In challenging times, the past is a seductive distraction

First. Finally.

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oh … and … WELL SAID, Jay!!

happy new year!!!

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Looking forward, How do we become CEOs that will pick a board that will reward us heftily compared to our workers? Can’t beat them you join them, right?

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Yeah, I remember the “Fabulous Fifties” as “duck and cover”, bomb shelters, Little Rock, and (shudder) Elvis. I remember living in Germany when Russian soldiers tried to take my Mom and me away (I was five then). I remember Army sedans coming to my friends houses on base to tell that family their husband/father had been killed in Korea. Yeah…the fabulous fifties…

…and the Sixties? Well…just more of the same…

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It would have been solid ground if those danged Republicans hadn’t melted it!

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve.

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Well said, jay…as always.

Have a happy and safe New year.

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Jay the reason the for the downturn is because of the breaking down the laws of commerce since Reagan’s days. Bring back the FDR rules we will be good shape.

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USinUK,
I would but then I’d have to admit there was no “Jeannie”…

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You sound like poor Henry Adams lamenting the evolution [in a pace far too fast for him] of modern society in the late Victorian era when the slow pace of change became a juggernaut of innovation and invention with all the ills that brings.

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usinuk

Happy New Year! 50/50 chance I’ll make it across the big lake this summer.

Jay – excellent column sir & a happy new years to you and your family. Life is cyclical and there’s no reason that we can’t learn from our mistakes to right the ship. Unfortunately, everybody wants it done yesterday, this will take some precious time to fix, that only increases the risk that if we don’t get it right, more will suffer in the future…

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Jay, I don’t always agree with your politics, however, this is one of your better pieces.

I’d still pay to hear you and Boortz debate the Fair (or not so Fair) Tax. 2012?

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It is certainly true that times change. It is just as true that people don’t. So, there are a number of things we can count on for the foreseeable future:

1. Wars
2. Power obsessed politicians
3. Greed driven predatory capitalism
4. Runaway political correctness
5. The people eventually becoming fed up and revolting is one way or another which will result in a new power structure which will devolve into Wars, bad politicians, runaway greed etc etc etc etc

Happy new year!!!!

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Senior Citizen – you forget – prior to the 1960s, many fathers / husbands were killed in war and in agricultural accidents -

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If our affluence was testament to our nation’s strength, wisdom and goodness, as we were taught, what does its diminishment tell us? Does it mean that we have become less wise and less good?

Of course not. We are exceptional. It’s the liberal boogeymen who are destroying this country, even when they had no power that we could see, behind the scenes our Manchurian candidate was using his voodoo powers to wreck the economy before being elected, a plan that we liberals had in the works since his birth in 1961 when the birth certificate was forged and we knew we would attack American Exceptionalism at its heart! Barney Frank also exercised his voodoo powers since before he was elected to FORCE the leaders in Washington to do everything his way, and FORCE lenders to lend. It was only after people started seeing through this that the truth was revealed: The liberals were always in power and the LIBERAL MEDIA was duping us all!

OR, we could admit that we got a big head and we need to be a little more practical and less “all about the money,” and also admit that Obama and Barney Frank had NOTHING to do with the economic collapse. If the conservatives weren’t so obsessed with finding blame, we might be able to get there, since once you remove their favorite scapegoats, there really only are a couple of other obvious people to blame, and they are not liberals.

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We only have ourselves to blame. We are more interested in being entertained making athletes wealthy playing a kids game and obscure people famous for being (not) reality TV stars. All the while politicians like preachers are fleecing the flock while tickling their ears with glorious revelations. Mitt Romney says, unlike Obama, he understands how the common man feels? Hallelujah, Holy $#!T, where is the Tylenol

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Mick

I started to go back to my original name, but I’m trying to keep my net image clean. I’ll probably have a bottle or two of SC before the week is over at the rate I’m going.

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HEADLINE: Keynes Was Right

“in late 2010 and early 2011, politicians and policy makers in much of the Western world believed that they knew better, that we should focus on deficits, not jobs, even though our economies had barely begun to recover from the slump that followed the financial crisis. And by acting on that anti-Keynesian belief, they ended up proving Keynes right all over again.”

“So the real test of Keynesian economics hasn’t come from the half-hearted efforts of the U.S. federal government to boost the economy, which were largely offset by cuts at the state and local levels. It has, instead, come from European nations like Greece and Ireland that had to impose savage fiscal austerity as a condition for receiving emergency loans — and have suffered Depression-level economic slumps, with real G.D.P. in both countries down by double digits.”

I challenge anyone to tell me WHY Keynes was wrong, without using the stimulus or the so called “lost decade” as evidence (because neither of those hold up to scrutiny). Show me a time in history when anyone even tried Keynes more than half-heartedly if you can find one. I can show you plenty of examples of how austerity measures led DIRECTLY to economic problems, and plenty of examples of how supply side led DIRECTLY to economic problems, both only resolving themselves through other outside forces such as war restitution and changing policy from austerity to something else.

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A lot of people here don’t get their own personal history too well. I mean really, out of all human history think of all the times and places you could have stepped off into? The times we live in? It’s all gravy my friends compared to so many eons of alternatives!!
Happy New Years to all here! There’s value in perusing different perspectives…

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“If we are not the country that we used to be, good. We can be the country that we are going to be.”

…………… and if being the country we are going to be is not being a “good country” then that is bad.

But, there is one solid rock I hang on to:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8

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Awesome perspective.

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Senior – 9:34 – considering there was a 28% increase in divorced couples between the 1950 and 1960 census, that tells me that it was a growing phenomena even before the 1970s and a relaxing of the laws

and my point wasn’t simply about the 1950s and divorce, specifically – men abandoned their families or died in wars or accidents … and women died in childbirth -

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We can’t go back in time? Why not?

I need to bash a woman in the head and take her to my man-cave!

j/k

Where the hell is the DeLorean?

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USinUK:

I see you must not be aware of what is happening in Europe and your adopted UK.

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1811

America is still an interesting experiment. No matter what, obama can not drive you all crazy past 2016! If he is re-elected, then retool for the next election but please understand that if people return him for four more – respect that decision, you need not agree with it, just as we would if it is romney…

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USinUK

ah, I see the Reading is Fundamental vans haven’t been making their rounds lately …
———————————-

Them damn gubment cutbacks

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Back at ya brother Mick. Peace to you and yours.

And sorry that your Canes are not bowling this year. Gawd knows what it is going to take to clean up that program, but I do hope they can find a way, and get back to where they belong – playing for national championships.

Speaking of which, I’ve enjoyed the mini-resurrection in Lincoln and think more good times are ahead. GO BIG RED! (Beat SC.)

This gem epitomizes what is was like back then, when we were pups and our generation changed the world…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvj99sK1Gl0

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Mick: But I want to see Romney’s short form, long form, and college records!

Oh who am I kidding. He’s a wealthy white man. I don’t need to see any of that because I know, based on him being a wealthy white man, that he must have a birth certificate from this country and he must have gotten good grades if he’s wealthy!

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Mick – it sounds like you’re just going … outside!

70??? (sigh) … it’s not going to be 70 again for some months …

I miss 70 …

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“Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded- here and there, now and then- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.This is known as “bad luck.”.” -Robert Heinlein

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okay, just for fun, I’m going to share my soundtrack as I work my last day in the office for 2011 … enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWQl00LWEwE

(think of it as a little early driving music)

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Not Blind – “The US military dominance didn’t occur immediately after WWII. After WWII the next big world altering war was the Chinese “civil war”. Then there was the Korean war which was the impetus for the US becoming a super power.”

go back and reread … Jay didn’t say that it came immediately after WWII – he said it came from the economic affluence that followed WWII … which fits into the 1950s timeline / Korean conflict / Cold War …

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AmVet – love Todd Rundgren … amazing musician

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“To those who lived through the Great Depression and the horrors of a world war, that post-war affluence came as a pleasant surprise, and many knew better than to take it for granted. They had seen how it comes and goes and they didn’t trust it. As a result, they had a more accurate perspective than those of us who were raised on the idea that success was our natural birthright as Americans. ”

Pretty much sums it up for a country that is now SPOILED.

Instant gratification (through technology) is the name of the game……everybody wants “it”, and they want it right now. Long term thinking died with those WW vets………..

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Here, as always, is the only real key:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will HEAL (emphasis added) their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Off for awhile ………… be nice to each other even though I know it’s hard. The personal attacks never help.

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The past always seems like a simpler time mainly because we were children, and if we were fortunate, we had parents who saw to our needs. Believe it or not, in 20 years the children of today will look back on these times as the good old days. Crazy, ain’t it?

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Grease is on tonite…

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sink

Yeah, it’s all obama’s fault, what a loser mentality, keep looking in the mirror for your daily workout…

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USing, those hot birds and their accents still knock me out. When I got there, as a twenty year old (courtesy of Uncle Sam), I’d go into town and strike up conversations with the ladies just to hear them talk in that lovely, lilting dialect.

I saw this artist perform there – she opened for Supertramp – and even though I knew of her and had heard some of her stuff, I had no earthly idea, what a huge talent she was…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifARMmcqhD8

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F. Sinkwich: Thanks to O’bozo.

