"In 1968, a petition signed by 1,300 economists (including James Tobin and John Kenneth Galbraith) urged a 'national system of income guarantees.' LBJ didn't like the idea, but when Richard Nixon became president Democratic holdovers in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare served him up a no-work-requirid cash-dispensing scheme that became Nixon’s 1969 Family Assistance Plan. It almost became law, failing after a fringe West Coast politician named Ronald Reagan called it a 'megadole.'"
That's Point #2 in Mickey Kaus's "Five (5) quick points on the new Biden Dole" (Substack).
Kaus goes on to contemplate whether there's any Republican around these days who's capable of playing the Ronald Reagan role.
Posts
141 comments:
Kaus goes on to contemplate whether there's any Republican around these days who's capable of playing the Ronald Reagan role.
There was. But you were glad to see him go, I think. Too icky.
There was, but the left made him into the boogie man and Hitler all in one. Bunch of ignorant idiots voted for the delusional one instead.
This is huge. The first step in UBI (Universal Basic Income). If the Republicans won’t push back, the markets would be expected to. But the neat trick is that some of this money will flow into the NASDAQ through Robinhood accounts, bribing the investor class to go along for the moment. How many Althousers will look at their 401k hitting new highs and think “yeah...OK”. It’s temporary.
Throwing cash at the poor was a major cause for the stagflation of the next decade, but history doesn't repeat itself, does it?
Bribe people with their own money. Somebody said that.
If we get rid of every other welfare scheme (yeah, yeah, yeah, won't happen ....) then there is nothing really wrong with UBI. Done right, it can lower the huge effective marginal tax rates, inclusive of benefit losses, on the poor right now.
Basic idea, if you won't or can't work, you get enough per month for a shitty but non-starvation life. If you work, at the margin, you get to keep more than, say, 2/3rds of each extra dollar you earn when you take into account taxes and UBI cutbacks for earning the extra dollar.
It would be very expensive, but it could work budgetwise, but again ONLY if we get rid of food stamps, rent subsidies, public housing, and all other government programs for the poor.
"The give-them-cash solution to poverty is nothing new. It was conventional wisdom in Democratic Washington toward the end of the Johnson Administration."
After all these years, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it would seem the word “solution” is unwarranted.
I mean, hello, Party of Science!
Why are poor people poor, and not poor, not poor? This country tried this bullshit before with horrid results. In effect Trump was telling the kiddies at the grocery, that you can't have the gummy bears at the check out. Didn't go over well with the juveniles.
Wait for Kamala's turn at bat. Three words. Brace for impact.
I’ve been frustrated by prof’s refusal to endorse Trump. Who knows what that really means?
It could just mean that she doesn’t want to short circuit discussion on this board. Probably not because she did say that both choices in 2020 were odious.
I don’t, however, labor under the delusion that Althouse’s endorsement would have changed the outcome of the election. She hosts a great blog and has a big following, but she doesn’t have that kind of power.
Here’s one the data does support: the issue of poverty is not that people don’t have enough money.
That is merely a symptom of the real issue.
The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.' -- Ronald Reagan
- Krumhorn
Harsh Pencil.
No it won't. I'll give the long version of why it won't. Market forces.
If Trump proved anything it is that a rising tide does lift all boats. A healthy vibrant economy free of outside interference provides the best solution to end poverty.
UBI is just paying the mob off and virtue signaling.
I fear the pandemic has eliminated most arguments against just throwing money at people. When a government can just unilaterally tell you your business can't operate, they morally have to pay you for that. When those businesses not operating starts to hurt the operation of other businesses, then those businesses need relief too.
And in the midst of it, when our government keeps up business as usual- giving aid to foreign countries and bailing out cities that have over spent, it gets harder and harder to argue that just normal people don't deserve some relief.
A payment of $2000 isn't going to lift anyone out of poverty, though. If someone has student loans, it's barely a dent. It's a couple months rent (or just one month), a couple months electric bills. It's a lump sum so its easier to spend on a big thing. There's nobody going from poverty to not poverty over a payment of $2000.
I don't believe that UBI would ever really work for a number of reasons. But bottom line, we (working, tax-paying folk) don't want to be responsible (through our government) for other people's livelihood - period. Is the reason that people band together and form a representative government really for the purpose of tying everyone into the livelihood of every other person? Perhaps under Communism, but we know how that has historically panned out.
If UBI was to ever be instituted, how long before you would hear: 'You call that a living wage? We need $$ increases for... '.
If we get rid of every other welfare scheme (yeah, yeah, yeah, won't happen ....) then there is nothing really wrong with UBI.
There is so much wrong with it. Debated and proven, over and over. Yet we still debate, and people still get it wrong...
...because people loathe finance...
In the long run, some form of UBI is inevitable as automation and AI destroy more jobs than human creativity can replace. But there are many forms it could take and the one that works probably won't be simple cash payments. This area is ripe for the laboratory of the states. The fed needs to butt out.
UBI is inevitable because most people are lazy leeches.
Employees are a pain in the ass. Everybody’s looking for that great lawsuit payoff.
Nobody wants to work and, increasingly, nobody knows how.
Our future is to sit on our asses, explode to the next level of super obesity, drug ourselves and sit in front of a screen.
If you want more of something, subsidize it.
If everyone gets $30k as a baseline, everything will cost $30k more. Look at the cost of higher education. They just built in the subsidy and raised the price accordingly. Using the customers’ money.
More poverty at a higher price. Great!
