Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

don't get me started on the music industry.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I assume that no one here is going to read the Benghazi report. Heck, even Cummings dismissed it as partisan before admitting he hadn't read it. So I will point out that Conservative media is not outraged about how Hillary lied about it to the families. Hardly a mention of that. Obama is even being complimented for being on record to the DoD that they should use all of the resources at their disposal to try and save the lives.

But conservatives are pretty pissed at Hillary with respect to one thing in particular. After Panetta's pretty timely order to move the FAST platoons, the CIF and the US SOF, which was the only order needed to move those resources (Per Panetta "these are elite units, and the purpose of these units is to move when I give the order to move, and that’s what I expected.”) But the State Department (Hillary, Cheryl Mills, Patrick Kennedy, et al) caused a substantial delay by debating things like whether the Marines should wear civilian or military attire. One might think that a quick review of the Geneva and other conventions would put that right to bed, as a uniform is one of those things that is essential in defining a legally protected combatant, but no. "In fact, the FAST Platoon commander testified that during the course of three hours, he and his Marines changed in and out of their uniforms four times."

To top it all off, when the compound was attacked, the Libyan security forces co-opted by State and the CIA disappeared. The motorcade that drove up to save the survivors of the attack wasn't US forces who were changing their clothes multiple times.

"The forces that arrived at the Annex shortly after the mortar attacks were able to transport all State Department and CIA personnel safely to the airport. The forces, known as Libyan Military Intelligence, arrived with 50 heavily-armed security vehicles. Libyan Military Intelligence was not part of the Libyan government, nor affiliated with any of the militias the CIA or State Department had developed a relationship with during the prior 18 months since the Libyan revolution took place. Instead, Libya Military Intelligence—whom the CIA did not even know existed until the night of the attacks—were comprised of former military officers under the Qadhafi regime who had gone into hiding in fear of being assassinated, and wanted to keep their presence in Benghazi as quiet as possible so as to not attract attention from the militias in control of Benghazi. In other words, some of the very individuals the United States had helped remove from power during the Libyan revolution were the only Libyans that came to the assistance of the United States on the night of the Benghazi attacks."

So they were saved not by the US forces State delayed, but by men whose lives were in danger because of Hillary's actions in the Arab Spring, that the CIA didn't even know existed.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You really don't see how even knowing all of this minutia is blowing things way out of proportion?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Out of the clusterfuck that is health care, Pharma resembles nothing so much as anteater's snout or an octopus's tentacle. It has its way of wrapping itself up in every new thing, and it sucks nothing but excess money out of the system.

As for the troubles with using smaller banks, the big banks are already syndicating. Smaller banks mean smaller slices of pie. Getting more participants isn't going to add nearly as much cost to a promoter as it does value. Even banks need to do a little redistributing when it comes to where you fall on the pecking order.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I don't think I'm saying what you think I'm saying.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

It says in the report that Hillary Clinton sat there arguing about whether they should wear uniforms or not for 4 hours? Or is she guilty in a buck-stops-here kinda way?

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

This is true. But big banks take the big pieces of the best loans. They don't syndicate that stuff to small banks. They sell the shittier stuff to smaller banks who have trouble understanding the credit as well as they do.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

As someone who goes to church with one of the families involved, we and they are pretty fucking outraged at the way the right has dealt with this. See above.

"Conservative media", those lowlifes who do their best to twist everything to fit their own messed up ideology and fuel their own hate, needs to get their head out of their ass and start giving a shit about the country and about its people. Really. You endorse these pricks? This is what you think of as good politics?

Here's what should be the last fucking word on every single scumbag who tries to use this for political advantage.

You say you don't like Trump but think the Benghazi hearings are responsible politics. Screw that. You are what Trump is all about. This is why you got Trump.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

No offense, but the survivors' opinions are secondary. The woman is likely to be President.

Everything is spun. There is so little unbiased "news" that you and SEC arguing is just silly. T asks the main question- was Hillary part of the "wear suits- no wear uniforms" cluster fuck? She says Trump doesn't have the temperament to be Prez- I think everyone here agrees. But someone worrying about wardrobe ain't all that on point either.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Do you think that there is the slightest chance the GOP would have conducted this kind of "investigation" if Hillary hadn't been a target?

