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Random Political Thoughts

Started by MV/Liberace!, February 08, 2012, 10:50:42 AM

Quote from: Sardondi on November 03, 2012, 01:45:26 PM
Romney is merely the un-Obama. He's not even a conservative. He's never before taken many of the positions he's campaigned on. But he's still worlds better than Obama, who truly is on the road toward driving us into a depression which would dwarf the 1930's It still may happen, because we need to start NOW by cutting the budget 10% across the board - and that's a real cut, not just slowing the rate of increase which countless lying sacks of Congressional shit have had the effrontery for 30 years to tell us with a straight face was a "cut". Goddam liars.

Job 1 is getting rid of the twit it office now.   Then the Conservatives and Tea Party types need to start pressuring Romney.

I'm hoping that having an actual business man in office, someone that at least understands the negative effects of deficit spending, Trillion dollar deficits and $10s of Trillions in National Debt, can come in and at least begin to reverse course.  If not, he needs to be 'primaried' in 2016 by someone that will.

Additionally, I'm Hopefull he will be someone that can come in and eliminate certain Cabinet Depts, like Education, Energy, Agriculture and a few others, restructure what's left, restructure the tax code, regulations, tort reform. 

Someone that at least isn't a liberty hating Marxist and doesn't appear to be collapsing the system on purpose.

stevesh

Quote from: Paper*Boy on November 03, 2012, 02:02:39 PM

Job 1 is getting rid of the twit it office now.   Then the Conservatives and Tea Party types need to start pressuring Romney.

I'm hoping that having an actual business man in office, someone that at least understands the negative effects of deficit spending, Trillion dollar deficits and $10s of Trillions in National Debt, can come in and at least begin to reverse course.  If not, he needs to be 'primaried' in 2016 by someone that will.

Additionally, I'm Hopefull he will be someone that can come in and eliminate certain Cabinet Depts, like Education, Energy, Agriculture and a few others, restructure what's left, restructure the tax code, regulations, tort reform. 

Someone that at least isn't a liberty hating Marxist and doesn't appear to be collapsing the system on purpose.

Sorry, no. Obama, Romney, Ron Fucking Paul, it doesn't matter. The US national debt is north of 120 trillion when unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare are figured in. That can't be repaid.

In my lifetime, the United States of Greece will be begging the Germans for a wheelbarrow load of euros so we can buy a crust of bread (metaphorically speaking) and the Germans will refuse.

In the meantime, while our 'leaders' are working their latest two-year plan (one congressional election to another) the Chinese are forty years in to their fifty year plan, which they're working just fine. And you thought Red Dawn was/is just a movie.

Whatever once made the United States the greatest nation in the history of the world is gone. Deal.

Sardondi

War tends to simplify many seemingly impenetrable circumstances.

Sardondi

Somethin' is goin' on out there.

It's political holy writ that in the last few days of a presidential campaign the steely-eyed realists grab the wheel, and tough decisions are made about where to spend the last precious resources of time and money. Money for ads is pulled from sure things and hopeless causes. Campaign stops are re-jiggered so that last minute internal polling (supposed to be the best, or at least the freshest and most up to the minute that money can buy) is taken into consideration about where to go. If a candidate is surging in some states he hadn't counted on, he goes there. But never does a candidate go to states which have been considered safely in the other guy's column.

So where did Romney go Saturday night? Colo-fucking-rado. Romney spent the Saturday night before Election Day in the Democrat stronghold of Denver and drew 18,000 (they're pretty sure about the number since he packed the "Comfort Dental Amphitheater" - jeez I wish people would have some stones and turn down naming money...it's just humiliating for everyone concerned). Now correct me, but IIRC CO was a solid blue state in September. And here Romney is making a major nighttime rally 3 days before the election and people are screaming crazy to see him.

And something crazy is happening - the electoral map all over is warming up to a rosy hue. We can tell a little bit from the public polling data. A single poll is pretty much meaningless, but taken as a whole, fairly reliable as to trends. And the trend is Romney is surging almost everywhere. He's up 6 in FL. Ahead in PA and OH.  He leads Obama with 50% in VA. Breaking ahead in WI. A toss-up in MN - Minnesota, by God! The land of 1000 lakes and Garrison Keillor (and the most passive-aggressive funny man in the business). I'm saying it's a trend. 

