patrick.net

Call it Crazy says

Dan, you need to read the WHOLE thread before posting... Besides, going off on a particular piece of the spending, you're missing the point of the OP.

I did. My point stands.

The warfare spending is the very first thing that must go. At least we get something out of Social Security, Medicare, and welfare. Eliminating all those immediately would have devastating effects on people's lives and would cause a massive increase in crime as people had to rob to survive. Those things can only be reduced gradually.

Warfare spending, on the other hand, gives us absolutely nothing. In fact it is counter-productive. The massive amounts of warfare spending makes less safe because it creates a strong financial incentive for increase conflict, failures in security, and dangers.

So I stand by my statement. Warfare spending is the very first thing that must go. Then we can talk about the next biggest waste. But as long as Republicans refuse to cut warfare spending and end the defense contract welfare queen's gravy train, there is no point in talking about cutting anything else because whatever we cut will simply be reallocated to the warfare industry.

ThreeBays says

Lower revenues due to a recession are temporary.

You are assuming that this isn't the new normal.

Dan8267 says

A can think of thousands of large-scale projects that should be done if you want stimulus spending, projects that are far more productive than warfare.

A can think of thousands of large-scale projects that should be done if you want stimulus spending, projects that are far more productive than welfare.

Bush's fault. No patnet libs will utter a word about this. It looked like an Obama - Trevon ralley.

Every transaction is recorded so there shouldn't be a problem to claw back every cent.

Yes--God forbid some poor people were able to get slightly more food than they were allowed to get. That is just awful.

I agree--let them starve.

Call it Crazy says

tatupu70 says

Call it Crazy says

Funny, I don't see any "decline" in that chart.... Must be in 2013...

Did you notice the chart from ThreeBays? Sure looks like we have a revenue problem to me.

So your answer is to just keep spending like drunken sailors, right, even though revenues are down??

Do you handle your finances at home the same way?? Just keep charging and spending even though you don't have the wages to cover it??

Isn't it more accurate to say that the householder has decided for whatever reasons not to access all the available income streams to them and instead run up the difference on their credit card? The point wasn't simply that revenues were down, it was that they were down as a % of GDP and could (and should) therefore be raised to tackle the issue. That wouldn't mean excessive taxation rates. If you as a householder had access to substantial additional revenue that you used to access, wouldn't you simply start using it again? Better that than continuing to increase your credit card bill.

Call it Crazy says

Bap33 says

No patnet libs will utter a word about this.

That's the sad part... Perfectly acceptable by them. Even tatupu thinks so...

Stealing is stealing, but you seem to spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on this type of thing whilst turning a blind eye to what the opposite end of the scale is up to.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

No, in fact, it is really exactly like The Island of Dr. Moreau!

Ted Cruz has to get the analogy right if he is going to successfully sway America to default and hurl the world into irreparable financial cataclysm and cannibal anarchy.

I hope for your prepared and ready good that you will get some rumbling and score some face, but my gut feeling tells me that the default (should it happen) will not be all that dramatic and life will go on. What else can be done to derail the system towards cannibal anarchy?

mell says

I hope for your prepared and ready good that you will get some rumbling and score some face

English words using sense not much very make.

Homeboy says

mell says

I hope for your prepared and ready good that you will get some rumbling and score some face

English words using sense not much very make.

All your base are belong to us!

Cannibal Anarchy is definitely a green technology, but is it sustainable?

zzyzzx says

Dan8267 says

A can think of thousands of large-scale projects that should be done if you want stimulus spending, projects that are far more productive than warfare.

A can think of thousands of large-scale projects that should be done if you want stimulus spending, projects that are far more productive than welfare.

And the perfect solution is for government to do these large-scale projects as public works rather than giving money as welfare except to those who cannot work. Of course, Republicans would never go for public works projects. There are no private profits in those.

But hey, let's compromise. Divert 95% of "defense" spending and 67% of welfare spending to public works projects that pay $15/hour. The unemployed will be gainfully employed, learning skills, getting useful experience that will make them more attractive to private business, and contributing to society. The defense contractor welfare queens will have to get real jobs and won't be parasites anymore. Our nation's infrastructure will vastly improve.

Sounds like a win all around.

Call it Crazy says

Ahhhh... The road to prosperity... Just build more roads and bridges and all our economic worries will be over....

