March 18, 2016

Bits Bucket for March 18, 2016

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246 Comments »

Comment by wondering
2016-03-18 02:03:14

Exit polling showed that 2/3 of Republicans favor banning muslims from entry to the USA. A Trump nomination may spur the largest percentage turnout in a long time, in the general election.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 05:41:43

I would put a moritorium on ALL immigration - we’re all full up! But to single out an entire category of people as threats is not what America is all about, or used to be. Can we really afford to further alienate 1.3 billion Muslims?

Comment by Ethan in NoVA
2016-03-18 06:01:58

You mean the people who committed the worst act of terrorism against us ever?

(Don’t get me wrong, I’m anti-all-religion.)

Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 06:22:20

You mean the people who committed the worst act of terrorism against us ever?

Those people are all dead. We might also mention that America has killed many more in acts of terrorism, and supported genocidal despots who did likewise, all over the world.

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Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 07:42:03

Address the 20 percent of that 1.3 billion that want us dead and gone and sharia established by sword.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 08:44:35

It doesn’t seem likely that a good poll was conducted and reached that result. There are a lot of Christians in America who want to convert everyone else. I wouldn’t worry about it.

 
Comment by Hi-Z
2016-03-18 10:09:23

“There are a lot of Christians in America who want to convert everyone else.”

They don’t kill you if you don’t convert. Perhaps you ignore that tidbit.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:31:30

As North America’s first confirmed Zika baby, MightyMike isn’t real good with context, nuance, logic, or cause-and-effect relationships.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 11:30:55

They don’t kill you if you don’t convert. Perhaps you ignore that tidbit.

There have been sizable Muslim communities in France and Germany for half a century. You can’t probably can’t find an example of anyone getting killed for refusing to convert to Islam. The Muslims there don’t even make much of concerted effort at conversion.

Meanwhile, over in Northern Ireland, Protestants and Catholics were blowing each other up not long ago. Interestingly, I don’t recall much discussion about altering American immigration law to weed out such people among immigrants from the British Isles.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 08:04:43

Do you mean to ban Saudi Arabians?

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Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 11:03:55

How did they bring down building 7, the one that fell perfectly (like it was demo’d)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/the-third-building-which-collapsed-on-911-was-not-hit-by-a-plane.html

Was 9/11 retaliation for something? Who kicked the beehive. What is the score?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 13:19:32

Google is your friend.

 
 
 
Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 06:18:09

I’m happy with pausing it ALL for a couple of years to figure out a better system for vetting.

America should not be about being stupid. It doesn’t need to be all Muslims, it can be a small subset of Muslims who are banned in combination with several other factors such as youth, country of origin, country of residence, wearing of the hijab etc. Trump rightfully points out that a significant portion of that 1.3 billion hold views comparable with or sympathetic to radical Islamic jihadist terrorism.

Will there be ways around it? Yes, there are ways around everything. Maybe Muslims will start recruiting Christians.

Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:38:37

Couldn’t an immigrant muslim just say he was a christian? Would we have to have follow-up checks to make sure he’s going to church? What if he says he has no religion?

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Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 07:38:44

The whole point is to get a system in place that is able to consider it as a factor along with other things. The San Bernardino killers could have done a lot of things, but they waltzed right in with not a care looking like fundamentalists. Have you seen that picture?

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 08:51:02

Couldn’t an immigrant muslim just say he was a christian?

A good point. In Islam, lying is permissible to further the cause of Islam.

That said, if they are not Jihadists, but just average Ahmeds who want to join the FSA, then apostatizing themselves is a great sin.

 
Comment by Jimmy Carter is Hitler
2016-03-18 09:45:47

You don’t ban muslims, you just ban immigrants from muslim countries.

 
Comment by cactus
2016-03-18 12:41:23

Couldn’t an immigrant muslim just say he was a christian? Would we have to have follow-up checks to make sure he’s going to church? What if he says he has no religion?”

Spanish did that once for Jews who converted. They held a inquisition just to make sure.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 20:00:50

Hmm. I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.

 
Comment by redmondjp
2016-03-18 22:25:13

No one does!

 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 10:58:08

If they wont eat a pulled pork sandwich with a nice IPA at customs new restaurant, ban them.

It is not like they have beautiful women.

Don’t ban the Colombians!!

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Comment by The Selfish Hoarder
2016-03-18 07:05:05

I wish the American Indians banned all white people back in the 1400s from coming to America. Some of them severe terrorists, such as Dick Cheney, George W (using the false flag 9/11 as an excuse) George H, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama (again using the false flag 9/11 as an excuse) MURDERED MLLIONS of Muslims, aided Israel, which itself terrorized and miurder Palestinians.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:15:19

My family has had nothing but trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country….

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Comment by rms
2016-03-18 07:43:01

:)

 
 
Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 07:39:59

Bill you aren’t allowed to participate. Get back on your island.

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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 08:09:04

Great points, Bill.

Why not play it really smart and just build a giant wall around our entire border, in order to disallow any dangerous people or materials to get in?

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 09:46:37

Bill, your bright and shining anarchist armor could be sullied by coming down from your mountaintop and mingling with us fallen non-perfectionists and being exposed to our corrosive vapors and even more corrosive non-dogmatic views. Flee back forthwith to the moral high ground where you can sanctimoniously point out the error of our ways, the purity of the Libertarian utopia that never was and never will be, and make us feel really bad about ourselves.

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Comment by Hi-Z
2016-03-18 10:12:26

You must be referring to you 5 percenters who are intelligent, not the rest of us poor stupid sheeple.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 11:00:54

I’ll include you, just this once, among the company of the exalted.

 
 
 
Comment by The Central Scrutinizer
2016-03-18 08:31:56

Exactly.

 
 
Comment by Overbanked
2016-03-18 07:02:08

I don’t see how this is unconstitutional. Would it violate equal protection if someone’s cousin is allowed to immigrate but someone else’s is disallowed because of religion? Noncitizens do not have rights outside the borders.

Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 08:52:27

And no one has a “right” to immigrate. It is a privilege bestowed upon the applicant.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 08:27:09

I wonder if the big thinkers on this board who have readily jumped on the bandwagon of banning entire categories of people from entry have considered more nuanced, limited legal immigration coupled with a strong crackdown on illegal immigration as an alternative. I agree that lax immigration policy is a disaster.

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2016-03-18 09:28:56

“crackdown on illegal immigration”

Those coming, those already here, or both? We need to be clear about this before setting strategy.

 
Comment by Jimmy Carter is Hitler
2016-03-18 09:47:00

Or a wall.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:07:34

My default answer is always going to be, what does the Constitution and Bill of Rights say about that? Interning 140,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII made a mockery of our supposed liberties, and any similar singling out of any other group for similar cancelation of their rights as citizens - I’m talking about US passport holders - is a violation of our fundamental values, if those matter anymore.

 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 10:55:43

ban them, ban the Chinese too, no skin off my teeth.

I worry about what Trump will spend on his wish list.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:00:13

Will surging inflation force the Fed’s hand on interest rates?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/16/the-yellen-fed-risks-faustian-pact-with-inflation/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:06:32

This babbling Keynesian fool is in charge of our monetary policy. Sleep well, America.

http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/what-the-heck-did-janet-yellen-just-say/

Comment by oxide
2016-03-18 06:12:12

Despite all the anti-Keynesian talk, the only actual Keynesian I have seen so far is Bill Clinton. During the good times at the end of his term, he was — the horror — planning to use the budget surplus to pay back some of the national debt, as stipulated by Keynes.

Thanks goodness those fiscally responsible Republicans came in and “saved” us from Keynes by cutting taxes, starting wars, coddling big pharma, and then blaming it on the poor.

Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:37:00

Donk…. Obama is the Socialist Keynesian of socialist Keynesians.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:43:14

The mental gymnastics you have to do to twist reality to conform to your dogma must be exhausting.

