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“Straight up to the point of extreme idiocy, but we won’t cross it” predicts Buffett
Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said he expects the United States Congress to resolve a stalemate over the US debt ceiling before it seriously harms the country. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesThis is quite disturbing.
Oct 04th, 2013 - 07:11 am - Link - Report abuse 0Not the fact that we all know that the only solution there is to the problem, is a raised debt ceiling and business as usual, making future generation take the fall.
Not even the fact that in order to keep the numbers in black, we have to constantly push the production and consumption up to ever higher levels.
No, what is really disturbing is that people in the industrialized countries fail to see the forest because of the trees...
USA may be in trouble, the rest of the lot are in the same hole, and counted per capita, some even deeper...
That's look like a very stupid thing... it will be that way either if they approve the debt increase or not. What remembers me LuisM's law: “If something stupid can be done, it will.”
Oct 04th, 2013 - 12:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Obama can do with much more of this stuff... Republican & Tea baggers would be shittong their pants if they faced this guy face on...One has little wonders who is the most powerfull man on earth after watching this.
Oct 04th, 2013 - 01:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPN9OL5EqUk
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Oct 04th, 2013 - 06:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh those Russians....can sure make exciting videos, was like watching paint dry!
Where were all the people....a curfew or has he killed or imprisoned them all...
Lockdown......it's fairly obvious this guy fears his own people...daren't have crowds.
Russia...you can keep it.......
Founded by the Vikings, by the way.....the RUS.....
@4 A_Voice
Oct 04th, 2013 - 07:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh yes he is a ruthless dictator I know that, this was his presidential inauguration last year and the main streets of Moscow where closed for the event…. But the man like it or not, has a style of his own and sells his image and subsequently the image of Russia to the rest of the world of a tough and resolute nation that takes no BS, for the identify him with Russia…. The same occurs even here when people think Cristina is Argentina, its normal …
What is the point of being the president of yet the most powerful country on the planet if you can’t preside over it like incompetent, undecided and hesitant Obama, blocked on every corner since his mandate in 2009 by right wing nutters, to follow a policy for he was elected to do?? It’s a legitimate question
Mr. Putin is the president of the second or third powerful country of the planet and he DOES preside over itand therefore he is the most powerful man in the world.
What use has it being for you in Britain spending millions of pounds in foreign aid receiving half a million immigrants per year, and yet nobody likes nor respects you, most in the world not even knows who David Cameron is?? People in the world respect and like a true boss likePutin and not politically correct snob collage boys like Cameron or Obama
This is the full Russian presidential inauguration in much better quality image.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAS_s03nccE
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Oct 04th, 2013 - 07:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I know you are playing devils advocate with this and have included lots of loaded questions......Britain ......what do I know of Britain....
I won't be drawn.............this is what I usually do!
Suffice to say I won't be joining the millions of immigrants that flock to Russia each year....or did I mean out of Russia each year.
It's so popular that it's one of the few countries that the population is decreasing....
Still they are good for AK47's, ballet, classical music and literature....
That Kremlin is some place....
@6 Nor would I like to live in Russia, I’m not being a Devil’s advocate I’m stating a legitimate point… If you read again the comment in #3 you will understand better now what I believe and why I said what I said.
Oct 04th, 2013 - 08:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It’s not my business if you live in Chubut or Scotland but I’m starting to doubt myself with that reply lol…
And yes the Kremlin is outstanding. Sophie Shevardnaze one of these hot chicks of RT gives tours…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVW2xeL9iRo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVW2xeL9iRo
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Oct 04th, 2013 - 09:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You can't be serious
It's a case of you can't have A without B
To have Putin's power your would need ......“Oh yes he is a ruthless dictator I know that”
Then you would need the history of Ruthless dictators for this situation to exist in the US......The Wild West....
The people....the diplomats all live in fear as does Putin himself....
The last person you would want in charge of the only superpower in the world is Putin.....
......when all else fails in debate, people will attack your nationality or your country..........try attacking mine.....;-)))
...you are right she is a hot chick
8) What I mean is look at the image Obama is selling out to the world and compare that to what Putin sells out to the world. Never mind Putin being a dictator and Russia itself for the moment …
Oct 04th, 2013 - 10:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The US has had in the past determined and respectable Presidents that knew where they stood against with the USSR like Eisenhower, Kennedy or significantly Reagan that openly joked about the soviets and the communist system and that had a profound political significance, and they were not dictators.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A7LSkMRpVE
Regan had his own style and he was cool and smooth about mocking the Russians and of course that sells out to the world a very clear subliminal message” My system is better than yours, and besides your own people don’t even support it”.
