Politics
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- boobs0
Here's something I don't really understand:
All this talk about the deficits makes me want to point out that the US government is currently able to borrow money at almost zero interest. They sell every bond that they want to, at good prices. In some trades over the last month, people have actually spent more buying the bonds than will ever be returned in principal and interest.
If we're able to borrow money at zero interest, and there's no shortage of lenders, what does it matter what our "deficit" is. If lenders aren't worried about our debts, why should we be worried about them? The international community is giving the US a very strong vote of confidence in our balance sheet--at least compared to theirs!--, and voting with their wallets.
Why not borrow as much as we want, invest in things that will help get the economy moving, and pay it back later?
- Shhhhh!! You're making sense and understanding reality. This upsets certain people among us...TheBlueOne
- ..those that don't understand a) what a global reserve currency is and b) who think thatTheBlueOne
- a multi-trillion dollar government has to act the same as the little guy with the $40k incomeTheBlueOne
- But it's a ruse anyway. They use this "deficit" fear to grab power to kill brown people and funnel money to the already richTheBlueOne
- wealthyTheBlueOne
- If you point this out, their troglydite shit-for-brains followers will call you a "marxist" or some shit they don't understandTheBlueOne
- don't understand.TheBlueOne
- actually, it causes inflation. That would only be a short-term solution that would cause more damage in the long run.Josev
- Inflation is one thing, the deficit is another.TheBlueOne
- BonSeff0
^ i have thought about this too. and the best i can come up with is that, china in particular, these loans have hooks, like trade deficit implications for years to come. really pisses me off that these loans and their terms are kept so close to the chest by the fed reserve.
- Josev0
http://andrewsullivan.theatlanti…
Each pixel represents a death: U.S. soldiers blue, Iraqi troops green, enemies grey, and civilians orange.
Chart by Kamel Makhloufi, from http://andrewsullivan.theatlanti…
- ********0
^ orange (civilians) comes out to about 44,000. The actual civilian toll is no less than 100,000
- BusterBoy0
^ source? Not saying that I disagree, but so many numbers get tossed around it's difficult to know which is true.
- http://www.iraqbodyc… these are just the ones documented.********
- http://www.iraqbodyc… these are just the ones documented.
- TheBlueOne0
Argh. My god does this burn me.
"A financial manager who manages more than $1billion in assets at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Denver, will not face charges for a hit-and-run because it could jeopardise his job, it has been revealed.
Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, was set to face felony charges for running over a doctor who he hit from behind in his 2010 Mercedes Benz, and then speeding off. But now he will simply face two misdemeanour traffic charges from the July 3 incident in Eagle, Colorado.
'Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it,' said District Attorney Mark Hurlbert.
...............Oh. I see. If you charge this member of the Oligarchy rightfully with a felony after running a guy over and driving away? Because that will have "serious job implications" for the criminal? Can't do that, huh?
I love the smell of rot in Amerikkka.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/…
Next person who says something about "What? You lefties don't like people getting rich?" gets my fucking boot down their throat.
- ukit0
Can't wait til Republicans give them the power to selectively throttle internet traffic. What could possibly go wrong?
- ukit0
The American Frankenstein (1874)
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s novel about a man-made monster who turned upon its creator, this cartoon depicted the railroad trampling the rights of the American people. “Agriculture, commerce, and manufacture are all in my power,” the monster roared in the cartoon’s caption. “My interest is the higher law of American politics.”
- ukit0
American industries that are officially oligopolies according to Wikipedia:
-Phone: Four wireless providers, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint, control 89% of the cellular telephone market.
-Music: Four major music companies, Universal, Sony, Warner and EMI, receive 82% of recording revenues.
-Movies: Six movie studios, Warner, Paramount, Disney, Columbia, Universal and Fox receive 90% of American film revenues.
-Books: Six publishers, Random House, Pearson, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, and Holtzbrinck, account for about 70% of the market.
-Television: The television industry is an oligopoly of eight companies: The Walt Disney Company, CBS Corporation, Viacom, NBC Universal, Comcast, Hearst Corporation, Time Warner, and News Corporation.
Radio: In the 97 top markets, two broadcasters together control more than 80 percent.
-Grain: Four firms (with Monsanto and Du Pont far ahead of the others) control over more than 60% of the nation’s grain business.
-Processed food: Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Nestle together achieve the overwhelming proportion of processed food sales.
