In an era of wealth redistribution during which no criticism of the Administration is allowed and consistently collides with the guarding media panderers at the gate and in a time when the vast government bureaucracies have become engines of political annihilation, we suffer from a dearth of inspiration. The ideologically rooted and self-serving social engineering experiment being foisted on the Nation through the IRS backdoor is a manipulation presided over by narrow minded exploiters incapable of grasping the negative unforeseen consequences of their policies in either the near term, or the long term.
The explosion of safety-net measures and increased taxation, accelerating spending without enlightened measures to stimulate job creation and economic activity will do worse than just continue the stalling of growth. It will stagnate the economy well into another generation as that generation comes of age enough to comprehend the debt it has inherited. Our children and grandchildren will have difficulty understanding why such measures as “loan forgiveness” and “bail-outs” made sense, whether for mismanaged banks, or for mortgage and loan debtors. They also will not understand why such disastrous policies as Obamacare were instituted.
Most disconcerting is the fact that not only is there no inspiring, or positively energizing spark coming from the Obama/Jarrett Administration, but it is determined to use fatalistic, pessimistic and detrimental condemnation of American “determination to succeed” in order to rationalize its own incompetence, failures and extreme ideological agendas.
Let’s not exaggerate the effluent spilling from the White House, let’s just quote it, “Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.” and the mind-numbing, “. . . the health care law will allow people to choose to work less.”
The purposeful deterioration of work motivation will impact the economy far into the future. You know all the feelings you felt, like wanting to work, wanting to strive to better your life, seeking a career to feel accomplished, wanting to be independent, setting goals and striving to fulfill them, feeling good about yourself for succeeding and then charging forward to new objectives for yourself, or . . . nevermind, forget it. Change that attitude. Don’t look for self-fulfillment. The government will make sure you can sit on your ass collecting from the growing Redistribution Pot, and it will tax those scumbags who are actually productive so that you can have a carefree life, . . . OK, well, you don’t have to stay home, you can go surfing in the afternoon, but other than that, we’ll feed you, we’ll house you, we’ll even nurse you. You don’t really want to work, do you? Keep voting for us, keep us in power, and you’ll get your share because we’ll get it for you. You deserve it — after all, weren’t you born? It’s your right and they have too much anyway. Believe us, this won’t hurt you — you’re poor anyway, we’re just trying to get you a little more, maybe a lot more, if you keep us power.
Since the only influence coming out of this White House is divisive and hateful, we have to extend our reach around the globe for a little inspiration of the positive kind, and go to India and to Narendra Modi, a prime ministerial candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party. He recently exhorted students of SRM University to set up their own enterprises , “My advice to you is create a similar enterprise here. Create Microsoft here. Create an Apple. Create Google here in India. And then own it and manage it.”
What? Inspiring students and meaning it? Inspiring individuals to become self-sufficient by becoming entrepreneurs? People creating jobs for themselves and others? Stirring students to create wealth for their country? Creating wealth? Huh? Inspiring self-fulfillment? What blasphemy! Increase workforce productivity? Not on our watch.
That’s not the liberal progressive America you’re coming to know. We’ll make sure entrepreneur wannabes get enough roadblocks hindering their rise to riches. How dare they not depend on bigger government? There are trillions of dollars available for the taking — it’s worked out so well this far, and we’ll make sure the spiggots keep the cash flowing. This is the New America.
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.
America is on the Cusp…these 5 years are a wake up call…Americans need to seriously CLEAN HOUSE!!
….collecting from the growing Redistribution Pot….
…There are trillions of dollars available for the taking — it’s worked out so well this far, and we’ll make sure the spiggots keep the cash flowing. This is the New America….
Umm…where do the liberals, our politicians, our GOVERNMENT… and of course, the free loaders think all this money is coming from? And do they EVEN think it will ever end…
AND…speaking of wealth distribution and Barry specifically saying… “There comes a time when you’ve EARNED ENOUGH” . So, when is Barry, his cronies, our Politicians and ALL THE ELITIST (hollywood included) going to follow suit with Obama and ALL SAY… eh, we’ve earned enough…we’ll stop here and redistribute OUR WEALTH???
The answer is they are not, and they will not ‘share’ ‘their wealth’ they are full of shi! that is why they are elitists…
These people are playing with fire and the monster they have created will certainly turn on them…
Michelle Obama said. “Almost everyone is eligible for some form of financial aid, and all you have to do to access that aid is fill out this one little form. It’s so simple. And you can become whatever you dream of becoming, which is the kind of freedom that I want all of you to have. I want you all out there to tell your classmates, tell your friends, tell your Valentine sweetheart if you have one, tell somebody about this form and what they can do and all the resources that are available to them.”
Now, what’s wrong with this?
A whole lot!
