[Rhodes22-list] Andrew, Elle & Herb, comments on your posts.
Brad Haslett
flybrad at gmail.com
Sun Nov 23 12:15:34 EST 2008
Rummy,
Fair? LOL!
There's few things fair in politics but we always hear about
"fairness". Axlerod was on Fox News this morning saying the tax-hike
for the "rich" will be delayed. Now that's smart economics but it
will be another huge disappointment to the far lefties who thought
they were electing a saint. Even in todays post you use the term
"farce" which is much kinder than some of the other things you've said
in the past eight years. I've been a helluva lot more accepting of
Obama and wishing him success than you ever were W.
Pot, meet kettle.
Brad
On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 10:59 AM, <R22RumRunner at aol.com> wrote:
> Brad,
> I'm sorry the your candidate didn't win the election, but I doubt that it is
> fair to accuse the left of finally seeing that Mr. Obama can't do everything
> he has promised. The man isn't even in office yet and the "righties" are
> already pinning our current problems on him. After eight years of an
> administration that really was a farce, at least give Obama four years to try and rectify
> the screw ups of this current administration.on Don't even try to call me a
> lefty or a righty because I don't wear lapels that you can pin a label on.
> I'm just an average "Joe" trying to get this country back on the right track.
> The ultra right wing conservative nut jobs have run this country into the
> ground and now it needs fixing. Using the term conservative with the current
> administration is an insult to all true conservatives.
> Hopefully the very first act Mr. Obama will sign will make stem cells
> available for research. It might come in time to save a very good friends life. I
> can't even begin to tell you how pissed off HE is at this president.
>
> Rummy.......time for a drink and football.
>
>
> In a message dated 11/23/2008 8:24:23 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> flybrad at gmail.com writes:
>
> Ed,
>
> Well, the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak. I don't envy
> President-elect Obama and the problems he's been handed. Perhaps Stan
> is correct - is it too late to ask for a recount? It's been a lot of
> fun watching the far left get their panties in a wad the last two
> weeks after suddenly realizing that their Chosen One can't possibly
> deliver on 10% of what he promised. Like most incoming Presidents,
> he's stuck with a lot of policies handed to him from the previous
> administration. He won't pull out of Iraq on his promised time
> schedule, he won't find an easy solution to Afghanistan, and there is
> no "magic bullet" for our current economic woes. There are no quick
> solutions and my guess is that the current financial pain we're
> suffering from will last a good bit longer. Throwing money at the big
> three automakers will only breathe a few months or years of life into
> a broken business model. Personally, I'd sure like a do-over on the
> bank bailout. One can only hope that Obama is as smart as his
> supporters have promised us he is - he'll need some smarts for sure.
> So far he's picked some really good people, not all of them by any
> means, but some.
>
> Attached is an article from the Houston Chronicle that does a pretty
> good job of outlining our problems. It isn't easy being a
> conservative these days, but I for one haven't given up hope.
> Sometimes people need to be beaten about the head and shoulders for
> the lessons to take hold, or as we say in flight training, "the
> beatings will continue until morale improves".
>
> Unlike the far left for the past eight years, I'm not going to berate
> the President for his every little miss-step. I sincerely hope he is
> The One. That said, I'm preparing just in case he isn't.
>
> On an unrelated note, did you know that the turkeys we eat for
> Thanksgiving are actually killed? I've been laughing my ass off at
> the "looney lefties" including the New York Times going berserk over
> Sarah Palin giving an interview while turkeys were being processed in
> the background. For someone supposedly headed for the "dustbin of
> history", they sure pay a lot of attention to her every move.
>
> Brad
>
>
>
> America's math problem yields no simple solutions
> Much of the blame rests with government spending
> By PAUL W. HOBBY
> Nov. 21, 2008, 8:11PM
>
>
> So America can still amaze the world.
>
> Is the election of President-elect Barack Obama a blessed
> self-correction or radical over-correction for the world's greatest
> nation? We can't know just yet. But, no matter how you voted, we have
> to close ranks as a nation at this moment in history, because the
> tripod of American authority in the world is dangerously unstable.
