Thoughts

[Doug S.]

IIRC the last POTUS with military experience was JFK...and no, I did not count Gee-Dub's National Guard service b/c it was just a ruse to escape the draft and he never showed up for any of his required time, anyway...
Military experience does not necessarily make a good POTUS, IMHO...but a POTUS with good concept development and the ability to get things done can...BO is that, although I know you disagree with his use of executive orders (which would have been unnecessary had the conservative members of congress not hamstrung the federal government with their hard-line agendas).

As I said...we'll see about Benghazi as HC underwent 11 hours of grilling by congress recently...other issues I do agree with you, we should have annhialated ISIS regardless of what the rest of the world thought, but now the Ruskies may be ready to join us in hunting them down after their airliner was destroyed by an ISIS bomb.

EVERY POTUS has added to the national debt, Al...I miss Jim C and his hard to argue with charts, but he proved that the most egregious increases came under Republican leadership before he decided there was no reasoning with those who were so self-blinded by hatred for BO that they would not believe what they saw.

We as a country have been torn apart by this partisan bickering...hard to decide if the "credit" goes to Boehner and his partners in crime or to the TEA Party, but until we recover a sense of reason and stand united again I fear for our country.

Cheers!!

Doug

 

[Keith]

That's very fair comment Doug...

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

IIRC the last POTUS with military experience was JFK...and no, I did not count Gee-Dub's National Guard service b/c it was just a ruse to escape the draft and he never showed up for any of his required time, anyway...
Military experience does not necessarily make a good POTUS, IMHO...but a POTUS with good concept development and the ability to get things done can...BO is that, although I know you disagree with his use of executive orders (which would have been unnecessary had the conservative members of congress not hamstrung the federal government with their hard-line agendas).

As I said...we'll see about Benghazi as HC underwent 11 hours of grilling by congress recently...other issues I do agree with you, we should have annhialated ISIS regardless of what the rest of the world thought, but now the Ruskies may be ready to join us in hunting them down after their airliner was destroyed by an ISIS bomb.

EVERY POTUS has added to the national debt, Al...I miss Jim C and his hard to argue with charts, but he proved that the most egregious increases came under Republican leadership before he decided there was no reasoning with those who were so self-blinded by hatred for BO that they would not believe what they saw.

We as a country have been torn apart by this partisan bickering...hard to decide if the "credit" goes to Boehner and his partners in crime or to the TEA Party, but until we recover a sense of reason and stand united again I fear for our country.

Cheers!!

Doug

We may be joining the Russians, we certainly aren't leading. And yes all Presidents have increased the debt, but not on such a grand scale. And Obama was the one that said GWB was unpatriotic for having a large national debt. GWB 8 years $4.9 trillion. Obama 6 years 10 months $7.9 trillion. The National debt when Obama took office with a Democrat Congress and Senate was $10.626 trillion, when the Republicans took over the Congress January 2013 It was $16.494 trillion, now it's $18.560 trillion. So under complete Democrat rule it went up $5.86 trillion in three years and with Republican congress in almost 3 years it went up $2.06 trillion. So I don't know where you got your info, but it's wrong. The Democrats are the spending fools. So to paraphrase Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction I think we are "pretty fuckin far from being OK".
This is how we are seen by other countries.


https://www.youtube.com/embed/UXodRLLkth4

 

[Robert May Eng.]

And Obama was the one that said GWB was unpatriotic for having a large national debt. GWB 8 years $4.9 trillion. Obama 6 years 10 months $7.9 trillion. The National debt when Obama took office with a Democrat Congress and Senate was $10.626 trillion, when the Republicans took over the Congress January 2013 It was $16.494 trillion, now it's $18.560 trillion. So under complete Democrat rule it went up $5.86 trillion in three years and with Republican congress in almost 3 years it went up $2.06 trillion. So I don't know where you got your info, but it's wrong. The Democrats are the spending fools. So to paraphrase Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction I think we are "pretty fuckin far from being OK".
This is how we are seen by other countries.

Al I am not picking holes in the figures but how much of the overspend has been used to prop up the economy and safeguard services during this recession? Its not something his predecessors were faced with, just sayin.

