patrick.net

So, that led to my understanding that nothing much happens by accident. FDR said that very thing.

True but what good does it do you?

47525 bob2356 2014 Jun 20, 7:59pm

BTW, my comment was sarcasm....

I'm sure the generals knew all the details of the agreement but still felt differently about the implementation of it...

Unfortunately, the politicians get the last word...

So why make the comment at all. Bush made the drawdown agreement, Obama honored it. If he didn't honor the right wingnuts would have been just as crazed. That's the reality of dealing with the rabid right, they have no answers, they just know everything is wrong.

Thank god the politicians get the last word, even if they screw it up. The founding fathers didn't want a standing military at all and they were right. Are you suggesting a military coup would be a good thing.?

47526

Bigsby 2014 Jun 20, 11:48pm

thomaswong.1986 says

You should stay where your at then.. You still havent spoken about IRAQ, Libya, and Syrians plans to aquired WMD ever since the 70s. Their ties to Terrorist organizations and plenty of wars between them all.

IRAQ war was bound to happen over the past 30 years....

Er, what do you expect me to say? Hmm, 'it's fantastic that brutal dictators were/are developing WMD.' No, no, no, that doesn't sound right. I'll try again. 'It should be of grave international concern when such dictators attempt to develop and/or use WMD. All political and economic sanctions available should be brought to bear with the potential for very limited military action under extraordinary circumstances. Mass ground invasions should not be considered.' Yes, yes, that sounds more like it, most especially because we bloody know that the consequences of the invasion were disastrous.
But hey, most of the time the US (/West) turns a completely blind eye to these types of people anyway as long as they are doing the government's bidding. Remember the huge international reaction to Halabja? Me neither.

47527

Bigsby 2014 Jun 21, 12:24am

Your moaning is meaningless without the context in which that first post was deleted. The second looks like it was deleted for lack of relevance.

47528

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:10am

You are right to a point. And I was too harsh. Sorry. But government protected us in the Great Depression from the banksters. Just because it isn't doing so now does not mean it can't in the future.

The concept of good government becomes less probable the larger it gets.

47529

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:11am

Taxation is not inherently evil.

Depends on the type of tax.

47530

Tenpoundbass 2014 Jun 21, 1:14am

smaulgld says

bgamall4 says

Capitalism has been tried before a failed as well.

Capitalism fails when the capitalists find willing partners in government to back stop their failures, subsidize their success, and write laws to keep competitors at bay, thus ensuring that they reap all the gains without having to serve their customers.

Are you somebody Great?

We need people in Washington saying that stuff!

47531

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:17am

I am saying FDR passed Glass-Steagall and commodity speculation was regulated then.

Whatever good one might point to that big government did in the 30's there are equal if not more examples of abuses- destroying crops and livestock, leaving government "make work" workers (many WWI veterans) vulnerable to a killer hurricane http://hnn.us/article/16158

47532

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:18am

No, in reality they are two different entities. Don't be fooled. Who cares if the president appoints. The 9th circuit court affirmed that the Fed is a private bank and it has a private constituency.

The Fed is a private bank chartered by the US government. It was an act of government relinquishing power to a private entity.

47533

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:21am

Strategist says

I don't think so. Rules have changed to prevent banks taking undue risk at potentially tax payer expense.

One way of doing it is to ditch the FDIC. Leave the banks to their own devices. Prudent banks won't gamble with depositor money and will pay interest. Ones that don't will go out of business and people will be more careful where they store their money.

Tax payers should not be on the hook for banking mistakes.

47534

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 1:23am

CaptainShuddup says

Are you somebody Great?

We need people in Washington saying that stuff!

Send Smaulgld.com to Washington!

47535 bob2356 2014 Jun 21, 1:34am

But since you're clueless, I'll explain it for you. My posts were to show certain people that rants to try and prove that the Repubs were 100% at fault for Iraq were absolutely not true.... There were MANY Dems that supported the reason we went in. You even had a DEM president that launched attacks for the SAME reason Bush used... a bit of hypocrisy, don't you think??

What dem president attacked iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction and needed to be democratic?

The neocon chickenhawk republican administration of GWB dreamed up the war in iraq, sold the war in iraq to the world, sent the troops into iraq, and declared mission accomplished. There is only one place for blame to be laid.

47536

marcus 2014 Jun 21, 1:46am

On the propaganda, name one item that you can logically dismiss using past historicals or logical induction.

You attributed massive cause and effect where there is no evidence of it's existance other than in your imagination or the imagination of right wing boobs.

And you want to talk about logical induction ? Nice try.

8) Obama does nothing in Syria. Russia sees this and goes into Ukraine.

9) Korea sees this and tests missiles frequently

10) China sees this and is trying to gain islands around their sea in conflict with Japan, Vietnam etc.