The GOP didn't do a tenth this much work to figure out how we let a known terrorist group, who was known to be targeting the US, blow up the WTC and hit the Pentagon and kill 3000 Americans. Of course, the "we" in that sentence was the Bush Administration*, so there goes your answer.


*Hank thinks either Clinton or Obama, or both, were President at the time, but Hank is wrong on this, as with so many other things.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

SEC Chick will end up giving money to Trump and voting for him. You know this, I know this, everyone but SEC Chick knows this.

However, I do love the notion that it was critical to keep a dictator in power in Libya (except before Obama helped remove him, when it was critical to help remove him), and critical to get rid of a dictator in Syria.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Hank, are you gonna take this shit from that d-bag liberal ass pussy? Rip him a new one, or resign from these boards in disgrace and spend your elder years spinning yarns to the Moth enthusiasts.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

anyone who reads this board with any objectivity knows you are brain damaged, so for all of us who do you think was let in and by which president? And who ever your feverish brain picks how is the San Bernadino wife different, other than the death toll?

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Sidd scares me. I better just sit this fight out. Live to fight another day. My worst regret is that you will be disappointed.{sad face}

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Bernie gets it. Brexit and Trumpism are about inequality first, a rigged economic system second, and then scapegoating of immigrants: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29...uffpost.com/us

You know he best cure for xenophobia? Creating a system where the natives understand and realize a direct profit and improvement in their lives - in the short term - from immigration.

This can be done, but it's tough. And the biggest impediment to constructive action in this regard is the traditional economists' argument, "Over time, liberal trade, including labor arbitrage, will create more and better jobs." True. But that "over time" interim is decades. Surely a person who believes, as traditional economists do, that all men are rational actors grasps that any policy which takes longer than a man's remaining lifetime to "improve" his life will be rejected by even the most gullible of voters.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

It was critical to keep both in power. "Hope" in the Arab Spring was like hope Obama would preside over some actual economic change. It was misguided and silly.

Change, be it in the Middle East, or in terms of economic equality here, or of curing political dysfunction generally, will only occur in the wake of very dark crises. I don't know what those crises will be, but the forces of the current status quo - for which one may use the EU as a proxy (which Nigel Farage correctly described as an abject failure two days ago before the EU Parliament) - are incredibly strong and determined to hold power and drive us toward their neoliberal (read, self-enriching) ends. The Brexits to come, the revolts of the little people, and the economic collapses they both initiate and follow, will be many, and ugly.

The market will rip back over 18k soon enough, and it'll all seem just fine. But from here to Beijing to Johannesburg to São Paulo to Moscow to London, the global economic and political artifice sits above a landfill of unsustainable debt, inequality, and aging demographics. The change agents we're going to see are not going to be very comforting.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

You're smoking crack.

Trump will probably win Texas, but I assure you that it will be without my help. Do you really think I'd vote Trump before I'd write in Ted Cruz? Or vote Green Party in the hope that they get enough to qualify for matching funds to hurt the Ds long term? You recall I voted for Nader over GWB, right? My problem with Trump is he's a Democrat. Or at least he was that, or Reform Party, before deciding to run as an R last year, while still not even paying lip service to most Republican principles.

Heck. I am so disgusted that most Republican principles make me want to throw up in my mouth. Even the Chamber of Commerce opposes Trump. We are writing checks to Senate Conservatives Fund-backed candidates only. Trump is down by as many as 12 points. I would literally rather set money on fire than send it to him.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Hillary was present at the meeting in which her Under Secretary (Kennedy) raised the issue of the civilian clothing for the Marines. She participated in the debate.

I am particularly troubled by the extent to which the attire debate and the State Department's clutching of pearls may have been influenced by the fact that if they went in uniform, the perception would be that it was a real military intervention that would indicate that the Middle East was not the sunshine and rainbows the administration wished to convey, given the proximity to the election. It wasn't an issue of the safety of the Marines.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm not disappointed. In the sober light of day, I actually admire your prudence.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Get over yourself. I'm sure there were a number of reasons why civilian clothing vs. fatigues was an issue, some of which rise to the level of how the country and the world classifies the incursion. And those are issues her department is responsible for addressing.

