Rebane's Ruminations
August 2013
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George Rebane

My friend RL Bob Crabb, a man with a considerable trumpet hereabouts, put up this cartoon in today’s (10aug13) Union.  As I’ve opined in the past, Bob is a self-declared middle roader who nevertheless has a pronounced list to port, as is evident from his excellent double entendre offering during our county’s elephant ride contentious fair.

RLCrabb130810
So here we see a number of ideological positions all cleverly wrapped up into a recalcitrant pachyderm that doesn’t want to budge from ground zero.  Now way back when, humorists and keen social scene observers like Will Rogers and Mark Twain thought it a great benefit to the country when Congress was deadlocked or in recess.  And most folks across the land had the same thought, since they all knew that ‘do nothing’ legislatures could also do to meddle in their affairs and lighten their pocketbooks.  Those days are gone with almost half of Americans paying no federal and most state taxes, and at least one in seven getting regular care packages from Uncle Sam.  When it comes to government, bigger is better.

Bob’s graphic reminds us that the more common mind today blames Republicans for causing the problems and then impeding the fix through higher taxes on the wealthy (and the rest of us taxpayers).  Republicans are standing in the way of continuing our relentless borrowing binge that is making the US into a world class bargain basement economy.  The dimwitted Republicans are pushing for growth as our country’s salvation, instead of appreciating those exquisitely placed and soon-to-stimulate trillions (honest Injun!). It’s the Republicans who are throwing sand into that smooth running, well-oiled machine called Obamacare.  Then the mean-spirited Republicans are even trying to get the newly enrolled millions of SNAP devotees to snap out of it.  And to put a bow on it, we all know that if anything goes awry in the coming months, the Republicans are to blame.

Guilty as charged!  Next case please.

[15aug13 update]  Louisiana state senator Elbert Guillory recently switched parties.  His reasons for doing so are edifying.  Let him tell you in his own words (here).  I think we’ll send him a contribution.

 

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124 responses to “Oh, those damn Republicans! (updated 15aug13)”

  1. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    Curiously enough, the Obama motorcade ran out of gas, because of an un=repaired gas gauge. Capital gains taxes are ONLY paid if a profit is made. So your logic is, that if you’ve made a profit, only then do you pay taxes. If that is the case, then nobody should ever pay taxes, as when we cash out, we have nothing left but moldy molecules, that need to be incinerated or buried. If I recall correctly, dividends from stocks are considered taxable income, and so obviously, it is possible to pay taxes at more than one point in the life cycle of owning, buying, and selling stocks. How many tims in the ownership of a vehicle do you pay “taxes?” Fees, taxes, same dip, different days. “L” fails.

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  2. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    “”If I have a $100 dollars and I lose a dime is equivalent to having $1 billion dollars and losing $100 million. Is losing a dime out of $100 dollars really significant?””
    IF I have a $100 dollars AND I lose a dime IS equivalent to having $1 billion dollars and losing $100 million. Is losing a dime out of $100 dollars really significant?
    It’s an IF, THEN , ELSE statement, Greg. We all know that this is a false statement. 100 million is 10% of 1 billion, and a dime is .1% of $100. You may be good at math, Greg, but you are only fair at logic. Trolled again, you are.

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  3. Douglas Keachie Avatar
    Douglas Keachie

    Anytime you take on a new employer, you take one hell’ova risk that he/she will turn out to be a “hole.” Having money to spare, indicates that society has already helped lift you to a point of greater security than the average kid just graduated from high school looking for his first job. Risk is relative to amassed capital. The more you own, the less risk to your personal well-being. This obvious point is lost on “I did it all myself” conservatives. “It’s good to be the king.” ~Mel Brooks~

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  4. fish Avatar
    fish

    Anytime you take on a new employer, you take one hell’ova risk that he/she will turn out to be a “hole.” Having money to spare, indicates that society has already helped lift you to a point of greater security than the average kid just graduated from high school looking for his first job. Risk is relative to amassed capital. The more you own, the less risk to your personal well-being. This obvious point is lost on “I did it all myself” conservatives. “It’s good to be the king.” ~Mel Brooks~
    My suggestion to you is that you loosen the cinch at the bottom of the hefty bag before you really start to lose brain cells. I mean really….it’s difficult to cram that much FAIL into just four…wait five sentences….somehow you manage though!

