We need to win the presidency this fall or face the prospect of very serious proconsuls Ryan and Cantor. It’s that simple.
Do what you can.
by DougJ| 39 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2012, Readership Capture
We need to win the presidency this fall or face the prospect of very serious proconsuls Ryan and Cantor. It’s that simple.
Do what you can.
by DougJ| 33 Comments
This post is in: Bleg, C.R.E.A.M., Readership Capture
Let’s get Tunch a night in the Lincoln bedroom.
Update. This is for the Kenyan usurper.
It’s gonna work because I’m pushing it rightPost + Comments (33)
by Zandar| 47 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Crazification Factor, Free Markets Solve Everything, Post-racial America, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Assholes, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Flash Mob of Hate, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue, Nobody could have predicted, Stuff About Black People Written By a Black Person, We Are All Mayans Now
Obama Derangement Syndrome is actually good for the economy it turns out as employment in the firearms industry has gone up up up because insane people think Scary President Black Man is coming for their guns nubile daughters. Of course, there’s fierce debate about whether or not all the additional societal damage from all those extra guns outweighs the jobs (and I stand firmly on the hell no side), but it’s literally the only thing I’ve found to indicate there’s anything close to a positive benefit to anyone over the massive, deranged hate grudges carried by the bitter clingers. Still leaves it 99.66% negative, if you ask me.
There’s noticeable economic impact in Kansas at least according to the Wichita Eagle via McClatchy:
A report released earlier this month by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade group for gun and ammunition manufacturers and retailers, said nationally that the firearms industry increased jobs by more than 30 percent and improved its economic impact by more than 66 percent between 2008 and 2011.
In that same period, the report said the industry added 1,202 jobs in Kansas and had an economic impact of more than $177 million.
The local firearms retail business has seen the addition of a new retailer to the market, Cabela’s, and the expansion of more established retailers. Gander Mountain, the St. Paul, Minn.-based outdoor specialty retailer, added a Gander Mountain Academy indoor shooting and simulation range and expanded its floor space for broader selection of firearms, ammunition and accessories – which it calls Gun World – at its WaterWalk store in downtown Wichita.
I’m sure the NRA is just bawling its eyes out at the thought of a second term for President Obama, and if Wichita gun range owner Mike Relihan is any example, these small businesses are just crushed by imaginary new regulations on their industry that of course could never pass Congress.
Retailers and industry officials say there are a number of external factors that have been driving sales, not the least of which is who is occupying the White House.
“I think it’s this last Democrat said some things, had a background that had some people worried … whether it’s real or not,” Relihan said, referring to President Obama.
Retailers said it’s not always just the party of the candidate that affects sales of firearms, but more the perception that a presidential candidate could propose legislation restricting sales of firearms or ammunition.
“That underlying fear is always there,” Holman said.
He said he thinks that’s part of the reason why firearms sales were so strong for the Bullet Stop in 2008, a presidential election year.
“It was definitely a big year,” Holman said.
2012 will be another “big year” for paranoid assholes to buy more guns, more bullets, more “protection” from the Kenyan Soshulist Usurper, more objects specifically designed to kill things. It’ll be awesome fun for everyone when these devices get used as intended, but at least they’re job creators!
Obama Derangement Syndrome, IncorporatedPost + Comments (47)
by Zandar| 173 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Free Markets Solve Everything, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Tax Policy, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Daydream Believers, Nobody could have predicted
The Great Shrill One rises from the depths of reason to infect the Austerians with his beard-tentacles of sanity and common sense and tells a little bedtime story about a fairy (rent asunder by his self-same beard-tentacles, no doubt.)
Critics warned from the beginning that austerity in the face of depression would only make that depression worse. But the “austerians” insisted that the reverse would happen. Why? Confidence! “Confidence-inspiring policies will foster and not hamper economic recovery,” declared Jean-Claude Trichet, the former president of the European Central Bank — a claim echoed by Republicans in Congress here. Or as I put it way back when, the idea was that the confidence fairy would come in and reward policy makers for their fiscal virtue.
The good news is that many influential people are finally admitting that the confidence fairy was a myth. The bad news is that despite this admission there seems to be little prospect of a near-term course change either in Europe or here in America, where we never fully embraced the doctrine, but have, nonetheless, had de facto austerity in the form of huge spending and employment cuts at the state and local level.