I think about UBI when I’m having something boring but necessary done. If we have UBI why should the guy who changes my oil bother coming to work? The women who work at daycares? How much will it cost to get fitted for contacts if all those people can make, strikethrough, receive nearly as much sitting at home smoking pot and playing video games? We clearly no longer have a culture that much values hard work/duty/commitment/reliability for their own sake so what happens when the last thing that gets people to show up for the boring but necessary stuff - needing to pay the bills - goes away?
Genuinely asking.
I do not have a problem receiving reparations or any other monies from the government under the American value system I was raised under.
I do not have a problem receiving reparations or any other monies from the government as a "Fuck You" to whites who never stood with blacks to defend the American value system I was raised under.
And - as an atheist - I do not have a problem receiving reparations or any other monies from the government under this NewAge value system of mutual lies and deceit in partisan political warfare with the Christians.
But it would be nice receiving reparations or any other monies from the government under the American value system I was raised under.
Bad luck can put you into poverty, but bad habits keep you there. UBI would not change that. Instead it would encourage the worst behavior.
Pants @6:54 nails it. When people don't need to work to get by, the whole thing falls apart.
Pants @6:54 nails it. When people don't need to work to get by, the whole thing falls apart.
The last year has proved this false.
The grocery stores are still full, I can still get my car fixed, and my doctor’s office is still open.
A whole hell of a lot of people were commuting for an hour or two to useless, make work jobs.
Something has fundamentally changed. We don’t need very many people to work to take care of our basic needs.
Original Mike said...
Pants @6:54 nails it. When people don't need to work to get by, the whole thing falls apart.
This may be true, so don't create a culture where your people have to think "Fuck You" all the time, because they KNOW they've been ripped-off, and we might just get there again.
"We don’t need very many people to work to take care of our basic needs."
A lot of our basic needs were put on hold. Just today, I will be scheduling my colonoscopy, eye exam, dental work, and car repair that should have done last year.
You don’t have to think FUCK YOU all the time. What attitudes you adopt and what goes through your head and what reality you chose is up to you, Crack.
Getting ripped off sucks, no doubt, but don’t lie to yourself about who’s doing the ripping. It’s not poor whites.
I’ve also put off basic medical care, but not because it was unavailable.
I needed a procedure that, while minor, was invasive, and carried a risk of severe infection.
In the era of COVID, having this procedure done seemed foolish. My doctor and the hospital wanted me to go through with the procedure and made it available to me, but I declined.
I just had my first shot. When I attain immunity, I’ll do the procedure.
I live in NY, one of the most shutdown states. I’ve had no difficulty having my car repaired.
Society didn’t fuck you over and rip you off, Crack.
Your negligent, absentee, screwed up mother and father did.
They really messed up. They messed up in a way that’s almost impossible to fix.
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
You don’t have to think FUCK YOU all the time. What attitudes you adopt and what goes through your head and what reality you chose is up to you, Crack.
Getting ripped off sucks, no doubt, but don’t lie to yourself about who’s doing the ripping. It’s not poor whites.
So those were two rich whites telling the nigger jokes on my first day of school?
Rich whites won't let black girls wear cornrows but Bo Derek has been a "10" my whole life?
What attitudes I've adopted are the result of the world I'm growing up alone in - and it's stupid and cruel.
I can count the number of blacks, I know, who don't feel like this Is Hell on one hand.
Y'all fool yourself about what you've done.
"I’ve had no difficulty having my car repaired."
That's my point. There was little competition for your mechanics time.
Abandoned, abused children of all races generally become very angry, bitter and often violent, Crack.
The people on this board are not the people who abandoned and abused you.
Your mother and father did that.
Shouting Thomas said...
Society didn’t fuck you over and rip you off, Crack.
Your negligent, absentee, screwed up mother and father did.
They really messed up. They messed up in a way that’s almost impossible to fix.
I've already proved today this man is a liar - using honesty, links to my past, and his own statements - but you guys get along better with him than you ever will with me. THAT to me is at the Coe of my life's experience - it's the unethical downfall of the human condition. For whatever reason, you will not tell the ST's, the Meghan Markle's, the Oprah Winfrey's, the Christmas Cuomo's, etc. - to SHUT-UP AND STOP LYING. You just won't.
There's nothing I can do about that, to save you. I told you: white kids beat me with a dining room table leg as I slept because I insisted on the right to like the music I liked.
I know the value system y'all are defending better than you do.
You do deserve compassion and help, Crack.
That’s something that’s very difficult to offer to people who suffer the abandonment and abuse you suffered.
People who take up that task take a very nasty beating from the kids they try to help.
That’s not my job. I simply don’t want to do it and won’t do it. I have a lot of respect for people who try.
Every kid in those group homes you lived in got abused and beaten by other kids and, probably, by their caretakers, Crack.
The white kids, too.
I’ll bet you dished out plenty of beatings in response, Crack.
I’m not accusing you of anything. That’s just the way it goes in that institutional world where you grew up.
ST's a liar who won't shut up.
ST's a liar, who doesn't know me, but keeps talking like he does - which he can't.
He wasn't raised listening to Nina Simone as a child. He doesn't know what it's like to be blamed for a world he didn't create. He isn't wrestling with MLK being a rapist, now, and what that means - because he isn't like me. He's immoral, a gay sex-having player in churches for money to deceive people about the nature of reality. I could never do ANY that.
As John Lennon said, I just want some TRUTH - ST keeps insisting I want money.
He's a Liar, and I with he'd just shut-up.
Damn stuck keys.
