patrick.net

errc says

I'm surprised dan is censoring

Care to repost it here, now I'm interested to know what was said

I don't know how to re-post it. It was deleted. Dan posted a link to some right-wing article claiming that health insurance premiums would skyrocket for young people. I pointed out that his article fails to mention the fact that 85% of those people will get subsidies, and that they're comparing dissimilar plans, since so-called "catastrophic" plans that don't really cover anything won't be allowed anymore.

If you have to lie and leave out important information, then delete posts when people provide that missing information, then you didn't have much of a point in the first place, did you?

This is meaningless PR fluff. They won't stop funding the Teabaggers, they'll just tell them to adjust their public strategy to less DIRECT attempts to sabotage. I prefer the more honest and direct approach.

Minions: not just for Despicable Me.

sbh says

That means that the Koch bros., Rove, and their rich friends convinced less than 18% of the US population to vote their way, and yet they have the power to destroy our economy and plan to unless they get their way."

What's wrong with money buying political power? That's the Libertarian ideal. Only pussies want justice for all.

freak80 says

What's wrong with money buying political power? That's the Libertarian ideal. Only pussies want justice for all.

Everyone has their own view of what justice is. Democrats spend plenty of money buying political power too, so don't get me started.

I'm not sure how this is really "news" there have been countless reports, studies, and news releases showing exactly where the money has been coming from when it comes to these so-called "grass roots" movements. This has been going on for years. Well before Obama too. Even many of the Tea Party members are likely well-aware of this even if they don't want to admit it.

What does need to happen is more light needs to be shown on this back room type of influence. The more attention it gets, the less effective this sort of behavior will be.

sbh says

Ryan suggested significant entitlement reform

He supports significant entitlement reform until the days where he campaigns in Florida for elderly vote.

sbh says

the Wisconsin congressman angered tea partiers by not mentioning the word “Obamacare” once.

They're not into political correctness. Nope: not at all.

It's only political correctness when non-conservatives do this.

OBLIGATORY: I hate, hate, hate Obamacare. Hitler and Stalin are looking up from hell and turning pale with shock at Obamacare.

Ryan is probably simply speaking to the degree that most in his party- save for the Tea partiers- already know. They lost this one and if they don't concede, their party will suffer even more PR damage than its already received.

sbh says

Ryan is no dummy, but he is cowardly. He rarely moves outside of cover.

Maybe its actually an ingenious act. When it all comes crumbling down as it will shortly, Ryan can sit back and say: " See? I never said to repeal Obamacare... It wasn't my fault the rest in my party shut down the government".

sbh says

It may have begun already:

GOP dropping Obamacare in shutdown debate?

How rich! I'll have to go back and find the post, but I'll toot my own horn and re-mention my previous prediction:
1: Republicans would concede defeat.
2: Will say something that basically boils down to: " You guys won this time.... but we'll be back!" - in other words they'll use some other thing to try and get Obamacare defunded.

Or- maybe just maybe- they'll stop wasting time and move on to "usual" GOP type things, like trying to cut spending on any and all useful programs while increasing funding on others.

mell says

I have given my own list of issues important to me where he did 180s on

really? Can you repost it?

Most of the Republican caucus, in their hearts, supports Obamacare.

They probably also believe that taxes on the upper class are too low, and that government spending needs to be raised in some places, and slashed in others.

That said, their fundraising depends on demonizing the Democrats and limning any Democratic president as The Antichrist.

Some really are flat-earthers (Inhofe, Bachmann), but the rest know very well that Obama is not Black Stalin.

It's how all politics works, and the particular virulence of the current Republican scare-mongering derives from the intellectual and moral vacuity of their racist, dumbass supporters.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Ryan is a whimpering twit. A real conservative would demand the disbandment of Medicare and the surrender of the Social Security trust to Lehman Investors and then execute a bunch of seniors with a machete on cableTV someplace in international waters and claim exemption from murder laws "in the name of Jesus and the Founders."

His conservative values come straight from comrades Marx and Engels.

Exactly! At the very least he could organize a senior cruise and ensure that pnemounia bacteria would be pumped through the vents and name the project "Operation Fiscal Solvency."

Heraclitusstudent says

He supports significant entitlement reform until the days where he campaigns in Florida for elderly vote.

sbh says

Yes, he'll reshape the message down there.

"I promise to keep Government out of your Medicare!!"

freak80 says

"I promise to keep Government out of your Medicare!!"