Secondly, from your answer, I'm not convinced Hillary was involved beyond (possibly) hearing the issue and you sure don't seem like you can assert that she was involved in a 4 hour debate about it and sending conflicting orders as if she was changing her mind over and over. And that's what you implied.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I think you're smoking crack there. This waterhead's got nothing in the bank, and is now fully committed to an isolationist/anti-immigrant platform. Even if he gets all the xenophobes in TX, there's no way people in the tech and energy industries are buying onto his platform. Couple them with the anti-wall voters and Trump's got a tough road in TX.

Of the 999 most people have, this isn't typically one. I like the fact that Trump was a moderate Democrat. Moderate Democrats and Republicans are the best kind. Pro-business, fiscally sensible, and socially liberal.

Yes, my Libertarian side would prefer a true free market proponent. But we're never going fix any of the problems in this country until we have a near armageddon collapse of some sort, or a pitchforks in the street revolution (and even then, there's a good chance we'll just degrade into a deeply class divide society like Brazil). So... During this somewhat calm period before the math finally, really catches up with us, why not have a moderate in office? Make the waning years of the Republic as we knew it - the American Dream we've all enjoyed - a little less volatile?

I fully realize I'm arguing Trump is a moderate here, which is a Bizarro Universe situation.

Good luck with that. What you and so many other GOP traditionalists seem unable to process is, Your Conservatism is Dead. That old game of servicing the rich with the votes of the rubes? Well, the Internet spoiled that for you. Joe Shit-For-Brains Middle Class GOP Rube now understands how bad he was getting fucked by "conservatives." He's not switching to the Democrats, because they're fucking him just as hard. Instead, he's picking up a pitchfork, and voting for populists.

It's over. Conservatism was a lie from the start (Reagan ballooned the debt, starting this whole mess), and it only survived because the public didn't have access to information. The rabble isn't so easily led around by the nose anymore. They don't believe the GOP, and they shouldn't. You "conservatives" have no message with which to compete with the Democrats, who are going to kick your asses for the indefinite future by holding onto their voting bloc with promises of a more expansive nanny state.

You had a chance with Trump. But the pricks who run your party would rather stay atop the collapsing scaffolding of "conservatism" than allow populists some power in the GOP. You fucked it up. You really fucked it up.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Damn the evidence and just keep saying it, huh?

You realize that there is a difference between an assumption that is built in to a model and a "belief" right? Because not even those most wedded to models believe that all men are rational actors. Freedman's famous "pool player analogy" is an argument for why it might not matter that "men" are not.

That's not even it. It's not necessarily even a time lag. It's that there are domestic losers from trade, and unless we adopt policies to offset those losses, as we've decidedly failed to do, no amount of time will make thing better for them.

I may have already linked to this episode of Econ Talk (not a big Russ Roberts fan, but this one is good) with David Autor about his estimates of the effect of trade in China on US manufacturing, and a lot more, but it and the discussion it sparked are a good place to start.

My take away: we adopted free trade while expressly rejecting the kinds of support systems that are needed to offset its costs.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Benghazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

No offense, but Have You No Shame?

Maybe one of the first five investigations, say, but after all these years, you're defending an "investigation" by a bunch of hacks timed to be released in the middle of a campaign? Just in time to be used in NRA ads on behalf of Donald Trump?

Really, American voters ought to be disgusted. And throw some of these jerks out. And you ought to have some shame.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I could fight with you on the rest, but with this I agree. However, it might be impossible to effectively do otherwise. I'm not sure there's a way to seriously offset the impacts of free trade on labor in advanced nations. Even if you give the displaced benefits commensurate to all that they've lost, people have a need to do something with themselves. They have to feel like they're productive, respected, etc. This is the hole I see in Friedman's "basic income."

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Fucking Trumpster.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

First you need the safety net, health care and UBI, then you need vocational training and job search and relocation assistance, and you need an ongoing investment in education to reduce the future portion of the work force that's vulnerable. We've been doing the opposite.

