(*SIGH*)
Well, folks... Romney pulled it out in Michigan.
Too bad.
But before anyone loses hope... (*CHUCKLE*)... note that the combined anti-Romney vote was 553,173 to Romney's 410,517 - and that was with Gingrich having effectively pulled out of the race in a tactical move and with Paul too having "personally left the field."
Folks... I'm not trying to spin this; I simply note that if Romney can barely beat Rick Santorum in Michigan - Romney's home state... the state his father was a popular governor of - this does not bode well for his chances of beating Barack Hussein Obama should he be this November's GOP standard-bearer.
(*SIGH*)
Please, folks... forget Santorum!
Please, folks... forget Paul!
Neither man is gonna get the GOP nomination, but if by some miracle either did... (*PURSED LIPS*)... neither could win against Obama. The mainstream media would destroy Santorum and the "conservative" media and major Republican "establishment" figures would no doubt literally "defect" to Obama.
(Folks... it's a question of math!)
Speaking of "the math," I wonder how many of you are aware that it's Gingrich - not Santorum - who ranks number two to Romney when it comes to cumulative popular votes in the ten contests which have been held.
Yep... Gingrich has 978,042 votes to his tally... and as you know, a fair number of these votes came via contests where for strategic reasons Gingrich chose not to proactively compete!
(Again, folks... not to beat a dead horse... but if you were under the impression that it was Santorum, not Gingrich, who was number two to Romney in popular support... that buttresses my oft-stated contention that the media is doing all in its power to manipulate the American People by presenting a false premise.)
Folks... there are 40 more states to go!
(*SMILE*)
Keep on tuning in to Usually Right.
The Truth Shall Set Ye Free!
7 comments:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577251461989702208.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
President Obama appeared at a United Auto Workers tent revival meeting Tuesday, and...said the bailouts succeeded not "because of anything the government did."
The lacuna in this account is the $81.8 billion that taxpayers surrendered to General Motors and Chrysler, and we detailed the many other costs in a February 25 editorial "Halftime in Detroit."
As it happens, however, we missed one big thing the government did that deserves more attention: GM's tax gift courtesy of the U.S. Treasury.
Corporations in the red, as GM was for years, are allowed to carry forward net operating losses that reduce their future tax liability when they are making money. GM had accumulated about $45 billion in such profit-shielding chits by 2008, with a book value of about $18 billion.
* DON'T ASK ME HOW $45 BILLION IS "DEEMED" $18 BILLION - JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW FUCKED UP THE TAX CODE IS.
When companies enter bankruptcy, carry-forwards disappear or are greatly limited under IRS section 382, which kicks in when ownership changes by more than 50 percentage points.
The point is to prevent companies from buying assets solely for tax arbitrage or tax avoidance.
But starting in 2009, Treasury began to issue regulatory "notices" that suspend this law when it comes to Treasury-owned stock.
* HEY... WASN'T 2009 THE YEAR OBAMA BECAME PRESIDENT AND TIM "THE TAX CHEAT" GEITHNER BECAME OBAMA'S TREASURY SECRETARY...???
The provisions also apply to AIG and Citigroup.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
So when GM entered bankruptcy in June 2009, the government swapped the debt the auto maker owed it as a creditor for 61% of "new GM," while handing another chunk to the United Auto Workers. But new GM also inherited the accumulated net operating losses that would have turned into a pumpkin in normal bankruptcy.
(*SMIRK*)
In a 2011 working paper, J. Mark Ramseyer of Harvard and Eric Rasmusen of Indiana University argue that by manipulating corporate tax rules by fiat, "Treasury gave the firm (and its owners, including the UAW) $18 billion more in assets."
* YEP!
Thus a Democratic Administration gave "a massive tax benefit to one of the party's biggest supporters."
* YEP...!!!
The other problem is that the move put Ford and GM's other competitors at a disadvantage, as bailouts always do.
Mr. Obama crowed yesterday about GM's "highest profits in its 100-year history." We'd be interested to hear how its effective tax rate compares with Warren Buffett's secretary's.
