Thread: President Obama News Thread

Hey all you Obamamessiah-worshipers! Got your Oba Mao T-Shirts yet?



BTW, Yer wrong again on those tax cuts not hitting those incomes <250K. Cap &Tax - heard about that one? Property taxes are going thru the roof - the list is endless...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Cap &Tax

No, I haven't- unless you mean 'cap n trade'.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Property taxes are going thru the roof

Examples? I thought they were State taxes anyway, but could be wrong.

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

the list is endless.

Examples?

To anyone with the slightest modecum of grey matter, it's Cap & Tax. Heating / cooling bills skyrocketing. And, if you believe that "party line" of no incomes below 250K not being affected, you are naive beyond all measure...

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

To anyone with the slightest modecum of grey matter, it's Cap & Tax. Heating / cooling bills skyrocketing. And, if you believe that "party line" of no incomes below 250K not being affected, you are naive beyond all measure...

Vague allusions and allegory, as always. Examples? Facts & figures? Linkies?

Na, who needs them, when a Maoist T shirt or a Joker photoshop will do. That may work in the Right wing blogosphere, but it doesn't on the rest of us.

Incidentally, I'm undecided either way on the Cap n trade thing, and to be honest haven't taken a close look. I was kinda hoping some others might run with the ball and it might bring me up to speed, but not yet anyways. I'm a bit of a sceptic about the overall efficacy of our efforts to meaningfully reduce carbon emissions, mainly because of the developing world. But thats not to say reducing our dependence on fossil fuels is not a good thing.

Originally Posted by sabang

Incidentally, when it comes down to it I think every countries tax code is bullshit- way too complex, which means billions are wasted on accountants, lawyers, tax dodges and so on. Not to mention the IRS and equivalents. True tax reform would be to go back to year Zero, and introduce a flat tax above the minimum wage, a flat rate of capital gains tax, a flat rate of consumption Tax also, and eliminate all tax dodges and deferrals.

not really a waste, it creates an industry and tax incentives for a reason, to regulate the business cycle (fiscal policies) and break the effects of different multipliers by creating stabilizers.

Without tax, those stabilizers would be broken, and with a simple tax system, there would be no incentives to stimulate, support or even create certain industries. That's why the complexities is there.

Originally Posted by MrG

You want a nanny state, go to Europe.

Europe is a state? No wonder some here have their heads up their arses if they don't know that Europe consists of many countries with anything from far-left governments to far right governments.

Europe . . . a nanny state . . . Bloody anti-intellectuals

Originally Posted by panama hat

Europe is a state?

No, even worse! It's an evil Union. OK Jet have at it.

Wouldn't matter who was in power there in the US, Democrats, Republicans. They would all be doing the same thing with hand outs to the super rich banks, companies etc at the expense of the poor/middle class.
USA has got itself into this debt based consumer economy simply because they can print the money the world has to use. Makes a lot of sense actually. Print, borrow and spend. And when the game is up and the world moves away from the $US hegemony causing the trading value of the $US to plummet the US only has to pay back a fraction of what they owe.

The only difference I can see with the Democrats is that they are preparing for a time after the crunch comes and the people will need things like health care and a more equitable taxation system to ensure that the masses who are already on the breadline dont revolt. The rest of the developed world figured that out long ago and developed political strategies that the Yanks would call socialist. But while the rest of the developed world went down the socialist path to various degrees, the Yanks continued to ride on the back of the $US hegemony while continuing along the ultra right wing path of handing the countries wealth to a small minority to control. That inequitable division of a countries wealth didn't make much difference to anybody in Americas boom years. Everybody had enough and everybody had an opportunity to get more if they played the system right.

Now USA is entering a new financial/economic era. The boom decades of the early to mid 1900s when USA was a gross producer of quality products and the post 1971 boom years when Nixon abandoned the gold standard and introduced the $US paper money hegemony are nearing an end.

The fact is that all developed countries are likely to have to take a cut in the growth of living standards as the developing countries come up and take over the manufacturing jobs. Developed countries that stay ahead of the game and have particular skills and/or resources are going to keep growing for sure. Things like cutting edge technology, food production, and exportable natural resources are going to be the things that keep some of the old developed countries with a competitive standard of living. No way labour intensive manufacturing in developed countries is going to compete with the developing countries.

So, where does that leave USA? Well, not in a very good position if you happen to be one of the majority middle or lower class workers. A country that previously only competed against other developed countries with better pay and social benefits for the majority working class. Countries with a more fair distribution of wealth through their more socialist systems of government.

America has always run lean and mean. Its what gave them the competitive edge against more socialist countries. And America could afford to do it for the most part of the 20th century because they were a bountiful country with a strong work ethic. A wealthy country where even the working class had greater spending power than the more socialist countries. Unfortunately now, the evolution of the American anti-socialist, right wing economic system has left the majority middle/working class with relatively low pay and poor social benefits compared to the rest of the developed world. A very wealthy country where the wealth is in the hands of a few. A country where the political economic philosophy has tended to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. And a country where the unbalanced division of wealth between the rich and the poor is extreme.

It was all roses while USA ascendancy either through more productive output prior to Nixon or the $US hegemony post 1971 when the USA was broke after the Vietnam war. Now in a country where the wealth and social benefits of the majority have been trimmed to the bone, a change in the world economic situation is coming that will leave them in a far more desperate situation with no government safety net to back them up.

