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Latest Articles: Opinions/Editorials
The weird political philosophy of the President of the United States
Post Date: 2011-07-18 18:59:49 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
Who doesn't love a good rant?
We certainly do, and as usual, Steve Wynn, the CEO of casino company Wynn Resorts, delivered on his company's quarterly conference call today.
Via Seeking Alpha, here's the crux of it:
I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for ...
Michele Bachmann’s Hazardous Love for Israel
Post Date: 2011-07-18 13:18:42 by Brian S
1 Comments
Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and Republican candidate for president, is making a muscular showing in the polls. She is telegenic. She is clever. Some of her Republican opponents worry she may be unstoppable. But never fear, oh Republican opponents of Michele Bachmann: I’ve devised a fail-safe way to bring her to a state of cognitive paralysis. This method will require some travel on her part. Bachmann’s destination: the Tel Aviv gay-pride parade. Bachmann is unwaveringly opposed to what she refers to as the gay “lifestyle.” Her husband, Marcus, runs a counseling practice devoted in part to the straightening- out of gay people. Bachmann herself told an ...
Republicans turned off by size of Obama's package
Post Date: 2011-07-18 11:48:17 by go65
3 Comments
Republicans are not sparing the rod when it comes to beating up on President Obama’s economic stimulus package, but it’s clear they are unable to raise their membership to withstand the newly found vigor of his congressional muscle. President Obama’s massive $819 billion spending-and-tax-cut package was rammed through the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday without the support of a single Republican member. Even with 11 Democratic representatives opposing the bill, the 244-to-188 count reflected the bulging Democratic majority that has now swollen the House. Ever since the Republican fantasy of endless majorities began collapsing beneath a disgusting load of GOP lies ...
Does The US Government Want To Prevent You From Leaving?
Post Date: 2011-07-11 22:09:33 by A K A Stone
6 Comments
Can you imagine being trapped inside your home country, unable to leave? It may be closer to a reality than you realize. I’ll tell you a quick story to explain. This weekend I rented a car in Bulgaria with the aim of driving through Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and eventually into Greece. Now, I’m no virgin to land border crossings in the developing world and understand the corruption and incompetence that typifies customs checkpoints. But this weekend’s experience was much more. With documents in hand, I drove to my first border crossing in Strezimirovci, Bulgaria. After clearing customs on the Bulgarian side, the Serbian officers decided that they would not allow me to ...
The GOP’s False Fiscal Narrative
Post Date: 2011-07-11 17:14:59 by Brian S
0 Comments
Reading about the debt-reduction talks is painful. It’s painful because in analyzing them, the media frequently fall back on storylines that just aren’t true. Storyline No. 1: Republicans are desperate to balance America’s books. This is, to be sure, what Republicans say. But is there any reason to take them at face value? During the Bush years, after all, the GOP was anything but desperate to put America’s fiscal house in order. The Bush administration launched wars that increased the deficit, pushed tax cuts that increased the deficit, even pushed entitlement expansions—such as the prescription-drug benefit—that increased the deficit. At times, top White ...
The Ideological Crisis of Western Capitalism
Post Date: 2011-07-11 13:59:56 by Brian S
28 Comments
Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology – the belief in free and unfettered markets – brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980’s until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology’s 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year. Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of US national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt. I was ...
Surprise, Surprise! Folks in Highly Taxed Countries Are Happier Than Americans!
Post Date: 2011-07-11 13:57:11 by Brian S
11 Comments
After the OECD created the Better Life Index to discern which are the happiest countries in the world an organization known as 24-7 Wall St. cherry-picked the list to narrow down those countries with the highest economic stability. Most likely, says MSNBC, "the happiest people in the developed world get loads of social services without having to work too hard." Or maybe these lucky folks not only don't have to pay for these services, more of them actually have jobs. With the exception of Canada and Israel, every country on 24-7 Wall St.'s list features a much higher top income tax rate than ours -- currently 35% -- and a value-added, or VAT, tax. What's more, despite ...
