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capecodjack
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Posted - 08/01/2011 : 11:52:47 PM
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I do not pretend to be an authority on monetary policies or Jeffersonian proclamations but as a young man I remember reading "Popular Science" and "Popular Mechanics" and I remember that the predictions of the future described a four day work week for workers because of computers and robotics that would increase productivity and make leisure more available to workers.. There was a a common belief that all would realize the benefits of increased productivity. Instead to quote an age old song, " there is nothing surer the rich get rich and the poor get poorer" .
An avowed conservative said to me " You are for the redistribution of wealth" I answered "No I am for the reverse of the redistribution of wealth that has been going on in this country for the past fifty years."
I know that my children are not better of than we and that to try and maintain a standard of living that I enjoyed they must have a household where both parents have to work full time to keep up with the demands of today.
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balataf
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Posted - 08/03/2011 : 04:43:39 AM
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Well, that round is over TEMPORARILY, with the next one scheduled for a Sep 30 budget deadline. Both far-left and far-right wings are unhappy with what the middle nas okayed.
Next year is likely to have very intense political battles in Congress that are likely to further undermine this Admin. The key to possible outcomes is how well the Tea Party forces will stick together, especially after the Republicans' minor Presidential candidates have been eliminated.
At this early point, it is structured like the 1960 Republican race, with the following positioning.
Right wing / Goldwater / Bachmann
Center / Nixon / Perry
left wing / Rockefeller / Romney
and scattered others that won't last, like Stsassen or Lodge.
Obviously this is totally subject to change, but that is less likely with time.
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Edited by - balataf on 08/03/2011 04:47:09 AM |
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balataf
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Posted - 08/04/2011 : 1:25:22 PM
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Our President appears to have a positive genius for killing off what few
good economic news items he could take advantage of.
In a widely-debated pending case at the National Labor Relations Board,
Boeing is being slammed for building a NEW plant to EXPAND production.
The rationale, being that South Carolina is a "right to work" state, where the
existing plant near Seattle has had union work stoppages.
This endangers Boeing in performance of foreign and domestic contracts
wth a totally unprecedented Government interference. As such it sends a
terrible message to the business community, when hiring.is needed.
The end result could still be losing this business to Europen Airbus.
Another possibility is harmfully pushing Boeing, and others, into fabricating
Overseas.
But it also passes up a great chance for Obama to point to an American
business WINNING against foreign competition, and making use of an
inspiring EXAMPLE.
The choices this White House makes always seem to reinforce the negative
and promote needless failure, even when a possible victory was on hand.
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Edited by - balataf on 08/04/2011 3:57:17 PM |
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balataf
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Posted - 08/05/2011 : 6:33:36 PM
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If we get another Recession, the new debt limit total will not last until the 2012 election.
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Warmskin
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 Posted - 08/09/2011 : 12:49:34 AM
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In the 2008 primaries, Ron Paul was ridiculed by the GOP. Turns out his "prophecies" were eerily correct. He predicted what would happen if we continued what we as a nation did.
You can only take the Woodrow Wilson-FDR-LBJ-G.W. Bush-Obama policies so far. The logical conclusion of their ideas have come to both bite and haunt us.
If reckless disregard for math is a main feature of one's sense of government, being downgraded is a certainty, and not just a slight risk. The USA was humiliated in front of the world, but the establishment still does not get it.
We need to slash the military adventures we've been on for the last decade ($3 trillion and for what that helped the average American?), some departments like the Dept. of Education, Energy (which could become an agency instead), Commerce, and maybe one or two more. Repealing Obamacare would spare us another trillion dollar boondoggle. There must be a way other than total gov't dictatorship of health care.
It's not time to cut a wee bit here and there, but time to get out a long chain saw and cut deeply into government. We can't afford our government. It shows. We can run our gov't on the same budget we used in 2000.
Bailouts, wars, welfare empires have busted the budget. There is no other way we could have lost our credit rating. It's not that we are taxed too little, but that the gov't is simply way too big.
Time to end the Wilson-FDR-LBJ-G.W.Bush-Obama era of big spending. The credit cards are maxed out. The game is over.
If a family that had $50,000 of income each year were like the federal gov't, right now, that family would owe $330,000. No credit counselor would tell that family that everything was fine. The counselor would tell the family to start cutting their household budget drastically, painful though that would be. How can it be that the gov't is not like this family? It's a group of people, too.
So, Ron Paul was correct all along. Even Chris Wallace told Ron Paul that FOX news is taking him much more seriously now. When you're proven to be correct, people will eventually pay attention to what you say. The people who are trapped by their own political ideals will still hold out for more spending for their pet projects, whether it's more war, bailouts, or welfare.
