ROK Drop Open Thread – October 5, 2014
Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.
Also here are some of the topics posted in the Forums this week if you haven’t read them yet:
- Ebola Crisis Open Thread
- Global Warming Alarmists Caught In Walrus-gate
- Americans Overwhelming Disapprove of A National Health Insurance Program
- Are Ivy League Schools Overated?
- The World’s Most Secretive Starbucks Location
- Poll Shows 70% of Servicemembers Do Not Think Ground Troops Should Go to Iraq
Military Homes threatened by ISIS/ISIL
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/02/army-warns-us-military-personnel-on-isis-threat-to-family-members/
Leon Laporte will like my the film of the week(3.9 on IMDB), it’s Nicolas Cage’s new faith based film ‘Left Behind’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrXe8YDbzYs
Nobody Is Getting Left Behind (Because the Rapture Is Never, Ever Going to Happen)
Tbone,
You did a good job getting your point across coherently in your post in the last open thread. I am not being facetious or sarcastic. I honestly appreciate the way you constructed your arguments.
Most of these things are fundamental points of difference between conservatives/republicans and liberals/democrats.
Point by point:
Filibusters- I think filibusters for the most part were representatives…..well……. representing the will of their constituents. Many of these republican representatives come from districts that disagree with the direction that the president and the democratic members of congress (and many of the moderate republicans as well) are taking this country. It may be obstructionist but it brings issues to the forefront that people may not even have known about, since a lot of bills from both sides get passed under the radar in a shady manner.
Infrastructure- Our best chance at improving the infrastructure is to lower capital gains and corporate taxes. I believe that if you broaden the tax base, you will more than make up for what you lose from lower taxes. You will also bring more jobs back into the country. More people earning more paychecks…..which broadens the tax base again.
Iraq- We likely still would have boots on the ground in Iraq. Most military advisers and strategists are saying that would have been a good thing to keep a training and intelligence force there. The president touted the withdrawal as a triumph a year or two ago, but now he is trying to distance himself. Saying things like Iraq wouldn’t agree to policies that would protect U.S. troops from Iraqi prosecution so he had no choice. Panetta is saying he didn’t press the issue hard enough and that the Iraqis would have conceded. Also, probably not a great idea to throw the intelligence community under the bus, when it is more likely they were presenting valid information on ISIS in their briefs, but the president wasn’t paying attention.
As far the other countries go, none of us can say for sure how Romney would have reacted militarily to any of these situations. I suspect he would have surrounded himself with a better cabinet and more experienced advisers. He likely has better organizational and decision making skills than the president, and would be less likely to make partisan appointments in key positions. Perhaps better foreign policies could have prevented many of these problems to begin with.
Abortion- We are never going to come to any sort of agreement on this. We may as well take this off the table.
Affordable Care Act- People will likely not know the true extent of the failure of Obamacare until after the elections, when the rate hikes take effect and delayed requirements kick in.
The website is now up to $2 billion. Anyone who knows anything about web design will probably tell you that amount of money spent on a web site is indicative of failure in itself. Any IT guys here that can back me up on that?
Bush- I suspect you won’t find many Bush fans here. He definitely played his part in the mess we are in, but it’s been 6 years. We haven’t improved the situation. We have doubled down and jacked up the debt.
I think on so many issues we would be better off if Romney had won the election. Basically the lesser of 2 evils principle.
I enjoy this discussion and hope we can continue without being snarky or resorting to name calling. It may not be as exciting, but it’s probably more productive.
“Infrastructure- Our best chance at improving the infrastructure is to lower capital gains and corporate taxes. I believe that if you broaden the tax base, you will more than make up for what you lose from lower taxes. You will also bring more jobs back into the country. More people earning more paychecks…..which broadens the tax base again.”
I’m not clear on how that is supposed to work.
The latest tactic, called Inversion, has companies relocating their corporate headquarters overseas to avoid paying taxes. Reducing corporate taxes might be less incentive to move their headquarters, but is that any incentive for them bring their manufacturing and services operations back to the USA?