Founding Fathers Didn't Work Within The System. They Worked Outisde it with Cannons and Guns
Post Date: 2011-07-11 08:49:49 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
@drpageiv your statement against @crashjpmorgan is ridiculous, and it’s obvious that you don’t know what you are talking about. The founding fathers precisely DID NOT go and join the British parliament in attempt to influence the king by working their way through like snakes from the inside, no they stood up against an immoral tyranny, they DID NOT work within the system, they worked directly from cannons outside the system. If you are an American, you better wake, the AMERIKANS are coming. 70470863
LET’S END THIS DEBT CEILING DEBATE WITH A $1 OZ. $1T COIN [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-09 00:54:08 by lucysmom
102 Comments
A reader points out a very interesting loophole in the debt ceiling debate that would give the US Treasury the ability to tell the US Congress to take their fearmongering and shove it you know where. Reader “Beowulf” notes: “No, Tsy isn’t authorized to just “print” money, the Federal Reserve Act gives that power to the Fed, However, the Coinage Act grants the Secretary of the Treasury rather broad coin seigniorage authority. Geithner could sidestep the debt ceiling this afternoon by ordering the West Point Mint to coin a 1 oz. $ 1 trillion coin. Tsy can then present the jumbo coins at the NY Fed to buy back $1 trillion in Fed-held debt (the Fed has to accept ...
An Establishment in Panic (to raise taxes)
Post Date: 2011-07-08 13:53:27 by Hondo68
1 Comments
By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like "fanatics," writes David Brooks of The New York Times. Anti-tax Republicans "have no sense of moral decency," he adds. They are "willing to stain their nation's honor" to "worship their idol." If this "deal of the century" goes down, as he calls the Barack Obama offer, "Republican fanaticism" will be the cause. "The GOP has become a cult" that has replaced reason with "feverish" and "cockamamie beliefs," writes Richard Cohen of The Washington Post. The Republican "presidential field (is) a ...
You want liberty? This is what it takes…
Post Date: 2011-07-07 13:13:05 by Capitalist Eric
18 Comments
Brandon Smith of Alt-Market has generously contributed this missive for your reading pleasure and educational enlightenment. Somewhere along the way, no doubt with the help of Big Brother, our definitions of freedom and liberty have been lost in translation. The following article is a must-read for adults and teens alike, as it outlines ten critical ‘rules’ for liberty that have been forgotten or looked down upon for too long. The end result, of course, is a citizenry that is quick to point the finger at the first sign of trouble and one that has become dependent on government to solve basic problems. The Essential Rules Of Liberty There is nothing worse in this world ...
The Tea Party's Murder-Suicide Pact
Post Date: 2011-07-07 08:13:02 by go65
6 Comments
Congress cut short its July 4th recess and returned to Washington this week to try and reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Or, rather, some of its members are trying - a growing number of Republicans responsive to the Tea Party movement seem dead set again this. They not only claim that the United States won't suffer any negative consequences if it doesn't raise the ceiling, but that refusing will have the salutary effect of forcing the government to live within its means. A lot is at stake here. Just about everyone besides these Republicans believes that a debt default would be catastrophic. And most of them, including President Obama, would accept trillions of dollars in ...
Why U.S. Is Not A Christian Nation
Post Date: 2011-07-04 20:21:19 by Brian S
13 Comments
(CNN) -- As America celebrates its birthday on July 4, the timeless words of Thomas Jefferson will surely be invoked to remind us of our founding ideals -- that "All men are created equal" and are "endowed by their Creator" with the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These phrases, a cherished part of our history, have rightly been called "American Scripture." But Jefferson penned another phrase, arguably his most famous after those from the Declaration of Independence. These far more contentious words -- "a wall of separation between church and state" -- lie at the heart of the ongoing debate between those who see ...
Woodchoppers complaint.
Post Date: 2011-07-04 11:59:33 by Wood_Chopper
10 Comments
THIS TITLE WAS EDITED BY A K A STONE
I just got back from a two day suspension. Stone suspended me two days ago, but unless you were quick, you wouldn't know it, because the thread in which he did has has been “disappeared” down the memory hole. The thread was up for a day before he (or mod x, don't ya just love the new uncertainty??) deleted it.
