Bombs and sinking ships
by M. Stewart
According to WTOV and the Morning Journal, J.C. Amato is back in jail, this time on weapons charges. His bond is set at $100,000 cash. Given the fact that Amato already has admitted shooting his wife in the head, that seems a might low.
But apparently J.C. has graduated from mere guns. Now we’re talking bombs. What on earth would anyone be planning to do with pipe bombs? Hunt wild game?
Turning to the election, it appears that the Republicans are getting desperate. Not satisfied with using taxpayer money to bail out their rich Wall Street friends, they’re trying to blame Bill Clinton for the country’s imminent financial collapse.
Pay no attention to the fact that President Clinton hasn’t been in office for nearly eight years. Ignore the fact that the last economic boom in this country was during the Clinton presidency. (Oh yeah, I forgot. The Clinton prosperity was due to the policies of King George I—a one termer who was voted out of office after he ran the economy into the ground.)
At least this is what the Republicans would have us believe. Up is down. Get enough people to say it enough times on TV, and it will become truth. What’s so funny about it is that millions of Americans believe it already—no doubt the same ones who believe in angels, demons, the Easter Bunny and the Holy Ghost.
John McCain’s attempts to separate from the Republican Party by presenting himself and Ma Palin as Wild West mavericks is truly comical. I don’t know that Barack Obama is the answer, but I’ve heard about all the Republican bullshit I can take. They already have the racists, the evangelicals, the warmongers and the rich; now I guess they’re going after the stupid.
I know it’s hard for true conservatives to admit, but the Republican Party abandoned you long ago. Republicans are responsible for the demise of the United States as an economic power; they have brought about the end of our brief empire. It was a good 200-plus year run, but the decline is obvious and the fall seems inevitable.
Republicans have literally sold the country to the Saudis and the Chinese. They are actually proud of outsourcing every aspect of the American economy that possibly can be outsourced. Yet the Republicans still wear those little flag pins. They continue to claim they are the true patriots, the true conservatives. They are neither.
Far worse than his father, George W. Bush and his gang have done everything they can to bring the U.S. economy to its knees. But we’re supposed to believe that John McCain, who just a few months ago bragged about supporting Bush 90 percent of the time, is now a reformed “maverick” who will clean up Washington and right America’s sinking ship. McCain and Palin are so desperate to get out from under the Republican cloud that they will say anything to get elected, even insult the party that nominated them.
Then there’s Barack Obama. He wants to play Robin Hood by taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Frankly, I’m really sick of the government subsidizing the poor. I don’t see the poor as an abstract class of helpless victims held down by the greedy rich. No, I look around and see the real thing: a bunch of lazy people who know they don’t have to work to get what they want. It doesn’t matter which party is in power, the poor do very well in this country.
So we’re left not with a choice but a conundrum. No matter who wins the election, the United States is in serious trouble. George Bush and Dick Cheney have done us in. Woe to those who follow.
According to WTOV and the Morning Journal, J.C. Amato is back in jail, this time on weapons charges. His bond is set at $100,000 cash. Given the fact that Amato already has admitted shooting his wife in the head, that seems a might low.
But apparently J.C. has graduated from mere guns. Now we’re talking bombs. What on earth would anyone be planning to do with pipe bombs? Hunt wild game?
Turning to the election, it appears that the Republicans are getting desperate. Not satisfied with using taxpayer money to bail out their rich Wall Street friends, they’re trying to blame Bill Clinton for the country’s imminent financial collapse.
Pay no attention to the fact that President Clinton hasn’t been in office for nearly eight years. Ignore the fact that the last economic boom in this country was during the Clinton presidency. (Oh yeah, I forgot. The Clinton prosperity was due to the policies of King George I—a one termer who was voted out of office after he ran the economy into the ground.)
At least this is what the Republicans would have us believe. Up is down. Get enough people to say it enough times on TV, and it will become truth. What’s so funny about it is that millions of Americans believe it already—no doubt the same ones who believe in angels, demons, the Easter Bunny and the Holy Ghost.
John McCain’s attempts to separate from the Republican Party by presenting himself and Ma Palin as Wild West mavericks is truly comical. I don’t know that Barack Obama is the answer, but I’ve heard about all the Republican bullshit I can take. They already have the racists, the evangelicals, the warmongers and the rich; now I guess they’re going after the stupid.
