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In 2004 under the Bush administration the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Ca. was approached by the IRS due to an anti-war sermon. Three years later no action had been taken but the case was dropped without comment by the IRS (and a significant legal bill for the church.) This was a patent abuse of the IRS function by Bush in order to suppress views contrary to his own.
Right-winger's love of war and the ensuing profits might reexamine their understanding of their religion if they think it has any relation to the teachings of Jesus.
Doesn't this sort of ridiculous campaign spending make 95% of us wonder: How many teachers could be rehired? How many under-fed school children in the U.S. could be better fed? How many people on Social Security could have their donut holes reduced? How many hard-working parents could be paid a little more? How many companies could better afford health insurance for their employees? How many uninsured people could be supplemented to financially afford policies for themselves and their families? How many animals could be saved from euthanization? How many DREAMers could be helped to claim their dreams of citizenship? How many more women could avoid unwanted pregnancies, breast cancer mammogram costs, and doctors appointments for other problems?
When someone buys a Presidency, and is inept to run it properly, who wins?
Oh, never mind... I'm just one of "those people..."who has Medicare, and will take my Social Security benefits at 70, if I live that long. What I wonder probably doesn't count, to the other 5%.
For some time now, the US has had the worst government money CAN buy. Since Corporates United (I REFUSE to call it Citizens United) It is on the slippery slope, big time. I'm just astonished that my fellow Americans would even consider electing a vulture capitalist who claims he can fix the problems caused by vulture capitalism. The definition of insanity? Doing the same actions over and over and expecting a different outcome.
What's in our water Thom?
A series of debates, by only two individuals, can be viewed as the opening 1/3 of a single debate. I see President Obama as well positioned to strongly move thru the next two parts of this debate. Many of the issues he would rather not discuss in depth were brought up with only minimal or no outward reaction by the President other than a short, clear statement of his position. He can now move on to issues that are the meat and potatoes(my age hint) of his re election. Health care, continuing and speeding up job creation gains, regulating wall street back to their specific areas of finance- rather than allowing them to use deposited monies as collateral for the profit of the financial institution thru speculation. Ending war on drugs and wars on people around the globe. I fail to understand all of the declarations of victory for a debater who used at least 26 false statements in his allotted time. That's more than a lie every two minutes his lips were moving. VICTORY??????? Come on folks. Those pundits and networks and news organizations want to drag this money train out as far as possible. They do care if they harm the democratic processes of our country, as long as they are making a PROFIT! This profit,used as motivation for progress, must be seen for what it is and was. It WAS the greatest growth mechanism ever seen on this planet. It is NOW consuming the very bounty this earth has provided, so rapidly and unwisely in the name of PROFIT; without concern for the fact that this planet has finite limits-FOR SURE!
These oligarchs in charge, are unable to comprehend that human beings are capable of progressing without cut throat competition for money. They do not understand love and compassion for others. How did we put them in charge?
"The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.".....THOMAS JEFFERSON
It is time to consider rebellion once again.
Corps spending billions to lie to people about candidates and ballot initiatives. Voter supression. Hackable voting machines. In what universe is the US still a democracy? Hey Thom - when IS despair an option? ;-(
Yeah, I know. I've already signed up to phone bank election week.
The Twain Report
All The News That Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Was Alive Today
10-10-2012
Today the Twain Report learned that Mitt Romney has promised that if he is elected, he will not sign any anti-abortion legislation. That's a relief, because now we know that if Romney is elected, he might or might not sign anti-abortion legislation.
If Romney loses the election, we encourage him to do a for-theatrical-purposes-only "presidential" election against John Kerry, wherein both sides will save massive amounts of campaign money by hiring the same advertising agency to create one ad for both of them: a gap-toothed local hick yelling, "He's a flip-flopper!" Which will achieve the only goal of the democrat and republican parties: to leave the American population even more disgusted than it was.
Being bipartisaniferously supportive of the American political process in general, The Twain Report would like to offer Romney some helpful advice for his campaign against Kerry:
1. As a widely-respected armchair war hawk who dodged military service by going to France as a missionary, Romney is in an ideal position to attack Kerry's military service by saying, "Hey, I killed that guy I hit with my car in France. And if you count the people whose lives I ruined when I outsourced their jobs to China and who then committed suicide, I have killed MORE people than you, and am therefore better suited to be president, because obviously if I kill people in France and America, how much more willing will I be to kill people in countries we don't care about!"
2. As an unemployed person, Romney should also attack Kerry as a rich, out-of-touch elitist who doesn't even have an elevator for his cars.
3. And as a highly religious person who has always supported the Mormon doctrine that women don't have souls and that unmarried women with children should give up their children because that's the only way to get into heaven, Romney should attack Kerry for not being a Mormon, which is sure to get Romney a higher percentage of the Mormon vote- an area where polls say he has almost no support.
If any of you have personal connections with Romney, please forward this to him, because it may be the one final bit of help that he needs in order to destroy the earth so God will come here, thus fulfilling The Twain Report's goal of encouraging young people to display some of their fingers and say, "God rules, dude!"
