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."

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 - a Russian view after 50 years

148 comments:

  1. The Ruskies got westerm missiles out of Turkey, their objective, and protected Castro to boot. We 'lost'. The Cubans lost. The world may have been somewhat safer after. Everyone said the young charismatic Kennedy was a superstar.

    ....

    Fargo woman completely missing the point behind deer-crossing signs....


    Everyone, meet Donna. Donna has some problems. Over the last few years, she's been involved in several deer-related car accidents, and with her frustration reaching a tipping point, she decided to call Fargo, N.D., radio station Y94 to voice her complaint on deer-crossing signs. Namely, why are people placing the signs in high-traffic areas? Donna wonders: Shouldn't we be encouraging deer to cross the road in low-traffic areas rather than on highways? The radio hosts calmly try to explain the actual purpose of the signs, but Donna's not having it. "The government can guide deer to lower traffic areas," she says. We're sure they're working on it, Donna. Thanks for your call.


    Like arguing with Rufus. And she votes.


    b

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  2. Who really gives a shit anymore? -

    Oct 13, 2012 4:15pm
    In Radio Interview With Miami DJ, President Obama Weighs in on Mariah Carey vs. Nicki Minaj, Biden Shaving His Head, and His Debate Performance


    President Obama appeared on the Miami radio station Y100 Friday, where he weighed in on the Mariah Carey v. Nicki Minaj feud, was asked whether Vice President Joe Biden should shave his head to look more authoritative, and said he should have brought up Mitt Romney’s “47 percent” video tape during the presidential debate because “the media’s attention span is fairly short.”

    The president spoke with DJ Michael “Yo” Simmons, the self-billed “Half-Black Brother with a Korean Mother” who also does stand-up and serves as a celebrity correspondent on E! News.

    “If you want to get out the vote, the place to go is the YO Show,” the president said.

    Yo asked the president whether there was a moment in the first presidential debate against Mitt Romney when he realized it was not his night.

    “You know, that’s not actually how I thought about it,” the president said. “I do think that on television it was clear that I was being too restrained when Mr. Romney was telling his tall tales. But the truth is, when you read the transcript, everything I said was true and a lot of what he said was not.”

    The president continued to say what he told Diane Sawyer, arguing that the “underlying fundamentals of this race haven’t changed.” He then continued to argue that Romney wants to provide tax breaks for the wealthy, which “as a consequence would raise taxes on middle class families,” an assertion the Romney campaign says is not true.

    “If he had his way we’d still have troops in Iraq,” the president said about Romney.

    “There’s no doubt that I had an off-night,” the president said. “He had a sharp presentation but his ideas are still ones that aren’t going to work for America and aren’t going to work for your listeners. And so we’re just going to keep on going.”

    Why didn’t he bring up the secret video of Romney characterizing the 47 percent of the country who don’t pay federal income taxes as irresponsible victims?

    “The fact is that everybody had already talked about it, everybody had already heard it,” the president said. “It is a useful reminder, though, that the news media’s attention span is fairly short.

    “No doubt that in the debate I was probably a little too polite,” the president said. “Sometimes I err on the side of being a little too polite. But the key is, as I said, as we move forward, we are going to be making a very clear case about the choice that this country is facing.”

    Yo asked the president about the feud between “American Idol” divas Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj.

    “You know what, I think they are going to be able to work it out,” the president said. “I’m all about bringing people together.”

    Asked which was his favorite, the president said Carey.

    “She’s actually done some events for us, I’ve gotten to know her and Nick (Cannon); she’s a wonderful lady,” he said.

    “Nicki, I don’t know, but I’ve got her on my iPod,” the president said.

    Minaj in a recent contribution to a Lil Wayne mix tape rapped: “I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy b*****s is f*****g up the economy.”

    How would the president do on “American Idol?” Yo asked him.

    “You know, you’ve heard me sing some Al Green,” the president said. “I’m going to keep my day job.”

    Yo noted that one recent study suggested that bald men are perceived as more authoritative, and asked if the president would suggest to Vice President Biden that he shave his head were he to again debate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

    “Joe’s pretty protective of his hair,” the president laughed. “So I wouldn’t.”




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    1. Our society has turned into a riot and resort of vice, illiteracy, and meaninglessness. We have lost our tone. Since the world is, finally, a serious place, and gives very few second chances, it's past time to shape up a bit. And we have a choice between a creative, straight living Mormon and a leader of a chum gang, who never has created a thing in his life, even his biography written for him by a self admitted terrorist, a man who voted to kill babies that survive abortions and has put in place plans to cull the elderly, kow tows to muslims in every thoughtless way conceivable, and flies off the Vegas when the Ambassador and his group are killed, and blah blahs with Barbara Wa-wa, blaming the fiasco on some unknown maker of some inconsequential video that had nothing to do with it, and now says he wasn't told about it.

      Elections matter.

      Romney/Ryan 2012

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    2. That was me, b.

      b

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    3. Ground fighting in Ohio -



      PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) — Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan went back to school on Saturday to rally college students in all corners of all-important Ohio and hammer at President Barack Obama for going easy on China over unfair trade practices. Obama took precious time off the campaign trail to practice for the next debate against his GOP rival.

      It was an unspoken acknowledgment of the importance that Obama attaches to upping his game in Debate No.2 that the president is largely dropping out of sight for five straight days in the final weeks of the race to prepare for Tuesday’s encounter in Hempstead, N .Y.

      Even while cloistered for debate prep at a sprawling resort in Williamsburg, Va., though, the president didn’t completely cede the spotlight to Romney. His weekly radio and Internet address highlighted the Obama administration’s work to revive the U.S. auto industry — a message aimed squarely at working-class voters in manufacturing-heavy states like Ohio.

      Romney, for his part, told a crowd of more than 3,000 people at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth that Obama was ducking an important decision on whether China is manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage. A decision was due on Monday, but the Treasury Department said Friday the decision won’t come until after global finance officials meet in early November. That means a decision is unlikely before the Nov. 6 election.

      ‘‘It’s time for us to stand up to China for their cheating,’’ Romney declared. ‘‘It’s got to stop.’’

      Romney framed the issue squarely as a matter of jobs, saying cheap Chinese products were driving American companies out of business.

      ‘‘We've got to get those jobs back and make trade to be fair,’’ Romney declared.



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    4. Who really gives a shit anymore? -

      If an incident, fifty years ago, that almost ended Western Civilization, is not important enough to understand, then why is a document written over two hundred thirty years ago worthy of note?

      History matters and not just the simplistic Cliff notes comic rendition.

      How about something more recent, such as your post above this about China:

      The US went into Afghanistan for good reasons. It stayed for bad reasons and tens of thousands have been killed or injured. We have spent over $1 trillion that we do not have. We will leave with nothing worthy or lasting to show for ten years of war. The Chinese arrived in Afghanistan , lost not one soldier and are keeping the second largest copper mine on the planet. They spent $4 billion, 0.4% of what we spent.



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  3. WHITE HOUSE UPDATE: Obama, Biden never made aware of request for more security...

    Romney accuses WH of 'doubling down on denial'...


    hardeharhar, the buck don't stop here....

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  4. Obama and the triumph of cargo cult economics.

    http://www.redstate.com/2012/10/13/obama-and-the-triumph-of-cargo-cult-economics/

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  5. Obama's war on nuclear power -

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/obamas_war_on_nuclear_power.html

    Obama, when it comes to energy, is against anything that actually works.

    Have no fear. I read recently that Wyoming, that wonderful state, has voted in their legislature to accept nuclear waste, as long as.....it's produced in.....Wyoming!

    :)

    So there is a welcoming environment where something might actually get done if the will were there in D.C.

    By the way, I recall that moron B-Ho saying we could to wonders for our gasoline consumption and gas prices by pumping up the air pressure on our tires.

    Remember that? Last election cycle?

    With gas at $3.75, and $5.00 in California, how is that working out for you?

    What is the energy policy of that nitwit q and the other lu-lus over at NLP by the way?