While you libs ilks

Wow that’s a bingo card two-fer.

(In case you didn’t realize it, saying stuff like that shows everyone you don’t know what you’re talking about, especially the blaming Obama for the whole economic crisis part).

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USinUK: I have a feeling he’s referring to the vast expansion of the welfare state, the dissolution of the stability creating nuclear family, the wars on drugs that has destroyed inner cities, stuff like that. However, your response amply demonstrates your intolerance of people with different opinions.

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Sinkwich,
President Obama didn’t start it and is getting no help to fix it…other than that, you are right on.

Also reread USinUK’s 0959….needless to say, I concur with her…

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Change – “However, your response amply demonstrates your intolerance of people with different opinions.”

okay, you win the prize for the most blinkered response for the day (even though it’s not even lunchtime, yet) …

Sink accuses liberals of “celebrating the decline of America” and *I* am the one who is intolerant???

laugh.

flippin.

riot.

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AmVet – 10:02 – when the mister and I used to live in CT, the women in our local Stop-n-Shop used to just luuuuuuv hearing his accent (the woman at the bakery counter once did a little dance)

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GW,
Interesting post, as was “The Futurist” site contained within. Thanks.

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USinUK: He was wrong to say that, and you are wrong to imply ridiculous untrue motives to right wingers.

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The past is prologue, and the best is yet to come. Trite? Perhaps, but I am an unrepentant and incurable optimist.

We Americans are exceptional in many areas, some good and some not so good. At our best we are able to reinvent ourselves on a moment’s notice and to do so with remarkable ease and success, even if some here (JAY, ) don’t want to believe it.

All I have to do is to look at the little smiling faces I have the blessing of working with every day. One generation passeth and another taketh its place. Have a little faith, hope and charity. They’ll take you a long way on your journey to the tomb!

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USing, keep on rockin’. Todd cites Elvis Costello as one of his big influences. And that jump up gem of EC’s is so very fine.

JKL2, methinks you missed the point.

I loved my childhood. Parts of it were heaven and parts of it were hell. And I still get shook up when I see that clip of John John saluting that flag draped cassion going by.

Another amazing musical hero of mine pays homage to Buffalo Springfield…

Capture the moment, carry the day
Stay with the chase as long as you may
Follow the dreamer, the fool and the sage
Back to the days of the innocent age
Storybook endings never appear
They’re just someone’s way of leading us here
Waiting for wisdom to open the cage
We forged in the fires of the innocent age

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uunU0Aoup_I

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Now, if (also take note of the word if to avoid a day long discussion of this position) that is indicative of many more, then Houston, we got a problem.

Granted you are not the first person to misuse a word such as (note the use of “such as”) “right” in a sentence but I would not go so far as to declare it a problem worthy of informing Houston.

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As a result, they had a more accurate perspective than those of us who were raised on the idea that success was our natural birthright as Americans.

Success is something one strives to achieve. It cannot be a gift from Peter to Paul.

Those who work for it (success) can achieve it, in whatever form it comes. If they are waiting for the government to deliver it, then break open a bottle of whine. They (govt) has nothing that is rightfully theirs to give.

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Change – “He was wrong to say that, and you are wrong to imply ridiculous untrue motives to right wingers.”

aw, diddums. truth hurts – what many people on your side of the fence see as a decline (gay rights, women’s lib, birth control, etc) is what many of us celebrate …

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‘If one see it as a need, then I’d hazard a guess they are part of the problem.’

Yes, but similar to the infamous ‘Welfare Queen’ sitings, this is such a pitifully small part of ‘THE PROBLEM’ (my emphasis) that I wonder why so many are so focused on it…

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common

Oops, my bad…faith, hope, charity and a bottle of firewater!

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Oh what the heck………….. here’s the song…………..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY

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“Granted you are not the first person to misuse a word such as (note the use of “such as”) “right” in a sentence but I would not go so far as to declare it a problem worthy of informing Houston.”

But I have a write to be rong………

Thanks for pointing that out……my caffeine level is giving me the jitters and these darn fingers aren’t typing what I’m thinking today.

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DEREK

USinUK, I believe. is a US citizen and I do think she votes…her taxes are really none of my bidness. And what is she doing to improve the US? Representing us abroad and even if I do sometimes disagree with her on this, that or the other point, she’s doing a fine job of representing ME to the outside world…

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Good morning Josef,
Love your compassion for the kids, I really do.

Did you see I was given an opportunity by Scout to “snipe”, but I passed, deciding to be a “kinder, gentler person… But all that time, going through my head and screaming at me from inside was…

I am the prophet of enlightenment, the teller of truth, the destroyer of myth. I expand the minds of the narrow with fact. I slay the dragons of dogma. I break the bonds of religion…I AM NORMAL!!!

I might try to fit that on a bumper sticker…what do ya think?

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Best line of this piece is the last one. The lesson of the seismic shifts of the present is that the past was a result of often violent and terrifying shifts.

We are now faced with the realization that what we understood to be a permanent state of affairs may instead have been an aberration, a temporary product of temporary conditions. Faced with such circumstances, it is natural to seek out villains and to entertain doubts.

But as it happens, villains are to be found. This country is easily wealthy enough to provide its citizenry with cradle to grave health care. The Big Lie is that we have been living beyond our means and therefore must trim our belts. The people who propagate this lie — the one percent — are the ones who stand to continue lining their pockets by cowing the people this way. And that’s why they are our true villains.

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you seem to have too much time on your hands and not sure why your in the UK , but if your not voting here, paying taxes here, or not doing anything to improve the US, then talk to the Daily Sun and post over there

Awwww…..isn’t that so cute when a wingnut lies on the floor, kicks and screams and wets their pants having a temper tantrum.

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md – 10:25 – for you

http://www.zazzle.com/only_the_smart_people_will_cringe_tshirt-235056678955382327

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more soundtrack fun …

one of the best collaborations of the decade …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JCcP-eeC6I&feature=related

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Don’t think we have ever had our feet on firm ground. If we did, it was only for a very short and temporary time, or else we just thought it was firm because we were in denial and our heads wee in the sand. Don’t think our present state is anything unique. More normal than not.

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“Yes, but similar to the infamous ‘Welfare Queen’ sitings, this is such a pitifully small part of ‘THE PROBLEM’ (my emphasis) that I wonder why so many are so focused on it…”

I think it plays into the bigger picture problem…….just look at the percentages of those that think the “wealthy” should pay more in taxes vs those that think we all should pay more in taxes.

The mindset that others should fix the problem we all helped create is also part of the problem.

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I’m with Josef – an incurable optimist.

I do believe our best days are yet to come.

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Aquagirl, USinUK,

http://history.icanhascheezburger.com/2011/12/27/funny-pictures-history-it-is-terribly-irksome-grammar/

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Adam – fridges??? AND indoor plumbing??? they’re living the HIGH LIFE!!!

only if you’re living in a sewage ditch in Mumbai can you consider yourself truly poor …

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This is not to say that economic policies do not matter; but that such policies should not be attributed simply to capricious decision, malicious intentions or conspiratorial schemes

Sooth, are you saying we should NOT see the steady roll-back of the 20th C ‘mixed’ economy, the so-called “welfare state” in Europe and America’s much more meager copy, which we’ve seen in the past 30 years?

On the contrary, I think there’s plenty of evidence that this was an orchestrated campaign carried out by the transnational capitalist and finance class and their political surrogates. The Chicago Boys who had their perfect sandbox in Chile under Pinochet in the late 70s, did not just come from no where, and their ideology has returned with a vengeance in the aftermath of the crash of 2007-8, which is only natural because this is the moment where literally everything is up for grabs, the final obstacles to its full triumph across the whole world financial system can finally be swept away.

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Mumbai? with all those IT jobs they are living the highlife now

Shoes optional

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“The path ahead is not behind us. If we are not the country that we used to be, good. We can be the country that we are going to be.”

dude, that’s pretty good. That needs to be framed on a wall somewhere
or in an inaugural speech. I mean, that’s gettysburg righteous, mon.
Keep swingin the hammer.

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Josef at least you had running water

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another rockin song for the end of the year …

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

and Chrissie Hinds ROCKS!!!

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way to go, Jay!!! break a leg, my friend

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Seriously though, refrigerators, heating, A/C – all included in rental properties, even section 8. Why people find this as a sticking point to say poor people aren’t really poor is beyond me, but ok. Then the TVs and cell phones… TVs can be easily acquired from dumpsters and pawn shops, and cell phones (even iPhones, which btw are old technology at this point) can be acquired at low cost, and so can the minute and data plans.

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WTO

Some of the best days are when you are putting up a fight to make things better….

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JAY

Well, ain’t that special? Seriously, though, thanks for the, uh, warning? Will try to remember to tune in. I like talking to the tee-vee screen!

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I mean really, out of all human history think of all the times and places you could have stepped off into? The times we live in? It’s all gravy my friends compared to so many eons of alternatives!!

