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There's Only One Way to Avoid a Downgrade to U.S. Credit
According to Reuters, a majority of economists now think that U.S. credit will be downgraded.
The debt ceiling plans being proposed likely will not avoid a debt downgrade.
Indeed, as Zero Hedge notes, the cuts being proposed in the debt ceiling proposals would be offset by the costs of the downgrade:
The US downgrade alone, now virtually taken for granted by everyone, will offset any beneficial impact from any deficit reduction that will have to happen for the debt ceiling to be increased.
Indeed, many are starting to say that a downgrade is inevitable.
In truth and in fact, we could still avoid a downgrade ... but only if we immediately:
(1) End the imperial wars, which reduce - rather than strengthen - national security (and see this and this);
(2) End the never-ending bailouts for Wall Street;
(4) End the Bush tax cuts, which Ronald Reagan's budget director David Stockman said were the worst fiscal mistake in history; and
(5) Slash pensions for public employees, at least when they are pegged to an artificially "spiked" final year's salary.
The talking heads will say that these actions are not politically feasible.
However, as I've previously noted, that phrase is just code for:
The powers-that-be don't want it, even if the people overwhelmingly and passionately support it.
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I'm afraid that you didn't get it right either...
THE problem is centralized/concentrated power. Power makes people become the same, no matter where they land.
A person dependent on somebody else for everything from potatoes to opinions may declare that he is a free man, and his government may issue a certificate granting him his freedom, but he will not be free. He is that variety of specialist known as a consumer, which means that he is the abject dependent of producers. How can he be free if he can do nothing for himself? What is the First Amendment to him whose mouth is stuck to the tit of the "affluent society"?
- Wendell Berry
"My solution is to get as far away from the government's reach as possible. Reliance on the government is a fools game, especially for one's retirement."
Government is an abstract concept mitigated by human beings. Blaming government doesn't really solve anything because those individuals working with/for 'government' are still in power.
Getting rid of those people IN government will do you so much better. Blaming government shifts away your responsibility to take account of your elected officials. By running away and talking smack about your government (through your experience) will make you feel good but will not solve anything. While you're waiting for your nonaction to have an impact on government though, your government will keep doing what you disagree with... to you and your friends and family.
There may be a problem with your experience but categorizing it as 'government' problems, 'government' evils, etc. etc... holds no one responsible for anything because 'government' isn't a person.
Thanks for your service
How about the 2 million bureaucrats? Can we vote them out too?
A bazillion bullets in this country ... <redacted due to security concerns>
Oh sure, NOW you repent. You're probably in the "private" sector now, double-dipping with a pension and doing the same work as a government contractor.
I left Connecticut, escaped is probably a better term for it, almost two decades ago because I could see where she was headed. I was not wrong in my assessment. Sad really, because it didn't need to be this way. But it was because no one wanted to 'do' anything about it other than jaw bone, complain and then go gamble in the new casinos, which BTW were promoted as the savior for CT.
Yeah, right. Good middle class jobs replaced with janitors, parking lot attendants and black jack dealers.
The 'service' sector = 0 value
We are a nation of pussies as CD so aptly illustrated.
During the Revolutionary War, only 3 percent of our citizenry were actually trying to over throw the King. That meant that the other 97 percent- the sheep- were too afraid to pick a side. The reason they were afraid are the exact same reasons people today are afraid. In terms of oppressive and threatening governments- there really is little difference. A few hundred years and some of the stage props have changed.
We all decide what kind of people we are going to be. You can take a stand, be part of the 3%, or not. I don't call the 97 percent cowards, but fair warning sheep- if you want your country back you better think long and hard about who you are going to support. Because this government, just like the King, ain't gonna go away easy.
GW nailed it as usual with his clear eyed vision.
I stand with luniticfrenge. It only takes 3% of the population to make the change from tyranny back to freedom and Democracy (government of, for and by the People). We will prevail but it is going to be a long and difficult struggle. It may take 100 years and much suffering and pain with the loss of millions of Americans lives.
These evil insane sociopathic criminals are at war with us and they will kill us all rather then capitulate. They have the mine set of Adolf Hitler and his philosophy, he is their hero and fascism is their game plan. It is futile to try and rationalize their mine set- they are insane!
The problem with Americans is that they live in our past Democracy and have never suffered real pain. Somehow, the suffering and death of the other people in the world brought on by the war criminals is removed from what the criminals have planned for Americans.
It all comes around to the banksters. They tried to overthrow President Roosevelt in a coup. They assassinated President Kennedy because he was in the process of doing away with the Federal Reserve and our Treasury was going to print our own money backed by gold. 9/11 was an inside job and in a mere 10 years the banksters have taken American democracy and the rule of law down. You are all witnesses to how it happened but are too brainwashed by their propaganda machine to realize what they have done.
Now comes our pain. What is your threshold for pain? Do you think you can run and hide? For how long can you hide before they come for you debt slave? You and your family own them $176,000 (http://www.usdebtclock.org/) each and you know how the banksters are, they want their money.
