With taxes at historical lows, with the wealthiest enjoying breaks only available to them, after our taxpayer money bailed banks so they could reward their top executives but not make loans available they expect US to give more? After their shenanigans crashed our country’s economy and we paid the costs they think they still shouldn’t have a little more skin in the game? The wealthiest have recovered and they did it with seed money from we who had no help, we who lost our lifetime savings, our jobs, our future. So republicans want to take more from us so they can continue to protect the wealthiest? The republicans are protecting those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes?
It is unfair and in fact disgusting that the American political economy is run for the benefit of a plutocracy.
I looked at the averages of polls at RealClearPolitics this morning. President Obama is still far ahead in the electoral college and the only two swing states where Romney is ahead are Missouri and North Carolina. Obama enjoys the lead in all the other swing states. Same holds true on every site that predicts electoral college and swing state votes.
So when you hear about the race being neck-n-neck, remember the electoral college is still how presidents are elected! Well, in most years. There was that 2000 election decided by SCOTUS. The 2012 election is not close in electoral college votes and it will be much harder to steal. Although I certainly don’t think anyone should let their guard down and I have confidence the republicans will try anything and everything.
I read something yesterday that the pro-Obama people should not be lulled into complacency about him winning. Yes, it all looks good for him today, but we should never forget that the repukes will rat fuck an election in a heartbeat, and there is a lot of green on the table between now and November. Who knows what evil they will perpetrate or how they will rat fuck this election? They play to win, every time, and they are not going to take this defeat lying down. They know what is at stake this year.
The post I read said we need to gear up and be ready to fight Romney and forces of Republican evil as if our lives depend on it. Because, sadly, they do.
Of course, fnord, I was not implying you were encouraging complacency. I think you were being encouraging, which is good. Democrats are easily discouraged, and for good reason after the debacle of the last thirty plus years. It’s a good thing to be encouraged, and it’s also a good thing to remember that the Repukes excel at rat fucking. If they can’t win honestly, they’ll try to win by any means necessary.
People and times are getting worried wheither for real or simply because of things are some down. So yes there is the mood that would allow for the President to lose re-election. When people are upset simple logic escapes them. Reallity becomes the simplist anwser whether it is based on reality or logic. OR neither one.
Hi Fnord, that’s a great graphic again today. So true. The enemy is also the myth we have been sold, for over 200 years, that profits and capitalism equal freedom. We have been sold the myth that restraining capitalism in any way is somehow tantamount to losing freedom.
Reality is, in fact, that sometimes the judicial restraint of capitalism actually gives the majority of Americans MORE freedom. The judicial restraint, and yes, sometimes reallocation of profits can sometimes result in more freedom for more Americans.
It’s a good thing to remember that the oligarchy and plutocracy do not constitute the majority. Far from it. Americans love majority rule, except when they don’t. The once percent have somehow capitalized on the above myths about the restraint of capitalism and profits to make us believe that what benefits the one percent benefits us all.
And that, as Col. Potter on MASH used to say, is horse hockey. How about we do what benefits the majority of Americans and protects the minorities at the bottom of the economic pyramid instead of doing what only benefits the one percent. What a novel American idea.
So true! Landed aristocrats were never more than a tiny part of the population, just as billionaires are a tiny part today.
Another myth spread and encouraged by the one percent is that taxation and spending tax revenue is a bad thing when, in fact, it is precisely the business of government. And because of that taxation and spending we live in a civilized nation.
By jumping off the fiscal cliff, Congress can magically turn a tax increase into a tax cut. All it has to do is let existing tax cuts expire.
In the strange alchemy of Washington, Congress can magically turn a tax increase into a tax cut. And to make it happen, all it has to do is…nothing.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) told an audience at the Brookings Institution that she would prefer to let the government tumble over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year rather than accept a deficit reduction plan built on spending cuts only. Murray—a senior Senate Democrat who speaks for her party’s leadership — argued it would be better to allow the 2001/2003/2010 tax cuts to expire and let automatic spending increases kick in as scheduled rather than extend those tax cuts for the highest income households.