The pay for the manufacture and services jobs that have remained in the USA has been stagnating for years. Many Americans in those jobs are living from paycheck to paycheck and tend to not have money to set aside to invest in stocks. Will reducing capital gains taxes change their situation? How will that broaden the tax base?
As far as corporate profits and infrastructure improvements are concerned, private sector companies have shown very little interest to chip in even when they can and should. Look at the telecom companies for example. Most have near monopolies in their various regions across the country. The profits are concentrated in the pockets at the top and shareholder dividends while spending on overall regional upgrades is only justified for what will show up on the short term profits ledgers. So, in many regions, broadband availability and capacity lags far behind that of other OECD countries.
Who is it that’s contributing to the degradation of the country?
I was a Bush fan actually. I slammed his detractors same as currently do Obama’s. It’s not that I really, really like Bush or Obama, it’s that their biggest detractors are invariably nut jobs.
I also find the hypocrisy and amazingly short memory spans of some folks both frightening and hilarious.
…as far as Romney. Sorry. I could never take anyone seriously who believes they will be the god of their own planet when they die and wears magical underwear. Worse, someone whose belief system may lead them to attempt to bring on the End Times™.
I’m a former republican, they left me behind. That does not mean I am a democrat. I am not. All I know is the last two elections I couldn’t vote because I was offered no options. Crazies bent on theocracy, idiots, community organizers who have never had a job, etc. While I do not think anyone who is elected is a complete drooling idiot, I do question other attributes.
Leon, Obama’s detractors are not necessarily nut jobs or hypocrites.
But the media and other Obama supporters ignore valid questions and criticism from normal people and eagerly promote the rantings of the nut jobs so they can easily tear them down like straw men… and then claim Obama is above question or criticism.
It is truly amazing how Obama has been sold to the public with so much emotion and so few facts… and how the public has been guided to accept that.
The birther issue is an excellent example. A lot of crazy people with a lot of crazy, and obviously invalid, theories got their 15 minutes of fame. But you and I both know how scanned PDF files are made so we both know the birth certificate that was released has been intentionally manipulated… and amid all the crazy talk of Kenyan citizenship and “real” birth mothers, the question of the shoddy forgery was lost… and anybody who dares ask reasonable questions is branded a nut job rather than given an answer.
Now the birth certificate could have been a ploy to mess with the tinfoil hat crowd… but, for the most part, very little that the Obama administration as done has shown that level of cunning or competence… so it really is much easier to believe that it was just a poor forgery to obscure information deemed potentially troublesome… perhaps not a deal-breaker as the birthers would like to believe… but likely an embarrassment to the carefully manufactured history of Obama that nobody has really dug very deep into… except nut jobs… and a few people that are NOT nut jobs but have been labeled such for publicly asking very good questions they were unable to find answers to and everybody else ignored.
When the focus turns viciously upon the person, while their questions or information is ignored, it frequently means they are on to something.
Your comments about the Republicans losing you are right on… and they have lost a lot of people.
Political parties have come and gone, especially in times of turmoil… as we see no more Federalists or Whigs… and, perhaps, the Republicans and Democrats will either have to find their place with the younger generations or be replaced.
If it makes you feel better, according to Pew research, the Millennials hold practical rather than Republican/Democrat ideological political views… much like many of us here do… though the inexperience of youth allows them to hold two conflicting viewpoints simultaneously.
They are socially liberal… gay-apathetic, pro-abortion, pro-drug legalization, anti-religion (especially in politics), pro-environment (from a very distantly theoretical standpoint rather than practical self-involved standpoint)…
…and sometimes libertarian… less than half support gun control… have the lowest percentage of self-identified patriots (this might be due to a large number of them being immigrants or first generation immigrants)…
…and sometimes confused… they want smaller government if it means more taxes but want the services of big government to take care of their problems… they want universal healthcare but hate Obamacare… they are very distrusting of government and believe it is inefficient and wasteful unless it is helping them…
…and financially conservative when they start making money… interested in investing, home ownership, and not giving their money away to welfare cases.
