Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

[5mn_Major]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they the latest "actual" prices that have been posted by consumers?

If someone posts that a gallon at station XYZ is selling at $4.25 and four hours later it's selling at $4.32 (happened here yesterday), then how "actual" is the price that you found?

I use the Gas Buddy app while traveling and have found it to be inaccurate in many parts of the eastern US and Canada. YMMV

Guys, I'm actually doing research on the future of the car. How is Gas Buddy? How are any other car apps you've tried?

 

[walrus]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

That's how averages work now? .

So Fox claimed those were average prices?

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Actual liberals not pleased with centrist Obama.

The poll found Americans “more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook” than at any time since Obama took office – with public confidence falling 13% in the past month, a period highlighted by the President agreeing to massive Republican-backed federal budget cuts. While Obama has tried to “steal” the budget deficit issue from Republicans, the poll showed 60% of voters reject both parties’ budget policies and only 29% believe reducing the federal deficit creates jobs. Instead of becoming a modern day FDR, Barack Obama's economic agenda more closely resembles Herbert Hoover’s, and voters are not happy.

Just as when the righties try to frame Obama as a some sort of progressive, this criticism is mostly partisan bunk, but it's interesting to see how much flak he takes from both fringes. That's why being president is so much fun.

 

[geezer]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Actual liberals not pleased with centrist Obama.

this quote lost me at "massive Republican budget cuts". Have you seen where this "huge sacrifice" amounted to about $12 B dropped in a $14 T hole? Far from being massive, it doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket. I thought it rather shrewd of Obama (Democratically speaking) to take credit for agreeing to "massive budget cuts" while actually doing nothing to slow the growth of the debt.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

this quote lost me at "massive Republican budget cuts". Have you seen where this "huge sacrifice" amounted to about $12 B dropped in a $14 T hole? Far from being massive, it doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket. I thought it rather shrewd of Obama (Democratically speaking) to take credit for agreeing to "massive budget cuts" while actually doing nothing to slow the growth of the debt.

He caved on the Bush Tax Cuts. That's epic failure there. He's now in a war in Libya without a way to pay for it, that's more epic failure. Washington is a perpetual motion machine of complete lunacy.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

this quote lost me at "massive Republican budget cuts". Have you seen where this "huge sacrifice" amounted to about $12 B dropped in a $14 T hole? Far from being massive, it doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket. I thought it rather shrewd of Obama (Democratically speaking) to take credit for agreeing to "massive budget cuts" while actually doing nothing to slow the growth of the debt.

I don't disagree. The right and the left are both delusional in thinking they can just keep pushing their same policies forever. The right thinks any tax hike (even allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire) or any cut in the military budget is demonic and the left thinks any cut in entitlements is Draconian. The fringes aren't just using this rhetoric to stake out a bargaining position, those fools actually believe their rhetoric, because opinion-makers from each side have been pouring that poison into their ears for a generation.

It's too late for us olds, but hopefully people under 30 realize just how bankrupt the institutional and intellectual right and left are in this country. Ideas are born in answer to realities, but as history moves and realities change those ideas become nothing but ossified ideologies, divorced from their source, and totally meaningless except as nostalgic views of a world that no longer exists. You young folks need to take the dead hands of both FDR and Reagan from your throats before it's too late for you, too. Save yourselves.

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

I don't disagree. The right and the left are both delusional in thinking they can just keep pushing their same policies forever. The right thinks any tax hike (even allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire) or any cut in the military budget is demonic and the left thinks any cut in entitlements is Draconian. The fringes aren't just using this rhetoric to stake out a bargaining position, those fools actually believe their rhetoric, because opinion-makers from each side have been pouring that poison into their ears for a generation.

It's too late for us olds, but hopefully people under 30 realize just how bankrupt the institutional and intellectual right and left are in this country. Ideas are born in answer to realities, but as history moves and realities change those ideas become nothing but ossified ideologies, divorced from their source, and totally meaningless except as nostalgic views of a world that no longer exists. You young folks need to take the dead hands of both FDR and Reagan from your throats before it's too late for you, too. Save yourselves.

Well said.