Bob

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Al I am not picking holes in the figures but how much of the overspend has been used to prop up the economy and safeguard services during this recession? Its not something his predecessors were faced with, just sayin.

Bob

We've had almost 7 years of blame game, Obama wanted to be President, so stop whining and do the job. We've made it easier to be on welfare, 32 million people in 2009 48 million today 50% rise. And they pissed away money on stuff like Solindra that went belly up. Not to mention million dollar vacations and golf with Bidin at 100k a pop for transportation and security. If you're worried about the economy then the buck stops at home. It's good to be the king!

 

[Jeff Young]

As usual, Al is pretty grossly ill informed.

By all indicators, the economy in the US is doing fairly well, and better than most other developed nations. It's impossible for a lot of old white folks to believe a Marxist! Socialist! Black! Muslim! President could be partly responsible for that, but he is, and it both makes me giggle and sad to see how much it pisses them off.

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

Jeff, thank you so much for the information. Once again your factual comment is appreciated. I think Jim C was correct, you should run for political office, it would suit you. Thanks again for your input!

 

[Keith]

In the interests of harmony, I should amend my last post. Al. did you want thoughts or facts?

 

[Keith]

Darn it. Larry's gone to Vegas but he would be stoked to read this:

Egypt pyramids scan finds mystery heat spots - BBC News

Could it actually be the grain? :shifty:

 

[Robert May Eng.]

We've had almost 7 years of blame game, Obama wanted to be President, so stop whining and do the job. We've made it easier to be on welfare, 32 million people in 2009 48 million today 50% rise. And they pissed away money on stuff like Solindra that went belly up. Not to mention million dollar vacations and golf with Bidin at 100k a pop for transportation and security. If you're worried about the economy then the buck stops at home. It's good to be the king!

Al I dont feel you can be too judgmental when you consider he was handed a deficit at the same time the country was in recession. The " making it easier to be on welfare" wont wash if there are no job prospects and a decline in manufacturing. Even the most hardened of you would not want to see your fellow countrymen starve to death. Just a thought.

 

[Keith]

The " making it easier to be on welfare" wont wash if there are no job prospects and a decline in manufacturing. Even the most hardened of you would not want to see your fellow countrymen starve to death. Just a thought.

Have you not been paying attention Robert?

 

[Pat]

By all indicators, the economy in the US is doing fairly well, and better than most other developed nations. It's impossible for a lot of old white folks to believe a Marxist! Socialist! Black! Muslim! President could be partly responsible for that, but he is, and it both makes me giggle and sad to see how much it pisses them off.

Your quote is right up there with your past post reference to Mr. Obama's and Mrs. Clinton's "moderately successful" policies in the middle east. I guess it's in all in the eye of the beholder-unless you're a Yazidi, a Christian or working in the Benghazi diplomatic annex.

Most of those responding in the latest PEW research poll don't agree with you. 66% believe the the country is heading in the wrong direction.
By comparison to others, we are well off, we don't have Ebola like West Africa, mad cow like the UK, Russians occupying our land like the Ukraine, refugees overwhelming our cites (well maybe not that one) and oligarchs running our government (hmm, maybe not that one either).

So in your assessment of things going "fairly well" did it include that the Labor force participation 2008 was 66.2 million workers but in 2015 down to 62.4 million? When you add the additions to the labor pool from net populations growth and immigration, there are now 94,228 million people NOT in the labor force up from 92,041 this time last year. Today, only 47% of working age Americans have full time jobs. Over the past decade or so, those counted by the government as "Not in the Labor Force" expanded by 37.5% while population grew by only 14.2%.
The government reports several "unemployment rates". The sycophants of Mr. Obama prefer (for obvious reason) the widely reported unemployment rate (U-3), there government only counts those who have looked for a job in the past four weeks as unemployed. Note that some part-time workers counted as employed by U-3 could be working as little as an hour a week. For comparison, in October 2015, the real unemployment rate (U-6) which includes everyone who wants a full-time job but doesn't have one was 9.8%, nearly double the widely-reported unemployment rate (U-3) of 5.0%. This is a stark depiction of underlying stagnation: paid work is not being created as population expands.

