[quote]MaximusB wrote:
[quote]animal6fat9 wrote:
maxine gives credibility to the theory of evolution[/quote]
More like De-evolution.
Earthquake felt in Washington DC, 5.8 magnitude, that’s pretty fucking big for any of you who haven’t been in a quake before. Wow, people must be really pissed LOL. [/quote]
It’s Bush’s fault.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
[quote]animal6fat9 wrote:
maxine gives credibility to the theory of evolution[/quote]
More like De-evolution.
Earthquake felt in Washington DC, 5.8 magnitude, that’s pretty fucking big for any of you who haven’t been in a quake before. Wow, people must be really pissed LOL. [/quote]
It’s Bush’s fault.[/quote]
Racist !
Didn’t you know that earthquakes never harm white people !
The sad truth is that itâ??s simply impossible to run a major US state with the current public sector pay/benefits structure. The process of scaling back pensions and salaries will hurt a lot of cops, teachers and social workers who donâ??t deserve pain. But thereâ??s no mathematical alternative to a dramatic lowering of state/local operating costs.
This is the inevitable result of three decades of lies told to public sector unions and taxpayers. The people making the promises (lifetime pension/health care for 50-year-old retirees, for instance) either knew they were lying or were really, really stupid. Either way, theyâ??re the villains in this story.
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
The sad truth is that itâ??s simply impossible to run a major US state with the current public sector pay/benefits structure. The process of scaling back pensions and salaries will hurt a lot of cops, teachers and social workers who donâ??t deserve pain. But thereâ??s no mathematical alternative to a dramatic lowering of state/local operating costs.
This is the inevitable result of three decades of lies told to public sector unions and taxpayers. The people making the promises (lifetime pension/health care for 50-year-old retirees, for instance) either knew they were lying or were really, really stupid. Either way, theyâ??re the villains in this story.
[/quote]
You can always scale back the cubicle hamsters first.
DMV workers, people like that, not the guys risking their lives. Here in Cali, we had cops and firemen not dispute a reduction in their benefits, which pissed me off, because those guys are the ones getting shot by these fucking thugs and putting out the fires. Teachers however can go fuck off here. Highest paid with the worst performing students, yet won’t give up a dime.
What I can’t figure out is why we have the the biggest discrepancy between the poor and wealthy in over half a century.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
The sad truth is that it�¢??s simply impossible to run a major US state with the current public sector pay/benefits structure. The process of scaling back pensions and salaries will hurt a lot of cops, teachers and social workers who don�¢??t deserve pain. But there�¢??s no mathematical alternative to a dramatic lowering of state/local operating costs.
This is the inevitable result of three decades of lies told to public sector unions and taxpayers. The people making the promises (lifetime pension/health care for 50-year-old retirees, for instance) either knew they were lying or were really, really stupid. Either way, they�¢??re the villains in this story.
[/quote]
You can always scale back the cubicle hamsters first.
DMV workers, people like that, not the guys risking their lives. Here in Cali, we had cops and firemen not dispute a reduction in their benefits, which pissed me off, because those guys are the ones getting shot by these fucking thugs and putting out the fires. Teachers however can go fuck off here. Highest paid with the worst performing students, yet won’t give up a dime. [/quote]
It would be nice if they would downsize the cubicle hamsters but they won’t.
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
Besides, liberals seem to like to pretend that 2008-09 didn’t exist. You know, where they had a super majority in both houses and a super liberal president. If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
2008-9 are impossible to forget, and not just because there was an election and a new president in 2009 (are you thinking 2009-10 perhaps?). Do you really think “everything got worse” since 2009? For my family at least, late 2008 and 2009 was the nadir. [/quote]
Well I think all the indicators turned out worse. GDP is one thing but the most important indicator is employment.
The problem with the administrations take and congresses at that time was they rapidly put together a stimulus package and then pretty much walked away from the economy. The stimulus ran it’s course and we are back to square one. There was no follow up.
The stimulus did a bump, but was not a cure and now that it’s gone, we’re right back to where we started. Beyond that there was no focus on job growth, no attempt to reduce deficit spending, no attempted by any methodology to make the economy grow.
The stimulus was kind of like a dead car battery. You can jump it off, but as soon as you turn the car off, your dead again.