Actually building and repairing bridges would be an excellent public works projects considering how terrible our nation's bridges are.

Across U.S., bridges crumble as repair funds fall short
DANGER AHEAD: America’s bridges and roads crumbling
More than 80,000 bridges across the United States are in dire need of repair.
Pay to Fix America’s Crumbling Infrastructure Now, or Pay More Later

Employing the unemployed to fix this shit before someone dies sounds like a pretty good idea, if only to forgo higher repair costs and lost economic productivity later.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

You think? Would Obama give us a government grant to sustainably manage the slaughter and cannibalization of white people?

As long as we wore the proper Islamic attire, and tithed to the Oprah, Sultan Obama of New Nairobi (the name for DC after 2016) would smile on our endeavors.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

If those veterans cared about America, they would have burned crosses at those monuments, waved the flag of the Confederation - the REAL AMERICAN FLAG - and demanded Obama surrender to the court at The Hague for crimes against White people. Then he would have sacrificed his amazon wife Michelle in the name of Jesus Christ and begged Ronald Reagan for forgiveness.

Sounds as if you were there. This is a serviceable description of what happened.

Many carried Confederate flags, and speaker Larry Klayman, of Freedom Watch, accused the president of treason; of deliberately pursuing policies to kill members of the armed services, because he is an Islamist who “bows to Allah”. He also told Obama to "Put the Quran down."

Klayman has advocated for the overthrow of the US government on November 16th: "Short of violent revolution, which looms on the horizon, if we cannot find a way to peacefully settle the score with the political establishment, this is the only way," and outlined Obama's "anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, anti-white, socialist Islamic agenda – are another reminder why the 'Muslim in Chief' must be removed from office without further delay."

Finally, "As in 1776, the people must now take action to rid the nation of this new, far more evil tyrant, who makes King George III look like a Boy Scout."

There was also something about Obama leaving Washington to get his 72 virgins in Mecca, but I can't find the quote.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Call it Crazy says

impressing even those who say the news site is full of conspiracy theory and "apocalyptic world view".

Right, PatNet is the rational player in this space, advocating the Cannibal Anarchy interpretation of our imploding economy.

I do agree. PatNet has people openly discussing end educating people with differing points of view on Housing and other topics. People's passionate and mostly informed opinions make coming here interesting and informative.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Then he would have sacrificed his amazon wife Michelle

It never would have occurred to me, to do a web-search for "(First Lady) naked" during previous administrations. I just did, and the amateurish paste jobs that pop up are horrifyingly bad. The Iranians and North Koreans can Photoshop better. America deserves an IslamoFascist buttkicking IMO.

Vicente says

It never would have occurred to me, to do a web-search for "(First Lady) naked"
during previous administrations

You want to even imagine Barbara Bush naked???

RentingForHalfTheCost says

We had no depression. You will know if you had. What we had was a selling of
our souls for another decade of partying. Sooner or later we will have to pay
the bills though. Sooner is almost here.

Perhaps, but it won't be the end of days that you are somehow looking forward to... Military spending will be cut, social security and medicare programs will be reformed. Money will be printed. It's actually not all that hard. Once you balance the budget, inflation will naturally take care of the debt.

Call it Crazy says

Bap33
says

No patnet libs will utter a word about this.

That's the sad part... Perfectly acceptable by them. Even tatupu thinks
so...

Doesn't that qualify as uttering a word?

Not acceptable, but not something I lose sleep over.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

We had no depression. You will know if you had. What we had was a selling of
our souls for another decade of partying. Sooner or later we will have to pay
the bills though. Sooner is almost here.

Yeah, because a 16 trillion dollar economy is all just a house of cards. A "ponzi scheme", right? Where's the retarded and obligatory "kicking the can down the road" remark?

So now Wal Mart is going to quit accepting SNAP payments?

LOL, I know, the whole point of the OP was to inflame some people and denigrate others. It's just that there's hardly a human alive that will feel any sympathy for Wal Mart.

Total fail.

anonymous says

"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; but in practice, there always is."

Ah, the excuses of people who cannot come up with correct theories.

Meanwhile, Einstein's Theory of Relativity predicted many things that were thought, even by Einstein, to be too ridiculous to be true. Nonetheless, they were all true. It turns out that the universe is a ridiculous place. Things like black holes, time dilation, dark energy, the Big Bang, and gravitational lensing do exist.

