The Intentional Buffoonery of the Progressive Left

Townhall.com ^ | February 9, 2014 | John Ransom

[Kaslin]

Goldilocks wrote: So how are beginning workers and poor people supposed to advance economically? Obama Wage Hike is Obamacare by 'Other Means'

Dear Comrade Goldi,

I can tell you one way to make it more difficult for “beginning workers and poor people” to advance. If you raise the minimum wage, they’ll be likely to be hurt worst, first.

People advance economically by gaining experience and thus bringing more value to an employer, not by passing capricious laws.

According to a BLS survey done in 2011, only 5 percent of workers who make hourly wages are at or below the federal minimum wage to begin with. Of the 1.7 million people who receive minimum wage salaries, 54 percent are aged 24 or below even as 80 percent of the workforce is 25 and above. So despite accounting for only 20 percent of the workforce, we see that minimum wages are more concentrated in those “beginning workers and poor people.”

When you are younger and lack skills you make less money.

Only a liberal would have difficulty understanding this obvious fact.

Powerful or Pitiful?

Curiously-- and damningly too-- 2.1 million of the 3.8 million at or below the minimum wage are accepting wages below the federal minimum.

This suggests that a hike in the minimum wage would: 1) force employers to break the law or 2) fire employees.

While the media has been busy proclaiming the good news that unemployment is down, unemployment amongst teenagers aged 16 to 19 rose by 0.5 percent last month and black unemployment has risen 0.2 percent over the same period.

I suspect that this is more of the Obamacare Effect taking place. But whatever is happening, it’s clear the policies of the administration are not helping those populations having a hard time.

So, why the rush to hike minimum wage laws?

Well, I can tell you it’s not because politicians want to help young people and poor people.

Minimum wage laws are really designed to bolster union wages, as unions peg contract negotiations to minimum wages. The people who end up paying the freight are the ones with the least experience, the youngest and the poorest, the least equipped members of our society.

Paying for Slavery and Segregation

The way to help them is to provide the highest number of opportunities to gain experience and to make sure our schools teach them skills relevant to the main function we have in society: to work.

“Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken,” says Genesis 3:23.

I knew a woman who didn’t graduate from high school, yet she began working in fast food when she was sixteen. By the time I met her, she was managing a restaurant at a luxury resort. She never would have gotten the opportunity to be a four-star restaurant manager were it not for that first job as a fry cook.

I myself started out working as a bellman for a Holiday Inn when I was 14 years old. While I made minimum wage for "tipped" employees, I also made a great deal of money from tips. And the tips I made were all dependent upon my efforts.

I can tell you this much: There is no healthy person in America who can’t make a living wage in this country carrying bags for people at hotels. Today, right now.

Dmich wrote: On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office projected that The Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by 2.3 million in 2021, leading critics to seize on the claim as evidence that the health care law is undermining job growth. But that’s not what the CBO actually said. In fact, CBO economists write that “[t]he estimated reduction [in labor] stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.” Americans won’t be losing their jobs, but people who are only working to maintain access to their employer sponsored health insurance plans will be able to leave the workforce or work fewer hours because they can obtain coverage elsewhere. Did any of you idiots actually read the report, or did you just read what the buffoon John Ransom wrote? Thanks ObamaCare- Now With 25% Fewer Jobs

Dear Comrade D-Mich,

Let’s go to that bastion of Right Wing Buffoonery, Reuters wire service to settle this:

In its latest U.S. fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan CBO said the health law would lead some workers, particularly those with lower incomes, to limit their hours to avoid losing federal subsidies that Obamacare provides to help pay for health insurance and other healthcare costs.

Thanks for pointing out our error in thinking.

See, we all thought we’d be losing 2.3 million jobs. What you’ve made clear is that we’d be losing the EQUIVALENT of 2.3 million jobs in hourly employment.

Gosh, I feel like such a buffoon when I accuse liberals of doing something like damaging jobs accidentally, when in fact what they are doing is damaging productivity intentionally.

"It's not that the businesses are cutting those jobs," said Jason Furman, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Yeah, I mean why work when you can make your neighbors pay for the better benefits package you get?