It is your heritage to stand and fight for your freedom and democracy. Stand up now to save your family before the real pain sets in! Demand that the rule of law be reestablished and bring the criminals to Justice. Do not let the banksters rule with fear and terror!
I kinda disagree with this. We were at one time a tough nation. Then Phil Donahue and Allen Alda and Oprah and the libs want to develop a nation of wusses.
Well here we are, and pain cometh.
Prepare yourself mentaly and physically. When I was a kid I went to bed one Friday night and the USSR was a super power, and when I woke up Monday it was gone.
I am The Chief
Pain cometh. This government is about to be put on a diet, or collapse. Both will hurt in the short term, but the people of this country can do anything. They just have to be jarred into reality.
Wake up folks. The time is here.
When I was kid, I went to sleep one Friday and the USSR was a super power. When Monday came, it was gone.
Prepare yourself mentally and physically for that sort of transformation.
I am The Chief
deleted due to fat finger
I am The Chief
Many years ago, when my son was around 5 years of age, I was just about to walk into the kitchen when I heard my wife talking to my son. Something in her voice made me stop and listen. Boy did I ever get an earful.
Dearest spouse, speaking in her best patient-but-exasperated tone of voice, was explaining to my our son the rules of the house. From what I could tell my son had just complained to my wife that I (Dad) had just told him to do something that contradicted her (my wife). So what was he to do?
"When Dad talks to you or tells you to do something, just say yes, agree with whatever he says and then come see me for your instructions."
That was it. Clear and to the point. Let Dad believe he is was the boss, then come see THE BOSS for your orders.
It seems CONgress does the exact same thing with you and me, aka "we the people". So now the only question left to answer is the following, since we have repeatedly shown we have no balls and are not willing to fight back. Will we accept our role as second class slaves? It seems we are only now becoming unhappy with an arrangement that has lasted 100's of years.
BTW I never confronted my wife or son with what I overheard. You don't mess with Mother Nature because she's the boss regardless of what we wish to think. And because I have no balls. :>)
CD, you admitting that you accepted back seat driver position does take at least 1 ball, if that's any consolation. The power arrangement between couples can be quite interesting! What you did was to relinquish a semblance of power, yet nothing was taken from you and nothing was gained by her. For both of you it worked out, didn't it?
Which is precisely why I said nothing. Know when to hold them and when to fold them.
edit: So true!
I'm mister good guy in the family and my wife controls the kids by playing bad cop. She likes to be in control, and why mess that up?
I'm bad cop at work all the time, I don't want to do that at home. And even if I would, they just wouldn't listen because the kids know who is pulling the strings.
If I question that authority, I would be sleeping on a small corner of the bed without blankets and no candy whatsoever before going to sleep. :)
But she also creates respect from the kids for me. Whenever she loses control, it's always: Don't make me call you dad because that's not going to end good!
Like I ever yelled at my kids... but it works and I never have to :)
Perhaps they also know that I'm mister ATM so they don't want to mess up that part :)
Nice to see that this happens about everywhere, I think you have a good thing going there CD ;)
in your family good cop pays for your kids home and food, while bad cop cooks and cleans
in your country good cop taxes you to pay for his and his friends' home and food, while bad cop exploits you by having you trickle up all of profit from your work.
double post
the old political game: divide et impera
divide and conquer
congratulations, you really studied history well.
implying that strategy onto your children, well it,s your call.
that,s how the world has functioned since centuries, its an outdated strategy to my believe.
instead of doing the good cop - bad cop game, buy the negotiation book of stuart diamond called getting more and you will get more even from your wife!
in addition: your children might learn some of your newly aquired skills
1st class slaves. We bought the upgrade
LOL
I stand corrected. Banzai7 informed me the upgrade was part of the latest Mac/iPad/iPhone OS releases. Microsoft accomplished the same with the XP/Vista/7 cycle of 'upgrades'.
It's good to be in 1st class. The air is better though I don't see any difference with the food or accommodations.
or the crash landing
Same garbage happened to me when my son was 10.
My lawyer told me it was the most wicked divorce he'd ever been involved in.
I won full custody after my son told the judge in camera that his mother was an idiot and he wanted to stay with me....
with all due respect, what shocks me is a judge who believes a ten year old kid who says 'my mom's an idiot'...that takes some believing from my perspective. The judge needs his ass kicked unless he had access to some other corroborative evidence to this statement which is by definition gratuitous in the mouth of a ten year old son, who is FORCED by circumstances to CHOOSE between father and mother...
3 dui's, 2 with my son in the car cost her 6 months in a cell and two years probation. Ever picked up your kid at the police station and been investigated by child protective services?
That's what happened, the circumstances you mentioned.
With all due respect.
Women control 99% of the money and 100% of the poontang............
>>Women control 99% of the money and 100% of the poontang............
I learned the hard way....no more rings in my future.....it not women, it's wives control 99% of the money and 100% of the poontang......
Not quite a statistically valid sample, one, that is...
My wife and I are a team and we kick ass. This one completely nullifies my previous experience.
My wife wears mine.
Gentlemen, thank you for the laugh.
ladies, thank you for the underlying aftermath when the lingerie comes into play.