It would be hard to exaggerate Assrocket’s stupidity. If he believes anything he’s saying, he’s an idiot. I wonder whether his readers will punish him for being such a bad prognosticator, or not. Anyone who has predicted that not only would Mitt Romney win this election, but win it in convincing fashion, obviously cannot even figure out how to use an Electoral College calculator. Assrocket should know that the Democrats have a solid 247 Electoral College base. And if the Dems don’t totally screw things up, they probably will enter the 2016 cycle with a solid base in excess of the 270 Electoral College majority required to win.
It is possible for Mitt Romney to win, but not by more than 291 votes, and that is not a decisive margin. You can look back at 2004 and see that as pretty much the best the modern Republican Party can do. In other words, the Republicans can win the White House, but only by the narrowest margins. The last time they won a decisive presidential election was 1988, and the demographics of the country have changed dramatically since then. By 2024, Texas will be a swing state and Florida will be solidly blue. The GOP must get away from branding themselves as the party for white, conservative Christians. And, no, nominating a Mormon isn’t fooling anyone.
I think this might be something even dumber that he said which is worth pointing out:
Different planets, man.
At least he says what we know about wanting to outright abolish the welfare state, though. Now we need their politicians to be more explicit with the words “abolish” rather than couponizing and block-granting.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is defeating himself. Instead throw him an anvil.
The GOP is toast and they did it to themselves.
Lindsey Graham: “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”
Ladies and gentlemen, your modern Republican Party.
This is the same habit mentality that can’t let go of the Cold War, yes Mitt & advisors that’s you, and just like Cheney ignore the Clarke’s of the world racing up and down their aisles with their hair on fire about the new threat AQ.
As your previous thread pointed to, analyze & adapt! I guess John’s happy with resting on his Reagan laurels to carry November and run the Country.
Not to mention the Civil War…
With over 100 million Americans receiving federal welfare benefits, millions more going on Social Security disability, and many millions on top of that living on entitlement programs-not to mention enormous numbers of public employees-we may have gotten to the point where the government economy is more important, in the short term, than the real economy.
Bullshit!
Oh and three words, military industrial complex.
And a special shout-out of sub-level bullshit to throwing Social Security disability in as something that a person doesn’t earn. We pay into Social Security from our wages. You aren’t eligible for SSD benefits unless you’ve worked a minimum number of years (10, I believe). It’s an insurance policy. The money of people who stay healthy subsidizes the (very minimal) subsistence of folks who, for whatever reason, no longer can.
If anything the federal gov’t siphons money out of what is supposed to be a separate trust fund, usually because Republicans have racked up deficits transferring wealth to the rich and make up for it by stealing our set-aside wages.
The whole notion that SSD recipients are moochers really pisses me off, just like the apparently now widespread notion that pensions somehow weren’t earned and can be discarded at will is something I still find both legally and morally jawdropping. There really is no limit to which the one percent and their apologists won’t go to squeeze blood out of what’s left of our middle class.
Verbatim Assrocket:
Shorter Assrocket:
The most expensive welfare program we have in this country is the military.
I say that as someone who lives near Colorado Springs (NORAD, AFA, Fort Carson) and frequents our local airport, which shares grounds with TWO air force bases. As I drive around here my mind boggles at all the structures and people’s salaries that are paid for by our tax dollars. For what purpose? They certainly aren’t “protecting our freedoms”.
Cut the military budget from $800B (that’s the official DoD budget, plus the extra support they get from other parts of the federal budget) to a more rational $150B and you’ll see economic magic happen.
Won’t happen.
Too dangerous.
Dangerous how, exactly?
Well common sense tells one not to try to take money away from heavily armed men whose job it is to kill people, just for starters. But even more importantly, the military and the arms manufacturers make this economy go. The U.S. arms the world. Pull the plug and the armed forces would have to restructure. Too many people are already out of work. The arms makers would also have to restructure, which would result in even more people out of work. Without an aggressively hostile armed presence our economic imperialist system would topple and the U.S. would have to start paying market prices for fuel. In France gas costs upwards of $8/gallon, for instance. UH oh!!! There go the auto, airline and trucking industries. No food or fuel deliveries.
Using the words “domestic unrest” to describe what would happen in the U.S. should these things occur would be completely inadequate to the task at hand.
The country would burn.
Bet on it.
No, GreenCaboose. We are stuck with our economic imperialist policies for quite a while. We might be able to back out of that situation over a decade or so, but for that to happen it would mean that one party would have to thoroughly control the federal legislature and the presidency for at least two terms. The corporate interests that control both parties and the media do not want that kind of change to happen…”bad for business,” if y’know what I mean…so if any political party with a snowball’s chance in Ket West tried to break loose from that control it would be shot down by the media the same way Ron Paul was shot down during the primaries.
I wish it were otherwise but…it’s not.
Deal wid it.
AG
Of course it won’t happen. At least not without a monumental Depression+WW2-level event.
But the system is not sustainable as is. That event is inevitable.
