1/ Wow. Wow. An incredible essay from the Guardian on the state of the Democratic party both after the election and the Obama sellout on the tax cuts.....here's the title of the article..
A disappointed Democrat? You bet
I'm a natural party loyalist, but I'm beginning to think Obama has as much contempt for us as the Republicans do for him
Read on, stalwart Dems....better get a glass of wine first.....
I wasn't asked to the Soros and Brock affairs because the invitations read "rich only", and I'm ashamed I failed to make the cut. In the new oligarchy that controls both parties, we loyal peons – Obama's so-called base – are unpersons, like movie zombies, except when, every two or four years, they summon us – again, like zombies – to man phone banks and knock on doors, which I did for Obama in 2008.
Money roars its commands and we obey. In 2008, total election spending reached more than $5bn. By 2012, it will probably hit $7-10bn, if not more – enough to pay the annual salaries of 250,000 teachers.
Alas, I won't get a penny of it. The real-life "Don Drapers", ad merchants and consultants and advisers, will.
My brain knows this. But in the blood-stirring heat of elections, my gut contradicts what I know to be true, that the Democratic party, especially at the top, is a terminally corrupt institution and has outlived its time. In the recent midterms, I walked into my local polling booth and robotically punched holes marked Democratic party down the line, even for candidates I knew nothing about, like judges and county assessors, as long as they had "Dem" next to their names.
2/ Tax cuts for the rich - leave it to an economist like Paul Krugman to pinpoint the real issues - this awful bill isn't going to solve our long term problems........it truly is a punt on third down both politically and economically....
The deal will, without question, give the economy a short-term boost. The prevailing view, as far as I can tell — and that includes within the Obama administration — is that this short-term boost is all we need. The deal, we’re told, will jump-start the economy; it will give a fragile recovery time to strengthen.
I say, block those metaphors. America’s economy isn’t a stalled car, nor is it an invalid who will soon return to health if he gets a bit more rest. Our problems are longer-term than either metaphor implies.
And bad metaphors make for bad policy. The idea that the economic engine is going to catch or the patient rise from his sickbed any day now encourages policy makers to settle for sloppy, short-term measures when the economy really needs well-designed, sustained support.
The root of our current troubles lies in the debt American families ran up during the Bush-era housing bubble. Twenty years ago, the average American household’s debt was 83 percent of its income; by a decade ago, that had crept up to 92 percent; but by late 2007, debts were 130 percent of income.
3/ Washington....living in a bubble, completely disconnected from middle class Americans and where priorities shift and swivel on a whim....
Last month "The Conversation " was reducing the deficit....this month, essential and necessary tax cuts for the wealthy that add to the deficit.....no wonder we all feel they are all corrupt assholes....
The real problem is noone is telling the truth because we don't want to hear it. We want easy solutions to complex problems, and get impatient when issues that have taken decades to form aren't solved quickly.....I am coming to the conclusion that things have to get worse so that the low information voters [i.e. the stupids] "get" what has been done to them by the oligarchs, if this message can get through the spin machines.....
How can we generate quality jobs by the million and prevent more homeowners from sliding into foreclosure? How can we arrest the long-running breakdown in American middle class life? These are fragments of a narrative long since discarded as politically infertile. They no longer fit into the format of the Sunday talk shows, where the only real question is who won the week, because no one is even trying to win on these points. Not this week. Not any week. The unemployment rate remains snagged at nearly 10 percent and 6.3 million people have been officially out of work for six months and longer, but the Conversation has moved on.
If only the topic of discussion could be so easily be dispatched around the dining room tables of ordinary Americans (an institution increasingly dependent on food stamps). There, the conversation seems stuck on the puzzle of the age: How to get by with less. How to pretend that, despite all indications to the contrary, better days lie ahead, because that's how things are supposed to go in the movie version of this land of limitless opportunity.
That dream has become increasingly difficult to sustain in the face of a broad sagging of national fortunes, a point brought home with discomfiting clarity by a new study released this morning by the Rockefeller Foundation.