Comment by The Central Scrutinizer
2016-03-18 08:34:52

It’s funny… I often think that of you. Your daily posts are structured almost like mantras.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 09:47:40

A vote for Hillary is a vote for corruption.

 
Comment by The Central Scrutinizer
2016-03-18 16:47:03

Amen.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:08:09

The world is floating on a sea of debt, yet we’re told we need to consume more. This won’t end well.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/03/17/global-government-debt-is-actually-triple-what-we-thought-thanks-to-pensions/

Comment by phony scandals
2016-03-18 09:11:46

Interesting comments

Justin Green
4 hours ago

I’ve always thought it puzzling that government workers can retire after 20 years while the remainder of us work for 40 years or more. And there is the waste. Once qualified for a pension after 20 years, many government workers go get yet another government job, and still receive the pension from the first job. This seems a bit preposterous.

Pensions, and defined benefit plans in general, are a large part of what drove manufacturing out of places like Detroit. Since cities and states cannot print their own money, their only option is to cut pensions or raise taxes. Many places opted for a mixture of both, but it still drove employers from the area.

At some point, we need to make some tough choices based on actual mathematics and not on fairy dust and unicorns.

Betsy Weir Verloop
13 hours ago

This is what is happening in CA cities. LA is just one of many cities in CA being drowned in pension debt. Yet the public union employees, say it is the fault of all these governments not paying in enough. No way will they admit that they, the public union employees, never paid in enough to meet these unsustainable benefits. They fight reform vigorously, and go to courts for protection. Because, after all, the judges all have their hands in the pension schemes too, and want their piece of the pie.
L.A. County’s debt has doubled, mostly because of new accounting rules, $27B. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-county-debt-report-20160315-story.html

William Slattery
15 hours ago

I feel that in this article Timothy W. Martin makes a valid point on the 20 world governments debt, that they will be the effect when county’s retirement pensions start to take effect. Currently, the world debt among these countries is around $44 trillion, but when these pensions are added to the debt it skyrocket to almost $122 trillion. One country that he mentions that will be hit the hardest is Poland. Poland’s pensions will reach over 350% of its GDP, with doing a little research, I found that Poland’s GDP is $525.9 billion, which means that Poland’s pension will reach somewhere around $1.8 trillion. Though many people don’t understand what GDP is, Mr. Martin does a great Job explaining what the world is facing. “Imagine you through your mortgage was $440,000 but then the bank called up and said it was $1.3 million. That’s rally what we are facing.” In conclusion, Mr. Martin does a great Job explaining how the world debt will be affected by these Cadillac pensions.

Comment by Salinasron
2016-03-18 09:53:26

The problem with most pensions in CA is bound up in safety retirement. Too few years of service for retirement, based on highest year of income to include uniform allowance, overtime pay,etc which was never intended. Salaries went up with cost of living, maybe they should be frozen until we are totally out of recession. Plenty of people want a job so let the malconents walk and pass a county law freezing their retirements if they take another government job or have an offset like SS.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:10:20

The larger problem with EVERY pension is that the Fed has essentially declared financial warfare on savers and pensioners with its myopic focus on levitating “The Markets.” You may collect a retirement check, but how much purchasing power will be left as the Fed inflates away all government and corporate debts and liabilities?

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Comment by Bluto
2016-03-18 12:49:55

In many CA counties like mine (Sonoma) public safety pensions were working OK when they were 2% X years of service, trouble began when this was bumped up to 3% years in 2003…not only did this bump the cost up 50% but it also led to many retiring much earlier than they had planned under the old system. Some retire at 50 at nearly full pay and many of them will be drawing this for 30-40 years, no way this can work in the long run. Meanwhile the county is slowly sliding into bankruptcy and we have some of the worst roads in the nation.

http://californiapolicycenter.org/analyzing-sonoma-countys-pension-crisis/

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 15:07:30

Which is why those debts and liabilities will be printed away or repudiated under a future permanent Democrat supermajority regime that will willingly throw retirees under the bus so it can keep enriching its oligarch masters.

 
 
 
Comment by redmondjp
2016-03-18 11:43:14

The other issue not mentioned is that some Eastern European countries have already raided private pension funds.

I fully expect to see this in the United States as a last-ditch effort to keep the Ponzi going. Of course, executive orders have long been on the books allowing the gov’t to seize personal bank accounts in the case of a national emergency.

Got Gold?

Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 11:47:09

They’ll seize the gold too.

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Comment by Bluto
2016-03-18 13:15:20

I retired in 2012 and did not trust my pension fund so I opted to cash it out and rolled the money into an IRA…and thanks to the lunacy of QE the cashout was waaay bigger than it would have been had interest rates been normal.
If the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) becomes insolvent things will get real interesting, from what I’ve read a few more big pension fund failures could lead to this.

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Comment by taxpayers
2016-03-18 12:38:17

age 66 and 401Ks for all

otherwise BK for all

 
Comment by cactus
2016-03-18 12:45:32

Hard to pay out pensions now at zero percent interest rates when they were calculated at 10%.

what is that quote / “This sucker could go down ” ?

 
 
 
Comment by Neuromance
2016-03-18 04:12:27

I was reading the other day about proposed financial policy proposals. Most of them are bad for people like me (savers). So my initial impulse is to come up with reasons against them. But then I thought, what if these policy proposals are actually good for the country? Would I support them then?

Then I thought of the concept of technocrats. They also have interests and agendas. These are successful leaders of large organizations, with a commensurate amount of self interest. Would they ever make policies that are harmful to themselves but good for the country? Or are they always going to come down on the side of policies that benefit themselves and their families and friends?

People rarely act against their own self-interest. Thus the concept of disinterested technocrat is suspect. What happens if what’s best for the country is not best for the technocrat?

Were Hank “We Made It Wider” Paulson or Tim “I Was Never A Regulator” Geithner ever going to do anything not in their own interests?

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.” — Susan B. Anthony

They claim it’s all intellectually rigorous and data-driven. But years ago I remember multiple studies appearing showing high home-ownership rates driving high unemployment rates. Nary a peep from the establishment (after all, it comes dangerously close to contradicting Keynes). However, if a single study comes out supporting a policy desire by the establishment, it is seized and presented as bedrock intellectual justification. Even if it is junk science.

Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 04:49:42

“But years ago I remember multiple studies appearing showing high home-ownership rates driving high unemployment rates.”

IMO the process of buying a home (a process, not an event) is a process of allowing yet-to-be-earned dollars to be spent today.

This process injects these yet-to-be-earned dollars into today’s economy and hence today’s economy gets stimulated, but this stimulation today is at the expense of any stimulation that is reserved for the future, meaning that future dollars when they move from the status of yet-to-be-earned dollars to actually-being-earned dollars do not stimulate the economy at that time because they have already been spent during a previous time.

So the effect of this is: Future dollars spent today stimulate the economy today and thus help juice up employment today, but these dollars that are spent today are not going to be available to be spent in the future hence employment in the future will suffer as a consequence UNLESS the process of borrowing from the future continues on - continues on for forever.

So at root it is not the buying of houses that causes the problem, it’s the PROCESS OF BUYING houses that causes the problem, something that is considered normal and appears to be entrenched in the psychology of homebuyers and everyone else (much to the delight of bankers and other lenders).

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:27:43

Voting to destroy the Establishment.

With real median household no higher than it was in 1988, the Wall Street criminal banks and their Madison Avenue maggot propaganda machine convinced the masses to add $2.8 trillion of consumer debt since 1988, a 500% increase. Meanwhile GDP has only gone up by 350%. The establishment has stolen the wages of the people while simultaneously enslaving them in chains of debt. TARP, ZIRP, QE, the $800 billion porkulus plan, Obamacare, non-stop social engineering, black lives matter, never ending wars, and now more jobs sacrificed at the altar of TPP, have pushed working class Americans beyond the point of no return. They are finally fighting back.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/03/14/voting-to-destroy-the-establishment/

Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 05:56:23

“The plutocracy of criminal Wall Street bankers, pliant central bankers, clueless Ivy League academics, internet media moguls, billionaire corporate chieftains, bought off politicians, and their parasitic toadies live in gated compounds, fly on their luxurious Gulfstream jets, are chauffeured to their exclusive dinner parties, have heavily armed private security services, send their kids to exclusive private schools, have private doctors at their beck and call, and never feel the need to mingle with the lowly plebs. They have secretive meetings on private islands off Georgia to decide what’s best for the easily manipulated masses – control of the banking system in 1913 and stopping Trump today.”