Another consideration is energy. Romney has it, Because for millions of his supporters this is a "ground glass election", as in "I would crawl over ground glass to vote for Romney". Not because they especially love Romney, although in comparison to Obama this last couple of months you'd be excused for mistaking him as the President, and Obama as the challenger. Romney walks, talks and acts presidential, and people are starved for that. It's called "leadership".

I think we're past the point of wondering whether Obama can maintain his "Firewall" - he's trending to lose at least ½ of it already. I think now the question is the "L" word, and I'm not talking about a Showtime fantasy series about impossibly beautiful women who aren't attracted to men. Think of the earth moving away beneath one's feet. Like Obama's feet. Because here's another fact: while Romney was drawing 30,000 screaming supporters in Dayton Friday night, Obama could only muster 2,800. Worse, at another Cleveland stop, with Stevie Wonder providing a free concert, Obama could only draw 200 people in Cleveland. 200 people. That's just staggering.

I'm saying there's somethin' definitely goin' on out there.


Quote from: stevesh on November 03, 2012, 02:42:34 PM
Sorry, no. Obama, Romney, Ron Fucking Paul, it doesn't matter. The US national debt is north of 120 trillion when unfunded liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare are figured in. That can't be repaid...

... Whatever once made the United States the greatest nation in the history of the world is gone. Deal.


You are probably right.  Our National Debt of $16 Trillion or whatever it is today is just the amount of bonds outstanding. It doesn't even include State debt, cities, counties, school/park/water/fire districts.  Those entities can go bankrupt and restructure - anyone holding their paper or relying on them for pensions can just be out.  Maybe if that happens the retirees will decide to accept reasonable pensions instead of abusive ones.

The $80 - 120 Trillion is the $16 added to unfunded future liabilities - Fed Govt pensions, SS and Medicare as you mentioned, however many Trillions the Obamacare shortfall is going to be until that collapses..

What can be done is to restructure the unfunded stuff - the employees can start funding their own retirements, with 401k style pay-as-you-go employer funding like we do in the private sector. 

SSand Med an be restructured by increasing the eligibliity age (62 is not 'old age' anymore), means testing (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett don't need to be getting checks, and neither do people with large interest/Dividend/rents/etc coming in), people that should not be on it should be kicked off - old people that moved to the US to retire because their kids live here and never paid into it, kids and grandkids that get it because their parents are old or dead, there are other people collecting that shouldn't be - if need be different programs can be set up for them.   As of today, SS is capped, the highest earners don't pay SS on earnings over a certain amount, that can be changed to no cap.

Obamacare can be repealed and a market based restructuring of healthcare can be passed instead. 

These programs can all be fixed so that future benefit payments match future funding if it's done smartly.  Which means someone from the private business sector taking the lead and not another politician.  Certainly not another 'Progressive'..

The $16T is daunting, but some of it can be reneged on - like some of what we owe China.  their stealing technology, not protecting our intellectual property, selling us defective products and poison dogfood, etc, should be worth something - we should just come up with a fgure and tell them what it is, they need our business and we don't need theirs.  Some of the 16T can me monitized over time, some we can grow out of or pay down over time. 

If Romney doesn't get started on this, we are sunk.  And he probably won't and we probably are screwed.  We are for sure if Obama is not dumped.  But as of today, all is not lost.

Quote from: Sardondi on November 04, 2012, 06:12:06 AM
Somethin' is goin' on out there.

It's political holy writ that in the last few days of a presidential campaign the steely-eyed realists grab the wheel, and tough decisions are made about where to spend the last precious resources of time and money. Money for ads is pulled from sure things and hopeless causes. Campaign stops are re-jiggered so that last minute internal polling (supposed to be the best, or at least the freshest and most up to the minute that money can buy) is taken into consideration about where to go. If a candidate is surging in some states he hadn't counted on, he goes there. But never does a candidate go to states which have been considered safely in the other guy's column.