4/ OK time for some light relief - funny column from Gail Collins on the "War On Christmas" in Oklahoma of all places....
It’s not entirely clear that the council actually could have stopped it, or even whether the parade ever officially hadChristmas in its name. But Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is outraged.
Inhofe was away from home last December, stuck in Washington trying to kill off health care reform. Now he’s back, and he’s noted a dwindling in the parade’s religious angle. “I just don’t like what’s going on in America today, all over the country, with the aversion some people seem to have toward Christ,” he said in one of his many interviews explaining that he will no longer ride his horse in any holiday event that isn’t named for Christmas.
Go to it, Senator Inhofe! I love this controversy, and only in part because it diverts Oklahoma’s senior senator from his normal day job of trying to convince the world that global warming doesn’t exist.
5/ Think you know European geography? Play this game......
I hope I'm pretty good at Geography as they beat it into us at school, and I got 25000+ and 26000+....the game gives you different questions every time.....
6/ Mayor Bloomberg rules out his running for President as a third party candidate....or did he? Anyway a new Party "No Labels" has been formed to focus on finding the middle ground in American politics....and the very best of luck with that.....
Some commentators have speculated that No Labels could even form the basis of a serious third party, with the mayor at the helm, something America hasn’t seen since Ross Perot’sReform Party collapsed from a long internal power struggle in 2000.
Such conjecture, however, misunderstands the essential dynamic that’s reshaping our politics — a dynamic that may also be central to understanding Mr. Bloomberg’s thinking. It conflates two related but distinctly different phenomena: the cyclical nature of third-party movements (like the Reform Party or Ralph Nader’s Green Party) on one hand, and the rise of independents on the other.
Third parties, at least since the advent of the Republicans in the 1850s, have generally been vehicles for making statements or for pushing the parties in an ideological direction. The Progressive Party, the States’ Rights Democratic Party of Strom Thurmond, the Socialists and the Libertarians — all of these 20th-century uprisings managed, for a time, to field candidates who affected the national debate. But none came especially close to winning.
7/ Stephen King's best 10 movies of the year....he loves movies, and has picked some good ones....his #1 is a surprise.....
8/ Astonishing news about President Obama......from the Borowitz Report.....
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In an effort to end what he called “the bickering and rancor in Washington,” President Barack Obama agreed today to extend Republicans’ custody of his balls for an additional two years.
“I know my critics are going to make a big deal out of this,” the President told reporters at the White House. “But all this does is formalize an arrangement that was already in place.”
9/ Very good Jon Stewart on how Republicans are now banned from using 9/11 as an issue because of the recent vote to deny 9/11 first responders medical treatment.....4 minutes of hypocrisy exposed.....
10/ Most interesting article about how third world countries are treating preemie babies - they are strapped to the mothers chest and carried around by the mother instead of being put into an incubator and treated like a patient....common sense really, but Western medicine loves the higher tech solutions, preferably with drugs so everyone can make money....
In Rey’s system, a mother of a preemie puts the baby on her exposed chest, dressed only in a diaper and sometimes a cap, in an upright or semi-upright position. The baby is strapped in by a scarf or other cloth sling supporting its bottom, and all but its head is covered by mom’s shirt. The mother keeps the baby like that, skin-to-skin, as much as possible, even sleeping in a reclining chair. Fathers and other relatives or friends can wear the baby as well to give the mother a break. Even very premature infants can go home with their families (with regular follow-up visits) once they are stable and their mothers are given training.
11/ November fails - 5 minutes of stupid and/or unlucky people mostly getting hurt.......one for the guys.....
12/ Florida stories
Here's one to get your blood pressure up - apparently after the bank forecloses on your home and sits on it for a while, all of that time they are using your Homestead Exemption.....you lose that too......go on, take a Norvasc....there, feel better now?
Local governments across the state are losing revenue because banks are getting the homestead-exemption tax breaks intended for the homeowners whose properties the lenders have repossessed.