The US competitive edge in manufacturing came to an end decades ago. And now the $US which replaced it to provide prosperity is about to finish. The American people are about to sustain a huge drop in living standards over the next few years. It wont affect the wealthy minority much, but it will no doubt be quite devastating to the majority working class.

Food, shelter and to a lesser degree adequate health care are the basics that people expect in a prosperous country. Its somethings that people are basically assured of in more socialistic countries. And in a wealthy country like USA if people see those things starting to disappear they will either vote for the party that gives them the basics or if no other option, turn to violence against a government who deprives them of it to benefit the wealthy.

Obama is way ahead of the republicans here on the health care issue.
On the spend , borrow, print issue, he's taking the only option left that the Republicans would surely do also.

Originally Posted by Panda

Wouldn't matter who was in power there in the US, Democrats, Republicans. They would all be doing the same thing with hand outs to the super rich banks, companies etc at the expense of the poor/middle class.
Obama is way ahead of the republicans here on the health care issue.
On the spend , borrow, print issue, he's taking the only option left that the Republicans would surely do also.

Exactly.

History tells us this.

I wish the partisan sheeple, would understand this.

Partisanship is how the masses are divided into false believing they have a "choice," when in fact, they do not.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Partisanship is how the masses are divided into false believing they have a "choice," when in fact, they do not.

Unfortunately, it's how things work over here. As much as I agree that the parties of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum don't have much space betweeen them, there is enough to make a difference on some things. Observe the healthcare debate. When you figure majorities needed in congress to get anything done, especially when one of them (Republican) is clearly indifferent to the wishes of the American people, it is suicidal to break ranks.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Partisanship is how the masses are divided into false believing they have a "choice," when in fact, they do not.

Gee, Obama Admin just gave them more choices, adding 440 Congressional Districts to the map of where they sent out stimulus money. This would be hilarious if if was not so serious. NH has four CDs according to them, when in fact it only has two. A guy is running for office in one of the new phantom districts. 555555555


The government’s Web site that is supposed to tell taxpayers how their stimulus dollars are being spent, and which spends $84 million per year to do so, shows that $6.4 billion of the stimulus has been spent in 440 congressional districts that don’t exist, according to a report by the Franklin Center, as reported by Watchdog.org. The site, Recovery.gov, reports, for instance, that North Dakota’s 99th Congressional District has received $2 million in stimulus funding. But North Dakota has only one congressional district. The nation’s capital now contains 35 congressional districts, according to Recovery.gov.
For those keeping score at home, there are really only 435 congressional districts, so adding 440 new ones effectively doubles the size of the House of Representatives. By the way, Recovery.gov also reports that the $6.4 billion spent in those districts has created 30,000 jobs, which works out to almost $225,000 per job created. Various news reports, however, show that many of the estimates of “jobs created or saved” are bogus, so that number, too is in doubt. (See the Washington Examiner’s map and chart tracking jobs created claims.)
440 Phantom Congressional Districts Get $6.4 Billion According to Recovery.gov » The Foundry

Keeps going down. Pretty soon his numbers will be lower than Dubya's!

Originally Posted by robuzo

a coke-dealing Muslim Commufascosocialist African with fake citizenship

I keep forgetting his drug-dealing past . . . but why are we neglecting his insidious role in the Black Panther organisation. The truth must come out . . . to make BM feel better

Originally Posted by panama hat

Originally Posted by robuzo

a coke-dealing Muslim Commufascosocialist African with fake citizenship

I keep forgetting his drug-dealing past . . . but why are we neglecting his insidious role in the Black Panther organisation. The truth must come out . . . to make BM feel better

I left out the Black Panthers and the Weathermen, what's wrong with me? That Obama sure was a lot more precocious than most of us grade school kids were in the '60's. He's also a Maoist who controls his victims' minds through hypnosis.

Hard to believe that people here professing they have brains still adore Obama and the Dems. Must be doodoo folks living in Thailand, away from the stink.

And yet you supported Bush through 8 ruinous years, go figure.

Originally Posted by robuzo

He's also a Maoist who controls his victims' minds through hypnosis.

That is why he gt so many votes . . .

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

And yet you supported Bush through 8 ruinous years, go figure.

you still talk to it?

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Hard to believe that people here professing they have brains still adore Obama and the Dems.

Only the brainless could support the Republicans. We are living witness to the damage they wrought.

Simple

How about both parties being complicit in the demise of the US economy... There's plenty of evidence that both the red & blue teams have been screwing the pooch for decades... The last 9 years are merely the icing on the cake...

Originally Posted by Muadib

How about both parties being complicit in the demise of the US economy... There's plenty of evidence that both the red & blue teams have been screwing the pooch for decades... The last 9 years are merely the icing on the cake...

So Greenspan, is he a Democrat or Republican? Because he served under both- or maybe that should be the other way around. Or could be that he and the other Mastahs o' da Univoice are just above politics and other plebe concerns. They don't live in our world, they just own it. All hail the plutonomy!
Plutonomy

Originally Posted by Milkman

Both parties are more similar than different. Yes, the Dems are dysfunctional, and also dishing out paybacks to certain folks.

The same as the GOP did, and will do in the future.

Same, same, but not different.

That's because we don't have political parties in the way that term is understood in most of the rest of the world. In our political discourse, such as it is, we've gone even further to make the terms "liberal" and "conservative" bereft of meaning.