COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Some great journalism from CNN about the shooter at the Sikh temple:
ReplyDeleteEdwards told CNN that the shooter had a military background and lived nearby. He said police were investigating reports that the shooter, who was white, may have harbored extreme racial views. But he cautioned that none of those allegations had been confirmed.
Wade Michael Page: MK Ultra?
ReplyDeleteI heard he had a tatoo. And had just broken up with his girlfriend. She might have been Sikh. And he didn't yell allahu akbar. If he had been yelling allahu akbar it would be workplace violence like the Ft. Hood shooter who was yelling Allah Akbar, which wasn't terrorism. And that he might have been on drugs. Or made a mistake thinking the place was a mosque. I can't confirm any of this.
ReplyDeleteNot making light of the shooting itself. Another idiot acts. Making light of the immediate rumors and seemingly immediate jump from 'white' to 'terrorism'. When we know the Fort Hood shooter was involved in 'workplace violence', though he blazed away shouting allahu akbar. If the guy turns out to have any connection to the Tea Party, watch out.
DeleteThe above two video clips are great examples of Quirk's Masterful Speaker of the English Language at work. Notice how he artfully and masterfully modulates the tone, rhythm and content of his voice and message to match the audience?
ReplyDeleteThis indeed is the true mark of a Master Speaker of the Language!
Yeah, but where was he wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, moving on - Here's the way I see it, we can't run this country on 15% of GDP. Someone is going to have to pay some more taxes.
Obama wants Romney to pay more, and Romney wants Me to pay more.
Screw Romney; I'm voting for the O'man.
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DeleteYeah, but where was he wrong?
He was wrong in his attitute toward the individual.
Even if one assumes that the GOP is misrepresenting what he was saying and took the comments out of context, and then accept his initial explanation of what he meant, he is still way off base.
The first video shows us the real Obama and how he thinks when speaking off the cuff, the real Obama if you will. The second video shows us what he says after his handlers have reeled him in.
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Yeah, but where was he wrong?
DeleteJesus Christ! Did you ride to Mars with Curiosity?
Average people are getting tired of hearing how the rich "job creators" are too Holy to tax. Obama understands that, and he's making a populist argument to capitalize on it.
DeleteAnd, don't Ever underestimate the power of a 'populist' argument.
They already pay most of the taxes, nitwit.
DeleteNearly half the country doesn't pay a damn thing.
I don't underestimate the power of the 'populist argument'. The appeal to jealousy and feet shuffling.
They pay most of the "Income" taxes, dumbshit. Of course, they make most of the "Income."
DeleteYou're overlooking all the Other taxes that are paid by the middle, and lower quintiles.
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DeleteOnly a fool would buy the bull shit Obama is selling.
The initial video shows the workings of his mind. His vision is of a country based on the concepts of Fabian Socialism. His dismissive talk of how people think they are "so smart" shows his true thinking process and how dismissive he is of individual achievement.
No one denies the value of communal effort. Large infrastructure projects pretty much require government participation in the absence of private companies having the resources and willingness to take on those projects. However, what Obama fails to see is that even these require the expertise and skill of the individual.
He was talking about small business and his arguments are easy to rebut. For instance, if businesses succeed because of the government providing a nurturing environment with infrastructure and a trained workforce why do only 40% of start-ups survive the first year, and why do only 10% survive ten years?
You didn't do that? He ignores the fact that these small businesses are also paying taxes that go towards the goodies he is talking about.
I have to run for an appointment, but I'll leave you with this article that explains why Obama is wrong much better than I can.
You Didn't Build That
The only individual achievements Obama can appreciate are his own. The man is an egoist/egotist/narcissist.
By the way, in the linked article, the story of Honi provides an excellent justification for effort associated with the Curiosity mission mentioned in the previous post. Any who think that mission was some government project without recognizing the genius of the individuals involved is as sad as Obama.
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Romney promises higher taxes on the middle class or greater deficits
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePanic at Rasmussen; their latest tracking poll shows Obama +2.
ReplyDeleteProbably just an aberration from making too many calls to Ca, or NY, but they'd better fix it quick. Ol' sugardad ain't payin' for that kind of results.
