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August 15, 2011 03:40 PM UTC

Monday Open Thread

  • 71 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Fervor is the weapon of choice of the impotent.”

–Frantz Fanon

Comments

71 thoughts on “Monday Open Thread

  1. “It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” ~Samuel Adams  

  2. The revolving doors between Washington and Wall Street are swinging like never before. Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin are the finance powerhouses in the upcoming Obama administration. They were in the exact same place 10 years ago. This time, they bring along a protГ©gГ© in Tim Geithner, who will be the fall guy if all goes wrong. And they know it will go wrong; they’ve seen it before. They’re not dumb. They’re just sick, not stupid. They know it will go wrong, because everything they’ve done so far has failed. Only, that’s not what they see. They can’t see it, because they are gambling addicts. And as you can find out in Gambling Anonymous meetings, the addicts are masters in distorting their own perception of reality. Rubin and Summers differ from most addicts in that they are in positions to control what is legal, which is quite close to what is real, and what is not.

    The November 12, 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (officially named the Banking Act of 1933), enforced through the signing into law of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act by Slick Billy Clinton, gave them access to depositors’ money, and thus made it legal to use people’s savings for “investments”. 9 years later, those savings were all gone. Today they have an even larger pool of dough: the money of all Americans, and all of their children. This is what you’re looking at when you see Henry Paulson, Barney Frank, Ben Bernanke or Barack Obama talk about bail-outs and rescue plans. It’s all about providing the world’s most megalomaniac gamblers with cash for their addictions. There’s nothing else, that’s all there is.

    This from a Jan. 2009 article here:

    http://theautomaticearth.blogs

    I was attracted by the title- “Hornswoggled Absquatulation”. You word lovers have to like that!

        1. I don’t care who you’re a fan of. The issue isn’t personalities, it’s policies. In this case the Glass-Steagall Act. The deregulation of the financial industries, and the subsequent loss of trillions of dollars of value, have led to our current economic crises of credit, liquidity and lack of investment. It’s not taxes. It’s not Obama. It’s not unions.  

        2. I don’t care who you’re a fan of. The issue isn’t personalities, it’s policies. In this case the Glass-Steagall Act. The deregulation of the financial industries, and the subsequent loss of trillions of dollars of value, have led to our current economic crises of credit, liquidity and lack of investment. It’s not taxes. It’s not Obama. It’s not unions.  

        3. abortions, gays, the liberal press, teachers, or the rest of the divisive social issues that keep the voters distracted while they’re being systematically looted. Oh yeah, did I say it’s not the unions?

  3. Fake Alien Invasion

    “If we discovered that, you know, space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a massive buildup to counter the space alien threat and really inflation and budget deficits took secondary place to that, this slump would be over in 18 months,” he said. “And then if we discovered, oops, we made a mistake, there aren’t any aliens, we’d be better–“

    1. That Twilight Zone episode was a standard “nations come together against alien threat” but a 1967 book, Report From Iron Mountain – a mock “secret gov’t report” – expressly said “let’s make up a military threat to bring America together and justify increased spending”:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T

    2. and without raising taxes.  Wars ain’t what they used to be as economic stimulus programs since Cheney/W decided we can do it while asking nothing of the general public besides suggesting we all go rack up more on our credit cards at the mall.

    3. Per The Canadian Human Genome Project Scientists find Extraterrestrial genes in Human DNA. They’re positing that 97% non-coding sequences in human DNA is possibly genetically linked to extraterrestrial life forms.

      What if the invasion has already happened?

      What if the invaders work for Faux News?  

      What if they’re Murdochs and Kochs?

      There is proof — they’re exerting mind control on the ‘turds & beej-like in our world with their 24/7 pusillanimous pabulum.  My god, they’re here to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids (betcha that Marcus Bachmann is one of ’em).

      Maybe we should start thinking of Unintelligent Design?

  4. Meanwhile Rick Perry has announced his intention to run for President while the lame stream media reports that post Iowa it’s Romney, Bachmann and Perry in the drivers seat for the presidency in 2012. Not surprisingly Obama is heading off for a campaign inspired bus tour of Iowa, Minnestota and Illinois. I suspect there are a gaggle of GE plants there as well as some fat recipients of bailout funds.

    http://m.upi.com/m/story/UPI-4



    Last we have Rasmussen reporting that Obama’s approval rating is -22.

    Source http://www.rasmussenreports.com

        1. Or is it his leadership failures? Different cross sections of the American spectrum will have diverse reasons for not backing him.

          For instance, the Hispanic unemployment is double digits and some estimate nearly double that of the general population. Over 50% of Hispanics will fail to graduate from high school, a free education here in America.

          Regardless, Obama is leading in the wrong direction and on the wrong track. Below is some hopeful insight from a skilled Democratic leader on the risk facing Obama.

          Source http://www.politico.com

          Former Rep. Artur Davis

          Former congressman (D-Ala.); Partner, SNR Denton law firm :

          Countless events will obviously reshape the answer to this question. But this is what should hearten Obama supporters about 2012: presidents in the modern era (post 1932) tend to be reelected, regardless of their political position a year out. And the three who have lost – Ford, Carter, and the first Bush – all overcame huge polling deficits and weak economies to become competitive in the final weeks. In fact, if Reagan and Carter don’t debate in the final week in ’80, and if Perot does not collapse the GOP base in ’92, as weak as they were, even Carter and Bush might have won.

