President Obama Chooses A Superpower Appropriate To His Job

So Obama would be Cypher from the New Mutants?  He should shoot higher!

 Don’t you dare diss Doug… -_-

Well, he could eventually amp up his language powers the way Cypher did and read body language, social cues, technology, and all forms of coding and incorporate them all into his fighting and hacking abilities.

I’ve always wanted that superpower, too…

This has always been my go-to answer to the superpower question. I call it “InstaTranslator.” It would be boss.

If only the media were still made up of real journalists, we might see Obama being asked questions like these:

Why did you cut $700 billion from Medicare, from people who have worked and paid into the system, to fund Obamacare, for people who don’t work and don’t pay into the system?

Do you condemn the Obama SuperPAC’s desperate and despicable ad campaign? Will you return Bill Maher’s $100 million donation in light of the fact that he has called women vulgar names?

How do you explain the July increase in unemployment and slowing GDP growth?

When are you planning your first meeting with your Jobs Council?

Did you approve of David Plouffe’s profiting from a sponsor of terrorism?

Can you explian to business owners your “You didn’t build that” comment?

Why won’t you release your college records? What is in there that you don’t want the public to know?

Why didn’t you stop the restructuring of Solyndra’s loan?

Why did you invoke executive privilege on the Fast and Furious scandal?

Can you reconcile the conflicting responses to national security leaks?

But alas … the media continues to carry water for Obama and his minions, covering up the scandals and ignoring the giant elephant in the Oval Office

This is the same answer Joss Whedon always gives to the question. Awesome.

 Sounds like someone’s been watching too much Fox News.

 Politics aside, I wouldn’t really expect there to be any “real Journalists” on the “Morning Mayhem” show.

 Ahh yes, right on cue, the old “You must watch Fox News” trope. You get your news from the Daily Show, right?

Speaking as someone who’s actually bothered to do research rather than complain obnoxiously and on an article that’s supposed to be fun… The President’s words were grossly taken out of context in Virginia. He’s a huge small business supporter and his history shows that over and over. Change the channel: Fox news is for the brainwashed.

I always wanted some sort of cyber brain hacked into and able to process any sort of electronic media… but if his speak-any-language power could help me detangle my daughter’s garbled toddler-speak, I totally change my vote to that!

 ”Any language”, however, would presumably include the language of any alien beings who stopped by for a visit…

 And continuing the “You watch Fox News” pile on … sorry to disappoint. Never watch it, or any TV news. Find a better meme …

But please, explain the full context of the “You didn’t build that” remarks. I’ve watch the entire thing, have you? I know what he said, and even what he meant to say, and it’s still a slap in the face to every person who has striven to build a business. Yeah he meant that without the roads being built, and schools, and yadda yadda, all with government money, that business could not have been built.

Sorry but, BULLSHIT. First, the government HAS NO MONEY. It uses OUR MONEY to do things. We ALL drive on those roads, and most people go to those schools … but not everyone is successful who tries to make a business. WHY? Could it be that some people are smarter than others? Work harder? Have better ideas?

And then, what about those businesses that fail? Does the government take on the blame for those too? They certainly aren’t shy about taxing the profits of successful businesses, will they give back the lost capital from the failed?

And while we’re talking about failed business, how about that Solyndra deal???

I think what everyone meant to say was, not everything has to be a political argument. 

You could explain the “You didn’t build that” sound bite yourself if you listen to the entire statement. In fact, it’s a a mystery to me why business owners would find that statement so confusing and inexplicable, because I assumed they HAD listened to the entirety of what he said, instead of one line that was taken and propagated by certain news outlets.

But in case you haven’t taken the time to do that easy research, here’s the full statement for you:

“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that [road or bridge]. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.”Now if him repeatedly saying “You didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own…somebody along the line gave you help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges,” doesn’t make it obvious what his statement means, then I’ll help explain it for you.His statement “If you have a business, you didn’t build that,” refers to the bridges, the roads, the public school systems, the entire American system that is required in order for a land to be purchased, materials to be acquired, public law and protections to be upheld, and all other manner of things people take for granted when they create something.You didn’t build the road you and customers use to access your store. You didn’t build the docks, the railways, and the interstates that allows ships, trains, and trucks to delivery the materials that you need or stock in your store. You didn’t build the school where your teachers educated you on basic economics. You didn’t build the police station that drives by and keeps people from breaking into your store and stealing everything in it. You didn’t build the fire station that keeps your store from burning to the ground. You didn’t build the public health department that makes sure that the population is vaccinated and healthy so they can keep going to your store instead of being sick in bed each year. You didn’t build them alone.WE all built them together. And the things we built and contributed to together are what helps your business and my business and our kids’ business thrive and exist in the first place. And they only exist because we all give back to the system to establish, create, and maintain those things for us because we all agree that they are a public necessity for society to function. That’s what your tax money goes to. That’s why you choose to rent the space that has an accessible road, instead of the one that isn’t connected to any street in the city. That’s what it means to give back and it means that you also succeed because the village came together to lay groundwork for your aspirations.Of course, if you don’t believe in that, I’m sure you could stop paying taxes and instead build your own private road, your own schools for policemen, fireman, architects, electrical safety inspectors, hire your own fireman and police workers, build your own water treatment plant, and build your own dock/railroad/interstate for delivery. And I’m sure the enormous private cost of that out of pocket investment would be philosophically well worth it, just to be able to truly say that you built and succeeded in your business all on your own (to say nothing of the help you got from your publicly-funded school and the 25+ years you spent using what we all built together before you decided to make it on your own.)

