patrick.net

One brave politician has taken up protecting circumcision as his cause.

http://bradsherman.house.gov/2011/06/sherman-to-introduce-bill-to-protect-male-circumcision.shtml

So I'll see Shrek & Co. on the campaign donor list to Brad Sherman next year?

Michele Bachmann would be the Republican wet dream candidate. She's practically interchangeable with Sistah Sarah. The teabaggers will have furry palms before the end of the election season.

The GOP leadership will never let Palin or Bachmann secure the nomination. They'll like to keep them around to fire up the base, but they know damn well that they won't have a chance of winning the 20% or so of voters who aren't automatically voting for one party or another.

(30-40% of people will vote republican no matter who they ran)

Wow--your reading comprehension skills really need some work. Could you show me exactly where he is OPPOSING anything in his quote?

Explaining what happened is different than opposing it.

shrekgrinch says

Kevin says

The GOP leadership will never let Palin or Bachmann secure the nomination

And how, exactly would they be able to accomplish that? The RNC is a paper tiger, as is the DNC.

Yeah, I am afraid that I have to agree with shrek on this one. I don't know if I would call the RNC and DNC paper tigers, but I don't think they have enough control to prevent Palin or Bachmann getting the nomination.

Ultimately I don't think that they will, but I would not rule it out.

shrekgrinch says

Why? Who said I am opposing Obama being a luddite? I never made that contention….and you bitch about ‘my’ reading comprehension skills?

Yes, I am saying that. How on earth did you think that I was referring to you opposing Obama.

You claimed that Obama is a luddite. You then claim a luddite " opposes the changes or outright elimination in existing, status quo industries"

So again, please show me in your posted quote where Obama OPPOSES anything.

OH there Nomograph goes attacking another asshole...

AGAIN!

Where doesn't it say I can't expect anything? I'm entitled to anything I think will benefit me.

All I got to do is bust my ass and go get it. But entitled is one of those words that if you use it, like it's a bad word that will rabble the crowd. Then you're definitely part of the problem.

People on the receiving end of the Dole aren't the problem, unless they are committing fraud. The problem is the people that further layer the system that keeps people on the dole.

Since a corporation is owned by investors, and investors gain money when a corp does well, why would profits be a bad thing?

When the porfit shareing model was in full swing, the public sector could not afford the great people working for profit. Today the public sector is where the gravey is due to profit demonization.

The sucking sound is your tax dollars headed to the local school admin dept.

Welfare and a few other progressive/liberal/leftist brainchildren have ruined America. Not a boogyman named Reagan.

no its just a proof that our government is a colossal failure.

Don't worry, prepaid debit cards used for government benefits are exempt from the new law. Where there's a will:
Last year, 10 state treasurers successfully prodded lawmakers to shield prepaid debit cards from part of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law that limits so-called "swipe fees" charged to retailers. Prepaid debit cards also are exempt from a 2009 law that outlawed fees for infrequent card use. In addition, most of those cards aren't subject to Federal Reserve rules requiring debit-card users to agree before banks can charge them for overdrawing the balance in their account.

Richard Davis, U.S. Bancorp's chairman, president and chief executive, said last month that prepaid debit cards and other products will help the company recover roughly half of the revenue likely to be lost from swipe-fee rules being written by regulators. The banking industry is lobbying to repeal or delay the rules.

Bap33 says

Today the public sector is where the gravey is due to profit demonization.

It only appears to be gravy relatively speaking because everyone else has it so tough. You didn't hear people claiming that 15 years ago, or 5years ago for that matter. But now that we're in a depression, and the economy hasn't grown as scheduled, the states are broke, and the government employees are the problem?

Care to elaborate. I don't understand this (at all):

Bap33 says

When the porfit shareing model was in full swing, the public sector could not afford the great people working for profit. Today the public sector is where the gravey is due to profit demonization.

tatupu70 says

All the money ends up at the top at the end of the game.

And we now have money and corporations influencing politics in an unprecedented way, with a sort of feeback loop, where it's very hard to see this not going further in this direction. If it gets to where the propaganda is insufficient, there is plenty of money to blitz the ignorant with the message they need to blitz them with. Fox news and talk radio is only the beginning.

If the quiet majority doesn't stand up fairly soon, it's over.

Actually, I don't know that there is a quiet majority that really understands what's happening. But I think that there are a lot of intelligent people who know that we should have single payer health care (maybe with supplemental or alternative options ), and people who question our governments priorities.

As I and others have said, the only hope is limiting campaign contributions and limiting lobbying money to where politicians actually represent the peoples best interests.

