’s the case there should be little to no inflation threat.
As long as any extra demand created by government spending doesn’t clash with private demand – there shouldn’t be inflation or anything like we saw in the 70’s. No bidding up of prices.
Not to say I agree with MMT but I believe that’s what they’re promoting.
To hell with the nightly vocabulary quiz; I’m watching a live feed of the Times Square ball drop, and then I’m gonna get potted on cheap French champagne.
@17 “Keynesian economics if over.”
Really? I’m pretty sure mathematics still works the same today as it did in 1930.
“Government can’t print currency and magically make it all better.”
Really? Printing money in 2008 worked out a hell of a lot better than the gold standard did in 1930.
“That gold standard stuff ain’t as crazy as you think.”
Really? Folks who know a lot more than you blame the gold standard as the #1 cause of the Great Depression. And the fact we ain’t on it anymore (thank Richard Nixon for that) is a major reason why we aren’t living through a replay of the 1930s right now.
Forget Wingnut Imagination, here’s what happened in the real world. When market forces sucked trillions of dollars out of circulation in 2008 the Federal Reserve replaced it with money it created from thin air, which prevented a deflationary death spiral that would have taken down the entire economy. Oh, and btw, if you’re a debtor (and who isn’t, except for me and two other inhabitants of North America), that would mean paying back your loans with much more expensive money. How would you like to borrow $300,000 to buy a $300,000 house and suddenly discover you’re paying $1 million for a $300,000 house? That’s what deflation is.
@19 You don’t even need a printing press in this day and age of electronic money.
@16
Actually, we just want to see the handful of gun stores that are responsible for the overwhelming majority of straw gun buys, which are responsible for selling the overwhelming majority of guns which are then used in crimes, shut down.
I’m headed to a cowboy action shooting match tomorrow. ;-)
@16 You mean this?
“An official in Texas says a man has been detained after entering an airport in Midland with explosives in military-grade wrapping. … NewsWest9 reports the suspect is active-duty military and was visiting his mother.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45.....-security/
@24
No word on wether he was happy to see his mom or pissed at her…
@25 Well, we’ll see whether she posts bail, hey?
HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEAR!!!
A NEW YEAR..
AND REPUBLICANS STILL SUCK!!!!
Rightwing Financial Editor Predicts Obama Will Beat Romney
Okay, so the serious money is laying odds on the Iowa caucuses — not that they mean anything. As Thomas G. Donlan, Barron’s magazine’s ultra-wingnut editorialist puts it,
“the Iowa caucuses are a huge waste of everyone’s time.”
But that doesn’t stop people from betting on them. After all, what is money good for, if you can’t gamble with it?
So. Here’s how people with “skin in the game” are laying odds.
“Quotes from the middle of last week gave Romney a price of 76 cents, meaning that 76% of the money being speculated on the Republican nomination was backing[him]. The price on Newt Gingrich was six cents, on Paul it was seven cents, oand on Rick Perry, two cents.”
Okay, Rick, the bookies have said their two cents on you — and what they said is you’re worth two cents. Don’t leave yet, there’s more:
“As for the general election, speculators in the Iowa market believe the Democrats will hold the White House, and this has been growing stronger since late September. Last week the split was 57 cents to win $1 if a Democrat wins the popular vote vs. 43 cents to place a bet on a Republican victory.”
How about that — even Republican money won’t bet their own candidate of their own party will defeat Obama. Oh, and did you notice that Barron’s ultra-wingnut editorialist couldn’t bring himself to mention Obama by name, even whilst he was predicting an electoral victory for “a Democrat” (as if we all don’t know who “a Democrat” is — after all, how many Democrats are running)?
Source: Barron’s, Jan. 2, 2012, p. 35.
@28 Of course they suck. That’s why I’m still here. It’s the raison d’etre for this blog, whose mission is to tell the whole world that
REPUBLICANS SUCK!
If Republicans ever stop sucking, I’ll be out of a gig and Goldy will have to find something else to blog about; but I don’t either of us are in much danger of becoming unemployed anytime soon.
Mrs. Rabbit and I are down here in our hole, drinking ten-buck French champagne and nibbling on Costco caviar, and it’s 12:30 already so it’s time for me to get back to work reading the rest of Barron’s new issue to help me figure out how to rob the one-percenters in 2012. Should be an easier year than 2011. I beat the S&P 500 again last year, but shit, that wasn’t tough at all because the S&P 500 made exactly nothing in 2011.
@23 “I’m headed to a cowboy action shooting match tomorrow. ;-)”
I’ll be heading to a cowboy shooting match, otherwise known as the stock market, on Tuesday morning. =:-D<
Guns Don’t Kill People Dep’t
A madman with an assault river murdered a 34-year-old female park ranger (and mother of two young daughters) during a routine traffic stop at Mount Rainer National Park this morning. The gunman is still at large and the park is on lockdown while police search for him. Bullet holes in cars have been reported.
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Ranger Margaret Anderson wasn’t killed by an assault rifle; she was killed by a madman with an assault rifle. This is happening way too frequently in our gun-saturated society. The problem isn’t guns per se, but rather the easy availability of guns to anyone and everyone, including people who very obviously should not have guns. Does anyone besides idiotic Second-Amendment ideologues still want to argue there’s no need for any type of regulation over who can get guns?
How To Get A Faster Police Response
If you call the cops and they don’t come fast enough to suit you, just tell the 9-1-1 operator that an “officer is down.” You’ll get a massive police response — but it may not turn out exactly as you expected.
http://today.seattletimes.com/.....icer-down/