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  5. George Rebane Avatar

    DouglasK 847am – Please stay out of any profession that requires the implementation of (your) logic in any finished product that is consumed by the innocent. And Mr fish’s 934am says it even better.

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  6. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    Doug, 13 August 2013 at 08:47 AM
    My comment was at like 2am at the end of a long day in the sun and a couple of beers. I thought about the calculations for about 10 seconds. Didn’t seem quite right but the math wasn’t the point now was it.
    Those who nit pick on stuff like that have no position to stand on so they go after the little insignificant stuff to change the topic.
    These billionaires could drop $100 million into an election and think twice about the money because they have hundreds of millions if not billions more left in their wallets. Then we throw in corporate coffers laundering money through US Chamber of Commerce to influence elections. If we took just a fraction of one percent of their profits our entire election season could be bought ten fold in every election. At some point and we are approaching fast there will be a point when big money has such a huge stranglehold over the parties that control our government straight up corporate representative could become legal.
    Corporatism and Fascism doesn’t happen over night it takes time and crisis. We crossed that bridge after the violent acts on 9/11/01.

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  7. George Rebane Avatar

    BenE 954am – I was waiting for your ‘never mind the math, it’s the thought that counts’. Unfortunately your thought only counts when you’re distributing your own money. You and yours don’t get to tell others what sums in their wallets are significant to them or not – at least not yet, even though that’s what the country’s social justice promoters (aka Marxists) are pushing for.

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  8. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    George,
    You are a fascist/ corporatist through and through. I never had any doubt of your true objectives of RR. Through my participation along with others pressing you on the issues on RR we have shown any others who read this tripe you put out as constructive commentary as nothing more than authoritarian bigoted racist bull shit with the title of PHD attached to it. I’ve said many times before but will say it one last time. What you have proven is being well educated in a specific field doesn’t make you immune to being ignorant on many many other issues.

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  9. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Thought a dime was much less than one tenth of a hundred clams. There is a decimal point problem, but never mind those little details until the rubber meets the road. My Momma always said the “road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Just as long as it appeals to your emotions and makes you feel good about sticking it to Da Man, then that is all that really matters. Besides, I dislike (extremely dislike this morning) those spell check police. Like who really cares if I can’t speel or make a typo? Just as long as the decimal points are accurate on my on-line paystubs. That makes me feel emotionally good. Makes me feel better when they error on the side of caution.

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  10. fish Avatar
    fish

    Through my participation along with others pressing you on the issues on RR we have shown any others who read this tripe you put out as constructive commentary as nothing more than authoritarian bigoted racist bull shit with the title of PHD attached to it.
    Run Ben Run……..back to the rabbit warren!

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  11. George Rebane Avatar

    BenE 1014am – I notice that your current comments on this and nearby RR posts are beginning to show little white flecks of foam around the edges. I am surprised that you continue to expose yourself to “this tripe”. (And my PhD is “attached” by the likes of you, not me.) However, if you are looking for a more suitable blog on which to register your views, there’s one I can suggest that does a good job reporting book fairs, wine tastings, and the openings of local pizza parlors. Given your opinions of me and my commentaries, I keep wondering what value you find here, why do you bother to comment on such an insignificant venue that spews such outrageously wrong, rejected, and out of the mainstream offerings?

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  12. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    George, 13 August 2013 at 10:41 AM
    Why? I had a person I respect say to me they thought you were moderate and they thought you were fair on the issues. I looked up your blog and started commenting. At the beginning I tried to find common ground to only find insults from yourself and your minions. That person along with many others have thanked me for exposing your true positions on the issues. I am glad you and Paul have a good relationship because it shows me in person you must be a better person than the opinions you express on RR. I think that of all the regular right wingers here and I wish everyone here well in the futures because we are going to need to come together if we are going to get through the shit storm on the horizon brought to us by gigantic transnational corporations and their forced policies onto our nations.