(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/292205/autoworkers-obama-left-behind-michelle-malkin
The White House fairy tale about the Happily Ever After Auto Bailout is missing a crucial, bloody page. While President Obama bragged about “standing by American workers” at a rowdy United Auto Workers meeting Tuesday, he failed to acknowledge how the Chicago-style deal threw tens of thousands of non-union autoworkers under the bus.
The bailout pain was not distributed equally. It was redistributed politically.
Bondholders standing up for their property and contractual rights got shortchanged and demonized personally by the president.
* CHECK!
Dealers and suppliers faced closures based on political connections and lobbying clout, rather than neutral efficiency evaluations.
* CHECK!
And as I first reported in September 2010, in the rush to nationalize the auto industry and avoid contested court termination proceedings, the White House auto team schemed with Big Labor bosses to preserve UAW members’ costly pension funds by shafting their non-union counterparts.
(*PURSED LIPS*) CHECK.
These forgotten non-union pensioners (who worked for Delphi, a GM auto-parts company) lost all of their health- and life-insurance benefits.
Hailing from the economically devastated Rust Belt — northeast Ohio, Michigan, and neighboring states — the Delphi workers had devoted decades of their lives as secretaries, technicians, engineers, and sales employees. Some have watched up to 70% of their pensions vanish. They’ve banded together to seek justice in court and on Capitol Hill under the banner of the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association.
Through two costly years of litigation and investigation, the Delphi workers have exposed how the stacked White House Auto Task Force schemed with union bosses to “cherry pick” (one Obama official’s very words) which financial obligations the new Government Motors company would assume and which they would abandon based on their political expedience.
Obama’s own former auto czar Steve Rattner admitted in his recent memoir that “attacking the union’s sacred cow” could “jeopardize” the auto-bailout deal.
Ohio Republican representative Michael Turner last month called attention to the glaring conflicts of interest that entangled Obama moneyman Tim Geithner’s multiple meddling roles in screwing over the Delphi workers. Geithner served simultaneously as co-chair of the Auto Task Force, board member of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (the federal agency overseeing pension payments to bankrupt companies) and treasury secretary.
Thanks to a separate Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we already know that Geithner’s department and General Motors closely coordinated their PR strategy and collaborated on making fraudulent claims about GM repaying all of its government loans.
* YEP.
The cash-strapped Delphi retirees are suing the transparency-ducking PBGC in federal court to unearth documents that may yield key details of the improper Obama-administration influence over Delphi’s bankruptcy organization.
* GOOD LUCK TO THEM, BUT THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS A SOLID RECORD OF DOING WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO RESIST LEGITIMATE INVESTIGATION. (JUST THINK HOLDER STONEWALLING - AND IN ALL LIKELIHOOD PERJURING HIMSELF - WITH REGARD TO "OPERATION FAST AND FURIOUS.")
As ebullient UAW officials hooted and hollered on Tuesday, Obama smugly attacked Republicans for “anti-worker policies” and their “same old you’re-on-your-own philosophy.”
The Delphi workers know better: One union’s government-subsidized, government-manipulated “success story” is the rest of the workforce’s nightmare.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46571276
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke dashed hopes for further monetary stimulus in his testimony to Congress.
* IF TRUE... THIS IS GREAT NEWS!
* OF COURSE, WHAT'S GREAT NEWS TO ME IS TERRIBLE NEWS FOR THE CRONY CAPITALIST OLIGARCHS WHO COLLECTIVELY MANIPULATE "THE MARKET."
Stocks came off their worst levels but were still under pressure Wednesday...
“People want the punch bowl to be there forever," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading. "[This selloff’s] because of the lack of what [Bernanke] said.”
“People have had an excuse to buy for the last three months and that excuse has been free money…people are looking for more," added Saluzzi.
Bernanke said the job market is still "far from normal" and may require the Fed to launch more stimulus measures...