I know it’s hard for true conservatives to admit, but the Republican Party abandoned you long ago. Republicans are responsible for the demise of the United States as an economic power; they have brought about the end of our brief empire. It was a good 200-plus year run, but the decline is obvious and the fall seems inevitable.
Republicans have literally sold the country to the Saudis and the Chinese. They are actually proud of outsourcing every aspect of the American economy that possibly can be outsourced. Yet the Republicans still wear those little flag pins. They continue to claim they are the true patriots, the true conservatives. They are neither.
Far worse than his father, George W. Bush and his gang have done everything they can to bring the U.S. economy to its knees. But we’re supposed to believe that John McCain, who just a few months ago bragged about supporting Bush 90 percent of the time, is now a reformed “maverick” who will clean up Washington and right America’s sinking ship. McCain and Palin are so desperate to get out from under the Republican cloud that they will say anything to get elected, even insult the party that nominated them.
Then there’s Barack Obama. He wants to play Robin Hood by taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Frankly, I’m really sick of the government subsidizing the poor. I don’t see the poor as an abstract class of helpless victims held down by the greedy rich. No, I look around and see the real thing: a bunch of lazy people who know they don’t have to work to get what they want. It doesn’t matter which party is in power, the poor do very well in this country.
So we’re left not with a choice but a conundrum. No matter who wins the election, the United States is in serious trouble. George Bush and Dick Cheney have done us in. Woe to those who follow.
posted by M. | 7:54 AM
29 Comments:
I know you'll jump on this latest Amato arrest in a separate post, but perhaps if he had been held under the same kind of bond that other suspects (especially suspected murderers and accused kidnappers) were given, he wouldn't have been able to have guns and bombs, for Christ's sake.
And they STILL only have him under $100,000 bond!
Let's hope the fool blows himself up!
Its a $100K cash bond. Now normally if it is simply $100K, a bondsman would charge around $12K to post the bond. In this case, the court wants the entire $100K before they will let JC out. I don't think we will see him anytime soon.
Let me ask, is anyone really suprised by this latest news? I'm not.
Who were the bombs meant for anyway?
I'll have to say this Matt, you really don't have a clue as to what's going on politically in this country. You seem to be no better than Rush Limbaugh or Chris Mathews. My recommendation: If you don't know what you're doing politically, keep you mouth shut.
I see why you've been withholding posts now.
I'm still trying to make sense of
The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Were it not for a newspaper clipping with a picture of Pete Arner, and a shot of the funeral home in Chester, I would just assume it was a Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds induced You Tube algorithm. But with less than four hours sleep in the last twenty four hours , I have to ask myself why am I trying to figure it out anyway.
UpGrayed--
Well, I'm so glad that we have brilliant people like you to tell me to keep my mouth shut. I keep reading your comment looking for some evidence of substance, but I'm not seeing it. I know it must be there, so I'll keep looking.
I withhold posts from people who do nothing but insult others. You know the type: people who claim they are smart but have nothing to say, people who want only to silence those with whom they disagree, people incapable of actually participating in a discussion.
You withhold other posts as well. I'm outta here. Too lefty liberal Obama trashy for me.
So instead of actually presenting an argument, you walk away. You don't know your left from your right, but you're the smart one, right?
How about Obama's mama? You don't have nothin to say about Obama's mama?
Matt,
Social programs that subsidize the poor and provide no incentive for the poor to achieve anything are a brain-child of the Democratic party.
I do agree with you that Republicans left the conservative base a long time ago. The problem is everyone thinks it can be fixed with a top down approach, and it can't. It needs to be fixed from the bottom-up, by electing good people for County Commissioner, State Rep., State Senator, ect. and helping those people develop. The parties in general have become the problem, both of them. It would be a 20 year or longer process to fix this problem, it won't happen overnight. That being said, I do not think McCain is the answer, but I am happy someone is on his ticket that hasn't been in Washington their whole life.
Also, I am surprised at all the stereotyping you have done lately regarding Christians, Republicans and others. It just seems no one defends conservatives when they are "typecast," but if the person was non-Anglo or doesn't speak English, they are defended by everyone if they are stereotyped.