Ken Ware, if you're commenting on my population comment, please go back and re-read it. I anticipated your concerns and addressed them. You have nothing to worry about, except your own bet that technology can continue to come to the rescue.
12 FOR CHANGE .! DONT LET THEM STOP US NOW.!
Thom, Ive been in the building industry for my entire life appx. 45 years, and think that i have a pretty good grasp on the trends it takes, i look around and see things happening in the background that tell me we are about to merge on a very big boom for most of the industry, starting at the transportation reconstruction end. look at the factory and concrete and related industrys gearing up . they wouldnt spend the time or money in this economy to do so if they didnt have insight to things we dont know in the general public eye. the republican party has a hard on to get into office and take credit for the pending boom so they can claim another victory on others hard work. give the current administration credit for the progress were making behind the scenes . keerp them in and watch things begin to change.we need 12 years to rid the bigots of their power. this election is crucial and can set us in that path . 12 FOR CHANGE .!
Halfonts:
Accounting scores and assets are still currency/money. Things can still be bought with them, yes? They are taxed when possible, yes? It's still "income," currency, assets--things with monitary value--still money in my book--still counts in the "real" world as money.
But, I do agree with you that that kind of money/currency is a tenuous concept and an insane one as well.
I think the economic mess was well beyond the tipping point and calling out for change at the end of Bush the II's reign. One major blockade to change is our corp. media. Many of those who even care enough to pay attention, and must rely on the media for information, are lost in confusion. With the spin, disinformation, and LIES, perpetrated by outlets like FOX, citizens no longer can pinpoint who or what is responsible for the economic mess this fine country is in. This also explains why half of the voting population is willing to commit nuclear suicide by voting for Romney. Obviously this is purposeful, it keeps the attention focused away from the real crooks like Romney and his corp. brethren.
I think it will literally take greed maniacs like Romoney........showing up at their doorsteps...... armed and demanding what's left in their kids piggy banks before people wake up to the truth and realize Democratic Socialism is the clear answer to this mess!
Sorry about my untimely posts, thanks to teapublican austerity politics, job resposibilities leave me short on time lately!
Finally came across the so called derivative that supposed to be responsible for the failed world market. Black–Scholes–Merton a mathematical model of a financial derivative of investment instruments. The only time I saw any kind of derivative was on the Bill Maher show for about five seconds and it was not anything like this one :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/12/black-scholes-equation-credit-crunch
The real kicker is this partial differential equation is used world wide especially in Europe financial markets. More over the developers Black and Scholes won the noble prize in economics. Yikes, yowee get ready to laugh…consider these guys screw up with this formula that looks crazy enough to fail, then the American Federal Reserve’s bails out some European banks, dancing away with our tax money. Also read somewhere, but need to figure where, the money value floating around the Orpheus rich is about six hundred trillion. Shizzam. From my view America has the largest or most massive chunk of fraud by our Federal Reserve, a monstrosity of corruption ever recorded in civilized history.
Good reason why the news cables are wacky, everyone is a liar pants on fire heads exploding, etc. So here we are in the mud and noise of billionaires like the Koch brothers, or the Arabs that fly low in the radar of ownership of FOX News then we all wonder why Fox News is so good knowing Al Qaeda, murdering and blowing up our troops. The Bin Laden family minus one has been close friends of the Cheney and Bush family for decades in business and politics.
For all we know those off shore Canary Island bank accounts are magic carpet connections to those hundreds of Arab front companies list in the Canary Islands. Romney reminds me like the Robert Louis Stevenson story of “The Bottle Imp”. The bottle looks like an Arab oil lamp, but has the power to grant you any wish you want. In this case Romney has it and offers anything you like. But be careful there are very dangerous caveats, like going to hell for certain reasons. Are there yet? Yep.
Ram Mandir
Ram Mandir Ghat, located near the Harsiddhi Temple in Ujjain is famous
for its Kumbh Mela. Kumbh Mela is held in every 12 years. Ram Mandir
Ghat, Ujjain is the most ancient bathing ghat in connection with the
Kumbh celebrations.
The highest for the tax rate for the Rich was under President Eisenhower, back in the late '50' and early '60's when the tax rate was as high as 91% for the tax on wealth earnings over one million dollars. Back then we had a prospering economy, if you reflect.
Rather than constantly changing the tax code, where a smart Tax Accountant could “game the system”, the last hurdle that any Rich person could jump through is the 91% tax for earnings over one million dollars. Not that the government wants to tax the talents of the entrepreneur, since no one gains in life without standing on the shoulders of some one else, but the last hurdle that a Rich person faces is the 91% tax rate, thus precluding the search for gaming the tax system. The entrepreneur consequently would keep their extra millions in wealth earnings in their business and grow their business to the benefit of the entrepreneur not only in stature but also to the benefits of the welfare of the nation.
