The 2012 Three Ring Circus AKA The US Presidential Election

[The Emerald Dawn]

Take a look at the fact that the 47% number that is constantly parroted almost exclusively includes FOX' target audience.The American Taliban

Hey, if the Newsroom went to great lengths to point out the demographic you're trying to describe it's only fair to actually use the proper term now isn't it?

Fast and Furious is out. Eric Holder has been found to not have known before he terminated the program upon finding out. Seems like a field office decided to do this on their own.

My biggest criticism is that this seems to indicate a lack of central government control, rather than an excess of it. Some areas of the media are saying that Obama started this program, because F&F started in '09, ignoring that Operation: Wide Receiver which started in '06.

And it's not going to stop the American Taliban candidates in congress from continuing to drag Holder into hearings. Because facts be damned, it was Holder's, and by extension the President's fault anyway.

See, he wanted to get the guns into the Mexicans hands so that they could help him during his second term by engaging in a coup de tat and creating a failed narco-state on America's southern border, threatening all those good honest god fearing whites.

[The Emerald Dawn]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

1,900,000 million.

Also, running for president is hard. For realsies. Please stop being harsh, it's rude.

[Mavorpen]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

1,900,000 million.

Also, running for president is hard. For realsies. Please stop being harsh, it's rude.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan has only gotten harsher.
“This week I called [the Romney campaign] incompetent, but only because I was being polite,” the former White House speechwriter wrote Friday. “I really meant ‘rolling calamity.’”

UmadAnnRomney?

[The Emerald Dawn]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

1,900,000 million.

Also, running for president is hard. For realsies. Please stop being harsh, it's rude.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan has only gotten harsher.
“This week I called [the Romney campaign] incompetent, but only because I was being polite,” the former White House speechwriter wrote Friday. “I really meant ‘rolling calamity.’”

UmadAnnRomney?

Heh, Ms. Noonan's quote was awesomeness. I only said incompetent because I'm held to the Hayes Code. I really meant "Absolute Clusterfuck".

[Mavorpen]

Heh, Ms. Noonan's quote was awesomeness. I only said incompetent because I'm held to the Hayes Code. I really meant "Absolute Clusterfuck".

I can already see the Noonan/trollface hybrids.

[Norstal]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

1,900,000 million.

Also, running for president is hard. For realsies. Please stop being harsh, it's rude.

Well to be fair, it is hard. When you're on the receiving end, Ann. *nods*

[The Emerald Dawn]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

1,900,000 million.

Also, running for president is hard. For realsies. Please stop being harsh, it's rude.

Well to be fair, it is hard. When you're on the receiving end, Ann. *nods*

Imagine what she'll say when she hears what the Iranians call her. Hell, imagine what she'll say when the British Press Corps gets ahold of her.

[New Chalcedon]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

Context, please. $1,900,000 is, after all, a fairly impressively high stack of $100 bills.

But how much was Mitt Romney's income for 2011?

[The Emerald Dawn]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

Context, please. $1,900,000 is, after all, a fairly impressively high stack of $100 bills.

But how much was Mitt Romney's income for 2011?

My apologies. 13.7 million.

[Wamitoria]

In 2011, Willard paid 1.9 million in taxes.

One point nine million.

Context, please. $1,900,000 is, after all, a fairly impressively high stack of $100 bills.

But how much was Mitt Romney's income for 2011?

Enough so that 1.9 million is more than 13% of his income.

Although, had he taken all deductions, he would have paid 9%.

[New Chalcedon]

Context, please. $1,900,000 is, after all, a fairly impressively high stack of $100 bills.

But how much was Mitt Romney's income for 2011?

My apologies. 13.7 million.

Ah. So, once again, Mitt Romney paid an effective tax rate of 13.9%.

Is he trying to lose by releasing this?

Context, please. $1,900,000 is, after all, a fairly impressively high stack of $100 bills.

But how much was Mitt Romney's income for 2011?

Enough so that 1.9 million is more than 13% of his income.

Although, had he taken all deductions, he would have paid 9%.

Only barely, while many teachers, doctors, nurses &tc pay 20-25% in taxes.

[The Emerald Dawn]

My apologies. 13.7 million.

Ah. So, once again, Mitt Romney paid an effective tax rate of 13.9%.

Is he trying to lose by releasing this?

Enough so that 1.9 million is more than 13% of his income.

Although, had he taken all deductions, he would have paid 9%.

Only barely, while many teachers, doctors, nurses &tc pay 20-25% in taxes.

I hate to trumpet this, but to make this point I'm going to have to. I, a legless, chickenless, egg, pay an effective rate of 25% federal and 9% state taxes.

I pay 20% more than Romney, per dollar.

[Fal Dara in Shienar]

Ah. So, once again, Mitt Romney paid an effective tax rate of 13.9%.

Is he trying to lose by releasing this?



Only barely, while many teachers, doctors, nurses &tc pay 20-25% in taxes.

I hate to trumpet this, but to make this point I'm going to have to. I, a legless, chickenless, egg, pay an effective rate of 25% federal and 9% state taxes.

I pay 20% more than Romney, per dollar.

I'm not sure many understand why that matters. He pays the amount the IRS wants. Huzzah.

[Wikkiwallana]

On one level, I can perfectly understand the "47%" scandal very easily. Mitt Romney has always exuded the odour of someone whose mentality is one of entitlement: he's entitled to his very posh education, his dad's rolodex, his first house (purchased for him and Ann by George Romney), his share portfolio to pay his way through Harvard, etc. etc.