          This, however, is what should keep Democratic strategists up at night: not counting blacks, Obama’s approval ratings have dipped dramatically with every sector of his 2008 majority, including Latinos, Jews, independents, white working class voters, and whites under 29. In other words, even if Obama achieves the 2008 turnout model, there is no guarantee that he will duplicate his ’08 demographic performance levels. And if he does not, he will have almost no margin for error.

  5. Well, the coverage in Sunday’s Sacramento Bee about Colorado’s medical marijuana biz, that’s what:

    http://www.sacbee.com/2011/08/

    In Colorado, America’s second-largest medical marijuana market behind California, marijuana capitalism flourishes under strict regulations approved by the state Legislature starting last year.

    In California, dispensaries handling millions of dollars in transactions are supposed to operate as nonprofits – with medical marijuana users giving “donations” to “reimburse” operators and growers for costs.

    Colorado stores simply pocket cash as profit. And, under new mandates that stores grow at least 70 percent of the marijuana they sell, weed industrialization is flourishing. It is happening despite U.S. Justice Department warnings over attempted large-scale cultivation in California or suspected medical pot profiteering in other states.

  6. David Frum

    But you have to imagine that there are millions of Americans hoping for a third choice: an approach that balances budgets and holds the line on taxes — but that also strengthens the private economy and supports a broad middle class.

    That third choice is the kind of active, effective government Republicans have championed since Abraham Lincoln signed into law the transcontinental railway. Won’t at least one Republican speak up for it now when it has rarely been more needed?

    1. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he has one specific one (let’s shift the tax burden from the richest to the poorest by reducing corporate income taxes and increasing sales taxes) and a bunch of nondescript ones (“can’t we get more health care for less by doing I don’t know I didn’t think you were going to ask me to finish this sentence crap now what?”).

      Seems to me like he’s asking for Republicans to be somewhat more hardcore than the teabaggers if you analyze what he specifically said instead of just how it makes you feel.

  7. I’m sure this is no big deal to you propeller heads but I think its pretty cool. I just got a smartphone and am delighted at how much time we will be able to spend together now! This will make meeting much more enjoyable.

      1. I’m of the “Facebook generation” and I still don’t have a smartphone. Somehow I survive.

        I don’t like to start expensive addictions unless they’re really necessary.  

      1. should be running local projects, he seemed very anti-centralization. (You should talk to him, maybe if you hashed this out you’d come to a good compromise!)

        Currently counties are the ones that do local projects, especially in more rural places that are not in any town. Since they have different needs, they raise taxes differently. As soon as you want them to do things as a government entity, you basically have to let them collect their own taxes.

        It sounds like you are advocating for a central tax collection system that would redistribute money to the counties, which is fine for your needs but would introduce yet another level of bureaucratic infighting and patronage to a system like New York’s that already seems to have enough of it.

        I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just asking for a clarification of your proposed solution.

      2. David, I challenge you to find me providing lame excuses for Colorado’s sales tax patchwork. What I’ve said is that your response to it is lame, unimaginative and hysterical. Though, OK, I’ll bite — changing the law would be incredibly disruptive compared to you figuring out a way to comply with it … I’ll grant you that.

        1. At a minimum, have a single state server where our web store can send it a product type and address and get back a tax rate. Then when the sale completes, we again contact that server with the product type, address, sales total, and tax payment.

          Key to this approach is there is a product type for anything sold. The state doesn’t get to say bundled products must be split into separate products.

          What would be better is a single rate and everything is taxed(ie services also). Why should services get a free ride? You can have basics that are not taxed like say all food that you can purchase with food stamps. But everything else is taxed at the same rate.

          In this case you still report to the state and you still provide the address so the state can then forward the money to the proper taxing authority.

          A physical store only has to report to two taxing authorities – it’s a giant disadvantage to online that they have to report to 50+.

  8. by Warren Buffett

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08

    Last year my federal tax bill – the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf – was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income – and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

    Back in the 1980s and 1990s, tax rates for the rich were far higher, and my percentage rate was in the middle of the pack. According to a theory I sometimes hear, I should have thrown a fit and refused to invest because of the elevated tax rates on capital gains and dividends.

    I didn’t refuse, nor did others. I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone – not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 – shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

    I guess if you’re a tea partier, and can read, your response to this article has to be something along the lines of, “You’d have to be an idiot to trust some rich bastard to ever tell the truth”?

    1. Romney also accused billionaire investor Warren Buffett, the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., of “not being straightforward” in calling for higher taxes on the wealthy in a New York Times opinion piece.

      ——

      Regarding Buffett, who noted in the New York Times piece that he paid a lower income tax percentage rate than many of his employees, Romney said the famed investor failed to take into account the corporate taxes Berkshire paid.

      “The problem with rich people is that many of them are smart,” Romney said. “High taxes on entrepreneurs and investors dissuade them from putting Americans to work.”

      http://www.reuters.com/article

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