AG – during the ’80s anti-nuclear movement a very popular approach by activists was something called economic conversion – pointing out the ineffectiveness of spending on nukes as a job creation engine, and how many more jobs could be created in the same communities with the same money (and money left over that could be put into the job training). After the Soviet bloc collapsed a similar approach was used to try to exploit the instantly-mythical “peace dividend.”
We know what happened – the M-I complex instantly concocted new rationales for systems designed to combat the Soviet menace. And 9-11 was a bonanza, an unlimited checkbook for a whole new generation of kill toys. Next to fear and macho strutting, intellectual conceits like “economic conversion” don’t stand a chance, no matter how carefully the facts are laid out.
Any number of studies have shown that military spending is just about the least efficient possible way to create jobs, because so much of it goes into hardware (and contractor profits). Education spending creates more jobs per dollar spent. Infrastructure spending creates more jobs. Green energy creates more jobs. Environmental cleanup creates more jobs. And on, and on. Hell, randomly dropping the money from an airplane would probably create more jobs.
Doesn’t matter. It’s not just that people would object to the loss of jobs if the DoD’s budget were cut. Those jobs could be instantly replaced with more and better ones for the same or less spending. It’s that the war lobby has its hooks deep into Congress, exploiting a political culture that sees being “tough” as an essential asset and being, you know, fiscally sensible (let alone considering economic well-being as a form of national security) as weak, if not “siding with the terrorists.” Until militarism can be separated from our national id, we’re never going to be able to make rational decisions about that part of our economy.
If St. Ronnie can dump untold billions into the MIC Star Wars/SDI rat hole, why not an Alternative Energy Initiative? Yeah, I know, the oil barons wouldn’t be at all pleased.
Yeah, but…
All that rationality aside, I refer you to my first argument:
In fact, messing with them on any level whatsoever is a foolish and potentially life-threatening act.
Ask JFK and RFK for all you need to know on that subject.
Bet on it.
Mrs. Obama didn’t raise no fools.
Bet on that as well.
AG
I like you, you seem like a smart and informed guy.
Most of what you write makes sense to me but whenever someone tries to argue against stuff you said you get out the duct tape to stick it back in place.
It makes the whole look messy and chaotic.
You know i`m right, i bet you do.
Look in the mirror and comb your hair.
Sit on the toilet and let it go.
Take a deep breath and let go of the duct tape.
I know it can stick everything together.
But its not very strong…
You have to use the right screws…
To Fix Stuff…
Better see
Yourself
Remove
The duct tape
and use
tools, the tools that others recommend or something better you can come up with.
Duct tape sticks only for so long.
Bet on it.
BG
Dont forget if you have the choice of losing a finger or your arm theres no reason to think about how you hate the pain. BG
Duct tape doesn’t last forever.
Wise words from a great American sage. Which reminds that Life’s Solutions AND Life’s Problems are not permanent.
Remember children, in my lifetime:
white people and black people could not play backgammon together in Birmingham.
Anti-miscegnation laws on the books (white-black, white-asian, white-Native American) in 27 states in 1967.
In 1968 abortion was illegal in all 50 states. Performing an abortion was punishable by jail time as years in prison. If the woman died, it was a Death Penalty case. Having an abortion was punishable by 3-5 years in prison.
1965 “Homosexual Acts” are criminal in ALL 50 states
Jim Crow was alive and well.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The fights of now and the future will be about different aspects of freedom. But once you’ve won, you generally get 20+ years without having to re-fight.
Evolution continues, just as it has continued since the beginning of this planet. The evidence that supports this idea is conclusive on every level from geology and biology to human history.
The question remains…exactly how does it continue? In what manner? Understand this and all temporary questions disappear.
It continues very much like a drunken sailor making his way back to the ship. A stumble forward, a fall back. Three steps to the right, a nap in an alley. Mugged in a bad neighborhood, helped by a passing nun. Eventually…the sailor always makes it back to the ship and on to the next voyage.
Believe it.
I do.
Another question?
What is the first cause of this?
Answer? Damned if I know. The best one I have been given so far?
Life is alive. The life of Life is real. The universe is alive. It must evolve or die and just like any plant or animal, once the survival instinct disappears the end is near.
Has Life’s survival instinct disappeared yet? Apparently not. The universe not only continues to expand, but…on the evidence of recent scientific examination…its expansion is accelerating. Life continues to evolve at the human level on the evidence of my own eyes and ears as I travel through the world…and I mean the world, because my passport is so full up I just had to add 20 pages and also I travel w/in the U.S. by all means of transportation from car to bus, rail and air and right on through all levels of the society from the ghettos to the mansions, the Motel 6s and four star hotels on a regular basis. I see things on these far-flung journeys. Bet on it.
You write:
I agree, but I would put it another way. The fights of now and the future will be about different aspects of evolution. Are “freedom” and “evolution” interchangeable words? I think that they are. Did Hitler’s Germany evolve? No, it crashed like stone. How about Stalinist Russia? Nope. As “freedom” here in the U.S. regresses into a surveillance state/nanny state, are we going to continue to evolve or is it just the drunken sailor once again walking smack nto a lamp pole? That’s where this fight to which you refer is now occurring. Bet on that as well.