So, about that doctrine: appeals to the wonders of confidence are something Herbert Hoover would have found completely familiar — and faith in the confidence fairy has worked out about as well for modern Europe as it did for Hoover’s America. All around Europe’s periphery, from Spain to Latvia, austerity policies have produced Depression-level slumps and Depression-level unemployment; the confidence fairy is nowhere to be seen, not even in Britain, whose turn to austerity two years ago was greeted with loud hosannas by policy elites on both sides of the Atlantic.
And with Spain and now Britain’s Q1 GDP numbers showing big fat recession signs (and a healthy chunk of the Eurozone following suit at this point) the notion that “austerity is the answer because it creates certainty and confidence!” is about as dead now as Sarkozy’s chances in France’s upcoming elections. Poor little Confidence Fairy didn’t have a chance, you know. You didn’t clap loudly enough, Europe. (Austerity can only be failed…)
Never forget of course that for the last several years, the “serious” people have been telling us that we had to follow suit or face economic ruin. US GDP numbers for Q1 came out this morning at 2.2% growth, and while that’s down from 4Q 2011’s 3.0%, it’s still better than what Europe’s austerity cultists are feeding upon right now. Our own zombie-eyed granny starvers (thanks, Chuck) have told us for years now that this was necessary if not vital to our survival, and failure to do so would mean another financial crash. Meanwhile, the actual application of throttling the spender of last resort in several European countries has — surprise! — led to a double-dip recession with no end in sight and even more cuts called for. We need more of the same stuff that not only isn’t working, it’s causing more problems. That never happens with conservatives and economics.
Yet, we face the same exact calls here from Republicans and more than a few Democrats. They’re hoping you don’t pay any attention to the fact that what they’ve said we have to do has been tried and is currently failing miserably in Europe. Mighty Krugthulhu has of course been saying this for a while now, and all but ignored in the halls of power. It’s looking like that particular era may be coming to an end and none too soon. Maybe those steely gray beard-tentacles of his can latch on to a few heads and extract the Stupid while he’s at it.
What a fairy tale that would make. Ia! Ia!
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election 2012, Grifters Gonna Grift, Assholes, Our Failed Media Experiment, Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
Here’s a sterling example of Villager fluffing at its most egregious. Grifters gonna grift, and (h/t commentor AA+ Bonds) the Turdblossom wants to make his grift “a permanent presence“:
… Perhaps no one, besides Romney himself, will have a greater influence on the course of the Republican presidential campaign this fall than Rove, the brash, often-controversial architect of Bush’s two successful bids for the White House.
Bush called Rove “Turd Blossom,” a term Texans use to describe a flower that grows from a pile of cow dung. This year, thanks to the American Crossroads “Super PAC” organization that he co-founded, Rove will have vast resources to fertilize Romney’s campaign: a massive wallet, one of the loudest megaphones in conservative media, and close ties to Romney’s campaign.
It’s a dramatic re-emergence for Rove, who resigned as Bush’s deputy chief of staff in 2007 amid questions about his role in the firing of a federal prosecutor.
In an interview with Reuters, Rove described his vision for Crossroads, which he founded with his friend Ed Gillespie in 2010. Crossroads – which has received seven-figure donations from several wealthy Republicans – hopes to spend $300 million on this election.
Beyond helping Romney match Democratic President Barack Obama’s vast fundraising effort, Rove said he wants Crossroads to be a permanent figure on the political landscape – a big-money, independent group that works in concert with the Republican Party on strategy and involves its most influential donors…
A lifelong dedication to the “art” of ratfvcking won Rove the chance to surf the Bush crime family’s second-generation assault on American democracy via his mancrush’s daddy’s hand-packed Supreme Court. As a political strategist, he hasn’t been much more successful than Mark Penn, but if he can keep bamboozling the GOP’s sugar daddies with the willing assistance of his media-based co-conspirators, he’ll never have to go out and look for a real job doing honest work.
by Zandar| 192 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Bring on the Brawndo!, Flash Mob of Hate, hoocoodanode
With President Obama slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon yesterday, he deftly ensures that his stance on keeping student loan interest rates low will be completely opposed by the GOP in a self-destructive orgy of Obama Derangement Syndrome that will go the way of the payroll tax cut fight as Greg Sargent points out:
Consider the parallels. Just as in the payroll tax cut battle, there’s a looming deadline: On July 1st, interest rates on federally funded student loans is set to double. Barack Obama and Democrats, confident that the politics are on their side, are signaling that they intend to remain on offense on the issue.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and other Republican leaders, apparently sensing that this a losing issue for them, have voiced varying degrees of support for extending the low rates. And just as in the payroll tax fight, they insist their only issue is about how to pay for the extension. Yet they won’t say what spending cuts they would favor to offset it.
