American Politics Thread 2013: I'm a cool Rodham grandma in the USA

the tea party map above is kind of misleading. that giant chunk of kansas is one congressional district - the 1st, representing 672,000 people, 90% white. more people live in that tiny blank area on the right side of the state - the 3rd district, which includes the kansas side of kansas city.

will be very interesting to see if republicans can fuck around long enough to lose the faith of big business

I hope the more "moderate" GOP reps do get primaried, presumably to wingnuts who won't be able to carry their districts. fuck these people.

like there are congresspeople right now who are advocating shutting down the government permanently as a way to grow the economy lmao?

will be very interesting to see if republicans can fuck around long enough to lose the faith of big business

Many of them are intellectually incoherent enough to bemoan the influence of the financial sector and praise mon and pop business but believe somehow that a loosely regulated market place favors that and they're so averse to Marx that his insught that eventually unfettered capitalism ends up in bigger and bigger monopolies cannot be considered or digested.

sounds like they gop wants a six week debt limit increase in exchange for 'talks' and the government will still be shut down

guess federal employees can look forward to another 6 weeks of being unemployed..

this is really a terrible plan

Many of them are intellectually incoherent enough to bemoan the influence of the financial sector and praise mon and pop business but believe somehow that a loosely regulated market place favors that and they're so averse to Marx that his insught that eventually unfettered capitalism ends up in bigger and bigger monopolies cannot be considered or digested.

― The normative power of the factual (Michael White), Thursday, October 10, 2013 4:03 PM (2 minutes ago)

this honestly gets more into the totally bizarro way that the right (in particular, but the left as well at times) has redefined "small business" but that is prob a topic for a different thread

What is SBA's definition of a small business concern?

SBA defines a small business concern as one that is independently owned and operated, is organized for profit, and is not dominant in its field. Depending on the industry, size standard eligibility is based on the average number of employees for the preceding twelve months or on sales volume averaged over a three-year period. Examples of SBA general size standards include the following:

Manufacturing: Maximum number of employees may range from 500 to 1500, depending on the type of product manufactured;
Wholesaling: Maximum number of employees may range from 100 to 500 depending on the particular product being provided;
Services: Annual receipts may not exceed $2.5 to $21.5 million, depending on the particular service being provided;
Retailing: Annual receipts may not exceed $5.0 to $21.0 million, depending on the particular product being provided;
General and Heavy Construction: General construction annual receipts may not exceed $13.5 to $17 million, depending on the type of construction;
Special Trade Construction: Annual receipts may not exceed $7 million; and
Agriculture: Annual receipts may not exceed $0.5 to $9.0 million, depending on the agricultural product.

http://www.sba.gov/content/what-sbas-definition-small-business-concern

just fyi

don't like 95% of small businesses have less than 50 employees? and most of those have like single digits?

OBAMACARE HAS ‘RAPED MY FUTURE,’ COLLEGE GRAD SAYS IN VIRAL LETTER

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/09/obamacare-has-raped-my-future-college-grad-says-in-viral-letter/

http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Screen-Shot-2013-10-09-at-11.36.42-AM-620x574.jpg

maybe i should start a "we are the 95%" push for small business peeps

--> Dennis Prager

where the hell was she getting full coverage for $75, would've loved that after college

yeah yer pretty much an unbiased source when your first move is to make sure to message your sad story to dennis prager. of course the spin on this will be that it just mystically went viral because OBAMAAAAAAA!

Re small businesses, I thought part of the issue was big companies spinning off "small" divisions with just under the required level of operations to qualify for grants, subsidies, R&D money, etc, but that still report to/benefit the parent company.

12 insane ways obamacare raped my future and went viral

best comment from that facebook letter by the author herself:

Ashley Dionne: I don't *want* medicaid.
I'm an Objectivist.

New movie idea: "But I'm an Objectivist!". seriously though, are these people for real?

obv she didnt get the memo about how it isnt about obamacare anymore, its about obamas elitist refusal to negotiate

so wait, Obamacare is cool for Objectivists, but not Medicaid?

Objectivist is slang for tool, right?

dont want no obamacaid, just want build this railroad gdamn it

for an Objectivist, she seems to have done a lousy job of building her own mega industrial empire with her bare hands

Good point, Moodles. It's funny how much people who glorify the self-reliant spend whining.

i don't want to call anybody a liar, but i'm very skeptical that somebody with those conditions has full coverage for $76/mo.

that's all the mental energy i'm giving a dennis prager facebook forward.

I watched as kids with GEDs and high school diploma's took the low-paying jobs for which I applied

the subtle self-clowning here is what makes being a part-time grammar nazi so worthwhile

xpost
well see it was all the Altruists who ruined her fun Objectivist time

for an Objectivist, she seems to have done a lousy job of building her own mega industrial empire with her bare hands

^^^^ Howard Roark wouldn't have time for this self-pitying bullshit

I was about to join you in grammar Nazi lockstep.

Objectivists tend to wind up living off their social security and using Medicare, riiiiight, Ayn Rand?

