Very good Nate Silver piece on Debt Ceiling negotiations.

[babe]

On the LarouchePAC (cited by babe several times) website front page right now:

Also multiple references to QE2 and QE3 as "genocide" and repeated references to Congress as "fascists."




Hmmmmmm.

The value I find in listening sometimes to folks of all imaginable kinds of views is the challenge to my own ideas, which I consider suspect generally, even while I may more or less stubbornly insist on good reasons to change them. . . .

here is a working link to LaRouche's live webcast today.

https://larouchepac.com/node/18767?...dium=email&utm_campaign=110719_LLPML_7_19_111

I listened to sincere old people when I was a kid fifty years ago. I was a regular terror in my teens about as determined to cut my own way as anyone I've ever seen or heard tale of, but one of the things time does to humans is the erosional effects of experience on self-assuredness.

It's been a long time since I knew it all, or even thought I did. One thing I see in every serious look I take at any particular situation in human history is the tendency of the powerful among us to ignore obvious truth and insist on doing destructive things to the rest of us.

Our Goldman-Sachs and other types of our rich and influential really don't seem to actually care.

 

[One Brow]

This is a false dichotomy. Good ideas have merit regardless of the nutcases who sometimes parrot them.

True enough, if you can learn to disassociate teh ideas from the person.

I sorta have a bias towards a Martin Luther who ostensibly believed ordinary folks were entitled to read the Bible and other things for themselves rather than just believe and obey a priestly class of "experts".

For many of those people, that's the equivalent of letting them choose wh they willblindly follow.

 

[One Brow]

LaRouche has his own special meanings for some terms.

When you take words that have specific, well-known meanings and use them in a manner contrary to those meanings, the very kindest interpretation is that you don't realize how much you are inviting people to misunderstand. For example, we already have good words to refer to the items that bind things together. Using a word that means capitalistic dictatorship is using English poorly, not well.

 

[green]

Well, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. The funniest thing about this thread is the ad at the top of the screen. It reads,

"Orrin Hatch: A Fiscal Conservative Hero"

If that is true, then this country is screwed. If our "Fiscal Conservative Hero's" spend like democrats, then there is no hope.

 

[green]

Finally, all of this talk is fun, but I really believe that this country runs at its best when Congress is split Democrat and Republican, which each party split with extremists and moderates. That puts 1/3 right wing crazies, 1/3 left wing crazies, and 1/3 moderates. THEN there is true compromise and usually a better outcome is found. We need more moderates and less crazies. That is why I think Huntsman would run away the presidency if Repubs were smart enough to nominate him (which I don't know if they are).

What normal person in this country doesn't believe most of these statments:
We need to cut government
We need to fix the tax system
We need to fix ridiculous government pension plans
We need to help businesses hire more people
We need to figure out what we are doing to the environment, so we can then find a REAL solution to fix it
We need to treat all people equally. Marriage is a religious rite, so gay marriage may not be the best thing, but at very least, civil unions will all the tax benefits/couple benefits/etc are a no brainer.

The guy instituted a flat tax, cut ridiculous pensions, gave Utah the largest tax break in the history of the state, was smart enough to realize that good times do not last forever, so left with close to 1 Billion in the bank, helping Utah weather this recession as good/better than any other state, wants equal right for everyone, because, all men are create equal, cut government, cut ridiculous government pensions, understands that we are doing something to the environment (look at the wasatch front/LA and tell me we aren't) but we need to figure out exactly what and then fix it, and so on.

The guy is a no brainer, but we have become too "extreme" to see this. "Oh, I'm republican and he likes gay people so I hate him." "Oh, I'm democrat and he has a R, so I hate him"

Anyways, I've probably said all I need/have to say. I'll enjoy the responses.

 

[One Brow]

What normal person in this country doesn't believe most of these statments:
We need to fix ridiculous government pension plans

I agree with, or was neutral, to each item but this one. Pension plans are one of the key tools for recruiting government workers. Cutting them after people have been depending on them for years is not only unfair to the people who took their jobs in part because fo the pension, but also will reduce the quality of recruits in the future.

 

[The Thriller]

Well, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. The funniest thing about this thread is the ad at the top of the screen. It reads,

"Orrin Hatch: A Fiscal Conservative Hero"

If that is true, then this country is screwed. If our "Fiscal Conservative Hero's" spend like democrats, then there is no hope.

Who took over Wash DC when we had a surplus after Clinton? Who was the President that created tax cuts which drove up billions, wars that drove up trillions, expanded government, and created more government programs?

I do hate to ruin your rant with facts... Pesky lil things I know...

But I grow tired of this fantasy history land that the right wing seems to live in. Since when have repubs been fiscal? Even dating back to Reagan.

 

[PearlWatson]

Here is a fun production on "Quantitative Easing Explained":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k

That is pretty amusing.