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Wednesday, October 9, 2013 __ Level is 94.5

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes indeed, go here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

Edvard said"Luckily I do feel that at this juncture, this latest act will be the last for the tea party. Perhaps then the GOP can actually get back to being at least somewhat reasonable."

Good luck I think this is gonna revitalize the Repubs and look out America cause tea party is about to begin.

Yep. The gerrymandering of republican districts is working like a charm. The most radical congressional assholes on the right are total heroes back home in their monochrome redneck enclaves.

I guess in some cases it's rich suburban monochrome enclaves.

The marijuana thing is just another bogeyman that helps rally the xenophobic republican base. Just like gay marriage.

The Dems need to focus on economic issues like extreme wealth disparity.

Reading the slurry that oozes from the fingers of you dumbshit democrats makes me want to eat a bullet

Must be nice to live in a white suburban bubble, you morons

errc says

Reading the slurry that oozes from the fingers of you dumbshit democrats makes me want to eat a bullet

Must be nice to live in a white suburban bubble, you morons

wtf are you talking about? You make even less sense than normal...

errc says

Reading the slurry that oozes from the fingers of you dumbshit democrats makes me want to eat a bullet

Must be nice to live in a white suburban bubble, you morons

Please proceed, governor.

errc says

This isn't the United States of San Fransisco.

Thank you, rootvg...

errc says

The rest of the country is still an open air prison where pot is highly criminalized.

If there was less wealth disparity and better economic opportunity for the 99%, there would be less desire to use marijuana (or other drugs) as an escape.

I'm actually ok with legalizing pot. But unfortunately, I'm also a political realist. The pot legalization issue just gets the far-right even more scared, irrational and motivated. "The dems want to legalize pot! Oh my God, think of the children!!...Those Godless heathens!!!"

Trust me, I grew up in that world, I know the psychology all too well.

control point says

Please proceed, governor.

Good one.

There's a reason I have that guy on ignore. I've never heard a serious well though out sentence from the guy. Not that that's all bad, if he were funny or if there was some redeeming value.

He's a kneejerk republican (with an emphasis on the jerk), probably because his dad was. He's the type that you will NEVER here a coherant argument from. Instead you get emotion and convoluted sarcasm much like captainshutup only worse.

He would probably tell you it's becaause he doesn't have the time or the patience to explain to the moderate conservatives (he calls libruls) how wrong they are. But that's a lie. The truth is he doesn't even know why he FEELS the way he does, without breaking out a bunch of half baked straw man BS.

errc says

Tell that to the tens of millions of people that have been persecuted, jailed,
had their assets seized, homes ransacked.

Can you list some people that have had any of those actions for smoking dope?? You've got to be kidding me.

errc says

There's not many other things that people can do in this country, that land them
in prison.

You're delusional.

errc says

Alas, in the limp wristed leftist bubble of Million dollar homes, you don't
see the crimes against humanity, and the squashing of rights of the poor and
minorities (dems main voting bloc), so for you, it's not a problem.

We see all those things--that's why we're worried less about legalizing pot and more about the real injustices.

egads101 says

If the links above are him, then he was absolutely in bed with real estate
agents until 2009, drumming up sales... Which is very very late into the crash
for someone who gives all these warning messages today!

Maybe that's why he's so paranoid now, because he got burnt pretty bad by RE, and didn't see it coming. Some grasp of current conditons and forecasting from that, huh.

That would explain the end-times mentality, although it is misplaced and reaallllllll late.

tatupu70 says

You're delusional.

Maybe it's the pot. ;-)

tatupu70 says

errc says

Tell that to the tens of millions of people that have been persecuted, jailed,

had their assets seized, homes ransacked.

Can you list some people that have had any of those actions for smoking dope?? You've got to be kidding me.

errc says

There's not many other things that people can do in this country, that land them

in prison.

You're delusional.

Wow you are a guy that needs to do some remedial reading. How disheartening it is that people are so unaware.

Cannabis-
Total Federal Prisoners 2004 = 170,535 Total State Prisoners 2004 = 1,244,311 http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Marijuana#sthash.PileIO8O.dpuf

50,000 SWAT raids A DAY in America.

Whole governmental departments devoted to seizing the homes and other assets of "folks" convicted of no crime but deemed to have "allowed" their children or grandchildren to sell drugs. Police departments that fund themselves by trolling the highways seizing cash from drivers, no criminal charges filed.

