Sarah Hoyt over at Instapundit went trolling trough Democratic Underground and came up with this gem:
…Let’s say that you have the ability to print your currency using your computer printer, and every merchant accepted your printouts as a valid exchange for goods and services. You need to pick up your dry cleaning? You printout a $20 bill and your cleaners hand over your garments without question. Same would be true for your mortgage, groceries, car note, etc. Your creditors even accept your printouts as payment on your debts.
Given this, how can you ever be broke? Answer, you cannot be broke. The U.S. government is not in debt simply because it can create currency to pay off the debt, and our creditors gladly accept our currency as payment on our debts. You see, the world needs our dollars because the world needs oil, and in order to buy oil, you need dollars, which means that the world needs to stockpile dollars, and that means that the U.S. can print all of the money that it wants without incurring massive hikes in interest rates to attract lenders…
This is beyond weapons-grade stupid – so stupid that you are actually at a loss about how to answer it. Last night after the debate I got in to a Facebook argument with a liberal who was flabbergasted that I believe sea power to be important. She demanded proof that we need a powerful Navy! She persisted in this view even after I noted that 90% of global commerce goes by sea and if there isn’t a benevolent power to keep the sea lanes open, that might be a problem. A couple months ago I heard a couple people debating about the election and one of them was going to vote for Obama because “I’m worried that Romney is going to take away women’s rights”. During the 2nd Presidential debate we had the questioner who wondered what Romney is going to do about “women making 72% of what men make”. The point I’m making here is that we’re dealing with people – some of whom are actually intelligent and well meaning – who are so ignorant of the basic facts that they don’t even know what the issues confronting us are.
I’m a convinced democrat for the simple reason that anything worth doing is worth doing badly – meaning that the most important and crucial decisions of life (whom to marry, where to work, who gets to make the laws, etc) should be done by those least prepared by education and training to rule on the matter. This is because if it is left in the hands of “experts” you’re either going to get boneheaded “experts” who make a hash of things or you’re going to get really effective “experts” who will create an inhuman tyranny. Among the broad mass of the people, on average, you are going to get common sense most of the time. You will, though, also get nonsense every now and again (and thus Obama is President). But, on the whole, I trust that if my fellow fools of the world get to make the decisions then I’m going to be safer and happier. But, my goodness, how did it happen that the quotient of people who are the big winners in the ignorant fool sweepstakes wind up so heavily concentrated in the Democrat party?
You’d expect that each party would have about an equal share of people who don’t really know what is going on – but we here on the GOP side, a few kooks aside, tend to know at least what the argument is about. Our Democrats seem to be increasingly living in a fantasy world. A place divorced from reality where the Navy is unimportant, access to birth control is a key issue and the government can never go broke because we can always just print up more money!
Something must happen on the Democrat side – a break must come. Some how or another reality must eventually make an entrance over there.
Blogs For Victory 
I linked to a Forbes article in the “Hunt for an October Surprise” thread that basically made the same argument about the dollar being the world’s reserve currency and our being able to print as much as we want without repercussions. The Forbes author makes what on the surface sounds like a convincing argument, but common sense tells you it’s pie in the sky, much like the young Clinton staffer back in the late 90’s saying on national television that they had defeated the business cycle, and there would never be any more recessions.
U.S. can print all of the money that it wants without incurring massive hikes in interest rates to attract lenders…
The only reason this is true (for the moment) is that the Fed is currently buying the majority of our debt, and the Fed also controls the interest rate. If we were still relying on individuals and foreign governments (think China) to buy our debt, the rate would not be at or near zero. The catch 22 in this economic shell game is that, as long as the Fed pursues a zero interest rate strategy, we will not have meaningful economic growth, and without economic growth, 15% real unemployment/underemployment will become the new norm. If, as many maintain, Obama’s goal is to make us more like Europe, he’s succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.
But also missing from the argument is that endless money printing does lead to inflation – the Bamster is right: we are producing more oil than we have in a long time. In fact, the world is awash in oil at the moment. And yet gasoline prices have doubled since Obama took office…its not a shortage of oil which is causing the spike but the decline in the value of the dollar because there are so many more of them now than there were in 2009. People with real things to sell simply will not take less than the actual value for them – as our paper dollars multiply in number, those with real things to sell will demand more and more of them. The only thing which has kept inflation partly under control is the lousy state of the economy – but, for how long? Bernanke has announced QEInfinity…eventually, that is going to bite very hard.
Maybe the Mitt administration and a united repub Congress will put an end to the fed or at least reign it in.