    Power the country on "spiritual energy", perhaps?

    Or, just go without, like the Amish?

    But, but, then we'd all really have to work, like, in horse farming, and stoop labor, and stuff, and grow our own vegetables.


    And folks in LA aren't going to put up with it. Nor people like q in Detroit, whose main pass time is driving around aimlessly looking at stuff while drinking, when not sitting in Italian barbershops, listening to mafia hit news.That would mean q would actually have to physically work for once in his life, rather than sell shit.

    :)



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  6. I've mentioned here a few times how I thought the US Federal government is fundamentally corrupt - basically the monied interests hold power making the democracy a sham. Yes, I think little will change whether Obama is elected or Romney, but Romney is likely to make things worse. Here is an article that shows the tip of the iceberg, the book, probably, a little more of it:

    "Questions From a Bailout Eyewitness
    By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
    Published: October 13, 2012

    IT has become almost unpatriotic to question the many and munificent bank rescues of 2008 and beyond. If you have the temerity to do so, you’re likely to hear that the bailouts were the only thing standing between us and financial obliteration. You will also be told that, four years on, many of the bailouts have made money.

    It’s hard to argue against this narrative, not knowing what would have happened had cooler heads prevailed. But Sheila C. Bair, former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is well positioned to question the dogma of the bailout brigade. And she does so repeatedly in “Bull by the Horns,” her new book about the crisis. As one of the main participants in the battles surrounding the rescues, and perhaps the coolest head in attendance, Ms. Bair provides some straight talk that represents an important piece of history and a rebuttal to the conventional wisdom.

    As described by Ms. Bair, the events of the fall of 2008 showed that many financial regulators were desperate to make anyone but those who created the crisis pay for its devastation.

    ...

    But perhaps the most telling anecdote is from early October 2008, when Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, summoned Ms. Bair to his office. No reason was given for the meeting. When she arrived, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, was already there. Timothy F. Geithner, then the president of the New York Fed, was on the phone.

    ¶ Handed a piece of paper, Ms. Bair saw that she had been ambushed. It was a script, prepared for her by the Treasury and the Fed, stating that the F.D.I.C. was moving to guarantee all the liabilities in the financial system. Astonishingly, the guarantee would cover all bank depositors and even protect unsecured claims against institutions. In short, the F.D.I.C. was being asked to back “everybody against everything in the $13 trillion banking system,” Ms. Bair writes.

    ¶ Dumbfounded, she told the men she had to discuss the plan with the F.D.I.C. board. Over a few days, they came up with a better, less costly plan.

    ¶ If she had gone along, Ms. Bair said in an interview last week, “everyone who held bank debt would have immediately gotten a windfall profit,” as their bonds and other bank securities rose in value on the F.D.I.C. backing. “Of course, I wasn’t going to do that,” she adds, “and we ended up with a program that only guaranteed the renewal of expiring debt, which is where the problem was. And we charged a fee.”

    ¶ Ms. Bair didn’t know it at the time, but this was the first of many situations when the Treasury and the Fed hoped to leave the F.D.I.C. holding the bag. She objected as often as she could, viewing these moves as attempts to assign responsibility for egregious behavior to hundreds of smaller institutions that did nothing to bring about the crisis.

    ¶ The other disturbing theme in Ms. Bair’s book involves favored treatment given to Citibank and its parent by top regulators. Even as the bank racked up billions in losses on its mortgage and derivatives businesses in 2007 and 2008, Ms. Bair writes, no meaningful supervisory measures were taken against Citi by either the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency or the New York Fed, its main regulators.

    ..."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/business/sheila-bairs-big-questions-about-bank-bailouts.html?_r=0#h[]

    There is more in the article and, I'd bet much more in the book.

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    1. One can never know. It was my opinion at the time, and remains so, that the government should have back stopped the FDIC and let the chips fall where they may. Instead they shifted the liabilities to the public balance sheet relieving private entities of theirs.

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    2. Please pardon the redundancy in the last sentence. It should read "...releiving private entities of their responsibility to work out their liabilities."

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    3. Agree completely, Ash, and said so at the time.
      Rewarding the Perps gauranteed a repeat of Japan's Fiasco.

      Rufie bought it all, hook, line, and sinker:

      "The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling" we gotta do what we gotta do.

      Shortly after asserting that the Real Estate Meltdown foretold by my Accounts of New Century Mortgage's Rapid Demise would amount to no more than a ripple in the financial pond.

      As many analysts here said of Japan, propping up the Perps merely prolonged the agony, as it has here.

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    4. .

      I disagree, but not completely.

      In decrying bailing out the banks 'at the time', you ignore that at the time of the bailout all credit had disappeared. Businesses were unable to get extensions on the lines of credit they needed to just to make payroll and accounts payable. The system was starting to close down. Car sales dropped by a third. Even money market funds were folding. Bair ended up having to guarantee deposits in the funds up to $250k just like those in regulated banks.

      That being said, it doesn't excuse the actions that got us into the mess in the first place nor the piss poor way the bailout was designed or implemented. The way Treasury and the FED designed and implemented the bailout increased moral hazard, rewarded the players who caused the problems, failed to punish in any fashion those who were guilty, and left in place and made worse a system where TBTF became even more TBTF.

      "A solution", a bailout if you like, was necessary at the time. The solution they came up with solved the short term problem but resulted in a continuation and expansion of the problems that got us into the collapse in the first place.

      .

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    5. What do you propose they should have done differently Quirk? Yes, credit dried up as no-one knew what problems lurked with their counter parties so the decision was made for the Government to assume responsibility for the liabilities held by the counter parties thus assuring everyone of 'no-risk' which leads to all your objections. How could they have solved that problem in any other way? I am suggesting a more prudent way would have been to make sure FDIC did what it intended to do and for all those parties to negotiate a solution to their mutually assumed risks.

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    6. "what FDIC WAS intended to do" which is, to a limited degree, insure depositors against losses by the deposit taking institution.

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    7. Why the heck should we, the taxpayer, insure Goldman Sachs contractual relationship with AIG, for example.

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    8. .

      What would I have had them do differently?

      Initially, I would have done exactly what they did, infuse liquidity into the banks and assure that credit was available for the day to day operations of ordinary business. It had to be done quickly because the system was freezing up.

      I believe that your solution of having FDIC continue to 'do its job' would have been insufficient to solve the initial problem.

      That being said, anything I suggest that should have been done beyond that initial bailout is meaningless because of the corruption and inbreeding you have pointed out between D.C. and Wall Street. There is no way they would do 'the right thing' because of the intertwined interests involved.

      However, my wish list would have included some of the following.

      Break up the big banks. Independent studies have shown that in some of these banks the whole is not bigger than the sum of their parts and that they would be more valuable broken apart. I would not have compounded the TBTF problem by brokering the merging of these banks with one another creating a situation where five large banks control 50% of all bank assets.

      Once the immediate crisis was over, I would have looked at how long the government intervention should actually last. If bondholders suffered, well, that's what they call investment risk.

      I would have forced the resignation of the executives responsible for the short-term policies of these banks instead of allowing them to continue in their positions or granting them $100 million golden parachutes. Where possible, I would have brought lawsuits and/or forced clawbacks on some of the sweet heart deals that were arranged.

      Unfortunately, much of the abuse that precipitated the crisis was perfectly legal. I would have made it illegal through new laws and regulations such as the rules in Dodd-Frank which demand increased reserves. I would not treat dicks like Jamie Dimon as rock stars when they are brought before Congress to answer for the actions. I wouldn't settle for stringing up the little fish when crimes occurred. After Enron, a regulation was passed that required top exectives to sign off on financial statements stating they agreed that they were correct and making the assumption they knew what they were signing. It assigned responsibility at the top for criminal activity in the company. I would start enforcing that provision.

      With certain third parties, such as the rating agencies, I would investigate whether there were any possibility of bringing lawsuits. If not, I would have at least continued to excoriate them for their incompetence or willful neglect.