Actually, what you want is a way to fix your psychological problems and find some peace of mind, Crack.
I’m repeating to you the story of your life that you have laid out here in this blog.
I listened to Nina Simone as a child. I played in jazz bands with old guys when I was still a kid. I played with quite of few of the great black (and white) jazz musicians of the Bop era. I booked almost every one of Miles Davis’ sidemen into concerts in Woodstock and often played with them.
I could play Miles Davis note for note on trumpet when I was 15 years old.
Frankly, you’re too old to fix your problem. They’re to deep and you have no motivation.
There are plenty of poor white people, like those on eight mile, whose representative is marshall mathers were just just slashing the throat with razor wire now.
You know “Kind of Blue,” Crack? It’s probably the most famous and influential Bop album.
I’ve played with every one of the sidemen on that album, either at jam session or in concert.
Jimmy Cobb lived in Woodstock for a long time.
"whether there's any Republican around these days who's capable of playing the Ronald Reagan role"
Yes. But it's less clear that we have American people around who are capable of playing the Reagan voter role.
More Americans now want to be bribed with other people's money.
Black blackety-bkacj
I can count the number of blacks, I know, who don't feel like this Is Hell on one hand.
Y'all fool yourself about what you've done.
Poor Crack. So far from the paradise of Africa and so close to the USA where he is free to complain.
For non-Crack readers...
It’s not difficult or particular remarkable that I played with those people.
Woodstock is where musicians go to let down their hair and jam when they come off the road.
By the time I started playing with those very famous musicians, their time had passed and they were dead broke.
They are famous only within a very small niche audience.
That story of child abandonment is so common within the popular music biz.
Woodstock is full of kids abandoned by famous or once famous musicians who spend their lives on the road.
I was childhood friends with Paul Butterfield. Paul spent almost every day on the road once he hit it big.
He was later my next door neighbor in Woodstock.
Some years after Paul died, a young man knocked on the door of my cottage. I opened the door and he introduced himself as Paul’s son.
I invited him in for coffee and he literally asked me: “Can you tell me about my Dad? I didn’t really know him.”
"capable of playing the Ronald Reagan role"
Ron DeSantis
I rented the guest house of an aging musician when I lived in CA. Nice guy, we got along great. He also had severe health problems due to decades of hard living and I got the impression he was always a bit hard up for money as the royalties dried up. And yeah, his relationship with his kids was strained.
Michael K said...
I can count the number of blacks, I know, who don't feel like this Is Hell on one hand.
Y'all fool yourself about what you've done.
Poor Crack. So far from the paradise of Africa and so close to the USA where he is free to complain.
"Free to complain": I've been in lockdown - from you fuckers, not the pandemic - for over two years and you think it's utopia.
Shouting Thomas said...
You know “Kind of Blue,” Crack? It’s probably the most famous and influential Bop album.
I’ve played with every one of the sidemen on that album, either at jam session or in concert.
Jimmy Cobb lived in Woodstock for a long time.
And you sucked his dick before praising Jesus, I know.
A dick sucking ST is leading the parade Michael K says I should be grateful for - I can't make this up.
And another of you, yesterday, was insisting "Christian values" are the center of conservatism - with ST "playing organ" fo sure.
The people on this board don't owe you shit, Crack.
If you don't like the response you get here, go the fuck away.
We aren't obliged to kiss your ass because it's black.
Quit blaming whites for what your mom and dad did to you.
Neither Jimmy nor I are gay ("were" in Jimmy's case since he died last year), but it's interesting that you use cock sucking as an insult. I don't know what Jimmy's religious beliefs were. He was married to a very devoted white, Jewish woman who managed his career and guarded him like a bulldog.
I'm not gay and don't have sex with men, Crack. Never have. Don't have anything against men who do.
I could accuse you of homophobia, but I really don't give a shit.
You're misinterpreting my reference to "kinks." You seem to live a rather sheltered existence. There are heterosexual kinks.
My primary church client over the past few years was an Episcopal Church. The priest was gay.
I severed my relationship with that church, not over gaydom, but because they were sending money to BLM rioters while they sacked the city in the summer of 2020.
I'll be playing primarily for a Catholic church starting shortly after Easter.
I agree we need another Ronald Reagan who will do a new Iran deal by selling them nuclear weapons and then taking the profits to sponsor death squads in Central and South America.
As said above (while this comment section was still somewhat on topic), UBI is probably the best form of welfare, if you could eliminate all other forms of welfare in exchange for it.
More than this, from my culturally conservative standpoint, it's not a bad thing if more mothers can get by without working. It's far preferable for children to be raised by a stay at home mom than by daycare workers.
What is it with you Trump supporters and your obsession over gay sex?
All the top people The brainiacs who run the World not the money people but the tech guys all believe that Ubi is a foreskin conclusion.
What is it with you Trump supporters and your obsession over gay sex?
The entire country has been ga-ga over gay sex for the past 40 years, Howard.
Where have you been?
Howard said...
"What is it with you Trump supporters and your obsession over gay sex?"
Being lectured to by a liar who finds pleasure on his knees is not a simple matter to ignore.
For Christ's sake, Crack, you think I'm going to feel insulted over your childish sexual taunts?
I lived in San Francisco and NYC my entire adult life.
I had a hell of a good time.
Go ahead. Have fun with it. Sex is a funny part of life. It's also fascinating.
One of the reasons I lived in San Francisco and NYC is for the adventure and romance. And, I got all of it. Eat your heart out!
