– RIP J.P. Patches.
– Bad polling news for the same sex marriage referendum .
– Washington NARAL’s endorsements.
– The Romney campaign buying pornbot followers for his Twitter.
– Flags will not be flown at half-mast, and the residence of North Philadelphia, East St. Louis, or the city of Detroit will not be getting a visit from the president. [h/t]
– Federalism is great and all, but why let states ban animal cruelty?
Grandma and Grandpa on food stamps is an unshakable reality. No wonder the Republicans want to suppress their votes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07.....ef=general
Ya know who won’t be hurtin’ during retirement?
California union employees:
Californians should understand those fiscal pressures. Average annual pay for a local government employee in the state rose by 60%, to $61,185 (excluding benefits), between 1999 and 2008, according to the Little Hoover Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy. That’s about 70% more than the increase in private sector wages in the state over the same period. Average pay for cops and firefighters climbed 69%, to $89,056, again excluding benefits, in the same period.
Benefit costs have soared even more than wages. The annual cost of funding pensions in California’s 20 largest municipalities has grown from $1.3 billion in 1999 to $5.1 billion last year, according to a study by Stanford University professor Joe Nation. That’s an annual growth rate of better than 11%.
http://www.latimes.com/news/op.....9241.story
When the eventual shit hits the eventual fan, shouldn’t the unions be held partially responsible for their wink-and-a-nod regarding 7-8% pension growth projections?
This is what Democrat politics, punctuated by one RINO, in the state of California hath wrought.
I read this morning that the marijuana initiative I-502 is well ahead. It would be interesting if that passed and the marriage one failed knowing that young voters are important for both to pass.
The 10% jump in Romney’s twitter followers within 24 hours, during a day in which Romney claimed he was not campaigning, just shows that Romney is paying people to push numbers higher. No other explanation makes sense.
It reminds one of the shell game often used in corporate finance to make income and balance sheets look good, ensuring a big bonus for executives, while the basics of the business are dying a slow death from lack of funding. Which is what Romney wants to do to America.
@ 4
The basics of which businesses are dying slow deaths from lack of funding, rhp?
And are those businesses which are in decline dying from lack of funding, or from obscolescence?
Sometimes there is a reason for lack of funding. Research in Motion might have some difficulty getting the funding it needs, but it won’t be because cell phones are a thing of the past.
Let’s review the history of retirement funding through employement over the past hundred years or so…
Before Social Security, you had lots of kids so that at least one of them would be able to survive to take you in and care for you in your old age. This didn’t apply to the rich, because they had servants to do that for them.
After Social Security was enacted, retirees had a dual safety net: (a) they were guaranteed a minimal level of retirment income, which at least provided some protection against starvation and homelessness, and (b) it gave them an age (65) beyond which they didn’t have to worry about losing their jobs.
Combined with pensions from government or union contracts (and some non-union employers as well), in the 1950’s through 1970’s employees were promised a pretty nice retirement, preserving their middle-class lifestyle.
Of course, the Republicans could not stand the idea that middle-class workers could not live in poverty as long as they could shine the 1% shoes. So they attacked the pension plans, putting the risk on the employee through 401(k) and similar plans. Part of the reason for this is that they had failed to fully fund the pension obligations they had promised, and were looking for an out by passing the buck to the employee.
With the Supreme Court decision that a pension plan is just like any other contract which can be canceled in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, businesses with pensions flooded into bankruptcy court to discharge their pension obligations – and give their executives huge bonuses for succeeding in doing so. (Example: United Airlines is still facing the wrath of pilots after they talked pilots into big pay reductions in exchange for larger pension obligations, then went into bankruptcy court and discharged the pension obligations, and within 48 hours gave huge bonuses to the top executives).
The problem isn’t pensions. It’s the greed of the 1%’s, and the Republican tendency to kiss their ass and do whatever they ask of them.
@ 6
The problem isn’t pensions.
Beg to differ; to the extent that pension managers and those in the legislatures continue to believe that 7-8% returns are sustainable, the problem very much is pensions and those who run them.
CalPERS, way behind the curve:
A panel at Calpers voted Tuesday to lower a crucial investment target at the nation’s largest pension fund, a step that could lead to higher retirement-plan costs or more job cuts in cities and counties across California.
Calpers’s pension and health-benefits committee recommended an assumed annual rate of return of 7.5%, down from the current 7.75%. If the pension system’s board approves the change in a meeting Wednesday, it would mark the first time Calpers has lowered its overall investment assumption in nine years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....25222.html
Things that can’t go on forever, don’t.