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  13. l Avatar
    l

    Mr. KKB, you need reminding that the investor who is taking a risk is using money that has already been subjected to income tax. If the investment goes bust, he has in effect spent it on nothing. If the investment is successful, the govt taxes it a lower rate than the first bite to encourage him to continue to invest reather than devote those bucks to consumption. I had no idea you didn’t understand that. L

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  14. L Avatar
    L

    Actually, Ben, the best-known examples of 20thC fascism did happen almost overnight in Italy, Germany and Portugal. Spain needed a civil war to get it extablished, but it also lasted a lot longer there. It is happening in the US more like in Germany.
    Note that in the above examples govt fascism was the cause of corporatism, not the other way around. LL

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  15. Gregory Avatar

    “Those who nit pick on stuff like that have no position to stand on so they go after the little insignificant stuff to change the topic.”
    Ben, sorry, but ten seconds is enough time for any numerate adult to figure out a dime is to $100 as 1 is to 1000, and that the ratio of a million to 100k is 10:1. What’s delicious about it is that it is so garishly idiotic to all.
    No, George isn’t fascist nor is he guilty of all the other thoughtcrimes you accuse him of, but from your far left vantage point I’m sure it’s hard to tell the difference.

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  16. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Oh Dr. Rebane, my brother Ben is just not having a peace, love, and rock and roll kind of day, and neither am I. We all have our moments. I know I got my brother’s dander up with my comment on another thread about not shitting on his Grandpappy’s grave. How could he not play mother hen after that? Too bad his righteous indignation was taken out on you, not me. Think the shrinks call that “transference of anger”. We are all works in progress.
    With those niceties said, lets get down to business. The topic at hand is “those damn Republicans”. Brother Ben just see things differently than yours truly, although I saw them the way he sees them now when I was 17-20 years old. Maybe it is cause I skipped kindergarten back in the day, lol.
    Brother Ben classic comment from 08:47 addressed to Mr. Keachie says the great divide in a nutshell: “If we took just a fraction of one percent of their profits our entire election season….”
    Now, who is “we” taking (TAKING) just a fraction of the 1%ers profits. If only we could take. That is the cog in the gears. Who is we? Who is taking and who is giving with the proverbial gun to one’s head.
    Its that “we” that gets my dander up. Brothers like Peaceful Ben see things as “they, we,” i.e., the whole enchilada instead of putting a face on it. I used to see things in that light. Even the Treyvon Martin cause was a bigger issue of “they” and “we” while those hard nosed Republicans where looking at the facts of the case, not hearsay. Libs saw it as a big racial issue, not whether or not a shooting was justified or a crime had been committed.
    Republicans looked at it as a nuts and bolts legal issue in the here and now, while others looked at it as the legacy of Jim Crow laws and eons of slavery instead of Treyvon Martin himself or Mr. Zimmerman. Long winded example.
    I say put a face on it, like we do with Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or A-Rod. Not “they”.
    Once down South I noticed a white co-worker using the N word referring to blacks in general but he was going hunting with his black friend the following day. I asked him about that. He said “the Yankees love the race, but hate the man. Down here, we hate the race but love the man.” Even Martin Luther King said he never seen such hatred until he went up North to Chicago and Northeastern Cities. Never.
    This story is my view of the great divide. If given only two choices and no other options, would you be a Yankee or a Southern boy? Who you love the man and disparage his race or would you go goggle-eyed over the race and disparage the man?
    I can’t change the world and it is a waste of time bemoaning the ills of societies. Sure, its fun, but leaves me empty at the end of the day. My transformation has been to focus less on what’s wrong with the world and more on my neighbors, co-workers, and people I interact with. Put a face on it.
    Instead of we taking, how about we telling “yes, you can do it! Don’t matter that the deck is stacked against you. You can do it.” Instead of this “all yous need US to take from the 1%ers”….What about the old hand up, not a handout? The old safety net, not an hammock. The old lets look under the hood and together will figure out what is wrong. It may not be the whole car, just an engine part.
    I am beginning to think that the progressives are the true racists here. They hint that another man can not make it without “we taking “, thus implying the man is inferior because of his race or background. Such nonsense. The old individual’s rights versus this warped group think that dismisses the individual and dismisses success stories of those that beat the odds as “anecdotal”.