>
> The tripod consists of moral authority, economic authority and
> military authority. For reasons I need not detail, each of these legs
> is stressed as they haven't been in a very long while. In large part
> whether we succeed or fail in restoring our balance is about simple
> arithmetic. A serious math problem lurks in the shadows that
> heretofore neither party has been willing to address in a serious way.
>
> Succinctly stated, the math problem is that the federal government
> spends too much — a lot too much. The current deficit is a record $455
> billion (before the bailout). The national debt is $10.5 trillion.
>
> The reason for the inattention is that politics doesn't like math
> problems. Speeches are easier, symbols are safe and personal
> criticisms are the very best, because those things don't require
> anything of us, the people. They don't require introspection, or
> sacrifice or sober prioritization of needs and wants. But maybe, if
> there is a moment for hard reality to emerge, it is at the end of a
> political season. Just as it took a Southerner in LBJ to pass civil
> rights reform, real spending reform may have to come from a Democrat
> (LBJ had a balanced budget in 1969).
>
> Math problems are hard, but they undergird the universe. You cannot
> outrun or outtalk or out organize the math problem any more than you
> can outtalk or outrun physical gravity. This is a problem that
> threatens the strength of our currency, inhibits the government's
> ability to respond to the current fiscal crisis, and diverts precious
> dollars from infrastructure, education and all forms of long-term
> public investment.
>
> How did we get here? You know the answer at some level. We are all
> guilty of wanting to consume now and pay later. Politics is forever
> the struggle between today (current services) and tomorrow (education
> and physical infrastructure), and today usually gives tomorrow a solid
> whipping. For the "values voter" the math problem also has a moral
> dimension, because the practice of shipping the tab for our lifestyle
> to our children and grandchildren is truly obscene. Ironically, the
> best news for rich folks is that we can't tax our way out of a mess of
> this proportion. In a global economy, high marginal tax rates will
> cause capital and tax base to migrate elsewhere.
>
> Democrats traditionally ignore the math problem. They just don't turn
> in their homework and figure that it will all be OK as long as the tax
> code is useful as a punitive device for administering social justice
> rather than an equitable means for funding government. For their part,
> the Republicans cheat on the math problem. They talk about fiscal
> restraint and then spend on their contributors in a way that makes the
> drunkest of sailors blush. They say that if we reduce revenue enough
> we can eventually balance the budget. We have seen this "new" math
> before when we were told that supply-side economics would magically
> erase the deficit problem. It is true that tax cuts do act as economic
> stimulus, but the temporary stimulus is ultimately empty without
> spending restraint.
>
> Beyond government spending for a moment, the monetary new math said
> that $2.5 trillion in excess leverage (comparing the traditional
> relationship of bank debt to GDP) was OK because the risk had been
> securitized through asset-lite Enronomics, where the markets parse
> derivative and speculative risk intelligently, and create wealth for
> the most efficient market participants — in the absence of any
> fundamental value creation in the underlying economy. It wasn't OK,
> and a lot of people are getting hurt who never bargained for the risks
> they now face.
>
> Our approach to the public sector over the last eight years has been
> if you disparage government long enough it will get better. Clearly
> that hasn't worked. Obama thinks that government is important and that
> it can help people, but it can only do so if it is fiscally strong.
> His budget cuts, therefore, would spring from a different motivation.
> Will that be enough to make them palatable? I don't know, but I do
> know that the math problem demands that he try.
>
> Perhaps the ultimate fiscal blunt instrument, a balanced budget
> amendment (with appropriate exceptions for war or fiscal emergency),
> may be the bad idea whose time has come. Congress under both parties
> has been unable to discipline itself without it. Make no mistake, this
> mathematical exercise will be painful; all spending, not just domestic
> discretionary spending, (38 percent of the total) must be on the
> table. The only spending that is truly nondiscretionary is interest on
> the national debt.
>
> Obama is very smart, and he gives a very good speech. If he simply
> allows the latter gift to overcome the former gift, we may temporarily
> restore some moral authority in the world, and at least the folks who
> hate us will have to come up with a whole new set of reasons to do so.
>
> But this won't last; the math problem will ultimately impoverish us,
> and beggars don't retain their moral authority very long. Real change
> demands that the political conversation begins to track the fiscal
> reality for the first time in a long time.