So where did Romney go Saturday night? Colo-fucking-rado...


Isn't Colorado one of the closest of the swing states?  They don't have a lot of Electoral votes like Ohio or Florida, but it is an important one to win.

Like much of the West, Colorado was once solidly Conservative and the residents were relatively free from govt opression and interference.  The past decade or so the 'Progressives' have discovered it and moved there, putting the Electoral Votes into play.

These 'Progressives'.  Once they move in they begin ruining the place - soft on crime policies, more handouts to the willfully lazy and uneducated, ruin the business environment, higher taxes on everything and for everyone.  Then surprise surprise, that place becomes unlivable and they move on.  They have infected the formerly free West - New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Calif, Oregon, Washngton, Idaha, Arzona, even Utah, Wyoming and Montana.  It's a shame really.

3OctaveFart

The whole point of the firewall concept is that even if you lose half of it, you still win.

ItsOver

Quote from: Paper*Boy on November 04, 2012, 06:06:12 PM
These 'Progressives'.  Once they move in they begin ruining the place - soft on crime policies, more handouts to the willfully lazy and uneducated, ruin the business environment, higher taxes on everything and for everyone.  Then surprise surprise, that place becomes unlivable and they move on.  They have infected the formerly free West - New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Calif, Oregon, Washngton, Idaha, Arzona, even Utah, Wyoming and Montana.  It's a shame really.

...Kind of like locusts.

Quote from: ItsOver on November 04, 2012, 07:24:36 PM
...Kind of like locusts.

In order to be a 'Progressive', one has to either be willfully destructive (see:  Obama, the hard core Occupy thugs, Move.On), or have a complete inability to look behind them and see the damage their policies have caused.  Or be so incredibly naive they think after $10s of Trillions wasted that somehow just a little more funding will make all the difference.


If you talk to one long enough, you will find any 'Progressive' will be in one of those categories.

stevesh

Barack Obama is the Matt Millen of presidents.

- Dennis Miller

Sardondi

Quote from: stevesh on November 05, 2012, 04:25:57 AM
Barack Obama is the Matt Millen of presidents.

- Dennis Miller

Oh, man, that is cold.

stevesh

One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

- Woody Allen

LacyWoodrow

I voted early. I voted for Mitt.

I voted for Mitt because he might delay the fall of this countrie's collapse by a few years. Just enough to let me finish prepping.

Quote from: LacyWoodrow on November 05, 2012, 10:23:04 PM
I voted early. I voted for Mitt.

I voted for Mitt because he might delay the fall of this countrie's collapse by a few years. Just enough to let me finish prepping.

Ding, ding, ding

LacyWoodrow

Quote from: Paper*Boy on November 05, 2012, 10:56:07 PM

Ding, ding, ding

Weird. As soon as I read that, Laura Ingram said those exact words on the radio.

Je-zuz, Obama is on ESPN right now being interviewed by Chris Berman, and is taking credit for getting college football to go to a playoff system.

CB:  'Mr President, earlier you mentioned favoring college football playoffs, and you got it done'
BO:  'Promises made, promises kept'


God, I'm glad this is over tomorrow.

Juan

It may not be over.  I understand that Ohio has thousands and thousands of outstanding absentee ballots and that those returned cannot, by law, be opened for 10-days.  That gives 10-days for a lot of lawyer prep.

Sardondi

...aaaand the other shoe drops in PA. Democrats have gone to court to evict Republican poll watchers from heavily Democrat wards, and replace them with Democrats: Ward 32, Div 13; Ward 43, Div 14; Ward 56, Div 1; Ward 56, Div 22; Ward 32, Div 28; Ward 32, Div 28; Ward 12, Div 17; Ward 39, Div 1; Ward 24, Div 9; Ward 18, Div 25; Ward 43, Div 14; Ward 29, Div 18; Ward 65, Div 19; Ward 20, Div 1; and Ward 6, Div 11. http://washingtonexaminer.com/philly-gop-poll-inspectors-being-ousted-for-dems/article/2512714#.UJkrX4ZMn_e

Gee, why would they wait until Election Day to do this? It's almost like they're trying to get away with something - like they don't they want a full, free and smoothly run election.

