Oh fuck Mackey. I knew him casually many years ago. Complete fucking twatwaffle.

Ooooh, VS is gonna be mad that he stole her bunny ears!

John Mackey: douchebag sock puppet dickwad.

FYWP too. Also.

I have yet to hear a rational response to the question, “If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?”

Let’s occupy his ass.

Er, not literally.

Excuse me, Tintin, but you need a “to” in that headline. Just saying. Don’t taser me.

Tintin adds: Thanks. Fixed. No tasing needed.

“If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?”

Because we are all lazy DFHs who don’t really want to work. Also, the illigals are taking all our jobs. Also, terrorists. And also too the deficit. Pork! Don’t forget pork. Oh, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Whatshisname. And Obamacare and… and Soros. Oh Yeah, the MSM.

Pryme,

the boilerplate reply I heard on NPR was “uncertainty”. Sure, business are sitting on a fuckton of cash but they’re skeerd that the mean old government is going to regulate them or something like that.

Hey, I didn’t say it made sense.

or what TB said.

btw, Thread Bare, are you related to Shop Worn?

“If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?”

algore is fat!

Clinton did it, too!

Socialism!

btw, Thread Bare, are you related to Shop Worn?

Shop Worn is my sworn enemy! If it wasn’t for all the Shop Worn comments the the Thread would very definitely be Bare.

I sometimes like to read the WSJ comment sections. They’re interesting

So it’s either a ten-year “uncertainty” or the standard “Look Over There!” huh? That’s what I figured.

And that’s why I take anything they have to say about taxes = jobs with a grain of salt.

Ooooh, VS is gonna be mad that he stole her bunny ears!

Bitch STOLE MY HAT.

“If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?”

That’s the FIRST thing that pops into my head when I hear “but taxes BAD! Moar freedumbs, please!” How is it that NOBODY in the media thinks to ask it? I mean, isn’t that weird?

Speaking of ridiculous dress-up, I’m wearing a tie.

One hundred years ago the total cost of government at all levels in the U.S.—local, state and federal—was only 8% of our GDP. In 2010, it was 40%. Government is gobbling up trillions of dollars from our economy to feed itself through high taxes and unprecedented deficit spending—money that could instead be used by individuals to improve their lives and by entrepreneurs to create jobs

isn’t 100 years ago, a bit far back to go? i mean, there were like, a bazillion less people living at that time…i’m not arguing for big government, but the timeframe does not make a valid argument against it…nor does the less taxes = more jobs…

I’m for government that does what it’s supposed to do. If it can do what it needs to lean and mean, great. If it has to be, let’s say, more zaftig, I’m cool with that too.

Yay! A thread that’s not about pedophilia!

isn’t 100 years ago, a bit far back to go? i mean, there were like, a bazillion less people living at that time…

If this dumbass wants the subsidy of military spending to go away I am sure the soup kitchens would welcome the millions of people cut loose.

“money that could instead be used by individuals to improve their lives and by entrepreneurs to create jobs”

The subtext of this is, of course, Mackey succeeded despite such barriers. He has an ego the size of a Gingrich.

YET.

Erm…oh, NEVERMIND.

100 years ago = no interstate highway system because…no cars.
No FDA or EPA.
No Nuclear Regulatory Agency because, no nuclear energy. Or bombs.
And so on and so forth.

I mean, we could get by perhaps with 8% GDP taxation…if we wanted to live in a largely agrarian society in which the average life expectancy was 45 years. Of course, in such a society, few people would have the income level sufficient to afford to shop in this asshat’s overpriced food markets. Then again, they wouldn’t need to, because they’d be growing their own.

Congratulations, Mr. Mackey. Under your “plan”, you no longer have a job, so taxes are the least of your worries.

Whenever people tell me we need smaller government because government can’t do anything right I tell them that’s because they are obviously electing the wrong people to government.

One hundred years ago the total cost of government at all levels in the U.S.—local, state and federal—was only 8% of our GDP. In 2010, it was 40%

One hundred years ago we also had an army roughly the size of Guatemala’s.

Jennifer, the above comment is why you are a treasure.

“Whenever people tell me we need smaller government because government can’t do anything right I tell them that’s because they are obviously electing the wrong people to government.”

Nice.

OT, VS, I liked your design for Crommunists’s Blog on FTB…

There’s the old saying that goes “Republicans think government can’t work – and keep proving it when they get elected”

“OT, VS, I liked your design for Crommunists’s Blog on FTB…”

Oh, thank you! I hope he ended up with a good one. Need to check back.

Occupy Chase.
~

Dude, your taxes are the lowest they’ve been in 80 years, and all you can give us is minimum-wage jobs sorting produce?

FOADIAF!

Occupy Chase

Considering how many good local banks there are in Hempstead, I’m sort of surprised to see the amounts of money in Chase. I mean, sure, Chase might have sponsored a bond issue or something, but if you don’t need ’em, shop local, you know?

I want to make a few suggestions that, as an independent,…

Yeah right, CEO Mackey is just one of them reasonable centrist independents. I call bullshit.

One hundred years ago we also had an army roughly the size of Guatemala’s.

Also, health care for the elderly consisted of carrying them out to the woods to be devoured by wolves.

Also, health care for the elderly consisted of carrying them out to the woods to be devoured by wolves.

This does not sound that bad at the moment.

Just a small fix for teh footnote:

*To avoid the WSJ paywall callous destruction of thousands of brain cells STAY IN TEH BOAT

OMG Mackey R dum:

Let’s radically cut teh size of gubmint! Let’s re-write all regulations every ten years!

OMG! If you look at teh last two hundred years you can see that actual quality of life improved for everybody by HUGE amounts – but at teh same time teh fraction of money teh dang gubmint ate up only kept increasing! WE MUST REVERSE THIS TREND!

Yay! A thread that’s not about pedophilia!

Sorry but …
Irony is dead.

Substance, you are opposed by the hungry polar bear lobby.
~

It will always leave me gobsmacked that asshats who suck out far more than their share of wealth from human society fail to understand that they are, by that very action, responsible for funding back said society to a similarly outsized degree. What really amazes me is that they don’t see this as a benefit. That the healthier society is, the more likely it is to fill their coffers.

This is especially true of douchebags niche businesses relying on the dwindling upper-middle class.

Irony is dead.

No, it’s justin the shower.

I want to make a few suggestions that, as an independent,…

i immediately said, ‘hmmmm…an independent what?

FYWP

Irony is not fucking dead gawdammit.

Also, health care for the elderly consisted of carrying them out to the woods to be devoured by wolves.

Don’t forget wearing a nosegay of posies around your neck.

OT: Here’s a handy guide on where not to go in Montana.

OT: Here’s a handy guide on where not to go in Montana.

An outline of the state border?

Sorry, that was part two of the story, here’s the first (of four) parts. Third. Fourth.

An outline of the state border?

Glacier Nat’l Park is worth a visit or ten.

Sorry, that was part two of the story, here’s the first (of four) parts. Third. Fourth.

too much h8 to put in one part?

Glacier Nat’l Park is worth a visit or ten.

Give global warming its chance…

Whenever people tell me we need smaller government because government can’t do anything right I tell them that’s because they are obviously electing the wrong people to government.

No one could have predicted that spending thirty years straight electing people with a personal stake in proving that government doesn’t work isn’t exactly the best way to get an optimal performance out of the government.

And why the fuck do all the people that believe government can’t do anything right try so hard to work there in the first place?

And why the fuck do all the people that believe government can’t do anything right try so hard to work there in the first place?

Three reasons:

1) The benefits are good

2) You can take your Rolodex to a lobbyist after you leave, and

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..ummmmmmmmmmmmm

Oops!

Actor’s new capitol “A” is distracting.

capitAl

One hundred years ago the total cost of government at all levels in the U.S.—local, state and federal—was only 8% of our GDP. In 2010, it was 40%. Government is gobbling up trillions of dollars from our economy to feed itself through high taxes and unprecedented deficit spending—money that could instead be used by individuals to improve their lives and by entrepreneurs to create jobs

bbkf — that’s a pretty rotten mango you found there. Thank you for bringing this up. Does Mr. Mackey wish to return to how we lived 100 years ago?

Seems to me that before we had the New Freedom, New Deal and big gummint, every ten-twenty years or so we had a major and devastating economic “crisis” or recession or panic or some such. Is this the economic state of affairs to which our reactionary right wishes to return? Someone should call them on this.

Actor’s new capitol “A” is distracting.

I was watching porn. sorry.

too much h8 to put in one part?

Pretty much. For some reason MMA didn’t think it was important to put easy navigation between the various parts of the article, inside the articles. Brilliant.

Does Mr. Mackey wish to return to how we lived 100 years ago?

Seems to me that before we had the New Freedom, New Deal and big gummint, every ten-twenty years or so we had a major and devastating economic “crisis” or recession or panic or some such.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, don’t look now, but…..

Is this the economic state of affairs to which our reactionary right wishes to return?

Well, since they’re basically trying to recreate (or have already recreated) the robber baron era, yeah, I think that’s about right.

Seems to me that before we had the New Freedom, New Deal and big gummint, every ten-twenty years or so we had a major and devastating economic “crisis” or recession or panic or some such. Is this the economic state of affairs to which our reactionary right wishes to return? Someone should call them on this.

Haven’t we already returned to it? The early nineties recession that cost H. W. Bush his job, and now the Great Recession? I’d say that shit’s back in force, and if we didn’t still have New Deal institutions (however weakened) like the welfare state in place, these things would be just as devastating as the depressions of a hundred years ago.

Did that sort of thing ever happen during the “liberal consensus” years? Closest thing I can think of is the 1970s shitty economy… which came about because of an Arab oil embargo that no ideology could have prevented. But self-inflicted crashes like the current one, I can’t think of any.

And why the fuck do all the people that believe government can’t do anything right try so hard to work there in the first place?

i KNOW! every time i see or hear that clip of st. ronnie making his funny about teh gubmint, it makes me get all stabby…and don’t even get me started on one l’s whining about it…

I was watching porn. sorry.

If that was the case I’m surprised the uppercase nym doesn’t “pop up” more frequently.

Ronnie proved unions were bad by being a stooge when he was in one, too.

If that was the case I’m surprised the uppercase nym doesn’t “pop up” more frequently.

Look, there’s only so much fapping I can do at work, you know.

Ronnie proved unions were bad by being a stooge when he was in one, too.

Now now, I have it on good authority that he was president of SAG only to root out the commies.

I get tired of flying with Captains, who make nearly double my salary, that do nothing but complain about their taxes.

I start thinking “Hurry up and die you old bastard and get out of my seat”.

Major Kong said,
November 16, 2011 at 21:52

I start thinking “Hurry up and die you old bastard and get out of my seat”.

No ejector seats?

No, but there is a crash axe……

I start thinking “Hurry up and die you old bastard and get out of my seat”.

Wear a turban

Wait a minute….didn’t I say that on the other side?

No ejector seats?

post stealer!

I get tired of flying with Captains, who make nearly double my salary, that do nothing but complain about their taxes.

Wow, talk about a job that relies pretty heavily on a government-provided support and safety infrastructure.

“As a CEO that makes more money than any human being could ever possibly need just by breathing, ensuring my workers get the bare minimum for the day-to-day functioning of my business, and employing the best book-cooking crooks money can buy, allow me to say that I’d really like it if you lowered me and my company’s already minuscule tax burden further. This will in some mysterious way help the economy by methods that have yet to be proven in the past 30+ years, but trust me on this. As I’ve said, I’m a CEO, making me a god among men and my words shall will it true.

Thank you, WSJ, for giving a helpless and traditionally voiceless minority like me the platform to put this highly important and vastly underrepresented viewpoint into the public’s view. At least the public that read your corporate taint-kissing rag and will likely agree with me.”

I flew with a guy yesterday, not a bady guy really, but after showing me pictures of the $58,000 BMW he’d just bought started whining about his taxes.

I pretty much shut down and started staring out the window.

100 years ago = no interstate highway system because…no cars.
No FDA or EPA.
No Nuclear Regulatory Agency because, no nuclear energy. Or bombs.
And so on and so forth.

No New Deal, infinitely smaller military levels, much less costly military equipment…

Geez, we could keep this up all day. It’s unfortunate that a wingnut can’t fucking figure out that 1929 was inside of a 100 years ago. Lots of wingnuts went hungry back then…

Uh……..you do occasionally look out anyway, right?

And why the fuck do all the people that believe government can’t do anything right try so hard to work there in the first place?

Because they know exactly why it doesn’t work right. It’s loaded with corrupt grifters who sell policy to the highest bidder. The ones who say government is the problem are the very same ones who fuck goverment up.

I get tired of flying with Captains, who make nearly double my salary, that do nothing but complain about their taxes.

If we didn’t tax them so much, maybe they could afford better looking hats.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom: property rights, freedom to trade internationally, minimal governmental regulation of business, sound money, relatively low taxes, the rule of law, entrepreneurship, freedom to fail, and voluntary exchange.

Titanic reserves of oil, timber, metals & grain? No hostile neighbours & oceans on two sides to keep enemies too far away to invade? Remaining totally untouched by two World Wars that devastated their main competitors in Europe?

Let alone a massive system of public subsidy/private profit propping up heavy industry & high-tech via the Pentagon that created the Series Of Tubes that allows Mackey to peddle this happy horseshit?

All mere peccadillos, my friends! USA! USA! USA!

So why is our economy barely growing and unemployment stuck at over 9%? I believe the answer is very simple: Economic freedom is declining in the U.S. In 2000, the U.S. was ranked third in the world behind only Hong Kong and Singapore in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by this newspaper and the Heritage Foundation. In 2011, we fell to ninth behind such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

That’s odd. You’d think that a place like Canuckistan (where the banks aren’t allowed to play Stock Market Russian Roulette with your life’s savings without your permission) would have LESS “economic freedom” than Amerika, not more … but I BELIEVE … because nothing screams “scholarly integrity” like the imprimatur of even-handed objectivity that you can only get from the fucking Heritage Foundation working tentacle-in-tentacle with the Wall Street Circlejerk.

Social Security and Medicare need serious reforms to be sustainable over the long term.

Totally agree. Yanks need to man up & start adjusting the pay-in to care for the growing demographic of Olds instead of constantly kicking that can down the road: sorry, kids, time’s up. Cue more happy horseshit regarding opting-out schemes, means-testing & raising the retirement age … yeah, not really what I had in mind – but then, what can you expect? After all, CEOs have a known psychopath bias.

