or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
July 23, 2010
Another Prediction: The Sun Is Going to Rise Tomorrow
Here's something I wrote in the comments section of a post here from November 11, 2007 about Obama and Social Security:
Fooling people into believing Social Security is in such trouble that we have to make "tough decisions" about it is one of the premiere achievements of America's right in the past 25 years. It's extremely important to dispel this illusion, because as long as it survives it sets the stage for what's going to happen in the next big economic crunch: an all-out campaign to blame the crunch on Social Security and social programs generally. If you want something to invest in, bet on THAT, because there is no surer money on earth.The people who run the US would like nothing better than to subject us to the kind of structural adjustment that the IMF has long specialized in for the third world. Read The Shock Doctrine. That's what they're preparing for us, and the Social Security campaign is the centerpiece of this. When unemployment's 12% and inflation's running at 20% and people's homes are being repossessed, Obama's position of "there's a giant problem with Social Security, so let's raise the FICA cap" will not get us a raised FICA cap (something which 90% of Americans don't even know the meaning of). Instead, all he will have done is contributed to getting the whole thing washed away in the flood.
This may be hard to recognize if you're not familiar with the way they've run this playbook all over the world. But I guarantee you, this is what they're up to, and that's why this matter so much.
Then back in 2005 there was this.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at July 23, 2010 07:28 AMLook on the bright side - right now inflation isn't much of a problem.
But seriously, good call. Obama's picks of people to run the Cat Food Commission showed clearly whose side he is on.
Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at July 23, 2010 08:00 AMDr. Charles, we always knew....
Posted by: RedPhillip at July 23, 2010 10:01 AMremove ...showed clearly...
insert ...is just one more irrefutable indication of...
Posted by: mistah charley, ph.d. at July 23, 2010 10:08 AMTo paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 'first they came for the Chileans, but I was not a Chilean. . . then they came for the Indonesians, but I was not an Indonesian. . . etc. etc. etc. (examples randomly selected).
Posted by: N E at July 23, 2010 10:56 AMGood thing you nailed it as strictly a project of "the right." Seriously.
Nobody on "the left" ever could consider privatizing and/or gutting Social Security, eh?
Gotcha.
So now, the problem is to convince Americans that The Democrats actually are "the right."
Well done, Gore Vidal. Go have a look in the mirror, check your visage.
Posted by: CF Oxtrot at July 23, 2010 01:01 PMyeah I might bet on it... but I wouldn't bet my life on it...know what I mean?
That is my mockery of your mocking your mockery of the original... mockery.
Posted by: tim at July 23, 2010 01:23 PMSAVE YOUR SOCIAL SECUTITY, call Pelosi @1-202-225-0100. Negociate with Congress directly.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at July 23, 2010 01:43 PMOne day the sun, feeling taken for granted is going to say, "Fuck Hume and all y'all!" and just not rise on the next day.
AND YOU WILL HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THAT
Posted by: Slocum at July 23, 2010 09:59 PMFriend Meyer, Ms. Pelosi, et. al. could give two shits about Social Security, or your and anyone else's opinion about it. Call away. You might as well bay at the moon. Meanwhile, if you're on SSI or SSDI, stock up on cat food.
The only arguments that our fine Congresscritters would respect are those delivered with heavy munitions.
Posted by: RedPhillip at July 23, 2010 09:59 PMCall your Rerpresentitve. LULZ!11!
Posted by: demize! at July 23, 2010 10:57 PMRedPhilip: Its ONLY a phonecall BUT it might save some of what YOU have worked for ALL these years.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at July 24, 2010 01:25 AMFriend Meyer, your tender faith is touching.
I will meanwhile stock up on cat food, and if I can afford the ammunition, use the time I might otherwise waste chatting to a Congresscritter's office drone getting in some target practice. I know that will make me feel better, and in the long run might actually produce a useful result.
Posted by: RedPhillip at July 24, 2010 07:25 AMRedPhilip: "One nation, indispensible, with weapons and ammunition for all"---NE. Top Ramen is cheap too and "yummy" when served with "Wiskas".
Posted by: Mike Meyer at July 24, 2010 01:01 PMIt seems to me that the U.S. economic problems are most likely caused by the $1+ trillion we spend on what is embarrassingly called defense. We don't really have a reliable estimate on military, intelligence, drug interdiction and war expenditures (total)...at least none that I know of. I suspect that most of our foreign aid is also of a military nature rather than humanitarian.
xyz: XACTLY!
Posted by: Mke Meyer at July 26, 2010 03:20 PMI received an e-mail the other day from a friend asking me to add my name to the e-mail asking Obama to not give any SS money to illegal immigrants. It smelled false, so I immediately looked it up on Snopes.com. They pay into SS, but rarely do they see any of it. So, how can SS be in trouble when we've got all these immigrants adding to what the rest of us pay into? The obvious answer is, it's in trouble, but only because it keeps getting robbed to pay for our illegal wars.
Posted by: Diane at July 29, 2010 12:11 PM