      I would break up the investment and banking operations of the banks. I would regulate the type and risks allowed on investments by insurance companies such as AIG. I would get the government out of the companies like Fannie and Freddie and remove the perceived government guarantee for these GSEs.

      With regard to the FED, I would recognize that the longer QE continues the less good it does and the more harm.

      Instead what we got from the Fed's was more moral hazard by privatizing profit and socializing risk, business as usual, a continuation of the problems that got us into this mess, free money from the FED which is actually inhibiting expanded credit for business and the little guy but offering reduced risk and windfall profits to the banks and Wall Street and inflating asset prices, thus creating a bonanza in the market but killing the little guy.

      I'm sure there is more but there is a footfall game on now followed by a baseball game a little later.

      .

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    9. I think much of what you wrote makes sense. One section, though, causes me consternation as it would require even deeper government control of specific companies - i.e. they would even more thoroughly own the problems and the fallout. That paragraph was:

      "I would have forced the resignation of the executives responsible for the short-term policies of these banks instead of allowing them to continue in their positions or granting them $100 million golden parachutes. Where possible, I would have brought lawsuits and/or forced clawbacks on some of the sweet heart deals that were arranged. "

      While not rewarding the jerks that engineered the problems is a good thing by controlling the executive selection process and running of companies (much like IMF does when it bails out countries) you end up owning the problem. In my view much of the responsibility, and losses, should be born by those involved. Like you said "investment risk".

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    10. .

      ...you end up owning the problem.

      We did own the problem, bought and paid for it.

      Once we took the stake we did in these companies, it would be negligent not to make demands. And I am not saying the companies can't pick their own new executives but only that those who had proven their incompetence, neglect, or worse should not be allowed to continue being rewarded for what they had wrought or allowed to continue it into the future.

      It's called assigning responsibility.

      .

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    11. No, I beg to differ! While we may be affected by their errors we do not want, nor need, to assume responsibility for the liabilities and subsequent decisions that follow. We should not gave taken a stake in the companies. Sure, if you pay the piper you should call the time but we shouldn't pay the piper.

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  7. Brooksley Born and Sheila Bair. Never should have corrupted the franchise.

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  8. The Cuban Missile Crisis began on my 8th birthday and was brought into our lives on b&w television by Huntley/Brinkley and Walter Cronkite. The possible end of human civilization was explained, live from the White House, by our President, John F. Kennedy.

    My father was a 'Goldwater Republican' and our household was about as right-wing, all-Democrats-are-commies, etc. as you could find. He told me that we were probably all going to die because Jack and Bobby were wimps and communist sympathizing pinkos. After the Crisis ended, politics were a bit quieter around our house.

    I'm a lifelong Liberal Democrat and always will be. They're still my heroes.

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. An Irish Catholic Wake-Up
    By MAUREEN DOWD

    NOW you know what Thanksgiving with my family is like.

    A donnybrook with Irish Catholic uncles and nephews interrupting one another, mocking one another, arguing over one another, bombastically denouncing every political opinion except their own as malarkey.

    The loser of the vice-presidential debate was, of course, Barack Obama. In contrast to the pair on the undercard slugging it out, the president’s limp performance the other night was even more inexplicable and inexcusable. The president was no doubt warned not to sigh, but his entire demeanor was a sigh.

    The fact that one diffident debate by the president could throw his whole race into crisis shows that nobody madly loves Obama anymore. With his aloof presidency, he shook off the deep attachments from 2008, and now his support lacks intensity.

    Even if he comes out in the town-hall debate on Tuesday with Ben Affleck charm, he has a Mitt Romney problem. Will it be the real Obama or will he just be doing what the media suggest and the base demands?

    In Thursday night’s hockey game of a debate, the odd semiotics were not Gore-y sighs but grins. It’s hard to imagine a politician getting penalized for smiling too much, but Joe Biden managed it, breaking out in smiles and laughter 92 times by the count of ABC News. Ever since Obama tapped him, Biden has felt that his role is to warm up Barry’s Brother From Another Planet affect. In this debate, making up for his boss’s Spockiness was critically important, so Biden overcompensated with a volcano of verbosity and gesticulating.

    Biden was trying to do what Romney did well: come across as a senior partner chastising a junior associate who screwed up. For this vice president, though, less is never more. He mugged condescension as if he were the star of a silent movie. But who ever accused Uncle Joe of subtlety?

    Not Sarah Palin, who told Fox News that Biden reminded her of “watching a musk ox run across the tundra with somebody underfoot.”

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  11. Government is corrupt by definition. That is the starting point. That is the foundational basis for the design bequeathed us by the founders. "A republic if you can keep it." - Jefferson.

    The genius of USA is that we not only endured, but progressed, in spite of intractable human nature. One of the reasons why Biden is treated with contempt and derision is that he remains as a symbol of the old stye pol who governed this country for so so long - a little corrupt and a little seedy around the edges but with lines firmly drawn around god, country, family, and basic decency.

    Government will always be corrupt. The trick, one that the Bidens of the place understood so well for so long, is to not allow the fringes to disrupt the fundamental balance: fringes like The Tea Party, like the purists looking for Sunday school choir boys to sit in the secular pew of Congress, like the mono-manically focused Ayn Randians obsessed with eliminating government obstacles in their quest for - what best word to use? - it almost doesn't matter because Libertarian dreams of some absurd society of self-assembling and self-correcting colonies of insects are - what is the construct being forwarded? neither adult nor mature responses to the challenges of the modern word.

    Buck up buckaroos. And start governing. The American Way. Long Live.

    Anybody who doesn't harbor a little larceny in his bones is probably hiding something. (Yogi Berra or maybe I just made it up.)

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    1. A republic, if you can keep it.

      That would be Benjamin Franklin, not Thomas Jefferson.

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  12. That was one of my dad's favorite sayings: 'there's a little larceny in everyone'.

    After years of watching, I've concluded there is more larceny in a liberal democrat than in a Sarah Palin republican.

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  13. JFK's politics were far to the right, economically, to "your" Democrat Party today, RaggedbandMan, as Ryan pointed out.

    And JFK was a hawk wrt Communism despite your Family's Delusions, which have morphed into your delusion that there is anything worth saving in today's totally corrupt and Philosophically Banal "Progressive" Democrat Party.

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  14. Harney Peak, South Dakota, the center of the earth, of the universe, to Black Elk, but now we know the center is everywhere, is near where this, if I may say so, wonderful image of Life was taken by yours truly, lacking only the bird of spirit at the top.

    Growing out of what to the normal Rufian mind is solid dead impossible matter it grows upward finally creating a bird of spirit at the top which flies away.

    Which bird is you, dear reader, a full member of the sacred hoop of all that is.

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    1. You should have your daughter teach you how to display that image in a size we can appreciate.

      Are you satisfied w/that high-end camera you bought a few years back?

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  15. Love the camera. It needs better operator.

    I have wanted to show some pics. I will ask her how.

    This is Harney Peak, South Dakota. The small tower at the top is a fire look out built long ago.

    It is not too far from Mt. Rushmore.

    I wish Mt. Rushmore was not there, or, I mean, the faces on it. My wife tells me the fellow Bourgham (?) actually did that with a meaning to the reds that we look down on you, redman, and don't you forget it. She got this from some show on The History Channel. I don't know the reliability of this, but you won't find that interpretation in any of the literature or books there at Mr. Rushmore.

    Really a beautiful area, one of the best on our way out east.

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  16. The Real hero was that Russian Submarine Commander that refused the order to let fly his nukes.

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    1. Or, let "swim" his nukes, as the case is.

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    2. ?

      Agree, if that is the case.

      Can you point us to a reliable article about that?

      I had developed over the years the outlook the whole thing was a big bluff on the part of the Ruskies.

      Was there was an incident, unrelated, where some Russian commander over road the launch command instituted by a false read on some incoming from us?

      I can't make the video work on my worthless computer.

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    3. One wonders why they seemed so hot to put missiles in Cuba, when they must have had them on subs outside Boston Harbor, if not to get ours out of Turkey.