* SO IN ESSENCE BERNANKE IS TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH.
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)
Bernanke also added rising gasoline prices will likely push up inflation temporarily, while reducing consumers' purchasing power.
(*SMIRK*)
* INFLATION IS ALREADY UP! INFLATION HAS BEEN UP! IT'S GETTING WORSE, NOT BETTER!
* FOLKS... THERE IS NO "ECONOMIC RECOVERY" AND WHILE TECHNICALLY THE ECONOMY IS NOT IN "RECESSION," THAT'S MAINLY AN ILLUSION CREATED BY THE VERY INFLATION THAT IS STEADILY DEGRADING THE AVERAGE AMERICAN'S PURCHASING POWER AND THUS STANDARD OF LIVING!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fannie-asks-govt-almost-4-152028535.html
Mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Wednesday that it lost roughly $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter and is asking the federal government for nearly $4.6 billion in "aid" to cover its deficit.
* WHAT... THEY NEED THE EXTRA $2.2 BILLION FOR EXECUTIVE BONUSES...? (IF THEY "ONLY" LOST $2.4 BILLION WHY DO THEY NEED $4.6 BILLION...?!?!)
The government rescued Fannie and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator — the Federal Housing Finance Agency — has controlled their financial decisions.
* WELL, APPARENTLY, OBAMA'S FEDERAL REGULATOR ISN'T DOING ALL THAT GOOD OF A JOB!
Taxpayers have spent more than $150 billion to prop up Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis.
* SHOULDN'T THAT BE "TAXPAYERS HAVE UNWILLINGLY SPENT...?"
The government estimates that figure could top $259 billion to support the companies through 2014... (Fannie has received more than $116 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.)
(*FEELING SICK TO MY STOMACH*)
In November, Freddie requested $6 billion in extra aid — the largest request since April 2010 — after it reported losing $6 billion in the third quarter.
* FOLKS... THIS IS BUSHBAMANOMICS IN ACTION!
Fannie Mae and McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past few years.
* IN OTHER WORDS, FOLKS, THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS DELIBERATELY POURED FUEL ON THE FIRE... HAS DELIBERATELY DOUBLED DOWN... TRIPLED DOWN... QUADRUPLED DOWN ON FANNIE'S AND FREDDIE'S PAST IRRESPONSIBLE BUSINESS DECISIONS SO AS TO SINK THE COMPANIES DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE FINANCIAL QUAGMIRE.
Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world.
* YEP. THE EXACT SAME BAIT AND SWITCH TACTICS WHICH GOT US INTO THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE!
The Obama administration unveiled a plan one year ago to slowly dissolve the two mortgage giants.
* BULL. GO BACK TO THE ARCHIVES OF USUALLY RIGHT.
* FOLKS... NEED I REMIND YOU THAT THROUGHOUT 2009 AND 2010 OBAMA HAD A DEMOCRATIC HOUSE AND SENATE? IF HE COULD HAVE BEEN STOPPED BY REPUBLICANS THEN OBAMACARE NEVER COULD HAVE BEEN RAMMED THROUGH.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239472081683362.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Rick Santorum may have had a point the other day when he said that some environmentalists care more about animals than people. Take the water restrictions the federal government has imposed on California farmers to protect the three-inch delta smelt.
Environmentalists have long complained that the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta's pumps, which send water to Central Valley farmers and southern California residents, trap and kill fish. In 2006 the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing a biological opinion that supported pumping more water south because the agency didn't analyze how the pumping might affect the smelt. A federal court ordered the agency to be more mindful of the smelt.
So the agency demanded that water regulators reduce pumping.
* MASOCHISTIC INSANITY!
The National Marine Fisheries Services joined the fun by recommending that regulators restrict pumping to protect salmon, sturgeon and steelhead too.
These opinions have superceded the water contracts of farmers and resulted in 3.4 million acre-feet of fresh water flowing into San Francisco Bay each year — enough to irrigate over a million acres of land.
* THIS... IS... INSANE...!!!