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  17. Gregory Avatar

    ” Didn’t seem quite right but the math wasn’t the point now was it.”
    You were using the Bad Math to justify confiscatory taxes, weren’t you? Ben, most of your attempts at enlightening the heathens here have been lists of assertions nearly as ludicrous as your misstatement of 4th grade arithmetic.

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  18. ouglas Keachie Avatar
    ouglas Keachie

    Only a fish would carry a garbage bag upside down.

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  19. fish Avatar
    fish

    Spam filter ate my reply ouglas….no matter it was as pointless as your garbage bag comment.
    Bill, well done! That was Fred Reed like in its magnificence!
    And on that note:
    Respecting All Cultures
    ByAllowing Them to Remain Separate
    August 12, 2013
    Note: WHile I try to read all email and answer what I can, and find almost all of it interesting and thoughtful, I get swamped. Nobody likes being ignored, and I don’t like doing it, but sometimes it isn’t avoidable. Apologies.
    Americans have prided themselves on America´s being a melting for so long that few notice that it isn´t. Cultures that could melt did, and those that couldn´t haven´t.
    We tend to regard categories such as African-American, European-American, and Mexican-American as political, when in fact they designate unassimilated and perhaps unassimilable cultural entities. The differences are stark. The United States indeed is multicultural.
    Go to a purely European-American community in, say, Idaho or Iowa. You will find clearly defined attitudes toward obedience to the law, the raising of children, toward schooling and acceptable behavior in school, toward democracy, self-reliance, constitutionality, civility, toward law and its enforcement. These qualities are not associated by accident. They closely resemble those found in Denmark and Finland. This is hardly surprising, since European-Americans came from Europe.
    Now go to a purely African-American cultural enclave—say, Detroit. Here you will find very different attitudes toward study, behavior in schools, law enforcement, and reliance on governmental charity. Again unsurprisingly, society in Detroit resembles more closely that of Nigeria than of Holland since its people came from Africa and have had no contact with Europe or its values.
    Now go to a Latino-American enclave, maybe El Paso, or Berwyn in Chicago. While Latino-American culture has much more in common with European-American than does African-American culture, because of heavy European influence during colonial times, attitudes toward schooling, government, marriage, and so on are distinctly not European-American.
    Now, it is natural for cultures to be proud of their achievements and fond of their customs. As a European-American, I note that we have a continuous history from Agamemnon through Pericles, Archimedes, Xenophon through the magnificent achievements of Rome in government, architecture, and law–Ulpian, Papinian—through the Renaissance and its intellectual and artistic preeminence, through the invention of mathematics, chemistry, physics, electronics and so on. I grant that I am prejudiced—one always is regarding one´s own cultural home—but I think ours is a pretty fair record.
    The successes of my people have sprung from studiousness, a talent for organization, obedience to law, and a certain adventurousness, both economic and otherwise. (“Hell, let´s drop out of Harvard and start Microsoft.”)
    These qualities I think are the core of European-American identity, but they are not remotely unique to it. The Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, and Jews for example share these values, with which account for their obvious successes. This underlying similarity of the deeper values explains why there is comparatively little friction among these groups.
    Now, while I feel proud, justly so I believe, of the nature and accomplishments of my own people, I do not believe I have a right to instruct other cultures as to how they should live and behave—provided that their manner of living and behaving does not affect me. If a Mexican-American community chooses to play loud ranchera late at night, and put chili in milkshakes, I have neither the right nor a desire to complain. Different cultures have differing tolerances for noise and eat different things. So what? It is their business.
    Similarly, I do not believe that I have a right to tell African-Americans how to live—provided that their culture does not affect me. Being a European-American, my suspicion is that people in Detroit would prosper by studying more and shooting each other less, but this is a cultural prejudice on my part. They can do as seems best to them. Nor do I pretend to impose my European-American notions of proper schooling on Detroit. The African-American community can teach its children anything it wants, or nothing at all. I don´t care. It isn´t my business—provided that it doesn´t affect me.
    I don´t say this from hard-heartedness. If the schools of Detroit said, “Fred, we got these lousy, worn-out stupid textbooks and not enough of them. We need books with bigger words and smaller pictures. Can you help us?” I would respond, “Sure, which books you want? They will be on a truck by noon tomorrow. No charge.”
    But multiculturalism is, or should be, a street of two directions. If I don´t want to impose my values on other cultures, neither do I want them to impose their values on me and mine. And that is exactly what the federal government is trying to do. It istrying to destroy my culture by melding it with others. This Is not multiculturalism.
    For example, I believe in the correct use of language. My culture after all produced Milton, Shakespeare, Dodgson, Galsworthy, and Tolkien. But when African-Americans are put into a European-American school, they do not learn English, but rather impose Ebonics, and every third word is “Fuck.” This latter is said to be acceptable because it is part of their culture, as it certainly is. It is not part of mine.
    As a European-American, I believe in advanced courses and strict grading. African-Americans do not, and so standards have to be lowered for my children. As a European-American, I believe that boys should wear their pants somewhat higher than the level of their ankles, and that any student who curses of pushes a teacher should be permanently expelled. African-Americans do not share my European-American views.
    How other cultures view these matters is not my concern. Provided that they do it in their own schools.
    Having said these things, I will of course be said to be a white supremacist and a racist and all the other markers of very dim minds. Hardly. For one thing, culture is not synonymous with race. I am perfectly content to have people of other cultures and races in the schools of my children, provided that they accept my European-American core values. For another, I am not aware that Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese, whom I very much admire, are white, though perhaps with global warming a hotter sun has bleached them. I know many Mexicans who share the core values of European-American culture, and do not regard myself as supreme over them.
    Further, like almost all who are called white supremacists, I am in fact a cultural left-aloneist. I do not want supremacy over any group, as that would mean having them in custody, a responsibility of which I weary.
    At the end of the day, I have to wonder what purpose is served by forcing cultures to mix. Nobody seems to want it. In Washington, DC, a city I know well, neither cultures nor races mix. When blacks move into a neighborhood, whites move out, and when whites move into DC, threatening to become a voting majority, blacks become unhappy. When whites leave the city, they go to white enclaves, notably Arlington, Fairfax, and Bethesda. Blacks go to Prince George´s County, mostly black.
    Why not let them? Why not let people live with whom they choose, as they choose, and raise their children as they choose?
    Nah.