I got in a little debate with shirk about this before. The interesting thing is I'm pretty sure that even Shirk acknowledges that in the short run major technologies can displace workers.

**Observing technology displacing workers is not the same as opposing the technology so the jobs can come back. The latter is what a Luddite does.

It's as short and to the point as I can make it, I have nothing more to say on this. Shrek, you are free to misinterpret me, Jackson or Obama to your hearts content.

**This sentence will later be shown to be ignored or misunderstood by Shrek. Actually he may understand, and his goal is just to either mess up this forum or possibly he thinks he's spicing it up.

Disintermediate the bastards.

It's hard to beat an simple yet elegant --- but false --- conception of reality with facts.

We wonder how bad guys get into power and stay there, it's usually because the "Big Lie" works. The Big Lie is simple and elegant and speaks to common misconceptions, and it's amplified through propaganda. It compounds actually, because the Media knows it will get flak for running "Truth" stories, so it runs "Confirmation Bias" stories instead.

2007 Budget to Scale (HUGE PICTURE)

It's not 2007, but the mixture is about the same. Note this does NOT include the huge "Supplementals" for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Classes, open houses... they will do anything which appears magnanimous or good-willed just to lure suckers into their traps.

lol !! I am attending one offered by redfin.com in the San Fernando valley..I am going just have some free drinks ( not koolaid) and food....I want to listen to the RE morons and see what they said..In QA I will be asking some pointed questions ... lol !! will be fun..

shrekgrinch says

A while back, I started a topic called Democrat Luddite Idiot Displays Poor Understanding of Economics: Blame iPad for Unemployment.

The apologists all made excuses for the Dem luddite in question…that I ‘misinterpreted’ what he said, etc.

Why are you so sure Jesse Jackson Jr's iPad comments weren't the opening shot of a potential shakedown on Apple?

you know you are in a bad place when you show up at lectures that start with "Buy now or be priced out forever".

ChrisLA says

“Buy now or be priced out forever”.

I heard that in 2006. :)

Oh crap--Jeter strained his calf!!

thunderlips11 says

CISG is next on my list. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.
Hold for $10 or get out with 150% gain?
PS CHBT is now halted.
UPDATE: Below $10. Sell?
“Clark?”

“We’ll be Pigs.”

FINAL UPDATE: Cleared out at $8.00/share or about $4.00 for my puts. I’m a happy camper today

nice put! update us on your plans for CISG.

Like every realtorused house salesman I've bumped into since the housing bust started "prices are down, it's a great time to buy!"

Just like "prices are rising so you can take advantage of appreciation, it's a great time to buy!"
and
"Prices are stable and could rise, it's a great time to buy!"

Realtor: There are deals out there. You have to work hard for it.

shrekgrinch says

What does that have to do with profits? Profits are what are left over from revenue after costs..including wages. So, workers never get the profits…never have…yet they still get paid. Miracles of Miracles!

You can't be that stupid. See if you can follow along. When workers' wages go down, profits go up. Money goes from workers' hands to the owners hands. Rich get richer, middle class goes on food stamps.

Do I need to go on?

Still waiting for the part of the quote where Obama OPPOSES anything...

shrekgrinch says

Simply by what you said: “Could you show me exactly where he is OPPOSING anything in his quote?”
I didn’t say Obama opposed being a luddite or anything else

OK--now you are purposely being obtuse because you know that you are wrong. That's fine. You are almost always wrong, so it's probably a comfortable feeling for you.

I'll try once more. One of the prerequisites to being a luddite, according to Shrek, is opposing the changes or outright elimination of existing, status quo industries. Obama doesn't oppose anything, so therefore he can't be a luddite.

Your logic skills are severely lacking, Shrek.

shrekgrinch says

You’re confusing your Jesse Jacksons. This congresscritter is not related to the other one WHO DOES corporate shakedowns like that all the time.

I know people get surprised by this all the time, but Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is quite closely related to Jesse Jackson Sr. of Operation PUSH.

shrekgrinch says

But regardless, you could still be correct. I mean, luddite-inspired corporate shakedowns is a growth industry.

If Jesse Jackson Jr. could shake out some jobs for his district, I'm sure he'd be quite happy to share credit for all the technological progress with Apple.

Cook County resident says

I know people get surprised by this all the time, but Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is quite closely related to Jesse Jackson Sr. of Operation PUSH.

He knows. On my computer at work, I wasn't logged in to Patrick and I saw shrek saying to Tatupu AGAIN "I didn’t say Obama opposed being a luddite."

Shrek has become a caricature of himself. I'm sure he finds himself quite amusing.

marcus says

He knows.