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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balataf
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Posted - 08/10/2011 : 12:53:44 PM
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Well, with 7 of the Wisconsin Senate Recall elections done, Gov. Walker's Republicans have retained control. The remaining two next week are defending Democrats, whose loss would only increase Republican control.
While the fight became a multi-issue pitched battle, it started as an attempt at budget control and labor unions responding.
When you strike against a private company, you are striking against the stockholders who own it, and the management that they have democratically elected.
When you strike against a government, you are sriking against the CITIZENS who own it, and against the management that they have democratically elected.
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Of the various factions within the Republican Party, several pundits have pointed out that Gov. Perry has great support levels, pretty well across all major groups from the Establishment to the Christian Right and the Tea Party he did so much to help. About the only ones lacking are libertarians and the few remaining dregs of the Neocons.
The only two recent R. candidates who were similarly positioned, strategically, were Nixon in both 1960 and '68, and Reagan (but only in 1980.) He is likely to do well in the Iowa Straw Poll when he hasn't even announced yet. That is something important to watch for.
I am not pushing any candidate, but my money would be on Perry as the next President. Some of the better Presidents in history started from the position of being the FIRST CHOICE of relatively few, but being ACCEPTABLE to multiple hostile factons.
Obama's hold on the Left is somewhat shakey, and it is not impossible that some will split off with either a primary challenge, or to a minor party similar to the Greens or Libertarians.
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Edited by - balataf on 08/10/2011 1:02:37 PM |
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Warmskin
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Posted - 08/16/2011 : 04:25:26 AM
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Ron Paul, the candidate the establishment dislikes so muc,h was echoed back in 1979 by Nobel prize winning economist, Milton Friedman. I find it fascinating that the GOP rejects both Friedman and Paul, because of the GOPs vastly increased interest in spending.
That leads me to wonder who is their historic godfather, so to speak. It's not Goldwater, or Reagan, not Ike, not Robert Taft, nor anyone of that nature. The only thing they can cling to as of late is Leon Trotsky, odd as that might seem.
Almost all the debaters of late appreciated the concept of revolution through war, and permanent revolution by means of permanent war. Naturally, all that came out of the philosophy of neoconservatism that has prevailed in the GOP, and which was on display in the latest debate. Santorum appeared like a spoiled boy when he gladly said he supported the Iraqi war, although it had no legitimate reason to take place, and only ended up killing thousands of American troops for nothing. Yet, Santorum smiled at that. So, we now know that he supports government lying, and troops dying for no discernable reason. Very humanitarian of him.
Also, the GOP has been the force behing things like the Patriot Act, although supported by many Democrats. The act called for more regulation of the behavior of the people, and loss of their rights under the Fourth Amendment. I fail to see that Reagan or Goldwater would have like the regressiveness of the Patriot Act.
Although Friedman has since passed away, Ron Paul is here today, saying very much the same thing - the freedom of the individual to act in their own best interest, without the interference of the government to stifle the creativity of the people.
Government has all too often caused monopolistic companies to grow beyond where they would have not without the government running interference against the competition.
There is a great video of Friedman againt Phil Donahue, back from 1979. It is highly instructive and again is Ron Paul verbatim, only back in 1979. Classical ideas never become outdated. Only fads and technology do.
Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNzi7tmkx0
It takes a while to watch, but will make your mind work hard. If you agree with Friedman in his point of view, you probably would not like Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, Newt, Romney, and others. You will like Ron Paul, because of the complete agreement with Friedman's statements.
The Reagan-Goldwater philosophy is gone from the GOP, and who knows if it will ever come back? I wish it would. The Bush, the younger's ideas have bankrupted the GOP philosophically and morally. The public caught onto this in 2006 and 2008. Only Obama's arrogance and incompetence brought about 2010's results - not the GOP's stances. The GOP should be mighty careful about who they nominate, otherwise, it's 4 more years of increased socialism and foreign concepts to be into practice.
As to the US Senate, it might go GOP in 2012, if Obama is found out. The Founders made the Senate more stable by allowing only 1/3 of to be elected each 2 years, so it lags behind public opinion, unlike the House.
For now, we're stuck with 2 major parties who love to spend, in different categories some of the time, and in the same categories in other times. Not much choice, economically. Socially, they both try to regulate personal behavior.
