Merkins 2012 - Page 72

merkin · 12-24-2011, 04:33 PM

I am amazed that of all of the reasons for this continuous train of Republican candidates to flame out given in the press that no one has mentioned the most obvious one. All of these candidates have promised to continue the very same policies that have brought us to the very edge of disaster time and time again over the last thirty years including deficits, financial crises, unjustified wars, destruction of the middle class, energy crises, impending climate crises, to name just a few, most done to utilize the power of the government for the sole purpose of increasing the wealth of the wealthy. This is an even better reason for these people's poll numbers to drop.

lostsheep · 12-25-2011, 10:24 PM

The one thing I think Republican have excelled at is propaganda. And that's all they've really had to do.

nkb · 12-25-2011, 11:12 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

I'm glad you approve of Paul's position. I also think it's a great ad.

If you think that equating hypothetical Americans fighting against a hypothetical foreign occupation force, with suicide bombers that kill innocent people, including kids, then you and I have different ideas of what makes a great ad.

merkin · 12-26-2011, 02:22 AM

Quote:

lostsheep wrote

The one thing I think Republican have excelled at is propaganda. And that's all they've really had to do.

I am not sure propaganda is the exact word for what they do, which is more on the order of self-delusion. They are capable of convincing themselves of the truth of the most obvious falsehood that supports their word view. Here is an example that was in the New York Times from a few days ago, the unsupported claim that the recent financial crisis was caused by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two GSEs that underwrite mortgages in the US.

There was a need on the right to provide an explanation for what caused the financial crisis that didn't involve the obvious one, deregulation, a long time goal of the right. If they conceded that the financial crisis was caused by irresponsible behavior by the financial industry enabled by deregulation then the answer would be increased regulation, and worse, that they were wrong that regulation is a needless intrusion of the government into the operation of the markets.

Not mentioned in the piece is the irony that the two GSEs were converted into private investor owned companies so that the stockholders would be on the hook if the companies failed and not the tax payers. This was done on the advice of the right. It didn't work out too well. Plus the risky behavior of the two was the result of shareholder pressure to get in on the profits being earned by the private sector in the sub-prime mortgages, pressure that wouldn't have existed if they were still government agencies.

DyingStrong · 12-26-2011, 07:04 PM

ubs, my goog friend......WHERE ARE YOU????

I have a link for you. Read below...

DyingStrong · 12-26-2011, 07:06 PM

Quote:

ubs wrote

ubs, my goog friend......WHERE ARE YOU????

I have a link for you. I remember when, back in 2007 you were supporting Ron Paul like crazy, remember? And I did some research and found out that he was being supported by the KKK --- stormfront.org --- He was given almost a 1 million dollar by them for his campaign back then, and they still love him.

Now, 2011, he still taking the big buck from them. Let me tell you something: I love what Dr. Paul says he "stands for" but I have a big problem with him and all politicians: I don´t believe a word that come out of their filthy mouth, and Dr. Paul is no exception to the rule.

This is what the link says:

"SCARSDALE, N.Y. (MarketWatch) — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, whose backers have gotten a lift from recent polls, has not entirely rejected support from white supremacists and other extremists, according to a Monday report in the New York Times"

READ MORE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ron...comment6714680

Irreligious · 12-26-2011, 09:12 PM

David Frum, a columnist and former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush, seems to think that Ron Paul is less an actual fire-breathing racist than a cynical old man with a long history of using racism, antisemitism and homophobia as a political strategy to gain support from frustrated, angry and disaffected voters. Then again, that might be a too generous assessment. You can read Frum's column here on CNN's online opinion page:

Quote:

Yet Ron Paul is something more (or less) than a racist crank. As Michael Brendan Dougherty aptly observed in the Atlantic last week:

"As crazy as it sounds, Ron Paul's newsletter writers may not have been sincerely racist at all. They actually thought appearing to be racist was a good political strategy in the 1990s. After that strategy yielded almost nothing -- it was abandoned by Paul's admirers."