BUT, before deleting the thread, he edited the title WITHOUT INDICATING THAT HE HAD EDITED IT, making it look as though I HAD AUTHORED THE TITLE. The original title was “Moderator X is an asshole”, which Stone changed to “Wood_Chopper is acting like an asshole”.
Being suspended, I couldn't post to point that out, and now that I'm back, ...
14 Propaganda Techniques Fox "News" Uses to Brainwash Americans
Post Date: 2011-07-03 19:54:45 by Brian S
1 Comments
There is nothing more sacred to the maintenance of democracy than a free press. Access to comprehensive, accurate and quality information is essential to the manifestation of Socratic citizenship - the society characterized by a civically engaged, well-informed and socially invested populace. Thus, to the degree that access to quality information is willfully or unintentionally obstructed, democracy itself is degraded. It is ironic that in the era of 24-hour cable news networks and "reality" programming, the news-to-fluff ratio and overall veracity of information has declined precipitously. Take the fact Americans now spend on average about 50 hours a week using various forms of ...
Mark Ames: Why the American Right Never Liked V.S. Naipaul [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-02 10:22:11 by lucysmom
154 Comments
I’ve often wondered why the American Right has been so quiet about V.S. Naipaul. He’s easily the most talented reactionary writer in the English language–maybe the only living talent left in the right-wing zombiesphere. The American Right devotes an insane amount of resources into manufacturing hagiographies on anyone whom they believe makes them look good–even the Soviets couldn’t compete with today’s American Right when it comes to glorifying their pantheon of degenerate cretins like Ayn Rand, Phyllis Schlafly, Friedrich von Hayek… I found a few passages that I think explain why they never liked Naipaul much. Basically, it comes down to this: The ...
A Political Scientist Who Does Great Economics [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-07-01 01:43:27 by lucysmom
54 Comments
On the selection of Elinor Ostrom for the Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy in 1997, I was invited to the award ceremony to say a few words. A colleague asked me who the recipient was, and I said "Elinor Ostrom." Ostrom pioneered the study of informal, non-governmental institutions that people invent to ration their use of the "commons," even in asymmetrical situations like upstream versus downstream occupants of a river bank. What is known as the "free rider" (non-cooperator) problem has found a number of solutions, voluntarily adopted, in a variety of cultures and environments. Elinor Ostrom "discovered" this subject and ...
Bachmann, Palin should just admit gaffes, then move on [Full Thread]
Post Date: 2011-06-30 11:37:30 by go65
65 Comments
It’s the scramble-back that makes you look insecure, stubborn and not all that bright. Does it really matter that Michele Bachmann got her John Waynes mixed up and said she shared a hometown with John Wayne when in fact it was John Wayne Gacy? “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That’s the kind of spirit that I have, too.” In fact, it was John Wayne Gacy who lived in Waterloo, whereas John Wayne, the actor, was born about 150 miles away, in the Iowa town of Winterset. Not a sane person in the world jumped on the gaffe to say, “Oh my God, she’s trying to align herself with the Killer Clown!” But the mainstream-lamestream media pounced on the gaffe with ...
The Failure of Republican Ideology: Part 1
Post Date: 2011-06-30 08:57:09 by go65
19 Comments
"Blame it on Bush" is the sarcastic phrase which John McCain could be heard sneering to his colleagues shortly after his defeat in 2008, as if knowingly exasperated that the democrats could do no better than to excuse their poor economic numbers by blaming the last president. This kind of spin is presumably intended to silence the democrats' defense that they inherited a disaster for which no quick fix is possible. If the American public does have this short a memory, then perhaps the republican reputation is safe. But I have to wonder, is it really enough to the republicans themselves just to convince the electorate? Sure, maybe for a cynical few but this is a party of such ...
Higher taxes ?
