Can Haz Debt Ceilingz?
- Thread starter Pesqueeb
- Start date
http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/debt-ceiling-deal-sets-off-lobbying-frenzy-20110801
I'm really starting to hate my government.
Not the system or the country, but the ass clowns in DC.
I'm really starting to hate my government.
Not the system or the country, but the ass clowns in DC.
it's called free speech, faggot
Wha???
If I had more rep power than you, I'd negative rep you for hurting my feelings and then you'd have to write an apology thread!
A word war will set off the keg. My words are war.
Should a word have two meanings? What the **** for?
Should words serve the truth?
I stand for language. I speak for truth. I shout for history.
I am a cesspool for all the **** to run down in...
if d.boon were still alive...he would have no shortage of material for songs.
I'm glad that someone's going to bat for me:
Protecting benefits explicitly while promising to squeeze costs out of Medicare providers is mere political pandering. I won't sit idly about as that's done as long as capital gains are taxed at 15%, effective tax rates paid by people several orders of magnitude more wealthy than I can ever hope to me are ridiculously low, military contractors are paid millions out of our $800B "defense" budget to build pie-in-the-sky blimps, etc.
It is. Representing wall street, defense contractors, energy companies, corporate farms,...........
It is based on the idea that we are repented by rational people acting in good faith. You take either of those two things away and this is what we get.
accountability is a b!tch.
I hate to call one individual out in a thread, but Toshi, I have to ask from a curiosity perspective...I know you despise the military and the defense department, but honestly, what do you think it should look like, from a real live people and machine standpoint? If that's too broad, what philosophy should the defense department have? Surely you realize that some sort of military structure or entity is necessary, but honestly, what would YOU make it look like?
(Not setting you up for a counter attack, just curious since I readily admit I am biased, seeing as how I spent over half my life in the system and continue to be employed by the Department of the Navy as a civilian and a contractor)
(Not setting you up for a counter attack, just curious since I readily admit I am biased, seeing as how I spent over half my life in the system and continue to be employed by the Department of the Navy as a civilian and a contractor)
I don't want to speak for Toshi, but not having more military bases in foreign countries than Charlie Sheen has stashes would be a start.
The above is a good start. Our Dept of Defense should be primarily for that: DEFENSE. Over the last 50 years our defense industry has grown and become so powerful that it has become an end in and of itself.
The capabilities that it purports to offer politicians have led politicians to make a ****load of horribly unwise decisions. War hawks from the think tanks and the military itself alike whispering into the ears of politicians that this time it'll be different, because our technological superiority will allow for a quick, painless war, are perhaps among the most vile of creatures that exist.
One would have thought that everyone would have learned a lesson from Vietnam, but apparently absolutely nothing was learned other than a better PR campaign should be attempted before launching the invasion itself...
Shhhhhh.... Bighitr will hear you and then the thread gets locked which leads to an apology thread that gets locked, pretty soon were on the edge of a singularity. Exercise some restraint would you?
Lounge drama? I'm a sophisticated Politics & World News poster, it means nothing to me.
What gets me is that in the post cold war world, our national security threats are a direct result from our over-bearing worldwide military presence. We need more of a military presence because of our military presence. Instead of speaking softly and carrying a big stick we are yelling and jerking our stick in the face of the world. Mean while we are spending twice as much on military as any other country. China, instead of investing in the military has simply bought our military induce debt, purchasing our subservience and profiting on it at the same time.
OK, thanks. So as I read this (and Silver's and Westy's posts) make it a primarily defensive postured force. OK. So, no forward deployed presence anywhere? You understand that in the event we have to deploy forces to support our obligations as part of NATO and the UN, the price of poker goes up by a large factor logistically when you have to move everything it takes to even provide defensive measures and/or disaster relief support.
I think there needs to be a balance. I don't think it's realistic to say we will not have any military presence anywhere outside of our borders, too many other nations depend on our presence on land near by and keeping sea lanes open. However, when even the DoD is telling Congress that they really don't need or want or can afford to support anymore C-17s, but because that system has manufacturing and support scattered across the states of every member of the Armed Forces Committees, then it's pork in the name of national security.