So… if there was the right leader with the clever use of social media to bypass the established political/corporate-controlled media, who could get their message out directly to the Millennials with a practical platform for the modern world rather than the decades-old outdated and entrenched ideas of the Republicans and Democrats, there is a chance they could form a new political party that would attract disenchanted Republicans and Democrats. The Millennials’ political views are generally more agreeable than the Republicans or Democrats.
Let’s consider this.
How does Vice President Leon LaPorte sound?
Next to President ChickenHead, of course.
Secretary of State Johnnyboy
Secretary of Defense GI Korea
Surgeon General Smokes… OK… maybe not… but there is certainly a place for him somewhere
Secretary of Transportation MTB Rider
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Retired GI
Minister of Funny Walks Tbonetylr
I’m wondering if the Libertarians will continue to make inroads into the American political system. We’ve been a two party system for quite some time, but the points being made in CH’s post are valid.
When did the Republicans become such a theocracy? What the hell was the point of Sarah Palin? At first I thought it was a subtle dig at Obama’s lack of Executive experience: “Look! My lightweight has more experience than your lightweight!” But most people don’t “get” that subtle of a joke…
I like most of the Libertarian platform, except the “Withdraw all forces everywhere and close the borders.” This is very short sighted, as power abhores a vacuum… Some country will rise to fill the vacuum left behind, and they may not have the U.S.’s best interests at heart.
Oh, and Tom? No matter what stupid comment you make, you will never, EVER be allowed to return from Canada to Korea… So save us your mouth poop. Your Chinese Masters are lying to you.
JoeC,
Sorry it took me this long to respond.
With one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, the U.S. is currently not a great place to do business. While many would choose to remain overseas even if the tax rates were lowered, there are some businesses that would likely jump at the chance.
Think about this: a business has decided that to increase their profit margin they have to move part of their operation to China to save on labor. They open up plants to manufacture unfinished or incomplete parts that are then shipped to America for completion.
The advantage is far cheaper labor. The disadvantages are that the whole process adds a couple weeks to the chain of production due to shipping in cargo containers, the quality will likely be lower, and if you have any sort of intellectual properties that need to be guarded they are fair game for the Chinese government. Still, the profit margin is slightly improved.
If the tax rates were to drop say 5 , it might make sense to bring some of those operations back into America. That brings more jobs back into the country. Many manufacturing jobs still pay enough for workers to pay taxes. That number will go up. Those that won’t make enough to pay taxes will still be employed and having to take less in government subsidies. These companies will be paying less in taxes but there will be more of them.resulting in an overall gain in tax revenue.
As far as capital gains, I wasn’t referring to the lower or middle class per se, but for people that have money to invest in stocks, it may look a lot less appealing taking the risk when you see how much Uncle Sam is taking off the top. Lower the rate. Have more people interested in investing more money. I admit I have a basic understanding of the stock market, but I would imagine that when you have more people investing, that’s generally good for the economy. Does that seem like a fair assessment?
As far as infrastructure, using the telecoms is probably not the best example. They are technically private industries, but in many places they are propped up or aided by state, local, and federal government. If I want to ditch my cable internet provider, I have no alternative choices. I can go to DSL, but that’s not really an option for the price or speed, so effectively capitalism has been hamstrung. In many places there is no competition. These guys are just raking up as much money as they can until cable TV is dead. they have no incentive to improve their quality of service when they don’t have to compete in many markets.
When someone refers to infrastructure I assume they mean bridges and roads, municipal water supply and sewer systems. Things of that nature. If the government has more revenue, then they can surely begin projects to repair or replace these things that have been neglected for so long in many places. I am not saying they will, but they could.
Gotta go. Look forward to your response.
Everyone have a great day or night.
Leon can only run for office if he assures reflective belts for everyone. I never heard of anyone being arrested, convicted, or killed while wearing one. That’s how he’ll get my vote.
The rest of you need to show your DD214s.
“If the tax rates were to drop say 5 , it might make sense to bring some of those operations back into America.”
Are we talking about the same thing?
