Usa Thread

[Flashermac]

99 months unemployment benefits? Hell, I wouldn't work if I didn't have to! When we got out of the Army, we qualified for 6 months total. Most VN vets ran it out and then got a job.

 

 

What I feared has happened. Jimmy Carter surrounded himself with new folks who didn't know shit from Shinola. He had been a Georgia state senator and served a term as governor. He needed good advisors. Same with Obama - lack of experience and piss poor advisors. That budget was a scandal ... more pork than you'd find in a meat market.

 

 

p.s. You wouldn't know that Fort Red Shirt was ever there nowadays. All back to normal.

[Steve]

There is a LOT of hurting out there. Some are finding jobs but the employers know they have the upper hand and are asking things. Technically illegal things some of it and employees have to do it because there are tons of people lining up for those jobs. 'Mandatory' OT hours, weekend hours, unpaid hours. Projects that require doing work at home unpaid. A position not filled and other employees have to do that persons job. Employers have the upper hand and know it. Employees know it. Benefits cut and no one complains as they would before. There is that new vacation, flex thingy that employers are doing which basically cheats you out of vacation. The American employee will regress back a 100 years. And there are some who were conservative. Who see the CEO and senior management making big bucks but saying because of the economy there can't be bonuses or cost of living pay increases, etc. and they are not as happy about the proposed cut in taxes for the wealthy and the Republican mantra they've repeated. I've seen more friends 'converted' to either Dems or centrists or whatever who were former Republicans than I have ever seen in my whole life.

 

As I said in a previous post. Banks, airlines and a host of other companies and industries can't say they were regulated and taxed into bankruptcy. They did it all on their own and they were nickel and diming us as they did it and got bailed out.

 

I saw the Republican debate and Newt surprised me. Not sure if he's sincere but I got the impression here's a guy who was part of the problem and has gotten fed up with it all and wants to do some real work. I already know Ron Paul will. Santorum strikes me in a similar way to some extent. A friend thinks Huntsman is the real deal. Huntsmann speaks fluent mandarin and that's a plus. Still, I've been fooled by Republicans lately so I'm inclined to write off the whole bunch...save Paul.

[Bangkoktraveler]

The news claim Darpa's falcon aircraft did reach Mach 20 before it 'disappeared'. They claim it traveled for 30 minutes which might mean it travel almost 1/4 the way around the Earth. What a missile delivery system!

[Steve]

I know this belongs in the sports section but have to say I was moved by Dennis Rodman's Hall of Fame speech. He showed up dressed flamboyant but he gave an emotional, reflective speech that I got glassy eyed hearing. He was one of those guys that you just couldn't hate even if you hated the Pistons. One thing about us Americans we will forgive anyone for just about anything if they are contrite, sorrowful and honest about their shortcomings.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/video/player/nba/26271289;_ylt=Agpg2CD7TRoKLPm5_tmrwMCLvLYF#nba/26271289

[Hugh_Hoy]

 

Rodman was/is a certifiable nut case. 55555555555 Did he give his speech in his wedding dress?

 

I recall watching a pro game maybe 10 years ago. Rodman didn't like a call (as usual) and head-bumped Ron Garretson, one of the officials. It was caught up close on TV. You could plainly see Garretson yell "Are you fucking crazy?" LOL (As a side note, I officiated a couple of college games with Ron's dad, Darrel Garretson. I was, at the time, torn before wanting to do pro basketball or pro baseball. Turned out, never made either a career...didn't want to spend 8 months out of the year living out of suitcases and going through airports 3-4 times per week.)

 

HH

[Steve]

Good story HH and I think he was nutty as a fruitcake. He was probably the only man I know that was straight and liked having people think he was gay or bisexual.

 

So, back to politricks. Bachmann wins Iowa. She is Palin's worse nightmare. She will marginalize Palin. Palin is still the darling of the Tea Party but if they ran against each other they will cancel each other out.

 

Bachmann won't win the nomination. The Republican powerbrokers won't make that happen. They knew in 2008 they were not gonna win the election on the heels of Bush. They smell blood in the water now though and will spend big to oust Obama but they want a candidate that can win in a national election. Moderate Republicans and independents won't consider her.

 

The economy is a mess. No sh*t Sherlock Steve. However, the solution from the right is the same as it always is and I don't know if that can solve the problem. Cut taxes on the rich and possibly middle class. Cut corporate taxes and capital gains taxes. De-regulate. Cut spending. I agree with the last and partially agree with deregulation. It has to be targeted. However, I don't agree with cut spending overall. I think cut where its needed (Defense, pork) but I do think we need massive investing in infrastructure. Someone said we tried it with Rooosevelt's New Deal and it didn't work. Maybe it won't. I don't know enough about economics to say that the circumstances are different now than then.