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  20. George Rebane Avatar

    fish 127pm – Thank you for that ‘comment’ by Fred Reed. It again summarizes exactly my position on cultures and multi-culturalism as witnessed on these pages. Fred Reed’s website, where this originated, is
    http://www.fredoneverything.net/Multi.shtml
    BTW, the spam filter is empty, so I have no idea where your referenced comment went. Will publish when/if I find it.

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  21. fish Avatar
    fish

    Will publish when/if I find it.
    No need. It was truly as pointless as ouglas comment earlier.

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  22. Paul Emery Avatar

    RE Ben 11:04 AM
    Yeah Ben I’ve pretty well given up on this forum as a vehicle for enlightening conversations. I realize that the version of free enterprise and markets and freedom preached by this choir is based on Social Darwinism as the only viable process possible. When extended to health care it reveals a level of cruelty and indifference to basic human needs. It also reveals to me that eugenics is the inevitable conclusion to create efficient cost effective health care under free market visions. When extended to Foreign Policy it insures that American Imperialism will continue with obvious ramifications for the future. The indifference to the health and welfare of the earth is disturbing beyond comment. My flirtations with discussing these ideas is fun but I see no point in pretending this is a serious dialogue of contrasting ideas. Basically it all comes down to Party politics as the only option, which I am no longer interested in talking about seriously.

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  23. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    Sorry to see you go PaulE. You always provide a good chuckle here in our serious discussions of things important. You go over to the DailyKos and talk about MJ. Adios.

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  24. Paul Emery Avatar

    No problem Todd. I’m going to still be around for laughs. I just can’t take seriously any conversation that takes the Republicrats seriously as representatives of our future. It’s way too late for that.

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  25. fish Avatar
    fish

    I still marvel at the cognitive dissonance of a man who rails at the government (a position I endorse) yet embraces the concept of “free” state provided healthcare (a position I find unworkable).

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  26. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    PaulE you are just too funny.