This is where Clinton and Obama severely split with one another. All Clinton did was economy until it got rolling. He was smart enough to know that economy is everything to most people. So, that’s what he did. And when congress changed on him, he still focused on it but he changed his approach to garner republican support. He never whined about it, he never blamed anyone, he said this is what the American people wanted so he dealt with it.
It took someone like obama for me to compliment Bill…
Obama flat dropped the ball on the economy and I think it’s going to cost him in '12. People are pissed. [/quote]
Well, if things are as bad for you now as they were in 2009, then, if I were you, I would probably be saying the same things you are now. That is the standard, right? “Are things better now than when I took office?” If you and your family are worse off, I think you are more-or-less obliged to vote for someone else. As I said, for my (extended) family, the nadir was 2009. So for me, I am obliged to seriously consider what Obama has done and what he has failed to do, place that in the context of the world (I’m living abroad now, so perhaps this is easier for me) and the “times” we live in, and to place that against whomever the Republicans choose.
Depending on who the republicans choose, this race could easily be won by republicans.
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
Besides, liberals seem to like to pretend that 2008-09 didn’t exist. You know, where they had a super majority in both houses and a super liberal president. If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
2008-9 are impossible to forget, and not just because there was an election and a new president in 2009 (are you thinking 2009-10 perhaps?). Do you really think “everything got worse” since 2009? For my family at least, late 2008 and 2009 was the nadir. [/quote]
Well I think all the indicators turned out worse. GDP is one thing but the most important indicator is employment.
The problem with the administrations take and congresses at that time was they rapidly put together a stimulus package and then pretty much walked away from the economy. The stimulus ran it’s course and we are back to square one. There was no follow up.
The stimulus did a bump, but was not a cure and now that it’s gone, we’re right back to where we started. Beyond that there was no focus on job growth, no attempt to reduce deficit spending, no attempted by any methodology to make the economy grow.
The stimulus was kind of like a dead car battery. You can jump it off, but as soon as you turn the car off, your dead again.
This is where Clinton and Obama severely split with one another. All Clinton did was economy until it got rolling. He was smart enough to know that economy is everything to most people. So, that’s what he did. And when congress changed on him, he still focused on it but he changed his approach to garner republican support. He never whined about it, he never blamed anyone, he said this is what the American people wanted so he dealt with it.
It took someone like obama for me to compliment Bill…
Obama flat dropped the ball on the economy and I think it’s going to cost him in '12. People are pissed. [/quote]
Well, if things are as bad for you now as they were in 2009, then, if I were you, I would probably be saying the same things you are now. That is the standard, right? “Are things better now than when I took office?” If you and your family are worse off, I think you are more-or-less obliged to vote for someone else. As I said, for my (extended) family, the nadir was 2009. So for me, I am obliged to seriously consider what Obama has done and what he has failed to do, place that in the context of the world (I’m living abroad now, so perhaps this is easier for me) and the “times” we live in, and to place that against whomever the Republicans choose.
Depending on who the republicans choose, this race could easily be won by republicans. [/quote]
Actually, me myself I dipped and recently have rebounded back to about pre-recession status.
I see your living in Japan now, that’s really cool. Have you been abroad before?
I hope you have a ball, you ought hook up with Cushin and Cortes, they are around there somewhere. Japan is one place I haven’t been but would love to go to. I love sushi…
It is interesting to see America from abroad. It’s a totally different view point. I saw the whole Elian Gonzales thing unfold in Italy when I lived there…I did a face palm. I wanted to tell people I was from Canada. Actually I was accused from being from Spain since I mix Spanish in to my Italian. It was an educational experience.
I heard the sushi is really expensive there…Hope you find a good gym. Anyhow, I would be interested in hearing more about what you are doing there.
Peace…
[quote]pat wrote:
If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
[quote]pat wrote:
Actually, me myself I dipped and recently have rebounded back to about pre-recession status.[/quote]
Yeah, I guess, this has more-or-less been what happened in my life. That’s why I was surprised to see your earlier post. We’re two+ years after the worst recession and fiscal crisis since the great depression, and a lot of people I know are in a similar situation to yours. From that perspective, I guess I don’t think Obama has done “everything” wrong. But certainly there are a lot of problems.