It’s all about saying this is the boss in charge, don’t you don’t fool around with me and how you portrait things…
It’s not what the Americans or any western power have nowadays: A RESPECTED LEADER…. save the case of Angela Merkel of Germany
9
Oct 04th, 2013 - 11:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0REAGAN....rose tinted spectacles I think.....I remember him as a clown, a bit part actor that played second fiddle to a monkey....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zHN4vCfwh4
...and
How he was viewed by the rest of the world......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zHN4vCfwh4
I don't think it really matters with the US.....Putin for all his posturing and peacock strutting is shit scared of the Yanks.....he's seen what they can and will do.....
What other country could ignore the UN and invade the Middle-East and get a way with it, also Afghanistan right next to Russia and they did what?....Diddly squat
Was Bush a prolific leader?....Respected?....Made no difference.....
When you have a really big stick and can and will wield it.....who needs respect!
I see your point.....but I think any President can be tied by the political system no matter how popular or dynamic his or her personality may be.....Take Margaret Thatchers humiliating downfall........
After all Obama not the first president that has suffered this humiliation!
Errrr well Russia herself crushed Georgia in 2008 with no UNSC resolution backing her…
Oct 05th, 2013 - 12:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0The world has dramatically changed since George Bush launched the invasion of Irak ten years ago… The US will never have the same prestige, trust and power on the world stage it once had. We have just seen a reluctant Obama been outplayed brilliantly by the Russians and the Syrians. The fact that Obama is such a mediocre leader is no help for them at all. Tendencies are after all tendencies. You know I believe in democracy and republicanism but I also believe in realpolitiks
You are right, CabezaSura, the US is at an historical low. But never say never, they still have a lot of power to back them and other countries aren't very promising as world leaders.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 01:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0I wish I had Buffet's confidence but I don't.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 03:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0Both sides are right in this case of 'Health Care'. The representatives were elected during a very polar time in politics. This widened our viewpoints helpfully, it's just not great for meeting in the middle.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 03:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0But you know, it's the height of ridiculous to make a human being, a citizen, a lawbreaker just because they don't keep up on forced monthly payments that are INCREASING hugely just because it IS a forced market, to insurance juggernauts.
Stupid to make hospital-only insurance illegal, when for routine care you may want to go to your doctor, not an HMO. Maybe some want to go to a highly-trained naturopath instead.
Dumb to suggest that lightly-funded young people (who by-the-numbers use VERY little medical care) have to support the section of society that in the U.S. OWNS EIGHTY PERCENTISH OF THE WEALTH-people 50 +.
Looking at you Warren Buffett!!
And besides that, around $200,000 freaking dollars each is spent (usually insurance or Medicaid, lest they lose that 80% of personal wealth!), prolonging, discomfortably, the last two weeks of their lives, often just unconcious bodies, when the important thing to note is they have no great enthusiasm about staying here.
It's interesting looking at U.S. debt levels from a historical point of view. The United States has had decades to seriously deal with this issue and since Gerald Ford's brief tenure the only administration to actually REDUCE debt was Clinton's. And that was only in his final year.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 10:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0The worst offenders, by far, were Reagan ( an increase of 188% ) and George W. ( +89@ ).
One of the dumbest, most short-sighted things the latter President did was to fire Paul O'Neill, the Treasury Secretary. O'Neill who was an extremely successful CEO and the best sort of conservative, was a strong believer in budget surpluses and reducing debt. It was this insistence, and his refusal to surrender his independence that cost him his job. Bush and Cheney believed that if Reagan could do it so could they. If O'Neill had been retained I believe the GFC might have been avoided.
@CD 3,5,7 & 11
You make some interesting points of the respective stature of Messrs Putin & Obama - I hadn't considered that particular perspective - but I have to agree with MercoPress's resident bete noire on this subject. The last time I saw them together at the G20 Obama, looking perfectly relaxed and appropriately Presidential towered over his grumpy looking host who looked as though he was suffering from chronic constipation. There's not a single country in the western world that would tolerate this little dictator. I mean... parading around on a horse, exhibiting his pecs like a midget Fabio... seriously?
It's just my opinion of course, but I believe that leaders like Obama & Cameron are restrained by the limits placed on their power by their respective political systems, the expectations of their citizens and a free media. Putin isn't subject to those same restraints - genuinely independent journalists have a way of meeting untimely deaths in Russia. Political correctness is a separate issue.
No I don’t share the same view…Obama was under stress during the whole summit in St. Petersburg, the press said that. What Obama would have is this better use of facial and corporal language on stage (the sort of things he is prepared to avoid after people see series like Lie to me) because of the American politics focuses much more in this kind of marketing rather than what Putin is accustomed to.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 03:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Putin doesn’t need that stuff nor he believes in it.