In general, corporations’ and peoples’ taxes are based on income (profits for corporations). A company usually relocates production and labor overseas to reduce their costs which allows them to keep more of their revenue as profits. Reducing their taxes only allows them to keep still more of their revenue as profits, but how is that an incentive to relocate operations back to the USA if it means again increasing costs?
The only rational reason for a company to relocate back to the States is if the costs of doing those things overseas becomes greater than the costs of doing them domestically. Sure, transportation, quality of work, potential loss of intellectual property plus whatever taxes and fees they have to pay to operate in those countries drive those costs up, but so far they haven’t reached the level that will bring those jobs home.
Changing American corporate tax rates doesn’t change any of those costs. Well, at least not if it’s done broadly. The ideas proposed most often are targeted incentive tax rates. Reduced tax rates for companies that keep their operations in the USA compared to rates paid by companies with their operations overseas.
Good advice setnaffa. Unfortunately, I may be too honest to run for office nor would I appeal to the ends of the spectrum and I would make enemies on both sides with the moderates, who still have their pet positions. That’s the thing, sometimes leaders have to make unpopular decisions but in the US it has become political suicide to show leadership.
I would have a simple platform though.
For one entire session of congress there would be only one mandate: simplify laws.
For 2 years the project would NOT be to pass new laws. It would be to simplify current laws, eliminate as many laws as possible, streamline and simplify bureaucracy, etc.
A good example is the byzantine tax code. Even the congressmen who wrote (write) it cannot do their own taxes. The average American citizen should be able to sit at the kitchen table with their W-2, whip out a pencil and calculator and knock it out in 30 minutes or less.
Apparently I didn’t completely understand the dynamic of the situation and was making a connection that was only halfways correct.
Corporations move their headquarters overseas to countries with lower tax rates in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes on money earned overseas. This process does take U.S. jobs out of the country.
Another hitch in the process is that in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes on money that is earned overseas (after already paying taxes on the income in the host nation) corporations cannot repatriate these funds into the United States. That’s estimated at close to $2 trillion a year just sitting in offshore locations. If repatriated, at least some of that money would end up being spent to expand operations and hire new employees in the U.S.
Whether or not these companies would bring labor back to the U.S. en masse would likely vary on a case by case basis. I would still argue that lowering the corporate tax rate would be better for the economy overall.
Hackers had root access to JP Morgan servers for months.
One of the most security aware companies on the planet.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/02/jp-morgan-security-breach/16590689/
Liz, some years ago when “cloud computing” was first getting started, I went on a dive trip with the CEO of one of the big companies leading the industry. He gave me an enthusiastic sales pitch and answered all my questions about security… the servers are physically secure and can withstand all sorts of natural disasters… and the servers are perfectly secure with backups and many levels of security… so your data cannot be lost, stolen, or observed.
It smelled like bullshyt then and it has proven to be nothing but bullshyt ever since.
Anybody who puts information they are not willing to share with the public into the Cloud, from nude pictures to trade secrets, is a fool.
When the NSA can’t even get their security act together, it is all downhill from there.
That reminds me, I have some “interesting” photos I “found” on ChickenHead’s phone, some at-home stuff of him working on his tech toys. Anyone want?
Sneak Preview: http://tinyurl.com/khd7v3v
😀
Don’t make fun of me, Smokes.
The Sound Blaster 1.5 was a good card in its day. And they certainly aren’t easy to instal into a 486 tower sitting on the floor with no worktable.
in other news…
Be careful.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gfXupHOEhH0/S273u4aS4iI/AAAAAAAAObk/mhJSkOjKWvE/s640/Vintage-Smoking-Ad-4.jpg
Expect retarded comments from Tom in 3, 2, 1…
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-just-overtook-us-worlds-090801574.html
There are three charts, but the last one is the important one, and will, of course, be ignored by our favorite pro-China troll.
No matter what you say here or on any Korean Blog Site, you will never, EVER be allowed back into Korea. Just accept that your cowardace that led you to fleeing Korea, and that you will never know real Korean food, society or life. 😆 😆 😆
Your Chinese Masters are lying to you. You will never receive amnesty.