Are you suggesting we have forced abortions like the government of China imposes on their female citizens if they already have one child and become pregnant with a second child? Hell, here in America we cannot even have Planned Parenthood clinics without coming under attack physically and politically. Exactly how would you implement a "slow down" on population growth for those of us who do not believe in abortion, except in the case of rape? Who decides how many children are too many children in a family? I do not see how you could implement birth control without every citizen giving up her or their own destinies. Or, would this only be used on poor countries or poor citizens, which in the minds of the wealthy are not deserving of more than one child. I do not like where this could end up going. How about we just use our technologies to increase food production and stop using the time and money on weapon development...to kill the World's population, especially the poor. This may sound like a simplistic question or solution for that matter. But, please explain how you would control the expansion of the Human Race? Some how I cannot conceive that just explaining to a poor male in the heart of Africa is going to do much. They have handed out condoms to use for birth control and they use them for balloons! Putting our efforts in the expansion of food growing in the industrialized countries as well as in third world countries is the only way to affect the problem of hunger in the world.
As global corporatism fails all over the world, so will our national economies fail around the world. There will chaos and wide spread violence as the economies around the world crumble due to the decades of corruption by our political leaders, banks, financial institutions and multi-national corporations. Due to the fact we now have global communications, almost instantly as events unfold, it will have a domino effect in each individual country. Combined with limited food production due to global warming we are about to enter a century of chaos only imagined in the minds of science fiction writers. Hunger Games could become a reality for much of the world once the decline begins around the world.
Does anyone find it odd that the Dept. of Homeland Security would order 350,000,000 rounds of jacketed ammunition? Their lame explanation given to the press was that it was ordered for target practice for their agents. No person or organization uses jacketed ammunition for target practice, it is not cost efficient. The less costly lead nosed ammunition called wad cutters or lead nosed round are used by everyone or entity around the world. The only reason to order that type of ammunition is that it will be used against a human target. And, since Canada and Mexico are the only countries that could breach our land security, the only logical deduction is that the ammo is designed to stop American's in the event of massive civil unrest. That means you and me. What information do they have concerning our future that we do not? Perhaps the Mormons storing up years of food and medicine for their members is not so radical or foolish, after all. I live in California and I have seen first-hand how excited people become when having to wait in long lines for fuel or water and food after a major earthquake. Maybe it is time to follow the Mormon example for surviving an unsure future. How long does it take to get to Utah from Southern California!
@HalFonts, re your question: But what does a growing population do with a level-growth projection?
That is precisely why it is critical that we end population growth sooner rather than later. Too many treat passing 9 billion as a fait accompli. It is not. We can stop before 8 billion and then coast back down, if we only believe we can - and stop pretending there is nothing we can do about it. Responsible couples armed with knowledge about the state of the world and the prospects their children have for living a good life will voluntarily choose to have smaller families. That is the most loving, compassionate thing they can do. We are just not doing a good job of spreading the word about that. This applies in the rich world as much as in the developing world. No more; no less.
If we don't get a handle on population, then we will definitely have to keep slicing the same pie into smaller and smaller portions. That is already creating conflict.
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
Fortunately or not, "Money" is increasingly little more than an accounting score, existing only per some accounting rules. And too easilly changed or abolished by reformatting some bank-books (disk-drives) somewhere. There are few hoards of real "stuff" in vaults any more. Vast monitary wealth is a very tenuous concept.
But what does a growing population do with a level-growth projection?
Stand up for President Obama, get out there and vote. You will see great things happen for the USA and
the people!!
If President Obama gets a Congress which will work WITH him, he can make great strides. Whether the Congress is a Democratic or a Republican Congress (after 4 years of their chronic vacations while still being paid, and the U.S. falling victim to their vigilante obstructionism), I would like to believe that the last four years must have taught our elected Officials something... but maybe not. Time will tell.
The solution to the economy's woes is extremely simple.
Weaithy families around the world have $32 TRILLION squirreled away off-shore accounts. That is a pretty good bundle of money out of circulation--not creating jobs, not paying taxes, not improving/building infrastructure--not doing anything but squeezing the rest of us.
The wealthy need to be heavily taxed--off-shore accounts should be abolished with a sledge hammer--but given write offs when they hire and make investments in infrastructure and contribute to the common good.
They seem to think that the money they earn from our labor and consumerism and taxes is THEIR property and they EARNED IT BY THEMSELVES. Money is a TOOL and not a means to an end--not flow to the top and stop, which is happening now.
well-paid workers = monied consumers = long-term profit for business = prosperity for ALL
I'm impressed that you have read Adam Smith. I need someone to translate it for me. Could you at least give us a few tidbits about Adam Smith's suggestions for dealing with human nature?
As we have seen in the past., the second term is when most things get done right for the left party since they spend most of their time in the first term fighting the right wing bibots and defending what they have accomplished, the second term is when they can do their fighting best since they have no fear of not being able to have enough time to complete their duties. and do not have to worry about running again but , it is also when the right gets dirty or filthy with their tricks . as seen with Carter, Kennedy and all of the other crucified dems. that try to do right for ALL OF US.! .( to all of you who actually know what i mean.)