Putin smashed Cameron in Downing Street not so long ago for the whole Syria issue Just look at the comment sections below and make your own conclusions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJ0fdvKlQQ
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Oct 05th, 2013 - 03:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“What Obama would have is this better use of facial and corporal language on stage ”
What about Putin....he was supposed to be replying to Cameron.....Cameron is looking directly at him, he never met is gaze once...he looked everywhere but!...He's shuffling and dancing from one foot to the other...like a naughty boy telling lies.
Talk about non-verbal communication....
@15 I tend to agree with your last paragraph. In 2010, in the UK, the electorate didn't know which way to turn. It was obvious that the Labour Party was no longer electable. The advent of Milliband demonstrates that the Labour Party is attempting to move from mediocrity to simple incompetence. Only the “desperate for welfare in place of work” would support it. The “people” commonly referred to, in the UK, as scroungers and skivers.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 04:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's useful to remember the message left by Labour for the Conservative Party. “There''s no money left”. Supposedly a “private joke”. Unfortunately, it was true. The Labour Party spent, and borrowed, so much that it could be, politely, called imprudent. In reality, it is more properly called “criminally incompetent”.
And what followed? Regrettably, a coalition. The only alternative would have been a minority government.
The Liberal Democrats. Who are neither Liberal nor Democratic. In fact, they are amongst the most half-baked, crackpot totalitarians visited on the UK. Recently, its leader actually BOASTED of the policies of the majority party that he had blocked. This individual, Clog, sorry Clagg, sorry again Clegg, selects policies that are the worst possible for the UK and then insists on them, using his “position” as Deputy Prime Minister. After the 2010 general election, the Conservatives held 306 seats, the Liberal Democrats 57. Clegg was just about up to the level of office cleaner. And with so little experience that he would have been best advised to keep his mouth shut and try to learn. As of this date, the Liberal Democrats appear to have 8% support. As a party, it has no valid place in government. And this self-important twat, and his cronies, have been what Cameron has been struggling against. Frequently underhand and behind his back. IMHO some of Cameron's ideas are wrong. But only some. We can only hope that, in 2015, the British electorate will “lose” the Liberal Democrats and Labour, permanently!
17) Again this is the stuff people in the west view politics about, as if watching “Lie to me”… Putin was talking face on to the British reporters ( I had to look at the video again to realize he was moving from one foot to the other) as it was a Press conference not a Cameron conference… You are analyzing things as if you where in the Lightman group. Putin doesn't give a rates fuck about that kind of stuff. In politics what really matters is what you say and what the end results are, how you say things should not be paramount.
Oct 05th, 2013 - 04:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And the results are Russia prevented the Americans striking Syria, it still provides arms to the Assad regime daily. Obama has been humiliated and the retreat of America in the Middle East is increasing, its allies distrust the US commitment in the region against enemies like Iran and on the other hand Putin became overnight in the of the most influential leaders on world stage.
Enough said
19
Oct 05th, 2013 - 05:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I give up......you are now contradicting yourself...
“What Obama would have is this better use of facial and corporal language on stage ”
“In politics what really matters is what you say and what the end results are, how you say things should not be paramount.”
Turn the sound down and watch Putin again...like a little weasel, squirming and nervously hopping about....spreading his propaganda...masquerading his own hidden agendas.
I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him....although seeing the size of him, that could be quite far.....
Enough said....I'll agree to disagree on this....
I just dont see the contradiction. I rest my case
Oct 05th, 2013 - 05:08 pm - Link - Report abuse 021
Oct 05th, 2013 - 05:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0???
You said ...Obama should make better use of facial and corporal language on stage...
....then you said.....in politics it doesn't matter how you say things...
....that's not a contradiction then?
@22On the opposite I said Obama would have a better use of corporal and facial language in comparison to Putin(who doesnt give a rats f_ck about that kind of stuff). That’s what western politicians are trained to do now days. Everybody in the world knows Mr. Putin is a former KGB officer that killed for his country, and outside door man hunting fishing and riding on horseback, a martial arts expert, pilot, and a guy that’s surrounded by bodyguards 24/7 and is paraded through Moscow in a limousine escorted by an army all the way into the Kremlin. This is what he projects to the world and this is what people think about when they think of Russia. No one cares nor will remember if he stood in one foot or the other against Cameron in a press conference. They will remember who had the last word on Syria for example. That’s how the real world works. Not what the rubbish snobbish politically correct politicians in the west who have become to be salesmen and actors rather than real leaders over time. It doesn’t work like that if you want to achieve something on world stage. Compare Putin’s background to that of Cameron who was born into a rich family went to Eaton studied a PR in Oxford. The Tory boy doesn’t stand a chance….