On Dec. 31, 2012 the top tax rate will be 35 percent. On Jan. 1, 2013, it will rise to 39.6 percent.
Say you are a politician who favors a top tax rate of, say, 37 percent. If Congress extends the 2012 rules and keeps the top rate at 35 percent, you would be raising taxes—a tough sell. But if Congress lets rates rise to 39.6 percent, your 37 percent rate looks like a tax cut.
The same thing happens to the dozens of mostly business tax subsidies that are expiring this year. Once they are extended for another year, any attempt to scale them back looks like a tax increase. But if they are allowed to expire, Congress can restore half of them and call it a tax cut. See, it is magic.
Personal qualities that are easiest to see are fame, wealth, power, status, and the popularity these give a person (often leading to more fame, wealth, power and status). Bush W. told us recently: “Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.”
Too often these advantages are used as evidence of fine character, and therefore as proof of what the person deserves. People whose “quality” was established the moment they were born into one of “the better families.”
Today we are allowing those tiny few to buy our government. No longer will America be the land of opportunity, and that government of, by and for the people will perish.
Republicans protect these wealthy few! We’ve got to fight the good fight!
Today, July 19, in 1948, the two-day Women’s Rights Convention — the first women’s rights and feminist convention held in the United States — opened in Seneca Falls, New York. Three hundred people attended the first convention held to discuss women’s rights. Sixty eight women and thirty two men signed the “Declaration of Sentiments,” including the first formal demand made in the United States for women’s right to vote:
“It is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.”
Be on guard! Republicans are attacking women’s rights and if they gain even an inch they will take a mile!
I don’t know how many of your read the Salina Journal, but I saw this today and found it interesting. You all can relate. I just can’t bring myself to be a repuke, even for a day, even for a reason. But I’m glad others are not so afflicted.
And I agree with the quote inside that this raises the question, with apologies to Thomas Frank, “WTF is the matter with the Kansas Democratic Party?”
Other than they are a bunch of lame, self serving asses…
I predicted Sebelius would be the death of the KDP. I wish to hell I wasn’t right. We’ve all been willing to give the KDP time to get it’s shit together. I think the party leadership has NO intention of doing that. Ever. Why give them more time or money when the money goes to fill the pockets of a few party “leaders” and consultants. I used to think the KDP was so dumb they coulldn’t find their asses with both hands, a map and a flashlight.
Now? I’m not so sure they are that dumb. I think they are more intentional than dumb. Sebelius saw that, exploited the party’s greedy leadership for personal gain, and then got the hell outa Dodge before the consequences were obvious.
Like I said, it all goes according to plan with the KDP. Where is Howard Dean when we need him? I remember when he and Governor “Leadership” rode the train across Kansas touting the fifty state strategy and saying Kansas would have a “105 county strategy.”
Looks like the strategy was help Sebelius win so she could move on up , get the consultants and “leadership” rich, and then abandon the empty shell of the KDP.
Pond, I get the impression you live close to Salina? If so have you been to walson liake? I am a diver, Ok to be a diver in Kansas might actually make as much sense as being a Democrat in Kansas? But it is said to be the clearest lake in Kansas and if it is all that clear then it is a place I want to go.
Hi R.D. Yes, Wilson bills itself as the clearest lake in Kansas. It is beautiful for fishing, diving, boating and swimming. It’s pretty crowded out there since Hays and Russell are working on draining every other lake in Kansas. Except Kanopolis, and Salina and McPherson, along with Post Rock Water District, are working on draining that lake.
I did this! I feel great about it because it gives me a say. I think me and others had a hand in Tihart losing by voting against him at the primary level. I don’t see contested democratic races so voting in the primary was an exercise in futility. Most contested races in Kansas are decided at the primary level. Once we get to the general I’m not limited by my voter registration. I live in this state and if the KDP can’t find candidates the only way I have input is to register as a republican and vote for the most moderate republicans. I haven’t found many, but I always have hope. I am truly a Pollyanna. It’s my right to have a say, and this is the only way I saw to do that.