Rather than the usual graduation speech encouraging students to be all they can be, Obama is telling them to suck off the teat of government as hard as they can.
@FAITH7: #1,
No kidding, . . . they can’t — They’re too busy giving themselves raises, making sure the lobbyists continue to have free reign, refusing to reduce the National budget, sidestepping the politically inconvenient by ignoring the $17.3 Trillion debt, disregarding the dropping per capita productivity now almost down to matching China’s, glazing over the financial repression that The Fed seems unable to correct, ect. . . . . . Self-serving leadership in full flowering.
@Nanny G: #2,
She evidently took a page from the Sharpton/Jackson handbook on making yourself appear relevent to your audience while Using it to fill your boots — and in no time, “you too can fly to Spain or Hawaii on the taxpayer’s back, with 100 or 200 of your closest friends. You will deserve it.”
These idiots don’t understand that from decreased productivity come a smaller dinner to share at the table, and a greater concentration of wealth at the top for those who control the financial game. The poor and currently disadvantaged therefore have less chance of advancing.
James, I respect your input, largely because of your unique (to me at least) career and associations. I would appreciate your opinion on how the big capital men are viewing this ever widening gulf between the wealthy, including the Elites who are Obama’s Corporate cronies, and the ever growing dependent class. Obviously, there will be hundreds of millions to be made by manipulating the system as the money supply and GDP begin to dissipate, but at a certain point, doesn’t the dollar and the country begin to collapse?
Aren’t these Daddy Warbucks types getting concerned or are they ready to trade off their dollars before the big surprise. Surely, most people realize, music and cinema isn’t real production or wealth, and eventually, the dollar is degraded to the point of no recovery and no hope.
Skook, leave it to you to come up with intelligent and tough questions. What a doozie.
It’s fun exercise and I’ll try not to ramble, . . . I’ve always attempted to separate those who control the game (the house) from the rest of us who are simply playing in it without all our cards and unaware that the rules of the house change without our knowledge or input — so your question is well put.
Keep in mind what I call the “Big Money” doesn’t have a home. Modern technology has made this Big Money’s mobility so much easier, and therefore made its impact more pervasive around the globe. It is out of the control or oversight from any government, including Obie’s drones. One of its biggest tools is The Fed. What a thing of beauty. All of these self-righteous financial leaders think they know much better than the rest of us what is good for the globe.
Therein lies the problem, . . . their stage is the whole “globe” not the EU or the U.S. or China but the whole world. They’ve done a good job of protecting some of their interests by controlling the nature of the “bailouts” five years ago and since. They’ve protected themselves and their friends. Keep in mind they make money through “Movement” — Movement of currencies, resources, raw materials, goods, stocks, around the world. If one goes up, another goes down — they don’t care which. It also helps that when they make their moves, in the markets for example, the congruity of their moves and the pooled strategy results in huge impact.
I can attest from first hand experience that these individuals are NOT STUPID and to parrot a conversation I was made privy to, . . . when Stephen Bechtel, head of the massive Bechtel engineering conglomerate, hired George Shultz (became Reagan’s Secretary of State) as President of the firm, Shultz asked if Bechtel had any hard rules or advice, to which Stephen Bechtel replied, “No. Just don’t fuck with the cash.” Bechtel was a private and heavily cash-rich company.
Same as the guys controlling big money, they, “Just don’t fuck with the cash.” Most of the money they control is not theirs. The Trillions belong to vast offshore funds, trusts, banks, dictators, thieves, etc. Just like the unprincipled heads of the largest Bank Street firms who finance Obie’s Administration. Still, they are only human, and are as susceptible and insecure as anyone on the average street in any neighborhood of America.
For the rest of us, whether we put dogs in the hunt, or just observe, we are still affected by the game and we try to estimate, psychically, through tea leaves, or through the fog of analysis, where the next moves will be and how they will affect us directly.
There’s no doubt that there are in the U.S. and elsewhere, some serious “bubbles” bigger than any the world has experienced, which will impact us in the future, but that knowledge and five nickels doesn’t buy you a phone call.
The question is “WHEN” will we hear the first pop. It’s tough when we don’t know which rules of the game are being changed and what’s going on under the board, and what new magnets are manipulating our pieces with unseen forces.
Your own anecdotal evidence is as useful and “telling” as anything you might read in the WSJ, and definitely more useful than lies from the NYT — and reading between the lines requires practice, and it helps. Often, what a Wall Street firm “says” publically, is an outright feint, and while they pretend to go left, they go right. I remember Goldman Sachs hitting the headlines one morning some years ago with, “oil is going to $200” while it was crossing $100 per barrel — I knew instantly that oil was going to crash. It did. Their intent was obvious. That occurs each and every day.