@2 Bunch of freeloaders. We need to renege on their union contracts and give them nothing. It’s not like we are pulling the retirements away from of real workers.
Good.
You seem to be saying that they should be hurting. What kind of monster are you?
Cereal just isn’t any fun anymore…same old, same old.
RELENTLESSLY posting shit that 1. has been discredited repeatedly and thoroughly, and 2. is motivated by shallow ‘I got mine’ glibertarian greed and the fantasy that >50% of Americans, the ones that own 1% of the country, are lazy slobs and union ‘thugs’ and are the real problem.
Tiresome, trite, wrong, malicious, immoral.
Like Serial Conservative was alluding to, what American society needs to keep taking the money contracted to retirees who are just leeches on society since they are no longer able to work any more and funnel that money back to the wealthy job creators so they can shepherd us back to the utopian Bush years.
@ 10
You seem to be twisting my observation into an allegation so that you can call me a monster, asshole.
I merely pointed out that in an economic environment in which the private sector experienced disaster, CA public sector employees did rather well for themselves, and now we’re starting to see the fruits of the payoffs from legislators desiring re-election to municipal employees only too glad to vote for them in exchange for a 70% increase in compensation over 9 years.
We’re at three CA municipal bankruptcies within a month, and more, certainly, to follow.
That’s what’s monstrous.
@12
It seems wittle Cereal got his feefees hurt. Sad face.
:(
Monster.
As I said
Some reader posts from CNN regarding the arraignment of Holmes in Colorado:
These were a partial list, about 50% of the posts were essentially in this identical vein. The bloodlust runs deep in this country.
Whoever said this was a Christian nation? Not much love or forgiveness here. The guy must have been in the grad students’ union or something.
# 5: Review my post. It says the “basics” of the business are dying from lack of funding. I should add lack of attention. That’s because executives, especially CEO’s, seldom arise from the factory floor any more. They get hired into corporate finance departments directly from business school/MBA programs, and as they rise their compensation gets tied to (a) bonus systems which make no sense at all, and (b) options for the purchase of stock which are unrealistically set at low strike values.
Executives know their salaries, no matter how large, are child’s play compared to the amount they can make by temporarily pushing up the quarterly corporate earnings. So over the past twenty years we’ve seen all manner of tricks designed to increase revenues temporarily, even at the long-term expense of the company:
Cutting the supplier base so as to reduce purchasing staff, cutting R&D, reducing travel budgets for sales staffs, out-sourcing essential functions, etc.
Among those favored tactics is hitting at the employement base. Sure, some staff reductions might be necessary, but often it’s not related to a specific market or economic situation. It’s just that the CEO wants to retire soon, and he wants his final option numbers to be high. Aside from outright layoffs, you have early-retirment schemes which take the most experienced employees and out of the company and substitute lower-paid inexperienced employees instead. They may refuse raises and cut employee wages and benefits, which often has the long-term result of causing the best to leave and keeping only those who can’t get jobs elsewhere.
Stonecipher, late of Boeing, was a perfect example of this type of philosophy – out-sourcing the making of aircraft parts and scrapping the tooling and laying off those who knew how to make them. If you want to see how well that worked, just look at the three-year delay in the 787 program (yes, there were other mistakes in that program as well).
All of these tactics push against the long-term viability of the corporation, but the executives really aren’t worried about that, as long as the quarterly earnings look good when their stock options are calculated.
Steve King (Insane-Iowa) is a bigger monster than our own Cereal. Just a batshit insane sociopath, the ne plus ultra of neoconservative thought. And yes, he thinks laws that mandate cages that farm animals can turn around in are going to make us HITLER! or something.
Yes, Cereal, with citizens like you and Steve King, I do despair for this country.
MORE GUNS!
@12 I merely pointed out that in an economic environment in which the private sector experienced disaster,
And I’m agreeing with Serial Conservative, that in an unregulated economy, where banks and wealth creators have to bend the rules to get ahead, where greed is good, this kind of stuff happens and if the retirees were stupid enough enough to trust contract law, then so be it. The only contracts that need to be enforced are for CEO compensation, not for the serfs. The CEOs are the job creators, not the retirees. Have the retirees give it up, not the CEOs. It’s just Social Darwinism at work and the job creators are obviously the favored ones.
@ 15
Um………
R&D spending is increasing. It isn’t being cut. Unless it’s a defense company with government contracts:
The report, published in December, forecast that North American R&D spending will increase 2.8 percent in 2012, while European R&D expenditure will rise 3.5 percent and Asian R&D spending will surge 9 percent. These regions account for a combined total of nearly 92 percent of global R&D funding.