Maybe Brownbackistan will finally be its own worst enemy and the cause of its demise.
Here’s an article I found interesting —
Kansas Republicans War Over Paul Ryan-Style Policies —
fnord – my Republican sister…..I firmly believe that we and other moderates did manage to use the system against Tiarht. And, at least, one of these CONS got his butt handed to him.
To give credit where credit is due – wasn’t it Rush Limbaugh that came up with this idea of Republicans registering as Democrats in order to vote for Hillary Clinton so Obama would get knocked out at the primary?
Leave it to a CON to know how to rig the shell game.
All I can say is “you go, girls!” I just can’t bring myself to do it, but I agree with you and also agree that it’s the only way change will happen. The KDP has made itself irrelevant. They’re going to have to live with their choices for a long, long, LONG time.
Unfortunately, the rest of the state also has to live with the KDP’s choices and ineptitude.
I’m amazed in the midst of the non-stop crying , pissing and moaning that goes for 24/7, people tend to forget when this economic mess began, the majority of the economists repeatedly stated that the recovery would be long and slow. It is, they were right, and still the bitchin’ goes on non-stop. We were so close to a collapse of the world’s economy, and still the the whining prevails.
Here’s a nice little graphical representation of the two candidates’ tax plans. Mitt rewards the already-wealthy a whole lot, doesn’t help the working class all that much, and makes the poor pay (for what would inevitably be reduced services).
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
With taxes at historical lows, with the wealthiest enjoying breaks only available to them, after our taxpayer money bailed banks so they could reward their top executives but not make loans available they expect US to give more? After their shenanigans crashed our country’s economy and we paid the costs they think they still shouldn’t have a little more skin in the game? The wealthiest have recovered and they did it with seed money from we who had no help, we who lost our lifetime savings, our jobs, our future. So republicans want to take more from us so they can continue to protect the wealthiest? The republicans are protecting those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes?
It is unfair and in fact disgusting that the American political economy is run for the benefit of a plutocracy.
I looked at the averages of polls at RealClearPolitics this morning. President Obama is still far ahead in the electoral college and the only two swing states where Romney is ahead are Missouri and North Carolina. Obama enjoys the lead in all the other swing states. Same holds true on every site that predicts electoral college and swing state votes.
So when you hear about the race being neck-n-neck, remember the electoral college is still how presidents are elected! Well, in most years. There was that 2000 election decided by SCOTUS. The 2012 election is not close in electoral college votes and it will be much harder to steal. Although I certainly don’t think anyone should let their guard down and I have confidence the republicans will try anything and everything.
I read something yesterday that the pro-Obama people should not be lulled into complacency about him winning. Yes, it all looks good for him today, but we should never forget that the repukes will rat fuck an election in a heartbeat, and there is a lot of green on the table between now and November. Who knows what evil they will perpetrate or how they will rat fuck this election? They play to win, every time, and they are not going to take this defeat lying down. They know what is at stake this year.
The post I read said we need to gear up and be ready to fight Romney and forces of Republican evil as if our lives depend on it. Because, sadly, they do.
Of course, fnord, I was not implying you were encouraging complacency. I think you were being encouraging, which is good. Democrats are easily discouraged, and for good reason after the debacle of the last thirty plus years. It’s a good thing to be encouraged, and it’s also a good thing to remember that the Repukes excel at rat fucking. If they can’t win honestly, they’ll try to win by any means necessary.
People and times are getting worried wheither for real or simply because of things are some down. So yes there is the mood that would allow for the President to lose re-election. When people are upset simple logic escapes them. Reallity becomes the simplist anwser whether it is based on reality or logic. OR neither one.
Hi Fnord, that’s a great graphic again today. So true. The enemy is also the myth we have been sold, for over 200 years, that profits and capitalism equal freedom. We have been sold the myth that restraining capitalism in any way is somehow tantamount to losing freedom.