" Ol' sugardad ain't payin' for that kind of results.".
DeleteWhat non-sense.
Rufus...you make me nearly weep sometimes. Who pays for the infrastructure? In my last street project, I paid for the infrastructure. Where did the money come from? From the bank. Why was the bank willing to loan me the money? Because they recognized I'd have a private ector market out there that would buy the developed property to pay the bank back.
ReplyDeleteWhen the government does pay for infrastructure where does the money come from? From the taxpayers. Where do the taxpayers get the money? From activity in the private sector. Who pay for the schools? The taxpayers, through school bonds voted on by the taxpayers, who pay them off through there earnings in the private sector. Etc.
Rufus, it is the private sector that creates the wealth that moves the country.
Yeah, after the Government gave your family the land, and then paid you Not To Farm it. You can't sell that nonsense, here, dumbo.
DeleteFuck off, Rufus. Our land hadn't been touched by the hand of man till gramps got here.
DeleteI'm sure there are some Shoshone, and Paiute that would discuss that with you.
DeleteThere weren't any Shoshone or Paiute in this area, and the Nez Perce were riverine people, living in the valleys, where the women did cooking, and the men the fishing, an enviable life style.
DeleteThe Cherokee run the Sioux up north, took their land and some slaves, and bacame slaver, so there!
Besides the original people in North America were the Solutrians, who got run off by you Asiatics.
:)
are you sure?
DeleteOf course, nothing's going to work until we fix the "offshoring" of Capital, Profits, and Investment loophole.
ReplyDeleteIf I were "King for a Day" I'd
1) Go back to the Clinton Tax Policy, and
2) Lower Corporate Taxes to 15%, and make all profits held offshore "Taxable Immediately."
We're paying our Corporations, and the Rich to invest "Anywhere but Here."
That's Bonkers.
Eliminate the capital gains tax while you are at it, Your Highness. That tax on the passage of time.
DeleteHell no. That property became more valuable because the City grew up around it.
DeleteALL Income should be taxed equally. Why should your, or my, income be taxed less than that of a bricklayer, or truckdriver?
Who grew the City?
DeleteThe government?
Nope.
Who grew the University?
The government?
Nope.
Who pays for the University?
The private sector, the taxpayers of our fair state.
And, it is not more valuable, relative to everything else. How much inflation has there been since 1930, O King?
So NASA goes to Mars. Seemingly a government project, a good project.
Who paid for that?
The government?
Or...the taxpayers, the private sector?
No argument there, but if you want foreign wars, and trips to Mars you have to pay for it. The poor can't.
DeleteEven a lowlife like Willie Sutton knew that you can't get money out of poor people.
ALL Income should be taxed equally.
DeletePassably good idea.
Why should your, or my, income be taxed less than that of a bricklayer, or truckdriver?
I am taxed more than a bricklayer or truck driver.
Only because you make more.
DeleteALL Income should be taxed equally.
DeleteBut you say you are voting for Obama, who wants to raise taxes on the rich, while promising.... to lower them on......you!
Oddly enough, I have an appointment with our accountant, got to go!
DeleteYes, because it pisses me off that a Billionaire pays a lower percentage of income in taxes than I do.
DeleteAny tax system that has Mitt Romney paying a lower effective rate than a hillbilly from Mississippi is whacked.
And, if you believe for a minute that I think my tax rate is going down . . . . . . . . . . well, I might be a hillbilly, but I ain't plumb ignorant.
DeleteWind Power hits 57% in Colorado
ReplyDeleteAttention all bloggers:
ReplyDeleteIn case you haven't noticed, Rufus will NOT, I repeat, NOT be voting for Romney. He will be voting for Obama.
Rufus thinks Romney should be volunteering more tax payments than he currently is paying (15% which is what one legally pays on capital gains).
I have asked repeatedly if there is anyone on this blog who pays more than legally required and the silence has been deafening.
I for one,(me, Gag) will be voting for a white guy. Join me, won't you?
Anyone that thinks "Carried Interest" is really Capital Gains and not regular income is sipping Wall Street KoolAid.