You also write:
it’s not going to be 20+ years before we find out who won or where the next battle will occur. More like 4 years at most. One of the aspects of “evolution” on this level is that it appears to be accelerating. How many billions of years did it take the earth to produce what we laughingly call “life?”
And in what space of time has the information and/or technological revolution expanded the minds of literally billions of human beings?
Your estimate of 20+ years is from 1945 or thereabouts. Things move faster now. This particular fight is now refought every 4 years in the U.S., not 20+, and it can be lost every 4 years. I personally believe that it is being lost today, because neither supposed side of this competition is really about the evolution on freedom. The competition this time around is really between harsh repression vs. kinder, gentler repression, and the kinder, gentler version is going to win because it is a more efficient tactic at present.
So it goes.
But the growth always continues somewhere.
Here in the U.S.? It ain’t over yet.
In South/Central/Caribbean America? (My best bet.)
China?
S.E. Asia?
Stay tuned.
News Of The World.
News Of The Life Of Life.
Bet on it.
AG
I am afraid the problem in this year’s race is economic self-interest
ROFLMAO
I’m really tempted to post something gleefully sophomoric, but will, this once, instead be satisfied with inner chortling;-)
In elections, economic self-interest is ALWAYS the biggest issue … as far as the 1% is concerned. The “problem” this year is that some folks are more aware that the economic self-interest of the 1% and their own economic self-interest isn’t the same thing.
I do wonder how Hinderaker’s mind works. He’s obviously capable of saying incredibly stupid things, but he doesn’t appear to be a stupid person. At least, his success as an attorney suggests he’s not lacking in analytical ability.
But when you’re an attorney, I suppose your analysis always starts from certain givens–the facts of a particular situation, the applicable laws, and so forth. So there will be some constraints on his legal analysis, whereas when he switches to political analysis he’s free to pull his givens–like the idea that the “government economy” has nothing to do with the “real economy,” or that the only reason to support Obama is that you’re on welfare–out of his ass.
What he doesn’t seem to be capable of is questioning his assumptions. In this post on the election, he’s sort of at the point where Ptolemy should give way to Copernicus–he’s watching the planets, and they just aren’t moving the way his model of the universe says they’re supposed to. But instead of wondering if maybe the earth (or the Republican party) really isn’t at the center of the universe, he just keeps adding epicycles.
“What he doesn’t seem to be capable of is questioning his assumptions. In this post on the election, he’s sort of at the point where Ptolemy should give way to Copernicus–he’s watching the planets, and they just aren’t moving the way his model of the universe says they’re supposed to. But instead of wondering if maybe the earth (or the Republican party) really isn’t at the center of the universe, he just keeps adding epicycles.”
Very good! That’s exactly it.
And something else that keeps the blinkers on, maybe not so much with Hinderaker but with lots of others, (e.g. Faux News/Limbaugh audience) is sheer spite.
Republicans, or a tleast many of them, really are living in an alternative universe:
These are from the Arlington Conservative Examiner:
“Romney maintains the electoral vote lead of 317 to 179 over Obama with 42 electoral votes from Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Mexico and Oregon remaining in toss-up status. The map above shows which ways the states are leaning in this presidential race.”
http://www.examiner.com/article/mitt-romney-electoral-vote-lead-holds-strong-through-both-convention
s
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-arlington/dean-chambers
I just can’t even begin to understand the thinking. Just look at New Hampshire:
“The RCP average favor Obama by only 3.5 percent with both candidates well under 50 percent. The latest PPP survey is an outlier, and the average of the other three polls listed would place Obama at 47.3 percent to Romney at 44.7 percent. Most undecided voters will break for Obama and New Hampshire will return to its historic pattern of voting for the Republican nominee. New Hampshire leans Republican.”
Admits: Polls favor Obama by 3.5%, undecideds will break for Obama. Then: NH leans Republican based on this data.
I don’t even…
Look at polling period NH … early August. Data is worthless, however New Hampshire is known for its independent stance and is worthy to keep it blue (see link and comment about CEO in Washington).
Obama gets strong post-convention bounce in 3 new surveys
New Jersey. New Jersey. New F*cking Jersey????? Really???? Words just fail me. Honestly, words just fail me.
“Quinnipiac survey shows Obama’s lead in NJ falling to only seven percent. Romney has risen to 44 percent in that poll. If the next credible poll of New Jersey moves Romney at least up to 45 percent and Obama below 50 percent”
I’ve fallen thru the looking glass:
Examiner.com
“If the Obama’s campaign’s negative attacks have some degree of backlash, and Mitt Romney is able to hold Obama personally accountable for the negative campaigning, we could looking at an electoral college map looking like this on election night.”
Notice Vermont? Currently Electoral-vote.com has Obama at 62% vs 25% for Romney. Oh yeah, and MA is going Romney also.
Please tell me Booman, that I’m not in a fever dream?
That’s the craziest bit of wishful thinking I’ve heard in quite a while.