11) The complete lack of foreign policy, the fast withdrawals is saying to all communists (or wish they were ) countries that we are losing our will, and so with that Europe as well.

47537

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 2:09am

My parents and the greatest generation admired FDR.

I am not rewriting history. Reagan admired FDR too. Who admired him and for how long doesn't detract from the man's record.

Try this book- New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Burton Folsom, Jr.

47538

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 2:12am

smaulgld says

One way of doing it is to ditch the FDIC.

The plan of Larry Summers is a cashless society. That would force you to put your money in the bank or spend it. They could have negative interest rates. How well would getting rid of FDIC work in that bankster NWO scenario? You sound like Mish.

If the FDIC goes, just put your money under the mattress, until they force you to do otherwise.

I don't think it will force people to put their money in mattresses. It may force banks to start banking responsibly- ie serving their customers without which they would not be in business.

The banks' customers today are not the depositors but the government- they buy and sell their bonds, underwrite their states and cities' bonds and count on the federal government to bail them out.

47539

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 2:14am

smaulgld says

How well would getting rid of FDIC work in that bankster NWO scenario?

It would take away a guaranteed protection the TBTF banks have. The creation of the FDIC was a government program designed in the 1930's to get the masses comfortable again with putting money back into the "NWO banks". Without the government insurance people would have put money elsewhere outside that banking system.

47540

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 2:15am

The alternative would have been much worse.

Who knows. The biggest problem with economics is there are so many variable and it is impossible to do A/B testing

47541

smaulgld 2014 Jun 21, 2:15am

smaulgld says

You sound like Mish

and sometimes I sound like you!

47542 Entitlemented 2014 Jun 21, 2:17am

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/naturally_the_common_people_don-t_want_war/339098.html

On December 16, 1998 President Bill Clinton ordered an attack on Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors. Clinton said, "Heavy as they are, the costs of action must be weighed against the price of inaction. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors. He will make war on his own people. And mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them. Because we're acting today, it is less likely that we will face these dangers in the future."

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html

Whoa - wait a minute, are you suggesting it Clintons fault?

47543

Bellingham Bill 2014 Jun 21, 2:17am

mell says

Where would you put Ron Paul in this matrix? Or Bernie Sanders? Dennis Kucinich?

the fact that these rather anti-war politicians are extreme fringe who have zero ability to win national office -- our pro-war media and general (if latent) pro-war socio-political bias

underscores the point that the fault is largely in ourselves, not our politicians.

LBJ got stampeded into eventually sending half a million troops into Vietnam via this dynamic of not being able to afford, politically, to look "weak" on "defense" aka national security.

And this fault is not a flaw of liberal thought, it is conservatives banging on the war gong every. chance. they. get, per the Goering quote above.

The only exception to this is the pro-German Establishment in the 1930s -- W's grandfather's clique who wanted to stay out of WW I and WW II prior to PH.

But even Lindbergh flew missions against Japan, LOL.

In 2002 the public polling was curious; 1/3 of the country had a hard-on for "taking Saddam out", 1/3 was strongly against it, and 1/3 was in the mushy middle that was willing to go along if the action had UN sanction, etc.

This last group largely shifted into the first group once Bush sent in our troops anyway, without the UN pre-approval, just the "Coalition of the Willing", Blair, Spain, Portugal, and, let's not forget, Poland.

http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2007/stories/20030411004911500.htm

47544 Entitlemented 2014 Jun 21, 2:24am

marcus says

Entitlemented says

8) Obama does nothing in Syria. Russia sees this and goes into Ukraine.

Proganda or observation:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-obamas-weakness-emboldens-putin/2014/03/03/28def926-a2e2-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html

NBC News - Proganda or observing and reporting?

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/e-u-deeply-concerned-over-north-korea-nuclear-test-reports-n122121

Hagel will not stand by and let China break international border treaties:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-02/news/50272367_1_south-china-sea-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-japan

Ladies Gentlemen - this is not propaganda or rhetoric - its actually happening. Wake up O'Crats!

47545

Bigsby 2014 Jun 21, 2:38am

Why are you recycling exactly the same point you made earlier in the thread? In response to that earlier post I said:

You stated 9 and 10 occurred as a consequence of 8. North Korea has been testing missiles and threatening the development of nuclear weapons for how long? And disputes over the Senkaku islands have been going on for decades. So yes, to claim those are down to the very good idea of not getting directly drawn into military action in Syria is really rather stretching it, wouldn't you say?

You never replied...

47546

marcus 2014 Jun 21, 2:41am

Proganda or observation:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/marc-thiessen-obamas-weakness-emboldens-putin/2014/03/03/28def926-a2e2-11e3-84d4-e59b1709222c_story.html

Most educated people with an IQ over 80 would call it an opinion piece by a right winger who used to write speeches for GWB.