DeleteI, rufus, voted for "a white guy" last time. Thank God he lost.
ReplyDeleteThis time I'll vote for the "guy" that I feel will afford my children, and grandchildren the best future.
If he's only "half-white," so be it.
I'll be honest; I'd vote for the "Blackest" Goat-herder in Ethiopia before I'd vote for a Republican this time around.
ReplyDeleteTo my way of thinking the Republicans are absolutely, totally wrong on every important issue-of-the-day - Renewable Energy, Education/Training, Taxes, the Environment, Foreign Wars, you name it.
No time to play the "White Guy/Black Guy" bullshit, This Year.
totally wrong on every important issue-of-the-day - Renewable Energy, Education/Training, Taxes, the Environment, Foreign Wars, you name it.
ReplyDeleteObama to a tee.
Gag out. Gotta go back to work so I can pay my required taxes and support some lazy fat smoker with hypertension sitting on his couch. The Obama Way! The Rufus Way! Yea! Kum ba ya!
ReplyDeleteI prefer "pleasingly plump." :)
DeleteOh, and my blood pressure is just fine, thank you. :)
DeleteRufus not only gets government checks, he gets Cherokee Casino Checks too. And his pappy got $$$$$ from the farm programs. That's why he's 'plump', and pleased to be so.
Delete:)
As far as that goes, it IS the "White" guy that's threatening to raise MY taxes.
ReplyDeleteThe "Black" guy just wants to raise yours, and Bob's. :)
Romney went to Colorado and asked, "Has anyone seen any of Obama's "Renewable Energy" around here?
ReplyDeletePer the above link: Colorado has received 17% of its electricity from Wind in 2012.
Just like "McNutz to Iowa."
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ReplyDeleteI've got to go with Rufus on the tax issue.
Given the polarization in this country and the extreme positions taken by both major parties, there is no compromise; and tax policy, like most other issues, becomes a zero-sum game. That being the case, the pocket-book trumps philosophy, and the old Quirkster will opt for whichever side works to his advantage. In the case of tax policy, I've got to side with the Dems.
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Nothing like the sight of the "noose" to clarify the mind. :)
ReplyDelete.
DeleteOf course, agreement on tax policy does not mean I would vote for Obama. There are too many other issues I disagree with him on.
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Gary Johnson, that's the ticket!
DeleteAt least with Johnson there is no call to increase the military by 100,000 troops.
DeleteThe Tea Party forcing sequester, bringing 2013 DoD spending down to 2006 levels the best move they've made. If they were not looking to scuttle their sequester policy ...
Looked good to them in August of 2011, not so sweet when the chickens come to roost in 2013.
There's panic in the cheap seats, now.
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DeleteIn addition, our current argument here will probably be moot since it assumes there will be any major changes anyway, regardless of who wins.
Right now, each side is playing to their base. They will take whatever position they figure will help them.
After the election, a different ball game. Obama has already folded on the Bush cuts before. After the election, were sequestration or even the plan he is campaigning on to go through, he would be hurting the same people he depends on, big business, the wealthy, the AFSCME, SEIU, government workers.
It is hard for me to see sequestration going through. It is also hard for me to see a major change in tax policy happening. I don't expect a big jump in taxes for me; but I also don't expect a big jump in taxes for the 1%.
After the election, neither party will care about the size of the debt. Neither party does now. The GOP talks about the size of the government, but that is something entirely different than worrying about the size of the debt.
Don't worry about the 1% folks, they will make out no matter who wins.
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I'm not so sure, Q. Obambie is a bit of an idealogue, and after the election (assuming he wins) he will, most definitely, have the "whip hand."
DeleteHe might not be in a "compromising" state of mind.
To get any more help from the euro zone, officials said the Greek government will have to show that it has redoubled its efforts to pass so-called structural reforms—improving tax collection, further overhauling its labor markets and selling state-owned assets, among other measures.
ReplyDelete"If it's another case of false Greek promises," said an official familiar with the talks, "what will happen is that the existing funding will stop and Greece will find itself outside the euro zone."