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  27. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    A tribute to my brothers
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYFJmm0aK-8

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  28. Paul Emery Avatar

    Fish
    I rail at abusive and unnecessary government that gives subsidies to the wealthy and sends the poor to emergency rooms for their routine health care. We are the only country in the civilized world that does not have some form of national health care. We also spend the most on Military.

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  29. Gregory Avatar

    “Yeah Ben I’ve pretty well given up on this forum as a vehicle for enlightening conversations.”
    If by that you mean you don’t think you’ll be converting anyone, it’s about time.
    “I realize that the version of free enterprise and markets and freedom preached by this choir is based on Social Darwinism as the only viable process possible.”
    Paul, it isn’t “social Darwinism” to believe one who lived a responsible life, getting an education, taking responsible jobs, spending within their means, owes their less responsible neighbors a large enough slice of their pie to get the same health care delivered in the same way. Not by waiting in the clinic, making an appointment and having what looks like insurance but is, in reality, prepaid health care paid for by the confiscation of the wealth of others.
    “When extended to health care it reveals a level of cruelty and indifference to basic human needs.”
    Not at all; right now, if you are a woman about to give birth, you can get taken to any ER and you, and your baby, will get the benefit of 21st century medical science.
    “It also reveals to me that eugenics is the inevitable conclusion to create efficient cost effective health care under free market visions.”
    Bizarre. It wasn’t that way when health care really was based on a free market and charity, before we started down the Great Society path. Why would it be different now?
    “When extended to Foreign Policy it insures that American Imperialism will continue with obvious ramifications for the future.”
    Paul, you just have to believe. Really. With Obama as our chief executive the world will love us, give it time.
    “The indifference to the health and welfare of the earth is disturbing beyond comment.”
    I can’t think of any indifference to the health and welfare of the Earth ever being an issue here. If it’s catastrophic anthropogenic global warming you are obliquely referencing, it’s becoming quite clear we’re facing cooling, not warming. The sun’s magnetic field is weakening to the point there may not even be sunspots in the next cycle, and we’re facing decades of cooling, not warming.
    There is also record antarctic ice for the SH winter, and a record cold summer in the arctic. We live in interesting times.
    “My flirtations with discussing these ideas is fun but I see no point in pretending this is a serious dialogue of contrasting ideas.”
    What you call “flirtations” I’d call hit and runs that look more like sparring than discussions. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Set traps, play gotcha.
    “Basically it all comes down to Party politics as the only option, which I am no longer interested in talking about seriously.”
    Good. Come on back and discuss things straight up when you’re ready.

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  30. fish Avatar
    fish

    Fish
    I rail at abusive and unnecessary government that gives subsidies to the wealthy and sends the poor to emergency rooms for their routine health care. We are the only country in the civilized world that does not have some form of national health care. We also spend the most on Military.

    I rail at abusive and unnecessary government that gives subsidies to the wealthy…
    Agree completely.
    ….and sends the poor to emergency rooms for their routine health care.
    Funny. Growing up we certainly weren’t wealthy…not by a long shot but my parents paid for our routine medical care.
    We are the only country in the civilized world that does not have some form of national health care.
    We have medicare (going broke)…..we have medicare (flirting with going broke)….we have SCHIP. Wow it appears as though we have some forms of national health care.
    We also spend the most on Military.
    We do and I think we could spend much less.
    So in essence you loath “abusive and unnecessary government” when it doesn’t do exactly what Paul Emery wants it to do.
    Is that it?

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  31. fish Avatar
    fish

    …..we have medicare (flirting with going broke)
    medicaid!