My own tea leaves suggest that the U.S. is stuck for now and will see no real growth for years, no growth in incomes for the vast majority, people will work more jobs for less pay, taxes are guaranteed to rise significantly at all levels, bailouts will continue, also at all levels. The divide between the lowest rungs of the financial ladder and the majority, will spread, because America’s infrastructure, and its education system are not being upgraded to meet demands of the present, let alone the future.
China is now having to learn to “Sell” so it’s busy learning English in order to “sell” to America and the EU, but also because it now treats with many other countries, from the Philippines, to Thailand, to Malaysia, to Indonesia, like never before and the common language is English. Until now, all roads led to China, they didn’t have to actively “Sell,” they just “made it cheaper.”
The EU — its challenges are well familiar, but getting worse.
The fact that so many developed countries are in trouble is one of the reasons the U.S. hasn’t endured an extreme hit on the Dollar, so the slide has been gradual. Still, there’s a financial crisis looming and we’re waiting with bated breath for that pop.
Oh, and those “big capital men” and the widening gulf? . . . They don’t care — at least most don’t. They have moved very far from the “Madding Crowd” and don’t see the poverty around them — the penthouses are too high, and they don’t have time, as they fly off to Monaco, or Paris for a change of air on the weekend. And they STRADDLE borders, particularly the Atlantic Ocean, although the U.S. is their principal and preferred depository for cash. They minimize exposure and will gain from any pops in any bubbles — always do.
We should also point out to the liberal progressives who hate the top 1% so much, that the top 1% churns by 50% rather constantly. So, who are these people really hating?
@James Raider: An interesting and pragmatic view, thank you. Being able to turn a profit from any market movement is a peculiar concept for most people, those who languish in the latitudes of traditional values; curiously, I’ve listened to a few big money types explain the process and the anticipation of market fluctuation. Unfortunately, I am now realizing, these guys have no national loyalty. We seem to be the most affluent serfs in the history of the world; at least for the time being.
Obama is the tell or dead give-away; he has no loyalty or love for this country and neither do his cronies on Wall Street or in Palo Alto. They direct and control the money flows and indirectly steal the individual wealth $10 or $20 at a time from tens of millions. No one feels the loss, but the aggregate effect is beginning to be felt. I see this on the micro level, and it is fascinating, but like juggling running chainsaws, things will eventually go dreadfully wrong. Like many people of history, we have no respite. We must endure and hope the financial rape doesn’t bankrupt us collectively or individually, while we are systematically robbed of our financial security.
A stagnant economy is easier to control and manipulate. A dynamic economy offers too many opportunities to the neophyte, it’s much easier to rob the chumps while they are lost and bewildered after realizing a life’s work is being pissed away and enabled by our saps in DC.
Cheers
James, like most arguments presented by the extreme right today, your case that the health care law will allow people to choose to work less is a “purposeful deterioration of work motivation” quickly collapses under scrutiny.
I know several people in the work force in their mid to late sixties that want to retire but they simply can’t lose their insurance. Their motivation to work less or not at all is indeed well earned. They’ve paid their dues. I find it rather audacious that right wing extremist want to classify them as lazy or such.
And then of course we have those dead beat moochers who actually have the audacity to try to emulate the “haves” and quit their jobs, take a chance, make an investment, and start their own business. I mean, how anti-American, right? It just seems to me that the pre-ACA “job lock” situation created more harm than good pertaining to that “purposeful deterioration of work motivation”.
And by what stretch is cutting hours or leaving a job in order to advance one’s education a lack of motivation? That sounds more like a long term financial plan.
And then of course, we have parents who would rather leave their jobs to raise their children. So unless you’re calling Ann Romney an unmotivated deadbeat lazy slacker or something, again, your argument fails.
I realize that the extreme right is doing their very best to pick up the pieces from that abject dishonest attempt to exploit the CBO’s report that blew up in your faces last week and to spin it into some sort of a slam to ACA. But sometimes, I think you’d be better served to simply hang your head and let your embarrassment fade away as it will soon be forgotten. But if you insist on tweaking that turd, at least do so with an iota of argumentative constructiveness.
Just my opinion.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Let’s see: mid to late sixties (65-69) are quitting their jobs because they simply can’t lose their insurance? Really? That is ROTFLMAO mind numbingly stupid, RJW. At “mid to late sixties” they are not only eligible for Social Security retirement monthly benefits but Medicare, as well.
Do you ever stop to think about what you are actually saying?
So why don’t you tell us how many of the millions of Americans who have left the work force (driving Obama’s unemployment numbers down) have done so to start a business, make an investment, continue their education or stay home with their children? Surely, you have the numbers and data to back up that claim that this is what is going to happen due to the stats on those that have already left the work force, right?
@retire05: You are correct and Ron is wrong.
The Dept. of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) has the facts:
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm
Short answer:
18% of the labor force is over 64.
17% are working.
They have an unemployment rate of only 5.9%.