On another, I just don't get it. In what world are food stamps, Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance "entitlements", but $8 billion annually in cash-in-hand subsidies to the big oil companies alone just the natural order of things?

The right believes that the poor are intrinsically lazy, while the rich are intrinsically industrious.

Therefore, the best way to motivate the poor to work hard is through deprivation. As their lives grow harsher and more austere, their desperation will keep them from reverting back into their natural sloth and instead keep them focused on their work, as only through work can they survive. The less they have, the better things will be for everyone throughout society.

The rich, OTOH, are different. They are motivated by success, and the more they enjoy, the harder they will work. Allowing them to have it all only whets their appetite for more, unleashing their creative energies for the good of society.

Ergo, it is in fact bad to offer food stamps, but good to offer oil subsidies. Reverse Robin Hood tax policies are the key to transforming an economy into a roaring engine of unlimited growth.

<pause>

Or so goes the theory. Personally, I think it's a self-serving crock of shit.

You think right, according to Moody's:

[The Emerald Dawn]

I hate to trumpet this, but to make this point I'm going to have to. I, a legless, chickenless, egg, pay an effective rate of 25% federal and 9% state taxes.

I pay 20% more than Romney, per dollar.

I'm not sure many understand why that matters. He pays the amount the IRS wants. Huzzah.

He pays the amount that the millionaires in Congress have been petitioned by the millionaires on Wall Street to ask for.

Let me break this down a little more visually.

1,000,000 x 14% = 140,000
75,000 x 34% = 25,500

1,000,000 - 140,000 = 860,000
75,000 - 25,500 = 49,500

1,000,000 x 34% = 340,000

1,000,000 - 340,000 = 660,000

49,500 / 660,000 = 13 1/3

You're telling me he can't live on 13 and 1/3 times the amount I do?

[Wikkiwallana]

How on earth did a US election thread get derailed into a technical discussion of pyramid building during the 4th Dynasty?

We're Generalites, it's what we do.

[The Archregimancy]

While basically factually accurate, that NatGeo link overemphasises the positives at the expense of the considerable negatives.


How on earth did a US election thread get derailed into a technical discussion of pyramid building during the 4th Dynasty?

<considers splitting this off into a separate thread>

Because restoring the policies of the 4th Dynasty is Romney's secret "jobs plan"?

Frankly, Romney strikes me as more of a 7th Dynasty man.

You know... Old Kingdom falls apart into economic chaos as an increasingly marginalised central government attempts to cling on to the lost glories of the past, and centuries later no-one's really sure whether the leader ever existed or not anyway.

[The Emerald Dawn]

Because restoring the policies of the 4th Dynasty is Romney's secret "jobs plan"?

Frankly, Romney strikes me as more of a 7th Dynasty man.

You know... Old Kingdom falls apart into economic chaos as an increasingly marginalised central government attempts to cling on to the lost glories of the past, and centuries later no-one's really sure whether the leader ever existed or not anyway.

Just an FYI, from Ireland: http://www.giveblood.ie/Clinical_Services/Bone_Marrow_Registry/

I think the analogy works, especially considering all the relics we have in the Republican party.

[The Archregimancy]

I hate to trumpet this, but to make this point I'm going to have to. I, a legless, chickenless, egg, pay an effective rate of 25% federal and 9% state taxes.

I pay 20% more than Romney, per dollar.

I'm not sure many understand why that matters. He pays the amount the IRS wants. Huzzah.

Not quite.

Having previously made a pledge that he paid 'at least 13%' of his income in taxes over the last few years, one of his accounts clearly noticed that were he to claim back all of the money he was entitled in tax rebates for his charitable donations (and let's be fair - he and Ann give vast quantities of money to charity; at 30% of their income, just over twice as much as they pay in tax), he would pay less than 13% of his income in tax - forcing him to underclaim his charity rebate in order not to counter a claim he'd made earlier in the presidential campaign.

Linky thing

Or to put it another way:

* The Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011, amounting to nearly 30% of their income.
* The Romneys claimed a deduction for $2.25 million of those charitable contributions.
* The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

Another linky thing.

Summed up: Romney technically paid more than he owed in taxes over the last tax year, but only for narrow political reasons.

Had he not been running for president, he would have claimed the full deduction and paid less in tax.

Except he also said this in August: "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more; I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”

Whoops.

[Wamitoria]

I take back everything I said that was nice about the Mormon Church.

[The Emerald Dawn]

I take back everything I said that was nice about the Mormon Church.

Hyper-aggressive, centrally controlled religion attempts to silence dissent from within. Film at 11.

[The Emerald Dawn]

Ryan was boo'd by Seniors at an AARP campaign stop.

...In LA, so it isn't terribly shocking, that's a very split state. But I have to admit, he handled it well.

[Gauthier]

I take back everything I said that was nice about the Mormon Church.

Hyper-aggressive, centrally controlled religion attempts to silence dissent from within. Film at 11.

Scientology with a longer history and bigger areas of control.

[Khadgar]

Ryan was boo'd by Seniors at an AARP campaign stop.

...In LA, so it isn't terribly shocking, that's a very split state. But I have to admit, he handled it well.

Ha ha!

I'm pretty down, no "Romney making an ass out of himself" news yet today.

[The Emerald Dawn]

Hyper-aggressive, centrally controlled religion attempts to silence dissent from within. Film at 11.

Scientology with a longer history and bigger areas of control.

The Catholic Church, with a shorter history and dreams of reaching such heights.