This well-worn ground look familiar? It should.
Meanwhile, House conservatives — just as during the payroll battle — are beginning to signal that they oppose the extension, period, full stop. Check out this quote from GOP Rep. Todd Akin, who is running in a GOP primary for the right to take on Dem Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri:
Akin said the government should be out of the student loan market altogether. “America has got the equivalent of the stage three cancer of socialism because the federal government is tampering in all kinds of stuff it has no business tampering in,” he said.
For Akin, federal help with student loan debt is an ideological nonstarter. If we start seeing more of this kind of thing from House conservatives, it could limit the maneuvering room GOP leaders need to reach a deal with Dems on how to pay for the extension they say they favor, in order to resolve this issue and put it behind them.
And this college tour and Fallon performance all but seal the deal on this. The dopes, they are getting their ropes completely a-doped by POTUS once again. They can’t help themselves and have to mash on the A NEW POUTRAGE HAS APPEARED! button like a guinea pig getting a crack pellet. If this plays out like the payroll tax cut issue (and there’s every indication that it will so far) then the GOP will shoot themselves in the foot with yet another group of voters who will learn there’s no percentage in voting GOP unless you’re the one percent.
[UPDATE] The Breitbart crew at Big Roflcopter’s expert legal opinion: Obama on Fallon may be impeachable or something, and NBC should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, possibly by forcing them to give Dana Loesch her own show or something equally horrific.The Barackness Monster Drops The Mic On ‘EmPost + Comments (192)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Domestic Politics, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Jump! You Fuckers!
(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
Could not happen to a more deserving bunch of thieves and miscreants:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is the subject of a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation into allegations of bribery in its Mexican subsidiary, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The Justice Department is investigating potential criminal charges under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to the person familiar with the probe who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about it. Wal-Mart is conducting its own review of allegations that its representatives paid local officials in Mexico to get stores opened faster in the early 2000s…
Wal-Mart de Mexico, which is 69 percent owned by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., fell 12 percent yesterday to 37.89 pesos in Mexico City, the biggest decline since May 4, 1998. The parent company’s shares slid 4.7 percent to $59.54 at the close in New York, the biggest drop since Aug. 10….
Settlements involving the corrupt practices act are typically 1 percent to 2 percent of sales, and that would be about $4.5 billion per 1 percentage point of sales for Wal-Mart, Carroll said. FCPA investigations take 2 years to 6 years to settle, he said. The largest such settlement ever was $1.6 billion paid by Siemens AG (SIE) in 2008, he said…
Two top Democrats on congressional panels yesterday moved to start a probe and request a meeting with Wal-Mart executives.
The Times report “raises serious questions about potential violations of United States law” and “about the actions of top company officials in the United States who reportedly tried to disregard substantial evidence of abuse,” Representatives Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Henry Waxman of California, wrote in a letter to Duke…
[Via Felix Salmon.]
The Wal-Mart “miracle” has always relied on a three-legged stool of corrupt practice: Pressuring or bribing local politicians into providing regulatory & tax breaks that would allow Wal-Mart to undercut local businesses and shove employee expenses onto the government; forcing Wal-mart suppliers to constantly reduce their costs-per-item, no matter what this did to the quality of the product or the long-term health of the vendor/manufacturer; and keeping its employees underpaid, overworked, and non-unionized. It’s not a coincidence that Wal-mart got its start in Arkansas, or that it’s always done best in communities — American or overseas — where a handful of rich families have effective control over their local economies / politics. Banana Republicans thrive where the “low information voters” live under social rules not much different than those of a medieval barony, as long as the local peasantry can still consider itself superior to the neighborhood non-whites/immigrants/outcastes. Not hyperbole: Either Wal-Mart “wins”, or our democracy does… and, to be honest, Wal-Mart’s such a social parasite I doubt it would survive long if it succeeded.