Mick, thank you for providing a realistic perspective on things this morning. No doubt that the 9/11 attack was scary and the stock market/real estate collapse shook our faith a little, but I don’t see any reason to hit the panic button quite yet. The economy appears to be slowly righting itself, so I’m sure better days are ahead. Though some of the liberals here are loath to admit it, we are far better off materially, both individually and as a group, than at any other time in history. That is if you look at real wealth, and don’t rely on artificially constructed standards of “poverty”.

The answers of the past apply to the problems of the past.

Yes and no, Jay. Though individual applications naturally vary, right principles remain constant. And one of the most important fundamentals that we have been violating the past 30 or more years in our country is the principle of not spending more money than you are bringing in. Keynesian lovers can argue all day about unproven fiscal policies, but a quick look at Greece and Ireland tells me all I need to know.

Is the overspending the exclusive fault of one political party or the other?? The facts say no, though it continues to remain important to a segment of our blogging population here to try to say it is.

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@bookman

“Personally, it’s foolish to think in terms of “taking back America.” The path ahead is not behind us. If we are not the country that we used to be, good. We can be the country that we are going to be.”
—————————————————————————————————————————————————–
So Bookman, am I to take from this that it is your way of telling us that we screwed up badly in 2009 and now we just have to deal with it? Well my progressive friend, it will likely be dealt with next November.

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“A Seductive Distraction”, you say. I remember the 50s in an entirely different way. No one locked their cars, no one locked their homes. Most anyone could walk the streets after dark without fear of being assaulted. Your neighbors were nearly important as family. A home invasion was the neighbor’s kids raiding your refrigerator after school. Kick the can was always played after dark and hide and seek was a must along with choosing up for softball games and playing marbles in the dirt after school. A dime would get you into the neighborhood theater on Saturday afternoon where you could watch a serial, three cartoons and a double feature western. If you were fortunate enough to have a quarter, you could get a box of popcorn, a soft drink and a box of Milk Duds to go along with the movie. As the years went by and girls became the main focus, the drive in movie became the rage with its fogged up windows and back seat antics. And the girls always wore those low cut “peasant blouses”, which had no buttons and were certainly easier to navigate along with those magnificent short shorts.
Tuition in college was $375/semester, gas was about $.40/gallon, a hamburger with fries cost a dollar…. “A Seductive Distraction”? It was a lot better than that.

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md – “but there is a difference between a $20 phone bill and a $100 phone/text/data/andeverythingelse phone bill.”

ever hear of a contract???

people can sign contracts while they have a job and everything is hunky-dory, then the bottom falls out and they’re still stuck with their contractual obligation for months …

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All of a sudden we are not as powerful as we used to be. All of a sudden we are not as rich as we used to be. All of a sudden we are not as tolerant as we used to be. All of a sudden we are not as smart as we used to be. All of a sudden we are not as white as we used to be. All of a sudden we are not as safe as we used to be.

These are momentous times for the American experience, and until we grapple with the reality that
we need to educate our people. We need to liquefy heinous criminals. We need to restore the belief in personal responsibility and support the efforts of the responsible. We need to set fire to racism, ageism, sexism, and cronyism- or we all will continue to head for the status of Banana Republic. It is up to us.

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LHU – I didn’t know one of the N’s in CNN stood for nekkid!!

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Bruno: Keynesian lovers can argue all day about unproven fiscal policies, but a quick look at Greece and Ireland tells me all I need to know.

That’s true. A quick look at Greece and Ireland tells everyone, or should tell everyone with a brain, that austerity measures (the opposite of Keynesian economics) make things worse. A lot worse.

BTW, there’s a difference between simply having social programs and Keynesian economics. Keynesian economics does NOT support overspending during boom times, which is exactly what both countries did. Again, the opposite of Keynesian economics. So all this SHOULD tell you that these countries never applied Keynesian economics, and instead applied the opposite and failed way of doing things.

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Great power pop, larry. I had NO idea they were from Atlanta! I always presumed they were blokes.

Using, on the surface, that duet seemed so incongruous, but wow, what chemistry! And it didn’t hurt that that jacked up cover had that heavy, quasi-LZ beat to drive it…

And then some Chrissy. You’re kickin’ it this last Friday morning of the year!

Hiya, B.

Here’s one for all of us optimists (Kinks fans or otherwise)…

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

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but a quick look at Greece and Ireland tells me all I need to know.

And therein lies a great portion of the problem…. economies, people, government and societial forces are NOT simple issues. A “quick look” bumper sticker view would only deceive the uninformed. A “quick look” at this country does not provide the analysis of its problems, its issues, its strengths and the interaction of the variety of forces. Simple answers to complicated issues work only for the foolish and deceived.

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md: Actually Adam, I believe phone is listed on that app……..but there is a difference between a $20 phone bill and a $100 phone/text/data/andeverythingelse phone bill.

First of all, having a cell phone if you want a job is a NEED now. Maybe it wasn’t before, but it is now. And people can get reasonable plans for cell phones at about the $20 cost you mentioned. just because other people who are NOT poor have high prices data plans and are on major networks does not mean that the poor also have that same thing. Many have prepaid plans, and phones as simple as are possible, because they NEED them to get a job. Also, if someone GIVES them an old iPhone or they find one in a pawn shop, those can ALSO be used on prepaid plans. Simply seeing someone with an iPhone in hand means nothing, since they are a lot more common and older than you think. Plus, you don’t know if these people had these devices when they were not poor, and are now poor because of layoffs and are just continuing to use the same device at a lower cost on some other network or with public assistance, etc etc.

The point, of course, is that some people have trouble distinguishing between a need and a want in OTHER PEOPLE. JUDGING them based on what they think they see as an invalidation of “poor” status.

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LHU – 11:00 – classic Grizzard … and who doesn’t miss Kathy Sue Loudermilk …

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“The point, of course, is that some people have trouble distinguishing between a need and a want in OTHER PEOPLE. JUDGING them based on what they think they see as an invalidation of “poor” status.”

The “point” of course was made using cable as the example……..care to make that into a need Adam.

You do love getting on your horse named assumption don’t you.

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Those who want to “take back america” are usually those who were previously granted preference (white, Christian, straight, males). But that group might as well get over it. Blacks aren’t going back to the back of the bus, women aren’t going back to the kitchen, forced christian prayer is not coming back into the public schools and gays are certainly not going back in the closet. We need forward-thinking solutions to live and prosper together.

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Just fyi, looks as though I’ll be doing CNN tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., discussing Iowa caucuses, politics, etc.

I’ll have to see if I can get to a tv to check that out. If not, I expect to see a video recap posted a.s.a.p.!!!!!

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okay, ignore the crappy video … her voice kicks butt …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfmQYHl5o14

(if you like Carol King, you’ll love Diane Birch)

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Wow! Jay on CNN! Pretty soon he’ll be a household word like Kardashian or Snookie!

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I remember the 50s in an entirely different way. No one locked their cars, no one locked their homes. Most anyone could walk the streets after dark without fear of being assaulted.

If nobody knew it before, they know for sure that you were not a Black man living in MS/AL/GA back then. Memories about the 50’s is all about perspectives.

Blacks aren’t going back to the back of the bus

To quote the late, great Isaac Hayes… “You damn right!”

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midtown guy

You and I are of similar age and background…if somebody had told us back when we were just coming to terms with who we are in our composite whole there would be a day in our lives when we could come into a public forum and demand our right to be who we are, we’d've wanted to know what planet they were from. And yet, here we are and the best part of it all is that so many of “them” are openly cheering us on…we’ve come a long way, baby…

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“Just fyi, looks as though I’ll be doing CNN tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., discussing Iowa caucuses, politics, etc.”

Tell wolfie Ted Turner hated yellow journalism and he is the worst.

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“sn’t that what Al Gore invented it for?”

Shh that is classified.

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Adam
December 30th, 2011
11:01 am

RB: Just thought I’d let ya’ll know there is another “less fortunate” person unemployed this morning. They apparently thought showing up for work 2 hours late would be ok even after we’ve warned them about it several times.

Sounds like you need to reform your hiring process.
————————————————————————————————————————————————
Adam my young friend, its not my intention to single you out, but I find your comments typical of those that bookman would probably call a new order.(although I won’t put words into his mouth). Here a man comments on the firing of an employee for cause, and you blame the hiring process. I find that to be astonishing.

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But that firm ground wasn’t all that firm after all.

– Jay Bookman
___________________

Indeed , indeed ! Let’s hope ‘better’ will mean a growing awareness that we are part of ALL humankind and that caring and concern for the welfare of the ALL is what matters

“Things derive their being and nature by mutual dependence and are nothing
in themselves”

NAGARJUNA
second-century Buddhist philosopher

All the best..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD9KLA4qz3A

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GT/MIT: Adam my young friend, its not my intention to single you out, but I find your comments typical of those that bookman would probably call a new order.(although I won’t put words into his mouth). Here a man comments on the firing of an employee for cause, and you blame the hiring process. I find that to be astonishing.

You must have missed all the other posts where he complains that this is a common occurrence for the business he owns. He hires people, and they don’t show up for work or are late. So yes, if there is any root cause it’s closer to the hiring process than to the absurd idea that nearly all of his former employees are all just lazy and prefer welfare over work.