*edit* But wait! Now a judge orders reinstatement of the ousted pollwatchers. And so the lawfare continues...http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/06/judge-issuing-order-to-reinstate-booted-philadelphia-election-officials/

This is a classic move, where they kick out the Republicans, then stuff the box with ballots marked for Obama. This is how some of these precincts have achieved 99 to 100% turnout in past elections. Of course with Philadelphia in the hands of Obama loyalists, they need only keep stuffing until their "Obama votes" comfortably drown out any Romney margin of victory in the remainder of the state. So don't expect Philadelphia totals in these boxes to be reported until the bosses there know how much vig they have to make up. This is why it is so important for Romney to win there by large enough margins that corruption simply can't make up the difference. 

Oh, and The New Black Panthers have returned to "protect" voters at the box they "protected" last time.

*edit* And from Michelle Obama, these very calming remarks so in keeping with her position as First Lady: "Don't let anybody push you out of line." http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/05/14952676-michelle-obama-to-floridians-dont-let-anybody-push-you-out-of-line?lite

Such a mature, dignified lady. Why am I reminded of Sarah Silverman in Way Of The Gun?

Way of the Gun - 1. "Get Off the Car"


Quote from: Sardondi on November 06, 2012, 08:58:05 AM
...aaaand the other shoe drops in PA...

Why would anyone vote for these people.... but I repeat myself..

Quote from: Pragmier on November 03, 2012, 05:15:39 AM
While it's true Nate Silver has only predicted 1 presidential election, it bears mentioning he had the right winner in all but one state (Indiana). Plus: his model correctly called 34/37 senate races in 2010, saying the Reps would pick up 7 seats (they picked up 6). He predicted the GOP picking up 59 seats in congress; they picked up 62 (this was similar to other models and not particularly impressive). Again in 2010, Silver correctly picked 36/37 gubernatorial winners.

His reputation was not built on one election. But I would be surprised to see these kinds of results continue. Every model stumbles at some point.
He is 44 for 44 states so far tonight.  A legend is born.

MV/Liberace!

i hope this means i'm done looking at romney's kisser every 4 years.

Quote from: MV on November 06, 2012, 10:48:48 PM
i hope this means i'm done looking at romney's kisser every 4 years.
Don't worry, his political future is over.  He'll have a dog strapped to the roof of his car by tomorrow, heading out of Dodge.

ziznak

I wasn't too surprised by my results on that political test... I knew I was most likely going to come up with high dem green and lib scores... the rep score actually was the most surprising

analog kid

Quote from: Paper*Boy on November 06, 2012, 10:43:48 AM

Why would anyone vote for these people.... but I repeat myself..

Probably because it's a bunch of baloney.

ACE of CLUBS

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood ....... "


All's well in the 'Land of Milk and Honey' .......... ppfffffffftttttttt ....... (farting with intent)

Pragmier

Wow the Patraeus investigation is something crazy!

Now reports are saying one of the FBI agents "was taken off the case because authorities grew concerned about his relationship with one of the key figures in the the scandal". And at least two members of congress were told about it over a month ago (but not, it appears, the appropriate committee). Can't wait to see how this stranger-than-fiction scorcher plays out.

b_dubb

already fox news is trying to play this like there was a conspiracy on the part of the liberal media to suppress the story till after the election.  i have a feeling that if anyone outside of the JD knew about this it would have been all over the news.  especially fox (faux) news

Pragmier

Of course the players would have been acutely aware of political implications. Thing is Cantor was one of the ones that knew. I don't think this will lend itself to facile elucidation.

Eddie Coyle

Quote from: Pragmier on November 12, 2012, 10:50:29 PM
Of course the players would have been acutely aware of political implications. Thing is Cantor was one of the ones that knew. I don't think this will lend itself to facile elucidation.
Blinko's head just exploded. "Big" words do that to him.

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