Oct 05th, 2013 - 06:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0But if you are so keen on body language, guess who is looking down and avoiding eye to eye contact
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1q3IDjBaI
23
Oct 05th, 2013 - 06:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0.....and who cares what Putin says...
The US is more powerful than Russia and if they really do want to bomb or invade middle-east countries...they will and there is nothing Putin can do about it!
It was more than convenient for Russia to come forward with the alternative to bombing Syria into.....ha ha I was going to say the middle ages..but it still is....
BUT that's all it was an alternative....
Russia's little man talks big but knows fine well that it's just talk.....they are no longer a superpower....sucking up to China all the time...
24) OK …. So what was your point again?? I’m asking this because I read your last comment and didn’t understand the relation it had to#23, (besides that I already disproved the last paragraph) and what is it that you are actually contradicting me about, I decided to browse quickly your responses from comment #4 to the last one and I don’t understand what are you really trying to say all along the debate...
Oct 05th, 2013 - 06:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 025
Oct 05th, 2013 - 07:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0My point is your attempts to compare a dictatorship from the East with Western politics and politicians .....there is no comparison..
..and why you appear to idolise dictators and how they rule with fear and and iron fist is beyond me.
Is it something in your blood or heritage...a yearning...
Fortunately you don't live in Russia.....
....and can thank god that the US was around to stop Russian expansionism and eventually almost bankrupt Russia with the arms race.
....apart from that I don't have a point
26)It's pretty clear you dont have one....No, I already answered that when I talked about Reagan, it’s just not the case and the point I’m making here. If Putin’s words are invalid against of those of the west or whoever (which they are obviously not and he has just proved it to the world) why on earth didn’t you say so way back in comment #4 in any case??
Oct 05th, 2013 - 07:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Btw I’m pro western, pro democracy, I deeply distrust both of Muslim extremism Saudi(Sunni) and Iranian(Shia), thugocracies of China and Russia and third world crackpot dictators like Mugabe Chavez, Assad, Gaddafi, etc…The west is still in their way at least, but in retreat. I already discussed this against the Brits here… But the point im trying to make is not about who I want to win its about how things really are...
27
Oct 05th, 2013 - 07:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't see that....you don't sound pro western to me, the way you have been trashing Western politicians and praising dictators....
I think my comments are telling the tale as it really is.....Putin and I say Putin not Mr Putin like you did.....is no great threat to the US and it was a convenient option to put the Syria problem on the back burner for a later date with better support from the US allies.
He is not someone to be admired....just a little dictator with Napoleon complex.
I personally think your posts on this thread have identified your particular leanings but that is how I read it....others may not agree.....
So now I’m pro dictators anti western??? Yep, the thing is I’ve got proof and a record to back my own beliefs….
Oct 05th, 2013 - 08:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://en.mercopress.com/2013/09/18/falklands-malvinas-argentina-recalls-its-major-un-diplomatic-success-in-1964-65#comment276545
http://en.mercopress.com/2013/09/18/falklands-malvinas-argentina-recalls-its-major-un-diplomatic-success-in-1964-65#comment276545
http://en.mercopress.com/2013/09/18/falklands-malvinas-argentina-recalls-its-major-un-diplomatic-success-in-1964-65#comment276545
I never said Mr. Putin was somebody to be admired, I don’t think he has a grand Napoleonic complex at all, he is far more than that, you have to understand where Putin comes from, you must understand the environment that surrounded him as he climbed to power and what he really believes in, and he is someone to learn from, and therefore yes, I do respect him therefore sometimes I refer to him as “Mr.” or Reagan or Uribe as “President”.
I would never say for example “President” Cristina Kirchner
TWIMC
Oct 05th, 2013 - 09:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Nice to see that the newer generations of Argentinean Gorilla gorilla gorillas has evolved to Callithrix penicillatas......
I actually take that as a complement ;-)
Oct 05th, 2013 - 10:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I was trained by the very best of the old Gorillas you can find.... The great Argentine politologist Jorge Zain Asis, which is always a encyclopedia of wit and wisdom
http://www.jorgeasisdigital.com/2013/09/20/la-desuribizacion-de-colombia/
And of course “The Professor”
http://www.jorgeasisdigital.com/2013/09/20/la-desuribizacion-de-colombia/
Maybe you can start learning a bit too…
(31) CabezaDura
Oct 05th, 2013 - 11:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You say...:
”I actually take that as a complement ;-) ”
I say...:
Of course you do, laddie.....
They are the sweetest of primates those monitos tití....;-)
Basic & dull Think .... But at least tell me what have you to say about Mr Putin's style or the likes of Obama or Cameron styles in international politics, im interested in your view of the matter .....Well at least the chubutense version now ;-) .......... Or hell at least your opinion on Gangnam style ??
Oct 06th, 2013 - 12:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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