The good news is Autor et al's research suggests the problem is real, but not as big as I think you believe.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Of course she will. It will tighten up, and be within 5 points, and she won't feel like she has the luxury of a protest vote, and figure the "lesser of two evils" means supporting a racist lunatic over a, god forbid, sensible, thoughtful woman.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Yeah, this is pretty much right. The folks who claim to be most aggrieved by globalization, other than the Bernie Sanders college students who are completely full of shit on the subject and enormous beneficiaries of globalization, have not done poorly on an absolute scale, they have done poorly relative to a lot of folks who have done better.

The best way to raise the standards for these people, however, is to raise them for their peers oversees. If wages in China can go up $5, wages here can go up by $2.50, and that's the kind of math that is realistic and would mean progress.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'd lend more credence to this prediction if I thought it was going to tighten up. I think we've seen the closest this race will ever be and advantage for Hillary will only widen.

But then again I'd have predicted "remain" too, so, ya know.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

That's why you need to have lenders with pull have the deal terms include a firm commitment to offer a larger piece overall of the deal in smaller chunks to smaller banks, on the same credit terms (quality, rate, etc.) If necessary, make it a regulated thing.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Job search, relocation, and vocational assistance aren't going to work for more but a tiny fraction of those in the workforce for over 15 or so years. Nor will these things work for people of limited intelligence. They are worth trying, of course, but don't expect much. The low intelligence/low skilled workers will, in large part, become wards of the state.

We should focus ourselves on helping the young, who can benefit from such programs. I think a good place to start would be to identify children's natural skills at an early age and try to give them pathways to productive careers in which their skill sets are valued. Too much of education now is teaching-for-the-test to put kids into jobs that are lucrative. Or, kids just floundering and figuring out what they want to do as they rudderlessly navigate the education system (70% of law students). A better course may be identifying where people will excel early and giving them a path to it.

But no matter how we slice it, with tech's impact, we are looking at a massive body glut for the medium to reasonably long term future which no basket of fixes easily addresses.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

There's always cannibalism and class warfare.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Remember, what is a small bank today would have been a big bank in the 80s. The top US banks today are trillion-dollar banks, and you don't make the top twenty without being in the hundred billion range for assets. Back in the 80s, $10 billion landed you in the top twenty banks.

Somehow, back then, they still got the deals done. But in a post-bank-deregulation world, there have been structural advantages to big banks built in, because there has been a sense that the big banks are safer and better managed, which has not turned out to be the case.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

We don't need it to work for everyone. We need it to work for (1) those with sufficient motivation to be unhappy simply relying on the safety net and (2) enough people to quell populist anti-trade political movements that make us (and the world) poorer overall.

Education is key, but we need to do something for the old to acheive #2.

Nah. We'll (1) find things for people to do, and (2) stop creating so many people. Those things will take care of themselves.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Of course. But still -- that's a lot of folks.

Things for people to do that pay most of them -- well.

As to #2 there, tennis, golf, chess... some sports date back to Henry VIII; some to the pyramids. None have anything on the greatest sport/time killer/hobby ever invented: Fucking. And the secret to that success? It's free, and you can be dumb as an ox and still make the varsity team... perhaps even go pro! So, no, the morons shan't be dwindling. Quite the opposite, as any trip to a big box retailer or mall will more than adequately confirm.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Class warfare is already engaged among the serfs. It's the non-apathetic against the distraction industries (media/entertainment and electronic gadget makers).

Someday, the message, "You're getting fucked," and "Your 'going along to get along' is making things worse" will overcome the diversions. The question then will be, "How well has the top 20% walled itself off? Literally."

We'll be near dead by then... voting for whoever promises to get those kids off our lawns.

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

I'm not sure how this would work. For any loan over a certain amount that is syndicated beyond the club (3-4 banks) level, the Borrower and Admin Agent must offer to smaller banks (who may or may not be a pain in the fucking ass when it comes to amendment voting or who may not be able to fund an increase or who may be in danger of going under given their existing investments, etc.) an X%-sized piece of the deal? There isn't a chance in hell that such a law could be drafted to work, let alone pass.

TM

Re: I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused.
 

Here's some spacey hyphenated funk for your Wednesday. The Nite-Liters with Funky-Vamp. Today's Daily Dose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGe1WMOAkE