The U.S. alone is expected to spend $436 billion on R&D this year, 2.1 percent more than in 2011. While the U.S. will spend the most by far in terms of absolute currency, accelerating expenditure among foreign economies, particularly emerging markets, is forecast to reduce the U.S. share of global funding to around 31 percent. Against an estimated 2 percent inflation rate in 2012, R&D investment in the U.S. is poised to remain relatively flat over the coming year.
Part of the decline may be attributed to cuts in federal R&D funding, as the U.S. government’s expenditure is expected to drop to $125.6 billion in 2012, a 1.16 percent decrease from 2011. However, private industry will spend the largest amount on R&D this year, with projected growth of 3.75 percent to $279.6 billion, while academic research spending will rise 2.85 percent to $12 billion and non-profit R&D will climb 2.7 percent to $14.5 billion.
“Significant government budget reductions are responsible for the drop in federal R&D spending, although R&D is likely to decline proportionally less than the overall federal budget,” Battelle explains. “R&D sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) will see one of the biggest declines (down $2.5 billion to $75 billion forecast for 2012) for the third consecutive year.”
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/.....e-in-2012/
Lib Sci, maybe go run to Darryl and ask that my post be deleted because I pasted too much text. At least leave the bolded part, though, which disproves what you said about R&D being cut.
Yes, when profits are pressured, there are temporary cuts in expansion and that may affect R&D. When things improve, R&D improves.
You aren’t in the private sector, are you, Lib Sci?
Stockton – Some observations. it’s not ONLY the unions fault but Serial “Ridicule the appearance of an African American girl but he says he’s not a bigot” Conservative does not mention the other reasons.
.
But he didn’t mention this. I wonder why?
An interesting factoid from the R&D post
I wonder how much of the R&D cited was done by American firms but overseas? I wonder how much of our R&D was romney outsourced.
Let’s have a discussion between public R&D and private R&D. For example, if a private consortium had come up with the Internet, would it be the robust entity it is today, or would it be locked away?
Is Public R&D, which IS shrinking, better, because it’s progress is, in theory, open to everyone and becomes part of the Commons, while private R&D is locked away within the corporation?
@ 19
A link would be nice. I worked in Stockton for 2+ years in the late 80s, although I certainly wasn’t politically aware at the time. It’s a bedroom community to both Sacramento and the East Bay.
@ 21
I take it that you are backtracking from your claims of poor financing of business and declining R&D, since you’re now trying to turn those into outsourcing and who owns the Internet in response to my challenges.
And yes, multinational corporations spend @ 20, multinationally. Bombshell revelation, NTfF.
Every so often I make a mistake, get called on it by someone here, and reply ‘Noted.’ You might consider trying it, instead of flailing like you have done, above.
@21 I take it that you are backtracking from your claims of poor financing of business and declining R&D,
Nope. Wasn’t me.
But Public R&D is declining. Is that a bad thing or a good thing? Would you care to comment about public R&D that goes into the Commons vs private R&D that is locked into the Corporation?
I take it that you are backtracking from your claims that the economy is bad since you said “Yes, when profits are pressured, there are temporary cuts in expansion and that may affect R&D. When things improve, R&D improves.” Since R&D is improving, the economy is getting better.
Um, nitwit, I didn’t say anything about R+D spending.
In fact I am. I am so tired of you glibertarians vilifying the public sector. You are a contemptible.
@ 24
@ 6 and @ 15 by rhp. Isn’t that your other avatar?
@ 25
I know it wasn’t you (although I’m apparently not sure @ 26 who is who around here) that posted about that.
You’re just the guy who runs and tells, Lib Sci.
Heh heh heh, seems the fascist one didn’t fact check. When does this moron ever fact check.
San Joaquin County, home to Stockton voted 54/44 Obummer. Robert Deis was the city manager at Shoreline. I bet he’s a do as I say not as I do DUMMOCRAPT
@26, 27
Just for clarity, no, I’m neither RHP nor NTfF. As far as I know they’re specific, unique, non-overlapping individuals themselves.
Blow me.
@ 29
Blow me.
Someone should, it might improve your attitude. Won’t be me but I’m sure you’ve titillated others around here sufficiently to get what you need.
I can only assume from Serial “Ridicule the appearance of an African American girl but he says he’s not a bigot” Conservative silence, he could care less about public R&D that goes into the Commons.
