I grew up around guns. I have guns. I like guns. I believe guns for self defense and conceal carry licenses are a good thing. But maybe we should ALSO do some stuff to curb mass shootings, gun homicides and gun suicides? This guy really doesn’t help his cause by saying “Whoop-de-doo” in reference to mass shootings.
This is smart and sadly hilarious. John Oliver is bloody brilliant. But in the end what does it matter when we have a congress that is bought and paid for by lobbyists (gun industry or other)?
So Hostess is going bankrupt because of the evil unions and Obamacare you say? Do you think the Health Nazis like Michelle Obama and Michael Bloomberg are behind the whole thing? Are you about to go Woody Harrelson Zombieland style searching the ends of a post apocalyptic earth for the last Twinkies in the World?
Well you probably eat too much junk food and need to take a step back if you are literally mourning the end of a bakery brand who doesn’t care about their workers.
But cheer up Twinkie Kid! Todd Wilbur of Top Secret Recipes fame’s got your back with this homemade Twinkie recipe! You’re welcome Twinkie lovers and thanks Todd!
Something that always gets me furious is this debate about taxes, debt and the deficit in American politics. The very mention of increasing any taxes or closing tax loopholes for the wealthy is met with a Republican firestorm of accusations about class warfare, socialism, and job killing. Nobody likes paying taxes. That’s a given. But something must be done about our debt and wasteful spending they say. Taxes and other forms of government income is literally the only way these problems can be solved. Spend less tax money. Bring in more tax money. Pay off debt. Simple. A friend of mine on Facebook recently quoted a statistic that the US government pays $2.1 BILLION a DAY in interest on debt. Wow! Let’s take care of that shall we?
I REJECT the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a teacher or a plumber is class warfare”
-Barack Obama 2012
Compare with:
We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. […] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?
– Ronald Reagan 1985
Further comparison in video form. Note – video does not include the Obama quote above because that is a recent quote and this video was made sometime last year.
So if Obama is on the same page with the almighty conservative Demigod action hero Ronald Reagan 27 years ago during his presidency of legend, then what’s the problem here? Could it be the messenger and the “Goonies never say die!” climate created by Fox News & Conservative talk radio. Nooo…that can’t be it! Now I don’t like Reagan, and you may not like Obama. But can’t we all just pay our fair share and shut up?
Chrysler won the all important commercial Super Bowl last night with the stunning and inspirational two minute “Halftime In America” commercial starring Clint Eastwood. They have now gone two for two using the same formula and “Imported From Detroit” tagline that won the hearts and minds of Super Bowl viewers last year with a similar spot starring Detroit’s own native son Eminem (Click Here For Eminem Super Bowl Video). Both commercials were great uplifting, chill inducing spots that convey a powerful message about recovery that most Americans want to believe.
Many noted Republicans have shit all over this commercial on the airwaves and various internets today by labeling it a pro Obama, pro auto industry bailout political campaign ad. Now of course anything pro America has to be construed by Republicans as pro Obama during an election year. Republicans are finding every way to paint the president as a failure. No matter what good has come out of the Obama administration, the Republicans will never give him a bit of credit. That’s just modern left/right politics in a presidential election cycle.
Fiat CEO Sergio Macchione has even roundly rejected claims that the ad was political in any way, but was rather a universal positive message for all Americans about the US, Detroit and auto industry comebacks (Fiat is now Chrysler’s parent company after Daimler-Benz offloaded them in 2009 during the Chrysler bankruptcy). But the CEO’s claims have not kept the wolves at bay. Nor has the fact that Clint Eastwood donated his earnings from the commercial to charity. The right wing media is using this anti bailout quote from Eastwood to attack and paint Eastwood as an Obama loving corporate sellout:
“We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies,” actor, director and Academy Award winner Eastwood told the Los Angeles Times in November 2011. “If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.” – Clint Eastwood
Sure this could be considered a contradiction. But the ad is not quite specifically about the success of the auto bailouts. It showed imagery of people from all over America recovering from recent hardships like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, BP oil spill, etc. Eastwood is an admitted Libertarian, but has said that he agreed with the message of the ad. And I for one believe that Clint Eastwood doesn’t do ANYTHING Clint Eastwood doesn’t want to do.
Also to be clear, the auto bailouts have proven to be a success. And to give credit where credit is due, the auto bailouts were initiated under Bush, but molded, negotiated and enacted by Obama as one of his first acts of business in an attempt to save millions of jobs. Both Chrysler and General Motors have paid the government bailout loans back, and the newly reorganized General Motors is now the biggest automaker in the World…again. The same success can’t be said for Bush’s TARP bank bailout plan. But I digress.
Regardless of your political leanings, this was a great commercial with a great message starring one of my favorite actors/directors of all time. Like many Americans, I was genuinely moved. Now the trolls need to STFU and stop ruining this like they ruin everything.
I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that it’s a bad idea to piss off Dirty Harry.
![We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. [...] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?](https://i0.wp.com/jefflee.co/files/2012/02/reagan-taxes.jpeg "reagan-taxes")