More than 10,000 farm jobs have been lost as a result, and regional unemployment stands at about 15%.
Environmentalists blame the water shortages on drought, but even in wet years farmers aren't getting the water they're due. Farmers aren't getting the water they're due as a result of water pump limitations on the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
The kicker is that the biggest threat to the smelt might be other fish. The National Academy of Sciences noted in a 2010 report that factors other than the water pumps appear to be contributing to the smelt's decline, namely nonnative predatory fish and pollution from wastewater treatment plants.
(Environmentalists still blame the pumps since they want to shrink the state's corporate agribusinesses, which produce more than half of America's fruits and vegetables. Maybe farmers should petition the Interior Department for protection against predatory environmentalists.)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577239472081683362.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Rick Santorum may have had a point the other day when he said that some environmentalists care more about animals than people. Take the water restrictions the federal government has imposed on California farmers to protect the three-inch delta smelt.
Environmentalists have long complained that the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta's pumps, which send water to Central Valley farmers and southern California residents, trap and kill fish. In 2006 the Natural Resources Defense Council sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for issuing a biological opinion that supported pumping more water south because the agency didn't analyze how the pumping might affect the smelt. A federal court ordered the agency to be more mindful of the smelt.
So the agency demanded that water regulators reduce pumping.
* MASOCHISTIC INSANITY!
The National Marine Fisheries Services joined the fun by recommending that regulators restrict pumping to protect salmon, sturgeon and steelhead too.
These opinions have superceded the water contracts of farmers and resulted in 3.4 million acre-feet of fresh water flowing into San Francisco Bay each year — enough to irrigate over a million acres of land.
* THIS... IS... INSANE...!!!
More than 10,000 farm jobs have been lost as a result, and regional unemployment stands at about 15%.
Environmentalists blame the water shortages on drought, but even in wet years farmers aren't getting the water they're due. Farmers aren't getting the water they're due as a result of water pump limitations on the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.
The kicker is that the biggest threat to the smelt might be other fish. The National Academy of Sciences noted in a 2010 report that factors other than the water pumps appear to be contributing to the smelt's decline, namely nonnative predatory fish and pollution from wastewater treatment plants.
(Environmentalists still blame the pumps since they want to shrink the state's corporate agribusinesses, which produce more than half of America's fruits and vegetables. Maybe farmers should petition the Interior Department for protection against predatory environmentalists.)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
At any rate, even the same federal court now thinks the feds have gone too far. In a lawsuit brought by the water districts against the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2010, the court scored the agency for not considering "reasonable and prudent alternatives" that minimized the impact on humans and for attempting to "mislead and to deceive the Court into accepting what is not only not the best science, it's not science."
* AND YET NO ONE IS CHARGED WITH A CRIME, NEVER MIND CONVICTED AND IMPRISONED - FOR ATTEMPTING TO MISLEAD AND DECEIVE THE COURT. DISGUSTING.
The court ordered the agency to revise its biological opinion, but the Natural Resources Defense Council has appealed.
(Meanwhile, regulators have told farmers to expect only 30% of their contractual water allowance this year.)
* FOLKS. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT "ENVIRONMENTALISTS. THEY'RE FANATICS. DANGEROUS FANATICS.
GOP Congressman Devin Nunes of Fresno is trying to restore some certainty to farmers and sanity in the water wars. He's introduced legislation that would cap the amount of water that annually flows into the Bay at 800,000 acre-feet per year, which is what Congress agreed to in 1992 before environmentalists started suing.
* WHY ARE WE WASTING ANY WATER...?!?!
The House is expected to pass his bill Wednesday, but its prospects in the Senate are less sanguine. California's Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have dismissed it as "overkill" and called for "consensus-based solutions that respect the interests of all stakeholders."
* LIKE I WAS SAYING, FOLKS... FANATICS. DANGEROUS FANATICS.
Funny, that's what the environmentalist groups are saying too. Trouble is they seem to think that the most important stakeholders are the fish.
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