To put words in his mouth, since it doesn’t directly generate profits for a corporation, it can be abandoned. Like retirees.
3-year-old Tripp Palin (son of Bristol and Levi), as quoted on Bristol’s reality TV show, expressing his feeling toward his auntie Willow:
Wonder where he learned that word?
@31
Indeed, indeed.
This morning’s lead news item has me wondering:
Should we believe any Penn State self-investigation of wrongdoing by one of it’s luminaries?
http://news.sciencemag.org/sci.....-penn.html
Just an idle question.
@ 31
I think R&D, in general, is important, whether by a corporation keeping up with competitors also spending to get an edge or by an educational entity or publicly funded research organization doing basic or clinical work.
Unfortunately, circumstances sometimes necessitate belt-tightening. Apparently defense R&D is disproportionately hit, for better or for worse (link above).
What happens when universities need to make decisions on how many German Studies or Critical Dance Studies programs are needed by this country? Or do we cut biologic sciences by an equal amount so as not to disproportionately affect the humanities?
Tough calls. But ones that will probably have to be made in the not-too-distant future.
My suspicion is that any department with the word ‘Studies’ in its title is on the chopping block.
@ 32
Probably learned it from Dan Savage’s tweets.
comment # 16 from:
http://slog.thestranger.com/sl.....ay-faggot/
Brilliant Serial Conservative, you were able to link the sex abuse scandal of Penn State’s football team to the investigation about Michael Mann’s emails to once again question global warming.
Cause nothing says scientific investigation into global climate changes are a hoax like the diddling of young boys. Brilliant!
@36 Smart kid if he can read and use the internet at 3.
@ 37
Actually, I was inquiring as to the credibility of a university claiming to police itself when it’s been made clear that a coverup of wrongdoing was perpetuated at the highest levels of said university.
The diddling linkage was all you, VSC.
Smart kid if he can read and use the internet at 3.
Well, that is the average age of Dan Savage’s fans.
Your headline du jour:
President Obama Praises Self for Ending War in Iraq on Bloodiest Day of the Year in That Country
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/po.....t-country/
Later today, Obama is scheduled to be in Oakland, where he will tout the success of next-door Solyndra to a crowd of newly-unemployed green-jobs workers.
@37
Cereal will apologize for anything from the right.
He’ll try to defuse and deflect any criticism – it’s really his primary activity here, which is one of the things that leads me to believe this is more for him than an avocation or pastime.
He’s quite shameless about it – for example above, deflecting the Palin’s essential griftitude and noxious, multi-generational gay-hate with a falsely equivalent link to some right wing ass making a comment on a Stranger thread.
Like I said,
*****
Oh, BTW, Cereal, when are we going to get that affirmative, positive argument for a Romney presidency? Just five little points….
Yeah, didn’t think so.
@6 It’s also worth noting, being that Social Security has been with us for around 80 years, that about half a century before that, another reason why the well-being of older people was less of a societal concern was that there weren’t as many of them. Between the typical 12-hour/six-day work week (allowing for the churches to get their piece of the pie), a variety of unconrtolled diseases like polio, TB and rotten-teeth-related cardiomyopathy and such now-untypical hazards as being thrown from a horse, hit by a train, lynched by guys in white sheets or burned to death in an urban firetrap, people (especially those of modest means) didn’t live as long.
@ 42
I googled ‘Dan Savage faggot’. It’s the third item down.
Give me credit for knowing his column salutation. It’s funny, or supposed to be, when he or Perez Hilton invokes it. It’s one of the things that endears The Stranger to you uber-lefties in the Emerald City.
When is a slur not a slur? When it can’t be used against someone on the right, apparently.
Have a good day, all.
Why are you attacking me? I’m agreeing with you. Sex abuse coverups and climate change email coverups are totally the same. Because there was sex abuse in the football program, it’s totally obvious that they are lying about Man’s emails being taking out of context and global climate change is a hoax.
@ 43
I think you just opened the door to a discussion of age eligibility for Social Security.
I believe that age needs to be advanced. Across the board.
Actuarial statistics have changed, and so should SS.
WATB. Bristol Palin’s 3-year-old said:
…and you throw up Dan Savage, ’cause…well, um…he said ‘faggot’ once, too! Yeah! That’s it, Dan Savage said it so it’s A-OK for little 3-year-old Tripp to say it, too!! It says NOTHING about the Palins – nope, nada – it’s all about that awful Dan Savage.
You are shameless.
Of course you do.