 

I also think something and I don't know what the hell to do about it, has to be done with mortgages. A scary number of people are in homes that have 1st and sometimes 2nd or more mortgages that is vastly higher than their homes will ever be worth. I am of the mind that instead of baling out the financial instututions that gave them these mortgages it was best to bail out Americans. I think had we let some of these institutions fail, it would have been a good thing. My guess is we'd have a lot of foreign ownership. Maybe a bad thing. I don't know. The only ones with money at that time were the Arabs (oil money), Indians and the Chinese. Perhaps their assets would have been partially split up by the smaller banks that avoided these toxic assets and were solvent. I don't know.

[kamui]

 

 

The economy is a mess. No sh*t Sherlock Steve. However, the solution from the right is the same as it always is and I don't know if that can solve the problem. Cut taxes on the rich and possibly middle class. Cut corporate taxes and capital gains taxes. De-regulate. Cut spending. I agree with the last and partially agree with deregulation. It has to be targeted. However, I don't agree with cut spending overall. I think cut where its needed (Defense, pork) but I do think we need massive investing in infrastructure. Someone said we tried it with Rooosevelt's New Deal and it didn't work. Maybe it won't. I don't know enough about economics to say that the circumstances are different now than then.

 

 

 

Margaret Bourke White: The American Way of Life, 1937

 

 

 

[Flashermac]

My father told me the US didn't really come out of the Great Depression until World War II, when the government spent money like mad and everyone had a job (or was in the military). At least the government back then knew how to make the country prosperous by fighting a war, instead of bankrupting it.

[Hugh_Hoy]

My father told me the US didn't really come out of the Great Depression until World War II, when the government spent money like mad and everyone had a job (or was in the military). At least the government back then knew how to make the country prosperous by fighting a war, instead of bankrupting it.

 

During WWII, unless you were severely handicapped, you worked if you wanted to eat. Plus, there wasn't that much to buy anyway.

 

HH

[Steve]

It could be argued that FDR's spending wasn't massive enough before WW2 possibly. He was thwarted by the Supreme Court to some extent and threatened to pack the court (wonder what the procedure would be to add mor justices?).

Republicans fought him hard on those programs to give unemployed people jobs.

 

The re-armament and change to a war economy was massive. What may have helped were the price freezing and restrictions in place at the time as well.

 

Obama's stimulus was no where near the amount he wanted. It was negotiated down. So, it may not have worked because it wasn't big enough. I caught myself listening to some pundits while on vacation and they said that the left wants him to spend massively on infrastructure to create jobs but there is no way politically it would work. Spending of that size would be impossible to do right now with the present political climate.

 

Spending for the sake of spending, I'm vehementally against. Infrastructure and green job spending seems a no brainer. By green jobs, I mean some simple things proven to cut energy costs. Bill Clinton mentioned that painting roofs white would cut a/c costs over time (black roofs absorb heat, white roofs relfect it). http://www.the9billion.com/2011/07/25/bill-clinton-wants-you-to-paint-your-roof-white/

On a hot day, a white roof could lower electricity use by as much as 20%.

 

Aside from the fact that this is such an inexpensive and simple solution, there is roughly a 20% unemployment rate in the construction field, so a large, city-wide opportunity such as this can put thousands of unemployed men and women to work. Even non-skilled workers who cannot find a job could help paint roofs. With the amount of people who will make a little extra income and the amount of financial and energy savings that will follow, why isn’t every roof in the world painted white?

 

Its not gonna save America but it would go a long way to providing summer jobs and after school jobs to any number of kids, especially the inner city.

 

I have also mentioned in previous posts why we don't move to converting all government vehciles, federal, state and local to hybrids (or electric cars or anything other than the standard engine) and using American made hybrids and giving Detroit millions of new jobs. It would take years to convert them. It would get Al Gore and the greens boosting it as well. It would vastly reduce oil consumption (which would make it the enemy of the oil industry of course). Postal trucks, domestic miltary cars, jeeps, etc. possibly even those used outside the U.S. if its feasible. Create some program for cab companies to do the same. Amortize costs for citizens (cabs?).

 

I also ask again, will the traditional Republican solutions work in these economic times? Does it work all the time. Traditional solutions like cut taxes, cut capital gains, cut spending, deregulate businesses?