BUT….
81% of the labor force is between 25 and 54.
ONLY 75% of them are working!
In fact, the 25 to 29 year olds are unemployed at a rate of 8.9%. YIKES!
@Nanny G:
I can’t say if 05 is right or wrong as I chose not to read his writing.
However, what precisely am I wrong about. I simply said “I know several people in the work force in their mid to late sixties that want to retire but they simply can’t lose their insurance”. And I do in fact do.
So aside from that, what is “wrong” with people leaving their employer to take a full time job staying home to raise their children or choosing a different profession that better suits their aptitude or to further their education in order to enhance their long term career goals or to pursue that American dream of starting their own business? Where exactly is my error?
James Raider
HI, THANK YOU FOR THAT POST AND FROM THE HORSE MOUTH TOO,
YOU COME AND WE BELIEVE WHAT YOU SAY, BECAUSE NOT LIKE RONALD YOU HAVE EARNED
OUR TRUST HERE,
WITH ACTIONS AND EXPERIENCE IN THE , IN THAT MARKET,
you mentionned the world market and the leaders are mesmerize by it, HE DIDN’T FIND THE WISDOM TO STAY AWAY FROM IT, BECAUSE HE WAS IGNORANT, AND FAILED,
HE SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE ATTENTION TO AMERICA,
AND DO THE the job which OBAMA WAS ELECTED FOR,
that is for this AMERICA TO SERVE,
INSTEAD HE FROLIC WITH LOTS OF MONEY TO GIVE FOREIGNER TO BUY THEIR LOVE,
AND FORGET THAT BY DOING SO HE LOST AMERICA,
THAT IS A BIG PROBLEM FOR A LEADER TO GO OUT TO A COUNTRY WHO HAVE COME TO BLOW UP AMERICA AND TELL THEM : i will stand with you if the wind turn on you,
that was enough even he continue to tell the then leader to resign now, SO TO INSTALL HIS FIEND IN THE GREAT EGYPT,
another big mistake which because of him the evil haters rosed to the invitation and they cannot stop they demand more because it doesn’t work. this leader forgot the AMERICANS, HE SOLD TO THE GLOBAL UN WHO WORKED SO HARD TO HAVE A PIECE OF AMERICA, HE SOLD THE AMERICAN WARRIOR.S LIVES, HE SOLD THEIR NOW MISSING LIMBS, HE SOLD THE ECONOMY OF AMERICA WHICH GAVE HIM ALL THE FREEDOM TO DO WHAT HE WANT AND WHAT HE IS BRAGGING OF NOW HE DID ALL HE WANT TO SUBMIT AMERICANS AND THEY WON’T BOW TO HIM, EVER,
LIKE HE BOW TO ARAB’S KINGS BECAUSE THEY SEND HIM MONEY TO WIN HIS TWO ELECTIONS,
HE OWE THEM AND CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY NOW TAKING ALL THE PEOPLE HOSTAGE OF HIS ACTIONS FROM DAY ONE, AND JUST TO SAY THAT HE WAS ELECTED WITHOUT A BIRTH CERTIFICAT,
IS AND WILL BE THE NEVER FORGOTTEN MISTAKE AND HUGE ONE OF AMERICA THE ONE HE CUT OUT FROM THE OTHER CONSERVATIVES TOO SMART TO BE BLIND BUT TOO TOLERANT AND LAW ABIDING TO TAKE HIM OUT OF THE SEAT HE NEVER EARN OR DESERVE,
NO THE DEBT WILL TAKE CENTURY TO PAY, HE SHOULD BE MADE TOTALY RESPONSIBLE OF IT AND BE DESISTED OF ANY WEALTH HE ACQUIRE , WHILE IN THAT SEAT, AND FOR AS LONG AS HE LIVE,
HE HAS NEVER ASK THE PEOPLE TO SAY YES TO HIS OUTRAGEOUS EXPANSES AS HE SHOULD HAVE ASK,
NOW HIS PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE HIS CONSTANT POVERTY HE HAS GIVEN ONTO THE PEOPLE’S LIVES
FOR MANY YEARS, SO HE WILL HAVE THE SAME TASTE OF WHAT HE IMPOSE, OF WHAT HE TOOK,
THE WHEEL HAS TURNED ON HIM,
@Nanny G:
The bottom line truth is that Americans are going to lose productivity due to Obamacare. They will either lose their hours, going from full time (40 hours) and a possibility of overtime, and be reduced to a part time status, or they will lose their jobs entirely. For the Democrats to spin this as being a good thing, making American workers “free agents”, as Harry Reid put it, is a prime example of how stupid the Democrats think Americans are.