*eye roll*
he will soon be Jimmy Carter II.
I actually voted for Jimmy Carter in my first presidential election.
This is Jimmy Carter on steroids!
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-.....ht-quarter
Till Darryl’s next poll survey…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
@2 “Ya know who won’t be hurtin’ during retirement? California union employees”
Is something wrong with that? Are conservatives happy only when workers are hurting?
Just for the record, I only post here under “rhp6033”. I have no other avitars or screen names which I use. That’s why I have as my avitar an adimittedly very old picture of me – so someone who tries to post in my name wouldn’t be confused with me (assuming they aren’t willing to go to a considerable amount of trouble to do so). I wasn’t even online here when the other posts came in, which Serial guesses were linked to me in some way.
The right wingers like to wring their hands over the DEBT, the DEBT!
After 2 wars not paid for, tax cuts for the rich and the corporations not paid for and a major new entitlement benefit for seniors not paid for..
Well vote for Willard (R-Money) right wingers! With him it’ll be just more of this winning formula:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/2.....?hpt=hp_t3
@2 Whoop-de-doo, the average California public worker makes $61K and cops and firefighters make $89K — that’s peanuts in a state where starter homes cost $500K.
The ultimate Willard (R-Money) flip-flop video:
http://youtu.be/W_pgfWK3sxw
Enjoy!
The NRA must be working overtime over the weekend. No politician in Washington D.C. has even proposed a change in our gun laws with respect to the Aurora shooting, but NRA members seem to be jumping onto Facebook with multiple posts promising an aggressive response to any such effort.
One picture making the rounds is a yard sign which advertises “The people in house next door don’t believe in guns, so it is unarmed, Out of respect for their rights, I will not use my guns to protect them”.
Of course, anybody posting such a sign is an idiot, because they’ve just advertised that there are guns inside the house worthy of stealing, they just have to watch the house long enough to establish when the homeowners will be gone each day, and how long. And since the neighbors don’t have guns, all they have to worry about is the response time of the cops.
It would be rather funny if, after stealing multiple firearms from the house, the burglars left a message on the sign: “thanks for the notice”.
@5 Man, are you out of touch. The basics of business today are fraud, fraud, fraud.
“Almost two years ago, I was invited to speak to the New York City Bar Association about the future of white collar crime enforcement. I spoke bluntly about what I had seen in a little over a year as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. To the apparent surprise of many in the room, I observed publicly that insider trading appeared to be rampant. That observation has been borne out over and over again in the two years since, much to the dismay and disgust of an increasingly frustrated public. In case after case, wiretapped conversations between co-conspirators, the testimony of insiders, and admissions by the guilty have revealed that insider trading has permeated numerous industries, sectors, and geographical regions.
“From coast to coast, the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission have ensnared people not only at hedge funds, but at technology and pharmaceutical companies, consulting and law firms, government agencies, and even a major stock exchange. What might be most astonishing … is that some of the most egregious securities frauds have occurred … not at fly-by-night outfits but at prominent and powerful companies. … We have witnessed the most educated, successful, and monied professionals in the country put their companies … at risk by engaging in flagrant … illegal conduct.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48286908
“There are two banking systems for the wealthy. Private banks. And ‘pirate’ banks [that] form a large and fast-growing virtual banking system that has helped the wealthy hide more than $21 trillion offshore …. That hidden wealth is costing governments $280 billion a year in lost tax revenue ….
“The report says much of that wealth is held by … the global super-wealthy and is handled by the world’s 50 largest banks. … The ‘pirate banking’ system now launders, shelters, manages and, if necessary, re-domiciles the riches of many of the world’s worst villains, as well as the tangible and intangible assets and liabilities of many of our wealthiest individuals ….”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48285856
Roger Rabbit Commentary: First the rich steal, then they evade taxes. Corporate America, indeed the business world across the globe, is systematically dishonest and corrupt. Is it any wonder the 99% distrust and despise the 1%
# 46: The push to extend the retirement age leaves behind blue-collar workers who’s most valuable tool is their bodies. By age 65, a good proportion of them simply can’t do it anymore – their body has been “used up”, with multiple work-related problems (back injuries, etc.). Just saying that the average pencil-pusher sitting at a desk lives longer doesn’t change their situation. Any attempt to extend the social security retirement age would just result in an increase in Medicade disability applications, saving no money overall.
But I’m sure Romney feels that he and his peers can work well into their 70’s, reading reports at a desk, hob-knobbing with the rich aboard yachts and at country clubs and horse events, etc. The problem is, he considers that “work” which he “enjoys”. The rest of us consider that a very nice retirement which we could only dream of attaining. Romney already IS retired, by our standards.
