patrick.net

Bap33 says

tatupu70 says

Bap33 says

you are correct. it’s all about what action one takes when nobody will know either way.

blows up the entire pro dope vote, dont it?

Good–so how do you know who has it and who does it? You can only tell when nobody is watching…

I see what you are saying … hmmm. Well, I never thought about it that deep. Seems to be like most issues, like atheism and Christianity, or conservative and liberal, there just aint any way to know for sure. A person could act like a liberal and when they are all alone they may be conservative at heart, and vise-versa. Yep, that is a tuff one.

Maybe I should restate: what someone does when they *think* nobody is watching.

People slip up and develop a reputation. There are other indicators as well. For instance, when the going gets tough do they complain or do they pull themselves up. And do on...

shrekgrinch says

Uh, no…he just distorts things or just makes up shit entirely in ways that you approve of. Thanks for proving my point

Shrek talking about other people distorting or making shit up is the funniest thing I have ever read on patrick.net.

So this is where the lad disappeared to. He's like a misbehaving alien youth on Star Trek, who wreaks havoc with Earthlings. The difference is there aren't any adult aliens to show up at the end of the episode to set things right, so he causes trouble until he grows bored and finds another forum.

Iwont Post Here for Money says

My question to PATRICK is this

Well I think, in one fell swoop, we have a new contender for the most stupid thing said on these forums.

This is another case I have to agree with Troy. Good comments...

A new user has been deleted for direct and childish insults.

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial COmplex:

""Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions."
_

"The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Secretary Gates:

""Does the number of warships we have, and are building, really put America at risk, when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined — 11 of which are our partners and allies?

Is it a dire threat that by 2020, the United States will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China?

These are the kinds of questions Eisenhower asked as commander-in-chief. They are the kinds of questions I believe he would ask today."

"What it takes is the political will and willingness, as Eisenhower possessed, to make hard choices — choices that will displease powerful people both inside the Pentagon, and out."

Following from afar, what exactly is an affiliate? Are these third party sellers that Amazon lists product for, used toys, books, etc?

elliemae says

tatupu70 says

How do you define “character” How do you determine if someone has it?

Please say that they have an icon that’s an animal! Please, please, please!
Eschew Obfuscation

I agree. That would be sweet! :-)

What ever you do, don't think about RUSS! :D

The issue is "whether Amazon is doing business in California?"

If the business does not send any agents or materials to actively solicit business within the physical California boundary, then that business does not have the obligation to collect sales tax on behalf of California.

However, it is up to the buyer to report the use tax on the items purchased from Amazon and voluntarily send in the tax amount to the Board of Equalization. Use tax rate is the same as the sales tax.

Basically, Amazon is not paying the tax. The buyers do. So, why is the fuss?

Lotr, no, an affiliate is someone who has a website and puts links to Amazon on that site, then gets a commission for purchases made through the links. A lot of very little guys in California are going to be crushed by Amazon's choice to sacrifice them for political gain.

I know I won't be buying from Amazon until they follow the rule of law. Boycott time for Californians. That's the only thing these thug corporations understand. Hit them where it hurts!

They really should have defaulted. Now they are just going to be owned by some really really wealthy individuals.

Lotr, no, an affiliate is someone who has a website and puts links to Amazon on that site, then gets a commission for purchases made through the links. A lot of very little guys in California are going to be crushed by Amazon's choice to sacrifice them for political gain.

I also got my cancellation notice, which is funny because I've made a total of $25 from the affilliate program, and even that hasn't been paid out to me. I think you have to get to $100 before they send you a check.

I also don't quite get why Amazon would do this to protest sales taxes that they wouldn't pay anyway. Is it the cost of sales tax collection they are complaining about?

Not that I like sales taxes. They're a burden to collect and they discourage commerce. It would be much better to have a single tax on unimproved land values. Commerce is productive. Land ownership is not.

BTW, here's the email:

Hello,

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has signed into law the bill that we emailed you about earlier today. As a result of this, contracts with all California residents participating in the Amazon Associates Program are terminated effective today, June 29, 2011. Those California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned before today will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect your ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. As mentioned before, we are continuing to work on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Say, this means Amazon is just going to keep all those commissions that it gets from this moment on due to all those links from people in California.