-Groceries: The four largest grocers receive over 70% of all retail grocery sales.
-Beer: Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors control about 80% of the beer industry.
-Soft Drinks - Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper/Snapple make up 89%.
-Energy: Overwhelmingly dominated by Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Koch Industries.
-Biotech: 10 companies now account for three-quarters of industry revenues.
-Banking: Only four corporations have assets in the billions: Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
-Accounting and auditing: Controlled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, and Ernst & Young (commonly known as the Big Four).
Thank God for the free market.
- They own the Supreme Court, they write our legislation and run the media. Banana Republic 2.0TheBlueOne
- you are right about us being a Banana Republic, take a look at BP fiasco and Obama letting them off the hook essentially********
- luckyorphan0
Defense Sec. Gates Urges Lame-Duck Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
by Elspeth Reeve
Mon Nov 8, 7:06 am ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic…WASHINGTON, DC – Defense Secretary Robert Gates is calling for Senate Democrats to repeal the ban on gays in the military during the lame-duck session of Congress. But Gates is speaking out at a moment when many see the issue as a lost cause.
- Ramanisky20
Maybe we should elect Bernie Madoff to run this country.
or the guys that ran Enron.- Well, that was the W. years, no? And um..we just put them back into the HouseTheBlueOne
- you didn't put shit back in the House pal, it was the people that can see through Mr. Transparency himself, Oblamo********
- ********0
President Obama Surprised by Political Cost of Health Care Law
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/…Uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!?
- ********0
- "fags" huh? nice.TheBlueOne
- essentially, but then again I have fag friends, they don't seem to mind when I call them one********
- So you agree with the oligarchy thing, but your next thought is - the looming danger of letting gay people, who already serve in the military, openly tell people they're gay. Who gives a shit?ukit
- in the military, openly tell people they're gay. Who gives a shit?ukit
- utopian0
Oligopoly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oli…
- ********0
- I guess the old adage about not being able to squeeze water from a rock is true********
- I guess the old adage about not being able to squeeze water from a rock is true
- ********0
The LOWEST of the LOW
Failed Al Qaeda plot involved sewing bombs inside dogs
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/int…See Spot explode!
Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq tried to unleash deadly terror in the skies by deploying a pair of kamikaze canines on a US-bound plane.- i suggested this 4 or so years ago with kittens. I referred to them as kittenbombs™honestly
- Ramanisky20
lets go back ... to a simple time
http://bltwy.msnbc.msn.com/polit…
- ukit0
Once you think about how much of an oligarchy most of our industries are, it's got to change the way you think about policies and also global competitiveness.
Does it matter sense to loosen regulations if all they do is end up helping those huge conglomerates consolidate power? Give them additional tax breaks when most of them barely even pay taxes?
Put aside the issue of fairness and inequality, does it even make sense from a business competitiveness point of view? A libertarian point of view? Take the broadband industry as an example. Bush was incredibly generous and "free market" in his approach, he let Comcast and their buddies literally regulate themselves for ten years.
So what's the result of that? In the early 90s, we were the only country that even had a "world wide web." Now we rank 35th in the world in terms of broadband speed and connectivity according to a study Akamai put out.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/n…
The amazing thing is, there's been exactly zero improvement over the entire past decade. Every other country is getting faster and faster technology put in, we actually saw a net decrease in terms of broadband delivery speed last year.
"For the third quarter of 2009, the average connection speed for the country was 3.9Mbps...South Korea topped the list with an average of 14.6Mbps, almost twice the average of second-place Japan with 7.9Mbps."
And yet, we pay MORE than those guys do.
"For our average of 3.9Mbps, we pay about $40 per month. In France, by comparison, many users have access to a $45 monthly plan that includes 20-30Mbps connections, VoIP service, and HDTV with a DVR included."
Funny shit huh?
- DrBombay0
I follow a lot of Japanese stuff and the internet there is amazing in comparison:
Softbank Floats Plan for Japan-Wide Fiber Network
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology…They want to run fiber optic cable everywhere copper wire is now and it will only cost $6 billion. Granted the size of the country is different, but you are talking a country of 135 million people.
Last week Softbank announced a wireless phone service that is 48 mb per second. That is 6 times faster than the fastest connection I can get in my HOME on a consumer level.
When people say that America is #1 at anything, they lose. We are good at dropping bombs and making products the world has to have, and that Jony Ive dude isn't from here.