[quote]I see your living in Japan now, that’s really cool. Have you been abroad before?
I hope you have a ball, you ought hook up with Cushin and Cortes, they are around there somewhere. Japan is one place I haven’t been but would love to go to. I love sushi…
It is interesting to see America from abroad. It’s a totally different view point. I saw the whole Elian Gonzales thing unfold in Italy when I lived there…I did a face palm. I wanted to tell people I was from Canada. Actually I was accused from being from Spain since I mix Spanish in to my Italian. It was an educational experience.
I heard the sushi is really expensive there…Hope you find a good gym. Anyhow, I would be interested in hearing more about what you are doing there.
Peace…[/quote]
Yeah, I’m about to head back to the States… But I guess I should leave personal stuff for the PM box and non-PWI forums… perhaps for obvious reasons lol. If everyone here were like you, I think PWI would be a much more fun place.
Good post, Gambit…and this is exactly what I’m doing.
What I’ve been hit on is what most working people have been hit on: 401K; home value; etc…but I still have a job and can make ends meet.
What this has done is make me “nervous”…but also introspective on what the President has or has not done. While I think that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act used up a LOT of “political capital” to get it passed; it’s aims are what you see in the name. In other words; the problem was all not in the act itself; but all that had to be given and promised. (as any Act this size will require, based on the way things work in Washington).
To me, it seems like it just wasn’t worth it politically.
If Obama is to go down as the “worst” President ever (as many here have implied); then he’ll also have to go down as one of the unluckiest.
Failing banking system; failing investment and investment insurance institutions; bursting housing bubble (which is accountable for much of what we see in the unemployment numbers); failing industries (especially auto with it’s intricate supply chain covering thousands of businesses); failing European economies; increased competition from China, Brazil and India that NO modern President has seen; two Wars; 3-4 “conflicts”; a volatile, unstable and transitioning Middle East…the list goes on and on.
My point?
2012 is for the Republicans to lose, not win.
And if Obama wins; then TO ME (draw your own conclusions, “PWI”)…then they are saying The Great God of Olympus, Ronald Reagan himself, could not have pulled us out of this “Perfect Storm” of a mess.
Mufasa
[quote]orion wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]Sweet Revenge wrote:
I guess they never heard of the saying…‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do…’ Oh…nevermind.[/quote]
Yeah, that really stuck out for me too. Really horrible when you think about it.
“I’m asking (that) the script be flipped, asking ‘what can the country do for me’” Really pathetic, I think. [/quote]
Not really, that quote is one of the most asinine in existence.
I do not need to justify my existence, a government however needs to.
[/quote]
I always took it to mean…‘Be a giver (contributer), not a taker (sponge).’
[quote]Bonesaw93 wrote:
I just find it so disturbing that everyone feels so dependent on the gov’t. I was real pissed at the lady who basically wanted to know what can the country do for her. And how everyone is saying well the gov’t needs to create jobs. Don’t these people realize the gov’t can’t create jobs, only the private sector can successfully do that?[/quote]
Exactly. It’s like some people want and expect a momma nanny state.
The new federal government under Obama → caretaker / enabler.
[quote]Sweet Revenge wrote:
[quote]Bonesaw93 wrote:
I just find it so disturbing that everyone feels so dependent on the gov’t. I was real pissed at the lady who basically wanted to know what can the country do for her. And how everyone is saying well the gov’t needs to create jobs. Don’t these people realize the gov’t can’t create jobs, only the private sector can successfully do that?[/quote]
Exactly. It’s like some people want and expect a momma nanny state.
The new federal government under Obama → caretaker / enabler.[/quote]
Now imagine the largest state in the Union thinking like that…
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
Besides, liberals seem to like to pretend that 2008-09 didn’t exist. You know, where they had a super majority in both houses and a super liberal president. If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
2008-9 are impossible to forget, and not just because there was an election and a new president in 2009 (are you thinking 2009-10 perhaps?). Do you really think “everything got worse” since 2009? For my family at least, late 2008 and 2009 was the nadir. [/quote]
Well I think all the indicators turned out worse. GDP is one thing but the most important indicator is employment.