The rest is all the same brown steaming product from the same horse’s arse. Remove tax loopholes, but take away the bulk of benefit from doing so by further cutting already rock-bottom tax rates! Sunset ALL federal regs – because clean air & water or lead in children’s toys were just BEGGING for a cost-benefit analysis to justify their existence!

Don’t quit your day-job, Arugula Boy.

More Ma(lar)ckey:

If current long-term trend lines of economic growth continue, we will see abject poverty almost completely eradicated in the 21st century. Business is not a zero-sum game struggling over a fixed pie. Instead it grows and makes the total pie larger, creating value for all of its major stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, investors and communities.

With warnings to teh pdf adverse and apologies to our gracious hosts and overlords – Sadly, No!

There were 46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ? the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

That is until teh 1% decide that they don’t have to settle for the same sized slice of a bigger pie when they could simply say FUCK TEH POOR, WE WANT IT ALL.

Ronnie proved unions were bad by being a stooge when he was in one, too.

Also by handing some of his colleagues over to the McCarthy commie hunters. Real great guy, that one.

Titanic reserves of oil, timber, metals & grain? No hostile neighbours & oceans on two sides to keep enemies too far away to invade? Remaining totally untouched by two World Wars that devastated their main competitors in Europe?

Slave labor? Child labor? 80 work weeks?

Also by handing some of his colleagues over to the McCarthy commie hunters. Real great guy, that one.

Imma let you finish, but….

I get tired of flying with Captains, who make nearly double my salary, that do nothing but complain about their taxes.

I have a relative like that. Former Army officer (never saw combat), whines about how corporations like the one he now works at are “real jobs” and “government bureaucrats paid by my tax dollars aren’t.” No sense asking him what he thinks of overpaid bureaucrats in uniform, or whether he turns down any of the government aid he’s entitled to as a veteran…

Seriously, you should offer to switch positions with him. “Don’t like your taxes, sir? Let’s switch lives! I’d love to make enough money to actually be able to complain about taxes. And no doubt you’d love to be a pampered welfare queen like me, sir.”

(Or is that insubordinate?)

If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?
Because tax cuts cannot fail us, we can only fail tax cuts.

If we didn’t tax them so much, maybe they could afford better looking hats.

Or stylish turbans…

Clearly, the ultimate result is that we really should cut taxes into the negatives, so the government gives you more money the more you already make. That would solve all of our problems!

I’m all for cutting texans.

What?

I’m all for cutting texans.

Hey now, plenty of people were just born that way. They had no control over being a texan.

All a Republican has to do is accuse his opponent of being a “Big Government, Tax-n-spend Liberal”, and the Democrat will start sweating like Michael Vick at the Westminster Dog Show. Works every time. Just once, I’d like to see one respond:

“Big Government”? You’re damn skippy I favor a big government! This is a big country, with big corporations and bajillionaires with big fortunes. I want a government that’s bigger and stronger than them. I want regulators with some actual power to have an effect. I want a government that’s big enough and strong enough to do the things that individuals, companies and states can’t or won’t do for themselves.

“Tax and Spend”? I’m here to tell you it works a fuck of a lot better than “borrow and spend” or “Don’t tax and don’t spend”, which is what we’re trying to do now. I want a government that can afford to build roads, fix bridges, and retool its infrastructure for the future. I want one that can pay its employees, judges, legislators and regulators a decent wage, so we can attract the best and brightest to public service. I want a government that values the health, education and welfare of its citizens and is willing and able to invest in them. Taxes are the only way to generate that kind of cash. If you do it right, it’s fair and relatively painless to everyone who has to pay.

And ‘Liberal’?, well just go read the banner quote on Actor’s home page and memorize that fucker.

“I’m all for cutting texans”

Hey! I am a Texan. And I am already cut.

I’m all for cutting texans.

Texanomy? Texandermist?

Texan foreskin holocaust FTW!

“N__B said,
November 16, 2011 at 22:15

I’m all for cutting texans.

What?”

Too late! You said it!

I’m all for cutting texans.

Well, since the schedule F1 race in Austin looks like it’s never gonna happen, I think we should just cut Texas in general. Isn’t that what governor goodhair wants anyway?

texists!

I’d vote for Aunt Acid ( I always liked acid ) but I suspect that s/he is about as electable as I am.

I suppose that we need a way to differentiate between a “born in texas” texan and a “YEE-HAW! I’m Secessionist Theocrat Rick Perry, look at MAH COWBOY BOOTS!” texan.

I suppose that we need a way to differentiate between a “born in texas” texan and a “YEE-HAW! I’m Secessionist Theocrat Rick Perry, look at MAH COWBOY BOOTS!” texan.

Hey, you guys can sort all that out when Armageddon comes down.

To put it another way, two hundred years ago the entire population of the US was about one tenth the number that are currently below the poverty line.

There’s another US Census pdf that looks more deeply into historical poverty trends, at least since 1959 when they first started collecting data. The number of people in poverty drops rapidly through the sixties Great Society with Medicare, welfare extensions, the war on poverty and food stamps. The long-term trend ever since is a gradual increase in the number of impoverished Americans. About half a million every year.

Is it just me, or has there been a spate of these “lower taxes, increase jobs” speeches and Op-Ed pieces lately?

I’m just kinda curious why? It’s not like there’s any pending legislation, and it’s sure as hell not like we haven’t heard the same fucking mantra (great band name, btw) for thirty years.

PENIS. Um, I mean Jonah:

Many say it’s simply Gingrich’s turn to be the not-Mitt contender, now that Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have had their chances.

But that’s not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom: property rights, freedom to trade internationally, minimal governmental regulation of business, sound money, relatively low taxes, the rule of law, entrepreneurship, freedom to fail, and voluntary exchange

Tariffs, protectionism, inflation, bank panics, monopolies, investment bubbles and no investor protections… he’s wrong on more counts than he’s right, but I suppose being rich doesn’t mean you have to know shit.

Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.

C’mon, baby, I promise: I won’t cum in your mouth…

Is it just me, or has there been a spate of these “lower taxes, increase jobs” speeches and Op-Ed pieces lately?

“Dirty smelly hippies” isn’t their only pushback against OWS.

But that’s not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters hawking his crappy merchandise in the debates.

But that’s not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.

If that passes for seduction in GOP circles then that explains my relative lack of success with Republican babes. Hey, I was young once. I just thought a hectoring supercilious scolding wasn’t the best tactic. Little did I know.

God, cunt that fucker. Cunt him to fuck.

“Dirty smelly hippies” isn’t their only pushback against OWS.

It sounds like the wrong argument to make about income inequality, tho.

Is it just me, or has there been a spate of these “lower taxes, increase jobs” speeches and Op-Ed pieces lately?

And remember they’ve got to provide cover for both parties in the “super duper committee” when they don’t raise taxes but still slash the safety net.

I just thought a hectoring supercilious scolding wasn’t the best tactic. Little did I know.

You had to upgrade their hotel rooms, then have your first wife sign a divorce agreement while recovering from cancer surgery.

Funny, the guys on the corner didn’t tell me about that, but then we were all street Democrats.

And I have no idea why I started that sentence with And. And also too.

“Big Government”? You’re damn skippy I favor a big government! This is a big country, with big corporations and bajillionaires with big fortunes. I want a government that’s bigger and stronger than them. I want regulators with some actual power to have an effect. I want a government that’s big enough and strong enough to do the things that individuals, companies and states can’t or won’t do for themselves.

See Frank, Barney or (I hope I hope I hope) Warren, Elizabeth.

Or for that matter, my own rep, Jim McDermott.

They’re there but it’s hard to get the word out against the right wing noise machine.

Hey now, plenty of people were just born that way.

It’s like Original Sin: not your fault, but you’re going to Hell anyway.

kg-

Pryme,

Hey, I didn’t say it made sense.

What amazes me is that every every single argument a wingnut or libertarian makes to defend the economic status quo is basically a strong argument for the most punitive and invasive procedures there can be.

Like that one.

Oh, businesses are literally sitting on their money, refusing to do anything to even help themselves or compete with each other until they can be perfectly certain the game is rigged in their favor.

And that’s an argument for giving them even more control?

They just admitted they are too much a whimpering coward to “compete in the free market”, because of “uncertainty”. The whole point of a free market, of the casino they call the stock market, and business is uncertainty. You try and earn a profit because tomorrow your entire stock may be burned down by fundamentalist badgers and you might need to start from scratch.

You have just admitted to incompetence and to hoarding at the expense of the economy and the 99%. You have just begged the government to take 99% of what you own and use it to employ people, possibly as the public equivalent of whatever you do (which in this case is everything) because you have obviously forgot what “competitive” means and need a refresher.

Hell, the point of a CEO “earning that much money” is that theoretically they are the ones taking on the biggest risk and the ones who need to decide how best to choose the right risks based on a very uncertain future. Again, you are saying the entire field of such are incompetent and actually based more in removing all uncertainty from the chaos of the free market by fixing it against their competitors. That means, breaking it up, government takeovers, and of course, extremely punitive taxation and reform of systems that encourage such derilict behavior.

But somehow we’re supposed to buy that that argument is a reason for us to give even more and be extra nice like an abused wife whose internalized all the messaging about how her abusive husband’s mood swings are all her fault for triggering him.

Instead of you know, taking the money from those who won’t and giving it to those who will.

Is it just me, or has there been a spate of these “lower taxes, increase jobs” speeches and Op-Ed pieces lately?

What’s surprised me most is the pushback against “buy American” campaigns.

Economic freedom is declining in the U.S. In 2000, the U.S. was ranked third in the world behind only Hong Kong and Singapore in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by this newspaper and the Heritage Foundation.

Well, there’s your problem right there.

In 2011, we fell to ninth behind such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

Of course, this could be the result of their socialist health care systems, but… hey, look, the Winged Victory of Samothrace!!!

What’s surprised me most is the pushback against “buy American” campaigns.

Well, that’s obvious! America = Kenya, hullo!

But that’s not entirely fair. Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.

Wait until he finds out that non-GOP voters are younger.

I suppose that we need a way to differentiate between a “born in texas” texan and a “YEE-HAW! I’m Secessionist Theocrat Rick Perry, look at MAH COWBOY BOOTS!” texan.

I thought that the dividing line for this distinction was the Austin city limits?

Just for shits and giggles, I Googled B^4s study, because I wanted to know what “economic freedom” was. Somehow I had this image of William Wallets riding around in blue paint…

What is economic freedom?
Economic freedom is the fundamental right of every human to control his or her own labor and property. In an economically free society, individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state. In economically free societies, governments allow labor, capital and goods to move freely, and refrain from coercion or constraint of liberty beyond the extent necessary to protect and maintain liberty itself.

How do you measure economic freedom?
We measure ten components of economic freedom, assigning a grade in each using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. The ten component scores are then averaged to give an overall economic freedom score for each country. The ten components of economic freedom are:

?Business Freedom
?Trade Freedom
?Fiscal Freedom
?Government Spending
?Monetary Freedom
?Investment Freedom
?Financial Freedom
?Property Rights
?Freedom from Corruption
?Labor Freedom

You’ll note what comes dead last on that list.

They just admitted they are too much a whimpering coward to “compete in the free market”, because of “uncertainty”.

I remember reading a couple months ago that businesses weren’t investing because they didn’t think Obama loved them enough. Literally, they were withholding because Big O was saying mean things about them.

Fuck, how much butthurt does it take to become a Captain of Industry, anyway?

Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing GOP voters in the debates.

C’mon, baby, I promise: I won’t cum in your mouth…

“Hey, that Cheeto is a funny color… I never knew there were creme-filled Cheetos!”

One hundred years ago the total cost of government at all levels in the U.S.—local, state and federal—was only 8% of our GDP. In 2010, it was 40%. Government is gobbling up trillions of dollars from our economy to feed itself through high taxes and unprecedented deficit spending—money that could instead be used by individuals to improve their lives and by entrepreneurs to create jobs

Yeah, like everyone else, my first reaction was the same. Yes, that was when we were the joke little brother to England, trying to repeat the Colonialism folly in South America and the Pacific in horrifically hilariously bad ways, not to mention trying to pick a fight with Spain as their entire reponse was “aw, isn’t that cute, we’ll let them have their fun”.

Now we have gotten hooked on a system that has us with about as much military force and spending as the whole world combined. Not to mention the amount of money we bleed out to parasitic middle men in things like Health Care, low-income housing, banking, power, etc… by not having a public service providing it.

I don’t think the sort of world where we corrected our over-spending the correct way is the type of world Libertarian douche-face would enjoy as it would mean the end of war porn and a dramatic fleecing of rich dickwads like himself.

Also, give you guys a tax cut and inspire you guys to fix things has been the solution for 30 years. In that time, costs have spiraled out of control, service has dropped like a rock, and you used the money mostly to hoard into bigger money piles for competitive gold diving. We tried your way, the entrepeneurs failed. So now it’s time to do what actually worked, fleecing you to the point where you have to actually think about the future rather than maximizing profit in Q3 and cashing out.

Hell, the point of a CEO “earning that much money” is that theoretically they are the ones taking on the biggest risk and the ones who need to decide how best to choose the right risks based on a very uncertain future.

Cerberus,

Again on NPR (why do I listen to fucking NPR) today I heard some idiot arguing that you cannot cut the salaries or Fannie and Freddie executives because thats how they attract and retain “top talent”.
Every time I hear this argument I start wailing at the radio “Then why is the company tanking you fucking asshole???” or some similar tirade and other drivers stare at me like I’m a crazy person.

other drivers stare at me like I’m a crazy person.

It’s OK, you’re safe here buddy.

You have just admitted to incompetence and to hoarding at the expense of the economy and the 99%.

I think that’s the whole point: “Uncertainty = Can’t Control The Outcome To My Favor.” Unless they can come out BIG winners an every scenario, they want no part of it.

The whole idea that their version of capitalism is “the person with the best product/service wins” is utter crap. That’s what they tell the masses to keep them passive and hopeful.

Is it just me, or has there been a spate of these “lower taxes, increase jobs” speeches and Op-Ed pieces lately?

I’m just kinda curious why? It’s not like there’s any pending legislation, and it’s sure as hell not like we haven’t heard the same fucking mantra (great band name, btw) for thirty years.

Some people are starting to suspect it’s the big lie. They need to repeat it more frequently so it remains “true.”

Hell, the point of a CEO “earning that much money” is that theoretically they are the ones taking on the biggest risk and the ones who need to decide how best to choose the right risks based on a very uncertain future.

If hard work is its own reward, then how come the people who get the most rewards do the least work?

