There are some friends of mine who have suggested that campaign “season” of 2011-2012 was the best economic stimulus anyone could have imagined. My friend worries about the up tick in unemployment when all these political advisers are no longer employed. That there was almost two billion dollars spent on the race for the President, one candidate for Senate in Connecticut spent more than forty million dollars of her own money, and who knows what kind of total spending across the whole country was done does give substance to my friends comment. But that is one of the common problems that we have. We have to find a way to reverse or repeal the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. Even Senator John McCain has called that decision the worst decision in the history of the Supreme Court. The amount of money in our elections is a serious problem for all of us.
Hurricane Sandy and the recent snow blizzard in the Northeast has been but the latest example of serious climate crisis. The Governor of New York and the Mayor of New York City and many others along the East Coast have commented that when you have the storms that are supposed to be once every hundred years every year, you need to ask yourself if something has changed. There is little doubt that the weather is weirding, and while our science may not be able to tell us exactly why there are many things that we can do that may help and will not hurt if we do them. The development of renewable energy sources is a major part of this concern. The climate change is a common problem we need to work together on.
There is still the budget of the nation that must be addressed together. Even on Fox news there have been comments that there will have to be increased revenues to solve our debt problems. There will have to be cuts to defense. There will have to be adjustments to Social Security and Medicare. There will have to be reform of the Tax Codes to get us back in a more solid economic footing. Europe is discovering the pain that it takes to correct its financial problems. We need to work together to find a common compromise of increased revenue, spending cuts, and investments in infrastructures that reduce our financial dangers. That is a common problem.
The last major problem that I think we need to focus on at the moment is immigration reform. There has to be a way that this issue can be resolved. There must be a way that the economic interest, agricultural interest, the citizens interest and social interest can be solved. There seem to be two major realities: 1.We must secure better the borders; 2. We cannot send all illegals back to their home country. The idea that we can identify, find, capture, and afford to send seventeen million or more back is just unrealistic. This problem gets more and more complicated as individual states try to solve it, as children brought here as babies grow up to be adults, as social security taxes paid on false id’s enrich the system which needs additional funding, and schools, hospitals and social services continue to face demands for services. This is a serious problem that we all have to face. George Bush proposed a solution that seemed very fair and reasonable, but it never got a fair examination.
Many others common problems exist as well, but what a miracle would happen in Washington if even one or two of these actually got focused on and resolved.
Rick Brand, Vance County Democratic Chairman
Nice try with this post. Truth is–it has taken only a couple of days past the election for the White House to continue snowing the public.
Petraeus’ resignation has more to do with silencing him before the investigation of Benghazi mess than the stated reason of marital infidelity.
Spending money rounding up the illegals would be worth every penny in the long run, because the staggering amounts of social services would be cut drastically.
Climate crisis?–really.
The next four years are going to be different in one way at least–Obama can’t blame the 2008-2012 administration any longer.
Forty million of her own money? Did she win? She could have donated a million bucks to the national debt and got lots of free publicity!
NC goes Democrat for the President and Republican for it’s Governor. Looks as though it will be a long four years…….
M.J. when did North Carolina change from a red to a blue state in the Presidential Election?
The woman in Connecticut who spent more than 40 million this time lost. As she did a couple of years ago when she ran for the other senate seat and spent 50 million of her own money and lost.
CBS on Sunday morning just had a segment on Climate Change. They asked three questions to major scientists and conservative scientists. Is there Climate Change for real? Are humans causing it? Is there something that can be done? The unanimous answers: Climate Change? Absolutely.
Are humans causing it? 90% of it. Is there something we can do? Yes, clean energy, renewable energy. So I will go with those scientists.
Swampy: Obama won North Carolina and McCrory defeated Dalton. Our state voted a Democrat back in to the White House and placed a Republican in the Governor’s Mansion in the same election.
In 2008 NC moved from a red state to a blue state in the presidential election and remained so during the most recent contest.
Jim Morrison: your anagrams are showing. Romney won in NC.
Mojo, I dislike disagreeing with you, however, Obama LOST N.C. this time by 2.5%. He won last time by 7.2% which is his or any Dem’s MAXIMUM in reference to number of votes.Where did your figures come from? Mine are from the N C Election Board, quoted several times on NPR and other networks. Before you or anyone decries the percentages, this is the total registered vote that “follows the ticket” candidate i.e., has the sample ballot because they are too DUMB to read and decide. It does NOT include crossover votes.
