the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

I was riffing on Alfred's "show us on your abacus." Went with the wiseguy joke instead of the lol old joke. What a disaster.

lol five years ill mark that prediction on my calendar

That prediction was actually rather restrained and conservative. I would endorse it without much trepidation.

seeing as rescissions happen like every 6 years its not any sort of meaningful prediction was my point

I am willing to bet against a recession this year, I'll bet you a beer morbs

seeing as rescissions happen like every 6 years its not any sort of meaningful prediction was my point

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:52 PM

I hope you're right but you're not, as Cliff said to Clair Huxtable.

what am i not right abt here alfred

Distinctions between "recession" and "downturn" or b/w "slower recovery than expected" and "it will remain shitty" are meaningless when we've done little to prevent the spiral from starting again.

your argument is extremely vague!

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/2009/Aug/Jobs-Loss-Recovery-1.png

"recession" is the least of our worries when predatory lending continues and regulation of the financial sector is nominal at best

the gray parts are recessions

thats all fine and good al but then what are you predicting will happen in the next five years exactly

recession has a very strict definition alfred, and it's not 'the least of our worries'

"exactly"? We're not economists. Like I said, I'll take a recession over another crash.

what in particular are you predicting

that the economy is no longer in a "recession" means bloody little to the long-term un(der)employed.

I'm heartened that companies are hiring again but I remain depressed about a banking system that was neither disciplined by DC nor learned nothing about what happened in 2008, which makes another meltdown inevitable.

you mean a melt down on par w/the one we just had, another 'great recession'

no it means plenty to the un and underemployed, because there is a big difference between 8% unemployment and 13% unemployment eisber, even if you are currently unemployed

and anyone who believes that Obama's "populism" is anything but crude electioneering intended to keep the dirty hippies quiet is a fool.

Pundits say "recession" because they're afraid of the implications of "depression" or, my favorite 19th century word, "panic."

no pundits say recession because it is a word with a precise and useful definition

I don't know what we're arguing about! You don't agree that circumstances are in place for a crash at least as bad as 2008's?

no it means plenty to the un and underemployed, because there is a big difference between 8% unemployment and 13% unemployment eisber, even if you are currently unemployed

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/015/orly.jpg

yes -- pundits, whom we should praise for their precise and useful definitions, especially when they're on cable television!

that's why we are hearing all of these stories about "unemployed need not apply" and rampant age discrimination in hiring ...

yall can free associate w/the best of em, YOU should be on cable news

but hey, silly me, i'm old enough to remember a day when Democratic politicians actually gave a shit about the long-term unemployed (or at least went through the motions of doing so) -- that was before "change we can believe in," though.

sure but thats not what we were talking abt at all

yeah also that was before republicans took control of congress

that is still the best looking owl ever. i wish he was a ice cream because i would eat him.

that's why we are hearing all of these stories about "unemployed need not apply" and rampant age discrimination in hiring ...

― kurwa mać (Polish for "long life") (Eisbaer), Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:07 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you can create whatever law you want but if people are gonna discriminate in hiring there's no way you can 'know they did it'

This started because you picked on Morbs about Obama and the economy as if the implication was that either our economic health depended on Obama's reelection or that we should reward Obama because we're not losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month like in 2009. If voters decided on the latter, that's fine, but it's no reason to be sanguine. If I'm wrong, please correct me -- no snark.

i picked on morbs be cause he predicted the economy would bottom out before the election and obama would lose!

I don't think this has anything to do with obama? it's just not likely that the economy is gonna crash this year.

this is a classic liberal argument

Liberal #1: Things are shitty!

Liberal #2: Things have always been shitty. People are shitty. What can you do?

(walk silently to voting booth)

i think that prediction was like republicans who say obama is a muslim. it's more about expressing his annoyance than actually predicting anything

you can create whatever law you want but if people are gonna discriminate in hiring there's no way you can 'know they did it'

um, i've had fellow lawyer friends who are making a good living going after companies who discriminate in hiring, firing and other employment practices.

(exit PAUL KRUGMAN, scarf blowing in the wind)

i just thought its was a really silly prediction is all, there was NO value judgement attached

well maybe more lawyers is the solution to our economic problems then

for the record, i don't expect an economic crash ... or even a downturn ... by Election Day. but who the fuck knows, esp given what's happening in Europe.

they know how to throw parties!

xpost

and even if things don't turn to shit by November 2012 that doesn't mean they won't turn to shit sometime thereafter since (as Alfred noted) we've done precious little to stop the financial industry from engaging in the types of shenanigans that caused the 2008 financial crash in the first place.

he predicted the economy would bottom out before the election and obama would lose!

didn't!

But yes we are going to have an apocalyptic crash in the next decade, and you can blame all the cocksuckers in both partee.

and to repeat myself: anyone who expects anyone in the Obama Administration to do so is deluded. stating that "Romney will be worse" is not much of a counterargument.

for the record, i don't expect an economic crash ... or even a downturn ... by Election Day. but who the fuck knows, esp given what's happening in Europe.

― kurwa mać (Polish for "long life") (Eisbaer), Thursday, April 12, 2012 10:15 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

europe is not gonna let greece et al default on their debt, they know it would be catastrophic, theyre just gonna do other less dumb things instead

Europe should force Greek men to work and let the women hang out in cafes and smoke.

didn't!

But yes we are going to have an apocalyptic crash in the next decade, and you can blame all the cocksuckers in both partee.

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, April 12, 2012 10:18 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

meh, it will get way more fun when the economy re-tanks in the fall

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, April 12, 2012 12:57 PM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just a teeny taste for Shakey on how Team Bam can lose the election

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:54 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is nothing, a 24-hr newscycle blip of no consequence

― Jilly Boel and the Eltones (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:58 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

many more nothings to come

― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, April 12, 2012 5:59 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

unless of course Spain and Italy collapse and then I'm not sure they can really do anything at all xposts