OBS-

The F1 in Austin is a total corrupt boondoggle. It hits all the buttons. You got Red Fucking McCombs as a major investor. McCombs is a car dealer who is one of the Cardinals who run San Antonio. You got State Comptroller Susan Combs, who tried to hide the fact that she was an investor. You got laughably inept “experts” pushing ridiculous projections of future tax income. Example: They predicted that having F1 would bring in X number of visitors and that very same X number would be staying in hotels/motels. That’s right. If a family of four comes to Austin for the event, they would use four hotel/motel rooms.

There is much more, including shady land purchases and a $25 million investment by the state. But, the bottom line is that these investors want public money for their private enrichment.

(why do I listen to fucking NPR)

Because it’s marginally better than any of the alternatives? Damn, last night, a host allowed some Dubya administration flack rail about rampant rape, arson, assault, and public defecation on the part of OWSers for entirely too long, and was altogether too mild about calling the bullshit out.

As I walked out in the broad streets of Houston
As I walked out in fair Houston one day,
I spied a young oilman all wrapped in Brooks Brothers,
Rattlesnake boots yet untouched by the clay.

“I see by your outfit, that you are a Texan.”
These words he did say as I slowly walked by.
“Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
For I’m taxed to the Stetson, and so I must cry.”

“‘Twas once in the Caddy I used to go dashing,
‘Twas once in the Caddy I used to go gay.
First down to Enron, and then to Rick Perry,
Taxed all the way, so I’m moaning today.”

“Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
Play the free-market march as you bear me along;
Take me to The Gulch, and then bestow a crown o’er me,
For I’m a young oilman and can do no wrong.”

In 2011, we fell to ninth behind such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

Hmm. Lets see. What happened between 2000 and 2011 that had the largest impact upon the fiscal policies of our country. Were there perhaps eight out of those ten years (Imma say late 2k to early 2k11) dominated by the very policies that this asshat is shucking? But of course, we need more.

Fuck.

I have yet to hear a rational response to the question, “If tax cuts create tons of jobs, why hadn’t the Bush Tax cuts overwhelmed us with employment opportunities over the last 10 years?”

The Bush economic expansion had the worst wage and salary growth and total compensation growth of any postwar economic expansion. Workers also fared progressively worse the lower they were in the income distribution.

[…]

Total employment increased just 0.9% annually—one-third of the average growth in postwar economic expansions—just barely keeping pace with population growth. The 2002-2007 expansion was the only postwar expansion in which the employment-to-population ratio did not rise.16

The national unemployment rate never once returned to prerecession levels.
Source.

Facts. Don’t. Matter.

smedley said,

November 16, 2011 at 23:07

OBS-

The F1 in Austin…

Oh I know. Bernie Ecclestone does not give one fuck about the places that host F1 races, all he cares about is making a killing, and the locals doing the promoting always end up the losers. Korea just built a track last year, and they’re already at risk of losing the event for next year, after only two races. No way anybody but Bernie made money on that deal.

But an F1 race would be the only conceivable reason for me to ever even think of visting Texas.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom: property rights, freedom to trade internationally, minimal governmental regulation of business, sound money, relatively low taxes, the rule of law, entrepreneurship, freedom to fail, and voluntary exchange.

Oh hey, this should mean that our system leads the world in entrepeneurship and class mobility, what with anyone being able to become rich with a good idea simply because of America’s support for the businessman and love of business, right?

Okay, fine, but at least it should kick the pants off countries that went the opposite direction, like Sweden or Denmark…

What, those countries have some of the highest rate of entrepeneurship? Because entrepenurship isn’t based around tax cuts for the rich, but providing a strong safety net so someone trying out a risky idea won’t be risking their very lives if it doesn’t pan out?

Huh.

But, by being free that must mean the rich are doing double the entrepeneurship…

What? The rich and CEOs of large companies are even less likely to embrace new ideas not because of “government intervention” but because the corporate system as is is much less pliable. A single quarter of bad profits can get you shitcanned, especially if its because you did something risky like hire more workers and spent startup costs to pursue a new venture that would be guaranteed to make more money in the long run.

And it’s even riskier for completely unknown ventures trying to keep ahead of potential trends. Easier to just fire some workers, merge some companies, keep the books cooked and flee before the long-term damage becomes apparent. It’ll make you look like a brilliant CEO and keep you in demand.

Not to mention that we became the wealthiest country almost entirely because we were the least devastated country after WWII and heavily invested in ourselves and long-term growth with a 90% top tax rate and massive social safety net. The last 30 years have had us squander that to the point that a tiny country that looks like a rabbit vibrator is kicking our ass in “entrepeneurship”.

And it’s even riskier for completely unknown ventures trying to keep ahead of potential trends. Easier to just fire some workers, merge some companies, keep the books cooked and flee before the long-term damage becomes apparent. It’ll make you look like a brilliant CEO and keep you in demand.

And then you can run for President.

Unless they can come out BIG winners an every scenario, they want no part of it.

i’ve even heard it go one step further: nor should they…

said in all earnestness and with a straight face…

What happened between 2000 and 2011 that had the largest impact upon the fiscal policies of our country. Were there perhaps eight out of those ten years (Imma say late 2k to early 2k11) dominated by the very policies that this asshat is shucking?

On that note….

You know what’s curious about that? In 2000, we ranked eighth.

Not third, as the author bald-faced lied suggested

“Uncertainty = Can’t Control The Outcome To My Favor.” Unless they can come out BIG winners an every scenario, they want no part of it.

Ha ha, then write op-eds about how great the US was when folks were “free to fail.”

I think that’s the whole point: “Uncertainty = Can’t Control The Outcome To My Favor.” Unless they can come out BIG winners an every scenario, they want no part of it.

I address a lot of similar things in my entry about my support for OWS.

Gingrich has been relentlessly seducing

These are words that should never appear next to each other in a sentence EVAR AGAIN.

The national unemployment rate never once returned to prerecession levels.

AKA The New Normal.

You know what’s curious about that? In 2000, we ranked eighth.

Not third, as the author bald-faced lied suggested

Shocked! I’m shocked to see gambling in this establishment.

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!*

To date, there is only one documented case of a candiru entering a human urinary system, which took place in Itacoatiara, Brazil in 1997.[13][14] In this incident, the victim (a 23 year old man known only as “F.B.C.”) claimed a candiru “jumped” from the water into his urethra as he urinated while thigh-deep in a river.[15] After traveling to Manaus on October 28, 1997, the victim underwent a two-hour urological surgery by Dr. Anoar Samad to remove the fish from his body.[14]

In 1999, American marine biologist Stephen Spotte traveled to Brazil to investigate this particular incident in detail. He recounts the events of his investigation in his book Candiru: Life and Legend of the Bloodsucking Catfishes.[16] Spotte met with Dr. Samad in person and interviewed him at his practice and home. Samad gave him photos, the original VHS tape of the cystoscopy procedure, and the actual fish’s body preserved in formalin as his donation to the INPA.[17] Spotte and his colleague Paulo Petry took these materials and examined them at the INPA, comparing them with Samad’s formal paper. While Spotte did not overtly express any conclusions as to the veracity of the incident, he did remark on several observations that were suspicious about the claims of the patient and/or Samad himself.
According to Samad, the patient claimed “the fish had darted out of the water, up the urine stream, and into his urethra.” While this is the most popularly known legendary trait of the candiru, according to Spotte it has been known conclusively to be a myth for more than a century, as it is impossible due to simple fluid physics.[18]
The documentation and specimen provided indicate a fish that was 133.5 mm in length and had a head with a diameter of 11.5 mm. This would have required significant force to pry the urethra open to this extent. The candiru has no appendages or other apparatus that would have been necessary to accomplish this, and if it were leaping out of the water as the patient claimed, it would not have had sufficient leverage to force its way inside.[19]
Samad’s paper claims the fish must have been attracted by the urine.[14] This belief about the fish has been around for centuries, but was discredited in 2001.[8] While this was merely speculation on Samad’s part based on the prevailing scientific knowledge at the time, it somewhat erodes the patient’s story by eliminating the motivation for the fish to have attacked him in the first place.
Samad claimed the fish had “chewed” its way through the ventral wall of the urethra into the patient’s scrotum. Spotte notes that the candiru does not possess the right teeth or strong enough dentition to have been capable of this.[20]
Samad claimed he had to snip the candiru’s grasping spikes off in order to extract it, yet the specimen provided had all its spikes intact.[19]
The cystoscopy video depicts traveling into to a tubular space (presumed to be the patient’s urethra) containing the fish’s carcass and then pulling it out backwards through the urethral opening,[17] something that would have been almost impossible with the fish’s spikes intact.[21]

*Does not apply to non-penised persons.

Enraged Bull Limpet said,
November 16, 2011 at 23:08

Golf clap.

Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly

The jerb creators need their own drum circles!
~

But an F1 race would be the only conceivable reason for me to ever even think of visting Texas.

Big Bend National Park is one of the coolest, most exotic places in America, worth a week at least. Of course, you have to go through miles and miles of Tejas to get there but it is totes worth it.

Show of hands. Who here would start their own business if they didn’t have to worry about losing health insurance?

Big Bend National Park is one of the coolest, most exotic places in America, worth a week at least. Of course, you have to go through miles and miles of Tejas to get there but it is totes worth it.

If the inaugural Texas F1 Grand Prix of Big Bend is held next year, I am holding you responsible.

Speaking of business…
~

If the inaugural Texas F1 Grand Prix of Big Bend is held next year, I am holding you responsible.

If they listened to me ( HA! ) they’d do it at Capitol Reef but it ain’t gonna happen.

Who here would start their own business if they didn’t have to worry about losing health insurance?

I’m waiting for the gubmint grant unicorn first

If the inaugural Texas F1 Grand Prix of Big Bend is held next year, I am holding you responsible will be amazed.

If they listened to me ( HA! ) they’d do it at Capitol Reef but it ain’t gonna happen.

I was previously unaware of Capital Reef, so I looked it up. It looks gorgeous. I am astonished it hasn’t been both strip mined, and submerged under an ill advised BuRec dam project. But if they hold the F1 there instead, I will still hate you.

I think I just need to fly to Belgium and watch the race at Spa. And then stay in Belgium.

Big Bend National Park is one of the coolest, most exotic places in America, worth a week at least. Of course, you have to go through miles and miles of Tejas to get there but it is totes worth it.

You don’t have to encounter many Texans, though. Protip- the Gage Hotel in Marathon is a beautiful, old-timey Western lodge.

Love… love… LOVE Big Bend, and not just because of the giant pterosaur fossils.

I will still hate you.

Hate away lad! It’ll balance out my envy for your 77 south (if that IS your real name). F1 doesn’t go where there’s no $ so Capitol Reef is safe. It’s CapitOl Reef because there’s a formation there that sorta looks like the Capitol dome. Great park, I’ve been back a few times and it never fails to deliver.

I just perused some photos of Big Bend. Looks purty. It’s still in Texas.

I think I’ll go wander around the Painted Hills or Steens Mountain and stay in Oregon.

One can be honest about one’s feelings for Big Bend because you’ll never cause anyone to go there, it’s so frigging far from anything but the Marfa Mystery Lights (only 150 miles IFIRC). In all my time of camping in the parks of the West the 9 days I spent in Big Bend really stand out as magic. Astounding hiking: leave at 4pm, go 5 miles and return, the last two miles in the desert dark. For a place so barren it’s astounding the wildlife. Geology: oh yeah. Hot springs, sure. Mountains, hell yeah. Did I mention the wildlife? It is so good there.

I think I just need to fly to Belgium and watch the race at Spa. And then stay in Belgium.

Fat Belgian bastards…

I just assume that anyone who is against pork barrel spending must be in favor of sharia, that’s what I do.

It’ll balance out my envy for your 77 south (if that IS your real name)

Yes. You have discovered my previous identity. I’m just grumpy because in the last six years, I have had like 3 weeks of real travel vacation. I’ve had days off, I’ve just been too broke to travel. (I blame myself and Ducati’s engineers for that btw)

Hey, the hot springs at Big Bend are awesome… one can sit in the Rio Grande, near the spillover of the hot springs, and the alternately hot and cold water hitting you can give you some good cheap thrills. I swam across the Rio Grande a couple of times (narrow bed, but swift current), but never found a job in Mejico.

The wildlife is great- saw a black bear at a distance of about 20 feet, saw cougar prints, and there were javelinas all over the place. Really loved Big Bend, enough so that I visited it twice while road-tripping.

You have discovered my previous identity.

I think only Subby knows my previous identity(ies) and I’m sure my secret is safe with him.

I think only Subby knows my previous identity(ies) and I’m sure my secret is safe with him.

I know nothing.

I hope I have earned beer.

DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS:

“Uncertainty” my ass – Teh Owners aren’t putting all that cash into hiring because they WANT lots of jobless people around. Those tax-cuts are gonna have to be pretty huge to offset all the moolah currently being saved by high unemployment keeping wages down everywhere but boardrooms, n’est-ce pas? Miraculously so, given how many big companies now pay de facto NEGATIVE taxes.

“But a poor public hurts their bottom line too!” Not the ones who pump up their dividends via microtrading. When you’re making most of your money by doing 200 trades per second on a laptop, loss of consumer revenue is an “externality” of no concern. In fact, not making anything of value puts you in a superior position relative to all the chumps who still do … although of course you can (& should) make comforting noises about how vital you are to the economy you’re currently in the process of disembowelling.

Not to mention that in a corporatist Cashocracy, broke peasants are a mandatory condition of keeping the status quo running smoothly – tens of millions of well-off proles might get it into their silly little heads to pool their new surplus funds so they can start buying some polliticians of their own … cue rivers turning to blood, skies turning to ash, cats & dogs living together, et al.

Oh, & did I mention that in a shitty economy it’s dead easy to use the perennial Divide-&-Conquer gambit to get the Less Poors terrified of the Very Poors, instead of having them team up against their REAL enemy & put your fucking heads on pikes? Because, yeah, there’s that little bonus too.

But I’m sure that once the nebulous “uncertainty” is removed, the holders of all those epic advantages will happily throw them away (because after all, they must just HATE sitting on all those big piles of money) … right after a flock of purple baboons fly out of my bunghole.

Also, health care for the elderly consisted of carrying them out to the woods to be devoured by wolves.
Don’t forget wearing a nosegay of posies around your neck.

A garnish! What a classy joint this is!

“Uncertainty” my ass – Teh Owners aren’t putting all that cash into hiring because they WANT lots of jobless people around. Those tax-cuts are gonna have to be pretty huge to offset all the moolah currently being saved by high unemployment keeping wages down everywhere but boardrooms

I remember reading something, and I can’t remember where or attest to the veracity of it, several years ago that one of the corporate sponsered think tanks had determined that about a 20% unemployment rate would be the optimum for corporate profits.