I know. Shrek's trolling and I come up with a snarky response.

Idle hands are the Devil's workshop!

Nomograph says

That’s what happens when you have no substantive ideas of your own.

Oh, I see, ...you're right. The idea of Jackson or Obama being a luddite was such a stupid reach that I totally believed it was his idea, but I see you're correct. Sad.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/freedom-watch/2011/06/16/obama-luddite

http://www.therightsphere.com/2011/06/is-president-obama-a-closet-luddite/

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/barack-obama-luddite/

http://democratsforsale.blogspot.com/2010/05/obama-luddite.html

Here, for Shrek's benefit I will tweak my statement from above.

**Observing technology displacing workers is not the same as opposing the technology (or industry) so the jobs can come back. The latter is what a Luddite does.

Obama was asked a question that he could not answer. But, in his defense, he first answered that companies invest in either people or equipment as they choose according to their own needs.
But, Obama was stumped so he made up some nonsense that technology like ATMs and airport kiosks were a reason we have high unemployment.
The answer is that no one will solve the unemployment mess because our economy was based on a gigantic asset bubble (inflated housing) for a long time. There was literally a $trillion taken out of home equity and spent. There were millions of people building houses that are now going to be foreclosed. This asset bubble and the wall st. profits and realtor's commissions, and house flipper profits fueled a fake economy which is now gone.
The better example of a healthy export economy is Germany, but we cannot have an export economy which supports tens of millions of high school dropouts (illegal aliens).
The fundamental situation means government must try to entice employers and businesses to hire people by becoming business friendly. The production of energy leads to jobs, but Obama is against this. The production of electric power leads to jobs. The production of resources leads to jobs. The production of high tech gadgets and equipment leads to jobs.
A Boeing facility in South Carolina leads to jobs. But, Obama is suing Boeing to stop them using it.
An example of a business friendly environment is TEXAS.
For the time being, I think Obama will offer a tax break for employers in a half-hearted attempt.
Obama is funny sometimes. I know a lot of guys like him. Because he is intelligent, he believes he can answer when even ignorant of the subject. This is very typical of the type.

When it comes to appointments, question is usually who is this appointment tied to?

Who is this person being appointed tied to financially? Washington is a club; those who are in always confer benefits onto their closest friends. To me it's clear, D's and R's are just two wolves deciding how to eat us.

clambo says

Because he is intelligent, he believes he can answer when even ignorant of the subject. This is very typical of the type.

He's an intelligent politician which is why he sometimes has to say the economy is doing great (to build confidence) as they all do, and it's why he can't say that the reason is massive asset bubbles traceable back to Reagan or further.

He shared a thought/observation about "structural changes" in the economy. At least he communicates in a way where it can be parsed.

I understand the critique that the ignoratti would like to make. When in growth periods like the 90s, automation didn't cause loss of jobs, because of all the jobs created making the software and hardware and so on. But it's not wrong to think that in the long run, and even by now, some of the increases in productivity related to technology have displaced employees, or at least lowered the avg. pay of a segment of the increased number of employable people there are now.

Bt I agree the bubble, and the deflationary collapse are a much bigger factor in our current predicament.

tatupu70 says

You can’t be that stupid. See if you can follow along. When workers’ wages go down, profits go up. Money goes from workers’ hands to the owners hands. Rich get richer, middle class goes on food stamps.

ummmm ..... ok, here's another view :
When productivity goes up, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
When overhead goes down, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
WHen you have such idiotic issues as foced hiring of select sects of the population to match some pulled-from-an-ass ratio that satisfies a liberal/progressive/leftist adgenda THEN you erode both of those profit making systems. The regulatory crap and tax code and welfare mentailty drive overhead through the roof. Gov is hurting workersm not profit. If more jobs paid "piece work" there would be a big new bunch of complaints from one side of the isle.

In my opinion and experience, when a company makes more money so do the employees. If only by retaining a job by keeping a company competitive, a person earns more money. Maybe not per-hour, but a steady job has a value that some would suggest is more than a high paying job that is unsure.

It is time to break up unionized education. The cost is 5X the value. We are having an education fee bubble.

Bap33 says

When productivity goes up, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job.
When overhead goes down, profit goes up. Employee keeps their job

Actually, no. True, if a company goes out of business, everyone loses their job. But profitable companies lay people off all the time. The correlation between profits and hiring is weak.

A company hires worker when it cannot meet customer demand. Not when it becomes more profitable.

If Obama had praised Weiner for the way he handled his "problem," the headline would read "Obama strokes Weiner."

Obama's Weiner showed strain from all the abuse it got. Sad, sad, sad.