So in the short term, until people bother to take those links down, Amazon is making more money by cancelling the affilliate program...

And I wouldn't be surprised if they just keep the $25 I supposedly earned. Probably some fine print says they can do that.

Sorry for the double post. I had trouble registering (my fault).

"Atlas Shrugged scorched earth" is a good way of phrasing what Amazon has done. And there are a lot of real people down here on the scorched earth who are losing their income. The law did not require Amazon to shut down affiliates. That was Amazon's spiteful choice.

Rats, Shrek beat me to it:

http://beta.news.yahoo.com/amazon-cuts-off-california-affiliates-201321875.html

I have to say I've got more respect for Amazon than I did before. Marcus almost had me convinced they'd chicken out due to the market size.

I feel bad for those in CA that are going to get burned (by the govt!) but am happy Amazon followed through - on principle if nothing else.

I flew back from Texas to CA this week. Flying into LA there was a multi-row discussion around me (I just listened) about how all were from LA but only visiting. They'd moved to San Antonio for the better business climate. One said, "Man, I'm afraid to get off of the plane that I won't want to go back but I have to"

"authorized by law"

it's right there.

One thing the country needs to understand is that the Congress in fact has pride of place in the Constitution. It is the primary body that defines what our government is and does, it's the Executive's job to implement what it desires.

This is why the electorate giving the House back to the Republicans was one of the stupidest things we've collectively done, well, since the 2004 election at least.

Congress is perfectly free to pull the plug on government. Let the chips fall. The Dems have been too fucking cowardly about this, though I understand they don't want to see half the country screwed over in this fight, since the Republicans own much of the media message apparat these days.

None of this will matter. The Greeks already have a system they call the "envelope system". Deals are made via envelope. Both parties negotiate rates for everything. The envelope contains the negotiated value.

According to my Greek friends, they have used this for over 20 years for everything from medical service to home repair.

simchaland says

From a psychotherapist’s perspective, the envy and obsession show features of becoming disorganized and pre-psychotic

From a layman's perspective, it's just kind of sad.

Bap33 says

Is SSI having trouble because the actual cash was taken and used on other Gov PROGRAMS?? Or is that just a smoke-and-mirrors stuff?

Medicare and Medicade — both are welfare for anyone that has not paid into the system. End all forced wealth transfers — including transfering taxpayer wealth to doctors.

THe War Dept should collect bounty when they save someone elses arse. But, at this time, if I were POTUS, I would have all hands on deck on the southern border and a mass anti-invasion action under way. And a big fence/mote combo under construction.

As a citizen, taxpayer, and voter do you really not know that:

SSI has been raided for decades to pay for the general budget.

The difference between Medicare and Medicaid programs as well as the difference in how the are funded.

That the military is prohibited by law (Posse Comitatus Act) from acting in a law enforcement capacity.

That is disturbing to say the least.

SSI is supplemental welfare payments to people whose regular benefits leave them unable to survive.

SSA is the general social security program.

SSA has not been "raided", it is owed $2.5T by the general fund and as such is the general fund's largest bondholder, next are China, Japan, etc.

http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt

If SSA has been "raided", then so have all these nations, since SSA bond holdings are pari passu with general treasury bonds.

Troy says

If SSA has been “raided”, then so have all these nations, since SSA bond holdings are pari passu with general treasury bonds.

It hasn't literally been raided. But it has made tax cuts for the rich and further deficits more possible, because the way the SS surplus was accounted for, essentially made it easier to lie about the extent of our deficit spending. IT helped make the original GW Bush tax cuts possible. SS surpluses caused deficit spending to be understated and the surplus at the end of the Clinton admin was overstated, which led to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_Growth_and_Tax_Relief_Reconciliation_Act_of_2001

Also it has helped us to be in the situation we are now, where the liars and spenders can say "see, you libs with your social spending and entitlements are destroying us."

Btw, as far as I'm concerned the democrats were complicit in this. They should have never allowed SS surplus to offset what we labeled as our deficit. We would would have still used the SS surplus to fund deficits, but the amount of borrowing would have been less. (ie the difference between non SS revenue and spending would have been less if as an accounting measure the SS surplus was not treated as simply part of the federal tax revenue).