ELAlum--
The only thing worse than a Republican is a liberal Democrat. Yes, the Democrats are known for entitlement government, and Obama seems to be at the head of that class. The Republicans, however, always manage to identify entitlements with the Democrats, but they do absolutely nothing about it when they are in power. So I don't really see the difference.
Stereotyping is a problem, of course; that's why I try to spread it around to as many groups as possible. Do keep in mind that much of what I say is meant as humor, and much is dead serious. I guess the challenge of reading my stuff is trying to figure out which is which.
To add to the political discussion, while it's not totally disagreeing with Matt's statement about Clinton and the economy, it would be politically naive not to state that Clinton took a lot of credit for a boom economy he didn't have much to do with.
It's also fair to say Clinton didn't do a lot to help stave off the economic slump this country was clearly going into as far back as 2000 -- when Clinton was still in office.
However, GWB did absolutely NOTHING to stop the slide in the early years, and for that he should always be remembered as a complete and utter failure. There were plenty of warning signs of what we're going through now, but nobody up top wanted to do anything about it because they were all making too much money.
But I'm still not letting the Taxocrats off the hook here. Al Gore has made so much money off of Global Warming, I don't think he would have done too much different from GWB when it comes to the economy had he been in office. They're all slaves to the same masters, and that's why this country is going down the shitter real fast.
By the way, I say Taxocrats because Joe Biden told us the other day it is our "Patriotic Duty" to pay more taxes.
He can kiss my overtaxed ass. I'm tired of my tax dollars funding programs no one but the losiest of the losers qualify for and never seeing a return on my investment. It's bullshit and it's gotta stop.
Also, if you go back through Newsweek, or WSJ archives, you'll find the root of the mortage meltdown, and the resulting bank crisis, is from Middle Eastern and Asian investors bankrolling Sub-Prime mortgages. Trust me, those FOREIGN powers didn't lose any money on these deals. Nope, that was us guys at the bottom of the pyramid.
So, eight years too late, GWB wants to put more regulations in. *Sarcastic clapping* Way to go ol boy, way to be on top of things.
Brian
I really disagree with this:
M said -
"Republicans are responsible for the demise of the United States as an economic power."
_____________
The demise of the US as an economic power? That's just silly.
The demise of our superpower status? I even doubt that.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the best indicator of a country's economic power. The US still tops the list...and by FAR.
You can check it out on a million websites, like the World Bank, CIA World Fact Book, etc.
But the US GDP is unrivaled by everyone in the world except the EU. But the EU isn't a country by any means - its about 30 - and its largest contributors (France, Germany, UK) are not exactly thriving. They have huge unemployment numbers and long recessions.
Anyway, the US still has a GPD DOUBLE that of China, who is in a distant third place.
And compare US GDP to a place like Canada - seems like a nice place. But they have 1/13th the economic power that we do.
Plus, our GDP continues to grow. Even if its only at 2-3%, that's still 2-3% every year of more than $13.5 trillion.
The US never had an economic demise. Will it one day? Who knows? But it won't be a sudden rush.
And if we find ourselves in trouble, consider this - the other main indicator of a country's power is its military spending. Even before Iraq, the US military spending in a given year was DOUBLE the entire world's combined.
Republicans may be making mistakes. I don't argue with that. But to say we face economic demise is Chicken Little-esque.
I think there is plenty of blame to go around.
GWB never saw a spending bill he didn’t like and the size of the federal government has grown tremendously during his administration. His request for tax cuts did indeed stimulate the economy and government revenues grew as a result, but they did not offset the increase in spending that he approved.
The Democrats defeated McCain’s attempt to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago.
How can we ever afford all the new programs being promised by Obama? When asked how he would fix problems, his typical answer is to blame someone else for causing the problem rather that offering a solution.
Another contributor to the mortgage problem that doesn’t seem to get mentioned did occur during Clinton’s administration. The Community Reinvestment Act was strengthened during his term and banks were coerced to make risky loans by “Community Organizers” to people living in neighborhoods that were redlined by the banks. The banks didn’t want to make those loans, but were threatened by the politicians if they didn’t. I’m not saying it is the primary cause, but should be considered as a contributing factor.