You know this won’t ever get past Russia and China so it’s just more wasting of hot air by the UN (which is what they do best, I suppose)…
U.N. pushes to bring N.K. leader to court: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20141009000214
I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies. Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about. But trust me…. You don’t. I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you don’t know what you are talking about. This is how bad info gets passed around. If you don’t know about the topic….Don’t make yourself sound like you do. Cuz some ROKdropers believe anything they hear.
On the main page of the old site at the bottom-center there used to be a link to the previous page. Not seeing it on this layout… is this ever coming back? If not what’s the new way to “scroll back” through the articles?
Has there been any artillery fire up at Paju? A friend posted on Facebook that the NorKs fired on the balloon launch, and the South fired back. Didn’t see anything on Yahoo, yet.
Looks like there has been an exchange of fire. At the moment, no injuries have been reported.
http://www.sunherald.com/2014/10/10/5847612/rival-koreas-trade-fire-over-propaganda.html
Via `the Hole more reports of you evil waygooks deflowering pure Chosenettes:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2014/10/10/ladies-be-careful-of-foreign-guys-offering-you-drinks-dong-a-ilbo/
Everytime you spike a Korean girl’s drink Tom sheds a tear.
Leon, you are wrong.
I DO know what I am talking about.
The Sound Blaster WAS a good card.
Smokes,
“The next day, she told him that the foreigners gave her something to drink which had apparently been spiked.”
I hear this is pretty common.
The barley tea they give the girls is spiked with over 4% ethyl alcohol. The water can be spiked with almost 20%.
This is all very shocking.
After decades of study by numerous universities, think tanks, and social scientists, a new transformational social program has been released that is believed to be capable of greatly reducing racism in America.
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have both spoken in favor of it and are using their leadership for promotion.
President Obama has scheduled a press conference later this week to discuss details and encourage widespread adoption.
Interestingly, the white community, including the far right, has not only come out in support of this program but also supports government involvement.
For more details:
http://i.dib.im/iKom.jpg
You are wrong, Leon.
Sound Blaster WAS a good audio card.
People still buy expansion sound cards? While integrated video’s still got a looongggg way to go, the integrated audio chipsets do a good enough job servicing my ears.
Smokes, my “expansion sound card” is a Digi 002… and there is a good story behind it.
I met one English “teacher” and got along with him well. He was a charismatic guy from a rich family but had been in rehab for heroin… so they suggested he teach English in Korea to get him away from the toxic environment he had been in. That was a good idea… but it took him only a few weeks to score hash in Korea. He would drink every night and tell the Korean girls he was a pilot. It sometimes worked… or maybe they just liked him because he was big and handsome and had the easy likability that all sociopaths do.
I have a lot of “friends” who are sociopaths. No, you can’t be friends with a sociopath. But if you understand them and stay immune to their darker charms, they are lots of fun.
Anyway, the teacher before him had left Korea under the cover of night amid some scandal… and had left a lot of music equipment behind in his apartment. The hogwon owner collected the keyboards and guitars and such for resale… but couldn’t make head or tails of the box with a bunch of plugs… and it wound up on a closet shelf.
So one night I meet this guy Downtown and he hands it to me in a bag and tells me the story and said he didn’t know what it was but maybe I could use it in my studio.
Ahhhh… a Digi 002… why, I think I CAN use that… and I think I will be buying all the beer tonight.
Epilogue: He was fired after about 6 months… I believe for showing up reeking of alcohol every morning. He tried to get another job but wound up flying back to the States. That was a good group of guys (but a poor group of “teachers”). He got fired and is probably a junkie, one is in jail, one is almost homeless in Canada with no real skill to get a job, one went back to the States and became a hateful trucker, and one of them had a Filipina girlfriend who was divorced from a Korean guy who wound up secretly screwing all of them but me… which really caused some bad feelings.when they all started comparing notes.
Good times.
Ahh, The Turtle Beach Project Pinnacle Pro…
I wonder if all the folks yelling that Ebola may become airborne, realize they now believe in evolution?