      Whole era was nuts. All the problems caused by a bunch of fanatical atheist Marxists and nordic Nazis whose veneer of Christianity had come slipping off.

      We were disarmed before WWI, and mostly so before WWII.

      Tough to blame the US of A for it all.

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    4. overrode, too much time looking at maps, not enough naps

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  17. The more things change ...

    “Education is being redefined at the demand of the uneducated to suit the ideas of the uneducated. The student now goes to college to proclaim rather than to learn. The lessons of the past are ignored and obliterated in a contemporary antagonism known as ‘The Generation Gap.’ A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete core of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.” - Spiro Agnew (1969) in response to Vietnam War protesters

    Fast forward to 2012:

    "I thought that Joe Biden came across as a guy that you meet at a cocktail party or some political event, an obnoxious drunk who is loud and boisterous and interrupts every conversation," Huckabee told Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Friday.

    Kindly engage with more gentility:

    “Really tough format, Sean, for someone like a Paul Ryan or anybody else up against Joe Biden, when the moderator allowed one candidate to absolutely run roughshod over the conversation, over the opponent,” Palin told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on Thursday night. “That’s a tough format. It reminded me…of watching a musk ox run across the tundra with somebody underfoot. In this case, when it came to style, Paul Ryan was underfoot because of the moderator allowing Biden to do interrupting, to kind of take control of the conversation.”

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  18. On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph trapped the diesel-powered nuclear-armed Soviet ‹The template Sclass2 is being considered for deletion.› Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days and, although the submarine's crew had earlier been picking up US civilian radio broadcasts, once B-59 began attempting to hide from its US navy pursuers, it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic, so those on board did not know if war had broken out.[4]. The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, wanted to launch a nuclear-tipped torpedo.[5]

    Three officers on board the submarine – Savitsky, the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and the second-in-command Arkhipov – were authorized to launch the torpedo if agreeing unanimously in favor of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against the launch.[6] Although Arkhipov was only second-in-command of submarine B-59, he was actually Commander of the flotilla of submarines including B-4, B-36, and B-130 and of equal rank to Captain Savitsky. Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. This presumably averted the nuclear warfare which would have ensued had the torpedo been fired.[7] The submarine's batteries had run very low and the air-conditioning had failed, so it was forced to surface amidst its US pursuers and head home.[8] Washington's message that practice depth charges were being used to signal the submarines to surface never reached B-59, and Moscow claims they have no record of receiving it either.

    [edit] Aftermath

    When discussing the Cuban missile crisis in 2002, Robert McNamara stated that we came "very close" to nuclear war, "closer than we knew at the time."[9]

    In Aleksandr Mozgovoy's 2002 book, Kubinskaya Samba Kvarteta Fokstrotov (Cuban Samba of the Foxtrot Quartet), retired Commander Vadim Pavlovich Orlov, a participant in the events, presents them less dramatically, saying that Captain Savitsky had merely lost his temper, but eventually calmed down.[10]

    [edit] Later life

    Having effectively been forced to surrender, when the Soviet submariners returned to their native Russia they were given the opposite of a hero's welcome.[8] However Arkhipov continued in Soviet Navy service, commanding submarines and later submarine squadrons. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1975 and became head of the Kirov Naval Academy. He was promoted to vice admiral in 1981 and retired in the mid 1980s.[2] He subsequently settled in Zheleznodorozhny, Moscow Oblast where he died on 19 August 1998 due to radiation poisoning

    Vasili Arkhipov

    ReplyDelete
  19. Overlooked by all, it seems, is that the Kennedy Tax rate on top earners was 70% (down from 91%.)

    He, also, added in sweeteners for the poor, and middle class - A Standard Deduction, and a Larger Deduction for Childcare.

    Seventy percent was still too high (probably.) Reagan cut it all the way back to 28%, which caused him to run a hell of a deficit, and socked it to the poor in the largest tax hike in history (social security,) instead of just raising the income level to which SS Taxes applied.

    The one that got it right was Bill Clinton. His 39% Top Rate balanced the budget, paid down some debt, and made everyone rich (that, along with No Wars, and the "tech" boom, of course.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bombed the Serbs to distract from a stained dress. Somebody said so.

      Delete
  20. Enough with this broad.

    The trouble with [Ayn] Rand's central thesis is that the "virtue of selfishness", other than being pretty shallow from a human perspective, is also mainly an effort to betray the code of civilized society without suffering the consequences. By maintaining that the sole purpose of a person's life is to satisfy their own needs, Rand was trying to justify her own narcissistic nature, hunger for fame, coldness of temperament, and greedy mentality.

    [skip]

    But all this, disturbing in itself, is just the tip of the iceberg, for in writing her novels, what Rand was really trying to accomplish was to recast her ruthless selfishness as a noble philosophy, so that her own belief in exploitation of every kind - economic, social, or personal - could be justified. It was not an accident. Her attitude towards the people in her life, by all accounts, was one of cold calculation and emotional manipulation, but at the same time she could not bear to be accused of those very things. This led her to the act of codifying her beliefs on a grand scale so that her own behavior would come to be "accepted" and even revered, rather than being rightfully criticized.

    Unfortunately, we see this same pattern of thought everywhere today, from diehard capitalists who believe in the right of corporations to exploit workers and game the system and politicians who consider the poor to be parasites, to the so-called "spiritualists" who extol self-interest as the ultimate goal of human existence, thereby abdicating the need to be responsible towards anyone or anything; and the trend is undeniably destructive.

    Time to ?? Grow Up?



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ayn Rand as the legitimizer of what is now being labeled corruption. Interesting that Rick Santelli transforms "fiscal" cliff into "philosophical" cliff. I had no idea they were such deep thinkers.

      It is also important to recognize that it is precisely Rand's philosophy of personal profit at any cost that led to the subprime mortgage catastrophe and the deep recession that followed, that led to the exorbitant payouts of executives at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and AIG even while these institutions were shredding the integrity of our financial system prior to 2008, that enables the CEO of JPMorgan Chase to criticize Wall Street reform even after the bank's excessive risk-taking and gross negligence towards its shareholders, and that makes it possible for Mitt Romney to have the temerity to suggest an inhuman economic system like Darwinian capitalism as the right one for America.

      Delete
    2. And, they ALWAYS make more money under "liberal" governments. Go figure.

      Delete
    3. For those who missed it:

      The Theodore Roosevelt Centennial CD-ROM: Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses —whether these uses be to speculate in stocks and wreck railroads himself, or to allow his son to lead a life of foolish and expensive idleness and gross debauchery, or to purchase some scoundrel of high social position, foreign or native, for his daughter. Such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity. These men are equally careless of the working men, whom they oppress, and of the State, whose existence they imperil. There are not very many of them, but there is a very great number of men who approach more or less closely to the type, and, just in so far as they do so approach, they are curses to the country. (Forum, February 1895.) Mem.Ed. XV, 10; Nat. Ed. XIII, 9.

      You know, there is a word of potential between Ayn Rand and Stormship Troopers. The mushy, muddling, squooshy inbetween.

      It's where it's at.

      Delete
    4. That would be Starship Troopers.

      Delete
  21. The Roman Empire probably failed when becoming a Legionnaire became a dead-end job - when thousands of Legionnaires came home to find their farms had been stolen by the tax collectors and the local plutocrats/political machine.

    Or, as someone put it, "The Elite Class became the Leech Class."

    ReplyDelete
  22. There have been several instances in which individuals, bucking authority and group-think, have kept us out of Nuclear Holocaust.

    I think Deuce is intimately familiar with one instance. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the point in history when we all agreed that 'mutually assured destruction' was a reality to be avoided at all costs. It was the point in time that made nuclear holocaust "inconceivable".

      Before that event, nuclear war was, not just conceivable but expected and some right-wingers actually relished the idea of blowing the Soviets into the stone age. MAD, once we agreed on what it meant, gave the whole world a great sense of relief from what had been a relentless escalation of the Cold War.