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  32. Paul Emery Avatar

    Gregory
    Hit and run tactics are claiming that there’s a price to pay for Teachers Union members refusing to donate to political endeavors and making no attempt to verify your claim.
    Fish you write :
    “So in essence you loath “abusive and unnecessary government” when it doesn’t do exactly what Paul Emery wants it to do.”
    So what. Don’t we all make that distinction? There are those that applauded our unconstitutional war in Iraq for example as righteous foreign policy so to them it was not abusive.
    We don’t have national health care Fish but instead a mish mash of programs that are the most expensive in the world (18% of the GDP) and leave millions with no health care unless they declare bankruptcy and become destitute. The discussion we had about the boys with Cystic Fibrosis convinced me that there are those that would just as soon let those children die rather than pay taxes that would help provide them care. Also the discussion on whether parents should be required to have health insurance before having children was an eye opener about what free market health care is really all about. Eugenics is indeed a practical way of eliminating the sickly pre-borns and is the practical alternative to providing a lifetime of care at the taxpayers expense.
    Also Fish when we were growing up family doctors could provide health care using their best judgement as to diagnosis but not so nowadays. Today they are general contractors who farm out the diagnosis to medical techno centers that they own for thousands of dollars worth of tests before they make a call. If they don’t do that they are subject to lawsuits. In other words, the whole system works together to make health care unaffordable for families that don’t have insurance. Just try and upset that system with the health care industry spending a Billion a year on lobbying.

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  33. Gregory Avatar

    “Hit and run tactics are claiming that there’s a price to pay for Teachers Union members refusing to donate to political endeavors and making no attempt to verify your claim.”
    Paul, you were off claiming I was making stuff up before I had a chance to reiterate what was in a link I’d already posted and you apparently didn’t bother to grok. Detailed in a lawsuit, links posted, that is attempting to do in the courts what the unions spent millions to kill in a proposition. You got it balled up and continue that here with your imitation Keachie tactics. It’s teachers who don’t want Union membership, not Teachers Union members, that get the runaround. From a quarter to a half of dues go to political endeavors; if you refuse to join the union, you get hassled about your status every year, having to again opt out, and then get the runaround every year when the the amount of dues sans the political component is agreed upon.
    The little windowdressing checkoff fund where a teacher in the union can designate a tiny fraction of their dues (what was it, $30?) to go to a union PAC or go to the union general fund, isn’t the issue. It isn’t a voluntary contribution to the PAC, it’s money the union will be spending one way or another, and even if it goes into the general fund it’s likely to be spent on politics the member might disagree with.

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  34. Paul Emery Avatar

    Can you share that link again Gregory.

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  35. Gregory Avatar

    Paul, I’m sure a bright fellow like you could find it if he tried. You could even google; the suit was filed in April.

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  36. Bill Tozer Avatar
    Bill Tozer

    Mr. Paul. You have mentioned more than once the story of your dear friend’s children who without the government stepping in to foot the bill, the parents would not be able to afford the medical care and the boys would die.
    The children HAVE received their medicine (in this case), DO receive it at this writing, and WILL continue to receive it whether Obamacare is repealed or not. Nothing said here will change that.
    But, I see your point. We (I) have not praised this good news enough, or the right way or used the right words to convince you of anything other that we secretly or overtly really, really want the kids to DIE.
    Remember that outspoken Congressman from Florida with that big poster with the word “DIE” written on it? He stood on the House Floor and proclaimed “This is the Republican plan… DIE.” Yep, you are on to me. I really, really want the children to die a slow agonizing death. There, I said it. I want everybody to DIE. That is our plan. Darn, Mr. Paul, you pulled that gem right out of me and now the Emperor has no clothes.
    Me thinks you are titling at windmills, Mr. Quixote. Actually, I prefer that death comes quickly to ANY family that is anguishing over watching a loved one slip away. It is so heart wrenching when the process continues for too long and the unspeakable pain the loves ones suffer through.
    Well, can’t convince you otherwise. Yep, our plan is for you to DIE. Busted again. Wonder what that Congressman is doing since he got voted out of office? I heard is is doing quite nicely in the private sector, making hand over fist emptying little old ladies coin purses. Our plan its for him to DIE also.

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  37. fish Avatar
    fish

    So what. Don’t we all make that distinction?
    Gee Paul if that’s your position you should ask for a pony too.

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  38. Todd Juvinall Avatar

    People like PaulE show everyone eventually their disingenuous. America has Medicare for the old, Medicaid for the poor and the ER for everyone else. The lack of any sympathy for the slobs that pay for all that is where PaulE is exposed. No argument matters as long as America has not adopted HIS desire. Danish healthcare. PaulE, you are right, you don’t debate or discuss, you are simply a drone from the left./

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  39. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    Paul,
    I think Todd called you, Frisch, Anderson, Tozer, and I slobs. We are working while Todd, Rebane, Steele, and Goodnight sit around sucking up those entitlement benefits they despise so much. I don’t blame them they paid into them just like everybody else but do find it funny they think only they had to pay into the programs.