@52 I have no debt. If wingers followed my example, they’d have no worries.
@57 Of course that’s the Romney/Republican solution to a Social Security “crisis” that doesn’t even exist — make everyone work until they drop dead. Everyone except them, that is.
This is something I’ve been mulling around for a while.
Is it in a person’s self interest to be honest and ethical anymore?
It used to be that being honest and working hard would gain you a decent job and a good change for middle class life and upward mobility for your kids.
But with the concept of “Greed is Good”, firmly wound into our society, is honesty worth it any more. It seems that someone who is honest and hard working is considered a chump, a mark, a fool, a loser. Honest people don’t get ahead. Why should some be honest if all it gets them is a part time job at walmart? They need to be a ruthless cheat like romney (or Obama, depending on your point of view)
Our economic climate has become so ruthlessly competitive that many people feel they have to cheat not only to get ahead but to simply survive. The obsessive focus on results and rewards has created an mindset in which people ignore or forgive those who have behaved unethically to obtain coveted results. The ends justify any means.
You hear this in the teabaggers lamenting that they cannot make an honest living because the illegals and the unions and the government and the taxes are stealing it from them. You hear this in the progressives lamenting that they cannot make an honest living because the multinational corporations and the banksters and the republicans and the 1% are stealing it from them. I hear it in Rabbit’s taunting that acting like a cheating capitalist is the only way to make any money. I find this attitude of “the ends justify any means” in almost everything Serial Conservative posts. (I find most of what he posts to be downright unpleasant, but I think he is currently the only rational and logical conservative poster to the board, so he’s my benchmark). I personally think honesty is the right thing, but I have a job that can support my family and I don’t want for much. Ask me again if my circumstances change.
Why be honest and ethical if society doen’t value it, if greed is all that matters?
Poll: Romney preferred over Obama to handle the economy
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/p.....csp=34news
By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney’s background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation’s economic problems over the next four years.
Ah, but Obama’s not finished yet:
Obama retains significant advantages of his own. By 2-1, he’s rated as more likable than Romney.
So, let’s recap:
$100M blown in two months just in about 10 or so states. And Obama’s underwater. The incumbent has gone negative early and has zilch to show for it (catch Sean Trende at RCP today for more on that).
Obama just made the misstatement of a lifetime, the results of which haven’t really had much of a chance to sink in because the real Romney ads on it haven’t started yet.
We’re very likely heading into recession if we’re not already there.
Ah, but Obama’s more likeable.
Yeah. That’ll work.
But if it involved money, why you did that totally on your own. No public taxpayer-funded infrastructure and services enabled any businesses to prosper.
Mike Huckabee “Incensed” By Criticism Of Chick-Fil-A
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosieg.....-chick-fil
So he’s upset that people are voting with their dollars and not supporting bigotry? The right has called for boycotts on businesses before, I guess it’s different when they do it. People have the right to hold whatever bigoted, absurd beliefs that they so desire. The flip-side of that right, though, is that others have the right to call them out, disagree and otherwise vote with their wallets.
@ 63
Wouldn’t he be more incensed by the acts of a mayor not to let market forces decide whether the restaurant should be allowed to expand?
http://bostonherald.com/news/r.....position=0
This just isn’t all that far from ‘We don’t like your politics, so your building permit is denied.”
Read your own link. The Boston Herald piece is embedded in the text.
As if conservatives would NEVER allow politics to intrude on civic functions.
*rolls eyes*
Cereal is again apologizing for bigots and racists. Big deal, nothing new. It escapes him that sometimes people stand up and say, “Take your bigotry elsewhere, we don’t want you in our community.”
# 60: I agree, but that’s been around for an awful long time. It shouldn’t be, but it has been.
There’s a verse in the book of Job where Job laments of God that God allows the wicked to prosper, but the ungodly he allows to suffer, and pleads for an intercessor to serve on his behalf. (I’ve got the verse highlighted in my Bible, but I don’t have it with me right now). Since the Book of Job is actually the oldest book in the Bible (pre-dating the writings of Genesis, et al by Moses), then that is considered by many Christians to be a plea for what later became known as the Messiah, an intercessor between Man and God.
But our economic system works only as long as most of the people believe that it is fair, and that by hard work, sobriety, and education, they can get ahead. Take this away, and there’s no reason why anyone should work hard – we might as all be drunkards.