      Delete
  23. How the GOP Destroyed its Moderates.

    MITT ROMNEY HAS BEEN running for president as the Republican nominee, de facto or de jure, for eight months now, and the grand historical joke of it has not yet worn off. A party that has set itself to frantically, fanatically expunge its moderates, quasi-moderates, suspected moderates, and fellow travelers of moderates chose as its standard bearer the lineal heir, biographically and genealogically, to its moderate tradition. It entrusted its holy crusade to repeal Barack Obama’s hated health-care law to the man who had inspired it and run, four years before, promising to do the same for the rest of America. The man and his historical moment could not be more incongruous. It was as if the Mongol tribes of the thirteenth century, setting out to pillage their way across the Asian steppe, had somehow chosen Mahatma Gandhi as their supreme khan.

    Republicans have more work to do.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Here is the text of the letter sent by the employees:


    Dear Gov. Romney:

    We work at Sensata Technologies in Freeport, Illinois — a company owned by Bain Capital, which you started, ran, and still profit from.

    Our jobs are about to be outsourced to China. More than 150 of us will lose our jobs — and some of us have worked here for over 40 years. The worst indignity is that many of us are being asked to train the Chinese workers who are taking our jobs.

    It’s not right that our good American jobs are being sent to China. It’s not right that you stand to get even richer off of our loss and pain.

    We are not going down without a fight. We join together today to call on you to save our jobs.

    We know that you can take action to stop the offshoring of our jobs. You are running for President, promising to create good jobs. You can start keeping that promise today, by stepping in and saving our jobs.

    We are standing strong together, and our numbers are growing. We are reaching out to our community and to the American people. Together, we will make our voices heard.
    We are standing up not just for ourselves, but for all the working people who have had their jobs outsourced or offshored. We are standing up for everyone who is struggling to find a good job in America.

    Please consider our appeal and take a real stand for the good jobs we all need by stepping in and stopping our jobs from being sent to China. END

    The plant was owned by Honeywell until Sensata, owned by Bain Capital, bought it. Two days after Bain took over the employees were told the plant was going to be outsourced. This is a hardship for the laid off employees, and the entire region that has seen so many manufacturing jobs go over seas.

    This keeps the issue of outsourcing by Bain Capital and Romney on the front page. This is the last thing Romney wants to see when he is being bombarded with criticism that when he ran Bain Capital, it was a “pioneer of outsourcing.” This makes it harder for Romney to have credibility when he calls Obama a “liar” over Bain’s involvement in outsourcing.

    At the same time this story came to light, Republicans in the Senate are lining up to kill a Democratic bill that will eliminate tax breaks for companies like Bain that outsource jobs. This bill would take away tax advantages for Bain to kill those 175 Freeport jobs.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Now, someone please explain to me how shipping these jobs to China, and sending the profits to the Cayman Islands makes the old "magic undie wearer" a Job Creator?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess you aren't a fan of increasing productivity but rather an old school protectionist.

      Delete
    2. I guess you can go fuck yourself.

      Delete
    3. The typical response of someone who has no rational argument. You asked for a reason to 'export jobs to China' and I gave you one.

      Delete
    4. How can you make a rational response to an irrational statement?

      You think moving jobs to a trade protectionist country that pays its people $0.90 an Hour is "Improving Productivity?" Really?

      Most people rean Ayn Rand in about the eighth grade, and get over it in a couple of weeks.

      Delete
    5. Labor costs are certainly a component of productivity but there is way more to it than simple labor costs. I guess you better go take an Econ 101 course Rufus.

      As to protectionism, that is exactly the solution you have proposed many a time. Smoot and Hawley would be proud.

      Delete
    6. Fuck you, I Wrote the Econ 101 course. First off, that isn't "creating" jobs; it's merely moving those jobs to a Slave labor scenario.

      Second, I've supported All FTAs. But, it's idiotic to support a no tariff/low tariff policy with a country like China that has imposed Huge Tariffs on your own products.

      I don't think you'd know an "economics" book if it bit you in the ass.

      Delete
    7. There you go again foaming at the mouth with no real argument. The best you can do is bleat about the 'unfairness' inherent in the Chinese system. There are many places where companies choose to source parts and factories beside China that do not have bilateral free trade agreements with the US in place. The WTO and GAT offer structure for trade beyond FTA's and many a US company would not be competitive, and hence cease to exist, if they did not avail themselves of the efficiencies the world has to offer.

      Delete
    8. Excellent Ash. You have exposed the typical Rufoid Response:

      I guess you can go fuck yourself

      Fuck you, I Wrote the Econ 101 course
      (a high level course, heh heh)


      I don't think you'd know an "economics" book if it bit you in the ass


      :)


      Delete
  26. Romney was against Obama "bailing out the American Auto Industry;"

    I guess he wanted to Move Those Jobs to China, also.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Time out for some tabloid respite.

    Strauss-Kahn Admits to Sex Parties

    Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF head who resigned in disgrace, "is seeking to throw out criminal charges in an inquiry into ties to a prostitution ring in northern France with the legal argument that the authorities are unfairly trying to 'criminalize lust,'" the New York Times reports."

    "That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical judicial hearing in late November, have offered a keyhole view into a clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society: secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists and musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and public sex with multiple partners."

    One of the comments led to me to this:

    Amid the ongoing uproar over Mitt Romney's snooty remarks at a Florida fundraiser concerning the "47 percent" who pay no federal income taxes, the party's high-rolling host hasn't drawn quite the attention as he deserves. As the head of Sun Capital private equity, Marc Leder is a longtime associate of the Republican nominee — and a practitioner of the same dubious behavior that has smudged Romney's reputation.

    Lately Leder has been dogged by tabloid headlinesrecounting his nasty divorce and wild partying (replete with reported nudity and public sex around the pool at a summer house he rented on Long Island's East End for $500,000). What he has in common with Romney, however, isn't a taste for bacchanlian revels, of course, but a record of business and taxation practices that working Americans might find troubling.

    Talk about musk ox. Not seeing any Starship Troopers on the horizon either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Although roughly 25 firms held by Sun [Leder's company] have gone bankrupt, perhaps the best known example involves Friendly's, the family restaurant and ice cream chain that went under at the hands of Sun Capital in 2010 after more than 70 years in business. After acquiring Friendly's in 2007 for a premium price, Sun took the company into bankruptcy only three years later, supposedly due to rising milk prices.

      But the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation — the federal agency that insures benefits to workers victimized by failed corporate pension plans — accused Sun of sinking Friendly's to dump pension costs onto the government. By pushing the company's pension burden onto federal taxpayers, who fund the PBGC, Sun could then reorganize Friendly's in bankruptcy, get rid of laid-off workers and less profitable restaurants, and — as Romney likes to say — "turnaround" the company. So far, that is precisely what Sun appears to doing, and getting away with it.

      So there on the videotape shot in Leder's huge Boca mansion stood Romney, complaining about the income taxes that the working poor don't pay and their dependence on government assistance, while the host surely nodded in agreement. At $50,000 a plate, the lobster was garnished with a nice helping of irony.

      As a side note, the PBGC is the next to blow. For those who have had their pensions dropped there, expect the worst.


      Delete
    2. BTW, that 15% "Carried Interest" Crime is the One Loophole that Magic underpants has Absolutely Guaranteed that he is Against Closing. No Shit.

      Delete
    3. Oh I know Rufus. I'm trying a little drumbeat strategy of my own. Obama and the Dem's aren't perfect but compared to the alternative, well, keep my thoughts to myself because I'm a bit of a jinx. Less than a month to go.

      Delete
    4. Oh, I agree, they are FAR from "perfect." But, God, considering the alternative . . . . .

      jeez

      I'm just praying, now, that the Dems can keep the Senate.

      Delete
  28. Auto sales remain a bright spot as lower interest rates prompt Americans to replace older vehicles. Cars and light trucks sold at a 14.9 million annual pace in September, the most since March 2008, according to Ward’s Automotive Group. Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co. (GM) reported gains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just think, if ol' magic undie had his way China could have had all Those jobs.