Homeowners qualify for Florida's homestead exemption — a tax break intended for people who live in the house they own — on Jan. 1 of each year. Once a homeowner qualifies for the exemption, that property gets a tax break of at least $750, even if the house changes hands by the time its tax bill arrives in the fall.
The result: Banks are paying less in property taxes than they would otherwise because they inherit the previous owner's homestead exemption when they foreclose on a property.
"I never thought about that before, but you're absolutely right: They're getting an exemption," said Lake County Property Appraiser Ed Havill, whose county will lose about $300,000 in property taxes this fiscal year to banks getting homestead exemption on foreclosed properties. "The banks are not likely to contact us about that."
Homeowners qualify for Florida's homestead exemption — a tax break intended for people who live in the house they own — on Jan. 1 of each year. Once a homeowner qualifies for the exemption, that property gets a tax break of at least $750, even if the house changes hands by the time its tax bill arrives in the fall.
The result: Banks are paying less in property taxes than they would otherwise because they inherit the previous owner's homestead exemption when they foreclose on a property.
"I never thought about that before, but you're absolutely right: They're getting an exemption," said Lake County Property Appraiser Ed Havill, whose county will lose about $300,000 in property taxes this fiscal year to banks getting homestead exemption on foreclosed properties. "The banks are not likely to contact us about that."
Adam Putnam, the new Agriculture Commissioner has halted any efforts to make school lunches healthier - the plan was to phase out sugary drinks but he wants to halt any changes.....hmmmm....could it be the Big Sugar companies like Flo-Sun [the Fanjuls] calling in their chits for their campaign contributions?
Screw the kids, let them get fat....good for profits!
Agriculture Commissioner-elect Adam Putnam wants state education officials to halt any action regarding the sale of sugary drinks and flavored milk in schools. And it looks like he may get his way.
The State Board of Education was slated to discuss moving ahead with a ban on certain sodas and chocolate milk at its meeting this Friday in Miami. If the board had moved ahead Florida could have been the first state to ban the sale of chocolate milk. But in a letter toState Board Chairman T. Willard Fair dated Nov. 28, Putnam criticizes the focus on sugary drinks and asks board members to consider postponing action.
Fifty percent of Florida mortgages are under water......anyone surprised?
A CoreLogic report released this morning shows 45.5 percent of Florida mortgages are in negative equity, while another 4.1 percent are nearing negative equity.Negative equity, also called being underwater or upside down, is when the amount owed on a mortgage is greater than the home is worth.
Todays video - definitely one of the strangest ads ever....golf themed, but oh so wacky.....
Todays British jokes
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Todays psychopath joke [sort of]
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Todays Womanese jokes
Men, you may think you have a command of the English language, but when it comes to communicating with women, you may be surprised. Here is our dictionary of Womanese. Master these terms and you'll find your relationship with women greatly improved.
The Real Definition of Words When Used By Women
- Fine - I am right. This argument is over. You need to shut up.
- That's Okay - One of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. "That's okay" means she wants to think hard and long before deciding when and how you'll pay for your mistake.
- Nothing - The calm before the storm. This means "Something" and you better be on your toes. Note: Arguments that start with "Nothing" usually end with "Fine" (See #1).
- Five Minutes - If getting dressed, this means half an hour. (Don't be mad about this. It's the same definition for you when it's your turn to do some chores around the house.)
- Thanks - A woman is thanking you. Do not question this or faint. Just say, "You're welcome," and let it go.
- Loud Sigh - Not actually a word but rather a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. It means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is standing here wasting her time arguing with you about "Nothing." (See #3)
- Go Ahead - This is a dare, not permission. (Don't Do It!)
- Don't worry about it, I got it - The second most dangerous statement a woman can make. It means that a woman has asked a man several times to do something and is now doing it herself. (This will result in you asking at a later date, "What's wrong?" For the woman's response, see #3.)
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