Overpriced organic mangos lovingly harvested in some fancy sounding part of Hawaii.

Is the United States exceptional? Of course we are! Two hundred years ago we were one of the poorest countries in the world.

Two hundred years ago?!? You mean back when we were a fledgling country eleven years away from losing a war with Canada that would see our White House burned down? When we were a joke that England was expecting to walk right up to and roll over in American Revolution 2: This Time It’s Personal?

Yeah, wonder what changed.

We accounted for less than 1% of the world’s total GDP. Today our GDP is 23% of the world’s total and more than twice as large as the No. 2 country’s, China.

Wow, that’s really surprising. Hey, what is our military expenditures? About as much as the rest of the countries put together? And exponentially more than any other country. Not to mention that the only threats that remain tend to be nations we armed with our own weapons in order to defeat “Evil Empire du jour”. Hmm, I wonder if that is the lion share of our spending.

Why it is? My word, how shocking.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom: property rights, freedom to trade internationally, minimal governmental regulation of business, sound money, relatively low taxes, the rule of law, entrepreneurship, freedom to fail, and voluntary exchange.

Yes, if you mean that vague block of time to mean 1940s-60s and basic principles of economic freedom to mean strong liberal economic spending programs that focused on high taxes for corporations and the rich, strong labor victories in preceding decades, a thriving social safety net, and being one of two countries in the best shape following World War II and being the only one of those two that wasn’t trying to juggle an industrial revolution and a crazed dictator at the same time.

But yes, despite that, your statement is completely correct.

And is it just me or have the rich not only been attributing the 40s-60s boom to their social garbage at the same time, but also trying to extend it further and further back in time as if the Robber Barons were the ones who created the boom?

tens of millions of well-off proles might get it into their silly little heads to pool their new surplus funds so they can start buying some polliticians of their own

And right there is the reason why there was a 60 year long demonization campaign against unions that especially focused on how their “campaign contributions” to labor-friendly parties was a sign of corruption, buying legislators, and other underhanded dealings.

As always with these fuckers, it’s always projection and what they were pissed off about was that labor could afford to compete in the game however marginally.

Pupienus Maximus links to a Pharyngula thread:
Irony is not fucking dead gawdammit.

In which a comment describes the Catholic church as “The font of child-molestation expertise”.

I thought that was Comic Sans.

America became the wealthiest country because for most of our history we have followed the basic principles of economic freedom:

Steal resources.

Steal resources.

Slave labor

When you’re making most of your money by doing 200 trades per second on a laptop, loss of consumer revenue is an “externality” of no concern.

That this is ignored by all the free market worshippers is crucial. By making close to 80% of transactions ‘micro’ the value signals a market is supposed to transmit are stifled beneath the noise. Hence it’s all just a roulette game and you can let your quants run wild with your customers assets. A short term holding tax on transactions of less than a (pick your time interval here)’s duration would go a long way to calming markets and returning them to some semblance of what they were supposed to do.

Oops, got all serious there for a second. And there’s Herr Dr Smut, I bet my secret’s safe with him too. For beer.

How about a Belgian blonde for everybody?

The success of economic freedom in increasing human prosperity, extending our life spans and improving the quality of our lives in countless ways is the most extraordinary global story of the past 200 years.

Not cited?

The fact that all of those “improvements” were nearly 100% the product of government funded research in our research universities, government agencies and so on.

Meanwhile private industry was great mostly on taking that research already completed and marketing it for mass consumption and a few unique flourishes here and there like the iPod that improved on customer usability on the basic designs.

But all the “longer lives” stuff? That’s environmental and regulatory improvements on our society and medical research at our public universities.

But hey, it’s private industry, taking credit for public inventions is what they do best!

Gross domestic product per capita has increased by a factor of 1,000% across the world and almost 2,000% in the U.S. during these last two centuries. In 1800, 85% of everyone alive lived on less than $1 per day (in 2000 dollars). Today only 17% do. If current long-term trend lines of economic growth continue, we will see abject poverty almost completely eradicated in the 21st century. Business is not a zero-sum game struggling over a fixed pie. Instead it grows and makes the total pie larger, creating value for all of its major stakeholders—customers, employees, suppliers, investors and communities.

Oh my fucking lord, the innumeracy here. I don’t know where to begin. The whole “lots of people used to have very little, so we’ll eliminate poverty any day now” bullshit or the complete inability to be aware of inflation despite supposedly economics being his forte. Not to mention the whole weird belief that the stakeholders of the business has ever included labor in the corporate game. I just….

I think this should serve as the illustration for why these people’s claims of being the Best and Brightest are so much shit. They can’t even understand Econ 101, but want to be paid all the money in the world and pay no taxes?

And you want to claim they’ve “earned” that and “earned” more than any entire state’s worth of families could earn in a lifetime?

Horseshit!

So why is our economy barely growing and unemployment stuck at over 9%?

Because we listened to fucknozzles like you, abandoned the liberal economic policies that led to the greatest boon in American history and instead gave you infinite freedom to “stimulate the economy” like it had never been before and “lift all our boats” with your naked Randian greed?

I believe the answer is very simple: Economic freedom is declining in the U.S. In 2000, the U.S. was ranked third in the world behind only Hong Kong and Singapore in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by this newspaper and the Heritage Foundation. In 2011, we fell to ninth behind such countries as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

Oh right, other people’s fault.

The 3 decades of following your horseshit and having the economy tumble like a rock even in your bullshit “capitalism can do no wrong” statistics (which would have ranked us much lower in the past what with the 90% upper tax rate and massive regulations and all) were what?

Practice rounds?

How about a Belgian blonde for everybody?

Like this one?

I think I’ll go wander around the Painted Hills

Includes bonus fossils!

How about a Belgian blonde for everybody?

I consumed a bottle of that just a little while ago. It was great, but I dislike the suspense inherent in waiting to detect sediment.

How about a Belgian blonde for everybody?

How could I refuse?

In 1800, 85% of everyone alive lived on less than $1 per day (in 2000 dollars). Today only 17% do. If current long-term trend lines of economic growth continue, we will see abject poverty almost completely eradicated in the 21st century.

It’s easier to forecast the end of poverty(soon! Not yet, but soon!) when you begin your “long-term trend lines” back when a bunch of people were property and lived on earnings of 0$ a day.

The reforms we need to make are extensive. I want to make a few suggestions that, as an independent, I hope will stimulate thinking and constructive discussion among concerned Americans no matter what their politics are.

Translation: I will repeat the same old horseshit as if it is fresh and new and present myself as a fresh faced independent above partisan concerns because we know that Americans are fucking idiots who think that anyone “in the middle” must be the right one in any “two-sided debate” even if one side has all the facts, history, etc… on their side and the “other side” are a bunch of whackjobs.

Most importantly, we need to radically cut the size and cost of government.

Of course.

The next bit is the well trod famous mango we’ve already consumed. So we’ll skip ahead.

Only if we focus on cutting costs in the four most expensive government programs—Defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which together with interest account for about two-thirds of the overall budget—can we make a significant positive impact.

Sooooo…

Two self-contained and self-funded programs which wouldn’t cost us anything if we hadn’t been dipping into the already paid and guaranteed funds to hide the costs of number 1. And one that’s far cheaper than the alternative and would only help business bottom lines if it was expanded to cover everyone what with “insurance costs” being one of the largest employee expenditures for businesses (oh wait, he runs a business on part-time employees worked to the edge of full-time, expanding insurance would only have him having to compete fairly with other businesses).

So really we’ve got one program that is what he thinks it is.

Our defense budget now accounts for 43% of all military spending in the entire world—more than the next 14 largest defense budgets combined. It is time for us to scale back our military commitments and reduce our spending to something more in line with our percentage of the world GDP, or 23%. Doing this would save more than $300 billion every year.

Yeah, ramping down our massive military-industrial complex would give us a huge windfall and practically end our “deficit” problems.

Good luck getting that through congress.

Hey, you know what else would end our “deficit” problems wholesale? Repealing the Bush tax cuts.

Also love how the “deficit” problem that requires us to destroy the remaining safety net was basically caused by Obama going “yeah, no, we’re not going to pretend that the War Budgets are in some fantasy kingdom where magic money pays for them anymore.”

Social Security and Medicare need serious reforms to be sustainable over the long term. The demographic crisis for these entitlement programs has now arrived as 10,000 baby boomers are projected to retire every day for the next 19 years. Retirement ages need to be steadily raised to reflect our increased longevity. These programs should also be means-tested. Countries such as Chile and Singapore successfully privatized their retirement programs, making them sustainable. We should move in a similar direction by giving everyone the option to voluntarily opt out of the governmental system into private alternatives, phasing this in over time to help keep the current system solvent.

Is there a single right-wing buzzword he didn’t hit in that paragraph? We got means-testing, successful privitization, increased longevity, entitlement programs, serious reforms, etc…

And yeah, it’s totally not a case of the rich demanding to suck the lifeblood out of the sole remaining safety nets we’ve got left to further enrich themselves, what with them pretty much openly saying that’s what it’s about.

I’m not sure how long they can rely on racism and Fox News to keep the senile grandparents in their corner what with the direct assault on their social programs (i.e. the only ones left untouched). I’d make a crude joke about how it’s only just deserts for being the forefront on the assault against everyone else’s rights, but I’m not completely devoid of humanity yet.

In addition, tax reform is essential to jobs and prosperity. Most tax deductions and loopholes should be eliminated, combined with significant tax rate reductions. A top tax rate of 15% to 20% with no deductions would be fairer, greatly stimulate economic growth and job creation, and would reduce deficits by increasing total taxes paid to the federal government.

Hey, doesn’t that work out to a massive tax cut? Oh ho, what a crafty sumabitch.

To be fair, yeah shutting down the loopholes that allow the rich and corporations to pay zero taxes would be a good thing, but this seems more written as “pah, my deductions are only 3% anyways, I want everyone else punished so I can shoot past them. Kind of like why he’s not in favor of universal health care despite the massive savings that would pass on to most businesses.

DAMNIT OBS! Now you’ve gone and reminded me that my next Fossil Run (Clackamas River Road, NF-42 past Timothy Lake, down through Tigh Valley, Maupin, Shaniko, then the incomparable OR-218 to Fossil) IS MANY MONTHS AWAY. *sniff*

Oops. “Tygh” Valley. And I can never remember whether it’s Timothy Lake or Clear Lake. Whatevs, I’m going too fast to look at it anyway.

How about a Belgian blonde for everybody?

I haven’t had that one, but Brasserie Dupont’s Saison is to die for.

DAMNIT OBS!

You’re welcome.

I drove through there (by car, unfortunately) this past summer. Absolutely stunning. Be careful on the bike, there are eleventy bazillion deer out there that want to ruin your day.

Why would taxes collected go up if rates go down?

I smell Libertarian self-serving horse shit in 3…2…1…

Two reasons—first, tax shelters such as the mortgage interest deduction used primarily by more affluent taxpayers would be eliminated;

That’s not so bad-

and secondly, the taxable base would increase considerably as entrepreneurs create new businesses and new jobs, and as people earn more money. Many Eastern European countries implemented low flat tax rates in the past decade, including Russia in 2001 (13%) and Ukraine in 2004 (15%), and experienced strong economic growth and increased tax revenues.

Oh god, oh god, now I’m covered in Libertarian horseshit. I think some got in my mouth. Oh fuck, oh fuckohfuck.

Right, okay, the deconstruction. What’s there to say? I mean he argues for the flat tax, an idea which is basically the reverse of what produces economic growth and surest recipe of economic stagnation and being used as a tax shelter.

There’s the fact that the countries cited saw some of the worst levels of corruption and rich-poor divides in their already painful lives during the years cited. And of course the fact that entrepeneurship relies on strong safety nets not giving rich people more money, hence why we have been slumping in the last 30 years and dropping behind Denmark and Sweden on that.

Corporate taxes also need to be reformed.

Oh fuck no, I’m not falling for this one. (Looks ahead) Yup, it’s just massively lower corporate taxes because they are too high (yeah, I’m laughing up a storm too.

Though this mango was good.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S.’s combined state and federal corporate tax rate of 39.2% became the highest in the world after Japan cut its rates this April.

A) No.
B) Combined state and federal tax rate? There isn’t just one state tax rate, hence why it’s called state tax rate. How…how are you a CEO? I haven’t taken a single economics class and I know more than you! Is this the John Galt argument for why super-geniuses like you need to have even more money in your pocket so you’ll really truly create awesome businesses and industries, like for sure this time, unless the President is mean to them or they are worried about “uncertainty” or they feel like a $1 in taxes is still too much to spend.

Translation: I will repeat the same old horseshit as if it is fresh and new and present myself as a fresh faced independent above partisan concerns because we know that Americans are fucking idiots who think that anyone “in the middle” must be the right one in any “two-sided debate” even if one side has all the facts, history, etc… on their side and the “other side” are a bunch of whackjobs.

Hangin’ out with my “third way” homies Mike “Midnight Raider” Bloomberg and David Brooks…

Never read the comments on an article by Stossel in “Reason” – you will get all stabby. Case in point: http://reason.com/archives/2011/11/03/the-stupidity-of-buy-american/1

Thanks(?) Substance, Thanks a lot. I nned moar whisky.

Never read the comments on an article by Stossel in “Reason”

Obligatory.

“I’m an independent, and…” or “As an independent, I think…” should be officially translated as “Get ready to laugh at how stupid I am!”

Never read the comments

First one I saw was pretty great, really:

heller|11.3.11 @ 6:47AM|#

COOTER LIKES THIS STOFFEL GUY. HE HAS LOTS OF SPACES AND MOST OF THE WORDS ARE SMALL ENOUGH FOR COOTER TO UNDERSTAN’ AND HE TELLS COOTER THINGS TO THINK ON

I agree with Stossel – buying American is a joke.

Fire Stossel’s ass and hire a Messican to do his job. Even if the Messican can’t speak English, he’ll make as much sense to most non-Messican speakers as Stossel does. Plus, Messicans can grow some AWESOME mustaches.

Oh, to be fair though, it might not be stupidity and actually premeditated dishonesty, most likely so in the cases of our Galtian Overlords. My bad.

The ten components of economic freedom are
[…]
Labor Freedom

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this means “no unions”.

These 10 components are supposedly connected to “an economically free society”, in which

individuals are free to work, produce, consume, and invest in any way they please, with that freedom both protected by the state and unconstrained by the state.

… but they have been selected to give the highest score to an authoritarian planned economy like Singapore. That must have taken some work.