As said above: Basic idea, if you won't or can't work, you get enough per month for a shitty but non-starvation life. If you work, at the margin, you get to keep more than, say, 2/3rds of each extra dollar you earn when you take into account taxes and UBI cutbacks for earning the extra dollar.
The trouble with UBI is that it would start too young. What teenager doesn't think that getting enough per month for a shitty but non-starvation life and NOT WORKING isn't heaven itself! But that NOT WORKING thing becomes a habit, and suddenly (in about 10 years) the former teen finds that he or she is without marketable skills and no longer all that pleased with shitty. And if it's a woman, there is/are the kid/kids she has to work to take care of alone.
Right now, a teen girl who has a child has practically speaking a UBI for about the first half of the kid's childhood. So the kid grows up not knowing much about work, and when mom looks for work, the best she can do is not very good. That's pretty much what happened to the rise of poor African Americans, halted and reversed by Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.
I can understand why the cock sucking thing really bothers you.
Rape and sexual assault are the daily reality of group and foster homes.
What is it with you gay people and lying? The whole Harvey Milk story is a lie - which you never felt compelled to correct - why?
Why did gays crawl in bed with a sleeping child - me? Why did gays suck my dick until I woke up?
Why did a gy guy who I befriended expect me to sleep with him? And then got pissed when I wouldn't? Why didn't he accept me as I am?
I repeat: what I it with you gay people and lying? And why I sex so important to you? Why will you literally do ANYTHING fo it? Lie, cheat, steal - you will do it. Even married gay couples cheat on each other notoriously.
Why are you so immoral?
Why is immorality the centerpiece of gay identity? And why aren't you honest about it? Why don't you admit you subversively slip sex into any place you can at every opportunity? Why?
Why don't you admit you're a danger to children? Not just pedophiles but GAYS? You won't leave kids alone to mature - not you - you want to control the change. Why?
What is WRONG with you?
The "Ronald Reagan role" was appropriate to a Republic, even a late Republic. Now that's gone, we are in the bread and circuses phase of a dying empire, parasites are multiplying. But not fast enough to keep up with the decay! Open the borders, we'll need more.
Well, it was sweet while it lasted.
Shouting Thomas said...
I can understand why the cock sucking thing really bothers you.
Rape and sexual assault are the daily reality of group and foster homes.
This liar is still talking like he knows anything.
I repeat: The whole Harvey Milk story is a lie - which you never felt compelled to correct - why?
To make us all live a lie.
I'm laughing now, Crack.
My artistic hero was Henry Miller.
Ever hear of him?
I didn't grow up in the abusive environment you grew up in.
My sexual partners have all been voluntary and adults. All female, too.
I have no interest in Harvey Milk. Never have. I doubt that I've ever remarked upon him pro or con.
Trump is the only Republican who saw that playing "Scrooge" is a mugs game. That dumbshit McConnell and his gang didn't want to give the average person $2,000 each, while giving hundreds of billions to foreigners and corporations.
If those two Republican dummies from Georgia had supported the $2,000, they'd be in the Senate right now. But they had "Principles" Gosh darn it. And now they sit home and pat themselves on the back for being "Good Losers". And enjoy their Gold star and cookie.
I'm all for fiscal responsibility, but we never seem to get that no matter what. So, its just a matter of making sure the average person gets his fair portion. Everything else is just noise.
Focus on the locusts who are devouring our republics sheesh.
Yawn. Its the Crack and ST show.
ST: Crack how can say that!
Crack says something stupid
ST: Crack how can say that!
Crack says something stupid
ST: Crack how can say that!
Crack says something stupid
ST: Crack how can say that!
Crack says something stupid
ST: Crack how can say that!
Crack says something stupid
I grew up in a home with a very devoted mom and dad, Crack. I never experienced the abuse you did. That abuse get passed down from parents.
I know about your experience because my daughter works in special ed, friends ran foster and group homes, etc.
Woodstock is full of people who suffered through the abuse you suffered. It is, after all, a music biz town.
Actually, rcocean, you're wrong.
I've been encouraging Crack to air it out.
Go right ahead, Crack. Enjoy yourself.
I think that this argument were having serves a useful purpose directly related to this topic.
The kind of abuse Crack suffered as a child is epidemic in the black community. Blaming that on whites is also epidemic.
That dumbshit McConnell and his gang didn't want to give the average person $2,000 each, while giving hundreds of billions to foreigners and corporations.
If those two Republican dummies from Georgia had supported the $2,000, they'd be in the Senate right now. But they had "Principles" Gosh darn it. And now they sit home and pat themselves on the back for being "Good Losers". And enjoy their Gold star and cookie.
McConnell found his "principles" just in time to screw over the GA senate race. I fully believe that the GOPe thought there would be a blue wave which would repudiate Trump. When the GOP picked up 15 seats, rather than lose 15, is scared them because it demonstrated that Trump had coattails and support in the party. McConnell decided it would be better to lose control of the Senate and try to pin the blame on Trump.
The sexual and physical abuse Crack suffered is a very significant factor in perpetuating poverty and violence in the black community.
In every community, to a lesser degree.
rcocean said...
Yawn. Its the Crack and ST show.
You men the one where he lies repeatedly but you treat both of our statements as equally true?
"I do not have a problem receiving reparations or any other monies from the government as a "Fuck You" to whites who never stood with blacks to defend the American value system I was raised under."
I'm OK with reparations mostly so blacks will finally shut up and we can clear affirmative action programs off the books.
But some make the argument that hundreds of thousands of dead Union soldiers and trillions in welfare and government programs should suffice.