That’s the underpinning of securities regulation, because no one will invest if they think the game is rigged against them. Their goal is to shore up confidence in the system – in perception, if not in reality.
That’s what we keep trying to say to Republicans in general, and the trolls here in particular – the basic underpining of trust in the system has reached the point of breakdown. The 1% are happy as long as we argue over who’s to blame, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Why should the average American continue to try to swim against the tide? Unless substantial changes are made to America’s economic system so it is more fair to everyone, the entire economic system could implode.
BTW, it’s probably shitty factory ‘pink goo’ chicken-derived industrial offal coated in oily batter and designed to be dipped into high-fructose corn syrup laden ‘sauce’.
Fuck that shit. Mike Huckabee and the rest of his Arkansas posse can have it. Boston is better off without that poison and without that hate.
@35 “Unfortunately, circumstances sometimes necessitate belt-tightening”
Unless it’s the glorious job creators, of course. It’d be nothing less than class warfare to ask that of them.
@52 “The right wingers like to wring their hands over the DEBT, the DEBT!”
Well, the answer to that is obvious. Put the GOP in full control of the White House and both houses of Congress, and all of a sudden we’ll be back to “Deficits don’t matter”.
“Cereal is again apologizing for bigots and racists.”
That’s because Bob is a bigot and a racist. His line of reasoning with the Bristol spawn and Dan Savage also justifies the spawn spewing “nigger”. After all, some black people do it, so wingnut three year-olds should be able to do it too.
My, oh my. Jack Gilchrist of Gilchrist Metal, poster boy for Mittster’s ad extolling the Randian ideal of the loner ubermensch industrial capitalist, seems to, um, have a bit of a conflict. From the Manchester Union-Leader (you know, that left-wing rag) (h/t Hunter at DailyKos):
He explains it away, of course:
He’s getting some of ‘his tax money back’ – that’s rich.
Pigs at the fucking trough. Hypocritical pigs. It’s not welfare if the money is going to a capitalist Republican. Fucking pigs.
Union-Leader link, for above.
@60 “Why be honest and ethical if society doen’t value it, if greed is all that matters?”
From my perspective as a rabbit, sitting down here munching on free grass and observing the antics of you stupid humans, greed matters only if money matters and it’s hard for me to see why it does.
We’re finding out a hell of a lot of one-percenters are tax cheats who stash money in offshore and Swiss accounts so they can enjoy a free ride here in the States that the rest of us don’t get. No wonder the working and middle classes, whom the one-percenters regard as chumps and fools, feel contempt for the rich.
The Romney campaign claims Mittster “paid all appropriate taxes on his Swiss account.” That’s easy to prove; all he has to do is release his tax returns. If he’s lying, well, we’re probably going to find out.
One thing’s certain: Somebody is.
“A ‘handful’ of politically connected Americans had secret, undisclosed accounts at the Swiss bank UBS, a source familiar with the accounts told CNBC. The names of those people were turned over to the U.S. government as part of the bank’s massive tax evasion settlement, the source said. And while the Romney campaign has said Gov. Romney paid all appropriate taxes on his Swiss account, the other American political figures likely did not — the source explained that the accounts revealed by UBS to the U.S. government were ‘undisclosed,’ meaning that information about them was not previously transmitted to the IRS.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48291591
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I don’t care who these miscreants are, or which party they’re affiliated with, let’s have their names and make them face the consequences. This isn’t a Republicans vs. Democrats thing; it’s about rooting out the cheaters from public office and positions of power. If they won’t pay their legally owed taxes like the rest of us, then they have no business imposing laws on us.
The more we learn about contemporary American society, the more we realize America’s elite are pervasively corrupt. They’re making the U.S. look like a third-world country. And they’re making the honest hard-working folk in the hinterlands damned mad! Do you get a sense that absolutely everything — from mortgage interest rates to food and gasoline prices — is rigged? Certainly, all working-stiff Americans understand the tax system is rigged in favor of the rich. Ask the man in the street what he thinks of Wall Street and he’ll say “they’re all crooks.” As a small investor, I’m a rare bred, because small investors have abandoned the stock market en masse — they believe it’s a rigged game, and I’m pretty sure it is. You can sheer the sheep only so many times before they quit coming to the barn.
We’ve had a good thing going for us here in America for a long time, compared to most other people in the world, but it’s continuation isn’t guaranteed — it’s fragile and can be irretrievably lost. Our system has a lot of resilience, but it’s not indestructible. The greed, fraud, and corruption of the present generation of America’s power elite could bring the whole edifice down.