Two reasons—first, tax shelters such as the mortgage interest deduction used primarily by more affluent taxpayers would be eliminated;

Not actually related to rates, and there’s no guarantee they would be eliminated if rates were lowered; the Grover Norquist types have let it be known they consider eliminating tax breaks “raising taxes” and wouldn’t support any.

OT: Rome is awesome! had some great saltimbucco for lunch and the Pantheon is incredible. Tomorrow the Vatican and a feast of great art.

Government regulations definitely need to be reformed.

Oh fuck…

According to the Small Business Administration, total regulatory costs amount to about $1.75 trillion annually, nearly twice as much as all individual income taxes collected last year. While some regulations create important safeguards for public health and the environment

No shit they do. Along with preventing much larger costs down the road. Like how demanding a couple hundred dollars worth of safety equipment and oversight might have prevented the complete spoiling of the Gulf Coast and the billions it cost in clean-up and the probable trillions it will cost in lost revenue on top of the new regulations needed to make sure that the poisonous fish aren’t sold to the poor on the bottom-market.

far too many simply protect existing business interests and discourage entrepreneurship. Specifically, many government regulations in education, health care and energy prevent entrepreneurship and innovation from revolutionizing and re-energizing these very important parts of our economy.

…!

I don’t even want to imagine what reforms he thinks will “encourage” entrepreneurship in schools, health care, and energy. Also, those three industries seem like the most in need of regulation. You know, to make sure kids actually learn real knowledge rather than subjected to constant ads for pepsi or religious horseshit like “evolution doesn’t exist”. And in energy, keeping things from blowing up, keeping things running, and reducing wasted energy are all very very good things, what with the large possibility of bad things if things aren’t regulated (coal mining ghost towns, anybody? Gulf Coast Oil Spill? The whole Japan Nuclear Plant fiasco? Chernobyl?!?). And I won’t even touch the “we need to strip mine regulations in health care.

If he can’t see the danger there, then he’s either a moron or a Cylon double-agent trying to get us to destroy ourselves. Either way, run for the hills.

A simple reform that would make a monumental difference would be to require all federal regulations to have a sunset provision. All regulations should automatically expire after 10 years unless a mandatory cost-benefit analysis has been completed that proves the regulations have created significantly more societal benefit than harm. Currently thousands of new regulations are added each year and virtually none ever disappear.

I can see no downside to making regulations disappear after only 10 years. Nor can I see how adding costly and likely constantly doubted and thus needing to be repeated studies every 10 years on every single regulation including no duh ones like “we shouldn’t ship products with too much rat excrement in them” would “save” money. Seems more a recipe for making regulations even more a boogeyman.

Again, I’m left wondering how you graduated college much less fell in charge of a large chain business.

According to a recent poll, more than two-thirds of Americans now believe that America is in “decline.” While we are certainly going through difficult times our decline is not inevitable—it can and must be reversed. The U.S. is still an extraordinary country by almost any measure. If we once again embrace the principles of individual and economic freedom that made us both prosperous and exceptional, we can help lead the world towards a better future for all.

USA! USA! USA!

Also, please ignore that the “decline” is entirely because you listened to people like me for 30 years. These are totally untried theories that would totally work this time.

Damnitt people, Steve from Safeway has a much bigger yacht than I do and his money pile fills far more olympic swimming pools and comically over-sized vaults than mine!

Can’t you see how much more important this is than that stupid “I need to feed my family” shit you peons worry about?

Many threads back when Dennis was pretending to be a “moderate” and not the right-wing troll he obviously is, I said this in response to him:

“Moderates” are either a bunch of completely uninformed fuckwits too stupid to understand what’s going on in the world (sound familiar?), or they’re faking it so they can just pretend “oh, I’m ‘moderate’ — I like to be in the comfortable middle.” They can then pretend to carefully weigh “both sides” and then just happen to really like the option that benefits them the most. Oh, and that just happens to always be the most conservative option because duh, they’re really conservative.

Of course it works perfectly to replace “moderate” with “independent” and you then end up with Mackey.

… but they have been selected to give the highest score to an authoritarian planned economy like Singapore. That must have taken some work.

The economy, like everything else, must be planned by The Right People.

S. cerevisiae said,

November 17, 2011 at 1:22

OT: Rome is awesome! had some great saltimbucco for lunch and the Pantheon is incredible. Tomorrow the Vatican and a feast of great art.

I hate you.

You’re missing it pissing down rain here in town. I bet you’re very jealous.

And please kick a Bishop or Cardinal for me. Or knock off their silly hat or something fun.

HMMMMMM.

Looks like the financial sector is really cleaning up its act!

S. cerevisiae – if you get the chance, the tomb of the Capuchins is a very…unique place to visit – it’s close to the Spanish Steps. The order decorated the place with the bones of deceased monks, arranging skulls & pelvises to look like skeletal angels & etc. Their point in doing so was to remind the living members of the order that life is fleeting.

Other awesome stuff – the baths (I think of Caracella?) and if you get outside of Rome a ways, Villa d’Este’s water gardens are pretty spectacular and the Parco de Monstri in the same general vicinity is quite bizarre – also Hadrian’s Villa is out that way and also cool as hell.

Some handy Berlitz translations to memorize:

“I want to protect small businesses…” = “I’m being paid to say this by large corporations”

“I’m not a racist, but…” = “I’m a total racist”

“I’m politically independent, but fiscally conservative…” = “I’m a Republican”

Article shared on FB

It’s actually quite good. Well worth a read–and closely vocalizes my sentiments about the baby boomers.

Did I mention the sunshine? And the vino? And the art everywhere? And more incredible food everywhere you turn? Although everything you have heard about Italian drivers is true, I wouldn’t try driving here without F1 experience.

S. cerevisiae said,

November 17, 2011 at 1:36

Did I mention the sunshine? And the vino? And the art everywhere? And more incredible food everywhere you turn?

I. Hate. You.

I peeked briefly into the tigers of the comment section.

Libertarians have given up any pretense of being “the furthest point away from fascism” and have decided to openly cheer feudalism and the idea of worshipping rich people until they deign to offer you a job cleaning their ass for a penny a day.

How many jobs have you created Sten?
if it is less than one as I suspect, then it may be more valuable for us to listen to Mr. Mackey views than to yours.

Why does a loaf of bread purchased by the middle class create more demand than one bought by another class be they richer or poorer?

This was in response to someone noting that middle class purchasing power drives the economy in a consumer-based economy like ours. Yeah, no complaining if you didn’t personally hire someone. Because there are no jobs unless our lords will it. They create it out of the Heavenly Spheres and transport them to Earth via Free Market Jesus.

Supply? Demand? The movement of wealth? Concentration of wealth destroys economic energy?

I don’t understand. The Chosen King employs us serfs and allows us to live by God’s mercy occassionally granting us favors by his whim. That’s how it always works. Now let’s give even more of our grain harvest to him in hopes that someday that’ll trickle back. Ideally in good standing in the next life.

Also this:

Wall Street didn’t steal anything. I’ll one up you. Promote policies that will get gas at $2 dollars a gallon and you willl increase demand.

Master didn’t do anything wrong. All I need is cheap gas and then everything will be fine. Oh Hummer I bought in 2001 to support our troops, defend me against reality! I am a good and wonderful person and am on the right side. I am a good and wonderful person and am on the right side! Happy days will be here again! Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

And

The theme of the article is right on BUT misses a key part of the government problem – excessive regulations and bureaucrats. Their budgets may be small compared to defense or entitlements, but their impact is 10x of their budget. Yes go after defensive and entitlements but FIRST cut the regulatory job killers. Case in point is the Keystone Pipeline – private equity, thousands of jobs, reliable energy, and a generator of new tax revenues – but delayed (maybe killed) by the regulators and politicians

Kill all regulations. It costs 10x a billion infinite imaginary dollars to make sure something is built to actually work and not fall apart after a year and/or poison everything for miles thus losing billions in lost local revenue not to mention the whole life-sustaining ecosystem thing we rely on to live.

Again, these are cult members who have basically turned to praying to Daddy and hoping that if we allow him to rape us as much as he wants that he might give us a lollipop or that new game we wanted someday, eventually and growling at the mean old social worker who wants to take you away before you totally will have earned that game.

Libertarians who are not currently living off trust funds or employed by daddy! There is no video game. Daddy is spending the money he gets from pimping you out to his friends on booze and train sets (just like Howard Roarke!).

S. cerevisiae,

The gelato shop just outside the Pantheon is excellent. DO NOT buy the “pizza” from the truck outside the Coliseum – “dove mozzarella?!?” I said.

Seek out a restaurant in the Jewish quarter – the artichokes are awesome (though probably out of season). That’s about all the help I can supply. Lucky bastard.

he tomb of the Capuchins is a very…unique place to visit

Yes, but be aware that it is a shrine. We got kicked out for laughing too loud after we started making Martha Stewart jokes with another American couple.

Don’t pay the extra to tour the tombs underneath St. Pete’s. There’s a semi – secret-stairway entrance in the apse. Then you go out the entrance and they look at you funny.

We were sure a gay priest was in charge of the Vatican gift shop – over the top tacky shit galore! The nun at the register gave us lots of dirty looks, we were laughing so hard.

Hadrian’s tomb is worth climbing up. That’s actually where John took the pic of the pope and I.

Dudes, I’m fuckin’ listening to Free Bird. Woo!

Thanks all, this is my first time out of the western hemisphere and so far it has been awesome. Sorry OBS, maybe the airlines will let me bring some parmignao reggiano or some prosciutto back home but I’ll bet customs would “confiscate” it. (trust me, I know some customs people).

That’s actually where John took the pic of the pope and I.

OMG YOU WERE SO CLOSE!

RE: food, there’s a lot of it – good – in and around Piazza dei Fiori. Great open-air market for all kinds of produce and other eats, and several good restaurants around the piazza itself.

I like where this thread is going!

Father Guido Sarducci said,

Ugh. Thanks for reminding me of one of the few consistently unfunny recurring sketch characters from the old (pre-1980) SNL.

Liberal Fascism ISREAL.

Did I mention the sunshine? And the vino? And the art everywhere? And more incredible food everywhere you turn?

Don’t forget all the gorgeous women, dressed to kill! Is there a “Berlusconi” tag in HTML?

Is there a “Berlusconi” tag in HTML?

Do you remember the spinning, flashing, rotating dollar signs on assholes’ GeoCities web sites?

When I was in Bologna, I needed a new briefcase and saw one I liked in a shop window. I broke out my dictionary, looked up “briefcase” and “window,” entered the shop, and said slowly and carefully to the clerk, “La cartella en la fenestre, per favore.”

The reply, in a Brooklyn accent: “Sure. Da brown one or da black one?”

Similar things happened to me a couple more times. I must have had Stupid American tattooed on my forehead or something.

Similar things happened to me a couple more times. I must have had Stupid American tattooed on my forehead or something.

He was probably intimidated- thought your Italian was better than his.

He was probably intimidated- thought your Italian was better than his.

BWAAAHAAAHAAA!!!! Thanks for the compliment, but I don’t think so.

I do envy people who can speak Italian, though. It seems like a really cool language.

I love all the work you put into picking apart the bullshit and mangos, Cerbs. It’s always an excellent read.

In the end though in my opinion, it just always boils down to one simple fact: For 30+ years we’ve had the wettest of deregulatory, supply-side wet dreams in living technicolor. I’m no statistician, but in my eyes, that’s a pretty good length of time to officially say…It. Doesn’t. Fucking. Work. At least not for the vast majority of the population.

The 1% grifters and stooges paid by the 1% can blow as much of this smoke as they want but nothing will change this fact. How many more years of economic failure, how many more burst economic bubbles, how many more people have to go homeless or die from preventable yet financially decimating disease, how vast does the gulf of economic inequality have to get until this basic fact can no longer be glossed over or waved away with the standard “oh supply-side hasn’t failed us, we have failed IT by not doing ENOUGH”?

Just how utterly foolish do you have to be to not see this basic fact? I can understand the 1% doing everything they can to maintain this, but how backwards and hoodwinked do you have to be to be one of the vast majority like myself who has spent their entire life being a virtual serf, and actually supporting this?! I’m just at a loss, I don’t understand it one bit. With any critical thought it’s crystal clear that we’re still careening down the same road that’s dug us into this economic mess and nobody is serious about changing things. It drives me absolutely fucking nuts!!

Good heavens that was way too much. I apologize and will return to lurking. Sigh.

Sometimes you find yourself pleased when WP decides to pretend you never posted something, such as when it was a potentially embarrassing rant.

Other times, you wonder what you have done to displease it, such as what I imagine cats and dogs frequently feel when their owners get mad at them because they cannot possibly understand their owner.

What a fascinating, perplexing thing you are, WP.

Also, FY.

RE: food, there’s a lot of it

Back in 1996 I deployed to Pisa for two weeks and put on ten pounds.

maybe the airlines will let me bring some parmignao reggiano or some prosciutto back home but I’ll bet customs would “confiscate” it.

Cheese should be ok as long as it’s sealed/not opened, meat is not allowed. It’s crazy, but the same stuff you can buy at your local grocery imported from Italy you can’t bring in on your own.

I’d take and eat confiscate your imported Italian food too.

but the same stuff you can buy at your local grocery imported from Italy you can’t bring in on your own.

“Chinese” “herbs”?

I still think S. cerevisiae should try to bring me some sausage.

Totes heterosexually, of course.

If people can smuggle Serrano ham into the US, there’s no reason S. cerevisia couldn’t tape a sausage or two to his leg.

I can speak a little Italian that I’ve taught myself. My grammar is atrocious and my vocabulary weak, but my pronunciation is pretty good. Italian is much easier to pronounce than French is, once you get used to some of the oddities (as compared to English) such as “cc” = “ch” and “ch” = “qui” or “kew”. I actually made a funny that was understood on my last trip, speaking with a vendor outside the Forum (il foro). It was a hot day; my weak joke was, “Oggi, est il forno.” (Today, it’s an oven.) The little old man was so tickled that an American tourist had bothered to learn enough of the language to make a little joke, even if it was a lame one.

I knew Mackey pretty well in the late 70s. Our relationship kind of soured when he fucked my girlfriend. He hasn’t changed much.

there’s no reason S. cerevisia couldn’t tape a sausage or two to his leg.

How it’s done.
~

You infantile librulz don’t get it. All you gotta do is stop feeding granny or paying for her doctor visits, so you can inherit her money, while the job creators on Wall St. keep busy trying to figure out a grift to take that money away from you, and everything will be great.