People like RJW buy the propaganda, hook, line and sinker. But they cannot disprove Economics 101. Less production of goods and services means higher prices which lowers the amount of disposable income that Americans have to purchase those goods and services. Product costs have never been lowered due to less product being available. Product costs are lowered when competition is in force and the market has a glut of that product for consumers to choose from.
As more people rely on the government to support them, and fewer people are providing the tax base for that support, those with income will find ways to protect their wealth, be it off shore accounts, moving to nations with lower tax liabilities, etc. The only answer then is to continue to increase taxation on the productive (which will, yes, include the middle income bracket) to provide for the increase in those who rely on government largess for their very subsistence.
This is Cloward and Piven on steroids. It is a design to break the government financially in order to instill a Marxist form of government. But it is a program for disaster. Humans are designed to obtain possessions, and if they can’t get those possessions by their labor, they will find other ways, criminal ways, to obtain those possessions. The social ramifications from Obama’s Cloward/Piven/Alinsky policies will be catastrophic if not stopped, and stopped soon.
You can point out that the Socialist/Marxist/Communist/Progressive forms of government have never been successful, and the only result that those governments achieved was massive deaths of the populace. Those like RJW believe that if only the right person was in charge of the Socialist/Marxist/Communist/Progressive form of government, it would work swimmingly. These are people who ignore the fact that the Stalinist regime slaughtered more people than the Nazi government. These are the same people that believe that Cuba is a Socialist utopia, not bothering to look behind the façade provided by the Castro brothers. They are the same ones that hail Che’ Guevera as a “freedom fighter” as hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled his heavy hand. These are the same people that Antonio Gramsci counted on to create that Marxist utopia that will never be.
We are headed toward being just another third world nation. And I have come to the conclusion that is what Obama wants.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Anyone who believes that also believes in unicorns.
Anyone between their mid to late sixties is eligible for Medicare, a health insurance program. That comment shows you simply do not know what you are talking about and make stuff up because you think it sounds intelligent when it shows the opposite.
If someone quits their job to spend time with their children, how do they then support those children? Oh, I know, live off the productive citizen, right? In other words, become a social leech.
@Ronald J. Ward: Your error is in trying to extrapolate anything larger from your anecdotal knowledge.
People only 64 years of age qualify for Medicaid/Medicare.
It is somewhat better than most employee-based health coverage.
(IF you add in the Advantage that Obama desires to eliminate.)
Just how rare is it that a non-business owner works so many hours at ages over 60?
Find out.
It is pretty rare.
Most of all extra hours put in by workers involves checking work email from home…..not overly onerous.
@Nanny G: Where your argument fails is that Medicare is a program for individuals; you can’t add a dependent to a Medicare plan. Another area is that it isn’t always better than employer insurance.
But you are again clinging to that one part of the argument while distancing yourself from the others, which isn’t uncommon here.
I would say my “error” or where I was “wrong” is that it conflicts with the extreme right’s corporate friendly agenda that seems or prefers to imply that those “47%’ are takers, or occupiers, or dead beats and that those working for those billionaires just aren’t quite pulling their weight, don’t want to work or aren’t productive-not worthy of an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. That does indeed seem to be consistent with James Raider’s tone as well as that of the billionaire funded and corporate interest driven so-called Tea Party.
What’s missing in this Plutocratic and Social Darwinism push of the right wing extremist is that very argument of an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work. You simply want to assume or pretend that the honesty day’s work doesn’t exist, which is inconsistent with reality, statistics, and corporate profits.
And really, like most of those dishonest arguments of those corporate kowtowers, it just simply doesn’t add up and it will ultimately bite them in the ass. And that snake oil is going to be an indeed hard sell as people are smelling the crock the right wing extremist of the so-called Tea Party is selling. A large part of that argument can be validated in last Nov’s election.
@Ronald J. Ward:
Ron, while I agree with you that incomes at the top have gone up while those in the middle and at the bottom have stagnated or declined in real terms, I disagree with your premise about the relationship between the two income moves.
Our tax code is not generous to the top earners.
In fact our 40% business tax rate is almost twice that of Sweden’s and Switzerland’s!
Our tax and entitlement systems are about as redistributive as typical European welfare states.
What is unusual about the United States is not that the rich are taxed so lightly but that the middle class is taxed so lightly, relative to European practice.
Some time ago (you can search my name and key words to find it plus the link) I pointed out why Obama’s redistributive ideas of wage equalizing could not bring about lifestyle equality because…..
the top quintile of earners are in households where an average of two people work FULL-time!
BUT….the bottom quintile of EARNERS (working people) average only one – 1/2 time worker per household!
Thus, even if all wages were equal (the surgeon making the same as the crossing guard) the top quintile of earning households would still have FOUR TIMES the income as the bottom quintile!
@Ronald J. Ward:
But there are other options, according to your link:
But when you switch to Medicare coverage, your daughter will be eligible to remain covered through your employer’s plan for three years under the federal law known as Cobra, according to a federal Department of Labor spokeswoman. You’ll be responsible for paying the entire premium, however, plus a 2 percent administrative fee.