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:02:53

Yet 95% of the voters bent over for them with alacrity in 2008 and 2012 by casting votes for their annointed Republicrat water carriers and ball washers. Are the sheeple finally waking up? What a nightmare spector that would be for the Oligopoly - an awake, aware populace no longer willing to get screwed over to further enrich the already super-wealthy.

Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 06:23:29

Hillary Clinton has been involved in corruption for most of her professional life!

Isn’t it time someone just called it like it is? Is there any reasonable dispute that this is not true?

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Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:38:10

Refreshing isn’t it.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:45:27

The sad truth is, I don’t think there’s a single registered Democrat or dependency voter who is the least bit bothered by Hillary’s decades-long trail of scandals and corruption. They don’t even bother trying to rationalize it away. The sense of morality just doesn’t exist in their empty souls.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:49:59

involved in corruption for most of her professional life!

Have we got the oppo on Drumpf’s past business dealings yet? I bet Hellary and Bill are hard at work on it.

Should be interesting when the Battle Royale actually begins.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:21:05

In fairness to Trump or any businessman operating in a deeply, systemically corrupt Democrat-run state and municipality, you simply have no choice but to deal with corrupt entities if you’re going to get anything done. The unions in NYC are basically mob fronts who also have mutually profitable patronage and graft deals with the local Democrat political machines. That also explains Trump’s past support for Democrat politicians like Hillary - if you don’t grease the wheels, the wheels lock up on you. Trump knew the rules of the game, which maybe explains some of his anger at the system.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 07:30:45

you simply have no choice but to deal with corrupt entities if you’re going to get anything done

Couldn’t you say the same thing about politics and statesmanship?

 
Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 07:44:46

The R establishment have been digging for a long time and trump u is the best their billions can come up with? Compared to 30+ years of obvious corruption. No contest.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:45:48

It’s one thing to deal with corrupt entities because you have to, as a form of soft extortion courtesy of your local Democrat political machine. It’s another to be deeply and integrally involved with initiating and profiting from corruption, which is the case with Bill and Hillary. They have amassed a fortune ($153 million) from exorbidantly paid speeches to audiences comprised of financial firms like Goldman Sachs that profitted immensely from Clinton’s repeal of Glass-Steagal in the mid-1990s, which led directly the 2008 financial crisis and taxpayer bailout of Wall Street. None dare call it racketeering and bribery….

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 07:52:16

Seems like some mental gymnastics there. What’s the acceptable level of dealing with corrupt entities? 20% of dealings? 30%? What if every entity you have to deal with is corrupt?

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 07:57:39

trump u is the best their billions can come up with

The R establishment never really went there with Drumpf, their opposition to him was late, flustered, and poorly planned and executed. One assumes Hellary and Bill are planning and preparing now, thoroughly and cunningly. This ain’t their first rodeo.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 09:54:47

What’s the acceptable level of dealing with corrupt entities? 20% of dealings? 30%?

In a perfect world, zero. But when the regulators, enforcers, and judiciary are either captured or criminally negligent, what recourse do you have if you’re a guy like Trump? Again, this is a Democrat-run municipality, which means the corruption is pervasive, systematic, brazen, and runs its rackets with near-impunity thanks to corrupt or co-opted authorities. Being forced to deal with corrupt entities and participating in corruption from which you personally profit are two very different things. I don’t want any corrupt person holding public office, period, because they’re morally unfit for that position. I give you Exhibit A: Hillary Clinton.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 10:04:07

So mob rule is bad, except when it favors what you like, and corruption is unacceptable, except when it’s done by someone you support.

I think I’m starting to understand your moral and ethical philosophy.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:35:52

As usual you twist around what I said, but since what I said is crystal clear to anyone with an IQ above “moron” I won’t waste time dealing with your distortions.

 
 
Comment by oxide
2016-03-18 06:41:34

The only hope for that awake and aware populace is an indictment for Clinton’s email server.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:49:32

Not going to happen no matter what the FBI investigation turns up, in the same way that Jon Corzine will never see the inside of a prison cell despite ripping off MF Global account holders for $1.6 billion when he “rehypothecated” their funds without their knowledge or permission - blatantly illegal, but as Eric Holder explained, prior to going to to reap his financial reward with a Wall Street firm, such prosecutions might cause systemic risk to the (criminal) financial system.

 
Comment by The Central Scrutinizer
2016-03-18 08:38:24

Hell, Denny Haster only got 6 months for something extremely blatant. These people can’t be touched.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 09:55:59

On that, my friend, we can agree.

 
Comment by redmondjp
2016-03-18 11:54:30

Yup. If Hillary makes it to office, the GPTB have so much dirt on her that her only choice when they say “dance, puppet” will be to reply “how high?”

 
 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:03:30

decide what’s best for the easily manipulated masses

We’re a republic, not a democracy!

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:11:12

We’re a mobocracy where unscrupulous politicians get elected by promising their supporters benefits that someone else will have to pay for.

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Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:26:50

A mobocracy is when the “easily manipulated masses” decide everything.

Our checks and balances keep us from being a mobocracy.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:46:53

Yeah, that’s worked out so well for us. I’ve often wanted to go back and tell my 8th grade civics teacher that what she told us so earnestly was complete and utter bullshit.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:54:35

Isn’t the GOP establishment currently fighting off mobocracy?

Do you support them in this, since you’re so contemptuous of the mob?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:03:36

I think the only way we’re going to have responsible, accountable governance is to limit voting rights to those who pay more into the system in taxes than they take out in benefits. They are the stakeholders, not the ever-growing dependency classes. I’m not necessarily advocating that; I’m just stating a simple fact. Right now it’s garbage in, garbage out.

I think the GOP establishment views Trump as abhorrent, and in a lot of ways he is. However, his rise is a direct popular response to an establishment GOP being solely focused on the perpetuation of crony capitalism and rewarding its oligarch donor base. That has alienated a huge segment of the population to the point that they’ll support Trump as a wrecking ball against the entrenched elitists.

I am not so much “contemptuous” of the mob as I am disdainful of anyone who is willfully ignorant and self-centered. The vast majority of ‘Muricans have abdicated their responsibilities of citizenship, especially by aiding and abetting corruption and bad governance with their votes. It isn’t just about you: it’s about the country and not leaving this generation’s messes for future generations to clean up. I also think it’s retarded to complain about the status quo, then vote for the status quo. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 05:59:34

“As a libertarian, much of what Trump is selling does not appeal to my view of the world and how it should function best. But it doesn’t matter what I think at this point. The country is being catapulted by emotion and a wave of anti-establishment sentiment. The establishment is thrashing about in the death throes of a corrupt multi-decade run. They will resort to violence in order to maintain their power, control, and wealth. But this time it will likely fail. Enough people are choosing an assertive leader to follow to blow this thing sky high.

“Specific policies are meaningless. This dynamic is driven by pure emotion. People are voting for the enemy of their enemy. No one knows where this will lead. It will likely lead to more violence, civil chaos, economic turmoil, assassination attempts, and eventually war. One thing is certain, the establishment will fall. Some people think Trump is part of a master plan by the establishment to gain even more power. Anything is possible, but keeping the masses sedated and focused on their iGadgets seems to be a better play for the establishment. Allowing the anger and contempt for the existing social order to be unleashed through Trump’s rhetoric is not coming from the standard establishment playbook.”