>
> When I first met Obama in June 2007, I found him, as millions of
> others have, to be a special person. Is he special enough to lead us
> into the math problem with the kind of aspirational tone that got him
> elected? I think so.
>
> I hope so.
>
> I pray so.
>
> Hobby is a Houston businessman with extensive experience in private
> and public finance.
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 6:46 AM, Tootle <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>>
>> Andrew,
>>
>> I am sorry about your loss of being able to use credit to conduct your
>> business. Actually, use of credit has little to do with capitalism but
>> rather economics Keynesianism and manipulated market theory.
>>
>> Understand the biggest single cause of the current economic 'Bubble'
>> bursting was the manipulation of mortgage market by National Democrats,
>> specifically Sen. Dodd of Connecticut and Barney Frank of Massachusetts.
>> These two induced Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac to push mortgages without
>> historical safeguards.
>>
>> Specifically they pushed giving mortgages without sufficient down payments
>> to assist mortgage lenders in recovering from default and pushed giving
>> mortgages with balloon payments to those who would not be able to meet the
>> ballooning payment. Read the information available and you will find that
>> the Bush administration requested better oversight and stricter lending
>> requirement. Those two National Democrats and their associates hindered or
>> stopped better control. That is a big part of the current credit crises.
>>
>> This as Stan would say, according to Cindy Spitzer, was a 'Bubble'. The
>> bursting of this bubble crippled the historically reliable mortgage market
>> by making all mortgages credit suspect. This included all the packages of
>> credit made from those mortgages.
>>
>> This has 'mortally' harmed the credit industry. This has harmed not only
>> getting credit but those who historically have used it to smooth contact
>> payments out to pay routine business expenses. This harm caused by Fanny
> Mae
>> and Freddie Mac will last 50 years or more. Thank those in the U. S.
>> Congress who wanted to use the credit industry to finance social aims.
>> Thank you for supporting those candidates.
>>
>> So how is above this any different from Obama's other 'Progressive Goals?'
>> Unfortunately, those who understand economics understand the problems that
>> an Obama administration will have and cause. Maybe the stock market will
>> stabilize? However, the harm inflicted on U. S. credit will linger.
>>
>> I am sorry that this will cause you great personal harm. What were Warren
>> Buffett's remarks the other day about future inflation and devaluation of
>> the U. S dollar? Thank Barney and Chris and fellow travelers, and your
>> support of those policies and the policies advocates.
>>
>> Elle said, "Educators haven't 'turned over' discipline; it has been ripped
>> out of their control by laws and regulations and lawsuits." Yes thank
>> plaintiff's attorneys for over zealous advocacy of minor issues and nominal
>> harms. We have at least one of those guys, on this forum. Actually, we
>> have several but they lay low least they hear about their activities.
>>
>> Herb said, "At the same time, if we as parents were more involved in the
>> educational process of our children, most of us would be surprised at
>> exactly what we can do. However, in the relative vacuum of parental
>> involvement, the bureaucracies have thrived like a fungus, and we've ended
>> up where we are now."
>>
>> The simple truth is not all parents have time to be involved. When both
>> parents work, as is needed in today's times to make ends meet, they do not
>> have time to attend PTA and other activities.
>>
>> Discipline was integral when I attended school. It has been hamstrung by
>> bureaucracies and sociopaths and those wanting schools to develop socially
>> conscious students. Just read about the themes advocated by Obama's friend
>> Bill Ayers. He disregards schools to build basic math and communication
>> skills for social purposes. Yet, we have so many who follow the sheep
>> herder…
>>
>> Ed K
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
> http://www.nabble.com/Andrew%2C-Elle---Herb%2C-comments-on-your-posts.-tp20645864p20645864.html
>> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________
>> To subscribe/unsubscribe or for help with using the mailing list go to
> http://www.rhodes22.org/list
>> __________________________________________________
>>
>
> __________________________________________________
> To subscribe/unsubscribe or for help with using the mailing list go to
> http://www.rhodes22.org/list
> __________________________________________________
>
> **************One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks,
> and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com
> today!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp
> %26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001)
> __________________________________________________
> To subscribe/unsubscribe or for help with using the mailing list go to http://www.rhodes22.org/list
> __________________________________________________
>
More information about the Rhodes22-list
mailing list