Balloon Juice » Blog Archive

Nov

I’m an idiot.

by John Cole

Nevermind. Should have checked the dates. That was last year.

Assholes | 5:02 pm |

32 Responses to “I’m an idiot.”

1
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Skepticat

One? As in 1?
2
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Kennedy

Working as intended. They’re supposed to receive tax dollars, not actually paythem.

34% is still punitively high. It clearly inhibits Goldman’s profits and ability to compete globally. What we really need to stimulate the global economy is a corporate tax cut and more deregulation.

In other news, I just saw the first “Buy your spouse a fucking Mercedes/other luxury car” moronic commercial of the pre-emptive holiday season. God help us.
3
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Nick

Back when the highest tax bracets were at like 80%, this is how the rich got around their taxes.
4
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
licensed to kill time

The rate decline looks “a little extreme,”

Uh, yeah!

How do we get rate declines like this? Srsly, from 34.1 percent to ONE percent?
5
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Immoral Majority

Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war with
cross of Jesus marching on before…wait. Jesus was
that turn the other cheek guy. Didn’t he say “As you
do unto the least of these….never mind. In Gold we
Trust. That’s the country club motto now.
6
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Kennedy

Christ, I initially read this as it dropped by 1 percent, to 34.1 percent. I guess I should know better.
7
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
dmsilev

So, they’re no longer a US company then? Fine, let them beg for bailout money from the Cayman Islands or whatever.

And might I suggest an import tariff on all exotic financial instruments?

-dms
8
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Chuck Butcher

I wrote a a little thing today on a bit different aspect of fed income taxes.
9
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
jwb

@Kennedy: Ah, but you forgot to add that in order for our government to afford the Goldman Sachs tax payout we really need to cut government spending and raise taxes on families making less than $50,000. I say it’s only fair that the less well off pay those bonuses that ensures that the Goldman Sachs traders don’t go Galt on us.
10
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:21 pm
licensed to kill time

Oops! Never mind. Hey, I read it too and didn’t see a date. Just looked again and it says Dec.16, which should have been a clue….
11
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Napoleon

Keep in mind that one of the reasons the financial industry has been advancing for why Congress should not increase regulation on the finance industry is that if you do they will pick up and go somewhere with less regulation, like London.
12
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
jeffreyw

Neither the post nor any of the comments make any sense at all to me, I feel as if I’ve missed something.
13
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
jeffreyw

Have you taken down a post?
14
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
licensed to kill time

@jeffreyw: That’s because John magically disappeared the article he originally posted when he realized it was out of date, which didn’t stop any of us from jumping on the spitting on Goldman Sachs bandwagon, ptah!
15
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Napoleon

Consistently wrong since 2002.

;)
16
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
geg6

Well, John, take comfort that you are not nearly as big an idiot as Chuck Todd. Or, as Harry Reid pointed out, David Broder. Or as Fallows pointed out in conjunction with his oh so polite takedown of Chuckles, Chris Matthews. So, basically, you’re not as idiotic as the average Village Idiot. There. Feel better?
17
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Trollhattan

Not an idiot, but sadly human ;-)

But speaking of idiots, this blogging of reading Caribou Barbie’s tome is a thorough and proper shellacing.

http://www.theawl.com/2009/11/.....more-19225
18
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Demo Woman

Take comfort John, most of us have no idea what you are talking about.
19
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
harlana pepper

I join to spit on Goldman Sachs, as well. And Geithner just needs to go, stat, that worthless sack of shit.
20
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:01 pm
jeffreyw

@licensed to kill time: Time for a blogger ethics panel?
21
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
jeffreyw

Damn, strange days. I post pic after pic of food pr0n, and what gets the most views? Jack gettin a bath in the sink. LOL
22
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
shoutingattherain

@John:

I’m an idiot

Nah. You’re just a Stiller fan. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

Could be worse. You could be a Seahawk fan.

Here ya go. Read this. It ought to pep ya up sum:

http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3397

In this grotesque carnival, the US military’s contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. “It’s a big part of their income,” one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon’s logistics contracts—hundreds of millions of dollars—consists of payments to insurgents.

Foam fingers, baby!
23
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Warren Terra

Could you put back the post with strikethrough or something? I hate this sort of “guess what I was wrong about” post.
24
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Martin

@Napoleon:

Yeah, it’s important to back that up now and then.
25
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Notorious P.A.T.

Time to do my Matt Taibbi impersonation: How assholish are the heads of Goldman Sachs? Even their stockholders are getting cheesed at them.

Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses

Some of the largest shareholders in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have urged the Wall Street firm to reduce the size of its bonus pool, arguing that it should pass along more of its blockbuster earnings to investors, according to people familiar with the situation.
26
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
2th&nayle

@shoutingattherain: Does this remind anyone else of a Milo Minderbinder operation?
27
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Of Bugs and Books

@shoutingattherain:
Thanks, you just turned whatever-John’s-mistake-was into a worthwhile post for me.
28
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:11 pm
shoutingattherain

@2th&nayle:

It really is hard to believe. We are paying the Taliban to not shoot at our supply trucks, and they’re taking the $ to buy arms to shoot at us someplace else. We are funding our own opposition. How does this make any sense?
29
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:43 pm
2th&nayle

@shoutingattherain: Well, the making of ‘sense’ in these kind of matters can be so elusory. Maybe better to ask who is profiting?
30
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Anne Laurie

@shoutingattherain:

We are funding our own opposition. How does this make any sense?

It is VERY good news for ~~John McCain~~ Xe, ex Blackwater. And who’s more important to the average redstate Congresscritter, some poor American mopes getting shot up, or the smooth flowing of tax dollars from those mopes’ fellow sufferers to the military-industrial megacorps that pay for said Congresscritter’s nice lifestyle?
31
November 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
2th&nayle

@Anne Laurie: Ahh, THAT’s what I’m talkin’ bout! Well said.
32
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Delia

@shoutingattherain:

We are paying the Taliban to not shoot at our supply trucks, and they’re taking the $ to buy arms to shoot at us someplace else. We are funding our own opposition. How does this make any sense?

There’s a line from a song on George Harrison’s last album:

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”

I think that sums up the situation quite nicely.