      Delete
    2. As for "how far from perfect" the Dems are - I don't think anyone in the White House even understands the significance of that surplus. If they did they'd be shouting it to the world.

      They miss a Lot of stuff.

      Delete
    3. In fact, I just went back and Looked At It Again

      just to make sure I didn't misread it the first time. (that wouldn't be a unique event.)

      :)

      Delete
    4. And, that doddering old fool, Welch, "Couldn't see Anything in the economy that would make him think unemployment should be dropping."


      And, the assholes on CNBC at it up.

      Delete
    5. I want to make it clear; I despised Bill and Hillary Clinton when he took office. I was an ex-Marine, and a War Vet, and he was a draft-dodger. And, I was up to my ass in my job.

      However, in retrospect (and, in observing the present,) Bill Clinton was/is one of the best "real, honest-to-goodness Economists" out there. He digs numbers, and understands "leading indicators," and trends. His words at the DNC need to be appreciated.

      Delete
  29. Staring into an abyss, however, if the side that loses "the numbers" game is successful in discrediting the data. Nasty and dangerous game. Nothing is real, except by fiat.

    (Steve Liesman, John Harwood, and a few others try to balance the CNBC commentary. But I agree Jack Welch needs to cool it. Retire in grace. There are no (very few) comebacks.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      I've been blessed. My new cable box doesn't give me audio (most of the time) for CNBC. It's the only channel so afflicted, and I've decided not to try to fix it.

      I do miss Steve Liesman, but it's a fair trade-off not to have to hear the rest of it.

      Delete
    2. And, I normally know what Steve Liesman is going to say before he says it, anyway. :)

      Delete
    3. .

      Steve Liesman is a hack for the very people you rant about daily, Ruf. He is an unapologetic apologist for big business and the FED policies that support the banks and Wall Street. During the interview he conducted with Blankfein, Simpson, and Bowles, he kept deferring to Blankfein because Blankfein had the 'more positive' message for the Street.

      It's what he does everytime he conducts an interview or a poll. I have to laugh when he is asked why he didn't include this or that question in a particular poll. His usual answer is that he didn't want to politicize the poll when, in fact, not asking the question is what really politicizes the poll.

      .

      Delete
    4. I didn't say I wanted to take a "nice, warm shower" with the guy, Q. But, I do tend to get more out of his take on the data than I do with most of his cohorts, most of the time.

      Delete
    5. When asked directly if he thought the recent jobs number was part of a trend, Liesman demurred, preferring to stick with "anomaly" (maybe it was "outlier") until further data.

      Liesman was exceptionally polite, one might say professional, with all three of his guests during the interview with Simpson, Bowles and Blankfein. Given that it was his first interview with Blankfein, he might be excused for paving the way for future exchanges.

      What the fuck ever happened to courtesy?


      Delete
    6. .

      Obviously a difference of opinion M.

      I assume the last question was rhetorical.

      .

      Delete
  30. BS. Do people really believe that the financial crisis can be solved without pain? Sorry, it is absolute nonsense. As of yet very little has been done to stop spending public money on nonsense jobs in local government created by Democrats for people who would vote Democratic, we all know what these jobs are and anyone with half a brain could look through the details and delete half the jobs without the slightest difficulty and without making any difference at all to services provided. That is what needs to happen, not spend more money on fatuous 'growth' which means growth in numbers of people on the public payroll.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They would do much better if they created a whole bunch of "nonsense jobs" than pour gobs of money into banks and let them decide on how to spend it!

      Delete
    2. See, there's your ignorant-assed "BS;" Government jobs are Down, not up.

      And, don't worry, there's a Lot of people that have felt plenty of "pain."

      Just not the crooks, and thieves that you want to put back in charge.

      Delete
  31. I think there is a middle solution and that is to fund infrastructure projects that will be funded by fee for service. The criteria would be that a project is worthy if the total cost of the project would support bonds with a safe 4% plus return. There is also a lot of low hanging fruit for savings.

    The project list could include:

    1. Alternate energy.

    2. Designated toll highways for natural gas fueled vehicles.

    3. Mini power plants.

    4. Interstate toll highways for commercial vehicles.

    5. Toll bridges and tunnels.

    6. Lease the broadcast spectrum.

    7. Donate all federal mineral and landrights to the Social Security system and allow the SSA to sell them at true market price.

    8. Eliminate one federal job for every two newly created private jobs.
    As agency jobs are terminated, prioritize and slim down the agency responsibility and regulations with the ultimate goal of turning most if not all of the reponsibilities to the states.

    I would also like to see the Senate meet twice a year for three week sessions and half the existing senators replaced by the governor of each state. A senate of state governors would also have the right with a 2/3 majority to overturn any federal court decision. This would transfer real power to the states and citizens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As to number 7, I reccomended a similar treatment of Federal real estate holdings, only to be told by boobie that it would only benefit my rich friends.

      He thought he lose his Federal meandering subsidies

      Selfish boobie.

      Delete
  32. I don't think you could have gotten the Civil Rights Act through such a Senate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyways, some interesting ideas (I am kinda intrigued by number 7.)

      Transportation Energy costs are going to jump up, I'm afraid, and bite the next President in the ass (whoever it is) along about the time any recovery really gets rolling.

      Delete
    2. And, I know, being from Pa, that you're a pretty strong proponent of nat gas; but it's pretty unlikely that that idea is going to catch hold. There's just too much working against it - not the least of which is that it's probably on a trajectory to the $15.00/kcuft range.

      Delete
  33. Here is where it's going:

    “Over the next decade, we’re going to see a lot of new technology coming into internal combustion engines to significantly improve their efficiency,” he said. “The technologies that are going to facilitate this efficiency improvement will have a natural thirst for higher octane and we see increased ethanol content in the fuel as part of the pathway toward facilitating better engine performance.”

    To that end, Ricardo developed the EBDI – Extreme Boost Direct Injection Engine – which we will learn more about from other members of the Ricardo team who attended the CARS event.


    I'll keep an eye on it for you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. I think this is one of the top stories of the day:

    Fuel-efficient cars top seller

    September sales were strongly dominated by demand for fuel-efficient cars as gas prices last month spiked above $4 a gallon in some areas of the country.

    GM, whose 210,245 sales marked its best September since 2008, said passenger car sales jumped 29 percent from the same month a year ago; sales of mini cars, small cars and compacts shot up a combined 97 percent.

    The Chevy Cruze led the compact sector with 25,787 sold; it was just 200 units shy of setting a second consecutive sales record. The plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt posted its best month ever, with sales of 2,851.

    Ford's small cars posted their best sales total in a decade and were up 73 percent compared to last year. The Dearborn automaker in September sold 19,736 Focus compacts, up 91 percent. But sales of the midsize Fusion, in the early stages of its 2013 model year debut, dropped 37 percent.

    Chrysler, which posted its best September in five years, said its 200 midsize sedan set a September sales record, with sales up 13.5 percent. Its 300 flagship had its best September in five years, with sales jumping 7.1 percent. The Dodge Dart compact posted 5,235 sales as Chrysler ramps up Dart production.


    From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121003/AUTO01/210030363#ixzz29JFVZygp

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well Hooorrraaayyyy for high gas prices!

      Eh, Ruf?

      Just what the doctor ordered for a struggling economy.....

      And high electricity rates are great too. Makes that solar and wind almost possible....

      Delete
    2. ?


      You're an idiot, Bob.

      You can't possibly be that stupid.

      No one says "high gas prices are good," only that they are inevitable. And, that the challenge is in the mitigaton.

      Delete
    3. Just pump up your tires, Ruf. Help the nation out.

      You remember what B-HO told you to do, back in '08.

      And, looky at this here -

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlTxGHn4sH4

      'Skyrocket' high electricity prices for everyone!

      Whoopie!

      Coal, natural gas, you name it...