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Good analysis, Recon

I thought I was reading the obituaries this morning but it was Bookman. After three years of Obama, perhaps his malaise is somewhat understandable. I suppose he will be dressed all in black for his CNN appearance. I wonder who is representing self supporting, optimistic conservatives on that show?

________________________

Thank you, JOSEF, for quoting St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians this morning. Faith, hope and charity (love)! A great epistle of encouragement. But I will disagree with you on another viewpoint.

USinUK does not represent you. You are optimistic (this morning) while she downgrades the USA at every turn if it in any way relates to matters of Republican ideals. She is an avid liberal sitting in the UK while “knocking” the USA. I have no use for that even when it is covered with charm and cute deception. I happen to love this country and find no joy in those who undermine it.

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“Just fyi, looks as though I’ll be doing CNN tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., discussing Iowa caucuses, politics, etc”

Don’t forget the graphs and charts!

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Josef – who’s them ‘them’ you’re talking about cheering you along?

I was thinking more like cheerleaders in short skirts

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Bruno – you’re forgetting all the other variables … 1) a central bank that is trying to manage incredibly disparate economies, 2) governments that cut tax rates to lure businesses in, 3) land speculation (helloooooo Ireland), and lastly 4) black market economies (yep, I’m looking at you, Greece)

while government spending on pensions is definitely the biggest problem Greece had in regards to spending, it was but one of many straws that broke that camel’s back …

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Adam……out of curiosity, do you think there are folks in the 1% that are “playing” the system?

I do……..so why in the world would the law of averages not indicate that there is a good number also playing that game in the other 99%.

I admire your tenacity in defending the “poor”, but like it or not, some of those folks choose to be in that position………and note the word “some”, as the law of averages would indicate as well. just as there are those on the other end of the spectrum that are evil, greedy, scumbags…….it is what it is. And if you can’t see that, you need to get out more. Personally, I don’t have to go too far to see it, as it exists abundantly within my own family. Bunch of worthless do nothings………….

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DUSTY

Just for the record, while you’re not abroad right now, I’d say the same thing about you. You represent ME, too…thass why I’m so glad to be an American.

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You didn’t get Millennial training? You should have thanked them for showing up and not fired them. You can expect a nasty phone call from their Mom.

LMAO @ Steve-USA.

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“while government spending on pensions is definitely the biggest problem Greece had in regards to spending, it was but one of many straws that broke that camel’s back”

And don’t forget their pervasive tax cheating, that they didn’t spend money on solving. Tax rates are useless, no matter how high or low, if the government lets enough people get away with cheating them.

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Shorter, GETALIFE,
]
No mo’ years!!!

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Doggone – I was lumping that in with the black-market economy, but you’re absolutely right!

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josef – meh – not worth breaking a nail.

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“you’re forgetting all the other variables … 1) a central bank that is trying to manage incredibly disparate economies, 2) governments that cut tax rates to lure businesses in, 3) land speculation (helloooooo Ireland), and lastly 4) black market economies (yep, I’m looking at you, Greece)”

yep, sounds just like the good ole us of a……….

CA gets to be Greece…………

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md: out of curiosity, do you think there are folks in the 1% that are “playing” the system?

Sure. Hopefully whatever ways in which they play public assistance they get fined and have to pay back, like those millionaire food stamp people did.

As for some poor choosing to be that way, sure. I would argue that the choice they are making is very ill informed, and also most likely they do NOT actually believe they are better off being dependent on government (as a point of fact, they most definitely are NOT better off that way). I would suggest that those particular ones probably don’t know anything else and no one is trying to show them another way.

The points I am trying to make are simply that poor people can still be poor if they appear to “have” things that people do not EMOTIONALLY associate with being poor.

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RB: We’re sick of paying the employees we have to work AND paying these leeches to work the system for every “free” benefit known to man.

So don’t. Hire people that you know won’t cause you the problem of being consistently late. Surely there is some way you can vet this.

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rb is not a boss and is unemployed.

He never told the truth here.

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Bruno – you’re forgetting all the other variables … 1) a central bank that is trying to manage incredibly disparate economies, 2) governments that cut tax rates to lure businesses in, 3) land speculation (helloooooo Ireland), and lastly 4) black market economies (yep, I’m looking at you, Greece)

Good comeback post, USinUK–moving like Jagger as always.

I agree that what ails Ireland and Greece isn’t simply overspending. Obviously it’s more difficult to balance the books when tax avoidance becomes a cultural value. All governments around the globe are faced with tax shortfalls due to the downturn in business, loss of land values, poor business decisions, etc. But, my oversimplified reminder is made so that we don’t forget the forest for the trees. Debt is bad. All those shiny objects sometimes dazzles you Geminis…..

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Yep it’s he!! being a polar bear.Longing for the days one persons income could support family,mommy could stay home with the kids.

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Well clearly if you don’t agree with Dusty, you just can’t love your country. Its just not permitted to disagree, to have a different viewpoint or solution. I mean someone can be an old mean shriveled shiftless bitty without a brain or original thought and without the intelligence to even have a thought (not intended to refer to any real person) that views the world and the issues completely differently than I do, but both of us can still love this country and the Constitution……. right?

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NORMAL

DUSTY

Ya gotta remember, though, I love everybody except Helen Thomas and Duk-sha-nee!

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USinUK, Blacks in the 50’s had families. Blacks in the 50’s had Fathers. Blacks in the 50’s were not criminals. As for women, my Mother was a stay at home Mother. And she loved it.

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“Debt is bad”

But that isn’t necessarily true. Debt it like holes. It’s not correct to say “all holes are bad” – and not all debt is bad. It’s how debt is MANAGED that is the issue. Badly managed debt is bad.

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BRUNO

We’re warning you, Bubba, best not mess with us Geminis, we’re twice as bad as you think we are!

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md: Hmmm…Jo, adam……had to fire anyone lately?

Certainly not several people in a row, lamenting each time about their work ethic, and complaining about the character of such people AFTER I hired them in the first place, over and over and over again.

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“It takes an act of Congress these days to make it stick……..don’t do it by the “book” and the corp gets hit with higher unemployment costs”

Then do it by the book. I work in a BIG multi-national company and we came in one day to find that an employee with 15 years service had been fired. There one day, gone the next. No Congress involved.

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“Blacks in the 50’s were not criminals.”

nope, they were lynched, nonetheless … ask Emmet Till’s family

” As for women, my Mother was a stay at home Mother. And she loved it.”

good for her – many women didn’t … but they really had no choice

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Bruno,

Haven’t you heard? “DEBT” is now an obsolete word. You must learn to use “complimentary obligation”. Thus Obama wants to raise the complimentary obligation ceiling to make ends meet for the next project-ready-stimulus. (Shovel-ready is also archaic)

Just wanted to keep you informed of the latest cost-covering vocabulary.

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Do Away With World Global Economy and Put America First,You Will Get What You Seek.

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“Do Away With World Global Economy and Put America First”

is that like the 5 year old who covers his eyes and thinks he’s invisible???

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Adam/josef: I have no idea what the nature of RB’s business is so I can’t be certain that my comment is applicable. From my own experience, the facts are, If you do any contractual work for the government, no matter how small the contract nor the number of workers required, hiring for the project is no all that easy. There are guide lines and guide lines for using the guide lines, in short, one cannot always hire the best qualified for the job. As a result, saving the government money, is like unto digging a hole in the ocean.

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Bush got out of politics with RESPECT???

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110806/bushs-approval-rating-drops-new-low-27.aspx

not so much …

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“And employers don’t give out info anymore other than…..”yes, that person did work here”.”

true that – too many are afraid of being sued if they say what a crappy employee the person was …

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We’re warning you, Bubba, best not mess with us Geminis, we’re twice as bad as you think we are!

You too, josef?? Lord help me now!!

Just wanted to keep you informed of the latest cost-covering vocabulary.

LMBO @ Dusty. (In deference to your sense of propriety, I used the PG version of LMAO).

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md: Sounds like your vetting process was a good one. But I also bet you didn’t have a consistently bad problem with people showing up late and so on.

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Help me out on this one, Welcome. How was the US government directly involved in the economy in those decades?? I don’t remember banks and automakers becoming government owned ala Bush and Obama. I do remember Nixon’s wage and price freeze in the early 70s though. Strange, strange stuff I thought, even as a lad.

Let me answer your question with one example, Bruno. The Eisenhower administration decided that it would be good to intervene in education by offering boards of education supplemental funding if they would change their school curricula to emphasize career education. Not an intervention in the economy, you say? Just read on. In my home county, it was decided by the predominately Republican board of education that it would be a great thing if it could reduce homeowner taxes by using the federal funding and accepting the conditions. The conditions? All male high school students would take four credits of vocational education—vocational agriculture, shop, etc. All female high school students would take four units (out of 16, mind you) of home economics—for it was just assumed that all the boys would be farmers or manual laborers and all the girls would become homemakers. Erased from the curriculum were subjects like second-year algebra, calculus, physics, sciences, foreign languages, etc. The outcome of this federal intervention? Thousands of young men and women left high school utterly unprepared for any vocation other than farming, manual labor, or homemaking. The valedictorian of my high school class went to nursing school at the University of Virginia and flunked out in her first year as a result of deficiencies in math and science. And she wasn’t the only valedictorian from that school to flunk out of college. As for me, I had to work like a slave to acquire the math and foreign language skills to handle a college curriculum.