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:20:58

This whole thing depresses me. As a nation we desperately need rational, principled, thinking people, yet those are so scarce as to be almost extinct. Instead we have herd creatures, dull-eyed cretins who fall for simple slogans and impossible promises, without thinking of where all this is leading.

My biggest disappointment in this race was when Jim Webb failed to catch fire. Of all the candidates, I believe he was the one most capable of being a concensus choice and a competent, decent, pragmatic president. The country is fracturing, and there doesn’t appear to be any unifying figure capable of inspiring trust and confidence from a broad cross-section of society. And the electorate, almost to the person, has shirked the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, turning a blind eye to corruption and willingly voting for co-opted and captured politicians with no regard for doing what’s right for their constituents or the country as a whole. This is not going to end well.

Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 06:55:05

“This whole thing depresses me.”

It scares the sh1t out of me.

” No one knows where this will lead.”

There. This is why it scares the sh1t out of me. Right now the establishment sucks but it sucks in a known way, a way that I can deal with.

But this no-one-knows-where-this-will-lead thingy is very much an unknown thingy, something that I may not be able to deal with.

Interesting times … suck.

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Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 07:40:35

Interesting, because I am not scared at all. Not in the least.

I have long structured my life in a way as to be nimble.

I long ago learned that being able to be nimble was paramount. I am young enough (and old enough) to have experienced much upheaval during my life. Par for the course.

That I know my own mind, that I know who I am also is very helpful, too.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 07:49:43

as to be nimble.

Nimble in what sense? Your ability to flee quickly to another country? Or your adaptability to whatever political or economic system that may come along?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:12:58

I’m a bit of a stoic, and have made a practice of just dealing with reality as it comes along and trying to live a virtuous life and conscientiously fulfill my duties and responsibilities. The universe has a way of setting things right when they get too far out of whack, and I have feeling that reset is on its way. And yes, I’m anxious too, not so much for my sake as for what my kids and their generation are going to have to deal with in their lifetimes. But my ability to control that, or anything, is very limited.

 
Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 08:44:25

My pending death (whenever that is going to occur) doesn’t frighten me. At worst, it’ll be similar to the time before I was born: I simply won’t exist. I don’t miss the time before I was born, so I won’t miss the time after I pass.

I’m a bit of a stoic, too, but for me, that stoicism is considerably more accentuated in relation to macro-level events. Rarely am I a stoic on a one on-one basis with individuals. For me, the beauty of life is the connections that can be made with individuals.

 
Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 08:59:00

The reset is most definitely on the way. You can feel it everywhere.

The societal push toward improved ethics and morals is gaining steam. The real and perceived resistance to it is what is making people nervous and anxious.

That the Establishment has yet to notice where the people are is a good thing. With luck, they won’t fully understand until it’s too late for them. Ethics and morals MUST be instilled before the Establishment attempts to install it by edict.

Ethics and morals cannot be installed by edict, or enforced through law. Ethics and morals always supercedes law.

Therefore, it is up to us, THE PEOPLE, to get it done.

And we will. In our heart of hearts, we know no other way.

 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 09:13:37

, we know no other way.

How do we do it?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:03:53

I wish what you were saying was true. I have not witnessed any societal push for improved values and morality. It seems people are more crass, self-absorbed, and materialistic than ever. Most people seem to have no qualms about getting ahead by any means possible, even when it means screwing over someone else or being unethical. The vast majority of the millions of Democrat rank-and-fire enable and sanction corruption and sleaze with their votes, so I don’t see any reform movement originating with that bloc. I think the coming adversity will show who people really are. The concentration camp survivor, Victor Frankel, related that he believes there are only two races of people: those who are decent and those who aren’t. That seems very true. We’ll find out who’s who if/when the Titanic hits the iceberg.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:50:26

MacBeth, here’s a favorite song of mine and an anthem for those who aren’t about to go quietly into the Oligopoly’s Long Goodnight. Jewel, “A Life Uncommon.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wro_EMYSfFk

 
Comment by oxide
2016-03-18 14:56:37

Ethics and morals MUST be instilled before the Establishment attempts to install it by edict.

Then you must be living under a rock. Those evil federal government agencies have been installing ethics and morals by edict for a HUNDRED YEARS.

Private manufacturing companies didn’t have ethics and morals — they dumped their crap in the rivers and lakes. Along came the EPA to say, you need to have ethics toward residents; therefore, no more dumping crap in the river.

Private meat packers didn’t have ethics or moral either — look at the stuff that went “into the hopper” as described by Sinclair Lewis. Along came Teddy Roosevelt and the origin of the FDA to instill morals and ethics on meatpackers, complete with inspections.

x-GS-fixr will gladly give you dozens of examples of morals and ethics in the aircraft industry, instilled by edict courtesy of the FAA.

And I would hope that Elizabeth Warren could instill a few *more* ethics and morals on the financial industry.

There are thousands more examples of morals and ethics which were instilled by edict in order to protect the populace from corner cutting by private companies. Just crack open any page of the CFR to find them.

And yes, those ethics and morals are enforced. I’ve known industrial facilities which have been shut down because they violated those ethics.

————–
And this is utter bullsh!t:

Ethics and morals always supercedes law.
Therefore, it is up to us, THE PEOPLE, to get it done.
And we will. In our heart of hearts, we know no other way.

So in our heart of hearts, it’s up to the people get … “something” … done to instill ethics… somehow… and that something can’t be laws or enforcement. So what are you going to do? Get a posse together and murder people who aren’t ethical and moral to meet your standards? Good luck with that. The victim’s families may not like your morals either. Or maybe you’ll just teach your children well — like the liberal brainwashing in those public schools? Good luck with that too.

 
 
Comment by Jimmy Carter is Hitler
2016-03-18 09:55:37

Trump/Webb 2016

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:12:25

Palin/Jesus 2020

 
 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:31:25

It will likely lead to more violence, civil chaos, economic turmoil, assassination attempts, and eventually war.

Sounds like fun. Drumpf’s candidacy is becoming a bit of a rorschach test.

Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 06:54:54

“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

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Comment by The Selfish Hoarder
2016-03-18 07:07:10

“As a libertarian, much of what Trump is selling”

TRUMP IS BY NO MEANS A LIBERTARIAN. Got it?

Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 07:21:20

Bill, as a fellow Doors fan, expect the song Peace Frog to get popular again this year.

I predict RNC Cleveland in July could get really really messy.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:16:18

It seems like growing numbers of people are using any pretext as an excuse to go out into the streets and raise hell.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 23:03:34

“Cleveland in July could get really really messy.”

Sounds like Chump will be cancelling more speaking engagements going forward.

 
 
Comment by Red Pill
2016-03-18 07:28:51

Unlike you, he is anti-globalism and against mass immigration. And like I’ve said before, all the right entities, countries and people are against him.

Nationalism is the new black.

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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 23:04:36

“…right entities, countries and people are against him.”

Anybody who disagrees with anything Chump says is automatically BAD.

 
Comment by Red Pill
2016-03-18 23:26:01

Globalism has to be defeated or we ALL do down with the ship.

Trump is just the messenger or conduit.

 
 
Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 07:44:03

“TRUMP IS BY NO MEANS A LIBERTARIAN. Got it?”

The writer was not saying that Trump was a libertarian, the writer was saying that he himself was a libertarian.

Go back and give it a close read.

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Comment by The Selfish Hoarder
2016-03-18 08:03:23

Okay. I am eating crow with my oatmeal. I am sorry.

 
Comment by Combotechie
2016-03-18 08:09:14

You are forgiven. Go and sin no more.

 
 
Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 07:53:54

Those “libertarian” seducers and deceivers need to be stomped out. They’re all backed by globalist billionaires looking to screw the little guy anyway.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:14:33

“As a libertarian, much of what Trump is selling”

TRUMP IS BY NO MEANS A LIBERTARIAN. Got it?

The author of the piece is a libertarian, not Trump.