Greek officials have admitted that if progress isn't made in structural reforms, the funding from its creditors will stop and Athens will have little choice but to print its own currency and leave the euro zone.
Standard Chartered, one of Britain's most distinguished global banks, has been accused by US regulators of laundering $250bn from Iran and behaving like a "rogue institution", in the latest catastrophic blow to the international reputation of the City of London.
ReplyDelete...
Standard Chartered's roots lie in the fertile soil of the British Empire and the explosion of trade of the 19th century. The Scottish businessman and Liberal politician James Wilson was granted a banking charter by Queen Victoria in 1853.
...
According to its most recent annual report, Standard Chartered's global operation generated revenues of $17.6bn and $5bn in profits in 2011.
Bloomberg can't know the unique circumstances and alternatives confronted by individual women. They can.
ReplyDeleteThey also have even more stake than he does in the health and well-being of their children. So he should grant great deference to their choices.
As a rule, it's a good idea for the government to stay off our backs. Fronts, too.
The point isn’t that going after Romney’s tax returns is as bad as questioning Obama’s citizenship. It’s not.
ReplyDelete...
This country is in the middle of a profound debate about whether the federal government should try to significantly regulate capitalism. Like many liberals, I’m stunned and appalled that in the wake of Gilded Age-era income inequality, an epic financial crisis, the rise of super PACs, Hurricane Katrina, and the Gulf oil spill, so many conservatives remain convinced that America would be better off if the federal government (excluding the Pentagon, of course) were emasculated further, thus leaving Wall Street and corporate America to do exactly as they please.
I think Obama can, and must, win that debate this election season, and in the four years that follow. But how much Romney paid in taxes doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Presidential Race
On this day in 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II.
ReplyDeleteDon't be fooled by the polls. Most polling organizations are trying to help Obama raise money. Below is the REAL TRUTH -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dickmorris.com/
Short video will let you learn why Obama is going to get clobbered.
Obama +3.4
ReplyDelete- RCP
I don't understand why Obama is having this little uptick. Are people really so easily swayed by a few ads?
ReplyDeleteWhat good thing has happened? Nothing, that I can see.
Other than NASA has reached out to Mars, not the muslims.
It's the taxes (and the "tax plan.")
DeleteWell, it can't be the jobs report.
DeleteHe's benefitting from an extremely silly Pew poll that put him up +10, combined with an anomolous Rasmussen number (Rasmussen puts one of these up about once a month.)
ReplyDeleteIt's still, basically, a one-point (at the most) race. However, it's a bit more in Ohio, and the Mittster HAS to win Ohio.
I also wondered why Obama’s numbers were holding up, especially in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Then I heard Romney talking about his solution to the housing debacle. I almost did a post on the heavily advertised business of scarfing up foreclosed homes and the riches to be made. Almost every conservative talk show has them as sponsors, along with viagra of course. The commercials cheerfully promote the exploitation of advantage to investors of buying foreclosed homes and converting them to rentals.
ReplyDeleteThere is a great swell of people out there fearful of their future. They get no return on the savings that they have. There is no job security for them and if you get too close to the edge and fall in, no one is going to help.
They hear Romney talking in cold technical terms of allowing the market to clear the troubled housing inventory. Now there is a sales pitch that will rally the masses.
That pretty much nails it.
DeleteMaybe Ann and Rafalca should do the stump speaches. They are both human, though Rafalca is reported to have an irritating 'high born' inflection when he talks. Both can speak much more fluently than Obama, and with a little down home passion too. With a little coaching from the speech coach Quirk Rafalca will get so he can speak to any audience anywhere, and on their own terms too.
DeleteWhen she talks, of course, said the horse.
DeleteLawyers grilled a Samsung Electronics Co. strategy head for roughly an hour Monday as Apple Inc. continued its efforts to convince a jury that the Korean tech giant copied its designs.
ReplyDeleteJustin Denison, strategy head for Samsung Telecommunication of America, was peppered with questions about his company's documents and emails—including translated messages between Samsung employees in which one says that there had been discussion about copying the iPhone. He didn't directly address the contents of those messages, noting it was the first time he had seen them.
The auto industry is a big deal in Ohio, and Romney was quite vocal in his criticism of the bailout.