Swampy, Gunshy and everyone else, I was wrong about Obama winning NC. Romney did indeed win out state according to the NC Board of Election. Where did I make the mistake? I went to bed after the President was projected to win NC and Florida per CBS News. Again, the crow is mine to enjoy. Just like you Swampy, I do not enjoy disagreeing either. You were totally correct and I was totally incorrect.
But we both can agree that “following the ticket” is awful. Truth be told, I wish electioneering at the polls would be outlawed altogether. Personally, I think if you vote a straight party ticket you are doing your city, county, state and country a huge disservice. Folks who need to be handed a piece of paper and be told how to vote are truly ignorant and accomplish nothing for themselves. Instead they are the sheep who do the bidding for those with another agenda. When a church van or bus is used to usher people to the polls they should at that point have their tax free status revoked and dare I say, actually be held accountable for their poor actions.
We have the separation of church and state spelled out in our constitution for a reason.
CBS is not a legitimate source for climate control or anything else. If anyone still watches mainstream TV, news or otherwise, they enjoy being brainwashed with a communist message. President Obama has been voted in for 4 more years and unfortunately it will be the voters that picked him for what he would “GIMME” are the ones that will feel the worst pain when he brings the crash on. Some will be prepared, most will not be and when they realize the ugly truth about Big Daddy not having any more change in his pocket and the producers have all been strangled and can’t cough up all the tax revenue for the slackers, who will take care of them then? They can all head over to Mr. Brand’s house for room and board.
Everything old is new again. McCarthyism is new again. A Communist in every news agency. Democracy is horrible because the voters get their way. Big Oil was not out for what they could get.?Coal is not pushing for government hand outs? Insurance companies are not opposed to Affordable Care because it cost them? The Food industry did not bank roll the opposition in California to full disclosure on food labels because it was not in their interest? Pac Money did not oppose Elizabeth Warren because they were afraid of the consumer protection she is interested in? It is apparent that Dagny does not believe in democracy and the checks and balances of our government.
The usual tactic of democrats–ignore the obvious.
Mr. Brand can not call the policies he supports what they are – communistic. He can call it what he wants but the truth is not believing in the free market system is communism. It is cowardly to not admit the truth. Get used to hearing the “C” word. And read up on some world history about what happens to the people BigBrother is trying to “help” – misery, poverty, and a decline in morality and freedom. Here are some names to google so you can understand what you wish on the American people – Marx, Lenin and Mao, for starters. The TEA party is the check and balance on communism in America. America is a Republic, why not read up a little on American civics while you are at it.
There is no free market system.
Please enlighten us all Mingo?
Some advocates of free market ideologies have criticized mainstream conceptions of the free market, arguing that a truly free market would not resemble the modern-day capitalist economy. For example, contemporary mutualist Kevin Carson argues in favor of “free market anti-capitalism.” Carson has stated that “From Smith to Ricardo and Mill, classical liberalism was a revolutionary doctrine that attacked the privileges of the great landlords and the mercantile interests. Today, we see vulgar libertarians perverting ‘free market’ rhetoric to defend the contemporary institution that most closely resembles, in terms of power and privilege, the landed oligarchies and mercantilists of the Old Regime: the giant corporation.”
Two prominent Canadian authors (both very hostile to the “Chicago School” philosophy) argue that government at times has to intervene to ensure competition in large and important industries. Naomi Klein illustrates this roughly in her work The Shock Doctrine and John Ralston Saul more humorously illustrates this through various examples in The Collapse of Globalism and the Reinvention of the World. While its supporters argue that only a free market can create healthy competition and therefore more business and reasonable prices, opponents say that a free market in its purest form may result in the opposite. According to Klein and Ralston, the merging of companies into giant corporations or the privatization of government-run industry and national assets often result in monopolies (or oligopolies) requiring government intervention to force competition and reasonable prices.
Critics dispute the claim that in practice free markets create perfect competition, or even increase market competition over the long run. Whether the marketplace should be or is free is disputed; many assert that government intervention is necessary to remedy market failure that is held to be an inevitable result of absolute adherence to free market principles. These failures range from military services to roads, and some would argue, to health care. This is the central argument of those who argue for a mixed market, free at the base, but with government oversight to control social problems.