But of course, that doesn't put money in Crack's pockets so that argument won't fly : )
I would say that you are lying Crack, but you're not.
You just described being raped in group or foster home:
Why did gays crawl in bed with a sleeping child - me? Why did gays suck my dick until I woke up?
My late wife was a horribly abused child during her youth in the Philippines, but she found her way out through education, Christianity and counseling. She overcame it and become quite successful.
So, I understand why you keep saying I'm lying. When the reality of who it is who abused you is broached, particularly if it's a parent or guardian, the first response of an abused kid is to accuse other people of lying about it.
I think you're probably too old to overcome the beating you took, but people sometimes are so determined that they find a way.
There's another name that must be mentioned when discussing Nixon's guaranteed income plan: Daniel Patrick Moynahan. He was the one who talked Nixon into it.
"I'm OK with reparations mostly so blacks will finally shut up and we can clear affirmative action programs off the books."
You don't really think that would happen, do you?
Howard,
Reagan sold Iran nuclear weapons? How'd that get past me? And why don't they work?
Hes rolling
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/03/10/a-racial-conspiracy-theorist-has-been-confirmed-as-hud-secretary-and-thats-not-even-the-worst-part-n1431542
Original Mike said...
"I'm OK with reparations mostly so blacks will finally shut up and we can clear affirmative action programs off the books."
You don't really think that would happen, do you?
I've made that offer, here, a billion times. But you guys still chased me out of the Republican Party by 2014. We agree on everything else, but you're fascists once you get what you want and we join with you. Then, it can't be 99% and, ay, that reparations thing - no, IT HAS TO BE 100% AND THE ENTIRE BLACK EXPERIENCE WIPED OFF THE PLANET.
You're serious cultural assholes.
To answer Kaus' last question, the answer is, "No."
I'm not a Republican Crack. And it has nothing to do you with or anyone else. Reparations would not end the special pleadings. Everybody knows not to pay the Danegeld.
What a pitiful position to be in, Crack, to have to make such foolish and obviously impossible demands on a weblog.
Why don’t you get some psychological help? You live in CA, right? I’ll bet the state is very generous with therapy benefits.
You don’t need money. You need to find a way to stop all the screaming voices in your head so that you can live in peace and quiet. Then you can get your affairs in order.
Money isn’t going to do anything to help you.
We should have just bombed baalbek and the bekaa to powder is that it,
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/iran-deal-inevitable-sequel
Now this 10,000 fold any of the enterprise.
Like the terminator you cannot negotiate with progs
It's different this time because we're making the welfare payments with borrowed money that we will never be able to pay back.
A lot of borrowed money.
The problem with UBI is that it will simply become the new "zero income" pretty quickly. In short, you can't pay people to not work if it is a "no strings attached" proposition. Too many people will start trying to live off the product of those that continue to work, which will devalue the benefit itself through inflation.
Nature is unforgiving- the product of any society goes primarily to those who produce it with their labor and capital. If it doesn't, then the product isn't produced. No one wants to be a slave.
Your right, Michelle. I was just joking what the new and improved Ronnie Reagan might do. Reagan only sold Iranians anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. He also supplied military hardware and training to Al Queda that eventually resulted in 911.
it has been reckoned that as many as 35,000 'Arab-Afghans' may have received military training in Pakistan at an estimated cost of $800 million in the years up to and including 1988."[70] Some of the CIA's greatest Afghan beneficiaries were Arabist commanders such as Haqqani and Hekmatyar who were key allies of bin Laden over many years.[71][72] Haqqani—one of bin Laden's closest associates in the 1980s—received direct cash payments from CIA agents, without the mediation of the ISI. This independent source of funding gave Haqqani disproportionate influence over the mujahideen.[48] Haqqani and his network played an important role in the formation and growth of al Qaeda, with Jalalhuddin Haqqani allowing bin Laden to train mujahideen volunteers in Haqqani territory and build extensive infrastructure there.
I do the grocery shopping for both myself and my mother. The basket of goods I buy is pretty fucking invariant over a 2-3 month period- we are both set in our tastes for food items within that window of time. I also keep track in a spreadsheet the expenditures- I enter every single purchase directly from the receipt- I haven't missed such an entry in over 5 years now. For the items I buy for myself- there is almost no variation at all (I am boring that way)- I was buying the same items in the same quantities (numbers) 5 years ago that I bought in the month of this past January, however, I am spending 29% more to buy those same quantities of items than I was in January of 2016 (the mean basket for all items)- and this is me not keeping track of changes in the net weights of these items (I don't notice the small changes like a drop of 1 ounce in a package that used to be 40, for example), but I think it likely that all the items I am buying are just a bit smaller/container than they were 5 years ago- they certainly aren't larger.
If I go to the BLS website, they tell me food inflation is much less over that 5 years than I see in my own purchases. The inflation is already here, it is just being hidden in the BLS adjustments.
Not for nothing, but about 10 or so years ago there was a tiny movement discussed by Libertarians and some conservatives called The Fair Tax. Neal Boortz wrote the book on it- literally. It's a concept that should have taken hold, but because it removed money from the government and allowed the people to keep most of their money, it was sent down the memory hole as quickly as possible (though...not before the book sold well enough to become #4 on NYT list.)
The Fair Tax included a base wage paid to all Americans, based on their current situation and a scale to be figured out by Those Wiser Than I. It also included a 23% national sales tax, BUT allowed us to keep ALL of our income. No income tax. So basically, it was a national consumption tax with a base wage to help cover basic life expenses.