You are right, the Republican Party has abandoned conservatives, but what’s left? Libertarians could pick up the slack, but they seem to be more interested in trying to legalize dope than they are in becoming a viable party. If they would put that issue on the back burner and promote their other issues, they might have a chance.
Suspicious--
Military spending might be an indicator of economic power to you, but it isn't to me--just the opposite.
Take a look at Gross Domestic Product figure adjusted for inflation:
http://indexmundi.com/united_states/gdp_real_growth_rate.html
Our growth rate ranking isn't even close to the top of the list.
U.S. national debt, the amount of money owed by the federal government to creditors (bankers) who hold U.S. debt instruments, is $9,650,551,903,408 (that's 9 trillion) growing at a rate of $1.8 billion per day.
At the current rate of U.S. borrowing, the net indebtedness of the United States could easily exceed the value of the stock market by 2018 and the combined value of the stock market and housing stock by 2032.
Take a look at this year's economic news. It's all bad. Major bank failures, the mortgage crisis, increasing trade deficits (growing by $1.5 billion per DAY), the unemployment rate, etc.
While our total manufacturing output has held steady, employment in manufacturing has plummeted--especially in our area. How many American-made products have you purchased in the last five years? How many Chinese and Japanese products?
You may be right in claiming that my gloomy predictions of the end of empire are a bit premature. Truly anything can happen. The future is unknown and the U.S. is a very powerful economic force, but I don't have a good feeling about our prospects, especially in the hands of irresponsible, big spending Republicans who play the game with smoke and mirrors by borrowing money from foreign governments rather than straightforward taxation. It's like they have a high interest credit card with no limit, and the bill eventually comes to us.
Brian, Biden did say it was a patriotic duty to pay taxes but not for everyone. He was referring to the rich. You know, the ones that got a tax break under Bush II. Maybe you are one of those. Everyone dumps on the poor, but not everyone is a freeloader, they are just poor. It's a vicious cycle and the only answer is education but not our form of education. Unfortunately the poor are also at the lower end of the bell curve and they just slip through the education system as we know it.
As regards Obama v McCain, I'm tired of dumb presidents.
WATCHINGWHEELS--
After 8 years of Bush, I too am very tired of dumb presidents, and McCain is only a mild improvement--very mild. Palin, well, she's Bush league.
Obama is intelligent, and that goes a long way with me, but I'll echo BILL IN ALABAMA; where does he plan to get the money for all these social justice programs? He says he will tax the rich, but I'm not sure if he can get away with that. The president can't unilaterally create tax bills, and the rich are a very powerful bunch. They won't go down easy.
In my view, Obama is not the guy, but McCain is no where near it. This is a very difficult election for me. I don't feel comfortable voting for either candidate.
BRIAN says that Clinton took credit for economic growth that wasn't his. I agree only in that a president rides economic processes much larger than himself. But one thing a president can do is set the tone for his time, and Clinton clearly represented a progressive, wide-open spirit that inspired young entrepreneurs--i.e., "new money." It is said that the Clinton technology bubble did burst, but I would argue that it was more of a correction than a burst. The technology market continues to be driven by progressives and sustainable money. Clinton presided over the creation of a self-conscious "knowledge economy," which has not waned.
Unfortunately, Bush's presidency has been wholly devoted to war, and wartime economies eventually implode. As well, when you have a stupid rich guy in office, it's open season for the greedy, who love nothing better than a leadership vacuum.
I only hope we can survive the hole Bush and the Republicans have dug for us. As for McCain, I see nothing but hollow talk of change. I think Obama represents real change, but not necessarily for the better.
Why would he be on house arrest at his parents' home anyway when everyone knows they have guns? Stupid.
Very good point.
[Shameless Plug Alert]
economyincrisis.org has a wealth of resources on the dire state of our economy.
For instance, GPD is skewed by the fact that many foreign companies insource jobs here in America for final production of products, but very little of that wealth stays in the country.
I see a lot of references to how intelligent or unintelligent certain politicians are. I would like to know how those conclusions are reached. It seems that in many cases it’s based on how articulate the person is. Just because a person can do a good job reading a teleprompter doesn’t mean he/she is a genius. Like wise, if he/she can’t do a good job of articulating a position doesn’t mean she/she is dumb. I wonder how articulate Albert Einstein was. I mention him because my field of study was physics and I had several profs with PhDs in physics who couldn’t express themselves well. You assume a person with a PhD in physics is pretty smart.