Wah-wah, I have two degrees, a mountain of debt, and medical concerns, and no one will hire me to build my own steel factory!

goole
Posted: October 10, 2013 at 4:54:25 PM
i don't want to call anybody a liar, but i'm very skeptical that somebody with those conditions has full coverage for $76/mo.

ya obvious lie

ok not true, i'm still thinking about this: oh, the medicaid detail. "he said my costs would go down and he lied. i can be covered for free and i don't want it"

a transit analogy then, your taxi cab costs have gone up, but you don't want to get on the greatly expanded bus service because that's what the dusky poors use? am i reading you right, ashley?

idg what these people think living in a society means. you can't always have your world conform to your own personal beliefs no matter how valid or horseshit they are, and we ostensibly have a political process for addressing these issues. these objectivists, "true constitution", LIAR IN CHIEF freaks are like the dark underside of the hippie generation, want to drop out or change the world because there isn't enough hatred, suffering, and social domination for their taste.

they dont believe theres such a thing as society, one of their primary tenets

Which is really convenient for us Mongols and Vikings

i think the vikings were a little more advanced than that

I meant that these people who abhor collectivism make really easy targets for the predatious

the House, that's where I'm a Viking

psychoanalytically speaking (sorry), i think it's partly a fear of lack as vulnerability. to identify themselves as part of, and dependent on, a community is terrifying because they interpret it as the annihilation of the ego, self-determination, etc.

this isn't unusual! but it's weird in this case in that they explicitly identify as part of a "community of individuals" which shuns any sense in which their fates may be intertwined or mutually dependent. this is kind of the paradox of all communities, but this is one which is particularly fragile since there's really no identified common goal other than sticking it to the liberals. that's why i said upthread i think this kind of amateur fascism is susceptible to something like an auto-immune disease, purges, etc.

I have super aids, black lung and luekemia and my rates went up from $75 to $350

Man, this "deal" being offered is so phoney. Forget not reopening the government. It basically gives Obama 6 weeks to accept their demands or ... we default, and it would be branded his fault, for refusing to accept their demands, after they "compromised" and put off the debt ceiling cliff for a whopping 6 weeks. And all along - let me get this straight - the government would still be shut down? So basically two full months of government shutdown? Fuck these guys and their idiot attitude, like they're doing Obama a favor. If he goes for this he's a huge chump. Obama should just cut the part of the budget that pays for the House of Representative. There's your shutdown compromise. Reopen everything but Congress.

kinda doubt Obama's gonna take this deal as-is, he gets nothing out of it.

and right now he has all the leverage.

And even then, the fuckers are falling back on reducing the deficit and tax reforms? So, like, with the government shut down, and the debt ceiling still a looming threat, the Republicans will back off if Obama meets with them and agrees to cut a whole bunch of spending while further reducing revenues. All while the sequester is still in place? I mean, jesus fucking christ, why even have a government? Is that really the idea? Defund everything? That's no idea at all.

isn't he already saying he's open to the idea of a short-term extension on the debt limit?

President Barack Obama is pleased that Republicans at least seem willing to raise the debt ceiling, if only for a short period, instead of threatening the full faith and credit of the U.S., White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday.

Asked about a new House GOP proposal that would extend the debt limit by six-week period, but sustain a government shutdown, Carney sounded an optimistic note but stressed that the administration would need to see the actual bill.

"The president is happy that at least cooler heads seem to be prevailing in House," Carney told reporters at a daily press conference.

“The president strongly prefers a longer term solution," Carney added. "We'll see what the House Republicans propose and see what they are able to pass."

He has all the leverage, xpost, but they're still fucking around. Would Obama have any leverage if they let us default and things went to hell? Wouldn't he be compelled to do something rather than wait for them to get their act together?

i sort of wish our political language was in a cold war european mode (with hard left and ancien regime right in more open contest), because i feel like conservatives can't speak honestly about what they're advocating. it's all codes of codes. that's as far as i'll go in granting the argument about "political correctness". maybe it's because i've been reading right-wingers who are way off the right edge of the map (who speak in those terms giddily)...

what conservatism boils down to is positive endorsement of petty, private tyrannies. that's the positive good. that's how we're supposed to live, and be governed. from the randian whining about the constraints of the mediocre, to right-wonk tut-tutting about unintended consequences, to charles murray (and david brooks, when you game it out) wanting decent people to bully their lessers into being less fat, violent and skanky -- inequalities and the domination that comes from them are natural and good. the boss, the father, the husband, the owner, you're supposed to do what the man says. not everybody gets to be happy, but it's for your own good. it's the state and its fake equality that's unnatural and tyrannical.

i really wish they'd say this! instead of all this upside-down "MLK was a republican!!" troll bullshit. it's a shame for everyone that the furthest right people (your bachmanns, kings, gohmerts etc) all seem, like, cognitively damaged. it's like everybody -- left and right both! -- is dying for someone to take up this line clearly.

The religious right definitely doesn't shy away from endorsing authoritarian bullying as their ideal society, so long as it is theocratic and meets all of their own sect's biblical interpretations. However, if theocracy ever came about in the USA, you'd see it rapidly devolve into sectarian head-banging over the theological details.