I sentence you to 2 hours of looking up the search terms:

Militarized Police

Asset forfeiture abuse

Effects of Drug War

Swat Raid gone wrong

Be sure and search YouTube for graphic images of all of the above

At least read the Wikipedia page on War on Drugs so that you quit embarrassing yourself with your lack of understanding of the world you live in.

Robert Sproul says

At least read the Wikipedia page on War on Drugs so that you quit embarrassing
yourself with your lack of understanding of the world you live in

What's embarrassing is your reading comprehension. SELLING drugs is very different than USING drugs. How many of those prisoners are in jail for using marijuana?? Find that answer, then get back to me about my lack of understanding. OK?

tatupu70 says

Robert Sproul says

At least read the Wikipedia page on War on Drugs so that you quit embarrassing

yourself with your lack of understanding of the world you live in

What's embarrassing is your reading comprehension. SELLING drugs is very different than USING drugs. How many of those prisoners are in jail for using marijuana?? Find that answer, then get back to me about my lack of understanding. OK?

This is a decent article and it's quite a few arrests though the various statistics often don't split up sale vs possession but sale should be legal as well (it's not like the government is selling alcohol or cigarettes right now).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/one-marijuana-arrest-occu_n_2041236.html

"According to MARP, over the past 25 years more than 210,000 people have been arrested for marijuana possession in Colorado -- and of those arrests, communities of color have been disproportionately impacted."

So that's 210K for one state over 25 years for possession only.

mell says

So that's 210K for one state over 25 years for possession only.

That sounds reasonable. And of that 210K, I bet almost none actually went to jail.

I'd even wager that the vast majority of those arrests were because the cops found marijuana while searching for evidence of other crimes.

Robert Sproul says

You need to get busy reading your assignments, you are pants-on-head retarded
and should not waste anybody's time until you catch up a little.

lol--OK. I'll get busy educating you about the number of people actually in jail for smoking pot. My guess is the number is basically zero.

You missed the point, where is the outrage? Murder is a pretty heinous crime, wouldn't you agree?

Is the outrage to occur only when it is a white Hispanic on black crime, but NOT when its a black on white crime?

See kids...drugs are bad. Mmmmkay?

Except for SSRIs. SSRIs are good. Mmmmkay?

Here are a few Fed cases under Obama:
http://www.canorml.org/costs/federal_medical_marijuana_cases_prior_to_2011#prison
One of my favorites:
May 28, 2013 - 53-year-old Michigan medical marijuana patient Jerry Duval, a kidney-pancreas transplant patient with coronary artery disease and a strict medication regimen, was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in prison and will be surrendering to FMC Devens in Ayer, Massachusetts on June 11th. Duval was convicted at trial in April 2012 of manufacturing with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, and maintaining a drug premises. The Obama Justice Department is also trying to forfeit his home and farm land worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

As Obama knows better than most, it's a freaking PLANT. One does not manufacture it, and you shouldn't put "folks" in prison for any sort of involvement with it.
What I was looking for with Obama is courage, not politically viable gamesmanship. On this and many other fronts.
I wish the fuck he was the leader that could have that could have stood up before the nation when Citizens United sealed our fate and said; "we must join together now and do something to save the Republic".
But of course lurking in the shadows all along were Biden, the ghoulish Summers and his puppet master Rubin.

http://mobile.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/09/16/police-made-one-marijuana-arrest-every-42-seconds-in-2012

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/17220/us-drug-czar-federal-marijuana-laws-will-prevail-expect-arrests-to-continue/

Under US federal law, possession of marijuana is punishable by up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine for a first offense, going up to three years and $5,000 for repeat offenses.

On its website, the Office of National Drug Control Policy says marijuana has “a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” as well as a raft of health risks.

Last week, the head of the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Michele Leonhart, told Congress it had seized $2.8 billion dollars in illicit drugs assets and profits, including some $750 million in cash.

No.

Next question, please.

Wall Street doesn't give a shit if birth control is outlawed, women's suffrage is repealed, and creationism mandated for all high-school biology courses.

They crawled in bed with the Christianist right 33 years ago, and it makes money for them.

HydroCabron says

They crawled in bed with the Christianist right 33 years ago, and it makes money for them.

Of course they did. They know that religion is the opiate of the masses, just like Marx did.

Don't worry about your miserable life now. There's a Pie in the Sky when you Die. Or at least that's what my parents taught me.