Critics of laissez-faire since Adam Smith variously see the unregulated market as an impractical ideal or as a rhetorical device that puts the concepts of freedom and anti-protectionism at the service of vested wealthy interests, allowing them to attack labor laws and other protections of the working classes.
Because no national economy in existence fully manifests the ideal of a free market as theorized by economists, some critics of the concept consider it to be a fantasy – outside of the bounds of reality in a complex system with opposing interests and different distributions of wealth.
Obviously, you can find this, as I did, and other opinions online.
Careful mingo, you communist That was a rational measured response. Dagny Taggart will get you for that.
Mingo, your dissertation is well intended but has been wrong since the 16th Century. a FREE Market allows 2 or more people to “trade” goods or services among themselves and others by merely giving each other anything that the other considers valuable. In Re, I operate a store that sells “THINGS” and you have a need for THINGS. You and I agree to trade for a thing. This means that you actually give me an item of value and I, in turn, give you the thing. We trade. The problem presently and more especially with Democratic control is, The Democrats will not ALLOW you and I to TRADE without them (government) looking over our shoulder and just drooling to get their Grubbies on Most of the items of value we traded for, i.e. TAXES. It is the same for employment. I have some work that needs to be done, therefore, I make it known that I need help. You approach me and we agree to TRADE for the work. In-other-words, I am offering for sale a job, you are willing to do the job, ( this is where the work SALARY came from). You TRADE me a day’s work and I TRADE you the wage earned. I agree With Gunshy, you Communistic skirt is showing. As for Richard, he is NOT Allowed to say anything other than the PARTIES written Manifest! And YEAH Richard, go ahead, take it personal. No one holds a gun to your head to post here, so SUCK IT UP!
Mr. Brand, you are all for changing the tax code so certain people pay much higher federal income taxes. Are you in favor of changing the tax code so ministers pay their income taxes on exactly the same basis as everyone else? I doubt if most people know about the tremendous tax break that you guys receive.
Save your leftist breath and don’t say I am getting personal. That is always your defense.
Wrong Swampy, its much more complicated than YOUR simple illussion of how it works for two people. Without some rules, controls, and , oh yes, some government intervention, price, production, and the ultimate control over a product by a corporation realizes the exact opposite of free trade, or enterprise. Fre enterprise doesn’t exist in any economy today, and hasnt since the 16th century. Do some homework instead of just spouting off what YOU believe is fact.
btw, the CAPITALS are for you. Don’t get your panties in a wad over a little intellectual discourse. Very interesting that you mention guns often. SUCK IT UP!
Mingo are you off your meds again? I haven’t mentioned guns, where did that come from? As to what I believe as fact; I am the same as you, I research the entire problem not just some preconceived notion and then attempt to flesh out my argument with extremely dated material. Just because I distrust and do not believe what you’re expounding as truth does not mean I am ignorant nor anything, other than someone who does study BOTH sides of any issue. Some time back you made as snide comment about my use of Capitals. If you will kindly refer to proper English usage, you will be amazed to discover that the correct use to emphasize writing is with the use of Capitals. Now we have a new and not-so-improved way of communication called the internet and some well meaning N.E.R.D decided to change our long practiced and very valuable manner of the written word. I do not know you and from what I read don’t care to. I do not believe you know me either, therefore, go your way SIN no more!
Just my observation but–for a man of the cloth, the Rev. keeps things stirred up and has bloggers ending up personally attacking one another.
In the meantime there are serious goingson in Washington–the president is now warning senators that are against certain possible nominations for cabinet posts–that they’ll have to deal with him.
Anyone out there hearing our freedoms going down the drain?
“No one holds a gun to your head to post here, ” Swampy, post #18. Anyway, I don’t take meds Swampy, but i do dispense a few. Just so you know, I hold no ill will towards you or any other person with different opinions. I actually enjoy a friendly discussion, but don’t adhere to the rude or personal comments to make a point.
Yes, name calling and insults hardly ever create love or harmony. Just ’cause one has to be rude doesn’t mean the other one has to follow suit. Aren’t we all too old to be bullies?
I just want to post something to get my name in the drawing
In response to Mingos copy and paste from Nov 13: He had to google around about the free market to figure out what we were talking about and dig up some gobbdly **** from some unknowns using big words condemning capitalism, hoping we would be impressed.