Remember Furman is the same guy who was basking in the glow of “6.6 percent” unemployment because it meant we were waaaaay ahead of schedule tackling that problem.

And you call me a buffoon?

Seriously, progressives couldn’t spell cat if I spotted them the K and the T these days.

Let’s face it, when you celebrate 2.3 million missing jobs as a benefit to the economy-- because there’s nothing else you can say-- you’ve reached the end of the line. Now it’s just a matter of when everyone else realizes it.

Ichtelite wrote: John your comment "Say what you want about George W. Bush, but people had jobs under Bush" really isn't correct because things started falling apart just before the 'Lil' Wanna be General' left office. Things were getting ready for a fast downhill slide and the GOP wanted out. Why do you suppose they put together the duo of McCain and Palin? Who was going to put their confidence in a doting old war monger whose only claim to fame was that he was once a POW and some no name pulled off the Alaskan Tundra for his running mate?

No, the GOP knew what was getting ready to happen and they didn't want a hand in it any longer. That is when the powers controlling those setting on Capitol Hill knew they had a good chance of slipping someone of color into the Oval Office. Making history and at the same time putting someone in the seat they would have better control over. Thanks ObamaCare- Now With 25% Fewer Jobs

Dear Comrade Ich,

I was out sick the evening the Stonecutters decided all this while eating ribs at the Stonecutter Local 478.

So excuse me if I have no freakin’ idea what you are talking about.

I’m guessing that you think the Illuminati, represented by Colin Powell, Harry Kissinger and Stansfield M. Turner—who by the way was born a few miles from—da da DA!—Donald Rumsfeld—thought up this whole “Obama-as-Messiah” motif because he’s black.

I’m thinking that anyone with the smarts to plan and execute a global conspiracy of this magnitude might be able to find a black guy, who, at the very least, can run a website… and have a name more like Bill Mitchell or Sam Moore.

What’s Right with Ransom:

Catfish Keith wrote: J.R., whats stopping you, Krauthammer and Cruz was picking up a rifle and going to war for the Lobby? Why Certainly: Obama For Peace Brings Us War

Dear Comrade Catfish,

You know, I don’t have a problem with you questioning my patriotism, but for the love of everything holy, could you please leave the great American catfish out of your sordid doings?

Anyone who would degrade the catfish, that star of the Mississippi, that pastry of the Arkansas River, that great tribute to the life and works of Samuel Clemens, must be full-blooded comrade.

"If Catfish did not exist,” said Voltaire of Mark Twain, “it would be necessary for Him to invent Them."

It might be noted, Mr. Comrade-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, that Krauthammer is physically unable to join the military. He injured his neck in college, severing the spinal chord.

He is indisputably a great man.

Ted Cruz, you’d have to ask personally about his lack of military service.

I myself am still subject to recall into the Navy, but likely would be disqualified because 1) I’ll be 50 this year and 2) I’m fat.

If I get called up, you know we’re losing. Badly.

Tinsldr wrote: Below I pasted Tebow's stats and showed his poor performance as a QB. His QB rating was like 28th out of 34 in 2011 and he had a lack luster year as a back up the next year. Where are the facts to back it up? Give an analysis of his actual playing. What is his pass completion % as a starter? How good is he at throwing deep passes over 30 yards? What is his percent in that range?

If you claim he is not playing because of his faith why not back it up? Like most things in life, you should win a spot on a team by ON FIELD performance not what you believe about things off the field. His performance not his beliefs lost him his chance.... Tebow Blacklist: Isn’t The Beginning, It’s The End

Dear Comrade Tin,

7-4 as a starter is a pretty decent fact in Tebow’s favor.

If it weren’t for the Christian aspect of Tewbow, he’d be on an NFL roster. True, he’d likely not be a starter, but he has value as a guy who can win games—even if he has to manufacture a win—if the franchise quarterback goes down.

Jordan Palmer, who has no starts, hasn’t been on a roster since 2010 and has less than 20 professional game snaps, was signed as a back-up to Josh McCown when the Bears’ Jay Cutler went down.