      Now sing along --
      Happy days are here again.....

      da da dada da da dada

      Happy days are here again





      Delete
    4. Electricity prices will spike a little from time to time, but they won't be a severe problem. We Do have a lot of coal and nat gas for the short/medium term, and there is a tremendous amount of capacity for Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Tidal/Marine, etc.

      No, the looming problem is a shortage of "Transportation" fuel (aka oil.)

      Delete
    5. It's not 'looming'. At $4.00 - $5.00 a gallon, it's here now. We haven't built a new re

      We haven't built a finery in decades. We put nearly everywhere off limits for exploration. We deny permits for pipelines. We do everything but shoot ourselves in the head and get it over with. We put coal out of business, which will 'necessarily', as the man said, skyrocket electricity prices.

      Gas was under 2 dollars when bozo took over.

      And we wonder why?

      Get that moron out of the White House.

      Delete
    6. Of course the fault for not building a new refinery, for decades, is to be found in the administration of the last three and 3/4 years.
      Boobie , you are truly a moron, as well as a racist.

      Delete
    7. Yeah, because the $4.11 gas under George W. Bush put us into a horrible recession. Dumb shit.

      Delete
  35. 3J may soon come out of seclusion to go on the lam -

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/15716117-418/feds-now-probing-suspicious-activity-in-rep-jesse-jackson-jrs-finances-sources-say.html

    ReplyDelete
  36. R 49% O 47%

    Sunday, October 14, 2012

    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided.


    Where have I heard that number '47' before?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Who can possibly argue with a man who wrote the following text books -

    Economics 101
    Religion 101
    Climate Change 101
    Fossil Fuels 101
    Racism 101
    Constitutional Law 101

    And, the acclaimed post graduate tome

    Nincompoopery 501

    ?

    ReplyDelete
  38. Rasmussen Reports...

    Electoral College
    Romney still @ 181
    If the election were held today ...

    Obama wins, with only 47%

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is not, of course, what the RCP electoral map shows at all. What it shows is a whole lot of toss - up states yet to be decided.

      That is what all the hullabullooo is all about.

      Obama may win, I have no idea, despite what BPP says. Which reflects only my desires.

      I am starting to think Nevada may go Romney.

      Delete
  39. romney loses, with 49%.

    Lincoln won, with 38% of the popular vote
    But a super majority in the Electoral College.

    Folks were always comparing Obama to Lincoln

    Could become a real tasty pudding, another President that wins while losing. Shades of George W.?

    ReplyDelete
  40. What we do know is the Libertarian candidate doesn't have a turd's chance in a sewage lagoon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Better to be right than popular

      Delete
    2. Agreed.

      Just disagree on what is 'right' in these particular circumstances.

      Delete
    3. Your man thinks it is 'right' to expand military spending by $200 Billion, to ship jobs and manufacturing equipment to China, to not release his tax returns from 2002 to present and that banking in the Caman Islands is patriotic.

      Gary Johnson would cut spending across the board, bring US troops home fro Afghanistan, Japan, Germany, Italy and England.


      He'd reform Medicare, not continue it's wastful ways as Mr Romney promises to do.

      I know what's right and it is not aborting black babies because they offend your sensibilities.

      Delete
  41. While we're playing the poll game:

    Election: Now that the '08 tally is official, we note that for the second election in a row, the IBD/TIPP Poll not only came closest to the final margin, but was right on the money— tantamount to hitting a bullet with a bullet.

    Results certified over the weekend show Barack Obama got 52.9% of the popular vote vs. 45.7% for John McCain. The difference — 7.2 percentage points — is exactly what IBD/TIPP predicted just hours before polls opened Nov. 4.

    It can take as long as a month and a half for states to arrive at their final tallies. California, for example, didn't finish its tabulation until Saturday. The spread can change quite a bit over that period. For every million votes counted, the gap was expanding by one-tenth of a percentage point.

    The popular vote margin the morning after the election was 6.0 — putting the Rasmussen organization closest at that point. But it widened steadily in the last six weeks.

    The table alongside shows how the other polling organizations did. Tracking polls, such as IBD/TIPP's, poll every day and typically average results over a three-day period. Nontracking polls survey less frequently.

    In all, more than 18 national polls followed this year's presidential race, the most ever.

    Four years ago, IBD/TIPP was also most accurate in predicting the final margin, pegging it at 2.1 points vs. the 2.4 that actually separated George W. Bush from John F. Kerry.

    For obvious reasons, you won't hear other pollsters calling attention to these results. We tout them here not only because we were No. 1 for the second election in row — a remarkable feat — but also because we got a little tired of hearing our 2004 call dismissed by partisan bloggers as "luck."


    Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/121508-452833-ibdtipp-takes-top-honors-again.aspx#ixzz29JeGNAKO

    Oh, IBD has it at Obama +1

    ReplyDelete
  42. With

    No Tossup States

    it's Obama 294

    Romney 244

    All that's happened so far is Florida has flipped to Romney. And, I guess, Colorado.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Yoyou must understand, boobie, it is not tne National number that counts.

    If you are going to use RCP, then you must look at each of those toss up States, and see who is aheaOhio is the MUST WIN State for Romney.

    He's not there, even withyour help.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, crapper, I have known that, actually, all my life, believe it or not. You, crapper, must have just recently discovered this, as you bring it up at every opportunity, as if only you have just found this amazing thing out.

      Delete
    2. I mention it everytime you bring up the meaningless National numbers, boobie.

      You never hesitate to find a National poll that puts Romney ahead, by less than the margin off error, and trumpet iit.

      I only advise the rest of the readers, and you, that those national numbers have no bearing on the Presidental election

      Delete
  44. It actually could end up in a 269/269 electoral vote tie. I'd almost rather have the Pubs take both houses and let B-HO be Pres for another 4 than watch the chaos ensuing from a tie. Would be one monumental mess if it turns out a tie. With all sorts of unknown consequences down the road.

    http://www.redstate.com/tooncesthecat/2012/10/02/269-to-269-not-just-a-hypothetical-outcome-anymore/

    from Red State, about this possibility

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With a big red underline under the word 'almost'.

      Delete
  45. Interesting article about the state of the Presidential play in Colorado -

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/14/election_may_well_come_down_to_colorado_115774.html

    from RCP

    Mr Coors is running again.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Romney's most plausible route to victory from here is winning Virginia, Wisconsin, and either NH or Nevada.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's assuming he already has Florida, Colorado, and N. Carolina.

      Delete
  47. TOKYO—A weekend gathering of the world's top finance officials deepened—rather than eased—conflicts among some of the largest economies, raising fresh doubts about their ability to find big steps quickly to boost the flagging global recovery.

    At the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting here, European officials bickered about the damage caused by austerity; this week they head into a major euro-zone summit with no clear rescue plan for Greece. A territorial row between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, bled into the conference with no sign of resolution, highlighting a new risk to growth.

    ReplyDelete
  48. For a man who has devoted much of his career working towards a closer Europe, it might come as a surprise to learn that now, as the technocrat prime minister of Italy, Mario Monti, cites of one of the bloc’s fiercest critics as an inspiration.

    ...

    He could be forgiven for being too busy to read the reactions of some Greek and British newspapers. Would the EU still merit the award if, as some pundits – including Lady Thatcher – have predicted, the euro were to fail, dragging the world economy into a fearful depression?

    Even if he’d wanted to, there wasn’t time to answer, because Italy’s Prime Minister was already whizzing off, no doubt aware that the clock was ticking and there was much to do between now and April.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died Sunday. He was 82.

    Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous bouts with Hodgkin's disease, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac arrest following bypass surgery.

    ReplyDelete
  50. And both sides are carefully studying their own polls.

    "That's the measure," White House senior advisor David Plouffe said, commenting on Romney's prospects after the debate. "Is he going to take the lead in Ohio?

    If he doesn't, he's not going to be president."