Liberals and communists can not speak plainly because you might just figure out the truth about how they really feel. So they must engage in double speak, and this post is loaded. What in heavens name is a “contemporary mutualist” and and how can you argue for “free market anti-capitalism”? That is an oxy*****. The rest of the paragraph is pure commie jargon (vulgar libertarians…..) with the final condemnation against the evil “giant corporation”.
But Swampy does a swell below job that post of speaking plainly about the easily understood and moral concepts of barter and trade: “You and I agree to trade for a thing. This means that you actually give me an item of value and I, in turn, give you the thing. We trade. The problem presently and more especially with Democratic control is, The Democrats will not ALLOW you and I to TRADE without them (government) looking over our shoulder…”
Today, the terrible economy is being blamed on capitalistic principles that didn’t work. But the truth is that capitalism in America has been perverted for the last 100 years. Here is a recent example: Our govt chose an industry, the auto industry, and plugged in billions of our tax payer dollars to keep GM open. That is immoral and that is not capitalism. Capitalism would have let that corp go bankrupt, GM would have reorganized, junked the bloated union deals, produced products consumers actually wanted, and gone on to live another day. Instead the govt and GM Corp are producing expensive little cars with huge batteries that don’t use as much gas but you have to plug them into an electric socket at night to keep them charged. Don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that you ain’t exactly conserving energy when you plug her in. And with the trillions spent and borrowed from the Chinese on Quanitative Easing – throwing money at insurance companies, picking and financing pet green companies, our economy is still broke.
Government sticking it’s greedy finger into corporations is communism. Nothing good comes of it. People lose freedom and liberty, curse words to the commies that you will never hear them use. Instead you get “government intervention to force oversight and reasonable prices” and “government oversight to control social problems” from Mingo.
Mingo, just who is the government and why do you trust them to control your life? Another question that will remain unanswered, just as the other communist cheerleader Mr. Brand can never answer a single question I pose to him. How a Presbyterian minister, that took pledges from greedy capitalists every week in his career, can condemn these same patrons and ignore the immorality of communism on this sight week after week is another question I would love for him to answer. Won’t be holding my breath for a response.
Dagny, you are not likely to get Comrade Brand to answer your very pointed question. The man runs and hides when the conversation gets around to the unfair tax breaks that he gets that the rest of us do not get. Of course, he gets in line with the rest of the so called Progressives who want to increase taxes on those who have worked all their lives, saved and invested and now earn a comfortable living. He spouts the party line and promotes an agenda that provides his “crowd” a handout from the womb to the tomb.
Dagny., thank you for your explanation, which by-the-way, was much better than mine.Royal you are dead on……l. WHOOPS! I used an euphemism again! … Mingo will be jumping on me saying the D-WORD! It is a fact that my entire voting life I have been a registered democrat. I do this for one reason only, to vote in local elections. There will be one sin I shall not have to answer for when my time comes, and that is voting for a democrat in the Federal elections If we had viable candidates from the conservative side of things, I would re-register and support them. Sadly we are saddled with
the Read-a-slip voters here. I firmly believe that in the near future, as Raleigh expands. we will have a BIG shift in political factions . This will be a wonderful and refreshing change tom the local landscape. People of Richard’s ilk will be LOST in the shuffle ( I hope). It is a conundrum to me how a man who spent his life “ministering” to a “supposedly” Christian Church could have the far left views he spouses so freely. Oh Well, it takes all kinds… even Mingos!
I’m confused. Isn’t government (big or small) a product of the people? Isn’t democracy about the majority? Government is not a separate entity, is it? Don’t we all have the right to vote for who we want to represent us? Government is you and me, right? Are those we elect any better than WE, the people? Why, then, do we not enjoy the same benefits as our representatives? Pointing fingers at the big bad government means we’re pointing at ourselves. As for ‘Christians’, Jesus was considered a radical in his day, with his teachings about loving one another, even our enemies. Unconfuse me, someone!
Hello Copper Rain, Excellent question!
Our country is a Republic, not a Democracy. A Republic has a Constitution to protect the individual from the will of the majority. Think if majority ruled in every case, the majority could come up with all kinds of plans for the minority and the minority would be defenseless. Our Constitution protects each individual, be they of the minority or the majority. That’s why so many people get so upset when our Constitution is ignored.