Obama reads a teleprompter quite well, but doesn’t do well without one. I don’t know how smart he is.
I’m not going to vote for someone based on how smart, honest or nice I think he/she is. I’m more interested in what they think the role of the government is. I remember when Jimmy Carter was elected. I thought that it would be fine because he seemed like a nice person. What a disaster that was.
I think that they should just let JC out.... He said she fired 1st right? Its self defense!
Quote Boom! said...
Its a $100K cash bond. Now normally if it is simply $100K, a bondsman would charge around $12K to post the bond. In this case, the court wants the entire $100K before they will let JC out. I don't think we will see him anytime soon. Un-Quote
Actually Boom, you should read the Court documents a little better. The bond set was 100,000.00 Cash or Surety. The Court is not asking for 100,000.00 in cash. This is pocket change to the Amato Family. If Jack Jr. is still locked up, it is for his own good, not because of the bond amount. “$100K” could easily be posted if necessary.
I haven't seen the court documents, but the newspaper and the TV news reported that a cash-only bond was set. I assume they got their information from the court documents.
Don’t assume things Matt. Call the Jail and ask. It is Public Record and they will tell you on the phone. 330-424-4065, ext. 4.
The f-ing POINT is, $100,000 is not a high enough bond, regardless whether he pays the entire amount or 10 percent. Other murder suspects had bonds of $1 million and $500,000. Dillard's is low, too, at $250,000.
How the hell do they decide who gets what bond? Is it who you know or how much money you have or what?
Murder suspects should all have $1 million bond, regardless of whether they CLAIM it was self defense. Hell, they could ALL claim that. Doesn't means it's true.
M. -
Good points on the current housing market collapse, etc.
As for the growth rate, yes, the US doesn't rank high in GDP growth. But that's only if you look at the growth in terms of percentage of overall GDP instead of in absolute terms.
With a 13k plus GDP, even at 3% growth, we nearly grew as China did with 11% growth, since their GDP is only about 7k.
On the website you listed, the top country for GDP growth was Azerbaijan, with 31%.
That sounds like amazing growth - until you consider that their overall GDP is only 72.
A modest absolute increase in overall GDP is going to look enormous percentage-wise when their initial GDP is so low.
I'll be happy as long as the U.S. continues with positive growth. I wasn't alive at the time, but I do recall reading about our negative growth in the early 80's when Japan was viewed as the next economic hegemon.
But we now know that was alarmist thinking. I think we'll find this is the same situation if we can fix what you've pointed out.
MJ reports the gun used to shoot Tania Amato is now missing....how convenient.
Of course, they allowed everyone and his brother into the "crime scene" the night it happened. Go figure.
This "investigation" has been a joke since day one.
"I don’t see the poor as an abstract class of helpless victims held down by the greedy rich. No, I look around and see the real thing: a bunch of lazy people who know they don’t have to work to get what they want. It doesn’t matter which party is in power, the poor do very well in this country"
I totally agree. As soon as the storm hit last weekend, the first thing everyone does is worry about how the "poor" people are going to cope.
They get new food stamps to replace food they lost. Who the hell is going to give me money for the food I lost?
What about those who lost vehicles? Yes, their insurance will kick in but, in some cases (including my relative's) it isn't really enough to cover the value or to buy a new vehicle.
What about the time and energy my husband and others have spent cutting up fallen trees and picking up debris> no one is paying them for that work but I think I read in the papers that the "poor" is getting money for tree removal.
How f-ing nice for them.
I, like you, Matt am sick to death of working my ass off (for the past 40 years to be honest) to pay taxes that go to programs that help people who are just as able-bodied as I am sit on their fat asses, getting all the handouts available.
When someone in my family needed help (after paying into the system 30-plus years) they couldn't get it cause they "made too much money."
It's a big racket and WORKING Americans should revolt. Let THEM work and take care of US for awhile.
JC is a damn threat to his neighbors, his parents and the whole damn community and I look for the Judge to revoke the damn bond and hope he does. Hell, he could've killed his family with those bombs in there, wake the hell up people. He is a tickin' time bomb himself
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