Rome is wonderful. I’d totes live there, even with the economy collapsing in a heap around me. Beautiful climate, beautiful scenery, beautiful women, awesome roads not far away to ride on…what’s not to love?

If I’d known you were going to be there I’d have turned you on to a guide we found for an afternoon who took us on a walking tour of the Jewish quarter. He’s an American expat who’s also a history prof. Fascinating, and he showed us things that we never would have noticed by ourselves.

Enjoy!

having tried valiantly to do business with whole foods recently, i can say that the executives there who are NOT named mackey are true believers in the mission, and that the mission is mostly a thing that good people should believe in too, despite the drawbacks of high cost and high douchebaggery.

but mackey in and of himself…he’s every bit the entitled wanker he seems. i have stopped tweaking my friends who are execs there about it–it makes us all feel bad about ourselves.

Hey, who has tired eyes, two thumbs and is up at 4:30 in the morning?

Psssst, it’s me

Due to issues of proximity, dietary preferences and convenience, the Limpette and I are fated to conduct substantial annual business with WFds, at least until suburbia expands to swallow up our relatively rural refuge and perhaps present other co-options.

Hope this equation balances out, in that our relatively high consumption of expensive organic veggies enables us to live long, vigorous lives– but not quite long enuf to witness the overrunning of our current idyllic position by rampant commerce.

vs, you’re a tougher nocturnal hominid than I: only 2:15-ish here and it’s time to fold.

having tried valiantly to do business with whole foods recently, i can say that the executives there who are NOT named mackey are true believers in the mission, and that the mission is mostly a thing that good people should believe in too, despite the drawbacks of high cost and high douchebaggery.

Which raises a question: if a company is beneficial but its CEO is shit, should you patronize to reward the mission and the people who believe in it or punish the creepy CEO.

Had to get up for a quick pee: fook you, actor!

Rome is beautiful, no question, but let me put in a plug* for Edinburgh. Also beautiful, better beer, a language only slightly harder to understand, and a more congenial climate for those of the polar bear persuasion.

*Yes, I said it.

“Enraged Bull Limpet said,
November 17, 2011 at 12:22

vs, you’re a tougher nocturnal hominid than I: only 2:15-ish here and it’s time to fold.”

Nah, I’m a wimp. I’m usually in bed between 8-10 o’clock cuz I need energy to deal with impromptu early mornings.

Babbies are morning people.

Babbies are morning people.

Reason #235 why i’ve avoided that there for 40 years or more………………………..

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY

That candiru thing has always been fishy sounding.

OT: Rome is awesome! had some great saltimbucco for lunch and the Pantheon is incredible. Tomorrow the Vatican and a feast of great art.

oh, you lucky, lucky dog, you…

Babbies are morning people

Luckily I am too. Plus, young g is always in the best mood in the morning so I’m in heaven. Mrs. g on the other hand; not good.

Babbies are morning people

i kinda miss having babbies around…except for the lack of sleep part…

Question of the Week:

Will our media betters notice that the “final offer” put on the table by Super Committee Republicans (actual name of committee is “Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction”) increases, that’s right, increases, the deficit by over $2 Trillion?

My Magic 8-Ball says “No Fucking Way.”

Whose this “William Wallets” fellow? Does he have a special friend named Charles Checkbook?

OT – first of teh repeat polls is in. pdf warning – PPP polled from Nov. 10-13 and the fav-unfav has gone from 35:36 last month to 33:45 this month. Note that teh actual favorability number is pretty much unchanged (MOE is +/- 3.5%) it’s just that teh don’t knows have pretty much broken completely unfav. IOW, support of Occupy hasn’t budged much but opposition to it has grown. Must be all that “media darling” coverage they’ve been getting. For context, polling occurred prior to teh co-ordinated mass evictions after a lull in reportage on teh movement.

Also, crosstabs are interesting. Their top line and lede is about how teh Tea Party is now polling higher favourability than OWS -but teh crosstabs tell a bigger story. Tea Party polls well because they have almost unanimous support from teh “very conservative” fringe at 81-9 and prefer TP over OWS 84-7. Teh reverse picture for teh “very liberal” is 72-18 OWS support and 62-18 OWS over TP. Moderates still break for OWS moar than 2:1. IOW, teh tricorner hat brigade plays extremely well in teh dark corners of America’s organ-meat lands but OWS has much broader appeal.

Teh big question – without tents or shelters at teh flagship Occupation at Liberty Square and with teh weather doing what it does in NYC in Novemeber, how long will it hold out? They toughed out teh freak Hallowe’en blizzard, but they had shelters and generators there at that time. Today’s “Day of Action” is probably going to get a bit of a boost from teh evictions – and this week-end supposed to be clear if chilly. But it’s supposed to rain all of next week, and it won’t be getting warmer for months.

Um, that’s “Who’s this…” &c.

(Alas, would that were the only abuse of English committed by a Scot.)

Whose this “William Wallets” fellow? Does he have a special friend named Charles Checkbook?

Chequebook.

Had to get up for a quick pee: fook you, actor!

Finis, Finis, Toujours le finis c’est moi!

Babbies are morning people.

Did no one else here learn the old wives’ trick? Bash in the head with a rock at 4AM?

What?

It was just my mom?

LEAFS SUCKian Local News:

Teh co-ordinated action to stomp out Occupy? Was Homeland Security involved or not? I dunno, and I suspect that even if they were, LEAFS SUCK wouldn’t be part of teh conference call. But our dear mayor Rob “scared of cosplaying 59 year old women” Ford handed eviction notices out about nine hours after teh Libert Square middle-of-the-night clearing. That eviction has been stayed until Saturday when Judge Brown will make his ruling. Here is teh important part of teh ruling that Stallman clearly did not understand:

As I stated, I have no evidence before me. But, as I read the applicants’ notice of motion, they will be arguing that the mode of their expression – an encampment in a public park – is integrally linked with the message they wish to convey. As they put it in their notice of motion:

An important principle and component of this international political protest movement is the encampment, including overnight, of groups of protesters in public spaces. The “Occupy” encampment and the activities associated with the encampment are in fact exercises by the Applicants of their Charter rights of expression, conscience, assembly and association.

IOW, teh “camping” itself is teh protest – teh political speech. Teh movement is called Occupy. It’s about Occupying teh space. This is not rocket science. Not understanding that teh long-term 24-7 presence is integral to teh statement and protest betrays how poorly Stallman understands teh issues.

Whose this “William Wallets” fellow? Does he have a special friend named Charles Checkbook?

He owns that new financial company, BraveCard

But it’s supposed to rain all of next week, and it won’t be getting warmer for months.

We’ve actually had pretty mild winters the past few years, absent a day or two here or there.

And it’s not that long ago where we celebrated Hanukkah in shorts and T shirts.

@DKW:

I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a more misunderstood movement than OWS. You know it was bound to suffer that fate when it was slapped with the “media darling” misnomer.

Comparing support for OWS and the Tea Party doesn’t tell a story worth hearing, for sure.

“And it’s not that long ago where we celebrated Hanukkah in shorts and T shirts.”

I forget: Which holiday is the “clothing, optional” holiday?

I forget: Which holiday is the “clothing, optional” holiday?

Around my pole, Festivus

IOW; I get the feeling that there is a media-driven campaign to completely miss the point of OWS.

The calls for some sort of manifesto, the appointment of leadership, the rhetorical “What do they want?” bullshit…it all implies that there is a right way to build a protest movement and that these guys are doing it wrong. They’re not doing it wrong. (I’m shocked that this sentence could be used on the internet).

Comparing support for OWS and the Tea Party doesn’t tell a story worth hearing, for sure.

Totes agree, but that’s what all teh pollsters are doing. And it’s difficult for me to pretend that data doesn’t exist.

New jobless claims have hit a seven-month low – at 388,000. That’s not good news. Unemployment is unchanged from 9%. Even if the encampments are all cleared, the situation hasn’t been addressed. That plus teh orgy of deficit talk that will hit when Super Congress epically fails at teh end of teh month.

Massive unemployment, massive inequality, a press and political class that is completely out-of-touch and focused on garbage deficit austerity bullshit. Occupy is teh best thing that’s happened for teh Establishment, because it is peaceful protest. But if that garners no action – if jobs don’t start showing up – if teh response to this democratic appeal to power is widespread cutting of programs and top margin tax rates – well what do you expect will happen?

I forget: Which holiday is the “clothing, optional” holiday?

Wait, which one isn’t?

OT: Things not found in the crosstabs:

Dozens Of Hypodermic Needles Found Among Trash Removed From Zuccotti Park

“On the 17th, we’re going to burn New York City to the f—ing ground,”

Pay no attention, though, because the view from our computers is wonderful. Just like Rome in the fall. And babbies are awesome, doncha know.

Who farted?

I forget: Which holiday is the “clothing, optional” holiday?

That would be Beltane

I get the feeling that there is a media-driven campaign to completely miss the point of OWS.

I think that’s the point behind today’s activism: they want to go directly to Noo Yawkahs and talk to them, explain themselves. Their points are not easily summed up in short sound bites. They need to explain.

That would be Beltane

Used to play for the Mets, right?

OT: Wouldn’t it make more sense here to declare beforehand that your post is going to be on-topic?

OT: Things not found in the crosstabs:

Dennis’s latest girlfriend, a Brownie Scout

Dennis, how many babies have you raped this week?

And if none, when did you stop?

Maybe we should try communism, after all.

Example – Teh Jobs Bill. Where teh fuck is it? They broke it into a bunch of little pieces to use as part of some political gamesmanship against Senate Republicans. Only, no one is hearing about Senate Republicans voting against extending UI benefits or any such noise. Because teh press is a bunch of craven fluffers. Ooooh, two tiny pieces passed teh House unanimously. Whoop-dee-do. I mean, yeah great – incentives to hire veterans is a good thing – but that’s basically teh entirety of teh “pivot to jobs”. We can only pass shit if it garners 100% of GOP votes. Fuck You Democrats.

Imagine you just got evicted from an Occupy camp. You’re one of Frank Miller’s iPhone weilding anarchist losers with a Bachelors degree and 30K in student debt and no job. And your month of protesting alongside thousands of people yields zero action on the jobs front. And Congress is STILL seriously proposing tax cuts for the rich as the solution. And still no job. And maybe your parents haven’t had their house foreclosed yet, so you’re crashing there – at least through the holidays or until you find enough work to make minimum student loan payments and rent. And still no job.

When this all turns to riotous shit in teh New Year, it’ll be something that no one could have predicted.

As long as you’re here, Dennis, make yourself useful. Defend the oligarchy. Come on, you can do it. And, while you’re at it, tell us which socialist programs we should end.

Dozens Of Hypodermic Needles Found Among Trash Removed From Zuccotti Park

NEWS FLASH! OWS INTRODUCES HEROIN TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK!!! OMFG WHAT NOW?

Dozens Of Hypodermic Needles Found Among Trash Removed From Zuccotti Park

Also, I’m DONE with OWS since I’ve just discovered that there may be diabetics lurking about.

Also, shutup Dennis.

Totes agree, but that’s what all teh pollsters are doing. And it’s difficult for me to pretend that data doesn’t exist.

Massive unemployment, massive inequality, a press and political class that is completely out-of-touch and focused on garbage deficit austerity bullshit. Occupy is teh best thing that’s happened for teh Establishment, because it is peaceful protest. But if that garners no action – if jobs don’t start showing up – if teh response to this democratic appeal to power is widespread cutting of programs and top margin tax rates – well what do you expect will happen?

MERRY CHRISTMAS

And Congress is STILL seriously proposing tax cuts for the rich and drastic austerity measures for the not-rich and getting not-richer as the solution

They really should install sharps containers for safety.

– well what do you expect will happen?

I can’t help the feeling that things getting violent and nasty has crossed the threshold of inevitability. I hate to say that, I’m certainly not advocating such a thing, but this had a net effect on Congress of exactly nothing (at least by my observation).

It’s sad that in a nation of obscene wealth, its own citizens may have to look at the very real possibility of fighting for education and health care and a share of the prosperity for the people who do the actual work. It really is sad.

“Oligarchy is one of the three agencies I would do away with, schmedley.”

The other two would be: The Office of Redundancy.

Dozens Of Hypodermic Needles Found Among Trash Removed From Zuccotti Park

Yes, because diabetics can just drink their insulin.

Here’s a headline:

DOZENS OF FAT, WHITE, RACIST PIECES OF SHIT YELLING INCOHERENTLY FOUND AT TEA PARTY RALLIES

DOZENS ONES OF FAT, WHITE, RACIST PIECES OF SHIT YELLING INCOHERENTLY FOUND AT TEA PARTY RALLIES

FTFY

They really should install sharps containers for safety.

they are no match for my rifles!

they are no match for my rifles!

Y’know, I just got this….

yeah, I still haven’t but I’m slow.

yeah, I still haven’t but I’m slow.

The filmography of the actor in question threw me off.

Y’know, I just got this….

yeah, I still haven’t but I’m slow.

heh…chalk one up for me, it’s not often i can get one over on a sadly…

heh…chalk one up for me, it’s not often i can get one over on a sadly…

And it wasn’t as obscure as some hipster indie band.

DOZENS OF FAT, WHITE, RACIST PIECES OF SHIT YELLING INCOHERENTLY FOUND AT TEA PARTY RALLIES

Remember when the Tea Party first came on the scene, and they were shunned by the media, who called them called fake and violent? Remember how the local and state governments cracked down on them, with cops using pepper spray and batons? Remember how they were arrested for bringing guns to rallies and Health Care Reform town hall meetings? And let’s not forget how politicians stayed far away from them, refusing to embrace the needs of people willing to dress us in colonial cosplay complete with Lipton teabag accessories?

actor212 and Chris:

I believe the arguments you make are actually, to coin a phrase, “central to my point.”

You really should jerk off in private, Dennis.

You really should jerk off in private, Dennis.

I’m picturing an army of denhomonculi, resulting from a cross between the Golem and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Try to remember what you BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Go rape another baby, Dennis. It’s what you do best.

I’m picturing an army of denhomonculi

We could call ’em “orcs” but that would be giving them too much credit.

How about “irks” instead?

Calling them fat, white and racist is nothing more than stereotyping and projection and ugliness on the same scale as real racism is.

LIBRULS ARE THE REAL RACISTS!!!

WE’RE THE REAL VICTIMS!!!

The most predictable wingnut meme lives on.

+1, Chris

predictable wingnut meme

Really bad band name.

“predictable wingnut meme

Really bad band name.”

I think they back up Ray Stevens at Branson.