Our Founding Fathers created a system that led to more prosperity and a higher standard of living than has ever been seen before on earth, based on individual liberty and freedom which fuels that prosperity. They understood world history and how a controlling and intrusive govt would destroy a society. They understood that each man has the power over his own destiny. They wanted govt to play an extremely limited role in their lives, they didn’t want to worship at a state mandated church, they didn’t want to pay huge taxes that went to a few royals across the ocean. They wanted each individual state to maintain it’s own independent laws. Today, our federal govt wants to dictate to the states and every individual.
These power hungry fools actually want to force, with the threat of fines and incarceration, that every person in America get their health care from the federal govt! Obamacare, an illegal and immoral legislation, voted in by only Democrats with not a single Republican vote (so much for bipartinship), the wishes of the slight minority of republicans ignored and spat upon. Look at what govt is involved in, there is no incentive to operate cost effectively or efficiently and now people want to trust that govt to get in between them and the relationship they have with their physician!
There are bloated Federal Agencies that accomplish nothing, like the FDA allowing dirty labs that produce infected steroids. The EPA is crippling certain industries and destroying jobs thru executive order by creating a false narrative about “global warming” or “climate change” based on a “science” with results that can’t be duplicated and “facts” based on fabricated data. Global warming is a tool used to destroy and control commerce. The Education Dept doles out money borrowed from the Chinese to the states to introduce mandates about what can be taught and how it must be taught, the least they could do is give the money to the states to simply pay the excellent teachers more. The Federal Reserve prints money every day so our Congress can spend and spend and devalues our dollar…on and on it goes.
The politicians we elect are supposed to work for us, we aren’t supposed to work to support their excessive life styles and term after term after term in office so that becomes their job in itself. Someone from society was supposed to go and serve for a short time and work for the best interests of the individuals in their district, not go and levy tax after tax and law after law against the citizenry.
Americans are some of the most compassionate people in the world but that compassion has been twisted into an immorality that says some must go and work and then carve off a big chunk of their hard earned dollars to support another that chooses not to make the sacrifices and effort that work involves. And if you are one of those workers that is sick of working to support a loafer, you are labeled racist or uncaring. You simply don’t understand the soft *****ry promoted by the do gooders like Mr. Brand that these people are simply inferior and can’t be expected to perform or excel on any level and must be supported like children that can never grow up.
Christians and the govt can’t legislate charity in an individual. Govt can’t legislate fairness or “social justice”. These qualities are within the soul of every person. I will not let my neighbor starve or suffer if he is truly needy and in return he will do the same for me.
Yes, ma’am, I will point my finger at the government that ignores the Constitution that protects me. I do not look to the govt to provide anything for me but the roads I drive on and the military to protect us from invasion. I don’t even expect the police to protect me, I must protect myself and I refuse to let my govt disarm me so I can’t protect myself. It is not the govt’s role to educate my children, deliver my mail, feed me, give me shelter. All those things I will do for myself if I am left alone to barter my services and trade with others for the goods I desire.
Today in America, we are at the point that comes to every civilized society, the over 200 year mark when the democracy destroys the society. The democracy is killing the host. Businessmen are evil, although they are the ones that produce the taxes that pay for everything. Politicians are the kings, doling out favors and treats with the tax payer’s money and the democracy is voting for that immorailty and foolishness. They all ignore that the system is unsustainable and unaffordable, it is an inconveniant truth. They will get what they have voted for their dependant selves.
well said Dagny
Hey, Brand. You Dems are always talking about the country “going over the financial cliff.” Do you remember the movie, “Thelma and Louise”? I would love to watch that car driving over the cliff…with Nancy Pelosi driving and Hilliary Clinton as a passenger.
royal rooter, I’ve thought about your statement regarding Nancy and Hilliary driving over the cliff and have tried not to respond. You caused me to think deeper into the reasons why a person would wish others dead, since even in my worst life experiences at the hand of those I trusted, I could never wish them dead. I guess I believe my ill wishes will somehow bring the same harm to me. I can’t help but believe that as we treat others, especially our ‘enemies’, we will be treated. I wish for you to find that every human is worthy in some way, despite that they may differ from you. Truth said in kind words can create better receptivity, just as truth said unkindly can create closed minds.