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Paul Krugman and other good economists agree. You said it well, Thom. This is the worst time to go austere. The debt/GDP is not bad and government needs to keep spending. The infrastructure demands it.
I think elegant villas being transformed into fortified castles is what austerity will eventually look like. Maybe General Dynamics can do the conversions!
But in all seriousness I also think that as more and more feel the economic pain being inflicted by the Billionaire Party, words like Capitalist, Conservative, Right Wing, Tea Party, Republican, Religious Right, will all become synonymous with poverty and hardship and be despised. The three words, Congressional Progressive Caucus, will become widely regarded as an uplifting bastion of hope for social and economic progress.
The militarey could arbitrarily cancel ALL contracts with security personel companies and replace them with Military police. The TSA could be laid off for sufficiebnt contiguous days to take care of their 10% (or whatever is required) and the border control could all be furloughed in the same manner. This would so disrupt transportation by air and the border states who have been promoting the necessity of sequestration and saying it wouldn't affect anyone would think differently.
Pain applied in the right places could be very effective. I think Congress would shortly change their mind.
When the budget debt limit date comes up, threaten to do the same to hons debt to current limits!
As I heard on Stephanie this morning, a 2016 race between Clinton and Bush will be interesting.
I have a question, if we can not get the a Congress that will work with a democratic president in 2014 or 2016, what will be better for the country, a democratic president and a do nothing congress or a republican president and a congress that will not block everything that is being proposed?
I feel sure that a democratic congress will not treat a republican president like President Obama is being treated. I feel the democratics in congress will put the country over party, unlike what is there now.
The reason probably doesn't matter so much, another Bush will not win the Whitehouse. Especially Bush vs. Clinton, though I'm not certain she will run. Immigration will take a back seat to his election rigging in previous elections.
Ken Ware Wrote: "Mathboy - you are an idiot of the highest order. And, yes I still resort to name calling when it is appropriate."
Thanks Ken! Finally you said something I can respond to. Addressing Mathboy this way is uncalled for and below you. It was funny. Almost a complement to someone who endeavours to be an idiot, but not necessary. Besides, Mathboy's comments in this particular forum have merit as well as Palindromedary's comments about cutting the huge spy center.
Can I take it that you feel current Airport security is really necessary. You feel safer walking through full body x-ray machines, having your luggage randomly searched, surrendering all your first amendment rights that I believe you risked your life fighting to preserve? Because if that is what you are saying, I certainly don't!
Neither did Jesse Ventura. A former Navy Seal and Governor who recently renounced his own country and left the country after being denied regress in Court after suing for being patted down in an Airport in a way that he felt violated his rights and was an affront to his dignity. I think if a man like Governor Ventura feels the same way as Mathboy, you might want to at least offer Mathboy a good explanation as to his ranking amongst Idiots. I too would appreciate your insight. Thanks again!
niiiiice!
yup!
Palindromedary ~ "Skygrabber" LOL I love it. It just goes to show how high-tech con artists like our "Defense Industry" can so easily trick wealthy puppet masters to pour all their money and faith into technologies that they don't have the slightest clue as to how they work, and sell them a huge bill of goods that falls flat on its face when screwtinized by opponents who work for a living and are loyal to a cause. It's so reminiscent of that ancient fairy tale, "The Emperor Wears No Cloths."
By the way, I tried to peruse that link you posted last night but got muddled down in the code words like Parasoo. If possible could you paraphrase and dumb down that website for those of us out of the loop? Thanks!
I for one have been saying this for months now. I think it is the way to go. MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!!!
They are most likely paid for by KKKarl Rove.
As far as concerns about Medicare and Medicaid are concerned, simply extend both to all citizens and problem solved. They too will have a surplus in no time!
They announced that they are letting on knives today in order to allow more observation of possible explosives. It looks as if austerity is already a reality/
Cuts in Defense industry contractors means nothing to me. Those jobs never should have been created in the first place. I don't know how many time's I proudly turned down working for those harbingers of death in my lifetime. I do know I never once regreted making that decision. These contractors and their employees are a drain on our Nation and produce nothing but hate, death, and enemy's around the world and here at home!
Repeal free trade, bring our really important manufacturing base back home, and retrain those Defense exemployees to do something productive with their lives.
Our Defense Industy scares me more than any enemys we've had in my lifetime. They don't make me feel safe at all. The one time they could have been usefull, 9/11, WHERE WERE THEY? I say fire them all!
So here's the deal. The Republicans want to cut spending on everything (except the military industrial complex) so let's ALL do that. Everybody close your wallet and stop spending on everything and let's all see just what happens.
waiting...
waiting...
waiting..
Yep that's right the WHOLE nation just stops in its tracks. The economy is based on the FLOW of money. If the flow stops, everything stops. Currently, trillions of dollars have stopped in the hands of the wealthy and the corporations. They're waiting for "someone else" to start spending but "someone else" doesn't have the money anymore. All "someone else" has, is mountains of debt because "someone else" kept spending even after their salaries were cut (in real terms) and their jobs were sent overseas. Now the wealthy and the corporations even want "someone else's" social support payments cut as well. The wealthy and the corporations, in their insatiable drive for ever higher and higher rates of profit have finally achieved what they set out to do. They have captured the bulk of the available money into their hands and now are unwilling to let go of any of it. They expect to keep all the profits and not have to spend anything to earn those profits. They expect "someone else" to cover ALL their costs. All aided and abetted by a captive political class.