NBC News - Proganda or observing and reporting?

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/e-u-deeply-concerned-over-north-korea-nuclear-test-reports-n122121

You can't be that stupid. The news part is that Korea was increasing nuclear tests. The propaganda part is when retards try to attribute it to the way Obama handled the Syria decision.

Hagel will not stand by and let China break international border treaties:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-02/news/50272367_1_south-china-sea-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-japan

Ladies Gentlemen - this is not propaganda or rhetoric - its actually happening. Wake up O'Crats!

Again, it's your insane attribution of cause and effect that is propaganda.

8) Obama does nothing in Syria. Russia sees this and goes into Ukraine.

9) Korea sees this and tests missiles frequently

10) China sees this and is trying to gain islands around their sea in conflict with Japan, Vietnam etc.

11) The complete lack of foreign policy, the fast withdrawals is saying to all communists (or wish they were ) countries that we are losing our will, and so with that Europe as well.

47547

indigenous 2014 Jun 21, 5:05am

They are the SAME, just at different levels... The sooner you wake up and understand that both parties are different sides to the same coin, the better off you'll be....

And that boys and girls is the red pill.

47548

Bigsby 2014 Jun 21, 5:34am

But a few years later, when a Repub president does the same thing for the same reason as the Dem president with the support of MANY high ranking Dems in congress, they are evil....

Sigh. On what planet are those two things the same?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Reform_and_the_Psychology_of_Totalism#Thought-terminating_clich.C3.A9

They are the SAME, just at different levels... The sooner you wake up and understand that both parties are different sides to the same coin, the better off you'll be....

You can argue the merits of the two very different military decisions or the lack thereof, but you can't possibly say 'they are the same, just at different levels.'

47549 Reality 2014 Jun 21, 6:41am

Every single one of those ideas proposed by the Rollingstone article sounds horrible:

If you don't like your boss? How about having a government bureaucrat as your boss and you can not quit your job because that's the job the bureaucracy assigns you?

If you don't like your parents? How about it is the government bureaucrat as your parent giving you allowance and enforcing curfew and urine test?

If you don't like your landlord? How about it is the government bureaucrat as your landlord? Doing annual inspections of the interior of your house keeping and assigning you where to live? Better make sure you are cute or at least have a cute daughter to sleep with the man doing the assignment.

The advantage of capitalistic free market place is that individuals can express his/her own desires via private money allocation. Sometimes that process is perverted by concentration of power (usually due to government enforced privileges). How would outright government monopoly make life better for the average little people? The article sounds like outright advocacy for plantation slavery of the early 19th century, known in the 20th as communist communes (everybody owns everything and nothing): free food, free clothing, free housing, free education, free medicine and guaranteed jobs . . . All at the discretion of the great leader.

47550

Bellingham Bill 2014 Jun 21, 8:21am

"understand that both parties are different sides to the same coin"

The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating clichÃ©. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.

47551

Bellingham Bill 2014 Jun 21, 8:26am

47552

anotheraccount 2014 Jun 21, 9:57am

You could short car rental companies. Very often they are in competition with taxi. If there is pressure on taxi fares, there should be pressure on car rental prices.

47553

anotheraccount 2014 Jun 21, 10:04am

Hertz - PE of 38 on 11.7B in sales. 12.83B market cap, 20B in car inventory (probably worth less), and 16B in debt.

47554 thomaswong.1986 2014 Jun 21, 10:42am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIwnAs4iwaE&feature=kp

Hitching a ride isnt like the most innovative thing made these days.

47555 thomaswong.1986 2014 Jun 21, 10:47am

sbh says

Or you could short the whole of Europe because the strikes in anticipation of this will bring everything to a halt.

Alot of people in Europe dont take taxis, you will find many hitchhike.

47556

indigenous 2014 Jun 21, 11:38am

Bellingham Bill says

The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed.

Like trickle down economics?

47557 thomaswong.1986 2014 Jun 21, 11:47am

Bigsby says

It should be of grave international concern when such dictators attempt to develop and/or use WMD. All political and economic sanctions available should be brought to bear with the potential for very limited military action under extraordinary circumstances. Mass ground invasions should not be considered.' Yes, yes, that sounds more like it, most especially because we bloody know that the consequences of the invasion were disastrous.

Your above description is what is called cowardly. Look up the definition.... a person who lacks courage in facing danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc.; a timid or easily intimidated person.

"should not" be considered according to who ... Some pacifist no doubt.

Clearly we had courage to go after Germany even though they did not attack us. That war too was eventual to happen involving the USA.. be it Roosevelt, Truman, or whoever.

47558 Reality 2014 Jun 21, 12:07pm