It really should have been given a better look, and after 4 years of the Susan Rice administration, we may want to pull it out again.
"You don't really think that would happen, do you?"
That's the only way the deal can work. You know that.
Reparations: to repair, to make amends.
When friends fight over something, even something serious, and shake hands and make up, they don't keep dredging up the same grievances. That's what people in this culture do.
So you either take the money and accept that 'we're good,' or you reject the money and retain the right to complain.
Otherwise, if you take the money and keep complaining, then there is no earthly reason to give you the money in the first place.
For the BLS, it assumes that when steak rises in price, people buy more chicken. When chicken and steak rise in price, they assume you buy more cans of Friskies.
A few years later we served as their airforce
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-oct-07-mn-54505-story.html%3f_amp=true
"That's the only way the deal can work. You know that."
I do know that. And you know that will never happen.
Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
A dick sucking ST is leading the parade Michael K says I should be grateful for - I can't make this up.
How many black Africans do you know, Crack ? It might be a good idea for you to meet some. They tell me they don't understand American blacks. Even West Indian blacks who do have a history of slavery don't understand you people.
I understand that you had a bad childhood. I examined a black kid who was joining the Army. He had grown up in foster care. He said he had 17 half siblings and never wanted to see any of them again. He was light years ahead of you in fixing his life.
I knew a white girl in a Masters program at Dartmouth who told me she had grown up in foster care. She said she would have preferred an orphanage. She was getting a Master's Degree at Dartmouth.
I feel for you but I can't reach you.
Blogger tim maguire said...
In the long run, some form of UBI is inevitable as automation and AI destroy more jobs than human creativity can replace.
Sheesh, Tim.
You are usually much smarter than this. We've got 230 years of automating like crazy and it has led to more, not fewer, jobs. Better, not worse, jobs. Better, not worse diets. Better, not worse housing, and generally better living conditions for the entire world.
We also have 230 years of people spouting the same kind of bullshit about automation. Luddites and weavers were a famous example in the 18th century.
If what you say were true, we would have had to have front end loaders scooping up all the dead farmers put out of work by the Fordson tractor in the teens and 20s. Or the tens of millions of dead women put out of work by word processors in the 80s and 90s.
What about all the carpenters who lost jobs to nail guns and Skilsaws in the past 50-75 years.
We should ban them and make carpenters cut and nail by hand to create more jobs. Right?
Or all those bank tellers put out of work by ATM machines, right? Oh, wait, the number of bank tellers has increased with ATMs, not decreased. So scratch that example.
We have hundreds of years of doomsters and gloomsters telling us automation (and machines) is going to kill us all.
It has not happened yet. If I had some way of seeing it, I'd bet $100 that in 250 years we will still be seeing people claiming that automation will kill us all and we will have another 25 years of evidence showing the bogativity of that claim.
John Henry
Original Mike said...
"Reparations would not end the special pleadings. Everybody knows not to pay the Danegeld."
Judging us by the ethical standards of white people is insane.
Michael K said...
Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
A dick sucking ST is leading the parade Michael K says I should be grateful for - I can't make this up.
How many black Africans do you know, Crack ?
Here comes this moron with his back-to-Africa routine.
I zone out every time he says the word.
Blogger Laughing Fox said...
As said above: Basic idea, if you won't or can't work, you get enough per month for a shitty but non-starvation life.
I'm OK helping people who can't work because of disabilities.
I'm even OK with helping people who can't work because there are no jobs. Bad economy, lockdowns, factory burned down and such.
But could you explain why we should help people who won't work? I take that to mean a person for whom a job is available that they could do but they prefer to live off the taxpayer's teat.
No. Just no. I don't understand what moral claim they have to take my money at gunpoint. Whether they do it in the street in person or remotely using government.
No.
John Henry
Howard,
You will perhaps have observed that Trump did everything he could not to arm Iran, from sanctions to assassinating a couple of their top military leaders and unclear scientists. The only administrations apparently hot to cozy up to the Iranians were Obama's and now Biden's, apparently on the theory that if we play nicey-nice with them, we'll stop being the Great Satan and they'll forget all about nuking us. Or Israel, which is more to the point.
Reagan in the early 80s was reacting to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or had that slipped your memory? What would your preferred action have been? Just let the USSR take it? I mean, naturally whatever side a Republican US administration picks is necessarily the wrong side, but these things get more difficult when you can't just pick what the other guy's not having, but have to figure it out on your own. Do you fancy Biden coping with a Chinese invasion of Taiwan? Because I'd say that it's not in the least unlikely he'll have to do it.
Oh, jeez. Nuclear scientists, not "unclear scientists." Sorry.
Judging us by the ethical standards of black people is insane.
In disabilities, I probably should have added age. Not necessarily a "disability" as we normally think of it. But at some point it just becomes too painful for many to work.
We have welfare for that, Social Security, and I am OK with that. A lot of room for improvement but conceptually I am OK with helping old folks.
John Henry
Yancey Ward,
For the BLS, it assumes that when steak rises in price, people buy more chicken. When chicken and steak rise in price, they assume you buy more cans of Friskies.
Ah, that explains why my preferred package of Whiskas has gone unavailable on Amazon Subscribe-and-Save :-)
Seriously, though, that is how the BLS "food basket" works, and while some substitution makes sense, the degree to which it creeps into the statistics is unseemly. It is meant to account for small price fluctuations between roughly comparable foodstuffs, but often it does much, much more than that.