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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balataf
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Posted - 08/16/2011 : 08:43:09 AM
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Well, Warmskin, it looks like Perry is the one who can best bridge the gaps among the various Republican factions, with the exception of the libertarians and the NEOCONS. The Neos backed BUSH, who had a long adversarial relation with him. I doubt if you would find them in his Administration, but it would be full of Christian Right figures. Paul and Bachmann appear much less capable of the dealmaking that made figures like Washington, Lincoln and FDR able to balance their administrations among the factions they had to deal with.
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Lesson From Europe (Take 2) No, social democracy doesn't 'work.'By BRET STEPHENS
'The real lesson from Europe," wrote Paul Krugman in January 2010, "is actually the opposite of what conservatives claim: Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works." Here are some postcards from the social democracy that works.
• In Britain, 239 patients died of malnutrition in the country's public hospitals in 2007, according to a charity called Age U.K. And at any given time, a quarter-million Britons have been made to wait 18 weeks or longer for medical treatment. This follows a decade in which funding for the National Health Service doubled.
In France, the incidence of violent crimes rose by nearly 15% between 2002 and 2008, according to statistics provided by Eurostat. In Italy violent crime was up 38%. In the EU as a whole, the rate rose by 6% despite declines in robbery and murder.
• As of June 2011, Eurostat reports that the unemployment rate in the euro zone was 9.9%. For the under-25s, it was 20.3%. In Spain, youth unemployment stands at 45.7%, which tops even the Greek rate of 38.5%. Then there's this remarkable detail: Among Europeans aged 18-34, no fewer than 46%—51 million people in all—live with their parents.
Rioters in London: Poster children for social democracy.
.• In 2009, 37.4% of European children were born outside of marriage. That's more than twice the 1990 rate of 17.4%. The number of children per woman for the EU is 1.56, catastrophically below the replacement rate of 2.1. Roughly half of all Europeans belong in the "dependency" category on account of their youth or old age. Just 64% of the working-age population actually works.
I could go on in this vein for pages, but you get the point. Europe is not a happy place and hasn't been for nearly a generation. It's about to get much worse.
This isn't simply because Europe's economic crisis is still in its infancy, although it is. The tab for bailing out Greece, Portugal and Ireland alone—which together account for about 5% of euro-zone GDP—already runs to hundreds of billions of euros, with no resolution in sight. By contrast, Italy's GDP is more than seven times as large as Greece's. Italy is too big to fail—and too big to save. If the so-called PIIGS wind up leaving the euro zone (or if Germany beats them to it by returning to a Deutsche mark), the dislocations will take years to sort through.
Even then, Europe will still have to address the more profound challenges of economic growth, demography and entitlement reform. But in order for it to do so it must have a clear idea of the nature of the challenges it faces. It doesn't. It also requires political resources to overcome the beneficiaries—labor unions, pensioners, university students, farmers, Brussels technocrats and so on—of the current system. That's not going to happen.
Politics, for starters, prevents it. Whenever a supposed "neo-liberal" comes to power—whether it's Nicolas Sarkozy or Silvio Berlusconi or Angela Merkel—they typically wind up doing no more than tinkering around the edges of regulatory or tax reform. That's because they are stymied by coalition compromises at home, or by European compromises in Brussels, or by some deeper failure of will and character.
Margaret Thatcher was the exception to this rule. But in both Britain and Europe she has had neither equals nor heirs.
Demography also prevents reform. The median age in the EU is 40.6 years. (In the U.S. it's 36.9). Older populations typically resist change, demand the benefits they've been taxed all their working lives for—and vote. The demographic balance is only going to tip further in their favor, and it will change only when younger Europeans decide that children, plural, are worth having. What that will take, only a faith in future prosperity—and in God—can provide. Outside of its growing Muslim population, Europe has neither.
Finally, there is ideology. For the past four decades, "Europeanism" has been an amalgam of Keynesian economics, bureaucratic centralization, and welfarism, corporate and social. Even now, the ideology remains unshaken by events. Though there is plenty of talk about getting spending under control and balancing budgets (typically by way of tax increases), nobody in Europe is proposing a serious growth agenda. At the beginning of the Greek crisis I asked a visiting official from Athens what his ideas were for growth: He suggested olive tree plantations and wind farms. He might as well have thrown a Sicilian Expedition into the mix.
For the U.S., none of this is yet in our cards: That's guaranteed by the tea party that so many Europeans (and Paul Krugman) find so vulgar. But it's worth noting what the fruits of social democracy—a world in which, as Kipling once wrote, "all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins"—really are.