Post Date: 2011-06-29 02:43:27 by socalv8
3 Comments
An interesting data point to consider for those of you interested in the tax revenue discussion we've been having . From 1951 through 1963, the U.S. maintained extremely high marginal tax rates. The lowest rate of federal income tax was 20%, and the highest equaled 91%. The tax structure back then generated revenue equal to 7.7% of GDP. Marginal rates were lowest from 1988 through 1990, when the lowest rate was 15% and the highest rate was 28%. With that structure, federal income taxes brought in revenue equal to 8.1% of GDP. (This information comes from Alan Reynolds' well-sourced piece in the June 16, 2011 Wall Street Journal.) The point is, the liberal Democratic policy goal of ...
N.Y. Times: Fraught Nexus of Lies, Stupidity, and Bigotry
Post Date: 2011-06-25 18:57:32 by CZ82
0 Comments
N.Y. Times: Fraught Nexus of Lies, Stupidity, and Bigotry by Ann Coulter, 06/22/2011 Perhaps instead of taking potshots at me in its Book Review section, The New York Times could consider reviewing one of my books. With only one review -- not in the Book Review -- after eight New York Times best-sellers, the editors can rest assured that I know they don't like me. Reviewing a book about the 1989 rape of the Central Park jogger last week, the reviewer sniped that "coarser pundits like Ann Coulter continue to exploit the case whenever possible." My chapter on the Central Park rape in my recently released, smash New York Times best-seller, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is ...
Why Liberalism is Evil and Liberals Aren’t Compassionate At All
Post Date: 2011-06-25 18:23:24 by A K A Stone
3 Comments
Linking Compassion with Aggression The more I read Robert Ringer, the more I come to the conclusion that not only is liberalism immoral, it’s evil. From a Christian perspective, liberalism puts you on the side of Satan. Here’s an example, and here’s why: 1. In order to fund health care, the government will have to take from those who work hard and give it to those who don’t. You can call it anything you want, but it’s stealing, and stealing is wrong, a sin. God hates sin, and He won’t tolerate it much longer. 2. The Founding Fathers considered government to be evil. They didn’t want to give us anymore government than necessary. So, they didn’t. ...
What Neocons Don't Understand About War
Post Date: 2011-06-24 12:56:25 by Brian S
1 Comments
In National Review, The Weekly Standard, and the Washington Post, leading War on Terror hawks are expressing outrage at the timeline President Obama set for troop reductions in Afghanistan. Their complaint: politics is driving American policy. "So why September 2012?" Bill Kristol writes. "Because, one has to conclude, Election Day is November 6, 2012. The deadline will allow candidate Obama to say that he has completely withdrawn the surge forces, and that we're on our way out of Afghanistan and coming home. The timetable President Obama has set isn't based on military considerations, diplomatic strategies, or financial calculations." Perhaps it's time to ...
Why Eric Cantor Bailed
Post Date: 2011-06-24 12:49:16 by Brian S
1 Comments
In the end, Eric Cantor took a hike—away from the interminable budget talks with the Democrats, and perhaps from his own House speaker as well. The majority leader, the GOP’s go-to guy in negotiations with Joe Biden over the looming debt-ceiling crisis, infuriated Democrats on Thursday by announcing he is bowing out of the discussions. That is, until the other party abandons the idea of any tax increase whatsoever to bring down the ballooning national debt. By single-handedly bailing out, Cantor puts the onus of finding an elusive deal back on John Boehner, the man who assigned the majority leader to the thankless task in the first place. The fact that Cantor reportedly gave the ...
When The GOP Doubled Down On Crazy
Post Date: 2011-06-23 12:01:36 by Brian S
3 Comments
Have you ever sensed that conservative talk radio hosts are reading from a script written by somebody else? Well, you're right. According to a well-documented report in Politico, such fearless, independent thinkers as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are taking millions in payola to promote the policy ideas of the Heritage Foundation without necessarily letting listeners in on the secret. OK, scratch "payola" -- make that "sponsorship fees." Payola's what you call it when disk jockeys take cash under the table to play certain songs. It's illegal only when that income goes unreported to the IRS. Nobody's saying Hannity and Limbaugh are doing that. But ...
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