Political Roundtable - Part VI

[W. Unseld]

I think a socially progressive fiscally conservative party is another way of saying "libertarian." Most people who get off of the libertarian train do so b/c of foreign policy--well that and the practical aspects of the struggles of a third party getting elected.

The R's haven't been models of fiscal constraint but I'm a little concerned about drinking the cool aid for anyone who thinks the D's have been. Hands, you still have yet to name one source that would present an opposing viewpoint. Again, you're missing out on a lot if you only read one side of things. Based on your view I'm surprised you haven't made it your life's work to take out all R's. I agree that the R's have screwed up a lot but the dems aren't w/o fault, everyone we are discussing is apolitician after all.

[popper]

This website snafu is Just So Democrat.

They have big ideas and their hearts are often in the right place, but the implementation is such a disaster that you end up questioning whether the whole thing was even worth it to begin with.

The Republicans are worse because of the powerful faction of hate-mongering, anti-Gay, anti-science, anti-background check to buy a bazooka, anti-woman, "Christians" who wouldn't know the first thing about Christian values.

So yeah. Both parties suck. Can we finally have moderate third party that's socially progressive and fiscally disciplined? Pretty please?

At this point I don't think a third party would have much effect on things. Whoever controls the votes of the 108 million described in the article below is almost a lock in any presidential election (obviously that's the Democratic Party). The President has done a masterful job of implementing the Cloward-Piven strategy (assuming that's his goal) and using the IRS, Justice Dept., NSA and Homeland Security to reward friends and punish enemies. Add 20 million poor and under-educated aliens to the mix and a one party system (Democrats) is almost inevitable.

If anyone is looking for a lucrative business to start I would recommend a company that helps middle and upper income people relocate overseas. From what I read, those businesses are booming now and should get even busier in the near future.

Census Bureau: Means-Tested Gov't Benefit Recipients Outnumber Full-Time Year-Round Workers –

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence ... jMtqf.dpuf

[W. Unseld]

We don't have a spending problem.

We have a wealth inequality problem, leading to a lack of taxation and overuse of government services problem.
We have a retirement age is too low problem.
We have a wages are too low problem.
We have a health care prices are too high problem leading to a government spends too much on healthcare problem.

We have a military spending problem.

I'm at least in a fair amount of agreement w/everything except the first sentence. If I ever decide I want to get fired I will spend hours upon hours upon hours comparing how horrific the spending has been in the USA the past 10-12 years or so compared to any other point in history save WWII where I would argue it was needed, that wasn't exactly an easy win.

[Wizardspride]

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/d ... tml?hp=l12

Dick Cheney swings at President Obama, Hillary Clinton

“I think the incompetence of this administration in the way they’ve handled these kinds of affairs, especially in the Middle East, is one of the worst aspects of this presidency,” Cheney said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Thursday. “If you’re a friend and ally of the United States in that part of the world tonight, you’d have to say what’s this guy all about? Can we count on anything he’s told us? … At the same time, our adversaries out there no longer fear us.”

Cheney said another failure of the administration was in Benghazi, Libya, and Clinton is avoiding responsibility for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission there.

“She clearly wasn’t hands on, and now she doesn’t want to be hands on. And she’s doing everything she can to avoid responsibility for what clearly fell into her bailiwick,” Cheney said. “I think the Benghazi thing is one of the great — it’s not just an embarrassment, it’s a tragedy, because we lost four people that night. And what I always recall is her testimony saying, ‘What difference does it make?’ And the fact of the matter is it makes a huge difference.”

The vice president to George W. Bush also criticized Obama for the way he handled the capture of Osama bin Laden.

Cheney said while he was glad bin Laden was captured, the administration missed out on key opportunities because it wanted to declare victory too quickly and hasn’t acknowledged the 10-year intelligence gathering that made it possible.

“By going public the way they did, they lost, I am convinced, some opportunities,” Cheney said. “You don’t go out and broadcast the fact that you’ve got the guy. You want to take that intelligence and be able to exploit it over the next few nights, and wrap up large parts of the network. … They were in such a hurry to go out … and announce victory, that I’m convinced that they probably did not get maximum damage out of the intel that they had captured.”

[dckingsfan]

We don't have a spending problem.

We have a wealth inequality problem, leading to a lack of taxation and overuse of government services problem.
We have a retirement age is too low problem.
We have a wages are too low problem.
We have a health care prices are too high problem leading to a government spends too much on healthcare problem.

We have a military spending problem.

I'm at least in a fair amount of agreement w/everything except the first sentence. If I ever decide I want to get fired I will spend hours upon hours upon hours comparing how horrific the spending has been in the USA the past 10-12 years or so compared to any other point in history save WWII where I would argue it was needed, that wasn't exactly an easy win.

Agreed. We are spending more than we take in by a long stretch...

And we do have the highest corporate tax rate in the world - not including recent hysteria to the contrary:
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB100 ... _full_more

[Induveca]

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/26/world ... homepage-t

This is getting uglier. I personally applaud Snowden.

That being said, expect a mass exodus within the next few years from US based "free" internet service companies.

The internet is moving towards Chinese style firewalled national intranets, with portions available internationally after approval.

The current administration has moved the timetable for such a scenario 10 years earlier than expected. Silicon Valley C level execs/VCs/board members are so frustrated with the current administration it's astounding.

One example is the EU will insist next year ask android and apple based handsets no longer have the requirement to have Google or apple IDs and a full "no track" setting for the entire phone. "Dumb phones" are also now the phone of choice for most foreign dignitaries and politicians.

Bizarre. Worst part is the larger public information gathered/pilfered hasn't even been analyzed properly.