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  40. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    All this health care back and forth has one major flaw. Nobody has mentioned the absolute abandonment of big business towards the American worker. The social compact was decent wages and benefits to receive all the privileges of a corporation in the biggest economy on the planet. Once “free trade” and “supply side” was forced upon us that compact or contract went out the window.
    It is impossible to show causality to any one policy but can show correlation with the Reagan Revolution and the policies it brought. The counter to the progressive era started in the mid 70’s but it wasn’t until Reagan took office was it solidly implemented. Check out these graphs and observe when the skyrocketing of costs or debt began to happen. This isn’t about Republican or Democrat it is about right vs left policies. We have a right center party in the Democrats and an extreme right party in the Republicans at the moment. It isn’t about a single policy it is an overall ideology that has transformed our middle class powerhouse nation into the most unequal nations in the developed world.
    Health Care Costs
    http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/12/u-s-health-care-costs-since-1980/
    National Debt
    http://futuretimeline.net/subject/images/us-debt-graph-2020.jpg
    Unionized Workers
    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_otfwl2zc6Qc/TUWbVZ16InI/AAAAAAAAO4I/VxVlHEMn4Iw/s1600/union.jpg
    Corporate Profits and Worker Wages
    http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6
    College Tution
    http://inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Education/Education_inflation_chart.htm

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  41. fish Avatar
    fish

    So how are you going to undo all that Ben?

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  42. Ben Emery Avatar
    Ben Emery

    Fish,
    Unfortunately we have to make another major shift or reversal of the policies that created this mess. Major tax, trade, banking, and military reforms are a must but since we have two political parties owned by those who benefit immensely from our current corrupt system it isn’t going to happen until the house of cards collapses.
    The question becomes how prepared are we when the collapse happens?

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  43. Keachie Avatar
    Keachie

    test

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  44. Keachie Avatar
    Keachie

    Published your racist screed at Farstars, which shows up in NCVoices.us, for all the liberal world to see. Carry on…

    Like

  45. Gregory Avatar

    Ben, you putz, I don’t receive any “entitlement benefits”, nor do the ones that get them think only they paid into it, tho’ I did suck up as much of the SS survivor’s benefits as was possible, as did my kid, those ended for me 8 years ago. The older retirees like Rebane got much more from the program than they put into it, the Bens will put much more into it than they get back.
    Wait, all of a sudden, SS doesn’t seem all that bad…

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  46. fish Avatar
    fish

    Unfortunately we have to make another major shift or reversal of the policies that created this mess. Major tax, trade, banking, and military reforms are a must but since we have two political parties owned by those who benefit immensely from our current corrupt system it isn’t going to happen until the house of cards collapses.
    The question becomes how prepared are we when the collapse happens?

    Wow! I didn’t think you would get the right answer! Well done sir!

    Like

  47. fish Avatar
    fish

    Published your racist screed at Farstars, which shows up in NCVoices.us, for all the liberal world to see. Carry on…
    So who exactly did you “tell on” Peachie…this blog as a whole or was there a particular heretic that was singled out?

    Like

  48. fish Avatar
    fish

    Published your racist screed at Farstars, which shows up in NCVoices.us, for all the liberal world to see. Carry on…
    Oh my Doug….what a catbox of confused progtard thought! Hold on a second….I’m a little dizzzy…..after visiting…..that! Whew….!
    As long as you’re tattling you really need to find a way to draw attention to the….ahem…racist screed if you want all the cool kids too see it!

    Like

  49. George Rebane Avatar

    Gregory 931am – good points. In my case, I’ll let you know when I break even on my SS contributions. But the real calculation should be done with everyone’s contributions invested at some realistic discount rate over the years, instead of under the confiscatory ponzi scheme that the feds run.

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  50. Paul Emery Avatar

    Todd, by any chance are you still receiving health insurance as a result of your stint as Nevada County Supervisor back in the 80’s?

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