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Comment by Obama Goons
2016-03-18 06:56:18

Hillaryous is unelectable.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 04:28:54

Did you manage to trade all your dollars for risk assets before the Fed commenced crushing the dollar?

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:45:10

Since the Fed’s 1913 inception, the real purchasing power of the dollar has been debased by more than 95% as the Fed tries to inflate away government debts and liabilities. Precious metals are the ultimate antidote against these wealth-destroyers.

Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 07:10:31

Life was pretty grim for nearly everyone back in 1913. Living standards today are much, much higher.

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 08:32:19

Just think how much fantastically higher they would be now if not for the Fed’s perpetual War on Savers through dollar debasement. Instead we have a bloated, disfunctional financial sector and massive imbalances in the relatively shrunken industrial sector of the economy.

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Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 08:47:54

You mean things would have been better if the Fed had kept inflation exactly zero for the past 103 years? We can only speculate how those 103 years would have been different, but there are some reasons that they have a 2% target. If you’re interested, you could go and read a bit about why some consider 2% to be better than zero.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:39:07

What exactly is the circumference of your head, MightyMike?

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 11:36:54

There’s another great contribution to the discussion, Ray.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 05:28:57

A rising Ponzi lifts all criminals.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 19:38:15

Would this even be legal, if it were happening?

Marketwatch dot com
Did central bankers make a secret deal to drive markets? This rumor says yes
Published: Mar 18, 2016 12:09 p.m. ET
Speculation is flourishing about a tacit “Shanghai Accord”
Reuters/Aly Song
Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen talks with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and the U.K.’s finance minister George Osborne at the G-20 meeting.
By Sara Sjolin
Markets reporter

The dollar has taken a surprisingly big stumble in recent weeks, prompting traders to ask: What’s really driving the selloff? The answer some are coming up with smacks of conspiracy theory.

Rumors are flourishing that global policy makers made a secret deal at the G-20 meeting in Shanghai late last month. This “Shanghai Accord” to weaken the greenback was aimed at calming the financial markets, which had gotten off to an awful start to the new year, according to the chatter.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:30:17

Write-downs of reserves could hammer oil companies.

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/17/the-terrible-oil-news-nobody-noticed/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 04:33:00

What schemes and machinations will the Oligopoly resort to in order to install a reliable bankster water carrier in the White House?

http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/suicide-of-gop-or-its-rebirth/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 05:36:29

“Progressive” Democrat Tim Canova running against Establishment DNC apparatchik Debbie Wasserman Schultz is learning just how corrupt and sleazy his party really is. Unfortunately for him, the vast majority of rank-and-file Democrats have no problem with party corruption in any form, so if he’s expecting righteous indignation from the Democrat masses, he’s going to be sorely disappointed.

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/03/17/more-dnc-shadiness-debbie-wasserman-schultz-is-blocking-primary-challenger-from-accessing-voter-data/

Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 08:04:15

Canova is a fool.

85%+ of the metro-DC market routinely votes Democrat. (And this is THE market that ideally would most closely mirror the thinking of the general populace as a whole.)

With that as an example, why would he ever expect fellow Democrats anywhere to encourage original thought? It’s an astonishing oversight / leap of faith that Canova is taking.

The Democrat way is to limit dissention, to eliminate thought that does not fit the program.

Canova is a fool.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:20:10

I would rejoice if he overthrew Wasserman Schultz, the epitome of the establishment insider. But he fails to understand that the overwhelming majority of Democrats are okay with the graft, patronage, and crony capitalism that defines the party.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 05:56:34

David Stockman torches Simple Janet on the Fed’s lunatic follies.

http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/impaled-on-its-own-petard-the-feds-folly-festers-further/

Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 06:34:07

David Stockman lives in Aspen with the .01%, having grown rich from predicting our imminent economic collapse for the last four decades.

I wonder how he justifies that to himself, or does he just laugh?

Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:39:29

Lola…… Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels isn’t gloom and doom. It’s positively bullish and good for the economy.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:23:49

I think the more enlightened .1% see and understand the long term dangers of the breakdown of the social contract; the increasing fragmentation of American society into hostile, alienated camps; and the growing hatred and distrust of the establishment. History offers plenty of examples of where this could be headed, and no one in their right mind wants to see that outcome.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 10:25:23

David Stockman lives in Aspen

Does he “live” there, or does he have a vacation home? I ask because the place is 8000 ft high, and not everyone (especially older people) can adapt to living at high altitude.

I think most of those 0.1 percenter mansions in Aspen are vacant most of the year.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 05:58:41

Household debt binge has no end in sight. But debt-fueled “growth” is good, the Masters of the Universe tell us.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/17/household-debt-binge-has-no-end-in-sight-says-obr/

Comment by Puggs
2016-03-18 09:49:18

Deleveraging is SOOOOO 2009….

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:08:06

What happens when the “wealth effect” from our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “recovery” (that has benefited only the 1%) reverses course?

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/17/luxury-home-prices-in-hamptons-end-of-wall-street-wealth-effect/

 
Comment by 10FeetHigher
2016-03-18 06:25:03

In Phoenix, Hillary is running commercials showing a young Hispanic girl telling Hillary and a group of fat Hispanic women how her parents have a letter of deportation and she is worried. Hillary tells her not to worry.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:50:10

Thereby sending a signal to tens of millions of Mexicans and Central Americans that if they can sneak across the border, they’re home free. No need to waste all that time and money going through the legal immigration process.

Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 08:14:03

Not to worry.

Open-borders supporters will give them THEIR jobs, cash, housing, food, medical care.

Where’ve you been?

The MSM has been running numerous stories (especially TV), showing open-borders supporters lined up along numerous highways and streets, dropping their keys, gold and cash on the pavement for new arrivals to grab.

Comment by MacBeth
2016-03-18 08:30:46

I propose a serious test for any open borders advocate. To prove their commitment

It’s very simple. Requires little physical effort, but it is very personal.

Challenge specifics:

(1) You must the door to your domicile wide open for the entire month of May. Your door must be left wide open, starting at 12:01 a.m April 1 until 11:59 p.m. on April 30.

(2) You door must remain wide open whether or not you or yours are at home. It must remain open while you are asleep.

(3) You must sleep at your domicile - not anywhere else.

(3) You cannot hire or ask anyone to watch over your domicile or your possessions.

(4) If someone shuts your door or locks it for you,, you must reopen it, and make sure it stays ajar. (A closed door - locked or unlocked - is not “open border”).

(5) You cannot remove ANY of your financial paperwork, computers/social media, cash, weaponry, jewelry, electronics, art, clothing, food, mail, keys, etc., during the entire month.

(6) What you have in your domicile RIGHT NOW (March 18 at 10:28 CST) must stay. You cannot remove anything in preparation of April 1.

(7) You must install numerous security cameras, both inside and outside of your domicile. NOTE: the cameras are being installed to ensure that you don’t break any of the rules. They are not being installed for your protection or future recompense.

(8) No security personnel are available to you - at any cost, whether yours or the taxpayers - until AFTER you are robbed, beaten up, raped. And even then, any security personnel are available to you only on a per-incident basis.

I bet there’s not a single open-borders “adherent” on this board or elsewhere that personally would accept such a challenge.

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Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 09:14:41

Nice post.

Southern California is the only place in this country where I have seen coils of razor wire around freeway overpass signs to prevent graffiti.

Also, when revisiting Joshua Tree National Park for the first time in over a decade last month, several sites within the Park had been closed because of graffiti.

Cultural relativists gonna relate.

 
Comment by steadykat
2016-03-18 10:14:21

Close the border, build a wall FOR REAL, then ship the mestizos home and the oligarchs lose control of Mexico in less than a year.

Stopping the $2-3 billion a year in remittences back to the homeland (which are used to purchase products or services locally in their home Country) and ending the practice of allowing the lower rung members of their social class to be sent to America to avoid the employment problems of Mexico quickly ends the game of pass the hot potato.