And, Yancey, I really would check the weights of packages. Unless they are bog-standard quantities (half-gallon of milk, 5-lb bag of flour, four sticks of butter, a dozen eggs), most have been altered -- always for the smaller -- in recent years. They haven't yet gotten to 1984's point of bragging that the ratio of chocolate, which was a measly 30 grams, is now being increased to 20 grams, but give 'em time.
This is a permanent bookmark on my bookmarks bar.
The numbers are accurate as they are updated regularly from official government sites that track population, public debt, etc. I occasionally do a rate run on the overall debt of the US government by watching it run for 2 full minutes- today we are running up the debt at a rate of about $45,000/second. The last time I did this last Summer some time, it was $41,000/second. Will do it again next month if I can remember to do so.
>>Judging us by the ethical standards of white people is insane.
The one common denominator in all of your failures is you.
Generational private smoothing functions are rarely productive. Public smoothing functions are valuable tools for short-terms gains, with long-term, progressive consequences.
To put this in some perspective, the median household income in the US is about $70,000, so we are running up in debt over half a household income every single second. There are 123 million households in the US right now. So we are running up a debt that equals the country's household income about every 6 years- that is the rate right now, but that rate is increasing right now, not decreasing.
And Biden or his earpiece speaks tonight about the next "stimulus" package.
Crack, your psychological problems are making you stupid.
I went through 3 or 4 years of therapy. Before that, I was suffering with your demented notion that I had to change the entire world before I could find happiness and a decent life.
I discovered that what I needed to change was myself. Changing the world is beyond my ability, and yours, too.
You can change yourself. All this wild, and rather stupid raving you’re doing is a waste of time. Quit doing it and start changing yourself.
"Ah, that explains why my preferred package of Whiskas has gone unavailable on Amazon Subscribe-and-Save :-)"
All joking aside, Michelle, have you noticed the unavailability of canned cat food? I feed three cats, and for the last several weeks I can't find the 32 or 40 can cartons of Friskies that I normally buy- the shelves have been mostly bare at Walmart, Food City, and now Krogers- and in the last couple of weeks the individual cans have started to vanish from the shelves, too.
Dried cat food still looks ok, but I might not be remembering clearly, but I don't buy as much as that since the cats are kind of finicky.
Yancey Ward: https://www.usdebtclock.org/
You watch that for 2 full minutes? Props.
Made me nuts at 5 secs.
You're right Michelle but we weren't talking about Trump we were talking about the second coming of Reagan which a lot of trumpers seem to desire but have conveniently forgotten the ugly warmongering history of Reagan.
Trump did manage to sell quite a few weapons to the Arabs in the Gulf Nations particularly the f-35 fighter aircraft. Then we find out a few weeks ago that that plane is a huge failure and is already obsolete so you got to tip your hat to the old con man who sold junk to his friends.
And, no, Crack, psychological therapy is not New Age stuff. It can be in the hands of a bad therapist.
I found a very good one. You might have to interview quite a few to find one who’s sensible and ethical. I don’t know how to tell you how to judge that.
I'm currently writing an article on how Kung Flu has affected the packaging industry. Primarily from the machinery, machinery design and manufacturing perspectives.
I had a lengthy interview with the VP for research of one of the large trade associations Monday. Lots of interesting stuff.
But to the point about not being able to find products, he may have told me the reason.
People cannot/do not go out to eat as much any more. Ditto instituional food at schools and companies because of working from home.
This means that institutional food business is way down but counterbalanced by the consumer side. What you buy to eat at home.
This, plus some serious problems with getting people to work and then social distancing in the plant is putting enormous strains on manufacturing capacity, including on the packaging side.
So, many companies have cut back on the number of SKUs they run to maximize productivity and output.
Using cat food as an example, though we did not talk about it specifically, that means less variety.
Instead of 10 flavors, maybe the 4 most popular. Instead of 6, 12, 24 and 36 packs, perhaps just 6 packs and bulk cases to be put on shelves for individual sale.
This is happening across all sectors of consumer packaged good.
No complaints from me. I will do more business in the first half of this year than I did all of last year. Which was my best year ever. I do not have any availability until July. (So if anyone wants me, call now! BR-549)
I am getting automation projects too which I don't even really promote myself for. Companies just can't find people.
John Henry
Short answer:
Blame Fauci.
Seriously
John Henry
"Oh, jeez. Nuclear scientists, not "unclear scientists." Sorry."
Jimmy Carter says 'Nuculer' so whatever.
Seriously
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/11/militant-style-group-still-occupies-george-floyd-autonomous-zone-in-minneapolis/
There was. But you were glad to see him go, I think. Too icky.
Are you guys kidding me? Trump fought his own party to try to force them to give out bigger welfare checks. He aligned himself with the only Socialist in the Senate in middle of two contentious Senate elections in Georgia--against his own party.
If anything Trump was a trojan horse for Marxism. Because he loved to shovel out Free Government Money, and yet all the little piggies and puppies on the Animal Farm think was a conservative. It's not "socialism" they tell me. It's just "unprecedented amounts of other people's money given indiscrimately irrespective of whether anyone suffered a hardship."
Trumponomics, ladies and gentlemen. Not socialism, just unprecedented wealth reditribution.
For those paying attention, the Trump Checks were the beginning of UBI. It's not going aways. Thanks, Donnie!
“Why are poor people poor, and not poor, not poor?“
Th poor are poor because government defines the lower 20th percentile as poor, no matter how many cars or TVs they have. In government nothing ever dies, so poor kids get 3 meals per day at school and the parents get food stamps to feed them 3 meals a day, and parents get public housing and welfare too, and now we will have a guaranteed income on top of that. Government transfers are not included in your income for eligibility in poverty programs.