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Edited by - balataf on 08/16/2011 08:57:12 AM |
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Warmskin
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Posted - 08/17/2011 : 5:16:40 PM
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Bachmann, Palin, Cain, Santorum and the like are hardly more than errand children for the necon philosophy that the GOP holds to these days. They're all for war that fails to help the USA. Nothing much has changed when one reads their statements, or sees them in the debates. They all claim to be in favor of cutting expenses, yet call for more spending, however coyly. War is not free; it is horrendously expensive, both in financial and human terms.
The number of successful claims for soldiers' disabilities is now over 500,000. Who will pay for their care? Look in the mirror, and thank the necon philosophy of endless war for endless revolution in foreign lands, and the trillions of dollars it cost us.
With our latest credit rating debacle and debt problems, was it worth 3.7 trillion $$$ to fight a war without benefit to the USA? Still, people like Santorum, a failure at foreign history, is proud to have voted for spending the trillions of dollars. Imagine not having gone to war. Would those trillions of dollars have helped us today with our debt? I don't think I need to answer that one. It's too obvious. The neocons who revamped the GOP, which remains revamped, have connived well. We were suckers to believe them, yet have not discovered that they are the ones who caused a lot of problems while abusing America.
I can only see Ron Paul as the one candidate in the GOP who knows what in blazes is going on in the world, the USA, and in our economy. He has remained consistent, while the others are more like weather vains in a windy locale. Paul predicted what would happen, and they called him crazy. Could it be that people of a lesser intelligence think that their more limited cranial capacity can judge the people who are more intelligent? Apparently so in this day of ignorance and mendacity.
So, the GOP is stuck in the status quo. The leaders think that if they just keep thinking in terms of the early part of last decade, things will all be fine. To put it bluntly, if there were a competent Democrat, who was a moderate, the GOP would not stand a chance with their war rhetoric. They are lucky that Obama is in office.
If the GOP could recapture the philosophy of Goldwater and Reagan, they would do far better than they are now. The budget problems would be solved, and we could regain our former credit rating. Sure, it take the candidate like a Reagen to get elected, but I see no one in the GOP, except for Ron Paul, who can literally save the USA. Obama, Perry, Bachmann, et al, are not likely to possess the needed qualities that Paul would bring.
Perry is an interesting addition to the primary season, but he needs more time to express himself as to what kind of thinking engages his mind. He is quite different in that he has been instrumental in making Texas a highly desirable state to do business in. However, if he comes off a me-too candidate with wishes to invade Iran or similar thing, then he would not be all that desirable. (Iran does not have nukes [or nudes], and it is not even near that point).
While on the subject, invading Iran would more expensive to wage war against than Iraq, if we insist on keeping the spirit of G. W. Bush alive, along with his neocon-saturated staff. It would be silly to think that these highly organized neocons would not want appointments in a GOP administration. They're not shrinking violets.
Any elected GOP nominee, other than Paul would be heavily manned by more neocons. Unfortunately, it's a movement that is not going away anytime soon. One could wish that the GOP would ban these people from office, considering all the damage they have done to the USA, in means of creating more terrorists, costing trillions of dollars, ruining the lives of too many of our troops overseas, and contributing to the loss of some of our constitutional rights. Other than that, the neocons are a bunch of great folks.
Why doesn't the Grand Old Party come to its senses and keep liberty as its highest priority, as it did at one time. You can't save liberty by taking parts of it away from the American people.
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1964 |
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Warmskin
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/18/2011 : 01:22:51 AM
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I love it when someone edits the Ames, Iowa debates down to just what Ron Paul says. Saves everyone from the me-too-ism of the other candidates who espouse the Bush, the younger's policies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdGsPioLLvQ&feature=related
Ron Paul represents the GOP, pre-G.W. Bush,and the Reagan and Goldwater eras. If only the public would wise up to this point. We need a real choice, not an echo. Ron Paul is somewhat more into liberty than Eisenhower was, but Ike would never have approved of the money-draining wars we have now. But, what does a five-star general know, that Bachmann and Santorum doesn't know better than he.
Send Bachmann and Santorum to Afghanistan and order them to don a uniform, and risk their life in that war. I wonder how they would vote on the next war after that experience. I know, privileged people don't have to lower themselves to fight in wars. Perish the thought.
War with Iran is going to more expensive than the war with Iraq. Perhaps 5 trillion or more $$. Where would we get the money for that -- yep, borrow from overseas with our recently downgraded credit rating. Now there is a recipe for financial prosperity for all Americans !!! (just kidding about that last sentence for those who take me too literally). 