Cue Scooby rant defending Obama.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Well said.


Cue Scooby rant defending Obama.

I already ripped him. Sorry.

 

[geezer]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Well said.

I swear you just plucked those two words right out of my head.
anyway, I agree.

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Just as when the righties try to frame Obama as a some sort of progressive, this criticism is mostly partisan bunk, but it's interesting to see how much flak he takes from both fringes. That's why being president is so much fun.

...and that's why he's still got great potential. He still needs to fully achieve it tho.

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

I already ripped him. Sorry.

My reverse psychology worked.

 

[pirate]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

I don't disagree. The right and the left are both delusional in thinking they can just keep pushing their same policies forever. The right thinks any tax hike (even allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire) or any cut in the military budget is demonic and the left thinks any cut in entitlements is Draconian. The fringes aren't just using this rhetoric to stake out a bargaining position, those fools actually believe their rhetoric, because opinion-makers from each side have been pouring that poison into their ears for a generation.

It's too late for us olds, but hopefully people under 30 realize just how bankrupt the institutional and intellectual right and left are in this country. Ideas are born in answer to realities, but as history moves and realities change those ideas become nothing but ossified ideologies, divorced from their source, and totally meaningless except as nostalgic views of a world that no longer exists. You young folks need to take the dead hands of both FDR and Reagan from your throats before it's too late for you, too. Save yourselves.

I agree with all of that...to add a gallon of gas, our educational system and most current parents are producing a generation in which the greatest percentage ever will be unqualified to get a job in the economy they are sure to face. So, the challenge is getting tougher and the resources to solve the challenge are getting weaker.

 

[gounhwildcats]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

I don't disagree. The right and the left are both delusional in thinking they can just keep pushing their same policies forever. The right thinks any tax hike (even allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire) or any cut in the military budget is demonic and the left thinks any cut in entitlements is Draconian. The fringes aren't just using this rhetoric to stake out a bargaining position, those fools actually believe their rhetoric, because opinion-makers from each side have been pouring that poison into their ears for a generation.

It's too late for us olds, but hopefully people under 30 realize just how bankrupt the institutional and intellectual right and left are in this country. Ideas are born in answer to realities, but as history moves and realities change those ideas become nothing but ossified ideologies, divorced from their source, and totally meaningless except as nostalgic views of a world that no longer exists. You young folks need to take the dead hands of both FDR and Reagan from your throats before it's too late for you, too. Save yourselves.

I'll join the choir here and say I couldn't agree with you more. This is not a Democrat and Republican and which ideology is right and which is wrong issue anymore. It's gone way, way beyond that. The article I'm attaching hopefully shows the level of desperation that should be felt here, because the situation that has developed in the US under the watch of Republican and Democratic leadership has gone beyond all this ideological rhetoric. I'm sorry but you don't have the luxury of making these silly arguments anymore. With oil and commodities prices going through the roof, the US dollar on the verge of losing it's reserve currency status, China about to take over as the worlds leading economy and $140 trillion in actual debt this is no longer an issue of who's political ideology is right or wrong.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229942/other-national-debt/kevin-williamson

 

[unofan]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

It's too late for us olds, but hopefully people under 30 realize just how bankrupt the institutional and intellectual right and left are in this country.

Since I'm feeling extra snarky this morning, who or what constitutes "intellectual right," assuming it isn't an oxymoron these days? It certainly isn't the tea party or the neo-cons, and the Buckley's, Will's, and the like are quickly being derided as RINO's.

 

[geezer]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

$140 trillion in actual debt this is no longer an issue of who's political ideology is right or wrong.

Point taken. However, the $140T reflects future liabilities, not "actual debt", as explained. This is why SS and Medicare are blatantly unsustainable, and should be ended now (as they exist as broad perks of citizenship) rather than continuing to roll down the hill like snowballs.
I'm wondering, when the US is dissolved, whether the UP will want to adjoin with WI, or stay with MI, or form the state of Superior in the coming unrest. Access to fresh water will be valuable before it's over.