Just think of the under-achievement and long-term economic circumstances that resulted from this one seemingly little federal intervention. What that education act and the actions of tax-averse education boards did to the careers of thousands of students was little short of criminal.

You see, there are many more federal interventions than banking-related ones that have effects on the economy.

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By the way…all Libruls and socialist scumbags rejoice! The USSR began today, 1922. us Occupiers are bringin’ hope and change. The fat cat will fall, Doctor Zhivago…

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GT and md…

I’m not being snarky, please understand, and I’m not about to claim that the regulations are often something out of Kafka, but if it’s insupportable, then cut your losses and do something else. That’s why I don’t do it and I keep my contract work strictly one person. My job in education? That’s why I wouldn’t even think of going into administration…no where near enough money for the headache and I’d be so hamstrung I couldn’t get anything of any value done…

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A next time would require a first time. The principle of government spending during bad times and cut backs during good times has yet to be applied. (And btw, tax cuts during good times without also reducing spending doesn’t count).

Adam–How do you characterize the direct government “stimulus” spending during the 1930s, 1940s and 2000s?? If that is not direct application of Keynesian principles, than what is?? And, no matter how you try to put a happy face on it by comparing the actual dismal results following stimulus spending with even more dismal “hypothetical” results of how it would have been without the spending, the results have always been dismal. But, maybe “next time” it will work….

As for the lack of immediate success of the austerity measures in Greece and Ireland, who expected otherwise?? The difference is, however, when things do turn around, they won’t be saddled with a whole new round of debt served up in the name of “stimulus”.

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“The difference is, however, when things do turn around, they won’t be saddled with a whole new round of debt served up in the name of “stimulus”.”

ohmy … by the time things do turn around, we’re talking another generation when it comes to Greece and, most likely Ireland … and, yes, they will have boatloads of debt to repay all the bailouts

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Nice column today Jay. It is important to know where you are coming from in order to lay the foundation for where you are going. I find it ironic that Adam quotes Paul Krugman today and assumes he has it all figured out. Krugman lost all credibitility when he said that Gabby Giffords was shot because of the Tea Party. The bad news for the Keynesian argument is that this month Gallup released a poll stating that 64% of Americans believe that the biggest threat to the economy is Big Government. Adam needs to brush up on his Milton Friedman and Fredrich Hayek. Looking forward, I am interested in how Obama is going to handle the Keystone pipeline in 60 days. With the sabre rattling in the Middle East, the price of oil is going to go up in 2012 and the fragile recovery could be destroyed with $5 gas. Obama will be hard pressed to argue against becoming more energy independent and creating new jobs with proven technology. The Keystone situation will be the first test of the New Year to see if our President is capable of doing what is best for the country or if he is still focused on partisan divisive rhetoric. When Obama looks into our eyes, he sees what he wants to see, his own reflection, the illusion of a great man. He is after all, one of the top 5 Presidents in history. He needs this fantasy to define himself. America needs a leader capable of pulling the various factions together in Washington to actually accomplish something. Since getting elected, Obama’s ability to bring people together has steadily gone down. We are seeing this by the Obama campaign already playing the race card, abortion, gay rights, and the same tired arguments to try to disparage the opposition because he can’t stand on his successes. Jay, it is important to look forward , and from where I stand, it is going to be the year of a brutal scorched Earth political campaign with $billions spent. So we are supposed to invest in oil pipeline and media companies and see where we go a year from now.

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Adam – “So don’t. Hire people that you know won’t cause you the problem of being consistently late. Surely there is some way you can vet this.”

I’ll be sure to just ask them in the interview next time. I realize you think everybody else is an idiot and hasn’t thought of that, but you one one completely clueless individual and you prove that here every day. I encourage you to get out from behind the computer and go educate yourself. PLEASE!!! Go to a Lowe’s or Home Depot and ask the manager if what I’ve been telling you is true. Publix, Kroger, Longhorn, Chili’s, anywhere. Stop being ignorant and spouting off as if you have a clue.

GT/MIT, The business I’m in is irrelevant. The discussion is about the sorry nature of the work ethic in the “less fortunate” class in this country. The Adam’s of the world refuse to open their eyes and beleive these people are responsible for their own lot in life, continue to make excuses for them and blame employers for not doing a good enough job hiring. He’s a clueless idiot who refuses to educate himself, but continues to spout off here as if he knows something. His arrogance about it is quite annoying.

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okay, my friendlies … heading home …

wishing you all a VERY happy new year!!!

see you in 2012

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rb,

You don’t even have a job.

“Stop being ignorant and spouting off as if you have a clue”

It is because you have a horrible attitude.

Why would anyone hire you?

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NORMAL,

You are correct. I’m in the 27% who respect George W. Bush.

By the end of the Obama era and realization sets in, that percent will jump for Bush. It’s happening now with our current president diddling away a week or two on the golf course in Hawaii while issueing little spineless recommendations for employee vacancies and saying OK to something passed in Congress. Impressive!

And yes I know Bush went for vacations…in Crawford,Texas which aint no ocean away, honey!!
Eat your heart out you poor, dismal, undernourished and underschooled liberals! Prez Obama is driving that ball for you!!

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RECON@10:54

You have you head in the sand or very deluded about American Exceptionalism. America could not help but being exceptional, since way into the 20th it had laws preventing some of its citizen from riding at the front of the bus, sitting at the lunch counter, allowing women to vote, and rounding up Japanese for a stint in West coast labor camps.

America had to be exceptional, since race is injected into everything we think or do. So American Exceptionalism only mean something to the Americans who were and continue to be fine with the fact that some Americans are better than some. How is that American exceptionalism working for you minority Americans?

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Yep just 5 short years ago we had a real leader in the Whitehouse and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress… Those were the days…..

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Bruno: How do you characterize the direct government “stimulus” spending during the 1930s, 1940s and 2000s??

Immediately followed by austerity and cutbacks, before the budding recovery was allowed to grow to sustainable levels. In the 2000s, tax cuts and wars (at the same time) more than offset any supposed stimulus during those times.

As for the lack of immediate success of the austerity measures in Greece and Ireland, who expected otherwise??

First of all, there is no “lack of immediate success,” there is direct and immediate and SUSTAINED failure as a result. Second, were you making the argument of “who expected immediate success?” when stimulus was introduced? Didn’t think so.

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DUSTY

Oh, please. Hawaii? I thought going home for the holidays was an American family values tradition. So, why did the Carpetbagger prince vacation in Texas and not New England?

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You see, there are many more federal interventions than banking-related ones that have effects on the economy.

Curious Observer–I see a point in what you’re saying regarding the (seeming) effect that this unwanted “central planning” had on the college success of your classmates, but I can’t equate that to direct government ownership of corporations and direct intervention into the economy through contrived stimulus spending.

Per your more direct point, I can’t agree with you 100% regarding the school’s responsibility to prepare its students for college based on my own acceptance into one of the most selective colleges in the US after having attended one of the worst high schools. I looked ahead and studied on my own. I got my ass kicked my freshman year in college, but still came out at the top of my class by the end of each semester. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

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Dusty,
On vacation, Bush went home. On vacation, Obama went home. Are you going to sit there and deny Obama the right to go home just because it’s further away than Crawford? Come on, Dusty. I know you dislike our President, but…get real.

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Not a Bush fan but wasn’t he just placed #2 on the most admired men of 2011?

By whom? Mad Magazine? LOL.

For him to be in the top 102 is as idiotic and preposterous as when Barry won the Nobel Peace Prize…

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Ramzad

“How is that American exceptionalism working for you minority Americans?”

In our multi-minority household, pretty well, all in all…like I said earlier, we’ve come a long way and just as much as our failures have a lot to do with American exceptionalism, so do our successes…

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RB from GWINNET is another conservative who claims to own his own business…yeah right

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RB: The discussion is about the sorry nature of the work ethic in the “less fortunate” class in this country.

No, it isn’t. That’s just the way YOU frame it. You assume all of the less fortunate have no work ethic because of your limited experience in hiring and firing. All the while making cheap arguments such as “I’ll ask them next time.” No, there are ways to find out and if you haven’t figured them out you should ask for help from someone who knows.

I also really appreciate you assuming I am not educated on this issue. You work for one industry and hire people in it, and from that you extrapolate out to every other industry and what the MUST be going through, all the while ignoring pretty sound advice that you should look at your hiring process if you keep getting crap workers. Don’t get me wrong, I hope you continue to NOT follow my advice because of how obvious it is that it would suck to work for you anyway, and by NOT following the advice you are sure to continue to have failures in your hiring process, leading these people to find work at much better opportunities later on.

His arrogance about it is quite annoying.

If you can’t take it, stop dishing it out.

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“Getaclue, go hump somebody else with your worthless drivel. You’re a waste of blog space.”

Bad attitude will never get you hired.

Perhaps you should change your attitude for 12 and you might get a job con.

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Looking forward, I am interested in how Obama is going to handle the Keystone pipeline in 60 days. With the sabre rattling in the Middle East, the price of oil is going to go up in 2012 and the fragile recovery could be destroyed with $5 gas.