Bob Dole said it best -- that the Democratic party was the war party -- World War I (Wilson), World War II (FDR), Korea (Truman), Vietnam (LBJ), and Kosovo (Clinton). In the last century, the GOP did not initiate wars. Nowadays, the GOP is the war party. They can't wait for the next war, and their reasons for it are dubious and duplicitous, and dishonest, not to mention reckless.
The GOP war party is artificial and fake, and has been since 2001. That fact is still true today, based on candidate statements and their debate performances, except for Ron Paul, the only true GOP politician, for the most part, still standing. You can add Gary Johnson, and Walter Jones to the list of real GOP types, too. Pat Buchanan is one of the only conservatives left, whether one likes him or not.
If the GOP loses their war advocates, they can pick up a lot of popularity among independents, but that won't happen. Does anyone with common sense think Iraq was worth $3.7 trillion, over 500,000 troops with disabilities of all kinds, and several thousand deaths of our troops? That does not appeal to the independent vote.
Stupid is as stupid does. Both major parties can do better than they have been doing.
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1964 |
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Warmskin
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/18/2011 : 01:33:08 AM
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Ron Paul is running against the corrupt media. Let's see a show of hands -- who thinks the media is really fair and unbiased? I don't see too many hands. Hmm, I guess nudists are pretty intelligent on average.
Let's get Jon Stewart's take on the corrupt reporting of the primary season.
Please click on the second part of the URL, if two links appear in this post. Thank you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EY5Ofcxjs0" target="_blank"> br / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EY5Ofcxjs0
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1964 |
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balataf
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/18/2011 : 02:25:47 AM
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I have not heard of ANY Neocon support for Perry. Rather he is liked by the ANTI-NEOCONS of the Christian Right. Perry has not spoken out on Iran that I am aware of at this point. Please note that he was an active duty Air Force pilot, and only he and Paul had service. But Paul's service was as a medical doctor. The campaign is still going to be decided by the candidates' ability to cut deals within the Party, which Bachmann and Paul seem deficient in. Like it or not, that is the necessary skill for nomination and for governing.
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Country: USA
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Warmskin
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/19/2011 : 05:07:01 AM
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Here is a classic Ron Paul video clip from 1983. He talks about the nature of money. I wonder why Cain, McCain, Romney, Palin, Bachmann, Giuliani, and Santorum were not talking about this crucial topic back in those days. Could it be that they simply didn't and still don't understand monetarism? I would think they did not and still do not understand it. That is a huge advantage of having Paul in the White House. Instead of an establishment approved empty suit in the White House, why not have Ron Paul, who comprehends exactly what our economic problems are today. Yep, the power of the media does not want him in office, and it shows.
You have to admire Paul's consistency, which is rare among politicians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFOT7PPuxE&feature=related
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1964 |
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balataf
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/19/2011 : 08:12:33 AM
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But Paul appears to be too rigid, so that he is unable to form a winning coalition or "concurrent majority" of voters who will only partly agree with him. Either he will compromise with the majority or go down badly as an "also ran."
The identical point applies to Bachmann equally, for the exact same reasons.
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Edited by - balataf on 08/19/2011 08:14:34 AM |
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Country: USA
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Warmskin
Forum Member
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Posted - 08/21/2011 : 03:23:08 AM
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Ron Paul is right about everything he says. Why settle for failure, by bringing in liars, nincompoops, ignoramuses, and other incompetents?
One thing we know for sure is that the lesser candidates who all too often win, are thoroughly compromised, bought and paid for, and are the major media darlings. I.e., those candidates sold their souls to the highest bidder, and stand for nothing except what the highest bidder wanted. That is why Santorum, Bachmann, Cain, and the rest will never publicly understand why the USA is in such trouble. They will continue our problems, and not fix them.
Ron Paul will never allow himself to be corrupted by any kingmakers. Only that kind of character will solve the Bush Jr-Obama problems that put our nation at risk. Once you're bought and paid for, you have no integrity, and certainly offer no solutions. Of course, Obama is in that category, also.
Funny how people with integrity are not considered good candidates. The people who are considered viable candidate by the major meida, make compromises, because they have nothing they stand for, at all costs.
Today, Ron Paul's website was hacked at a critical time. Golly, I wonder who did that. Take one or two guesses as to who did it. That is the level of the integrity of his opposition.
People will keep on electing compromised candidates hoping the next one will engender a different result. I think that is the definition of insanity. Here is the Americans' chance to elect a principled candidate who knows what needs to be done. The other candidates, including Obama, are not fit to be Ron Paul's valet.
"Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his (and her) conduct."
Thomas Jefferson
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| Posts: 1964 |
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