Reality is, in fact, that sometimes the judicial restraint of capitalism actually gives the majority of Americans MORE freedom. The judicial restraint, and yes, sometimes reallocation of profits can sometimes result in more freedom for more Americans.
It’s a good thing to remember that the oligarchy and plutocracy do not constitute the majority. Far from it. Americans love majority rule, except when they don’t. The once percent have somehow capitalized on the above myths about the restraint of capitalism and profits to make us believe that what benefits the one percent benefits us all.
And that, as Col. Potter on MASH used to say, is horse hockey. How about we do what benefits the majority of Americans and protects the minorities at the bottom of the economic pyramid instead of doing what only benefits the one percent. What a novel American idea.
So true! Landed aristocrats were never more than a tiny part of the population, just as billionaires are a tiny part today.
Another myth spread and encouraged by the one percent is that taxation and spending tax revenue is a bad thing when, in fact, it is precisely the business of government. And because of that taxation and spending we live in a civilized nation.
How to jump off the fiscal cliff into a tax cut
By jumping off the fiscal cliff, Congress can magically turn a tax increase into a tax cut. All it has to do is let existing tax cuts expire.
In the strange alchemy of Washington, Congress can magically turn a tax increase into a tax cut. And to make it happen, all it has to do is…nothing.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) told an audience at the Brookings Institution that she would prefer to let the government tumble over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year rather than accept a deficit reduction plan built on spending cuts only. Murray—a senior Senate Democrat who speaks for her party’s leadership — argued it would be better to allow the 2001/2003/2010 tax cuts to expire and let automatic spending increases kick in as scheduled rather than extend those tax cuts for the highest income households.
On Dec. 31, 2012 the top tax rate will be 35 percent. On Jan. 1, 2013, it will rise to 39.6 percent.
Say you are a politician who favors a top tax rate of, say, 37 percent. If Congress extends the 2012 rules and keeps the top rate at 35 percent, you would be raising taxes—a tough sell. But if Congress lets rates rise to 39.6 percent, your 37 percent rate looks like a tax cut.
The same thing happens to the dozens of mostly business tax subsidies that are expiring this year. Once they are extended for another year, any attempt to scale them back looks like a tax increase. But if they are allowed to expire, Congress can restore half of them and call it a tax cut. See, it is magic.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Tax-VOX/2012/0718/How-to-jump-off-the-fiscal-cliff-into-a-tax-cut
Personal qualities that are easiest to see are fame, wealth, power, status, and the popularity these give a person (often leading to more fame, wealth, power and status). Bush W. told us recently: “Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful.”
Too often these advantages are used as evidence of fine character, and therefore as proof of what the person deserves. People whose “quality” was established the moment they were born into one of “the better families.”
Today we are allowing those tiny few to buy our government. No longer will America be the land of opportunity, and that government of, by and for the people will perish.
Republicans protect these wealthy few! We’ve got to fight the good fight!
Today, July 19, in 1948, the two-day Women’s Rights Convention — the first women’s rights and feminist convention held in the United States — opened in Seneca Falls, New York. Three hundred people attended the first convention held to discuss women’s rights. Sixty eight women and thirty two men signed the “Declaration of Sentiments,” including the first formal demand made in the United States for women’s right to vote:
“It is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.”
Be on guard! Republicans are attacking women’s rights and if they gain even an inch they will take a mile!
National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, NY —
http://www.greatwomen.org/about-the-hall/our-history
Text of The Declaration of Sentiments —
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/senecafalls.asp
I don’t know how many of your read the Salina Journal, but I saw this today and found it interesting. You all can relate. I just can’t bring myself to be a repuke, even for a day, even for a reason. But I’m glad others are not so afflicted.
And I agree with the quote inside that this raises the question, with apologies to Thomas Frank, “WTF is the matter with the Kansas Democratic Party?”