According to a study in the NY Times, the inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household was $87,992 in 2003. Ten years later, it was only $56,335, or a 36 percent decline.
The wealth gap between the rich and the merely middle-class is at a 30-year high, according to a recent Pew study.
But the bad news on home ownership, the traditional base of most middle income family wealth, is home ownership rate declined to 63.8% in the first quarter of 2015 compared with 65% in the first quarter of 2014, according to estimates published by the Commerce Department. The the real wealth most families have in there homes is disappearing unless they can own a home. Because of debt service, inflation and joblessness, family savings have been liquidated on a massive scale. Student debt crushes the hopes millennials have of moving out of Mom's basement and acquiring a home. And once you account for the fact that most people have their net worth (and wealth) tied up in their homes, it becomes clearer why many Americans don’t have enough money for retirement.

But when you compare the economy to the President and Mrs. Clinton's Middle East successes, it certainly is spectacular, especially if you are in the number of fewer and fewer individuals who have homes and jobs... Those lacking paid work are not just impoverished; they lose the skills and will to work, a loss to the nation in more than economic vitality.

While perhaps all may please a young rich white liberal or an old UK curmudgeon, it doesn't piss me off, it makes me sad. Our debt is unsustainable, our government is bloated, inefficient and without accountability and apparently a narcissistic non-practicing liberal black guy is good no matter what - yet humble religious conservative black guy is profanely bad, no matter what.

 

[Keith]

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy Pat? That was years ago....

And where exactly do the "UK curmudgeons" come into this?

I don't think any of us over understand US politics - we have enough issues of our own to contend with, but am always willing to learn. After 10 years or more on this board conversing with Americans on a regular basis I cannot say I am any nearer to enlightenment! :laugh:

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

In the interests of harmony, I should amend my last post. Al. did you want thoughts or facts?

A little constructive input would be nice. The debt figures I gave are fact, I don't disparage members of this forum to make a point.

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

This while we are in a "depression"

Obama golf trips cost taxpayers $3M - Washington Times

Judicial Watch Obtains Records Revealing Obama

First Family Vacations - Judicial Watch

Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips

Obama Spent $4.4 Million Tax Dollars On Golf And Private Fundraisers In Two Months » Infowars Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

Vacationer in chief: Tens of millions spent on 38 Obama holidays | Washington Examiner

Obama-Biden vacation tab reaches $40 million --- $2.9 million alone for two Obama 2014 golf outings | Washington Examiner

Joe Biden spent more than million dollars flying to Wilmington home | Daily Mail Online


It's good to be King!

 

[Keith]

Yes indeed - we have "fat cat" syndrome here too, all the while asking us to pull our belts in another notch. It's very irritating :furious:

 

[Jeff Young]

Veek numbers are numbers. 12 (?) straight quarters of growth. Unemployment at 5% (and that job participation number? The same as in 1981 under St. Reagan). Deficit cut in half. 8 million jobs added.

66% of the country think we are headed in teh wrong direction for two reasons I think: (a) Fox News tells them that over and ove and over every day and (b) wage growth has lagged for the lower and middle classes.

Meaning, trickle down doesn't work and has never worked.

Doug, Jimmy Carter was a graduate of the Naval Academy, and a nuclear engineer on nuclear subs. He left the Navy -- he wanted to be career -- only because his father died and someone had to return home to run the farm.

George Bush I was a naval aviator in WWII, an Avenger pilot shot down near the end of the war.

 

[Jeff Young]

Note also that the "humble religious conservative black guy" is bad cause cray cray.

Young Earth creationists who think evolution is the work of the devil don't get the keys to the nukes.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Bloody hell, and I thought Australian politics were scraping the bottom off the barrel.
Surely out of a population of 319 million both sides can come up with better candidates?

 

[Al Wohlstrom]

We are looking for a 1/4 Black, 1/4 Hispanic, 1/4 Arab, 1/4 Eskimo, gay, short, fat, Muslim, transsexual that eats pork.