The good news is that the SoCal Spanish radio stations can go then back to their former rock-n-roll formats of years past.

The bad news is that the oligarchs of Mexico along with their political buddies here in the States will do whatever they deem necessary to prevent it from happening.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:16:21

Fundamental transformation.

I’m seeing a lot more trash on the mountain trails I like to hike. Douchebaggery is rife these days, it seems.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 10:35:08

and the oligarchs lose control of Mexico in less than a year.

They’ve already lost control, Mexico is in a drug cartel driven state of anarchy, especially outside Mexico CIty. The Mexican FedGov pretends to be in control, but the average citizen knows that’s not true. It just isn’t being reported in the American media.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 10:41:41

Southern California is the only place in this country where I have seen coils of razor wire around freeway overpass signs to prevent graffiti.

Disney is installing metal detectors at their US theme parks. While many think that is being done to thwart terrorism, I suspect the real reason is that they’re worried about SoCal gang bangers bringing weapons into Disneyland.

I suspect it’s only a matter of time before kidnappings become common in SoCal. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the MSM won’t report on that.

 
Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 10:43:33

I propose a serious test for any open borders advocate. To prove their commitment

+1

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:59:51

If you want a preview of coming attractions in California and the Southwest more generally, go to Blog del Narco.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2016-03-18 15:56:22

‘If you want a preview of coming attractions in California and the Southwest more generally, go to Blog del Narco.’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog_del_Narco

 
Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 17:42:57

Not 2-3 billion, 25 billion a year in remittances. More than their oil.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-got-more-money-remittances-oil-revenues-2015-n510346

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 06:32:25

The Oligopoly’s financial media wants the proles to rejoice that the Fed’s debasement of their purchasing power and swindling them out of interest income are juicing our Ponzi markets. Awesome, except for the members of the 99% who can’t or won’t play in Wall Street’s rigged casino.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-fed-is-crushing-the-dollarand-thats-great-for-stocks-2016-03-17

 
Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 06:33:49

Huffington Post real journalists provide a narrative on Trump violence:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56e85c3ce4b0b25c91838893

“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

 
Comment by Donald Trump
2016-03-18 06:35:00

Who should star in a reboot of Liar Liar- Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz? Let me know. https://www.instagram.com/p/BDEHPEgmhRv/

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 08:33:53

Fraudulent Trump impersonator alert

 
 
Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 06:38:57

Salon dot com real journalists provide a narrative on Trump violence:

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/18/the_secret_history_of_trumps_hellish_campaign_rallies_how_the_right_paved_the_way_for_the_chaos_we_now_see/

“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush

 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 06:41:12

Economics
If You’re Over 65, You Should Love the Fed

By Narayana Kocherlakota

Conventional wisdom suggests that monetary stimulus is particularly bad for senior citizens: When the Federal Reserve holds interest rates low, retirees tend to get less income from their nest eggs. Over the past eight years, though, they’ve done a lot better than this simple logic would imply.

Consider the amount of goods and services that seniors consume — an important indicator of their well-being. According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average household headed by someone aged 65 or older consumed 5 percent more in 2014 than in 2007, adjusted for inflation. That compares to declines of 5 percent for all households and 7 percent for households headed by someone aged 35 to 44.

Averages, of course, can be driven by a small number of households. That said, the apparent rise in seniors’ consumption mirrors an increase in median pre-tax income: Families headed by someone aged 65 to 74 saw an inflation-adjusted gain of about 5 percent from 2007 to 2013, according to the most recent (2014) version of the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances. For families headed by someone aged 75 and over, the increase was 10 percent. By contrast, families headed by people aged 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 suffered declines of 4 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

If low interest rates have posed a challenge for seniors, why then have they done relatively well in terms of consumption and income? I can think of at least four reasons:

•The disappointingly slow wage and employment growth of the past decade has had less impact on seniors than on younger folks.

•Seniors’ social-security income rises with inflation, maintaining their purchasing power. It doesn’t, however, decline when prices fall — a feature from which they profited (modestly) last year.

•Many seniors own annuities or bonds that provide them with fixed payments. Because inflation has been surprisingly low, they’ve gotten more purchasing power from these fixed payments than they could have expected.

•Seniors hold more assets like stocks, bonds, and homes than do younger folks. All of these assets have appreciated a lot over the past seven years, providing seniors with a source of spending money that offsets some of the effect of low interest rates.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-03-18/if-you-re-over-65-you-should-love-the-fed

Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:54:23

Collapsing demand is good for the over the hill crowd?

You’ll have to explain that one Rusty.

Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 08:49:01

Read the article. It’s pretty clear.

Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 10:09:37

Collapsing demand means falling prices so you may have a point.

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Comment by davidd
2016-03-18 12:27:58

But how much longer will this continue? The following SS chart shows the looming danger, that is more and more seniors as a percentage of the population.

How well off will the segment be in 20, 30, 40 years; who will be paying into SS for them as a smaller percentage of workers pay into the system?

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2015/lr5a2.html#alt_h

 
 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:46:42

“Inventories Are Rising, Demand Is Falling And Prices Are Cratering”

https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2016/03/16/china-and-the-commodity-complex/

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 06:55:41

Inventories are booming, where are the buyers?

 
 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 06:58:45

e-b-o-l-a lola. la la la la lowlaaaaaaah….

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:04:08

Silly proles and their childlike faith that they have a “choice” when it comes to electing “our” leaders.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/17/ryan-vs-trump-wall-street-vs-populism-on-immigration-and-trade/

Comment by Oddfellow
2016-03-18 07:29:31

Breitbart is all-in for Drumpf, that’s why they sided with his campaign against their own reporter. I think they see themselves replacing Fox as the center of the GOP news world, should Drumpf triumph.

Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 07:35:44

Andrew Breitbart was murdered under direct orders from Obama.

“I’m really good at killing people”

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:26:12

Yeah, I think any media outlet damages their credibility when they blatantly support a particular candidate and skew their reporting to advance that agenda.

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:05:17
Comment by The Central Scrutinizer
2016-03-18 11:40:40

Earth Hour? You’re upset that EARTH HOUR is cancelled?

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:08:57

I thought cousin-marrying was illegal. We only need look at MightyMike to see the sad consequences of such couplings. However, we must not forbid anything that would impede the march of fundamental transformation.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/17/integrated-migrant-girl-publicly-executed-for-refusing-to-marry-cousin/

 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 07:12:44

Happy Friday! :mrgreen:

Kick back, count your stack and keeeeeeeeeeeeeerank it up to 11.

https://youtu.be/_K_-D5B7DIg

RIP Danny Joe Brown

And this one is for you Lola

https://youtu.be/LaecsIUETYA

 
Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 07:18:04

Washington Post real journalists provide a lengthy, four part series, titled The Great Unsettling:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/looking-for-america-the-great-unsettling/2016/03/17/e9cb3eaa-e544-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html

“Big darkness, soon some” — Hunter S. Thompson

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:24:00

Of course the Oligopoly media’s prescription for such “great unsettling” is always a further expansion of the corporate state and pious labeling of anyone who dissents as “extremists” of one sort or another.

Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 07:33:04

I grew up 20 miles from Kent State University and my uncle fought in Vietnam.

The current volatility in this country is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

And it’s only gonna get worse for the next 7-1/2 months :)

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:22:26

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 10:40:34

The Rolling Stones, “Gimme Shelter” with lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_a0zOLMAfw

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Comment by rj chicago
2016-03-18 13:04:58

This song follows Genesis’ “Selling England (Murika) by the Pound”.

 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 11:05:46

Saudi owned Fox News loves it! Great for ratings.