If your theory doesn't agree with observation, then that's a problem with your theory, not theories in general. The language of the universe is mathematics and the expression of mathematics to describe reality is theory.

Call it Crazy says

upisdown
says

Where's the retarded and obligatory "kicking the can down the road" remark?

Will this work??

As I expected from you, you never disappoint.

tatupu70 says

Yes--God forbid some poor people were able to get slightly more food than they were allowed to get. That is just awful.

I agree--let them starve.

Oh dear, he called the shit, poop!

I mean, he confused all that crap "food" substitutes, as food. LOL

upisdown says

So now Wal Mart is going to quit accepting SNAP payments?

LOL, I know, the whole point of the OP was to inflame some people and denigrate others. It's just that there's hardly a human alive that will feel any sympathy for Wal Mart.

Total fail.

Now that's a good one! Walmart will turn down their life blood?

A rent seeker, turning their backs on a rent tap?

THAT'LL NEVER FUCKING HAPPEN

Karma payback is a biatch:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/asia/3-walmart-suppliers-made-goods-in-bangladeshi-factory-where-112-died-in-fire.html?_r=0

"In a related matter, two officials who attended a meeting held in Bangladesh in 2011 to discuss factory safety in the garment industry said on Wednesday that the Walmart official there played the lead role in blocking an effort to have global retailers pay more for apparel to help Bangladesh factories improve their electrical and fire safety."

I'm big on law and order, but I have no sympathy for Walmart.

I agree: we desperately need entitlement reform.

1) we need to end entitlements for the top 0.1%, a.k.a. their ultra-low tax rate of 15%. Those parasites contribute nothing to society, they simply sit back and collect the fruits of everyone else's labor.

2) we need to end entitlements for defese contractors. Those parasites contribute nothing to society, other than killing brown people overseas.*

*I realize that killing brown people overseas is a high priority for the far-right, but it's really not all that productive.

errc says

Now that's a good one! Walmart will turn down their life blood?

A rent seeker, turning their backs on a rent tap?

THAT'LL NEVER FUCKING HAPPEN

Which is why these companies shouldn't be left to their own devices.

errc says

Oh dear, he called the shit, poop!

Hey--even if you slightly misquoted it, I have to give you credit for the excellent movie reference.

Nah...maybe half a paperback....

Bigsby says

The fact he didn't reply to it speaks volumes.

Bigsby says

He is very deadpan though. It's pretty easy to take what he says literally if you forget what he really thinks.

True. I guess that's why someone came up with the term "Poe's Law."

Yes, I know about the quote. I just happen to disagree with the idea behind it, which is often interpreted as theories are useless and cannot reflect true reality. I like to give the opposing viewpoint.

You know what I think? They should stop funding the freeway system. Want to know why? Because I heard a story about a few select people who were "abusing the system". They were driving their cars all over it and that to me is a waste of my tax dollars! The freeway is another example of government waste. Nevermind that I and everyone else actually uses it every single day and that my taxes are used to keep it paved and driveable to and from my job, its all a big conspiracy of big gubbermint!!!

My favorite quote from the article:

"There is no way to predict the price of stocks and bonds over the next few days or weeks,"

I certainly wasn't on the panel, but I bet one of the reasons he got the prize is that he is not a total media whore yes man. He has spoken out against the trend regardless of whether or not it came true. Please see quote above.

edvard2 says

You know what I think? They should stop funding the freeway system. Want to know
why? Because I heard a story about a few select people who were "abusing the
system".

Even worse. A buddy of mine said that he knew a guy that drove through a toll without paying.

Dan8267 says

time dilation

From what I'd heard, Quasars, the most energetic and furthest away objects did not depict time dilation effects and thus, there's still evidence to be gathered, to complete the relativity effect. But you're correct, scientific theories have a framework from which to develop experimental paradigms, economics doesn't.

Time dilation is definitely a thing. The GPS satellite clocks have a rolling adjustment to compensate for both general and special relativistic effects.

upisdown says

So now Wal Mart is going to quit accepting SNAP payments?

LOL, I know, the whole point of the OP was to inflame some people and denigrate others. It's just that there's hardly a human alive that will feel any sympathy for Wal Mart.

Total fail.

The funny thing is: WalMart won't lose a penny - it will all be paid back to them by government. So I'm not sure what exactly are you celebrating here: if you're a taxpayer, you're paying for this party.