The problem with the administrations take and congresses at that time was they rapidly put together a stimulus package and then pretty much walked away from the economy. The stimulus ran it’s course and we are back to square one. There was no follow up.
The stimulus did a bump, but was not a cure and now that it’s gone, we’re right back to where we started. Beyond that there was no focus on job growth, no attempt to reduce deficit spending, no attempted by any methodology to make the economy grow.
The stimulus was kind of like a dead car battery. You can jump it off, but as soon as you turn the car off, your dead again.
This is where Clinton and Obama severely split with one another. All Clinton did was economy until it got rolling. He was smart enough to know that economy is everything to most people. So, that’s what he did. And when congress changed on him, he still focused on it but he changed his approach to garner republican support. He never whined about it, he never blamed anyone, he said this is what the American people wanted so he dealt with it.
It took someone like obama for me to compliment Bill…
Obama flat dropped the ball on the economy and I think it’s going to cost him in '12. People are pissed. [/quote]
Well, if things are as bad for you now as they were in 2009, then, if I were you, I would probably be saying the same things you are now. That is the standard, right? “Are things better now than when I took office?” If you and your family are worse off, I think you are more-or-less obliged to vote for someone else. As I said, for my (extended) family, the nadir was 2009. So for me, I am obliged to seriously consider what Obama has done and what he has failed to do, place that in the context of the world (I’m living abroad now, so perhaps this is easier for me) and the “times” we live in, and to place that against whomever the Republicans choose.
Depending on who the republicans choose, this race could easily be won by republicans. [/quote]
Actually, me myself I dipped and recently have rebounded back to about pre-recession status.
I see your living in Japan now, that’s really cool. Have you been abroad before?
I hope you have a ball, you ought hook up with Cushin and Cortes, they are around there somewhere. Japan is one place I haven’t been but would love to go to. I love sushi…
It is interesting to see America from abroad. It’s a totally different view point. I saw the whole Elian Gonzales thing unfold in Italy when I lived there…I did a face palm. I wanted to tell people I was from Canada. Actually I was accused from being from Spain since I mix Spanish in to my Italian. It was an educational experience.
I heard the sushi is really expensive there…Hope you find a good gym. Anyhow, I would be interested in hearing more about what you are doing there.
Peace…[/quote]
Heh, Chushin and I only live about 30 minutes apart if by Shinkansen (bullet train), but we’ve still not managed to hook up. That’s my fault, though, as we were all set to a few months back and I ended up bailing on him (sorry Chushin!). Gambit’s way on the other side of Japan from us,but I’d certainly be up for a meet if we could ever manage to arrange it.
Gambit you need a reason to get down here, Nagasaki and Huis Ten Bosch are freaking awesome. Maybe you could stop in Hiroshima on the way and could jump over there too. Probably a pipe dream, but I did just fly to Okinawa for my friend’s bodybuilding show.
And Pat, there is excellent sushi that can be had at very reasonable prices if you just know where to go.
[quote]Cortes wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
Besides, liberals seem to like to pretend that 2008-09 didn’t exist. You know, where they had a super majority in both houses and a super liberal president. If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
2008-9 are impossible to forget, and not just because there was an election and a new president in 2009 (are you thinking 2009-10 perhaps?). Do you really think “everything got worse” since 2009? For my family at least, late 2008 and 2009 was the nadir. [/quote]
Well I think all the indicators turned out worse. GDP is one thing but the most important indicator is employment.
The problem with the administrations take and congresses at that time was they rapidly put together a stimulus package and then pretty much walked away from the economy. The stimulus ran it’s course and we are back to square one. There was no follow up.
The stimulus did a bump, but was not a cure and now that it’s gone, we’re right back to where we started. Beyond that there was no focus on job growth, no attempt to reduce deficit spending, no attempted by any methodology to make the economy grow.
The stimulus was kind of like a dead car battery. You can jump it off, but as soon as you turn the car off, your dead again.
This is where Clinton and Obama severely split with one another. All Clinton did was economy until it got rolling. He was smart enough to know that economy is everything to most people. So, that’s what he did. And when congress changed on him, he still focused on it but he changed his approach to garner republican support. He never whined about it, he never blamed anyone, he said this is what the American people wanted so he dealt with it.
