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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Who do we stiff?
Thursday, July 28, 2011 5:23 PM
NEWOLDBROWNCOAT
Thursday, July 28, 2011 5:38 PM
DREAMTROVE
Thursday, July 28, 2011 6:09 PM
AURAPTOR
America loves a winner!
Thursday, July 28, 2011 6:56 PM
Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor: heh heh... you said " stiff "
Thursday, July 28, 2011 8:01 PM
MAGONSDAUGHTER
Friday, July 29, 2011 1:48 AM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Quote:Originally posted by Magonsdaughter: If the Chinese are able to lend you a trillion dollars, they clearly won't miss it if it is late.
Friday, July 29, 2011 6:54 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Friday, July 29, 2011 7:31 AM
GEEZER
Keep the Shiny side up
Friday, July 29, 2011 7:35 AM
Friday, July 29, 2011 7:43 AM
Quote:If lawmakers fail to raise the ceiling by Tuesday, the Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to guarantee that it can pay all the country's bills in full and on time. That's because Treasury will not be taking in enough revenue to cover all the bills coming due in August. And without a debt ceiling increase, it will be prohibited from borrowing new money in the bond market to make up the difference. So, something will have to give. The consensus thinking has been that Treasury will prioritize who to pay first and who to put off. And at the top of the list of who gets paid will be investors owed interest on U.S. debt. If the investors aren't paid, that would constitute a default, which would have a host of negative consequences for the country. Of course, it's possible Treasury may decide it doesn't actually have the authority to prioritize and will instead pay interest owed to bond investors but pay other bills as they come due -- first come, first served, said former Treasury official Jay Powell, who coauthored a Bipartisan Policy Center report on the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling. Assuming, however, that Treasury believes it has the authority to prioritize, it's not clear yet who will be paid first alongside investors. The Treasury has said it will provide more information as Tuesday approaches, and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch has requested that the department turn over its plan by 5 p.m. on Thursday. The plan, however, isn't likely to make anyone feel better. Will I get my Social Security check? That's because everyone to whom money is owed besides bond investors have either qualified for federal benefits, provided goods or services to the government, are serving in the military or otherwise work for Uncle Sam. Money will also be due to agencies to which Congress has legally appropriated money to run federal programs. On deck to be paid every month: retirees, veterans, business owners, federal workers, active-duty soldiers, Medicare physicians and government agencies that need money to keep the lights on, to name just a few. "While at midnight on August 2nd we don't all turn into pumpkins," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a press briefing, he described the process of picking who to pay and who to put off as a "Sophie's choice." How the math might work: The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that Treasury will be short by about $134 billion for the month of August. That cash deficit will build steadily throughout the month. So, on Aug. 3, for instance, the center estimates that Treasury will take in $12 billion in revenue and have to pay out $32 billion, creating a $20 billion cash deficit. Among the biggest bills due that day: $23 billion for Social Security payments, $2.2 billion for Medicare and Medicaid payments, and $1.8 billion due to defense vendors. On Aug. 4, the group estimates that the cash deficit will increase to $26 billion, with only $4 billion in revenue coming in, compared to $10 billion in bills, the largest of which would be for Medicaid and Medicare. Come Aug. 5, the cash deficit grows another $5 billion to $31 billion. By Aug. 15, the Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that the running cash deficit will hit $74 billion. That day the Treasury will take in an estimated $22 billion in revenue and have to pay out roughly $41 billion. The biggest bill that day is a $30 billion interest payment. Cash on hand: What's not yet clear is how much cash Treasury might have on hand going into August. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates it might have enough, in theory, to pay bills in full until Aug. 10. Even if that's right, however, Treasury may still decide to withhold some payments sooner to preserve cash to ensure it can make interest payments after Aug. 10. It may also keep some cash on hand to ensure it can make principal payments on bonds coming due after Aug. 10. Treasury will be able to hold bond auctions to roll over existing debt as it matures -- more than $450 billion is expected to come due in August. However, if there isn't enough demand for Treasuries because of the uncertainty the political crisis in Washington has caused, those auctions may fail to raise all that Treasury needs to pay the principal due. So Uncle Sam would have to pony up using the revenue coming in. That would mean even less money available to pay seniors, vets, small business owners and others who are part of the lifeblood of the U.S. economy. http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/28/news/economy/debt_ceiling_prioritizing_payments/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2 what the damned Tea Partiers don't get: The government isn't taking in enough to pay it's bills NOW, and it will only get worse, much worse. Anyone with any common sense should realize we need to raise the ceiling, THEN get down to the business of cutting...AND RAISING REVENUE...to stay afloat. Idiots seem to think if we just don't raise it, we can happily cut as we go along to bring it in balance.