The Keystone pipeline would have almost no effect on gas prices regardless of what Iran does. Unless Canada can produce enough oil to match their regular output AND compensate for Iran and any other decreases from OPEC countries, that pipeline is a pipe dream. Had the US went ahead with trying to advance alternative fuels decades ago, Iran’s threats would ring hollow. Instead, those who make the decisions made sure we stayed addicted to oil like $2 crack whores, and now we’re paying the price for lack of long term strategic planning.

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Bruno: “How was the US government directly involved in the economy in those decades?? I don’t remember banks and automakers becoming government owned ala Bush and Obama. ”

The post-war economic situation was shaped by the massive government interventions of the war years, the military machine that enabled victory, the so-called “Military Industrial Complex” warned of by Eisenhower. So that’s the mighty defense industry. In addition, investments in the interhighway system, the development in computer networking that eventually led to the Internet, were other examples of PUBLIC dollars, not private, at work. In other words, they were examples of government intervention in the economy through spending on infrastructure, which we’re today told is impossible, unthinkable, and yet it was these very things that were key developments in the prosperity and growth of the economy of the 2nd half of the 20th C. An additional area of government intervention was in taxation. After all, these investments had to be paid for. Taxation rates in those decades heavily penalized wealth accumulation, a regime that has obviously been completely overturned in the decades since. In those days as your ‘earnings’ (I prefer to call it booty) went above a certain point, it increasingly was expropriated by the government and reinvested back into the society. That’s what made the safety net and widespread prosperity of those years possible, NOT the lack of intervention by the govmt.

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i meant “lunacy”

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SOUTHERN COMFORT

are u saying that the international oil cartel controls the worlds politics?

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Southern Comfort@12:32

Blame the american consumer for it’s addiction to oil. Once again trying to find a fake bogeyman instead of the man/woman in the mirror.

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We are addicted to oil because big oil money fights against alternatives and competition Steve.

Do you watch corrupt congress shilling for big oil?

It is truly disgusting.

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Adam – “You assume all of the less fortunate have no work ethic because of your limited experience in hiring and firing.”

You call 20 years of hiring/firing “limited” experience Adam? Again, get out from behind the computer and go educate yourself. Any one of the companies I’ve listed will tell you EXACTLY the same thing. I guarantee it. I’ve asked Jay to share the comments from the restaurant owner he talked to maybe 10 times and he refuses. Why do you think that is? He knows damn well the man told him exactly what I’m telling you.

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southern comfort

good point. it seems every presidential candidate for the past 3 decades have been preaching “energy independence”… until they get into the whitehouse.

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barton apologizing to BP was one of the worst I have seem Steve.

Did you watch him shill Steve?

Yes look in the mirror con.

You never hold your failed corrupt party accountable for anything.

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Derek

Got proof of that import/export statement? Concrete factual numbers please. In small denomination, non-sequential, un-marked bills if possible.

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I’ll just keep posting the data and you can just keep on…………………doing you ostrich routine.

In other words, DO NOT read the following if you are a neo-con…

Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation’s history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents ranked the current presidency as even among the top two-thirds of American administrations.

One historian indicated that his reason for rating Bush as worst is that the current president combines traits of some of his failed predecessors: “the paranoia of Nixon, the ethics of Harding and the good sense of Herbert Hoover. . . . . God willing, this will go down as the nadir of American politics.” Another classified Bush as “an ideologue who got the nation into a totally unnecessary war, and has broken the Constitution more often than even Nixon. He is not a conservative, nor a Christian, just an immoral man . . . .” Still another remarked that Bush’s “denial of any personal responsibility can only be described as silly.”

“George Bush has combined mediocrity with malevolent policies and has thus seriously damaged the welfare and standing of the United States,” wrote one of the historians, echoing the assessments of many of his professional colleagues. “Bush does only two things well,” said one of the most distinguished historians. “He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches. His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.”

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getalife@12:38 I will agree with you 50%.

I am tired though of the free pass the citizens of this country get though. Nobody is forced to drive a 15 MPG SUV, Live in a 4,000 sq. ft. house, keep their AC at 60 degree’s.

The people of this country need to take the lead and show a little reduction in excess consumption.

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Steve,

Your thoughts on profits over the planet and global warming con?

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Do you know what yellow journalism means?

Is that when the dog pees on the newspaper??

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Government artificially keeps prices of Milk, Corn, Automobiles and textiles high in order to satisfy different unions and others. Thats why we don’t build any more refineries in strategic places or why were not running cars on hydrogen.There currently is a glut of milk and oil, why aren’t the prices lower. Why was gas at $1.79 a gallon when Obama took office and about $3.20 today? Thats why instead of lowering ceral and grain prices, They keep buying corn for use in fuels, which damages engines and keeps grain prices up! Get informed people!

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Adam – “Don’t get me wrong, I hope you continue to NOT follow my advice ”

Why would anybody follow your adivice, Adam. Everybody who has hired people for 20 years knows you are clueless. There are many things you can learn in an interview, but no interview process is 100% accurate and asking a person if they tend to show up on time, have car trouble that keeps them from coming to work twice a month, have 8-10 grandmothers who tend to die often, or have dentist appointments they forgot about monthly is not going to get you anywhere. And as was already pointed out to you once, a previous employer is not legally allowed to share that information with you.

But you keep making excuses for them, Adam, cause thats what liberals do.

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Looks like this is the hang out for all stinking hippies in their Birkenstocks. Facts are facts, we are not better off then we were 3 years ago, Obama is clearly in over his head, and he will make it worse if re-elected. He has no record to run on, he constantly rips Americans when he can, but yet he has done nothing to improve America. Name one thing he has done for America, not to America. #LiberalsSuck

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BOSCH

Heard your name, eh? So,, how’s business…making Ms B work on her sorry-low-down-good-for-nothing gubmint employee time off?

SoCo
Much agreed on that as required reading…

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AMVET,

The VA hospital is open weekends. They can help with hallucinations.

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getalife,

So you think the American consumer has nothing to do with consumption? As I said earlier I agreed with what you said about politicians and oil companies (remember I said 50%). My point is that we have to take an active roll in consuming less. It is to easy to always blame someone else.

Understand?

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AMVET Ohhh and for AMvet , Bush 2 was not the only Bad President, Carter was horrible, thank god he was only one term and the current President isn’t far behind. Has no understanding how a FREE market should work and wants government involved in everything. As a amvet you should understand the danger of this, sic my previous post. Please study history after taking several different types of economic courses….

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Josef

I think I read 4 posts above my first post – I hope my name in the conversation was good – yeah business is good – had some up and downs, but it’s a fun learning experience and of course I’m making the OB work!! No lazy slouchers here!!

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bill campbell

ok

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Disgusted

Am I better off than three years ago?

Yes.

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disgusted 12:46

please show us where OBAMA has ripped AMERICA…

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Riddle me this. Why did the Republican party hide G.W. Bush, the leader of their party, during the last Republican National Convention? Did it have something to do with his 27% approval rating? That action alone speaks volumes about their mentality. They will gladly eat their own including the leader of their party to save face.

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Yes Liberallefty, it is because of his race. Don’t you know, everything is because he is a black president. I love his policies, but because he is a black man, I can’t support him. And I will not vote for him again because he is black. BTW, I didn’t know black folks went to Hawaii.

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Well, has it taken us this long to realize what’s happening? As long ago as 1970, Alvin Toffler had just published his best seller, Future Shock. In that seminal work, he posited that our society was moving so quickly through profound technological and social change that before one could adapt to the changes one would be “shocked” by them.

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Oh I see now! Hi getalife – yeah apparently I started the wrong kind of business – I actually have to work!!

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Speaking of… Happy New Years!! Hi ho hi ho… Off to work!! Later folks!!

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That 12:46 post is not mine.

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josef
December 30th, 2011
12:54 pm

Am I better off than three years ago?

Yes.

Well, then you are 1 of 3 things. Either a government worker, unemployed, or a damn liar. The ONLY folks who say they are better off are the stupid liberals that support his sorry a$$.

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Adam,

What does anyone expect to learn from Romney’s tax return? That he is sitting on a lot of moolah? Surprise!

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“That is strange since we export more than we import now! ”

got any proof of that?

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they were examples of government intervention in the economy through spending on infrastructure, which we’re today told is impossible, unthinkable, and yet it was these very things that were key developments in the prosperity and growth of the economy of the 2nd half of the 20th C.

Welcome–I’m all for needed infrastructure repairs, that’s a legitimate government function. And if it produces some jobs which add to the economy as an unintended side effect, that’s fine. But, transposing the purpose of infrastructure repair into some kind of economic management tool to be used by central planners leads to trouble, as the historical record shows.

The post-war economic situation was shaped by the massive government interventions of the war years, the military machine that enabled victory, the so-called “Military Industrial Complex” warned of by Eisenhower.

Ditto for military spending.

Taxation rates in those decades heavily penalized wealth accumulation, a regime that has obviously been completely overturned in the decades since. In those days as your ‘earnings’ (I prefer to call it booty) went above a certain point, it increasingly was expropriated by the government and reinvested back into the society. That’s what made the safety net and widespread prosperity of those years possible, NOT the lack of intervention by the govmt.