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Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:27:35

Turkey, our “ally,” is the embodiment of the Deep State. It is very instructive to watch the facade of democracy get swept away when it gets in the way of the exercise of naked power.

http://theantimedia.org/us-ally-democracy-freedom-have-absolutely-no-value-any-longer/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 07:30:00

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are pretending to be the champions of the little people. Both showed their true colors by watering down and voting against (in the case of Fauxahontus) Ron Paul’s original Audit the Fed bill.

http://www.businessinsider.com/elizabeth-warren-sponsors-activist-hedge-fund-bill-2016-3

Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 07:46:57

Why won’t Warren come out of her ivory senate tower to endorse and play?

 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 08:16:14

Barney Sanders is pro-debt slavery.

 
 
Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 07:55:00

What is the Goldwater Institute’s position on immigration? globalism?

 
Comment by Goon
2016-03-18 07:55:43

Check out this narrative, LULZ.

As Hillary Clinton sweeps states, one group resists: white men

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/us/politics/as-hillary-clinton-sweeps-states-one-group-resists-white-men.html

Real journalists don’t get more real than the New York Times.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:35:32

Once the collectivist comrades of the DNC have established their permanent Democrat supermajority, those pesks can be loaded onto the box cars easily enough.

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 08:05:45

Just to lighten up the mood a little here, great clip from Spain’s Got Talent or whatever it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv6jiqVmmSI

Be sure to watch the entire clip, there’s a little surprise.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-03-18 08:15:01

Interesting times indeed.

Communist Group Revcom was a new one for me.

Silencing Trump: Bill Ayers and the Fire from Below … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIjljucvBI4 - 173k - Cached - Similar pages
12 hours ago ..

PS

I think the lady at 4:25 is related to that loon professor from Missouri.

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 10:11:33

Ha-ha, there it is. University of Chicago. Rockefeller. I will know that country is on the right track when that institution folds.

 
Comment by rj chicago
2016-03-18 12:23:42

Phony:
Thanks for posting that video - it is the best visualization of what it is like here. The tone of all those miscreants is VERY typical of the vibe here. All HBB’ers take heed - look at this and ask yourself - do I want more of these sorts of rabble coming to my nabe? If so - vote the Chicago (Ayers), America hating way. If not then vote the not Chicago way. This country has ALOT of problems - that cannot be denied - but speaking the way this rabble does (the Chicago way) only makes matters ALOT worse.
I hate it here and now I think those here on the HBB can now understand why. 4 months and counting til the moving van parks in front of my building to move me outta here. Can’t come soon nuf.

Comment by phony scandals
2016-03-18 15:55:36

“4 months and counting til the moving van parks in front of my building to move me outta here. Can’t come soon nuf.”

“You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn.”

Sometimes that shark, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about a shark, he’s got… lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll’s eye. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be livin’. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white. And then, ah… then you hear that terrible high pitch screamin’ and the ocean turns red and spite of all the poundin’ and the hollerin’ they all come in and rip you to pieces. Y’know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men! I don’t know how many sharks there were… maybe a thousand! I don’t know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin’ chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, Bosun’s Mate I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up and down in the water, just like a kinda top. Up ended him into a raft. Well… he’d been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. He was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper… anyway he saw us and come in low. And three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

Delivered the Bomb - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9vpeAXO3K0 - 170k -

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 15:22:23

Wow. Some real prizes on that video.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2016-03-18 16:18:43

‘I think the lady at 4:25 is related to that loon professor from Missouri.’

I had to stop watching the video right there. No matter who wins this November, we are Balkanizing into a spiral.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 08:29:23

Collusion among central bankers to manipulate markets and currencies? Inconceivable!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/did-central-bankers-make-a-secret-deal-to-drive-markets-this-rumor-says-yes-2016-03-18

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
Comment by butters
2016-03-18 10:42:19

Makes sense. Stocks nose-dived and housing soared.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-03-18 08:50:18

All wars are banker wars?

Hillary Clinton on Gaddafi: We came, we saw, he died - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y - 184k - Cached - Similar pages
Oct 20, 2011 .

Gadhafi’s Gold-money Plan Would Have Devastated Dollar

Written by Alex Newman
Friday, 11 November 2011

It remains unclear exactly why or how the Gadhafi regime went from “a model” and an “important ally” to the next target for regime change in a period of just a few years. But after claims of “genocide” as the justification for NATO intervention were disputed by experts, several other theories have been floated.

Oil, of course, has been mentioned frequently — Libya is Africa‘s largest oil producer. But one possible reason in particular for Gadhafi’s fall from grace has gained significant traction among analysts and segments of the non-Western media: central banking and the global monetary system.

According to more than a few observers, Gadhafi’s plan to quit selling Libyan oil in U.S. dollars — demanding payment instead in gold-backed “dinars” (a single African currency made from gold) — was the real cause. The regime, sitting on massive amounts of gold, estimated at close to 150 tons, was also pushing other African and Middle Eastern governments to follow suit.

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 10:00:29

To be an enemy of the US is very dangerous. To be a friend or ally is fatal.

 
 
Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 09:24:15

So many grievance groups, so many victims.

So many rent-seekers. Pay me rent, pay me rent just for being alive! Pay me rent for my children! Pay me rent for being a politician! Pay me rent for being a refugee! Pay me rent for being a banker!

You must pay the rent! I won’t pay the rent!

The Rent is too high!

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 10:05:33

How do Combo’s musings on imputed rent play into this concept of rent-seeking?

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 11:03:13

The central bank manipulation and can kicking never seems to stop.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-waver-looking-at-small-weekly-loss-2016-03-18

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 11:07:44

The oligopoly’s faux-conservative scribblers/salad-tossers are compiling a blacklist of Trump supporters to be cast into outter darkness.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/18/gop-smart-set-plots-blacklist-of-trump-supporters/

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 11:30:27

What pathetic poppycock. “Movement conservatism” is over. Finished. Through.

There never was anything remotely “conservative” about it to begin with.

Whatever all that was in the Republican party, it’s done. What you’ve got is a bunch of people scrambling to pick up whatever pieces are scattered around and try to re-construct something from the scraps.

Somebody kicked the neocon red ant nest. Trump.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 11:08:53
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 11:58:59

Even the media’s oligopoly lapdogs can’t help but note Yellen the Felon’s willful refusal to acknowledge accelerating inflation that could stand in the way of ZIRP or a new round of deranged money-printing for her .1% cohorts.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-janet-yellen-blind-to-the-rebound-in-inflation-2016-03-18

 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 12:04:46

Word from a Boise Realtor:

Right now Boise and surrounding area’s are Booming. Low inventory. Seller’s market. It’s the place to be.. Especially retired folks from CA.

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2016-03-18 12:43:41

Work colleague’s wife is a realtor there. They grumble about all the Cali-tuckians moving there. Don’t know if it’s the place to be, but she confirms it’s busy.

Why are you moving, anyway?

(I still say Spokane…)

Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 14:18:14

As I get older I really want a 3 car garage and a shop to play in. With ID, fishing, hiking and skiing it suits me well.

Being self-employed I can live anywhere. The best parts of CA are too overpriced and getting invaded. Water issue. Crime.

Plus, who doesnt like an adventure?

Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2016-03-18 16:15:46

In that case….Missoula? Whitefish?

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Comment by Puggs
2016-03-18 12:50:12

This happened in 2005-06 too.

 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 12:28:08

Every obstructionist republican should be swept out of office in November.

Comment by Hi-Z
2016-03-18 17:39:04

Yeah! Get the heck out of the way of the Pro-Gressive Mosheen.
(ignore wrong placement below).

 
 
Comment by Puggs
2016-03-18 12:52:11

What is it about the Donald that enrages so many??

Comment by Hi-Z
2016-03-18 17:37:13

Yeah! Get the heck out of the way of the Pro-Gressive Mosheen.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 13:08:50

When will the central bank’s Keynesian lunacy catch up to them - and us?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/18/ecbs-bazooka-has-not-run-out-of-ammunition-says-chief-economist/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 13:12:32

Hillary in an orange jumpsuit would go far to restore my faith in the rule of law, especially under this administration.

http://observer.com/2016/03/hillary-has-an-nsa-problem/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 13:35:44

A foretast of what ‘Muricans have to look forward to when the permanent Democrat supermajority turns ‘Murica into a corrupt Third World cesspool and banana republic.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-18/how-coups-start-brazil-president-defiant-impeachment-vote-set-april

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 14:21:14
 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 14:05:00

very interesting site; news from the front line

https://www.thelayoff.com/

I was reading about Micron. Boise’s largest employer –trouble ahead.