I’d rather have Tewbow, if just counting ability to win, which by the way is how I judge players.

BTW, the list that I put up was of backup QBs, not starters.

From Pat Kirwin, former NFL general manager:

We came into Week 8 with 54 different quarterbacks having thrown at least a pass in an NFL game this season. Injuries and disappointments are starting to mount and in the past few weeks when a backup or replacement quarterback has had to start or finish a game the end result has been a 2-19 record for those teams.

This week there are eight games where a non-opening day quarterback will take the field as a starter. Teams in this situation are Buffalo (Jeff Tuel), Cleveland (Jason Campbell), Minnesota (probably Josh Freeman), Chicago (Josh McCown), Houston (Case Keenum), Philadelphia (Nick Foles), Tampa Bay (Mike Glennon), and St. Louis (Kellen Clemens). These eight men have appeared in 18 games this year and have a combined record of 3-15.

The only numbers that matter in football is the score at the end of the game. If a backup QB had the ability to generate all those other numbers you cited, they’d be starters.

Especially when it comes to backups, you need someone who can win games close.

More often than not, Tebow’s been a master of that number in a way that the current backups in the NFL have not.

Ericynot wrote: Have you guys considered the very real possibility that 2016 will have yet another Clinton running against yet another Bush?

Good grief -- you'd think we can find some new blood after 30 years! Soros Trolls Hit Bottom Of The Barrel

Dear Comrade Y,

Yeah, we’ve considered it.

Much more likely that Clinton will win a Democrat primary than Bush will win a Republican primary.

But then I thought there was no way Romney would win – and then lose.

BetterBrain wrote: It was good that we invaded Iraq because we showed Middle Eastern countries they had a"choice". *facepalm* Congratulations. That is the stupidest thing ever written by anyone, ever, anywhere. I also got a chuckle when I learned that Obama's strong stock market is only because he inherited at a low point, but simultaneously, he "owns" Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lastly, I leave you with an example of Ransom's prognostication skills: http://youtu.be/JIUapEJTnZ8Soros Trolls Hit Bottom Of The Barrel

Dear Comrade *facepalm*,

Actually I think comparing the stock market to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is probably dumber.

Obama didn’t “inherit” Afghanistan and Iraq at low points and then make something great happen.

He screwed up stable situations that were already hard won.

The Middle East is not better off than it was when Obama took over. I know he has personal reasons for wanting to drive foreign policy the way he is, but I think a better measure of foreign policy is the best interest of the United States.

But by any reckoning you’re missing the point.

The stock market isn’t better either. Or the economy. Or workers.

It took the stock market until about a year ago to get to the previous levels we saw in 2007. In fact, the markets under Clinton, Bush and Obama look very much alike. That’s not surprising because they all follow the same easy money recipe of low interest and high money supply to supercharge the market.

Today earnings are growing and stock prices moving up because companies are doing non-traditional things to increase value, like buying back stock.

If you had asked candidate Obama which is more important: stock market performance or creating jobs, you and I both know what the answer would have been.

Once again liberals are calling an Obama defeat a victory.

Here are the numbers that are important for presidents: When Obama took over GDP was at about $14 trillion, while stock market capitalization was at about $9 trillion.

That’s a pretty significant undervaluation on stocks.

Today GDP is $17.1 trillion—real GDP growth of about 1.2 percent annually-- while market capitalization is at $19 trillion.

While not quite irrational exuberance, it’s close.

Markets can outperform GDP for a few years, but they do eventually revert back to the mean.

Same thing with politicians. Obama’s term isn’t over yet.

As to the Romney call on the election: So what?

I wasn’t the candidate. And I wasn’t the only one who got the election wrong.

The American people did too.

Who is doing the facepalm now? They are.

And before you go around accusing people of saying the stupidest things EVA, you should probably watch a White House press conference. They out-do themselves almost every day.

That’s it for this week,

V/r,

JR

[Liz]

Here's a nice addition to your collection.

[VRW Conspirator]

Once again liberals are calling an Obama defeat a victory.

Face-palm.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks!