'The War Is Not Over'

[frank]

Dave C wrote:

<quoted text>
Why is it that the Poor in the US have better lives than Kings and Queens did 150 years ago? Could it be that both the Rich and the Poor have gotten richer?
If you don’t like Capitalism, don’t practice it. Pay cash for everything and don’t use a bank.

Not exactly, you are truly entering the world of Dave’s fantasies!

The De’Medicis fortune in the Billions
The Romanoves in the Billions
The Rothchilds in the Trillions
The House of Habsburg in the Trillions
The Capetians in the Billions
The Tudors in the Billions
There are many, many more in history, anyone can still see their Castles, their Gardens, their Swimming Pools or gold-leafed dining halls all over Europe!
It very well illuminates that inequality/equality defines the health, welfare, security, comfort, happiness and wellbeing of a Nation!

[Storm the Bastille]

Dave C wrote:

<quoted text>
Why is it that the Poor in the US have better lives than Kings and Queens did 150 years ago? Could it be that both the Rich and the Poor have gotten richer?
If you don’t like Capitalism, don’t practice it. Pay cash for everything and don’t use a bank.

You are an educated man, you have received a 'liberal' college education. You surely have seen urban slums, or perhaps even rural farmsteads in the American Delta. Also, you have at least seen photos of the castles of Europe.

Now, with a straight face, are you prepared to claim that the poorest Americans, either the homeless or those living in the squalor of the worst slums in America, perhaps in neighborhoods like those of New Orleans destroyed during the hurricane floods, are living in the same 'good' conditions as were the Crowned Heads of Europe in the late 1800s?

Joking on TWINO is encouraged, but rank misstatements of fact do not behoove a college-educated engineer.

Now if you also don't believe in the Theory of Evolution or Global Warming Theory, you might not have a true appreciation of modern science and the generally-accepted scientific method. This would be an unusual perspective for an educated, college-trained engineering graduate.

Check out this list of castles in France:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_...

Now, try to remember the last time you drove through or near an inner-city slum.

Would you rather live in one of those castles, or in a slum?

[MUQ]

News you will not see or hear on CNN and FOX News

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/arti...

The Path to War with Iran

By Robert W. Merry

June 154, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- On November 26, 1941, a White House aide named Henry Field was summoned to the office of Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary, Grace Tully, for what seemed like a bizarre assignment. Tully instructed Field, one of the president’s bright young staffers, to produce, as quickly as possible, the names and addresses of all Japanese Americans, whether born in Japan or America. The assignment was "of the utmost urgency," said Tully, adding, "Use your own judgment to achieve results causing the least possible chance of a breach in security."

This was eleven days before Pearl Harbor. That same day Secretary of State Cordell Hull issued what amounted to an ultimatum to two top Japanese diplomats, ambassador to the U.S. Kichisaburo Nomura and special envoy Saburo Kurusu. "Nomuru," writes John Toland in his book Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath, "was too stunned to talk," while Kurusu instantly saw that this would be regarded in Tokyo as "an insult." Having placed Japan under strain of severe economic sanctions, the United States now was showing no willingness to negotiate a way out of the impasse short of a Japanese humiliation. This was the day Roosevelt both ensured war with Japan and began preparing for the incarceration of Japanese-Americans when the war came.

America today is once again on a path to war—this time with Iran—and the road is dotted with many of the same signposts seen in Roosevelt’s path to war seventy years ago. Like Roosevelt in his dealings with Japan, President Barack Obama has helped place Iran under severe strain of economic sanctions. Like Roosevelt, he has received from the adversary signals of flexibility in the search for a mutually satisfactory solution. Like Roosevelt, Obama has rebuffed those overtures. Roosevelt was under pressure from Britain’s prime minister Winston Churchill to hang tough, and Obama is under similar pressure from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.

There may be one big difference, but we can’t know for sure. While the historical record shows clearly that Roosevelt actually wanted war with Japan, it isn’t clear this is Obama’s desired outcome. If it is, his actions make sense. If not, his approach seems reckless.

For there should be no mistaking the reality that the United States and Iran are on a collision course, as reflected in the ongoing negotiations between the so-called P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany) and Iran. The next session is set for June 18–19 in Moscow, and this session isn’t likely to lead to a blowup, not least because Obama has a large political incentive to keep the talks going at least through the November election. But the last session in Baghdad seemed to indicate that, if there is indeed any prospect for a negotiated settlement, Obama and the other P5+1 powers aren’t demonstrating any interest in exploring it. To understand this dynamic, it is helpful to review events leading up to the next negotiating session.

Any such review should take into account the recent writings of Seyed Hossein Mousavian. The former spokesman for Iran’s nuclear negotiations team and also Iranian ambassador to Germany for seven years, Mousavian now is a research fellow at Princeton. He was arrested by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on charges of espionage in 2007 but was acquitted by the country’s judiciary. He is the author of a recently published book called The Iranian Nuclear Crisis: A Memoir.

In his writings and public speaking, Mousavian disputes those in the West who declare Iran is bent on developing nuclear weapons. As he said in an interview with the Middle East Institute, "I am confident that Iran is not seeking to have nuclear weapons."

[-Web]

America has worst poverty since 1950's.
More than 46 million lived below the federal poverty level.

So sad-

What does it mean when 1.5 million American families live on less than $2 a day per person?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Here's something that should make you count your blessings:

Nearly 1.5 million American families live on $2 a day - or less - per person.$2 a day.

The numbers include some 2.8 million children.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/14/...

[arbitrageur]

frank wrote:

<quoted text>
You keep saying that and you are wrong, when the ‘war on poverty’ began in 60s it stood at 23%! Inequality/equality defines the health, welfare, security, comfort, happiness and wellbeing of a Nation!

That was Eisenhower's reign, Frankly, when top tax rates were 90%. He was replaced by Kennedy, if you have done any real reading, who lowered top tax rates by 20 points, launching the prosperity of the sixties and early seventies. The poverty rate was cut, cut, cut and cut further during this timeframe. Can you say by half?

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/09/us-povert...

This was long before the war on poverty started, Frankly, by Johnson, by 1965 (EOA August of 1964).

Denial is only the first step, Frankly. More steps to come.

[arbitrageur]

ABs wrote:

<quoted text>
Actually around 19%, but who's counting...23% was 5 years before the official war was declared, and since that time we have spent what...6 to 8 trillion to knock it down to 12 to 15%...so it has taken over 45 years to accomplish what was accomplished in 5 years - 59 to 64(a drop of around 4 to 5%), money well spent eh lefty?
As for the inequality/quality part, could not agree more, explains why I am so happy here in the states...why are you still here by the way, I forget...

I'd say more like heading downward towards 14%, and then down from there, by the time the legislation really got moving. Then, of course, by 1973 and the resignation of Nixon, it started creeping up again, influenced heavily by Carter. Of course, we all know what happened there, inflation, stagflation, higher poverty rates.

http://www.economicsjunkie.com/wp-content/upl...

[Dave C]

Storm the Bastille wrote:

<quoted text>
You are an educated man, you have received a 'liberal' college education. You surely have seen urban slums, or perhaps even rural farmsteads in the American Delta. Also, you have at least seen photos of the castles of Europe.
Now, with a straight face, are you prepared to claim that the poorest Americans, either the homeless or those living in the squalor of the worst slums in America, perhaps in neighborhoods like those of New Orleans destroyed during the hurricane floods, are living in the same 'good' conditions as were the Crowned Heads of Europe in the late 1800s?
Joking on TWINO is encouraged, but rank misstatements of fact do not behoove a college-educated engineer.
Now if you also don't believe in the Theory of Evolution or Global Warming Theory, you might not have a true appreciation of modern science and the generally-accepted scientific method. This would be an unusual perspective for an educated, college-trained engineering graduate.
Check out this list of castles in France:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_...
Now, try to remember the last time you drove through or near an inner-city slum.
Would you rather live in one of those castles, or in a slum?

I'm not talking about the people the day after a flood or tornado. I'm talking about people whose standard day to day life is in the economic class of Poor.

I was raised poor. My father was a gardener and my mother was a waitress. We never owned a home yet we never starved. My father and mother were very proud of the fact that we had it better than they did growing up and were grateful that they in turn had it better than their parents.

I have raised 4 kids and they had it much, much better than I did. None of them are rich, but their children have not had to do without a thing. The hardest part of Christmas now is buying them something they don't already have. My 4 year old granddaughter has already traveled to Europe and Asia.