Other than they are a bunch of lame, self serving asses…
I predicted Sebelius would be the death of the KDP. I wish to hell I wasn’t right. We’ve all been willing to give the KDP time to get it’s shit together. I think the party leadership has NO intention of doing that. Ever. Why give them more time or money when the money goes to fill the pockets of a few party “leaders” and consultants. I used to think the KDP was so dumb they coulldn’t find their asses with both hands, a map and a flashlight.
Now? I’m not so sure they are that dumb. I think they are more intentional than dumb. Sebelius saw that, exploited the party’s greedy leadership for personal gain, and then got the hell outa Dodge before the consequences were obvious.
Like I said, it all goes according to plan with the KDP. Where is Howard Dean when we need him? I remember when he and Governor “Leadership” rode the train across Kansas touting the fifty state strategy and saying Kansas would have a “105 county strategy.”
Looks like the strategy was help Sebelius win so she could move on up , get the consultants and “leadership” rich, and then abandon the empty shell of the KDP.
It’s working.
Pond, I get the impression you live close to Salina? If so have you been to walson liake? I am a diver, Ok to be a diver in Kansas might actually make as much sense as being a Democrat in Kansas? But it is said to be the clearest lake in Kansas and if it is all that clear then it is a place I want to go.
Hi R.D. Yes, Wilson bills itself as the clearest lake in Kansas. It is beautiful for fishing, diving, boating and swimming. It’s pretty crowded out there since Hays and Russell are working on draining every other lake in Kansas. Except Kanopolis, and Salina and McPherson, along with Post Rock Water District, are working on draining that lake.
http://www.hdnews.net/Story/russellwater071912-side1
Sorry, I was so busy ranting I forgot the link.
http://www.saljournal.com/news/story/Republican-voting-up
I did this! I feel great about it because it gives me a say. I think me and others had a hand in Tihart losing by voting against him at the primary level. I don’t see contested democratic races so voting in the primary was an exercise in futility. Most contested races in Kansas are decided at the primary level. Once we get to the general I’m not limited by my voter registration. I live in this state and if the KDP can’t find candidates the only way I have input is to register as a republican and vote for the most moderate republicans. I haven’t found many, but I always have hope. I am truly a Pollyanna. It’s my right to have a say, and this is the only way I saw to do that.
Maybe Brownbackistan will finally be its own worst enemy and the cause of its demise.
Here’s an article I found interesting —
Kansas Republicans War Over Paul Ryan-Style Policies —
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/paul-ryan-plan-kansas-gop_n_1681649.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
fnord – my Republican sister…..I firmly believe that we and other moderates did manage to use the system against Tiarht. And, at least, one of these CONS got his butt handed to him.
To give credit where credit is due – wasn’t it Rush Limbaugh that came up with this idea of Republicans registering as Democrats in order to vote for Hillary Clinton so Obama would get knocked out at the primary?
Leave it to a CON to know how to rig the shell game.
All I can say is “you go, girls!” I just can’t bring myself to do it, but I agree with you and also agree that it’s the only way change will happen. The KDP has made itself irrelevant. They’re going to have to live with their choices for a long, long, LONG time.
Unfortunately, the rest of the state also has to live with the KDP’s choices and ineptitude.
I’m amazed in the midst of the non-stop crying , pissing and moaning that goes for 24/7, people tend to forget when this economic mess began, the majority of the economists repeatedly stated that the recovery would be long and slow. It is, they were right, and still the bitchin’ goes on non-stop. We were so close to a collapse of the world’s economy, and still the the whining prevails.
Time to go fishin’.
Wish I could drown a few worms with ya, Gster. It’s so hot and dry out here the worms are volunteering to go into the water and take their chances!
Here , in Doo-Dah, the worms are trapped in the dirt- ya can hear them yelling to get out! Have you ever heard of aerosol worms? Just maybe…..
Here’s a nice little graphical representation of the two candidates’ tax plans. Mitt rewards the already-wealthy a whole lot, doesn’t help the working class all that much, and makes the poor pay (for what would inevitably be reduced services).