Some corporations might have done this kind of thing with pension contributions, but only when they got desperate. I have a difficult time fathoming why this had to be this way with the federal govt.

Don't miss this editorial Patrick posted today:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjune11/buy-congress-back6-11.html

I couldn't agree more with what he says.

And really I don't see the term "raiding" SS as so incorrect.

What a difference a few votes make.

http://www.ntu.org/governmentbytes/where-is-al-gores-lock-box.html

In the long run I would buy reverse (short) ETFs on US banks and ETFs of food and some energy.

The reasons are: without hugh money printing many major US banks such as BoA, Chase, etc will go bankrupt. With the amount of money printed to sustain them we'll have very high inflation and food prices will skyrocket.

I think this should go to investments discussions.

And really I don’t see the term “raiding” SS as so incorrect.

It was wise social policy to force the baby boom to invest for their retirement.

This money, unlike say the Norwegian Pension Fund, or the Alaskan Permanent Fund, was placed solely in UST.

"Raiding" implies the money is gone and can't be returned when needed. We know who has the money and it's now a political problem of getting tax rates raised such that the general fund can pay it back to the SSTF, starting around now.

For all I know this political problem will in fact not be solved, and the baby boom and Gen X will see $2.5T stolen from them (since the FICA overpayments ran from 1989 through 2009).

The larger problem is fixing the system's desire to run massive deficits. We don't have to do this, but we are.

1) Learn about investing.
2) If you are uncomfortable learning about investing, hire a flat-fee financial adviser.
3) Whatever you do, don't ask random yahoos on the internets about statements made by other random yahoos.
4) ????????
5) PROFIT!!!

Not to steal another poster's thunder, but I'd plant potatoes.

"And the union pork is just one of NINETY-SEVEN amendments/alterations of the original Bush pacts that the Reps haven’t even read though yet,"

And what does one of the other amendments have in it? An anti abortion provision. That's right, the GOP is so quick to ban abortion they will even put it into a trade bill. Because clearly abortion and trade are directly connected.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/30/orrin-hatch-abortion_n_887866.html

HRHMedia says

I am a saver and under attack

Let me approach this a different way. What article or news are you talking about? I went to http://finance.yahoo.com/, http://www.marketwatch.com/, and http://online.wsj.com/home-page and did not see any headline like that. What is the bias of the author and where is he/she getting his/her information? What substantively did the author say?

I think you are nuts if you think our government will let the dollar collapse.

they have already dumped their affilliates in CA.

michaelsch says

I think this should go to investments discussions.

Yep.

HRHMedia says

So I ask this forum what should a humble renter do who has savings?

If you think dollar will collapse, yeah gold/silver are decent bets. Anyone should have at least 15-25% (based on their risk appetite of course) in precious metals, purely because all countries are debasing currencies.

You did not link the news where it says dollar will collapse by the end of the year.

Here's an optimistic link: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dow-20000-or-bust-or-how-james-altucher-stole-birinyis-ruler

Dow 20, 000 ...measured in printed fiat dollars of course lol.

stocks - YES, Selectively.
currencies - YES, not USD though
investment - R.E. (there are cheap & good ones out there)
bonds - No
Gold or Metals- Yes, but not at this price point
Energy or Food - Yes, always

Guns & Ammunition

They are always going up in price and also provide excellent security for your other assets.

Regarding the concerns:

- ipad clones getting very good
^-- I don't think the clones are that good. It can't replace ipad

- Google is entering the market
^-- Yes, Google is there but I played with several different tablet. They don't have what Apple has. The User Experience and the way the ipad device touches the user's heart & mind. Google don't have 'it'.

- iphone and droid sales currently about even
^-- iPhone don't have to grow tremulously, just steadily will just be fine for Apple to be very profitable

- product shortages for apple coming
^-- Not a bad thing, it drives demand and higher revenue. I am sure they know the pros and cons of factory ramp-up. So, this is priced in already (to me)

- chart looks identical to Google in late 2007
^-- Past result from a different company cannot be used to judge Apple. They have a very different philosophy behind what they do.

I have both Apple & Google stocks and I think they will both prosper. Nokia, RIMM, Motorola etc, I don't know..

Long on Apple & Google.