It took someone like obama for me to compliment Bill…
Obama flat dropped the ball on the economy and I think it’s going to cost him in '12. People are pissed. [/quote]
Well, if things are as bad for you now as they were in 2009, then, if I were you, I would probably be saying the same things you are now. That is the standard, right? “Are things better now than when I took office?” If you and your family are worse off, I think you are more-or-less obliged to vote for someone else. As I said, for my (extended) family, the nadir was 2009. So for me, I am obliged to seriously consider what Obama has done and what he has failed to do, place that in the context of the world (I’m living abroad now, so perhaps this is easier for me) and the “times” we live in, and to place that against whomever the Republicans choose.
Depending on who the republicans choose, this race could easily be won by republicans. [/quote]
Actually, me myself I dipped and recently have rebounded back to about pre-recession status.
I see your living in Japan now, that’s really cool. Have you been abroad before?
I hope you have a ball, you ought hook up with Cushin and Cortes, they are around there somewhere. Japan is one place I haven’t been but would love to go to. I love sushi…
It is interesting to see America from abroad. It’s a totally different view point. I saw the whole Elian Gonzales thing unfold in Italy when I lived there…I did a face palm. I wanted to tell people I was from Canada. Actually I was accused from being from Spain since I mix Spanish in to my Italian. It was an educational experience.
I heard the sushi is really expensive there…Hope you find a good gym. Anyhow, I would be interested in hearing more about what you are doing there.
Peace…[/quote]
Heh, Chushin and I only live about 30 minutes apart if by Shinkansen (bullet train), but we’ve still not managed to hook up. That’s my fault, though, as we were all set to a few months back and I ended up bailing on him (sorry Chushin!). Gambit’s way on the other side of Japan from us,but I’d certainly be up for a meet if we could ever manage to arrange it.
Gambit if you need a reason to get down here, Nagasaki and Huis Ten Bosch are freaking awesome. Maybe you could stop in Hiroshima on the way and I could jump over there too. Probably a pipe dream, but I did just fly to Okinawa for my friend’s bodybuilding show.
And Pat, there is excellent sushi that can be had at very reasonable prices if you just know where to go.
[/quote]
Man it’s sounds like tons of fun, I wish I could go, damn kids…They want a father an all that crap.
I have an unnatural adoration of sushi…
[quote]Gambit_Lost wrote:
[quote]pat wrote:
If their ideas where so great, where are the results…Oh the result is that everything got worse.
Ooops. I guess fucking everything up and making everything worse is a kind of progress too. [/quote]
[quote]pat wrote:
Actually, me myself I dipped and recently have rebounded back to about pre-recession status.[/quote]
Yeah, I guess, this has more-or-less been what happened in my life. That’s why I was surprised to see your earlier post. We’re two+ years after the worst recession and fiscal crisis since the great depression, and a lot of people I know are in a similar situation to yours. From that perspective, I guess I don’t think Obama has done “everything” wrong. But certainly there are a lot of problems.
[quote]I see your living in Japan now, that’s really cool. Have you been abroad before?
I hope you have a ball, you ought hook up with Cushin and Cortes, they are around there somewhere. Japan is one place I haven’t been but would love to go to. I love sushi…
It is interesting to see America from abroad. It’s a totally different view point. I saw the whole Elian Gonzales thing unfold in Italy when I lived there…I did a face palm. I wanted to tell people I was from Canada. Actually I was accused from being from Spain since I mix Spanish in to my Italian. It was an educational experience.
I heard the sushi is really expensive there…Hope you find a good gym. Anyhow, I would be interested in hearing more about what you are doing there.
Peace…[/quote]
Yeah, I’m about to head back to the States… But I guess I should leave personal stuff for the PM box and non-PWI forums… perhaps for obvious reasons lol. If everyone here were like you, I think PWI would be a much more fun place. [/quote]
Thanks! I bet this place is going to look weird to you for a couple of days when you get back…
[quote]pat wrote:
Man it’s sounds like tons of fun, I wish I could go, damn kids…They want a father an all that crap.
I have an unnatural adoration of sushi…[/quote]
One thing I’ve noticed is that kids appear to like Japan, as well.