Contemporary Capitalism 101.
Just heard a bit of today's show Re: appropriate names for Republican party How about Repugnant-con party
It's true, the Republicans have been driving this. But Obama signed it, and a lot of Democratic Senators voted for it.
This is not a do-nothing Congress; it's not even the gang of idiots we like to describe them as. These are people in hock to very rich corporations, run by some of the greediest people on the planet. The great majority of our elected officials are corrupt - from Obama on down - and it's difficult to see what, short of deplorable, terrible violence will effect any change at all.
Just for context - I voted twice for Obama. But his choices for economic leadership in both terms and his easy willingness to hurt the poor leave me with no other conclusion. I want to like him, I DID like him; but I think he's either never been up to the job, or he's simply as corrupt as the next guy.
Michigan is in fact a giver state. In 2004 (the year my figures are from), it got $0.85 for every $1.00 it provides to the federal government. States should be uneven in this, since otherwise, there would be no point in having federal taxes--the states would take care of those expenditures separately.
GOP No Divorce Law ..................
Ronald Regan, so called, Gov.of Calif. signed the nations first No Fault Divorce Bill in 1969.
In the down turn in the 70's with so many husband/fathers out of work a mother could apply for welfare assistance for herself and her children, but only after she applied for divorce and brought copies of the paperwork in with her when she applied. That law mandated the distruction of many good, young families. Some years later single mothers on welfare were required to go to work or loose all benifits. This was the second hard hit a single mother with small children had to take. Childcare cost on minimum wage resulted in thousands of latchkey kids.
A GOP no divorce law could force wives and children to stay in a home with husband/father abusers if they require co habitation for assistance this time. What will they dream up next.
A great term I saw to replace "global warming" is "HIRGO", which stands for Human-Induced Rapid Global Overheating.
"It was slain," not "it was slayed." There is no such word as "slayed".
A marriage is not economic, it's financial. Economics is about the flow of money as a system, i.e. among entities, finance is about the flow of money for entities dealt with individually, usually one at a time. As a human, I have finances, but not an economy.
"It is possible to know the intention and the mission of the drone by using the Russian-made “sky grabber” device to infiltrate the drone’s waves and the frequencies. The device is available in the market for $2,595 and the one who operates it should be a computer-know-how."
"Using devices that broadcast frequencies or pack of frequencies to disconnect the contacts and confuse the frequencies used to control the drone. The Mujahideen have had successful experiments using the Russian-made Racal.”
http://cryptome.org/2013/02/al-qaida-drones.pdf
"SkyGrabber: Is hacking military drones too easy?"
"Insurgents in Iraq used SkyGrabber – cheap Windows software – to hack unmanned Predator planes, the Pentagon says."
"US defense officials admitted to The Wall Street Journal that insurgents in Iraq have used SkyGrabber, a downloadable program, to hack into video feeds from Predators planes."
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2009/1217/SkyGrabber-Is-hac...
As Parastoo has indicated, and as the Iranians have already shown...they can hack into drone guidance systems and hijack drones. When they start crashing into populated centers one day...you can thank the authorities for putting them in the skies over our cities. And it may not even be the Iranians who are hacking them, not the Chinese, not the Russians..but those who live a little closer to home.
Mathboy - you are an idiot of the highest order. And, yes I still resort to name calling when it is appropriate.
It would not surprise me to read during this time, that some fringe paramilitary group came down from the mountains they live in and invaded Washington to clean up and clear out these idiots that were elected by the illiterate voters of this so called democracy. This President caved into the demands of the Republicans that represent the wealthy of this nation when he and his Democrats signed off on a mere 5% increase in Capital Gains. Once the Republican whores stripped Obama of any means to bargain with these people, (I use the word people in the loosest manner, they should be referred to as scum), all they have to do is sit back and let the austerity (Sequestration) measures become so intolerable that the soda jerk in the Whitehouse caves in and agrees to cut Social Security and Medicare even more than Obama has already done with his worthless and inadequate health care bill. The Democrats will follow right behind their leader and sign whatever he puts in front of them. The President and the Democrats are equally at fault for even creating this Sequestration bill. I still believe the right and the left conspired to come up with a way to shove austerity down the throats of the American Public and still have the ability to persuade the illiterate Americans it is not their fault. It is always the poor and the elderly that get stuck with having to pay the bills of this defunct government because they represent the lowest threat ratio to the scum politicians when it comes to keeping their jobs in one of the most corrupt governments in the World. I never thought I would live long enough to see the American political machine become so corrupt and cheap to buy. If you’re a Billionaire or Multi-millionaire the politicians will line up in Washington to do whatever you want, if the check is large enough.