A fellow libertarian offers more detail on Paul's racism-as-strategy. Paul and his circle aspired "to create a libertarian-conservative fusion ... [by] appealing to the worst instincts of working/middle class conservative whites by creating the only anti-left fusion possible with the demise of socialism: one built on cultural issues. ... [The strategy] apparently made some folks (such as Rockwell and Paul) pretty rich selling newsletters predicting the collapse of Western civilization at the hands of the blacks, gays, and multiculturalists. The explicit strategy was abandoned by around the turn of the century, but not after a lot of bad stuff had been written in all kinds of places."

Kinich Ahau · 12-27-2011, 05:43 AM

"The Perfect Conservative Religious Whiny Emo Teenage Mutant Candidate."

Kinich Ahau · 12-27-2011, 06:13 AM

I know he's not a candidate, but still WTF.

Kinich Ahau · 12-27-2011, 06:31 AM

Christmas in Secular America. RON PAUL

DyingStrong · 12-27-2011, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Irreligious wrote

David Frum, a columnist and former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush, seems to think that Ron Paul is less an actual fire-breathing racist than a cynical old man with a long history of using racism, antisemitism and homophobia as a political strategy to gain support from frustrated, angry and disaffected voters. Then again, that might be a too generous assessment. You can read Frum's column here on CNN's online opinion page:

Thanks much for the link, Irr. Great article.

DyingStrong · 12-27-2011, 08:55 AM

Humans are damn, real damn. Hu-mans are always H O P I N G that others change the life, the putrid life they live in. Like Obammer, for example. Some people HOPED that Obamma was going to CHANGE what Bush couldn´t and what Bush did, and now what?! Now some other people hope that Ron Paul is going to change what Obamma hasn´t changed and what Obamma has or hasn´t done.

The world is not going to change until we change ourselves, each one of us, individually and sincerely. Putting HOPE on religious and political leaders IS NOT THE ANSWER.

We call sheeple to the idiots who follow religion like brainless robots. How do we call people who follow political leaders and put their hope in them? IMBECILES, retards? You choose, take a pick.

Irreligious · 12-27-2011, 09:20 AM

I agree, DyingStrong. There are no saviours in real life.

As for "change" as a popular cause, I don't think we're all on the same page where those agents are concerned. The fact is, we don't all share the exact same definitions of freedom, fairness, success nor how to achieve these things.

That's why politics exists. We were NEVER a wholly United States of America, even if that's the ideal. We indulge the nasty, dirty business of politics as a vehicle to settle our differences and it often entails making compromises that few people like.

What's the alternative?

Winner take all, perhaps.

Irreligious · 12-27-2011, 01:14 PM

This speech is quite provocative:

Ron Paul's What If? Remastered

There is nothing in this speech that the congressman made on the House floor that I disagree with. However, I would ask:

What if, over the past century or so, our disproportionate control of the world's resources and our prosperity as a nation was built largely on us being a war-mongering empire state? Do we have it within us to change how we live so that the rest of the world might, potentially, be a better place?

ubs · 12-27-2011, 04:31 PM

This man will possibly be Romney's running mate

Quote:

The NDAA, which I've covered in this column in the past, allows for the detention and torture of American citizens on US soil -- without access to a trial or attorney, and without the government bringing formal charges. It's basically a return to the Dark Ages, and wipes out hundreds of years of civil rights progress in the Western world. Portman reportedly voted in favor of it.

Rep. Ron Paul has characterized the NDAA as "martial law," and groups as disparate as the ACLU, Amnesty International and even the FBI have expressed their serious concerns.
...

Despite petitions and pleas from coast-to-coast, the legislation passed overwhelmingly. As it turns out, many politicians may be representatives of the people, but their voices are ones bought by corporations. Senator Robert Portman (R-Ohio) not only voted in favor of the NDAA, he also received $272,853 from the special interest groups that backed the bill."

If it comes down to Romney vs Obama, as I'm pretty sure it will, the choice is moot (from a philosophical point of view.... I realize for some, appearance is important, but behaviorally they will be the same.)