    ReplyDelete
  51. "Jim, you may want to move on to another topic...." is the current leader in the Obamateurism of the Week Poll.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/10/14/poll-what-was-the-obamateurism-of-the-week-162/

    In this poll, you can only vote once. Cast your vote now, before the poll closes!

    ReplyDelete
  52. Hispanics turning on Obama?

    Alert! Swing State Polls Show Large Portion of Hispanic Voters Are Trending Away From Obama

    By: jamesm (Diary) | October 13th, 2012 at 04:23 PM |



    Confirmation. I thought this might happen here.

    Obama received approximately 67% of the Hispanic vote in 2008. If Obama receives less than that he will surely lose Florida, Colorado and Nevada. Romney will in all likelyhood win these states. Romney has increased advertising aimed at Latino voters. He also gave a speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and an interview to Telemundo this last week. Hispanic voters tend to be culturally conservative and Romney has a good chance of getting a larger percentage of the vote than McCain did in 2008. Obama’s postion on gay marriage, the lack of jobs for Latinos and his failure to pass immigration reform will hurt him in November.

    Inaddition , with the Spanish-language station Univision’s covering the Fast & Furious scandal and a great debate performance by Romney, more Hispanics are saying they will vote for him. These voters will swing Florida, Colorado and Nevada to Romney. Romney is going after Latino votes nationwide. Lets start with Florida.

    In a Tampa Bay Times/Bay News 9 poll Romney now leads among Hispanics in Florida 46% to 44%. This was an 8% point swing in one month. Obama received 57% of the Hispanic vote in Florida in 2008. This is a 13% drop in Hispanic support. Many other polls are now showing that Romney is ahead in the polls. In fact one pollster has stopped polling the state stating that Romney would win Florida. Expect a blowout in Florida. Lets move on to Colorado.

    Marco Rubio has been campaigning for Romney in Colorado. Several polls are now showing Romney leading in Colorado. Now according to the Romney campaign, poll internals are showing Latinos shifting to Romney in Colorado and nationally. here According to an ARG poll Obama is only receiving 54% of the Hispanic vote. This is down 7% from the 61% he received in 2008. This a huge shift away from Obama. Romney presently receives 40% with 6% undecided. Expect a considerable Romney win on election day. Now to Nevada.

    Let’s start out by saying that, as a candidate, Obama is no Harry Reid. In fact Romney, as a candidate, is no Sharron Angle. There are some reports that Sharron Angle received only 8% of the Hispanic vote. Mitt Romney is going after the Hispanic vote in Nevada. In 2008 Obama carried 76% of the Hispanic vote in Nevada. He is in deep trouble now. According to a SurveyUSA poll Obama is receiving only 54% of the Hispanic vote with 5% undecided. (Romney receives 41%) This is a whopping shift in Hispanic support. Another recent poll shows Romney winning 49%-46%

    Trends are shifting away from Obama. Seems like many Hispanics want him gone. What I would say to Obama on moving day is “Andale wey! Salte de aqui!”


    from Red State

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps those that argue that demographics doom the Republican Party may be wrong.

      Delete
  53. Not in AZ. The GOP is in declin.e

    Goerge W won with a 10% spread
    McC with 8.5%
    Mitt is polling @ 5.2%

    Trending south for the GOP

    ReplyDelete
  54. I'd take that Tampa Bay Times/Herald Poll with a grain of salt if I were you. While they were coming up with a Romney +7 NBC/Marist was getting an Obama +1.

    Fla Polls

    ReplyDelete
  55. Watched the whole clip. Thanks, Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
  56. The Bank of Japan was somewhat less sanguine about the economic fallout. "The absence was regrettable," BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa told reporters.

    "Since Japan and China have strong ties both financially and economically, the BOJ will try to keep close communication with the Chinese central bank.

    IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde also raised concern about the economic impact of discord between the two nations. "We hope that differences, however long-standing, can be resolved harmoniously and expeditiously so that, from an economic point of view, cooperation can continue," she said.

    ReplyDelete
  57. We got ourselves another femlib lesbian settler type, a vegetarian and practitioner of transcendental meditation, an English major, to moderate the next debate, boys.

    A damn bitch whom only a q could love who will throw softballs to Obama, control the questions and cut Mitt off, you watch and see.

    Buck Buckett

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Yeh, that English major part scares the heck out of me too.

      .

      Delete
  58. Fat Squaw Candy once said she was Crow. She out of teepee.

    Chief Plenty Coups

    ReplyDelete
  59. Finally a couple of comments that make some real sense!

    ReplyDelete
  60. We used to hunt these, Buckett -

    http://www.washakiemuseum.org/index.html

    Then gone.

    Then hunt bison.

    Gone.

    Fight Sioux and Cheyenne.

    The Sioux and Cheyenne always at throat or under your moccasin.

    Many Mountain Crow want to fight pale face.

    I want talk, talk.

    Kept land by talk talk.

    Now fish Tensleep. Get Casino checks. Great White Father checks. Direct deposit.

    Chief Plenty Coups

    ReplyDelete
  61. You done good, Chief. Kept land, saved people.

    Done good.

    Buckett

    ReplyDelete
  62. Visions Of The Future

    Early in his life, Plenty Coups started having prophetic dreams and visions. Many seemed so far-fetched that no one believed them, but when they started coming true his fellow tribe members began to revere him and listened to him carefully:[1]

    After the death of his beloved older brother he was nine years old, he had a vision where one of the Little People of the Pryor Mountains told him that to develop his senses and his wits, that if he used them well he would become a chief.[2] As he later said, "I had a will and I would use it, make it work for me, as the Dwarf-chief had advised. I became very happy, lying there looking up into the sky. My heart began to sing like a bird, and I went back to the village, needing no man to tell me the meaning of my dream. I took a sweat-bath and rested in my father's lodge. I knew myself now."[3] Later, when he was 11 years old, Plenty Coups (along with other young men of the Crow Nation) was challenged to have a vision which might guide his people's future.[4] After fasting and spending several days in the Crazy Mountains, he had a vision where he saw many buffalo coming out of a hole. They spread over the plains, then disappeared. Surreal buffalo with weird tails, different colors (even spots), and odd bellows then came out of the hole and covered the plains. He saw himself as an old man, living near a cold spring in the foothills of the Arrowhead Mountains. He also saw a forest, and strong winds blew down the trees in the forest until only one tree was left standing. In it was the home of the chickadee.[5]

    His vision was interpreted by tribal elders to mean that the white man would take over the Indian lands and their way of life, like the wind that blew down the trees in the forest—all except one, which represented the Crow people.[6] The Crow tribe would be spared if they could learn how to work with the white man. His spirit guide then became the chickadee, and he would carry a pair of chickadee legs in a medicine bag he used for protection and spiritual power.[6] This vision would guide his actions (and that of the Crow People) for the remainder of his life.[6][7]


    Fulfillment of a Vision

    Many of the predictions of Plenty Coups vision quest came true:

    He was married (his wife was Strikes-the-iron), but had no children of his own.
    Bison were almost wholly replaced by cattle.
    White (European) society and government dominated and completely changed Native America.
    Through diplomacy, foresight and strong leadership Plenty Coups was able to preserve the Crow Nation land, people and culture much more than most Native American tribes were able to do.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Plenty Coups quotes:

    "Education is your most powerful weapon. With education, you are the white man's equal; without education, you are his victim, and so shall remain all your lives."
    "The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors."[10]
    "I hear the white men say there will be no more war. But this cannot be true. There will be other wars. Men have not changed, and whenever they quarrel they will fight, as they have always done."[11]

    ReplyDelete
  64. Ten Sleep -

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/mariola_aga/7701070154/

    Flows out of the Big Horn Mountains

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tensleep Creek is a stream that originates in the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area in the U.S state of Wyoming. Lakes that are along the river are Misty Moon, Lake Marion and Lake Helen. Tensleep Creek is a tributary of the Nowood River which then flows into the Bighorn River.

      Delete
  65. Whole saga makes one want to have a beer with Jesus -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpHjsbqmAbQ

    song

    ReplyDelete
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