Try to remember what you said about them then, Pryme

I remember. I also said that a study shows them to be older conservatives who are pissed off at the GOP.

Calling them fat, white and racist
“Racist?” Wonder where I got that idea from?

Tea partiers got people elected on a scale not seen in a generation without one person getting arrested. OWSers have to sit around wondering how much more violent they have to get in order to stay relevant and in the daily news.

Which begs the question: how did the Tea Party folks avoid arrest when they were actually bringing guns to events, while the OWS crowd were passing around pizzas and building makeshift libraries? It’s almost like there was someone behind the scenes who had political influence over the police force who agreed with the Tea Party’s ideology, and just maybe doesn’t agree with the ideology of OWS.

predictable wingnut meme

Really bad band name.

How about “Dennis & The Predictable Wingnut Meme”?

Go rape another baby, Dennis. It’s what you do best.

okay, this is icky…

Some of us are pop ilculturate. Sean Bean is that fellow from lord of the rings and that whatshername on the airplane film, right? What rifles? U splain me dat.

I know arguing with Dennis is tilting at windmills but isn’t the tea party just a bunch of dupes who are the face “FreedomWorks” and therefore not really that grassroots at all?

It’s almost like there was someone behind the scenes who had political influence over the police force who agreed with the Tea Party’s ideology, and just maybe doesn’t agree with the ideology of OWS.

And is not above pepper spreaying 84 year old women.

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY!

God forgive me, but I think I’m actually going to give that book to someone for Christmas. Just to watch him freak out…

I know arguing with Dennis is tilting at windmills but isn’t the tea party just a bunch of dupes who are the face “FreedomWorks” and therefore not really that grassroots at all?

And FreedomWorks is promoted by Americans For Prosperity which is run by Dick Armey with funds from….a) Public Interest groups b) The unemployable masses who attended the rallies or c) The Koch Brothers?

Some of us are pop ilculturate. Sean Bean is that fellow from lord of the rings and that whatshername on the airplane film, right? What rifles? U splain me dat.

he did a whole series wherein he played a character named ‘sharpe.’ wacky misadventures ensue*…one such program was called ‘sharpe’s rifles’

*no, not really…

So, are you for public wanking or agin’ it, actor?

Like you, DenDen?

LALALALALALA*****IM NOT LISTENING ACTOR***LALALALALLAL

Drop trou, Discovery Channel!

oh, good dog! teh radio is playing toby keith’s ‘red solo cup’ song AGAIN…this may be teh day i throw that thing out the window…

The cup or the radio?

teh radio is playing toby keith’s ‘red solo cup’ song AGAIN

Two Keith’s, one cup?

i like to share…make sure you crank it to eleven!

Two Keith’s, one cup?

heh…

The cup or the radio?

all three…

Dirty filthy hippies in their suits and ties…

The 1% Doctrine: coming soon to a democracy near you!

“You really should jerk off in private, Dennis.”

That made me snigger.

That made me snigger.

What the—

Oh, Snigger! Oh. My bad.

The polite term for that is “snegro”

Dennis, your fascination with baby raping is disturbing.

The polite term for that is “snegro”

Or snausages

The polite term for that is “snegro”

Actually, “Chuckling-American” is the accepted PC vernacular.

Dennis, your fascination with baby raping is disturbing.

Just because he only watches the Family Guy episodes with Perverted Old Man, does not mean we should judge him. Let the courts do that.

“Racist?” Wonder where I got that idea from?

I’ll wade into the other side of the argument for this one: posters comparing Obama to Hitler or Marx aren’t racist per se, no matter how hilariously stupid: it’s just the standard demonization applied to anyone important enough to matter (Bush and Clinton got it too).

Not that there is in fact any shortage of racism at teabagger events. The “monkey see monkey spend” posters, portrayals of Obama as a witch-doctor with a big bone in his nose, the many different variations of “go back to Kenya.” “The zoo has an Africa [lion] and the White House has a lying African.” “My forefathers were Christian, yours were from Kenya.” “Hope for the rope” sign with a noose pictured next to it. “Obama = Half Breed Muslin.”

Although I must say, few people were as ridiculous up-front as the guy with the sign going “I’m a racist, I’m a bigot, I’m a teabagger.”

I’ll wade into the other side of the argument for this one: posters comparing Obama to Hitler or Marx aren’t racist per se

I dunno. Those Gummo posters sure look like they are.

Dennis, lunch period’s over?

Just because he only watches the Family Guy episodes with Perverted Old Man, does not mean we should judge him. Let the courts do that.

See, it’s just that the article I linked to makes no mention of Penn State at all, which is why I wonder if he has baby raping on his mind. And why.

I like showering with Dennis.

See, it’s just that the article I linked to makes no mention of Penn State at all, which is why I wonder if he has baby raping on his mind. And why.

I mean, Penn State is a fine conservative institution in a rock-ribbed conservative neck of Pennsylvania, so I can understand why he’d want to look into the infantile sex trade there, but still…it’s kinda icky

Those were all just homeless people who wandered over to the tea party protests, Chris.

This is weak, even by your standards, DenDen. Maybe you should put your pecker back in your pocket and give it a rest.

Tea partiers. What’s not to love? People complaining about mulitculturalism after backing a century and a half’s worth of legal and illegal immigration so they can keep wages low? Complaining that taxes are too high after putting 3 or 4 wars on the nation’s credit card? Complaining about foreign aid as if it was building schools and houses and medicine for foreigners instead of being used to buy guns and bombs made right here in the USA? They are the most authentic ‘grass roots’ movement that money can buy.

See, Pryme, I actually admire you for being unabashed in your stereotyping.

Here’s the deal: don’t claim I called all Tea Party people “fat, white and racist” and I won’t infer that you have an unhealthy obsession with defending an alleged child rapist. It’s that simple.

And if you think a “snark” = “unfettered prejudices,” then you’re reading from the wrong dictionary.

Now go back to your convoluted and discredited argument that the Tea Party represents “True America” while OWS were a bunch of dirty lazy hippies who hate capitalism.

OT – bad news.

Teh OWS Library that folks thought was destroyed, but was later shown in photographs to be okay? Half teh books are missing.

Teh librarians weatherproofed teh remaining books (ZipLoc baggies it appears) and mounted them in mobile carts. Mobile library – no tents, no tarps. Apparently, no go. Re-confiscated by NYPD.

Useful OWS Library link.

Official OWS Library link.

Rick Astley.

Dragon-King Wangchuck said,

November 17, 2011 at 20:08

oh, you know which link i clicked first, dontcha?!?!

oh, you know which link i clicked first, dontcha?!?!

Never gonna turn around and desert you.

Those were all just homeless people who wandered over to the tea party protests

Bringing signs. Also: homeless people totally didn’t wander into OWS areas, what with the tents and the food and whatnot, so we know anything we find can be blamed on the protestors.

I knew I said I wasn’t going to respond to Pennis anymoar, but WTF?! d00d, are you anti-library?

Geez, Dennis. Are you incapable of using “The Google?” Paterno is a proud Republican and Catholic. I suppose you would say that it is “purely conjectural” if I made the perfectly logical link between your writing here and child rape. Here is the progression: you come to a progressive snark site to pick a fight and/or hijack a thread; you get pounced upon; you DO NOT LEAVE; So, clearly, you are a masochist, and we all know that all masochists are child rapists. QED.

Then lay teh fuck off teh OWS library.

Ha! And you don’t think we’ve heard intolerant assholes claim we’re intolerant when we don’t tolerate their intolerance?

DenBob needs to look up where the “we are Penn State” comes from. Oh hell, he wouldn’t know how.

Before “We Are … Penn State,” Wally Triplett remembers another slogan:

“We play all or none.”

In 1946, the Penn State football team voted unanimously to cancel a scheduled game against then segregated University of Miami, rather than play without its two black players, Triplett and Dennie Hoggard.

“I call it ‘that team,’ ” said the former Penn State halfback, now 82. “That tradition of leaving your colored players at home was going to be tolerated no more.”

It was 1945 when Triplett became the first black starter on what was then Penn State’s varsity football team.

In 1948, Penn State was set to play Southern Methodist University in the Cotton Bowl. Triplett said he remembers that rumors circulated that SMU wanted to meet with Penn State to discuss the team not bringing its black players. During this time, Triplett credits guard Steve Suhey* with coining the now-famous Penn State slogan.

“We are Penn State,” Triplett recalled Suhey saying. “There will be no meetings.”

*Yep, father of Matt Suhey, grandfather of Joe Suhey who is currently playing well for the Nittany Lions.

y. You won’t find one word in any of my posts defending what went on at Penn State or with Sandusky. The closest I came to to saying anything remotely in defense of anyone was that Paterno’s voting record had nothing to do with a cover-up, that that was just smedley making a purely conjectural statement simply because he wanted it be so

And I pointed out that it’s not his voting record but his big donations and campaigning for the Rethuglican kleptocrats. Big buddy of Bush pere and all that. He’s not just another Republican, he’s a prominent Republican activist. And a devout Catlick. No one could have foreseen a boy raping scandal.

Oooh. My bad. I now realize that Dennis is not really a troll! He comes to a progressive snark site and pretends to be an ignorant tea-tard. I GET IT NOW!1!11 Wow. Can’t believe I missed that.

Looky! Looky here! I’ve made even MOAR poopies! Let me show you them.

Fuck. Bernie is “100% certain the USGP will be axed.” That’s the Austin 2012 GP, not the New Jersey GP set for 2013. Fuck.

Pup-

As I mentioned yesterday, having Red Fucking McCombs involved hoisted red flags all over Austin. This is a guy that made millions cheating San Antonians in new and used car dealings. He tried to bring his act to Austin, but after about a decade, he pulled up stakes and ran back to SA.

Dennis actually gets one right!

Giant leap from everthing before your last sentence to your last sentence, Pupienus. One gigantic mf’ing leap, actually.

I cede you that. It was completely predictable. Alas, he then introduces something completely irrelevant.

Square that leap with the fact Catholics voted 54-45 for The One vs. McCain, please.

DenDen, no one gives a flying fuck about your meth-addled, baby-raping views of morality, OK?

When you guys say vile things, I’ve heard them all so many times from libs that it means literally nothing to me… other than it proves liberal hypocrisy when they claim to be tolerant, unbiased and intelligent.

because you never crack wise, are sarcastic, engage in hyperbole to prove a point, blow off steam or vent your frustrations in a (sometimes) misguided way? in case you haven’t noticed pennis, sometimes people will say something on a blog like this and NOT REALLY MEAN IT…do you ever have a thought or utterance that is anything other than pure and/or factual?

No one here inflicts pain or humiliation and I feel neither.

Really? Then why are your fee-fees always hurt about this being a “snark blog” and no one laughs at your jokes, DenDen?

Oooh, DenDen’s getting all nasty and shit. I’m thinking his feelings are getting hurt. He may be too drunk to notice, all numbed out like the kids he rapes, but hey, it’s showing Denden!

ot: pretty much creeped out…yesterday while i was on the air, the local cops issued a missing persons report…after digging some information out of them, we went on the air with it…today while i was just out running errands, i noticed the local cops, sheriff’s dept., state trooper, conservation officer, a search & rescue unit from out of state and a bunch of vehicles all at the fire hall…said missing person is a young mexican woman who nobody around here seems to know too much about…she’s been missing for over a month and this is the first it’s been reported…it’s all very weird and alarming…

This thread is sorely lacking in eliminationist rhetoric. Let me try: DenBob should ESADIAF.

Dang, I just can’t seem to do eliminationist rhetoric. Sorry. Lil help?

So will Dennis eventually end up blowing up a federal building with a truck bomb? Or will he just be one of the guys who has to explain to a grand jury why it was totally okay for him to tell the bomber where to buy fertilizer?

Since we’re so far OT that you people are feeding Dennis again, here, have some yummy car eye candy.

I know since I’m an ebil liberal elite I should be eating tofu while driving a Prius, but…

OMFG! WANT! Fingers crossed it’ll get classed competitively in SCCA Solo II also too.

Fuck. Bernie is “100% certain the USGP will be axed.” That’s the Austin 2012 GP, not the New Jersey GP set for 2013. Fuck.

it’s like your speaking a foreign language…

The poor idiot claims not to be a masochist, yet keeps coming back here. Hmmm.

Dang, I just can’t seem to do eliminationist rhetoric. Sorry. Lil help?

Dennis will die when one of the little babies he’s raping turns around and swallows him like an anaconda.

Best I can do on short notice.

For once DenDen you are right. There is no evidence at all that being Catholic or Republican caused Joe Paterno to ignore the child rape going on right under his nose on the Penn State Campus. There is furthermore, no evidence that the Catholic and Republican Joe Sandusky was inspired to commit the horrific child rapes that he is alleged to have done, because of his religion or his politics.

We are a little curious though. All of the same people who want the entire Muslim world to repudiate the violence of extremist Islam seem curiously silent when it comes to asking Republicans and Catholics to repudiate the horrible deeds of Jerry Sandusky and the inexcusable inaction (at best) or premeditated complicity (at wost) of Joe Paterno in the face of that abuse.

it’s all very weird and alarming…

Hey, at least it’s not another blonde bimbo.

All of the same people who want the entire Muslim world to repudiate the violence of extremist Islam seem curiously silent when it comes to asking Republicans and Catholics to repudiate the horrible deeds of Jerry Sandusky and the inexcusable inaction (at best) or premeditated complicity (at wost) of Joe Paterno in the face of that abuse.

*sniff sniff*

What’s burning?

Oh. That must be DenDen’s ass.

Underneath the taut WR Blue Pearl II paint is a new normally aspirated 2.0-liter boxer engine fueled by Toyota’s gasoline direct injection. No output figures from the engine were released.

Normally aspirated? in an STi Subaru, WTF?

Fuck. Bernie is “100% certain the USGP will be axed.” That’s the Austin 2012 GP, not the New Jersey GP set for 2013. Fuck.

Fuck indeed.

I wonder if Jersey has a better chance of surviving since it’s a street course and doesn’t need the massive initial investment of constructing a purpose-built FIA-worthy track…

bbkf: it’s a car racing thing. But not lame-o NASCAR redneck racing, real racing.

How is it

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!

DenDen, go try to impress a kid on the monkey bars with your manly manliness. Your shit stinks.

I wonder if Jersey has a better chance of surviving since it’s a street course and doesn’t need the massive initial investment of constructing a purpose-built FIA-worthy track…

I’m just waiting for the first idiot to jaywalk the track and sue the crap out of the organizers.

Oh, and DenDen?

Playing with it won’t make it any bigger. You’ll still have a stick dick

This is the liberal logistical thought process for reaching conclusions.