Oh sorry, here I go dreaming on my keyboard again.
The point I’m making here is that we’re dealing with people – some of whom are actually intelligent and well meaning – who are so ignorant of the basic facts that they don’t even know what the issues confronting us are.
back in the day before alinsky and marx in the US we just referred to IDIOTS like that as Fn MORONS.
I dont concentrate solely on the monetary side of the Ochimpy equation,
I DO believe this is the cloward – piven approach to kill our economy, but I believe at the same time he is gutting our military and giving islam free pass and foothold around the world.
When we are in a complete weakened condition they WILL go all out to destroy Israel.
Four more years of this anti Christ will all but guarantee our and Israel’s annihilation.
Psalm 108:9
Interesting to note – I have worked with very nice couple over the last 5 years who are life long democrats, but in the JFK mold, not in the progressive mold by any stretch of the imagination. They are retired school teachers and did vote for Obama in 2008. We rarely discuss politics, as I have a policy that I just don’t engage in politics with clients, it’s usually a losing proposition, however just this morning they were in my office and the subject came up. They do know my leanings and intention to vote for Romney, and when discussing the debate, she acknowledged that she wished Romney had done better, to which I replied I thought he had done pretty well and should win the election. She looked at me and said – I hope you’re right. And admitted that they both sent in the early ballots and voted for Romney.
Just FYI
“but we here on the GOP side, a few kooks aside,”
Very intriguing statement there Mark. Any chance you would like to define just what you would consider “kookery” and who you would consider “kooks” on the GOP side?
GMB, I thought it was settled a while back that “kooks” on the right referred to folks like you.
OK, just kidding.
Liar!
🙂
Oh, we have our black helicopter types – those who believe in FEMA camps in North Dakota. But they are a tiny minority – I’m convinced that a majority of Democrats simply don’t know what is going on.
NBC Floats: Romney to Rig Ohio Voting Machines
Well, actually it is both NBC and MSNBC. Getting ugly–this should be an interesting two weeks. All we have left here in NC from Obama is the MediScare commercials–looks like all of his SuperPACs have flown the coup.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/10/23/NBC-Lays-track-For-Wild-Ohio-Conspiracy-Theory
db,not sure if you were reading the blog back then, but in the 2004 campaign this claim was made about Diebolt voting machines, and fears that they were going to be rigged for Bush.
Here on this blog one of the regular Libs (who may still be haunting the blog under a different name) explained that it is really easy to go into the voting booth, pull the curtain, use the voting machine to (and I kid you not!) REPROGRAM THE MAINFRAME FROM THE VOTING BOOTH, then return the voting machine to its original settings and leave with no one any the wiser.
Yes, they walk among us……..
Yes, I was here and do remember that but I was just noting that NBC & associates are carrying the water this time. Last time I thought it was newspapers.
Romney’s debate strategy to not confront Obama on the Benghazi attack just became a whole lot clearer. The whole house of cards is about to come tumbling down. Krauthammer was right: the truth is a whole lot easier to memorize.
A couple of people have told me of hearing that the entire attack was viewed in real time, as it happened, because we had a drone in the air transmitting everything back to some command center.
If this is true, one question would be”Why?” That is, why would we have a drone overhead, at that time, in that place?
This new email revelation is very sobering and troubling. This President fails to properly secure an embassy in a dangerous region which results in the death of our ambassador and three others and then LIES about it. This is grounds for impeachment in my opinion and I hope the Sunday talk shows are all over this fact.
In a rare moment of sobriety on Morning Joe on MSNBC, the liberals are actually discussing their disappointment with Obama. They have admitted that the President does not have one new idea for a second term and that his last four years have not worked. They are openly admitting that entitlement reform and tax reform are desperately needed and that this country has spent too much. I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.
In addition to what was allowed to occur at the embassy and consulate resulting in four deaths, the cover-up, and the cover-up to the cover-up what I will add to the “very sobering and troubling” column is yesterday–President Obama was out on the stump claiming he was the only one we could “trust.”
Sobering is the fact that he can lie so well with a straight face but I should expect that after fact-checking all of his debates and stump speeches. Troubling are the little Liberal minions there lapping it up as the “truth.”
http://twitchy.com/2012/10/23/squirrel-romney-packs-red-rocks-libs-want-to-talk-new-deal/
Just a couple of pics from Mitt’s rally last night. I think the people of Colorado have made up their minds too.
Romney does seem to be drawing some impressive crowds – we’ll see how it comes out, but I figure that Romney wins Colorado (and Obama wins Illinois…but by no where near the 2008 margin).