761 active non-classified overseas military bases as of 2008, 5,429 including those in the US and within US territories.
That's absolutely ridiculous, and no possible "supporting NATO" rationale can justify them.
That's absolutely ridiculous, and no possible "supporting NATO" rationale can justify them.
He was going by GDP, methinks. A truer cost estimate would include the CIA and NSA's budgets as well as the cost of lost lives + the ongoing loss of productivity and health of all the wounded veterans..
OK, easy, easy. Can't argue 761 is a little ridiculous, but are you in or out with some will be required? My point is if we have to deploy, realize the expense involved in getting things moved.
We are fighting two wars on the other side of the world so we can support our financial interests on the other side of the world. Who is a better friend? Someone you threaten to beat up, a guy who owes you money or someone who wants your weed? We buy everyone's weed while threatening to beat them up.
Limit our ambitions to not be able to wage two full-scale wars on two continents and then such a ridiculous infrastructure is no longer needed. I agree we should be in some places due to our historical obligations, such as in Japan (as our umbrella of protection is a large part of why they haven't re-armed meaningfully since WWII).
Where we shouldn't be is South America, Europe (they're big boys, they can fend for themselves), or--I'm forgetting one, aren't I?--THE MIDDLE EAST. The Sauds are awful people, the dictators in most of the other countries are not far behind whether they're outwardly friendly to us or not, and our presence there can bring nothing good to the table.
If the Israelis get antsy if we pulled up stakes in the region and decided to use their stolen nukes to glass-parking-lot a part of Iran themselves, then so be it. We should distance ourselves as much as possible from the fallout, in a political and literal sense, as it's not our fight, it's an unending war, and our presence worsens our national security.
Well that being the case, it doesn't look so bad.
Hell, were barely keeping up with all the other totalitarian regimes. Kim Jong Il LOLZ at you.
Slightly off topic, but from Toshi's Mother Jones link above:
Yeah, coming in and spending money to improve third world brown people sh!t holes, now that you think about it Toshi, fvck 'em, I'm with you, let 'em go back to fertilizing their crops with human sh!t like they were when we got there and before we upgraded their water system. Cut that spending!
Having spent the equivalent to about 3 years in Manta doing counter narcotics missions, actually was on the first P-3 to deploy there up to the forward operating base we built, using native companies and the 200 or so locals we employed there as services support (cooks, fuel truck drivers) and the local fire department that the US Navy provided all new fire equipment and including major upgrades to their airport (new tower, etc). They can have that sh!t hole! Funny how the article acts like Ecuador is pissed we provided intelligence about the FARC (since MJ won't call them that, just the vannilla "insurgents") when Ecuadorans hate the FARC.
Yeah, coming in and spending money to improve third world brown people sh!t holes, now that you think about it Toshi, fvck 'em, I'm with you, let 'em go back to fertilizing their crops with human sh!t like they were when we got there and before we upgraded their water system. Cut that spending!
The only solution:
We've tried "nation building." We've tried "winning hearts and minds." We've tried "shock and awe." We've tried our own coups (Shah of Iran, Bay of Pigs).
We suck at all of these.
X3Pilot: When you have a spare few days I highly recommend reading Washington Rules. It's by a retired Army Colonel, iirc, so it's not just some peacenik affair of blowing smoke rings.
And how does the FARC get funding? Yeah, that's us again...
Downloaded it on my e-reader today, thanks for the recommendation..I am always open for enlightenment.
Please do let me/RM know your thoughts on it once you read it.
Can't wait to see the market tomorrow morning after the Rick James treatment S&P handed out Friday night.
We don't have to wait till tomorrow, just till the Asian markets open in another ~8 hours or so....
http://abcnews.go.com/International/standard-poors-anxiety-grows-us-credit-rating-downgrade/story?id=14249747
http://abcnews.go.com/International/standard-poors-anxiety-grows-us-credit-rating-downgrade/story?id=14249747
Work is going to suck tomorrow.
(I work in a company that deals with the market)
I'm in a subsidiary of AIG, so I'm sure emails will be flying.
So... I (as an American taxpayer) am actually paying your salary? Go get me some coffee!!!