Most poor kids today don't know what it is like to go hungry, in fact obesity is one of the biggest problems. They don't know what it is like to spend the night in darkness or to be without a TV, or a gameboy, heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, a coat or shoes.

How does someone else being rich make you poor? Going by your reasoning the richest countries in the world would be those with the fewest million and billionaires.

BTW--I have lived in East Los Angeles, Echo Park, downtown LA, and I have worked in Compton, Inglewood, and Watts so I know what poverty looks like. Been there done that.

[arbitrageur]

Storm the Bastille wrote:

<quoted text>

arb, it is unfair for you to compare your situation with the present situation for young workers entering the work force. The period between 1950 and 1970 was, due to heavy unionization and heavy Democrat Party influence on American economic policy, a time of huge growth of the middle- and upper-middle classes in America.

Joking on TWINO is encouraged, but rank misstatements of fact do not behoove a college-educated whatever, Barksdale.

The fifties were marked, during a Republican administration with 90 % tax rates, by high unemployment, extremely high poverty rates, resulting high misery rates, and high inflation.

I thought you were worried about the poor, at almost 25% of Americans, during the fifties.

I would think you could care less.

[arbitrageur]

Storm the Bastille wrote:

<quoted text>

arb, it is unfair for you to compare your situation with the present situation for young workers entering the work force. The period between 1950 and 1970 was, due to heavy unionization and heavy Democrat Party influence on American economic policy, a time of huge growth of the middle- and upper-middle classes in America.

Unfortunately, union membership growth, during the period 1950 to 1970, was really flat, and then began a long slow decline to where it is today. Really dismal numbers. No wonder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Union_membe...

Remember, joking on TWINO is encouraged, but rank misstatements of fact do not behoove a college-educated whatever.

If you were going to say 1935 to 1945, okay, but you can't be way off and still keep a straight face.

[arbitrageur]

Romneycare is Obamacare wrote:

<quoted text>
The Unions should have severed ties to the corporate Democrats a long time ago.

But they didn't. Know look at them.

[henry]

Sheilaa wrote:

<quoted text>Israel will survive the attacks by islamists and will be here when Jesus comes back to rule the world. Amen

There is not the slightest idea of a come back of a jesus, since jesus is dead long ago like all human beings. So it is nothing than a fancy about ruling the world. There is no god,there was never one and there will never be.

[arbitrageur]

Romneycare is Obamacare wrote:

<quoted text>
The Unions should have severed ties to the corporate Democrats a long time ago.

I hate when this happens. So topi(x)cal.

Jonah Lehrer resigned from the New Yorker Monday after Tablet Magazine revealed that he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book, "Imagine: How Creativity Works."

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/imagine-author-jonah...

[VoteVets org]

arbitrageur wrote:

<quoted text>
I hate when this happens. So topi(x)cal.
Jonah Lehrer resigned from the New Yorker Monday after Tablet Magazine revealed that he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book, "Imagine: How Creativity Works."
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/imagine-author-jonah...

This has nothing to do with his song in 1983 when Ronnie Reagan was president.

Dylan clearly states that American Big Business sold-out the American worker.

[VoteVets org]

arbitrageur wrote:

<quoted text>
But they didn't. Know look at them.

You are correct.

It reminds me of the Tea Party making deals with Wall Street!

The 12: Sandy Adams (Fla.), Quico Canseco (Texas), Rick Crawford (Ark.), Bob Dold (Ill.), Sean Duffy (Wis.), Stephen Fincher (Tenn.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Daniel Webster (Fla.), Mike Grimm (N.Y.), Nan Hayworth (N.Y.), Jim Renacci (Ohio) and Cory Gardner (Col).

==========

GOP freshmen, big-bucks donors hobnob at resort
March 16, 2012 / http://tinyurl.com/85yw3o9
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-573986...

[VoteVets org]

ABs wrote:

<quoted text>
Who is forthwith?
Howdy V-dubya, glad to see you are well and safe...

Right back at you.

[VoteVets org]

henry wrote:

<quoted text>
There is not the slightest idea of a come back of a jesus, since jesus is dead long ago like all human beings. So it is nothing than a fancy about ruling the world. There is no god,there was never one and there will never be.

henry, henry, henry,

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The stage is set for the whole world to go against Israel which was prophesied in the scriptures.

The signs are materializing 24/7 on all the news channels.

Luke 21:11
There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

Revelation 13:17
so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

==========

CEOs and Simpson-Bowles 3.0
July 21 2012 / http://tinyurl.com/d7fdx4t

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ceos-a...

[frank]

arbitrageur wrote:

<quoted text>
Unfortunately, union membership growth, during the period 1950 to 1970, was really flat, and then began a long slow decline to where it is today. Really dismal numbers. No wonder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Union_membe...
Remember, joking on TWINO is encouraged, but rank misstatements of fact do not behoove a college-educated whatever.
If you were going to say 1935 to 1945, okay, but you can't be way off and still keep a straight face.

Speaking of Unions, one wonders how the 'anti union man' Romney got the man from Poland to shamelessly lie? Former Polish president and Union leader Lech Walesa invited the Mitten to Gdansk where he gave the old flip-flopper his endorsement. But Solidarity, the trade union movement that Walesa led and which spearheaded the Polish struggle against communist rule, distanced itself from Romney and refused to comment.

[arbitrageur]

VoteVets org wrote:

<quoted text>
This has nothing to do with his song in 1983 when Ronnie Reagan was president.
Dylan clearly states that American Big Business sold-out the American worker.

I'm glad that you can readily interpret Dylan's personal perspectives on the matter(s).

Notice the song was called "Union Sundown".

Perhaps more important, perhaps to me, was his choice of musicians for the project.

One of which he is touring the US with this fall.

See if you can guess which one it is (a Dylan quote, referencing an unreleased tune at a concert).

Regardless, a recommendation to see them in person, coming up.

[arbitrageur]

frank wrote:

<quoted text>
Speaking of Unions, one wonders how the 'anti union man' Romney got the man from Poland to shamelessly lie? Former Polish president and Union leader Lech Walesa invited the Mitten to Gdansk where he gave the old flip-flopper his endorsement. But Solidarity, the trade union movement that Walesa led and which spearheaded the Polish struggle against communist rule, distanced itself from Romney and refused to comment.

I see exactly what you are saying, but V-Dubya's comments earlier also come in to play, here, along with what I was saying.

Union sundown. Down to 400K from 9.5 MM members.

Solidarity (Polish: Solidarno&#347;&#263;, pronounced [s&#596;li&#712;darn &#596;&#597;t&#865 ;&#597;]( listen); full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" – Niezale&#380;ny Samorz&#261;dny Zwi&#261;zek Zawodowy "Solidarno&#347;& #263;" [&#626;eza&#712;l& #603;&#656;n&#616; sam&#596;&#720;&#7 12;&#656;&#596;ndn &#616; &#712;zvj&#596;&#7 71;z&#603;k zav&#596;&#720;&#7 12;d&#596;v&#616; s&#596;li&#712;darn &#596;&#597;t&#865 ;&#597;]) is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on 31 August 1980 at the Gda&#324;sk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wa&#322;&#281;sa. It was the first non–communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress that constituted 1/3 of the total working age population of Poland.[3]

In the 1980s, Solidarity was a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement, using the methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change.[4] The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of political repression, but in the end it was forced to negotiate with the union.

The Round Table Talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December 1990 Wa&#322;&#281;sa was elected President of Poland. Since then it has become a more traditional, liberal trade union.

30 years after emerging its membership dropped to over 400,000.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_ (Polish_trade_union)

Read and weep, Frankly.

[arbitrageur]

VoteVets org wrote:

<quoted text>
You are correct.
It reminds me of the Tea Party making deals with Wall Street!
The 12: Sandy Adams (Fla.), Quico Canseco (Texas), Rick Crawford (Ark.), Bob Dold (Ill.), Sean Duffy (Wis.), Stephen Fincher (Tenn.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Daniel Webster (Fla.), Mike Grimm (N.Y.), Nan Hayworth (N.Y.), Jim Renacci (Ohio) and Cory Gardner (Col).
==========
GOP freshmen, big-bucks donors hobnob at resort
March 16, 2012 / http://tinyurl.com/85yw3o9
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-573986...

Looks like they were kissing, too. Despicable.