Friday, July 29, 2011 3:48 PM
Quote:Documents have newly surfaced detailing the extent of U.S. Representative Joe Walsh's (R-Ill.) alleged lapse on his child support payments to his ex-wife Laura Walsh. According to a court filing, made public Friday afternoon by The National Memo, Tea Party darling Walsh paid only limited child support between November of 2005 and March of 2008, and stopped paying altogether after that point. Unpaid obligations and interest combine to $115,294, the filing claims. The document also purports to debunk Walsh's claim, in not paying child support, that he simply didn't have the money: Over the course of the 2010 campaign, Joe personally loaned his campaign $35,500, which, given that he failed to make any child support payments to Laura because he "had no money" is surprising. Joe has paid himself back at least $14,200 for the loans he gave himself. Again, he failed to make any child support payments to Laura from these returned loan proceeds.
Friday, July 29, 2011 3:55 PM
Friday, July 29, 2011 3:58 PM
Quote:Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat: Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor: heh heh... you said " stiff " I ask a polite, serious question, and you, the polite serious 'Raptor reply with that? That's the best you got, Beavis? or are you ButtHead? Never mind, I already got an opinion on your answer...
Friday, July 29, 2011 4:25 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: Quote:Originally posted by Magonsdaughter: If the Chinese are able to lend you a trillion dollars, they clearly won't miss it if it is late. Probably not, but that's not really the principle they're operating on, I don't think. I view China as being more like the neighborhood loan shark. Sure, they can afford to take a loss and walk away, but I have a feeling they'd rather stick around and break a few things just to "teach us a lesson"...
Friday, July 29, 2011 4:48 PM
Friday, July 29, 2011 4:52 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: I gotta disagree, Mike. This is a typical dead-beatdad; I'll bet you can find more than one in BOTH parties. And everywhere else in our society. It's certainly hypocritical at the very least, given they scream about "fiscal responsibility", but it's only oe person. One can be an ass, a Tea Party Darling AND a dead-beat dad all at the same time, that doesn't mean it reflects all of anything. He's certainly a bastard, but that and "politician" might be synonyms, so it doesn't expand to anything beyond "bastard dead-beat dad". Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani, Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”, signing off
Friday, July 29, 2011 5:12 PM
Friday, July 29, 2011 5:29 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: I think we ought to start a list of "RaptorRules" or something. 1. You can always tell what an entire political movement stands for by the worst actions of any one of its members. 2.?
Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:11 AM
SIGNYM
I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.
Quote:How 'bout we just start not replying to any post he makes?
Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:16 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 12:28 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: Magons, what CAN'T they do, at this point? When someone is holding literally TRILLIONS of dollars of your bad debt, and they know you're broke, but they also know you have some really nice stuff still, you kind of put yourself in a bad situation, y'know? What if China chose August 3rd to call in their debt? What if they said, "Pay up!"? Could we? Would China then be in a position to say, "Well, since you can't pay what you owe us, we'll just be repossessing Taiwan now, m'kay?" And what are we in a position to do about it? China is in a strong economic position at the moment. Because of the borrow-and-spend policies of the GOP from 2000 thru 2008, we have been left in a weakened negotiation position. Any negotiator knows that you get what you can when you can, and negotiating from a weak position is an automatic losing proposition. So that's worst case; more likely, it will be trade concessions, treaty issues, opening up the U.S. to Chinese factories and firms, and the like. If you ever said "Support the Troops!", you are a socialist. You've taken money from me, by force and at gunpoint, and you've given it to people who are on a mission I don't support, and are murdering others in my name, and I am given no choice in the matter.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 1:13 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SignyM: [ Because rappy can put words into grammatically correct sentences it's natural to think his problem is "ignorance". Yanno, lack of information. But I learned a powerful lesson about delusion from rappy ... he suffers from a willful failure to engage logic and facts, pretty much like flat-earthers but a LOT more mean-spirited.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 1:26 AM
Quote:... the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his 1917 book General Psychopathology. These criteria are: * certainty (held with absolute conviction) * incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) * impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue)
Saturday, July 30, 2011 1:38 AM
OLDENGLANDDRY
Saturday, July 30, 2011 2:02 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:17 AM
Quote:Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat: Quote:Originally posted by SignyM: [ Because rappy can put words into grammatically correct sentences it's natural to think his problem is "ignorance". Yanno, lack of information. But I learned a powerful lesson about delusion from rappy ... he suffers from a willful failure to engage logic and facts, pretty much like flat-earthers but a LOT more mean-spirited. Thanx, Sig. I just had an epiphany- I never looked at it that way, but you're exactly right, that was exactly how and why I was looking at him. Hate to give up on somebody who presents the appearance of being capable and rational, but that's just it-- it's an appearance and he realy ain't.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:53 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:54 AM
Quote:he suffers from a willful failure to engage logic and facts, pretty much like flat-earthers but a LOT more mean-spirited.
Quote: What Obama fails to recognize that the Tea-baggers don't need to NOT raise the debt ceiling, they ONLY need to tie up the discussion to get what they want- To starve government. The victory is theirs by (ahem) default. Obama should just ignore them and keep paying out money to everyone. After all, ALL of this spending was AUTHORIZED by Congress and APPROVED by Presidents... mostly Republican. On that basis, just go full steam ahead, because THERE IS NO DEBT CRISIS.
Quote: The problem comes "down the line", when Federal workers and contractors don't get paid. That will in essence shrink the economy, and the average American citizen will once again get stiffed.
Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:55 AM
Quote:purposely inserts known, provable falsehoods
Saturday, July 30, 2011 10:28 AM
FREMDFIRMA
Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:54 AM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 2:13 PM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 6:13 PM
Saturday, July 30, 2011 9:48 PM
Quote:Originally posted by dreamtrove: Besides, the jackasses in power might not be the brightest bulbs ever lit, but they're not that dumb.
Quote:Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pentagon officials were working hard to plan for a potential default but cautioned that the circumstances were extraordinary. "So I honestly can't answer that question," he told troops at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan, as several expressed anxiety over budget wrangling in Washington. Potentially suspending pay to U.S. forces waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is an extremely sensitive subject in the United States and Mullen acknowledged that many troops lived paycheck to paycheck. "So if paychecks were to stop, it would have a devastating impact," Mullen said, answering questions from troops. "I'd like to give you a better answer than that right now, I just honestly don't know," he said.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 3:07 AM
Sunday, July 31, 2011 5:28 AM
Quote:Originally posted by SignyM: NewOB: BTW- I don't mean "delusion" in the general sense, I mean "delusion" as in the original psychiatric definition Quote:... the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his 1917 book General Psychopathology. These criteria are: * certainty (held with absolute conviction) * incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) * impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue) Rappy pretty much fits the bill. And as a psychiatric phenomenon he deserves my sympathy. But certainly not my conversation.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 5:35 AM
M52NICKERSON
DALEK!
Quote:Originally posted by AURaptor: The problem w/ your definitions is that , yes, while I do admit to being strong in my convictions, it's not out of ME being incorrigible or unwavering. You're just not offering any valid counter to my points of view.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 1:02 PM
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