Starting in 2014, the new health insurance exchanges will open, and your daughter would be able to purchase coverage there if she doesn’t have insurance through a job. If her income is low, she may be eligible for coverage under Medicaid, which will be expanded to cover adults with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.
Someone who is retiring at age 66, will receive Social Security monthly payments, as well as be eligible for Medicare. If they have a 16 year old daughter, and can’t afford the COBRA payments, that daughter will be eligible for subsidized Obamacare, as long as she earns less than 133% of the poverty level which works out to, for a single person, $15,521.10/yr or $1,293.43 per month after taxes.
But wait, haven’t the Democrats been telling us how great Medicare is? Are you saying that it is often substandard to company sponsored health insurance? How can that be? Are the corporations that provide that insurance you claim is often better nothing but evil organizations? Yet they provide better insurance than the government does? My, my, fancy that.
Define “honest day’s work” and then tell us what you have determined a “honest day’s pay” to be. Give us a dollar amount.
@Nanny G:
RJW is a Socialist. You will never convince him of the folly of his beliefs with facts. Facts are not pertinent to Socialists, only feelings are.
Ronald J. Ward
don”t try to show the TEA-PARTY FOR WHAT CORRUPT INTENT YOU HAVE YOURSELF AND YOUR PARTY,
THEY ARE THE FAMILY OF THE USA, THEY HAVE THE GUTTS TO EXPOSE THE CORRUPTIONS THEY SEE BECAUSE THEY ARE INFORMED MORE THAN YOU ON THE LAWS OF THE LAND WHO CANNOT BE STEPPED ON BY AMERICANS, BUT ARE STEPPED ON BY TRAITORS ALREADY HERE AT WORK ON TRYING TO DESTROY THIS AMERICA, they are the best this NATION has produce, AND TODAY THEY ARE
MOST NEEDED AND BY THE SLIME AND DIRT THROWN AT THEM IT PROVE IT, HOW THEY ARE FEARED,
HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE, WE CANNOT DO WITHOUT THOSE BRAVES COMMING OUT TO EXPOSE THE DIRTY TRICKS WHICH IS KEPT HIDDEN IN THE GOVERNMENT CLOSETS,
THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU AND YOUR FOUL MOUTH AND DIRTY FINGERS,
AND THEY ARE LOVED BY THE PEOPLE AND ARE HERE TO STAY,AND BE ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE,
FOR THE PEOPLE, SO TO GIVE TO THE PEOPLE THE RIGHT SOLUTION TO SUCCESS,
AS IT WAS INTENDED BY THE CENTURY OLD LAWS GIVEN TO THEM BY GOOD SMART MEN LOVING AMERICA WITH HEART AND SOUL WHO ASK GOD THE CREATOR TO GIVE THEM THE WISDOM,
AND WROTE THOSE LAWS FOR ALL THE PEOPLE THEN AND IN THE NOW TIMES, AND THE FUTURE OF THIS NATION WHICH IS ATTACKED NOW, AND NEED THE LAWS OF THE LAND MORE THAN EVER TO CONFRONT THE ONES WHO ARE HERE TO HURT AMERICA, THAT’S WHAT THE TEA-PARTY DOES FREE,
AND WE OWE THEM SO MUCH, BY NOW,
@Skookum: Skooks and Ditto— My barometer for the last 40 years or so has been the young adults 18-25 in the gym and the guy at my local gas station. When they are universally touting stocks–time to SELL
When they can’t stop touting the money to be made in R.E.—-SELL.
Works well—Particularly in hindsight. Therein the rub. Hard not to get caught up in the hype.
“Buy your straw hats in the winter time.” Bernard Baruch
Strong armed monkey is probably your best bet in the stock market.lol
@Skookum: #7
What’s funny is that some guys who control $10 billion or $50 billion funds or trusts think they “know” and believe they have influence in the big game, while they’re really small fish in the big game. When you control or influence a serious horde of cash, like $1 trillion, then you know you really influence the moves in the game.
LOL, . . . well said. And we elect people who don’t even understand there IS a Game being played — they just get into office and whatever their intentions, seem unable to stop themselves from “getting theirs.”
. . . And this is where a rather compliant, uninquisitive media, including CNBC, tell too many inane stories and nonsense to the “chumps” who follow. If there’s a rare individual who rails against the flow, he/she succumb to the medieval inquisitors who awake from their graves to slaughter and bury them.
@retire05: #9
I think you’ve succinctly nailed the problem.
The ideologically paralyzed simply repeat talking points. Most are incapable of contributing to the dialogue, and can’t even produce and deliver polemics, but are good at pasting-in simplistic insults. Insecurity is a bitch.