Personally, if I were a politician, I’d choose Xavier-level telepathy. It’d be perfect for truly fundamental, perfect understanding between individuals and building consensus!

…also for blackmail, intelligence gathering, and forcing my political enemies to either agree to my positions and think it was their idea, or making them scandalize and disgrace themselves publicly, discrediting their positions/organizations, and then kill themselves in the most degrading and hillarious ways possible.

(I mean, yeah, I’m generally a nice live-and-let-live kinda guy and all, but honestly, I’ll admit, I’d probably just be running the planet in about six months.)

 Could it also be stretched to apply to computing languages?

I’ll also give you resources to answer some of factual questions you asked, since I can’t really address your biased questions (Obama should return money from Maher, but you have nothing to say about Romney returning money from FRC or NOM for calling gays pedophiles? Hm.)

“Obama cut $700 billion from Medicare to fund the Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’)”:

Mostly false (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/aug/15/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-said-barack-obama-first-history-rob-me/), since it doesn’t cut any money from Medicare, and only aims to reduce Medicare spending, and focuses almost entirely on reducing costs from dealing with private insurance companies instead of reducing costs at the risk of beneficiaries.

- Also, since you’re concerned that ACA will harm people on Medicare, you should read up on what it actually does for people on Medicare. You can do that here: http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/2011/08/seniors.html

- And since you’re afraid it benefits people who don’t put into the system, I can tell you personally, that it allowed me to stay on my parents’ insurance while I was just starting as a full time worker (paying into the system the entire time!) saving me hundreds of dollars each month over the past two years that I would have had to pay had ACA not extended coverage for young adults to age 26.

“Obama hasn’t met with his jobs council”:This is true (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jul/19/republican-national-committee-republican/did-barack-obama-hold-100-plus-fundraisers-while-h/), especially since the 18 listening and action sessions he and the council held in that six-month space don’t count as literal “meetings”.

David Plouffe and Solyndra:

This interesting because the whole involvement of Solyndra started with Bush and the majority of Republicans in office at the time when they created, signed, and supported the loan program and asked Solyndra to apply back in 2006 and supported it even as Bush left office in 2008. (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/17/david-plouffe/solyndra-loan-george-w-bush-david-plouffe/)

- And the idea that Obama is affiliated with economic gain from Solyndra is false (http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/nov/15/americans-prosperity/solyndra-ad-president-barack-obama-taxpayer-money/), since the money they requested predated his administration and was the responsibility of the Energy Department, appointed before Obama’s administration.

Hope that helps!

Question:  Where do you get your information?  What medium feeds your opinions?

 It is one of the powers the Tardis gives. And it’s a lot more feasible than my plan as a teenager to learn to speak every language the long way. But I’m still going to go with the ability to change shape. Yep, I’d have the powers of Beast Boy.

I prefer “Mental in the Morning” with Bing, The Spatula Man, and Bob Woodward.

Adding that last one really helped with their credibility.

I assume LissaKay was pissed when Oprha Winfrey asked George Bush Jr. what his favorite memory was (it was Little League baseball in Midland).

Damn you, Oprah! Stick to the tough questions!

 Heh … yeah. Nice lefty spin. Good job. But the POINT is the media fails to ask the questions of the man who should be answering them. But they are too busy down on their knees fellating him to do their actual job.

OTOH, do you REALLY want to know for certain what politicians are actually thinking?

Count me as another who would want to be “omnilingual.” Especially if it includes being able to talk to dolphins.

He was saying that government has a role in taking taxpayer dollars and doing something with it that those taxpayers would never do but which in turn benefits them and everyone else around them. No business would build a highway in the hope that it would spur industry growth. No one is donating billions so that we can have accurate weather satellites. If 95%+ of government spending actually did useful things like that with tax revenues. . . well I’d bet you’d have a hard time finding even republicans against that sort of spending.

I can at least answer the first one for you…

“I didn’t. You clearly don’t understand the difference between a “cut” and a “reduction in planned spending.” For instance, if have a gas budget of $100 a month, that’s spending of $12,000 over ten years. Now, say I’ve passed legislation to buy myself a hybrid. Increases my efficiency, reducing the amount I spend on gas to $70 a month. I’ve reduced my spending by $3,600 over ten years to pay for my car, but I’m still getting the same mileage per dollar.

Nobody is getting less out of Medicare. They just aren’t paying as much for it.”

“Sorry but, BULLSHIT. First, the government HAS NO MONEY. It uses OUR MONEY to do things. We ALL drive on those roads, and most people go to those schools …”
Yes… WE not YOU. WE built that. YOU didn’t build that.

See… you are exactly what’s wrong with this country.

It’s not “lefty spin,” they’re called FACTS. You should familiarize yourself with them.

Travis, you forget that the problem with facts is that reality has a well-known liberal bias.

 Its seems the team at the “morning mayhem” show have really lost their political edge…

 I kinda liked PS238′s take on that concept. And where it goes when people get suspicious.

 You have no idea what you’re talking about with those. Seriously. Go actually inform yourself or shut up. Preferably both.

Being a cypher like that would be awesome. Great choice, Mr. President!