In this respect, I think we have common cause with the Tea Partiers. Instead of lumping them with run-of-mill Republican Crooks & Liars (TM), we need to understand their movement sprung up out of disgust with conventional politics and dishonest politicians, they’ve had enough just like us, and they’re trying to change the system just like us. We have some important philosophical differences with them, but they’re by-and-large honest differences of opinion, and while we disagree with them on many specific issues, we don’t want to overlook the possibility that they could become our natural allies in any national effort to root out the systemic corruption in our political and economic systems.
Interesting:
Obama is doing a private fundraiser in the seattle area this week, with no public appearances or Q and A sessions scheduled.
If memory serves me correctly, the HA loons jumped all over Romney about a month or so ago for doing the same exact thing.
where are the HA loons now??
crickets…
actually those numbers seem about right..most people who buy homes are doing such in a two income household, so a couple making in the low to mid 100’s can afford 500k house if they have saved up some cash for a down payment.
so what was your point?
Such cut-ups, those GOPers.
http://pamshouseblend.firedogl.....un-charge/
@78
Shea is a dumbass, on many different levels…
Apparently, we’re having an election soon. Or so I’ve heard. As someone that doesn’t have a landline phone, gets his mail at a PO Box, and uses apps like Spotify and Pandora instead of listening to the radio, the only evidence that I’ve had that there’s an election coming up is getting my ballot and voters guide in the mail and all those stupid yard signs littering public right of ways.
I doubt I’m the only person who could live without seeing yard signs everywhere except in peoples yards.
@78
From your link.
But, but, but…how could that be wrong? He was defendin’ his castle, er, his pick-up truck, standin’ his ground and all.
Brandishing a loaded pistol, with an expired concealed permit – he is the epitome of FREEDOMZ! He’s a sovereign asshole, king of his castle, protectin’ his wimmin and all.
He’s not going to count on any pussy police to protect him – he’s gonna pull his pistol on any driver he finds threatening.
(The asshole (Shea) “thought he was being targeted due to his work,” BWAHAHAHAHAA!!)
You little boys and your guns – if you’re actually thinking that they make you safer – need to grow up. Fast.
I’ve always wondered about that – I’ve never seen that done anywhere else.
Given that they show up on public land, could they be considered litter and collected?
@82
Somehow, they’re considered property of the campaigns they belong to and messing with them can get you charged with theft. However, if they’re still around “x” many days after the election public workers can take them down and bill the campaigns.
Around here it looks like the WSRP is paying someone to drive around and put signs out everywhere.
Or…if they’re not litter, could you put up one of those big suckers you see out in the farmland?
@81
The guy’s not even going to be convicted of anything. That’s F’d. You wave a gun at someone, you should lose your right to have that gun.
Impossible.. They can only conjure pitiful delusions..
@85
I’m sure he’s very very sorry…that he got caught.
He should be tried, hopefully convicted, drummed out of the legislature and held up as an object lesson for what immature and intemperate and irresponsible (and bigoted) little boys do when given the opportunity to have a gun.
BANG! BANG! MORE GUNS!
@84
I saw a story once where I guy turned a couple of the big ones into strip planking for a canoe. I guess it worked pretty well. Those run $50-60.
The smaller ones can be turned into pretty good bicycle fenders.
http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/.....nders.html
@87
Here’s the story:
and speaking of ball-less girlymen, YLBigot prances in..
LMAO!!! Who wants to do the bidding of sick people?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/20/.....ey-latino/
The sickness is OBAMA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME..
Fuck! A right winger was calling it out only a couple months after Obama was elected!
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....16306.html
Yay! A new Elway poll shows Inslee leading McKenna by 43% to 36% with a 5% margin of error.
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/.....g-mckenna/
The Colorado shooter just got kicked off Match.com and AdultFriendFinder. I predict he’ll have a hard time getting dates from now on. Except he’ll get plenty of dates with whichever gorilla
he shares a cell with.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ing24.html
@90 Speaking of girlymen, I don’t remember seeing you in Vietnam. I’ll bet you didn’t show up for Panama, Iraq, or Afghanistan, either.
I doubt you can remember yesterday.
@95,
Great job taking quotes completely out of context, Mitt could use a guy like you.
I learned it from Goldy.
Wouldn’t he be more incensed by the acts of a mayor not to let market forces decide whether the restaurant should be allowed to expand?
Yup, and we will see if the mayor gets re elected. Market forces will decide if they like the Mayor’s policies.