@Nanny G: #10,
The actual numbers are running at almost twice that. These are realities which we have not experienced for 80 years. We have no choice but to do whatever is necessary to energize and inspire this segment of the population to become entrepreneurs. If this is not turned around, the current visions of Detroit’s plight, which are still spreading, will be repeated from coast to coast, and will no longer even be news.
@ilovebeeswarzone: #12,
Thanks MsBees. Unfortunately, stupidity, incompetence, and inexperience, are not crimes, even if destructive, and corruption is so rampant that no one dares chase it down for fear of personal repercussions from shrapnel. Congress is incapable of chasing either the W.H. or itself, and America currently has NO Attorney General — hasn’t had one for 5 years.
@retire05: #13,
Pathetically, slightly over half of the Nation’s voters demanded this with their votes. A major revolution occurred and not one shot was fired. As you say, “Just another third world nation” on a bus coming to a neighborhood near you, and in fact, . . . it’s just around the corner — just smell the fumes.
@James Raider: I can’t judge portfolios, and no one volunteered such information, but a few hours ago, I thought a billion was a tremendous amount of money for an individual.
In my position, it is best to ask generic questions among my customers and be content with the tidbits thrown in my direction. Of course, some of the heaviest hitters will carry on like they are a struggling struggler like me; only later do I learn they swing a big chain in the business world. I like those guys the best, they have perfected a persona and talking with people like me is their escape, I suppose. The quiet pretentious ones are the insufferable bores. I think they worry that I might kidnap them, but that would be detrimental to my reputation and business. LOL I am sure you know some of these guys. There names appear in Forbes and other financial mags. Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not like I could ever have enough capital to play at their games. Once, as a young man and listening wistfully to a much lower echelon oil man, I asked if there was a place for a $10,000 investment on a prospect well. He laughed and told me a mere million isn’t really worth their time. He told me their investors need deep pockets. I never asked such a stupid question again. LOL
@James Raider:
This was always the plan; of the Socialists/Marxists/Communists. Most of them, based in the U.S., understood that violent revolution was not the answer. The destruction of capitalism was. And the one trait that they share with jihadists is patience. They are very, very patient. As long as their goals are being achieved, no matter how gradually, they see “progress.” None of this is new. It got a hefty boost with the migration of the Frankfurt Marxists in the 1930’s as they fled Nazi Germany and were granted professorships at our flagship universities like Columbia, UC Berkeley and Michigan State.
Detroit will be just one example of how the “egalitarian” mindset destroys cities and therefore, nations. Take as an example a firefighter is all major metropolitan cities. One can become a firefighter at age 21. After 30 years of service, they will retire with a monthly retirement check that equals as much as 90% of their post-retirement pay. Considering that a firefighter can retire will full service at age 51, due to the advances in medical technology, is it not unreasonable to think that firefighter will draw his retirement benefits for as long as he actually worked as a firefighter. This system is unsustainable for any city.
The same is applicable to police officers and other municipal workers. And the taxpayers are expected to pick up the tab while their buying power is decreased on a daily basis.
Both Cloward and Piven, and Alinsky, sets up the destruction of the middle class that the Democrats claim to champion. That creates a “them vs. us” condition where those with leadership skills (as Alinsky had) can guide the velvet revolution of the masses who are revolting against the producers. The result, just as it was in both France, and Russia, is anarchy.
What I find confusing is how the left, who subscribes to Gramsci’s method of achieving Marxism, and who supports the destruction of all social mores and morals, have locked arms with radical Islam. These two factions are polar opposites and in the war of wills, there will eventually be only one winner.
Skookum
hi, nice to have you here,
no you did not ask a stupid question, you just had a stupid answer,
I was reading from FOX NEWS THAT HILARY HAD TAKEN a 10 THOUSAND amount
and soon after she came back with a hundred thousand dollar with it,
i think she had the tips handed to her when she was in the WHITE HOUSE WITH BILL,
and she want to do the same again by running for PRESIDENT,
BUT THEY DON’T TELL US THEIR SOURCE, HOW DARE THEY KEEP IT FOR THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE PAY THEIR EARNING ON TOP OF IT,
SHE SHOULD HAVE SHARE THAT 100 THOUSANDS WITH THE PEOPLE, TO BE FAIR,
BYE
retire05
yes all of it,and to the last line they did it too,
is this similar as what HITLER DID WITH THE MULTI ISLAMIST TOP GUY,
WHO WHERE HIS ADVISER, THEN,
@retire05: #28
Not so surprising, . . . at its core, it’s the same mindset. In majority, they’re even similarly antithetical to Israel’s existence, independence, and self-determination. Even the communist Chinese are “influenced” to despise Israel — but don’t ask them why, they have no clue, all you might hear if you directly ask them is “they built settlements that invade Palestinian lands.” . . . As if that explains what is actually occuring on the ground there.