The real winners are the upper class kids who want to work in professions that pay more and more and will have less competition from poor kids who will be trained to take the government money and do drugs,
"The real winners are the upper class kids who want to work in professions that pay more and more and will have less competition from poor kids who will be trained to take the government money and do drugs,"
Won't work that way.
The 'kids' making the big bucks will be taxed to death to pay for those benefits for the lazy-ass kids.
Josephbleau,
The poor are poor because government defines the lower 20th percentile as poor, no matter how many cars or TVs they have. In government nothing ever dies, so poor kids get 3 meals per day at school and the parents get food stamps to feed them 3 meals a day, and parents get public housing and welfare too, and now we will have a guaranteed income on top of that.
That is unfortunately true. It's literally impossible to eliminate poverty if "poverty" is defined as the bottom quintile; everybody might be a millionaire and yet the bottom quintile would still be "poor." Unless, I suppose, everyone makes exactly the same, so either they're all "poor" or all "rich." That might be some people's desideratum.
I have no great problem with UBI, actually, provided that it's the only support there is. With UBI, you won't starve, whatever happens; but you won't have anything like a good life unless you work for it. That is actually what most people, in my experience, think about welfare: It must be there when it's needed, but it shouldn't ever be comfortable. So, UBI, but no SNAP or TANF or Section 8 or anything else. It's a floor, and it ought to be enough to live on -- we can afford to provide that -- but it simply can't be anything like a "living wage." If you want a living wage, get a job. (I am exempting those who literally can't work, who aren't many as a percentage, but certainly are in aggregate.)
If this were just one program -- the one poverty program -- don't you think the cost would be lower than the juicy smorgasbord we have today? I do.
Not exaggerating--just give every POC $1million in exchange for signing away right to sue now and forevermore their racial grievances. Give them HAWAII, or something, let them run in as they please (of course they will run it into bankruptcy in short order). People who want to live and work without government oppression will gladly pay the bribe, even installments take a century. Your "grievances" are nothing but disguised extortion, let the people who want to be free live together, the rest can take their government checks, buy a Lexus & $500 Nikes, and FOAD.
Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
Y'all fool yourself about what you've done.
Ok, Crack. I am ready to select three negroes to send reparations checks. I choose Oprah, Lebron James, and Beyonce. What amount can I send to possibly make them whole, in the HELL that is America?
"Not exaggerating--just give every POC $1million in exchange for signing away right to sue now and forevermore their racial grievances."
Even assuming they'd all live up to the agreement, this does nothing for those born in the future, all (or lots, anyway) of whom will expect to get a check, too.
There is no light at the end of this tunnel.
Yancey Ward,
Well, the Whiskas package I was talking about was pouches rather than cans, so I've moved to Friskies cans only of late. But, yes, they aren't always around. I have two cats, and they split a can a day, eating kibble the rest of the time, so it's not like they're running me into the ground, but I really do like to know that there's always food on hand. The Friskies I've been getting is in 24-can lots; I've never seen larger ones, though maybe Costco . . .?
Kroger has pouches as well, which the cats seem to like just fine (they're too voracious to be finicky, I guess, or maybe they just tire of the dry stuff every 24 hours).
If there were a Ronald Reagan type around he would be de-platformed. I get the idea that no one outside conservative circles has any idea what Ron DeSantis or Greg Abbott say and do except for some caricature of them as anti-science Neanderthals who wants to kill granny and hate BIPOCs. Kristi Noemi is "who's she?" to consumers of mainstream news.
I say I lived in France AND served in the Navy - white morons accuse me of lying and saying I served in a Navy in Germany - and then you wonder why whites can't get race issues right. Whites are too STUPID to negotiate with. (As I keep repeating: whites used to lie and say they were SMART.) The truth is beyond underwhelming.
This is why BLM has decided to run over you politically: you want to be stubborn? Fine: forget American values.
Just fuck 'em.
Dave Chappelle: "Just TAKE IT."
Everybody loves Dave.
Oso Negro said...
"Ok, Crack. I am ready to select three negroes to send reparations checks."
No, see the difference?
I said people I KNOW - you're just admitting the obvious: you've got opinions on blacks - BUT YOU DON'T KNOW ANY BLACKS. We'e just theories to you - who walk around and shit. Might as well still be your furniture from slavery days, for all the mental progress you've made..
THAT'S why you can be wrong AND CRUEL ABOUT IT. If you knew some, you'd want us to be treated fairly - like Americans.
POC living with POS = USA
AMERICAN JUSTICE TO WHITES:
"We don't owe you reparations."
"Why not?"
"Our racist ancestors kicked that can so far down the road we won't pay."
NOW EVERYBODY ADMIRE THOSE VALUES AND KNEEL FOR THE ANTHEM TOGETHER.
Joe Smith (on another thread) said...
"Do you ever wonder why you seem to be constantly swimming upstream?
It's because you always seem to take the opposite viewpoint of EVERYONE."
And yet - with all you geniuses handling shit - IT NEVER GETS BETTER.
Maybe you should try LISTENING TO SOMEONE ELSE FOR A CHANGE.
Oh - wait - I forgot:
Whites CAN'T LISTEN TO SOMEONE ELSE FOR A CHANGE.
It goes against their beliefs,...
The idea that the burden of proof is on whites to prove why they should not be persecuted is risible. Check yourself in.
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