And you “surmised” that I thought all Tea Party people were “fat, white and racist” how exactly? What? “You pulled that conclusion out of your ass?” Thought so. All I did was use you own logic against you; identifying it as flawed shows that you had nothing to back up what you’ve been claiming.

Everytime you try to sound like a paid conservative pundit, you fail miserably. Mackey at least tries to use 100-year-old anecdotal evidence.

Speaking of the thread’s original topic…

Obtuse troll is obtuse.

Normally aspirated? in an STi Subaru, WTF?

I know, right? IIRC all the earlier reports indicated it would be a turbo… No matter how good it looks, a 150hp NA motor in a 3000lb+ (probably) car is not gonna get me to ditch my GC8 Impreza.

All I did was use you own logic against you

Using a conservative’s words against him is entrapment.

here, have some yummy car eye candy.

ooooooooh…shiny!

Using a conservative’s words against him is entrapment.

Another thing we can thank Newt for…

bbkf: it’s a car racing thing. But not lame-o NASCAR redneck racing, real racing.

You mean F1 is now racing point to point on public streets with no pre-running the course, in all weather over surfaces that include cobblestones, ice and snow? /EndRallySnob

Normally aspirated? in an STi Subaru, WTF?

No shit. Where’s the 265 horse turbo boxer from the WRX? And even more WTF, rear wheel drive?!?!? It’s a subSubaru.

Using a conservative’s words against him is entrapment.

Another thing we can thank Newt for…

And Herman Cain

Why does DenDen support perverts?

Whenever someone starts running their mouth about how 100 or 200 or 500 years ago things were like this or that or the other, I always want to ask them if they were alive 100 years ago.

And, following that, if they even know what the fuck they’re talking about.

And following that, if I can measure their personal accomplishments with things done 100 years ago. For example, 100 years ago everyone had to wash their motherfucking dishes by hand. Is that appealing to them? 100 years ago, there was no such thing as insulin. 100 years ago, the flu was a death sentence for almost anybody not in perfect health. 100 years ago, most Americans rode a horse.

Was 100 years ago so motherfucking great? I don’t think so.

Help me with the punchline: An obtuse teatard masochist walks into a progressive snark blog and says: I’m not a masochist……………..?

Who are

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

DenDen go find a Boy Scout to go play with, K? You can teach him how to shower properly, I’m sure.

Was 100 years ago so motherfucking great? I don’t think so.

this would look great needlepointed on a pillow…

Help me with the punchline: An obtuse teatard masochist walks into a progressive snark blog and says: I’m not a masochist……………..?

…My name is Dennis

“It’s a subSubaru.”

Is that like a miniMini-Cooper?

Was 100 years ago so motherfucking great?

Actually, that would be “great-grandmotherfucking great.”

Wow, you leave the Internets for like an hour and a half and look what happens…

there’s no reason S. cerevisia couldn’t tape a sausage or two to his leg.

How it’s done.

There’s another way…

You mean F1 is now racing point to point on public streets with no pre-running the course, in all weather over surfaces that include cobblestones, ice and snow? /EndRallySnob

Heh, good one. At last F1 does race in the rain.

And I wouldn’t exactly call WRC’s “recces” and co-driver’s extensive pace note collections “no pre-running” but I get your point.

My first racing experience was actually SCCA rallycross when it was first getting started, and I’ve worked the course at a few stage rallies here in the NW over the years.

And even more WTF, rear wheel drive?!?!? It’s a subSubaru.

I’d be fine with a RWD car. AWD was just an option up through ’94 or ’96 I think, before they made it standard on all subies.

Speaking of poor attitudes re:libraries.

S. cerevisia

oh, i forgot…did i mention that saturday morning i am leaving to go to the west river in south dakota? that means i’m going to the middle of nowhere…but it’s sublimely beautiful…hubbkf and the bil are going to hunt pheasant and the sil and i are going to loll about the cabin…cannot. wait. for. total. isolation. from. civilization.

so, yeah…rome? pffffffft…

Speaking of OWS vs. teh Tea Party, something something about echo chambers.

Speaking of poor attitudes re:libraries.

Ah wuz elected to LEAD not to read

Speaking of OWS vs. teh Tea Party, something something about echo chambers.

Did you know that 70% of OWS is employed, but only 55% of Teabaggers are?

Speaking of poor attitudes re:libraries.

that’s another one where the only response is: wow…just…wow…

Was 100 years ago so motherfucking great? I don’t think so.

The people who were alive back then probably didn’t think so either, which is why the agitated, fought and died for things like minimum wage, collective bargaining rights, a welfare state, and enough regulations to ensure that the Mighty Captains of Industry wouldn’t keep flying our economy right off the rails every twenty years or so.

If 100 years ago was so motherfucking great, I recommend that the people pining for it move to a country where all these changes haven’t happened yet. (I recommend Somalia: there’s no government and everyone owns a gun, a true conservative’s utopia).

Perry challenged Pelosi to debate him next Monday. Here’s how she responded:

“He did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday. It is my understanding that such a letter has come in,” Pelosi said in the Capitol Thursday. “Monday I’m going to be in Portland in the morning, I’m going to be visiting some of our labs. I’m in California in the afternoon, that’s two. I can’t remember what the third is.”

Someone will have to explain it to Dennis.

Not out of my ass

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

DenDen, like your mom, you’re boring and overrated.

But at least she cleans the tip afterwards.

The people who were alive back then probably didn’t think so either, which is why they* agitated, fought and died for things like minimum wage, collective bargaining rights, a welfare state, and enough regulations to ensure that the Mighty Captains of Industry wouldn’t keep flying our economy right off the rails every twenty years or so.

* you mean, liberals here, I’m sure. Conservatives stood in the way.

If you’re

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

(I love repeating caps lock)

DenDen, it’s nearly 3. Shouldn’t you be down at the school yard, picking up your date?

Don’t forget to wear your trench coat! It’s raining

Hey, Pryme?

Notice how DenDen thinks you’re vs? He must be Donalde, the AssProf!

He comes to a progressive snark site and pretends to be an ignorant tea-tard

This is not a snark blog!
This is not a snark blog!
This is not a snark blog!

Look at this filthy hippy at OWS. Who the fuck does he think he is? Sheesh.

Look at this filthy hippy at OWS.

I’ll bet his uniform has dust on it, the filthy hippie

I’m not bored. I enjoy watching car crashes.

I’d like to know why my Goldman broker never calls me

it might have to do with the fact you touched his daughter inappropriately.

I’m not bored.

Did you see how it tried to link OWS to the Democratic party?

Nice try, Short Eyes.

Right. Because you’re bored.

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do it because it clearly annoys you, DenDen.

Clock’s ticking, DenDen! You don’t want to be late.

Oh wait. Maybe your date’s in detention today?

Right, and surmising the driver must’ve been Republican and Catholic and therefore a bad driver.

But your fee fees aren’t hurt at all. Gotcha.

The use of the word absurd to defend absurdity.

Lay off teh library. Thousands of books were destroyed and many moar were damaged in the eviction and now they’ve confiscated a bunch more. Again. This ain’t something to laugh about.

I appreciate your schtick is to be as offensive as you possibly can, but leave teh library out of it.

From tsam’s link:

Yet, it’s uncomfortable, but I am more concerned that we would prevent aircraft from going into the Twin Towers, taking them down, and taking out 3,000 innocent American lives, than I am about the comfort level of a terrorist, and what that means for them.

Did she just criticize Dubya for failing to do enough to prevent the tragedy?

WHY WON’T YOU AGREE WITH ME????? I are smart. I are clever. You should agree wtih me. I HATE YOU!!!111!!11!!1

I appreciate your schtick is to be as offensive as you possibly can, but leave teh library out of it.

DK, what do you want from a guy who defends pedophilia? Burning books is a short walk from there.

More from tsam’s link: (Acknowledging that Ventura is a creepy weirdo–but I thought this was the best way to describe the “intelligence” that torture produces)

Another example is the eccentric former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has discussed how he was waterboarded as part of his Navy SEAL training (which the military does in order to teach its elite troops to resist torture techniques). Ventura famously declared: “I’ll put it to you this way: You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”

Are there so many vore fetishists here that they have to keep feeding the troll? Fachinello, people, if you stopped feeding him, he’d stop looking for more proxies every time he gets banned.

Also too, Pennis – if you are that fucking concerned about teh OWS library being full of propaganda and whatnot, send them your copy of Atlas Shrugged or wev. They are librarians and they will add any donated book to their catalog.

Further, the People’s Library was also a collection of original material including a poetry anthology. You can write your angry screeds about how all liberals stereotype and mail it to them. It’ll go onto the shelves if they ever get shelves back again.

The address:
The UPS Store
Re: Occupy Wall Street
Attn: The People’s Library
118A Fulton St. #205
New York, NY 10038

Another example is the eccentric former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura

sometimes i kinda miss jesse..

sometimes i kinda miss jesse..

And then I remember he’s a truther.

I never really thought Jesse was a bad guy. But the whole conspiracy theorist thing he’s got going lately is off-putting, to say the least.

NU THRED!

I never really thought Jesse was a bad guy.

Even when he complained about one speech and walked out of the Wellstone memorial?

Really? That didn’t tell you he was a knobhead?

I’m not

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonus! From teh Walsh post:

,,,bitterly clinging to their shopworn thirties socialism,,,

Whups, wrnog threded.

Really? That didn’t tell you he was a knobhead?

I didn’t know about that. I do know he’s a knobhead.

I didn’t know about that.

Yea.

Two hours into a five hour celebration, a friend of Wellstone’s gave a speech and for something like five lines, the speech become political, rather than celebrating the life of one of MN’s most popular men

Jesse got all butthurt, said something like, “Well! I didn’t think this would get partisan!” gather up his petticoat and ran out. Meanwhile, better sense caught up with the speaker, he finished and the rest of the program Jesse missed, insulting the Wellstone family et al.

Speaking of OWS vs. teh Tea Party, something something about echo chambers.

It’s almost like one is a “circle” that’s somehow “jerking” around and around…further study is required.

Your own words, or rather they were vacuumslayer’s words that you repeated

So…that means…I…didn’t…say them. I referenced them to make my own separate point.

Like if I go:

If Catholics are all over the map

then…OHMYGODYESOHMYGOD……did I just smear all Catholics? Oh wait, nope; it’s part of something you said…OR IS IT…? MUAHHAHAHAHAHA…

Thanks for playing; try the veal!

Or Pryme, you’re really vs!

OBS:

Fingers crossed it’ll get classed competitively in SCCA Solo II also too.

You ever get up to Packwood?*

*Not a VBSR

You ever get up to Packwood?*

Yeah, but not in a couple years. Did one of the ProSolos they held there (2008?), and several Oregon region events. Great site, just wish it wasn’t so far away. Hope to be back to Solo2 this coming spring. I really need to get out for a track day out at ORP too.

Possibly OT:

OWS Protesters Chant ‘Follow Those Kids!’ As Small Children Try To Go To School On Wall Street

D-KW, please ask your friends to lay off the 4 year old kids going to school.

Muck like libraries, these should be off-limits from vicious attacks by goons, agreed?

Good ol’ Dennis, taking the side of small children.

The backside.

Your fascination with underage ass is disturbing, DenDen.

Y’know, it’s funny, but those kids were part of the protest!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

DenDen blows another one! And this time, it’s not a little boy!

Hey, DenDen! 50,000 people showed up last night! That’s nearly as many as showed up for Glenn Beck’s “rally” in DC. In the summer. On a Sunday. A nice warm Sunday. AND THEY WERE PROVIDED FREE TRANSPORTATION!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!

Denny, when you’re lined up against the wall, please don’t take the blindfold. I want to watch you cry.

I’m sorry, DenDen….did I interrupt your third period date?

You must be quaking in your boots. That’s the only reason you’d post some made up shit about 4 year olds being in danger from scary hippies.

DenDen, how was lunch? Did he have his peach fuzz yet, or do you like ’em younger?

My god, DenDen, why do you rape babies?

Oh, and Dennis?

NOTE Your ass has been kicked…again…by Actor212¹

¹ a wholly-owned subsidiary of Actor212 Enterprises, a Cayman Islands corporation.

[…] has an editorial from yesterday’s two days ago’s WSJ that achieves galactic idiocy (via). Mackey starts out strong: Is the United States exceptional? Of course we are! Two hundred years […]

Oh, DenDen, I’ve done more than call you a baby rapist. I’ve completely destroyed your karma.

Your my bitch now.

Coffee. Black, two sugars. NOW!

Oh, and Dennis?

NOTE Your ass has been kicked…again…by Actor212¹

¹ a wholly-owned subsidiary of Actor212 Enterprises, a Cayman Islands corporation.

See? My bitch!

DenDen, look at how you’ve followed me all around cyberspace. How hard you’ve worked to try to find backdoors and proxies onto this site. How you got banned at my site, and then fought like a dog to find another way to get at me.

I pwn you, bitch.

Now. Coffee. Black, two sugars. NOW!

DenDen, poor deluded DenDen.

You been outted as a fanboi and pwned.

COFFEE! NOW! Hurry bitch!

Look at you, all grammar-trolly because you can’t win on facts!

Pwned. Totally Pwned you are.

Look at you, all grammar-trolly because you can’t win on facts!

(1) You haven’t posted any facts, and (b) Claiming “Your my bitch” is the liberal equivalent to saying “Get a brain, morans”.

Has nothing to do with being a grammar-Nazi, it’s just funny your that much of an idiot that would screw that up while at the same time to this day brags about being accelerated a grade in middle school…. some 40 freaking years ago.

Ooooh, look! My bitch is back!

Where’s my coffee? Raping another baby?

A little porn for my bitch

Poor DenDen. Why are you so homophobic?

BTW, Breitbart’s not gay. At least not outwardly and he claims to have been married for a long time.

So why do YOU play the homo car–

Oh. Oh my, as my good friend George Takei would say…..

OK, Bitch, now where’s my coffee? And go get your ball gag. You borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre me

Poor little bitch. So one blow job makes him gay?

Boy, is your closet door wide open now!

DenDen, why do you hate gays? You’ve shown time and time again your disgust at them. Why do you hate them so? Do they scare you? Have you weird feelings in your gut when you think about a man’s cock near your orifices?

I’m just curious.

Your all one big happy family of hate

!

Oops? 🙂

Is English your first language, DenDen?

Oh, and DenDen?

WIN!

*putting on Viking helmet*

DenDen!DenDen!Ugly Den! TrollishDen! Useless Den! HomophobeDen! DenDen!DenDen!