Israel turned a desert into fruitful and nourishing arrable land — the rest of the countries around it? Not so much. Jealousy and resentment really suck. It’s a small country and all those missles sent its way each day are just literally blocks away from population centers.
@James Raider:
Not really, James. The similarities are peripheral. The core for the left, abortion, feminism, egalitarianism, same sex marriage and the removal of all vestiges of religion from the town square is in direct opposition to the core of Islamism. They have but one goal in common; the destruction of America as we know it and they have a common enemy, conservatism. The clash will come when the left wants to delve further into Socialism and the Islamists want to install Sha’ria law which is in direct conflict with Socialism.
I am constantly amazed at the dedicated conservatives I know who are not familiar with Gramsci since Gramsci has had the greatest influence on the left they are battling.
retire05
If it suit both end target they will help each other,
look at HITLER TEAMING UP WITH THE MULTI ISLAMIST,
and what happen i think is when they have suuceeded their advance,
one will kill the other TO REACH HIS GOAL WHICH IS NOW HIS PERSONAL RELIGIOUS GOAL,
IF HE THINK THE TIME HAS COME FOR HIM TO BE STRONG ENOUGH, AND DO NOT NEED THE SUPPORT OF THE OTHER,
THEY WALK TOGETHER UNTIL THE ROAD SPLIT IN TWO SIDES,
EACH HAS TO TAKE HIS SIDE, but know too much of the other to let him live,
BYE
@retire05: #32
Perhaps, it’s just a matter of clarifying terms, . . . I think. I wrote “Mindset” — that’s where IMHO there are similarities, whereas on the “periphery” is where there are the differences in tenets they have digested related to such things as religion, marriage, egalitarianism, etc.
You start with insecurity, reaffirm it, solidify it, and then you mold whatever crap you need that weak mind to accept, swallow and regurgitate. And as always, someone or some group is manipulating the process of building the army of acolytes.
@James Raider:
I would laugh at the Islamists playing the leftists for the fools they are if it were not so serious. I guess the photo of Obama, and Biden, greeting the Muslim Brotherhood’s main UK lobbyist at the White House says it all. While Egypt realizes that the MB are dangerous and not to be trusted, our President is rolling out the red carpet for them.
RJW you, like so many other warped utopia liberal types are seriously lost….
I pray everyday that God saves America from people of your ilk…
….and the ilk of Barry and all his Marxist cronies ALL of them …
….and every traitor…every ‘group’ ….every liberal ..every RINO…out there trying to destroy this Great Country…
Of which many of our Ancestors….. and Parents FOUGHT FOR many with their BLOOD…
Wake up America!! GOVERNMENT IS THE (cause) of our PROBLEMS!!
@FAITH7: #36,
The imposed decay burdening the Nation has a fresh new face as this Administration marches ahead, shreading the Constitution, while it aims the guns of the IRS at employers — announcing ObamaCare exemptions.
These losers have decided that firms must Certify to the IRS, under penalty of perjury, that ObamaCare was NOT a factor in any firings.
You’re a small company and have to cut back because we’re imposing extortion to squeeze you and your bank account? Oh no you don’t. Obama says you can’t.
So, . . . how’s that for business-friendlyness? How’s that for stimulating job-creation. The Obama Gestapo, the IRS, has been handed a new LEGAL guilotine. The army of stooge sycophants must be dancing in the street.
James Raider
I was thinking ,why not close the IRS,
and open two irs offices, one for the DEMOCRATS
and one for the CONSERVATIVES and other attach to it,
IT WOULD NARROW THE EMPLOYEES AND FIT ALL BOTH SIDES THAT HAS BEEN SEPARATED
BY THIS GOVERNMENT, AND HARRASS THE CONSERVATIVES STILL TODAY,
WICH WOULD NOT HAPPEN BY A CONSERVATIVE IRS OFFICE ,
IT’S NOT THEIR FAULT IF THEY HAVE BEEN TARGETTED, IT MEAN LIKE ONE EMPLOYEE SAID THEY WHERE CONFUSE THAT IS A FALSE EXCUSE, IF THEY CONFUSE LET THEM OUT OF GOVERNMENT JOBS,
THE PEOPLE ARE NOT PAYING THEM TO GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO ATTACK, THE WAY THEY DID,
WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?
THEY ARE SERVANT OF ALL THE PEOPLE, PAID BY THE PEOPLE,
AND THAT CERTIFICATION IS ONE BIG FOOT ON THE DOOR OF BUSYNESS,
IT’S NOT CONSTITUONAL,
THE SOCIALIST MARXIST TAKE OVER, YOU CANNOT MISS THAT ONE,
NO NOT IN AMERICA? DAMN YES IN AMERICA,
IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, YES IT DID,