 

[unofan]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Point taken. However, the $140T reflects future liabilities, not "actual debt", as explained. This is why SS and Medicare are blatantly unsustainable, and should be ended now (as they exist as broad perks of citizenship) rather than continuing to roll down the hill like snowballs.
I'm wondering, when the US is dissolved, whether the UP will want to adjoin with WI, or stay with MI, or form the state of Superior in the coming unrest. Access to fresh water will be valuable before it's over.

$140T in long term liabilities is about 10x national GDP. As long term debt goes, that's not unsustainable. Uncomfortable, sure. Higher than we should accept? Sure. But it's still doable.

Between student loans and our mortgage, my wife and I have an annual income/ long term debt ratio about half that (5x as opposed to 10x). And we're comfortable. We could afford more, though it wouldn't be fun.

I know the situations aren't directly comparable, but the point is you can't be thrown simply because the number's so big. So is the American economy. California alone has the 5th biggest economy in the world.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Since I'm feeling extra snarky this morning, who or what constitutes "intellectual right," assuming it isn't an oxymoron these days? It certainly isn't the tea party or the neo-cons, and the Buckley's, Will's, and the like are quickly being derided as RINO's.

The right claims intellectual sources, but they are either featherweights like George Will, dime-store-totalitarians like Victor Davis Hanson, or obsolete libertarian court jesters like Murray Rothbard.

Insofar as the tea party has any intellectual sources (the 10% of them who are literate that is) they are either from the old Milton Friedman I've Got Mine You Can Fuck Off School or the Von Misean "I read thirty books about economics, all by the same three guys, so now I think I know all about it" school. They're trapped in 1975 and need to be wheeled off to the Fletcher Memorial Home for Incurable Olds Who Still Make References to Pink Floyd. They're as sad as old Hippies.

The Neocon intellectual sources are even creakier old gas bags: the Leo Straussian "fascism with an Orange County face" drag act that goes all the way back to the late 50's radical left, who found an open wound to nest in after the Dems kicked out their knuckledragger wing and have been festering there ever since.

W. F. Buckey will, IMHO, never go out of style or relevance, because he's an heir to the intellectual conservative tradition that dates back through Russell Kirk all the way to Edmund Burke. Those guys have no voice in current US politics (though the hate radio types like to cherry-pick them to fake legitimacy) and they really never found a true home here in the states -- if they were actually active today they'd be branded as "leftist" by the brownshirts who pose as current American "conservatives." Guys like Andrew Sullivan write about Oakeshottian conservatives if you're interested -- they're as alien to the current RNC as Peter Abelard was to the Black Panthers (and are at roughly the same ratio of intellect).

To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to
mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the
superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss. Familiar relationships and
loyalties will be preferred to the allure of more profitable attachments; to acquire and to enlarge will be less
important than to keep, to cultivate and to enjoy; the grief of loss will be more acute than the excitement of
novelty or promise. It is to be equal to one’s own fortune, to live at the level of one’s own means, to be content
with the want of greater perfection which belongs alike to oneself and one’s circumstances. With some people
this is itself a choice; in others it is a disposition which appears, frequently or less frequently, in their
preferences and aversions, and is onto itself chosen or specifically cultivated.

Those are the conservatives I respect and admire, and to whose beliefs I am, though not completely atuned, at least sympathetic. They are the opposite of the brutal, ignorant, vainglorious imps who are celebrated by the American right.

 

[geezer]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

$140T in long term liabilities is about 10x national GDP. As long term debt goes, that's not unsustainable. Uncomfortable, sure. Higher than we should accept? Sure. But it's still doable.

I probably shouldn't be so negative. But when I read that the country's only hope is Donald Trump, I'm thinking I should stock up on salt and ammunition.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

$140T in long term liabilities is about 10x national GDP. As long term debt goes, that's not unsustainable.

10x and rising is way different from 10x and falling. The scary problem right now is there is no scary problem -- we're running up this debt despite not facing a crisis that calls for such a high burn rate of our reserves (unless the demographic shift is a crisis -- and maybe it is).

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: Obama XXI: Kenyan Muslins are ruining this country!

Not another argument that one side or the other is dumb. Both sides have smart and dumb people. But, it's easy to deride folks you disagree with as simply being dumb. But, that's both lazy and inaccurate.