Though it’s easy to prove that we had less income disparity in the 50s than now, I think it’s foolish to claim that people then were more prosperous than now. The standard of living for all people right now, even at the bottom, is far better than 60 years ago. All boats DO rise with the rising tide.

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Disgusted…

I’ll forego the silly name calling here…I am a government employee among other things…there my wages have been frozen for six years. But my portfolio has done more than well enough to make up for that…

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“Uh, ’cause he are one?”

Not by a long shot

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Sinkwich: “Uh, ’cause he are one?”

Ok, good. But then, on account of how this ‘liberal’ loves him some drones, picks off terrorists of his choosing like a sniper on a rooftop (dispensing w/bedwetter rule of law niceties), practices state secrecy on a level even Mr. Cheney could get behind, believes the private sector is where ‘real’ job creation takes place (’always has, always will’, I believe he said in Kansas), helped his Blue Dogs friends tank the public option in the health care fight — the list goes on and on, you get the drift — I believe we can agree maybe that we’ve whittled the meaning of “liberal” down to a point to where it’s all but meaningless, no?

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Disgusted

December 30th, 2011
1:01 pm
josef
December 30th, 2011
12:54 pm

Am I better off than three years ago?

Yes.

Well, then you are 1 of 3 things. Either a government worker, unemployed, or a damn liar. The ONLY folks who say they are better off are the stupid liberals that support his sorry a$$.

I take issue with this

Yes, I remain proudly a supporter of President Obama and yes we are better off that we were 3 years ago.

No lies, no government work, employed and an employer.

We will never get back that which we lost in Mr. Bush’s recession, but
stuff happens….and we are grown ups so we keep right on working.

I am sorry if you are worse off than you were 3 years ago. Perhaps
you made some poor choices.

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Every year at this time we look back at the old year and say “good riddance”. And then, we look foward to the new year with hope. What was it that Einstein said about doing the same thing over and over with the same results and yet expecting this time to be different?

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josef
December 30th, 2011
1:08 pm

I am a government employee

Nailed that one, but can’t say I am surprised. Why not try to ask some of us that REALLY work out here in the private sector if we are better today then we were 3 years ago.

Here in the real world where Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of friends, we don’t get raises, have to deal with constant stress of lay-offs, and our health care costs are rising. We also must abide by ridiculous government regulations that have hampered the way we do business today, and we have lost our competitive edge that we had before Bozo took office. The damage this community organizer has done to the free market place will be felt for years after he is gone.

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Oh and disgusted…

got a raise and a bonus again this year…..

You might want to get out more or increase your circle of aquaintance.

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“The bottom line is that necessity is the mother of invention, not the other way around”

I’ve never agreed with this. It’s laziness that is the mother of invention. If we weren’t essentially lazy creatures we would still be hunting with our bare hands and living in caves. It’s is the drive to make things be LESS WORK that drives invention, not necessity.

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RB – I would suggest you head to the Lilburn Walmart when you need to pick up some new workers.
Lots of illegals to pick from there. They are used to low wages and being treated like crap.

If they give you a SS card don’t look too closely at the name just e-verify that it is a valid SS#.

There, your problem is solved at no cost

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Yea, the 50’s were indeed great. My Father returned from WWII, used the GI Bill to complete college and could only job he could get was in Maintenance (janitor) for the government. How we long for those days (right Newt).

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Disgusted

You’re not the brightest star in the constellation, are you? I said that as a government employee my wages have been frozen for six years….I’m better off because my portfolio has done well…three years ago, had to do some quick dance steps, but they paid off and I’m better off now than then…

I’m not about to claim there aren’t millions suffering. There are. But you wanted to know if I was better off, and I am.

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“got a raise and a bonus again this year…..”

So did I

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Obama is black!!!!!
—————————-

Dammit I keep forgetting that (note to self Obama is black).

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” I believe we can agree maybe that we’ve whittled the meaning of “liberal” down to a point to where it’s all but meaningless, no?”

No.

And we can add euro-socialist.

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@ Granny Godzilla
Good for you, glad you are doing so well when so many others are suffering. You also need to talk to folks in the private sector. I tend to agree with the Bernie Marcus’s of the business world when they say that Obama has damaged the private sector almost to the point of no return.

Keep selling them grill pieces Granny.

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These people will never get over their racist predilections. It is the disease that each of them will take to their graves.

Ramzad–You seem to be the only one talking about race here. Got anything other than the race card??

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disgusted

dude you’ve never talked to BERNIE MARCUS in your life so stop lying…smh

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AMVET Ohhh and for AMvet , Bush 2 was not the only Bad President…

Agreed, but that didn’t stop you from voting for him twice, correct?

He was simply put, the very worst in modern American history. By far. This is not even debatable. By every metric and every measurement he was a spectacular failure. In a WIDE variety of arenas. Ask the ABA about some of his more egregious penchants for disregarding the United States Constitution. (You remember the American Bar Association, right? The one chock full of Republican lawyers?)

And until you neo-con apologists can own up to his shameful and tortured (get it?) legacy of ineptitude, and immorality, well…. your credibility will continue to be very, very small.

(BHO) Has no understanding how a FREE market should work and wants government involved in everything.

And you do? Please share with me your curriculum vitae and your impressive credentials on these matters.

As a amvet you should understand the danger of this, sic my previous post. Please study history after taking several different types of economic courses….

Thanks for the advice. I’ll put it where I put other such sophist observations…

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“Feels good doesn’t it?”

It does. We did have a year when they suspended raises, but business picked up and they gave them out near the end of the year, and then we got our regular raise the following spring…so it didn’t hurt too bad.

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There are many who unabashedly tout capitalism as the answer out of this mess. Then there are those like me who blame capitalism-run-amok for this economic disaster. Capitalism needs to change…not into socialism but into an economic system that rewards effort at ALL levels of production. And there needs to be a system of controls with checks and balances to prevent the abuse by the few that is ultimately paid for by the many.

Can’t wait for the Neo’s to go nuts over this post!

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“got a raise and a bonus again this year…..”

2010 was my best year in a while. Of course, I’m working 6 + days a week again. I’m not sure how much longer my body can take it…..

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show him a pic of OBAMA enjoying himself…lol

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Bruno:

No race card. I am talking about why people like you consider Obama’s vacation a undeserved. What are you afraid of race relations in an America where this President’s vacation is some kind of national theft, and an imbecile like George Bush could take off every week?

You are scared of race, because you have major problems with those that are different from yours. I am not. In fact it is my view that race is one conversation that all of America needs to have.

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liberalefty – Go hump somebody else. Nobody thinks you’re cute here. Maybe a Nickelodeon blog would be better for you.

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all these JOE THE PLUMBER type “producers” would be very sucessful if only OBAMA wasnt in office,,lol’

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Bruno:

You are afraid! I am so sorry for you.

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as the left continues to blame the right and the right continues to blame the left, we still elect the biggest thugs, criminals, con men, and do nothings…our congress….both sides do what they do for self interest…i dont like Obama as a leader, because he never has been and never will be…but…pelosi, reed, frank and dodd…cmon.they are the real problem..am i jaded..i know there are repubs too, throwem all out…part time congress is a good idea…pay them half and make them go out and get a real job, if the are even qualified or hirable…doubt it

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Doggone/GA
December 30th, 2011
1:34 pm

“Obama has damaged the private sector almost to the point of no return”

How?

Taxes on small business, health care, and regulations. Yeah, these are some of the things that MSNBC and NPR don’t really discuss that much. As well as Solyndra and Fast and Furious.

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Are you neo-cons are gonna start vacationing in Baghdad in 2012?

Since Iraq is a stable, functioning democracy now.

(Maybe RB the businessman can be a cutting edge entrepreneur in this endeavor…)

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RB FROM GWINNET

IS a big sucessful businessman…SIKE…oh yeah, i got some oceanfront property to sell you in KENTUCKY…LOL

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“Taxes on small business, health care, and regulations”

Which taxes, which regulations, and how has healthcare – that isn’t even in effect yet…had that effect? Be specific. Generalizations aren’t any kind of proof.

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You are scared of race, because you have major problems with those that are different from yours. I am not. In fact it is my view that race is one conversation that all of America needs to have.

That so, Ramzad?? My Nigerian GF may be surprised to learn that……

Tell me, friend, what about race do we need to discuss?? We might begin by noting that as pack animals, it is human nature to divide the world into groups, naturally creating an “us” vs “them”. Are you unaware of that??

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Taxes on small business? Really and Truly?

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HEY, i was ya’lls darling last month, what happened. i was the token and darling of the PEE PARTY..

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“I think it’s safe to say, from the total lack of response, that it is NOT TRUE that we export more oil than we import.”

Did you research it and could not find it?

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Adam
December 30th, 2011
11:35 am
…things that people do not EMOTIONALLY associate with being poor.
_____________________________________________________________
Don’t you hate it when people use EMOTION to make a point?
______________________________________________________________
Adam

December 30th, 2011
10:33 am
Apparently you aren’t legitimately “poor” unless you are living on the street and have no refrigerator, cell phone, TV, or shelter of any kind. And if you are, you better not be asking for money, you better be looking for a job, bathing, and NOT part of OWS. Otherwise you’re just a whiner and need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But you can’t have shelter or A/C or a cell phone until you have no public assistance FIRST.