ReplyDeleteHe is, just not a very good "politician." (but, let's be clear, that's not necessarily a "good" thing. The President of the United States needs to be, among other things, a Good Politician.)
And there is always the black market, where Iranian oil is transported on Iranian-owned tankers that switch their flags to countries such as the Tuvalu Pacific islands, or stay out of radio contact, or hawk their wares through Middle Eastern traders willing to supply fake paperwork.
ReplyDeleteBit by bit, the pain for Iran is getting worse. Analysts expect Iranian exports to drop 30 per cent in the remainder of the year, and inflation inside the country has leapt to 23 per cent.
Meanwhile, the US Congress is pushing for tighter financial restrictions, and regulators are threatening banks – such as HSBC and potentially now Standard Chartered – with huge penalties for any transgressions.
It was wrong to bailout the auto companies. It was just splendid to bailout Wall Street. Make a bad loan, get in trouble and the government side steps the market and gives you free money to save your necessary too big of a failing ass. Take a bad loan and the market liquidates your sorry ass.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that all this happened under the doctrinaire Obama and not Romney. Go figure. Romney is defining himself as the big business candidate and Barack Hussein Obama is the biggest practitioner of statism since George W. Bush.
What is the compelling reason for voting for Mitt Romney if you are making under $15/hr? If Romney cannot make that case in clear unambiguous language, the voting majority is going to stick with Obama. The polls are saying the average American does not want to be cleared by the market.
Making a bad career choice.
ReplyDeleteIranian state television on Sunday broadcast purported confessions by more than a dozen suspects in connection with the killing of five nuclear scientists since 2010.
The broadcast showed some of the suspects re-enacting the assassinations in different districts of the capital, Tehran. The 14 suspects shown on TV included eight men and six women.
The TV showed pictures from a military garrison it said was a training camp outside Tel Aviv in Israel. It said the suspects took courses there, including how to place magnetic bombs on cars – the method used in the killing of the scientists.
Iran says the attacks are part of a covert campaign by Israel and the west to sabotage its nuclear programme, which the US and its allies suspect is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that.
Iran's intelligence chief, Heidar Moslehi, had promised recently to provide detailed TV pictures about the case.
Iran has blamed the Mossad as well as the CIA and MI6 for the assassinations, with support from some of Iran's neighbours. The US and Britain have denied involvement in the killings. Israel has not commented.
The TV report said CCTV in a Tehran street recorded one of the operations, providing clues for Iran's intelligence agencies to identify and arrest the suspects.
One of the suspects, Behzad Abdoli, claimed that he received training in Israel, along with several others.
"I entered Turkey and then was taken to Cyprus by ship. From there, I entered Israel and [then] Tel Aviv ... They [Israelis] said that this group is being supported financially by the US and Israel," he said.
Another suspect, Arash Kheradkish, said he received training in attaching magnetic bombs to moving cars.
"There was a motorcycle racing complex [in Tel Aviv] where we received training. We were told we needed to improve our skills so that we would be able to attach magnetised bombs to moving cars ... We were given time bombs that we had to push the start button when we attached it," he said.
"At the end of the training course, members [of the group] were given money. They arranged our return [to Iran]."
The broadcast said Jamali Fashi and Arash Kheradkish got the highest grades during training in Tel Aviv and were chosen to lead the operations.
Maziar Ebrahimi, another suspect, said there were three groups involved in the bombings: two on a motorbike, a car driving in front to slow the target car and a third support team waiting nearby to help if necessary.
"The assassination control room was in Tel Aviv, but it was receiving the orders from Washington and London," the TV report said.
The TV report did not say if the 14 suspects have already stood trial or when they would be tried.
In May, Iran hanged Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, sentenced to death for the 2010 killing of Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi. Fashi, who said in televised confessions that he was recruited by the Mossad, was convicted last August.
At least five Iranian nuclear scientists, including a manager at the Natanz enrichment facility, have been killed since 2010.
Officials say that the campaign includes the abduction of Iranian scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010.
The broadcast said Iran reserves the right to pursue the case through legal channels at international bodies.
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