Comment by In Colorado
2016-03-18 14:20:05

Micron has always been a hire and fire company.

 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
Comment by I am yuuuge in Burma
2016-03-18 15:59:09

With his all faults, Trump has failed more times than Hilary/Obama/Cruz/Kasich put together have tried.

 
Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 17:54:38

Gawker needs to worry about that $115 million they now owe to Hulk Hogan.

Comment by palmetto
2016-03-18 18:28:49

Heh, that was awesome. Bollea will probably never see a penny of it, though.

 
 
 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 14:49:40

Is it safe to get back in?

Fidelity Advisor Biotechnology T (FBTTX) almost a 50% drop off the peak.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 15:03:47

Will ‘Murican taxpayers bend over for a Wall Street bailout as willingly as they did in 2008?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-18/subprime-auto-delinquencies-soar-past-crisis-levels-now-highest-20-years

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2016-03-18 15:10:39

lol, prices up in maine ain’t so bloated if this is pricing in va:

https://blacksburg.craigslist.org/reb/5482519924.html

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 15:29:54

Brazilians taking to the streets en masse to demand their corrupt leaders resign. Odd how people tend to stop tolerating corruption once they can derive no personal benefit from it any longer as other people’s money runs out. Learn something, DNC.

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/18/oil-industry-on-edge-as-political-turmoil-rages-in-brazil/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 15:36:31

Marc Faber: I will vote for Trump, because Hillary will destroy the whole world.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-18/marc-faber-i-would-vote-trump-because-hillary-clinton-will-destroy-whole-world

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 16:08:39

Donald Trump interview from 25 years ago: “I’m tired of seeing the country ripped off.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOKi5YeNtRI

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2016-03-18 16:12:45

Citizen asserts 4th Amendment rights, shuts down illegal police search in seven seconds: “Honor your oath, scumbag.” Brilliant!

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/honor-your-oath-scumbag-watch-this-unlawful-search-by-police-get-defeated-in-just-7-seconds_032016

Comment by The Selfish Hoarder
2016-03-18 20:08:31

But your man is against the Fourth. Are you reporting or are you sad the man shut down the cops?

 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2016-03-18 17:38:32

ABC News/Washington Post Poll. March 3-6, 2016. N=1,000 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.5.

“There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Would you support or oppose an effort by the federal government to deport all these undocumented immigrants and send them back to their home countries?”

Support: 36%
Oppose: 61%
Unsure: 4%

http://www.pollingreport.com/immigration.htm

Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 18:02:37

I only support deporting 10,999,999 so I guess I’m an oppose.

 
Comment by phony scandals
2016-03-18 18:36:46

“There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.”

30 Million Illegal Immigrants in US, Says Mexico’s Former Ambassador

by Brandon Darby
18 Aug 2015

Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S. said that 30 million “undocumented immigrants” are living in the United States in the beginning of an interview before later stating a different number at the conclusion. The former diplomat, Arturo Sarukhan, took to MSNBC to attack presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s recently released plan to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants. The MSNBC clip began with presidential hopeful and Florida Senator Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) claiming that only 12 or 13 million illegal immigrants are in the country.

Many conservative and border watchdog groups have long contended that the actual number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is closer to 30 million while the U.S. government contends the number is closer to 11 million.

Comment by SnakePlisken
2016-03-18 19:34:43

The 11 million figure dates back at least 10 years which is ridiculous. It’s been shown to be a flat out lie many times.

 
 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 19:05:52

Irrelevant.

 
 
Comment by Muggy
2016-03-18 19:51:15

LOCKED IN

 
Comment by Jake
2016-03-18 20:05:21

crushing.housing.losses.

 
Comment by CalifoH20
2016-03-18 20:20:31
 
Comment by redmondjp
2016-03-18 22:35:06

Here is another prescient quote from Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh:

“My Democratic friends, you have the vain hope that special privilege, having obtained enormous benefits at your hands, is going to be grateful for the past favors that you have showered upon it and assist you in retaining control of the Government. They will furnish you campaign funds, as they do to both the dominant parties, but it makes little difference to them which of you have the power as long as it remains with either under present conditions. You are to learn, having done all you could for it, that you are no longer necessary to its business, except that now that you have passed the most important laws that it wanted, you are forced to follow it up, and are stopped from complaining through your portion of the press and on the stump or from entering any protest whatever when the time comes that your eyes will be open to the oppression the plain people are surely destined to suffer because of your falsely so-called ‘beneficial legislation.’ ”

The bold quote is the reason why the establishment, both right and left, are apoplectic about Trump. Now consider that this was written almost 100 years ago and marvel at the brilliance of the man.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 23:44:09

Do I understand correctly that Trump is threatening to encourage his followers to riot if he is denied the Republican nomination?

Comment by redmondjp
2016-03-19 22:55:19

PB, stop it now. This type of post is EXACTLY what Trump is doing.

Don’t be a hypocrite.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 23:45:09

Do I understand correctly that Chump is threatening to encourage his followers to riot if he is denied the coronation?

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-18 23:48:02

ft dot com > Comment >
Opinion
March 18, 2016 5:55 pm
The Republicans could be facing convention meltdown
Jacob Weisberg
If Trump fails to win a majority he will be at the mercy of party procedure, writes Jacob Weisberg

One of my earliest political memories is watching the Democrats’ 1972 national convention in Miami Beach on a black and white television set. It was a melee and the last contested convention the Democrats have had.

Senator George McGovern trailed behind Hubert Humphrey, the former vice-president, in terms of the popular vote won in the primaries — but he had secured more delegates. The drama occurred when the party’s conservative establishment, led by Richard Daley, Chicago mayor, tried to block McGovern, the more leftwing candidate.

Illinois had sent two competing sets of delegates: the Daley machine’s pro-Humphrey slate, elected in violation of new party rules to create a more diverse delegation; and an unelected rival slate led by Jesse Jackson, the African-American civil rights activist, and pledged to McGovern.

With California’s delegation to the convention, the fight was the other way around. Humphrey’s supporters argued that the results of the state’s winner-takes-all primary, which McGovern won, should be declared void because they violated party rules requiring proportional representation.

In the end, with the backing of the convention’s credentials committee, McGovern prevailed. Miami is remembered as the moment when boss rule gave way to popular rule; for the disastrous left-turn McGovern represented; and for Mr Jackson’s Afro and dashiki. It also stands as a timely reminder of how much a contested convention can damage a party. Daley stalked out, declined to help the nominee and watched him lose in a landslide to Richard Nixon.

The Republicans may well be heading for a similar meltdown in Cleveland, Ohio. With this week’s victories in Illinois, Florida and North Carolina , Donald Trump is almost certain to arrive at the July convention with a “plurality” of delegates — more than any other candidate but not an absolute majority. But there’s a meaningful chance he will not get from his current tally of 673 to the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination. And even if he reaches that number in the final primary in California, efforts to block him could play out in unprecedented and unforeseeable ways.

Mr Trump argues that winning a plurality of delegates will entitle him to the nomination. This week he predicted riots if he is denied the prize, which is his way of threatening riots. In fact, the precedents are against him. Historically, when no candidate secures an absolute majority on the first roll-call ballot, the convention is thrown open. The outcome is then likely to be determined, as for the Democrats in 1972, by convention rules about who is entitled to vote and with what restrictions.

 
Comment by Red Pill
2016-03-19 00:20:37

The greatest bigotry lives within the white progressive community.

They not only hate all white people, they hate themselves just as much or more.

 
 
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