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I know of companies that have laid off people who supported Obama. Voting has consequences folks, and most private sector businesses are not pro-Obama at all.

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“You heard it here first…Solyndra is tip of iceberg”

trust me on this, you are FAR from the first to bring THAT up

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“Did you research it and could not find it?”

I did reasearch it, and I did find it.

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With me it’s not an “us” against “them”…It’s “y’all” against “me”…

LOL @ Brother Normal. I can relate……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgo7jZzW7Jw

I kind of like this updated version ^^^^^

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GETALIFE,

Yes he is pushing 20 billion of our money into green technology and most of it will be wasted on cronies who get the loans with newly created corporations and flip to existing green manufacturers for a margin. Have you noticed how he and many of his big supporters have reigned in the rhetoric about climate change and impending doom?

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We are still America. Our own perception of ourselves has dimmed the view of what this great country is capable of. We cannot solve all the problems of the world so we must look to solve problems of our own. We can do it…we must do it.

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So, that’s why you intimated I’m a liar? Still no sale!

Damn, saw through my ploy once again……

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Broken meat, for the three hundred and forty third time, I voted AGAINST your quadroon devil. I’ve excoriated him over and over and over. I have him at a current grade of C-. (And that is being a tad gracious.)

How big a waste of O2 can you be?

But more to the point, how friggin’ blogging useless can you be? (Too bad for you Ms. Tucker’s is no more, huh?)

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Where are willard’s tax forms?

We know he is the 1 % guy so why is he hiding them?

Is he illegal?

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If SOUTHERN ATL shows up tonight, I’ll reprise this one for her…

Jam–I didn’t know that SA was a lady. She sure does have some great taste in music, though.

Nice Chaka song.

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“Yes he is pushing 20 billion of our money into green technology.”

Thank you President Obama.

I am for our planet over money because we only have one planet.

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Welcome to the Occupation
December 30th, 2011
1:57 pm

On another level, there are real ills — e.g. in the climate area — that we are just beginning to see, but by the time we see them in unmistakable forms (from common man’s viewpoint that is, not that of scientists), it will likely be too late.

Oh God…..another parrot from the Al Gore School of Making Millions Off A Scam.
The sky is falling….the sky is falling

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WELCOME,

So the 1%’ers have lower rates of domestic violence, addiction, emotional disorders than the rest? That’s a stretch at best. I’m confused as to what socialist/revoltionary developed government has successfully spread the wealth and eliminated the above the law ruling class to your favor?

You and I will simply disagree on climate science which IMO became a cause to save life on earth before it had a chance to become good science.

No offense as I’m simply trying to understand your politics…

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We broke our moral compass and need a new one.

When you choose money over your planet there is something seriously wrong with that logic.

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GETALIFE,

So you condone the doling our of our tax dollars on wasteful spending intended solely to pay back campaign bundlers and former cabinet and executive branch cronies?

Why do you suppose the tone relative to the efficacy of climate science has been greatly toned down even amongst Democrats??

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That Black guy: My post that you copied and pasted was entirely designed to expose the exact same point I’ve been making all day – people who are poor are not LESS poor because they “have” certain things people associate with “being rich.” I used sarcasm to make my point. Nothing wrong with that, but what is wrong is any idea that people are LESS poor because of what they are seen to possess from an outside observer. That is an argument based in emotion, whereas the point I am making is backed by actual evidence.

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“Why do you suppose the tone relative to the efficacy of climate science has been greatly toned down even amongst Democrats??”

Oh it has? Really?

Stevie Ray…

So what came out of the Solyndra hearings?

What charges have been filed?

What’s Darrell Issa found? He’s ferocious!

Anything?

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When will O’Bama fire and prosecute the worst AG in the history of the world, Eric Holder, for his participation in Fast & Furious.
Any reasons why not Libs?

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FNM and lay the bickering to rest!

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disgusted

then stop whining like a li’l girl…manup…lol

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Back Seater

ANd how did those hearings turn out?

Oh Issa again was it?

He’s ferocious! He’ll get to the bottom and heads will roll.

Right?

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You and I will simply disagree on climate science which IMO became a cause to save life on earth before it had a chance to become good science.

Stevie Ray–I’m glad you joined the forum, if only to bring a little sanity to the global warming debate. It has become popular among the Lefties here to claim that conservatives are somehow “anti-science” due to a reluctance to declare something absolute truth before it rightly can be claimed so. I don’t know if you saw it, but Jay finally cracked during the last AGW article and said something along the lines that “It’s probably only 85-90% likely that AGW is true, but the potential consequences of not acting are too grave to wait for greater certainty”. Finally, a reasonable statement from someone, anyone on the Left. Which, if they would drop the antagonistic attitude, they would find is pretty much the view from the Right as well. Being reluctant to accept junk science as gospel truth is a far cry from being pro-pollution or even anti-science.

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We have too many lawyers and investment bankers who suck up the money and leave nothing for the work, many actually don’t even do work just collect money

Always love the scapegoating! Lawyers who just collect money…… well after being able to print it, I would love to just collect without working. How many businesses and people just send lawyers money? I’ll be glad to take some of that thar cash from you for doing nothing….. most of my current clients expect me to work for the and more “potential” clients seem to want me to work for nothing.

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Bruno: Which, if they would drop the antagonistic attitude, they would find is pretty much the view from the Right as well. Being reluctant to accept junk science…

Ahhhh I see what you did there…. clever.

And you wonder why people get antagonistic?

The bottom line on the so-called dispute is that scientists have come to some clear consensus conclusions, and those conclusions have been denied by the right. Those conclusions are the following, and are fact:

1) CO2 is a greenhouse gas (i.e. one that causes further overall climate warming when more of it is in the atmosphere)
2) Humans have been producing CO2 since the industrial revolution, adding to the effect of existing CO2
3) CO2 is not being removed at anywhere close to the same rate as it is being put into the atmosphere
4) The levels of CO2 in the atmosphere today are MUCH HIGHER than historical evidence shows at high points over the past 40,000 years

What is NOT fact, but has solid evidence that is currently being tested and has not been found to be false despite scientific attempts to do so:

1) CO2 being put into the atmosphere by humans is having much more than a negligible add-on effect
2) The earth is already warming because of this, and not just a “natural cycle”
3) The warming effect is causing more severe weather

Now as to the politics, lets say we accept just the facts. What reason does one have to CONTINUE to put CO2 in the atmosphere, knowing JUST THE FACTS? Is the argument “What if we make a better world for no reason?”

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As a point of note, however, you can probably upgrade your phone and TV for a lot cheaper than you think, from pawn shops and so on. LCD TVs are better not just because they are newer, but because they are less heavy.

I only use the phone on trips. When I’m finished work for the day, I don’t want to be reached. As for internet capability on the phone, or picture-taking ability, I’m happy to use a computer or regular camera when convenient. “Instant” isn’t that important to me. I do look forward to upgrading to a nice TV one day, but am content being old-school in the meantime.

If you want to see how I spend my money, this was my Christmas present to myself:

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1452

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And somehow.. the unspoken theme here is “Don’t blame Obama for our problems…”

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“The current administration has damaged the private sector by:
out of control EPA and the following accountant/attorney/consultant employment programs:”

And the EPA and it’s regulations has only existed for the last 3 years, right?

“Sarbanes-Oxley (I am sure that the IRS will be interested if Granny’s business is not paying more taxes)”

Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002. Last time I looked Obama wasn’t in office in 2002.

“Dodd-Frank- Banks are not lending to consumers because they still don’t know what the rules are. It is easier to borrow at 0% and buy treasuries.”

You’re second sentence belies your first. The rules aren’t in flux. Banks aren’t lending because they have other ways to make money.

“That is why the big banks are all Japanese style zombie institutions.”

“The NYSE is no longer the best most liquid place to take companies public.”

And neither of these existed at all before the last 3 years? Nothing of it has anything to do with the situation BEFORE that, right?

“Obamacare- Businesses still don’t know what the requirements are. The supreme court will sort that one out.”

And how does that affect business NOW? And how did it affect the economy before it was even passed?

“Fannie/Freddie- Obama has not addressed Fannie/Freddie reform. $150 Billion in losses since 2008″

What should he be doing then? And how does this affect the overall business picture, especially those sectors not involved in housing?

“The $35 billion in Energy Dept. guaranteed loans. 2 of the first 5 loans have defaulted including Solyndra and one here in Georgia.

And we have NEVER, EVER before put money into businesses that failed, right? That has ONLY EVER happened in the last three years, right?

” I agree with Stevie Ray that this program is going to be embarrasing for the President because the recipients of the loans were all campaign contributors.”

As are oil companies, and look at the welfare THEY receive. But of course, THAT only began in the last three years too, right?

“Citizens don’t like Washington being in the business of picking winners and losers.”

And THAT only began in the last three years too, right?

Sorry, epic fail. NONE of what you posted is any sort of proof that the Obama administration is solely responsible for our present economic conditions. Care to try again? (I bet not)

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